Tag: socks

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Woolly Workshops

Posted on by Jackie B

After Saturday’s Embroidery with Sea Glass workshop I got to thinking about a couple of others I’ve been to over the last year. Almost a year ago. I went on a worship on Entrelac and Modular Knitting with Judith Schur of Needlecase at Amble Pincushion. At the time I fell in love with Judith’s beautiful modular shell cowl and started to make my own – I got it finished a while back.

I used West Yorkshire Spinners Signature Sock Yarn in Woodpigeon (variegated in mauve, grey and white) and some pink and purple sock weight yarn I got from a stash sale. I’m so pleased with it – and learning this technique has cured me of my dislike of picking up stitches.

I went on another of Judith’s workshops a few months back. This one was on 2-colour brioche knitting. If you’ve never come across brioche knitting before, it looks a bit like K1 P1 rib and in the case of 2 colour brioche, the knit stitches are in one colour and the purl in another to form stripes…. then you can make the lines cross and form waves. It’s double thickness, so each row is knitted twice (you have to slide the stitches back along the needle before you knot the second one so you need to use circular or double pointed needles.). It feels really squishy .

During the workshop we learnt the techniques and produced a sample square ( I must admit I made a bit of a mess of mine, mainly because I was chatting to the other participants. I had another go and perfected my sample when I got home. Brioche does require a fair bit of concentration.

Next I started a cowl using one of Judith’s patterns. This and two balls of James C Brett Aztec were included in the price. I chose a pale duck-egg blue and a deep green – brioche looks most effective when you use strongly contrasting colours. It’s a lovely aran weight yarn with some alpaca in the blend which makes it really soft.

I did make some mistakes, but I pulled them out and kept going until I got it right. The end result looks amazing and is so lovely to wear – the softness of the alpaca and the squishy brioche knitting makes it incredibly cosy.

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A Sock Knitting Revelation

Posted on by Jackie B

Fresh off the needles today, one pair of socks in handspun alpaca and wool. This is the first pair I’ve made from the toe up.

This pair began its journey last summer with one of my first dyeing experiments. I gradient dyed a braid of alpaca in shades of blue, navy, purple, pink and red. You can read about where my alpaca fibre came from here

I spun the yarn and plied it with black zwartbles sheeps wool.

As I wasn’t sure about the yardage I’d need I decided on a toe-up pattern. If I’d knitted a top down sock it would have been a catastrophe if I’d run out of yarn before I reached the toe. On the other hand, working from the toe up could end up ankle or knee length without it really mattering! This pattern is Route 45’s Basic toe-up socks. It gives lots of options for needle size, and works whether you prefer DPNs small circular or magic loop. There is also a measuring guide so you can create perfectly fitted sock.

The other resource I used was this book I got for Christmas.

Who knew there were so many cast on/off methods? Several ways of starting off sock toes are included. The pattern uses the Turkish cast on, which was a first for me.

The book came in again for the cast off on the cuff – I used Jeny’s Surprisingly Stretchy Bind off, which is a pretty good description….very stretchy.

I’ve really enjoyed knitting these. I love the the way the colours work, Both the gradient and the way that plying with black tones down the colour and gives a tweedy effect when knitted up. The gradients don’t match but I can live with that.

Toe up construction has been a bit of a game changer. I always disliked picking up stitches on the gusset with top down socks and there’s none of that here. I don’t think I’ll be going back to top downs after this.

And as for worrying that I might run out of yarn….well there’s just about enough for another pair!

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Two Completed Before the New Year (and a Knitting Injury)

Posted on by Jackie B

I finished off a couple of projects this week, one large, one small.

The large one has been going on for ages and came about because I wanted something big to use up some scraps of yarn from the stash. I have a really useful poncho/cape, made of a lightweight fleece material, so my original idea was to knit something the same shape, but with a big ribbed collar that could be either worn open or buttoned up to make a polo neck. For the main body part I wanted to use up yarn of different thicknesses so I used multiple strands, the equivalent of two strands of double knitting or one each of 3 ply and aran, worked in garter stitch on 5.5mm circular needles. I measured, calculated and drafted a pattern, but although I did a lot of knitting , it just wasn’t working and the whole thing would have been really heavy to wear. I pulled all but the collar out and had a rethink.

I decided to use the same collar and make a jacket in the same multiple strand garter stitch, so I took some measurements and redrafted a new pattern. It’s the first time I’ve designed a knitting pattern on this scale.

I finally got it all finished, sewn up and buttons on and I’m really happy with it. It’s really cosy and warm to wear and the fit is good as it was made to measure – I have a long body, narrow shoulders and short arms so I always have to adjust patterns and knit shorter sleeves, which is a pain if they include colour work or a textured pattern.

I particularly like the collar – knitted in 3ply yarn, it’s a lovely stretchy K2P2 rib and can be worn open or buttoned up.

I’d picked all the scraps of blue and grey yarn, and some white out of the stash and overlapped the colours as I worked with the two strands, to give a shaded effect. I quite like that I’ve used scraps left over from past projects – the collar is a 3 ply wool that I bought on holiday in Scotland and used to crochet a shawl. I can also spy the very first handspun yarn I made and some I bought on a very memorable trip to Iceland.

The “Scrappy Cardi” as I started to call it is going to be a useful addition to my winter wardrobe.

The other project I finished off this week was a pair of socks I’d cast on a few weeks back. It’s classic topdown construction with contrasting top edge, heel and toe. I can’t remember where the variegated sock yarn came from but I love the colours.

I was quite glad to get these off the needles because they were responsible for a minor but gruesome injury I sustained the other week. I dropped a stitch and got out a very fine crochet hook to pick it up – the kind you use for crocheting lace: more like a hooked needle. I must have put it down on the arm of my chair and it rolled on to the seat. I got up to do something and when I returned and sat down, the hook stuck straight in the back of my thigh! Fortunately Daughter came to the rescue and carefully removed it (not easy with that hook). Antiseptic spray was applied and it all healed up fine. You never really consider knitting to be dangerous but I suppose I was suffering for my art!

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How I recovered from One Sock Syndrome

Posted on by Jackie B

About 4 years ago I ended up in hospital just before we were about to go on a family holiday. It didn’t seem right that they should all miss out, so when I was out of surgery, I insisted they went without me. Off they set for Wester Ross , North West Scotland while I stayed in hospital. We spoke on the phone every day and came back with loads of presents including a pattern for kilt stockings. “It looked challenging,” they said. “We know you like making complicated things.”

A few months later, much recovered, I bought some sock yarn, got the double pointed needles out and made a start. It was a two-colour design (the Gairloch pattern – read about it here http://ichscotland.org/wiki/gairloch-pattern-stockings ) It didn’t look too difficult, but oh my goodness when done on the double pointed needles it was a nightmare! I eventually got to the end of the first sock, but had absolutely no urge to continue.

Four years later my knitting friend, Carol is knitting loads of socks – trying to keep up with the demand from her family who love them. She’s using circular needles – I had to try it. What a difference! So much easier that double pointers.

There was no confusion about splitting a pattern repeat between needles, or wondering what on earth to do if I got to the last stitch on a needle and had to knit two together. It was easier to control the tension too. I tend to knit tightly to start with and have to be especially careful to keep things loose when I’m using two or more colours. Needless to say I finished the second stocking much quicker! Here they are, modelled by K

One Sock Syndrome Cured! I have one less UFO (Unfinished object)!

A few weeks later we were back in Scotland, visiting Gairloch Museum – the new museum had it’s official opening while we were there in July. It’s well worth a visit (read about it here https://www.gairlochmuseum.org). There’s actually a display of Gairloch Pattern garments in the museum (and they sell the pattern I used in the gift shop).

Gairloch Pattern knitted items at Gairloch Museum

To prove to myself that I wasn’t just finishing a project and I’m really ok with socks, I recently made these.

I picked up the yarn at Alnmouth Wool Festival because I just loved the colours – it’s Opal Safari in shade Botswana – I got a free pattern from the stall and it was a breeze, despite the tiny little 2.5mm circular sock needle – . I love them – definitely cured!

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