Tag Archives: socks

Inspiration: Pumpkin Patch

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I spent a wonderful afternoon last Saturday at the local pumpkin patch with my husband and a few of our friends.  We ran through a corn maze, picked out pumpkins and gourds to decorate the house, drank apple cider and ate too many apple doughnuts.  It was absolutely delightful (even if it was a little damp, being the Pacific Northwest and all).  I haven’t gone to a pumpkin patch like that since college, and it was just so fun to do again.

Now that fall is truly in full swing, I’m inspired to break out the autumnal knits:

Pumpkin Patch Socks by Maggie van der Stok

DSC00480_medium2[1]Pumpkin Patch by Anna Richardson

PP_wrapped_full_medium2[1]Autumn Nuts and Berries Hot Water Bottle Cosy by Leila Caroline Design

3602423447_968dc85a79_z[1]Autumnal Mitts by Jo Bangles

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Pattern Spotlight: Turkish Bed Socks

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I love knitting gifts for other people, but there are only so many hours in the day, and so many yards of yarn in my stash.  So what’s a girl to do?  How about making Turkish Bed Socks for all your friends.  These ankle socks are a great compromise between being a quick little project, and producing something beautiful and useful.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAThey make great gifts, since they’re one-size-fits-most (even I, with my big man feet, can fit into them if I add a few extra rows in the foot part, but that’s easy to do).   They’re nice for bumming around the house and keeping your tootsies warm, and they look really cute peeking out of clogs or Converse sneakers.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAAnd, a pair of these socks takes only a fraction of the amount of yarn that regular socks take to work up.  I managed three pairs of these from one 100g skein of sock yarn.  A bargain, if you have to manufacture a bazillion of these.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAAlso, while the pattern is written as a simple stockinet stitch sock, they suggest that you work your favorite cable, rib, textured, or lace pattern on the top of the foot, which can make each pair unique, and will keep you interested while you knit them up.

So, if you’re looking for a stocking stuffer, try making up some Turkish Bed Socks.

So that’s what you’re working on

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I showed you the sweater I’m working on.  (Which I’m now pretty sure that I have to frog.  My gauge seems to be off more than I thought it was.  I don’t want to undo all that work, so for the time being, my sweater is sitting in time-out. *pout*)

Anyhoo, it looks like you guys are having much more success in the knitting department than I am.

My mom (Hi Mom!) is making a pretty snazzy pair of socks from yarn that she dyed herself using food coloring.  Beautiful! (That shade of robin’s-egg blue is one of my favorite colors.)

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And, she’s making a whole pile of granny squares.  I love me some granny squares.  They’re one of my favorite things to do when I don’t have any specific project in mind, or a pile of little yarn bits to use up.  (I was digging through my stash the other day, and found that I have approximately 5 gallons of balls of worsted weight yarns.  And no more than a half-skein of any one color.  I might have to make another super-ugly…er… I mean eclectic blanket.  Mom’s squares are much better color-coordinated.)

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAMy friend Jenny had some free time to finish up her gorgeous crocheted shawl.  We play board games once a week, and she brings her crochet and I bring my knitting.  It’s awesome to see her shawl finished up so nicely!photo[1]

Socks II: The Resockening

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I just realized that I hadn’t made an official pattern of my Sock Week  Month Tutorial.  Here it is, in a nice .pdf format for your printing pleasure.  I also have the pattern saved in my “Pattern Library” page along with all the other patterns I’ve posted here.  And, you can see all my patterns on Ravelry.

Socks by the Numbers

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Flying with Yarn

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It’s summertime, and that means traveling!  I just got back from a lovely weekend trip to Pennsylvania to visit my husband’s family.  It’s about a six hour flight from one coast to the other, so I had plenty of time to indulge two of my favorite pastimes:  knitting and reading SkyMall.

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When you’re traveling with your knitting, it’s important to keep three factors in mind.  Or, at least these are the three things I keep in mind:

1.  What will the fuzz (the po-po, the man, the 5-O) let you take on the plane?  TSA regulations can be found here.  But basically, the only thing you (as a knitter) need to worry about is that your scissors need to have blades that are less than 4 inches long.  Needles/crochet hooks are allowed.  Now, if you bring a pair of super-sharp 15 inch-long size 10s, they might have a problem with it.  But, I’ve never had an issue with bringing my needles on a plane.

2.  What can I carry?  I like knitting small projects on vacation, so I’m not lugging a great big sweater around with me.  Socks are great, because they don’t take a lot of thinking, and you can pick them up and put them down without worrying you’ll loose your place.  Lacework is fun, too, since you can work on a pretty big project, but it crunches up into a tiny little ball when you’re not working on it.

3.  What will prevent the folks in my row from hating me?  If I didn’t get to knit during a flight, I would probably go insane from boredom.  I have to keep busy.  It’s sort of a nervous tick.  But, when you’re stuck in such a small space with other people, it’s important not to piss them off.  So I like to pick a project that doesn’t take a lot of room to work on.  So, no big, long straight needles that poke my seatmates, no blankets or anything that will take up more than my allotted personal bubble space, and no projects that use multiple balls of yarn that could roll around and get in people’s way.

So, safe travels!  And may the TSA never confiscate your knitting!  (And, if you are thinking of getting me a present for early Christmas, I’m a huge fan of the swamp zombie statue from SkyMall.)WP_20130609_028

I’m turning 50!

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Actually, I’m not turning 50… not even close.  But this is my 50th post!  How exciting!

It seems like I just started this blog yesterday.  Is it too early for me to repost some of my earlier posts?  Probably, but I’ll do it anyway.

My first pattern, the Lace-Edged Shawl, is still by far my most favorited/knit pattern.  Here’s the link to Ravelry.

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People also seem to like my Call the Midwife posts (but that’s probably due more to the show being awesome, than me writing anything particularly genius).

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People also seem to like my Call the Midwife posts (but that’s probably due more to the show being awesome, than me writing anything particularly genius).

 

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Although, my most liked post so far was my critique of Clueless:

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But despite all those, I think the series of posts I’m most proud of (wether or not you guys are into them, I’m not so sure), is my Sock Week posts.

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So, thanks for reading!  And here’s to 50 more posts.