Catching up again

Brief update: Took a lot of projects with me to work on during Thanksgiving week and finished only one. Instead, I spent time catching up with my sister at her new house, playing with her new dog, watching dvr'd episodes of Vampire Diaries and Big Bang Theory, and just hanging out with family. It was a great week, so I'm not too sad that I didn't finish much. And of the projects that I took with me, the one I finished was picked up and will be used by a yarn store. I won't post pictures of it now.

Here are some recently released patterns:

The pair on the left is Pirate Danger. It is another one of my toe-up, twisted stitch, with a heel flap and gusset designs. I initially put a short row heel on this, but decided against that and put a slipped stitch heel on it. This pattern is charted and available in two sizes. Within those two sizes, the pattern can further be sized by adding purl stitches in between motifs. The skull is already a large motif, I didn't want to make it larger.

The pair on the right is called Snakes. It is also a toe-up, twisted stitch, with a heel flap and gusset design. This design started because I saw the center motif in a twisted stitch dictionary. I liked the look of it and wanted to use it in a sock. The challenge on this sock was to find enough other motifs in a similar design in the stitch and row counts that I needed.

I've named this sock Harps and Strings. It's currently available for free with purchase of Mini Mica yarn at Saffron Dyeworks. It's been wonderful working with Dee again. She dyes such pretty yarn and this Mini Mica yarn is just luxurious. It's a 50/50 blend of merino and silk. The yarn is very soft and has a great sheen to it.

The sheen provided some difficulty in designing a pattern. The shininess likes to compete with stitch patterns. I had to find a stitch pattern bold enough to withstand the shiny competition for attention in this sock.

Right now, I'm working on three different cabled socks. I also have some Christmas projects that I'm working on in secret. I can only work on these in the evenings after my kids have gone to bed.

I've also started thinking about next year. I have a few projects that I'm signed up to do and I'm very excited about them!