Threaded, 12 Legs, and Scales

I have three new patterns! Two completed test knitting last week and the other one is a completed mystery knit. Threaded and 12 Legs are both cuff down socks. I had a lot of fun with the cables on these socks. Threaded has a cable that threads in and out of other cables. 12 Legs has something that looks like a mutant spider. I think that I'm in a green phase since I managed to pick green for both of these socks. 12 Legs was originally knit as a toe-up sock in red several years ago. I was never happy with the way that pattern that way and switched it around to a cuff down pattern.

Scales is the name of my August 2011 mystery sock for the Solid Socks group on ravelry. This pattern was released as four separate clues during August. Most of the knitters seem to see the hearts instead of scales, but I kept my name. The August theme was water and I tried to go along with that.

Scales is also a cuff down pattern with cables. All of my patterns have detailed descriptions for how to cable without a cable needle. It's not set in stone and I really don't mind if someone uses a cable needle. I just want to have that there just in case anyone would like to try it. I don't have descriptions for how to do the cables with a cable needle because I've never knit them that way. I don't feel confident in putting it in there if I don't actually use that method.

I still have a lot of other projects too. This is a stack of wash clothes for our Operation Christmas Child shoe boxes. I had a lot of fun making them and I got to use up some of my neglected cotton yarn stash.

I'm also sewing again! I miss sewing. I like how a project can be completed in less than a day. I've been sewing hats for our shoe boxes too. I made four and then decided to make one for myself. My hat is the green one with flowers. I've wanted a hat for a while now, but haven't been able to find one that I really like. This green hat was my test run for interfacing and fit.

I have new sewing and knitting projects in the works. I also have a stack of projects that needs to be photographed. Busy, busy!

Harvest

It feels like harvest time. We have a constant stream of tomatoes coming into our kitchen from my daughter's garden. She's also brought in green bell peppers, pumpkins, green beans, and okra. Her sunflowers are huge! That ladder is about 8 feet tall.

I finished my Camp Loopy project #2. I knit Miss Sophie's Hands using Studio June's Eight Bells yarn in the Blue Suede Shoes color. I'm still not very happy with the fingers. They feel a tiny bit bagggy and I should have knit those with a smaller needle. I finished two other pair of socks for the cabled sock, mittens, or gloves challenge.

Now, I'm working on project #3. I'm using Bugga yarn in Common Emerald Moth to knit a Gnarled Oakwoods shawl. I've had this pattern for a while, but have been hesitant to knit it because of the grafting. I have no idea why. I've knit other large shawls that required grafting in the center.

For this shawl, I'm knitting both halves at the same time on one circular needle. It's sort of like knitting two socks at once from both ends of one ball of yarn. Since Bugga has a slight variation to it, I'm knitting both halves from both ends of the same ball of yarn. I hope that the slight variation between different balls of yarn will just look like shading that turns out equally on both ends of the shawl.

This is my 12 Legs sock pattern. It was originally knit toe-up a few years ago. I've changed it to cuff down. I want a good variety of cuff-down vs. toe-up patterns. This sock was knit with Dream in Color's Everlasting sock in Bitter. I really like the feel of this yarn.

I just put a call out for test knitters for this sock and for my Threaded pattern on ravelry. Both of these socks were knit with green yarn and both are cuff down. I need to find other colors to knit with. ;-)

I'm enjoying our last day before school starts. I'll be spending it knitting and pattern writing.

Summer's end

A phrase commonly heard at this time of year..."where did summer go?" Summer's almost at the end and the school year is about to begin. I've installed software on my daughter's laptop. My son's lessons are organized on the shelf and ready to go. This summer has been filled with camping, house renovation, and reorganization. In between, I'm still knitting and working on patterns. Test knitting for two of my patterns ended a few days ago.

This is my Technical sock. I named it after what my husband calls difficult sections of mountain biking trails. This pattern throws everything at you--cables, lace, and twisted stitches. Some might think that would be a bit much for one sock, but I think it works in this case. This pattern is toe-up and has a patterned heel flap.

I used Lorna's Laces new Solemate sock yarn. This yarn has pretty cool heat regulating fibers in it. It's a blend of merino, nylon, and Outlast. It's the Outlast part that does the climate control thing. I thought lace would be a good fit for this yarn. Between the temperature regulating and the lace, these should make good warm weather socks.

This is my Not Connected sock pattern. I came up with the idea for this pattern right after I designed my Everything's Connected pattern. I wanted a similar look, but with the stitch pattern occurring in staggered columns. Then I threw in some lace on every row within those cells. Not Connect is also a toe-up pattern with a ribbed heel flap.

I have a mystery sock in the Solid Socks group on ravelry. We're up to clue #2 and there's still time to join the fun. This pattern, like my other mystery knits, will remain free. This sock is knit cuff down and is cabled.

I'm working on another cuff down pattern. I hope to get a good mix of cuff down vs. toe-up sock patterns in my store. I initially knit this pattern years ago toe-up. Writing the math for the toe-up version was getting complicated and that's why I switched this one to cuff down.

After that, I'll be working on project #3 for Camp Loopy. I'll be using Bugga to knit a shawl. I thought I had decided which shawl, but I've changed my mind. Again... Cast-on isn't until August 15th. I have plenty of time to change my mind and hopefully settle on a pattern.

Brand new!

Some quick thoughts before I get back to pattern writing...

So many new things have come recently. I have 2 new patterns coming out in two different sock clubs in June. I'm pretty excited about the designs. Unfortunately, those designs won't be available to the public until next year. I have another 2 new designs that will be at TNNA this weekend! I'm excited about those too, but a bit nervous(?). This is the first time my designs will be somewhere so public and hopefully seen by many people in the knitting industry. eek.

I also have a brand new laptop! Woohoo! No more sluggish computer while running Photoshop. Along with the new laptop, we signed up for a better internet connection. There isn't much available out here, so what we have now seems so expensive compared to dial-up. Then again, it is so much faster! I can actually get stuff done on the internet and then work on my patterns. I used to do both at the same time while waiting for pages to load.

And with a new connection means the old email must go. Ugh! It's a pain changing out my email address at every website.

I'm working on a new sock design. This one will be the mystery sock in the Solid Socks ravelry group in August. Actually, I'm sort of stuck on this. I have more than one design that I like a lot and I can't decide which one will be the mystery. I'll probably write up all of them and decide later.

Busy bees

Spring is here. Our azaleas have bloomed and gone. Seeds have been planted in the garden. Carpenter bees are buzzing. We battle those every year trying to prevent them from drilling new holes into our house. I've been buzzing around knitting a lot of socks.

I've been in a lace sock mood. It started with the sock that I designed for The Loopy Ewe's April club. The yarn is madelinetosh's Tosh sock in Midnight Rendevous. It's a very dark purple--almost black, but not. I tried my usual cables or twisted stitches, but this yarn wanted to be lace. Plus it was an April pattern. Lace is more appropriate for this time of year. The center portion of my pattern, Rubus, reminds me of blackberries. I know it's not the season for them, but with spring comes thoughts of berry picking. The side/secondary part of this pattern reminds me of vines.

My other lace socks were done with a desire to have a few patterns with smaller charts. I was in the middle of designing other things that can't be shown and sample knitting. I needed sock patterns that I could work in between those. These are all easy to put down and figure out where you left them when you work on them again.

There was a knit-a-long in the String Theory group on ravelry. My goal was to knit all of last year's sock club colors and I squeaked in and finished. I also won some yummy smelling perfumes in a random drawing from the finishers list. That opened up a whole new world of shopping. ;-)

As of March 30, I have completed the 52 Pair Plunge IV. Yay!! That link goes to my project page that lists all of my completed socks between June 1, 2010 and May 31, 2011. I'll continue to list socks there until the deadline to see how many I do finish. And since I don't see my designing, sample knitting, or my kids feet will stop growing any time soon, I've signed up for the 52 Pair Plunge V for next year. The next challenge starts July 1.

Obsess much?

This is only 7 of the 10 scarves that I've woven between January 13-23. Yeah, some might call me crazy. I'm calling it a necessity. In the grand house remodeling project, my computer, craft, and homeschooling room will turn into my daughter's bedroom. That means all of my yarn, fabrics, and books will have to be relocated. In an effort to ease that relocation, I'm trying to use up some of the things that have been sitting around for a while. And this includes my variegated sock yarns. I'm designing with mostly solid yarn or semi-solid yarns now. Plus, variegated yarns look pretty cool when woven. A few of them will give an automatic plaid effect. I'll post more details about the scarves and the yarns they're made out of when I can get better pictures. I would like to have a little sunlight, but it's snowing again.

I've finished the Threaded socks that are pictured in the post below. I will be writing up that pattern soon. The Mullion test knit is moving along. There have been sooooo many missing symbols on the charts. The test knitters have once again been awesome in catching them. Yesterday, I put a call up for test knitters for my Taglioni socks(over there on the left). That has been filled quickly. These were originally called emaNoN, but I've changed it to Taglioni because of the way the cables look like the ties on ballet shoes. I like the emaNoN name and it will be back on another pattern.

Another thing that has been hanging around for a long time is a quilt for my daughter that I started over 5(?!) years ago. The top is pieced flannel, with flannel back, and a layer of batting in between. I had a crazy idea to hand quilt it since it wouldn't fit in my sewing machine. Well, it's thick and hard to hand quilt. I did about 1/4 of it before I stuffed it in the closet. My daughter has asked me many times if I'm planning on finishing it. I've decided to just tie it and be done with it. I started tying it last night and I like the way it looks so far.

Because I don't have enough to do around here (haha!), I've started a cross stitch pattern for my son. My daughter has one of those birth record frames that a friend of ours made. My son has asked why he doesn't have one. We picked one out and I'm working on it. I'd forgotten how slow cross stitch can be.

I'll end with more house remodeling pictures. The picture on the left shows the wall that we had to build. That's where the refrigerator used to be. The picture on the right shows the other side of that wall. You can see the rectangle on the floor of where the box around the refrigerator was. See that mural wallpaper? That's gone. We'll be putting up more cedar wall planks on that wall to match the rest of the house. That wall will also be covered with bookshelves when we're finished. This will be my new computer, craft, and homeschooling room.

Start and finish

The Complicated test knit is almost finished. Things have gone really well and my test knitters have been awesome! I should have a new call out for test knitters later today for Mullion or Crooked Wheels or maybe both.

I've started another new design. I'm calling this one Threaded because of the cables that pass through the loops. I guess that I'm still fixated with cables. I like how they stand out and after a few rows, you can usually tell where they're going to go. These are easier on my hands than all of those twisted stitches I designed last summer.

I'm still working on using up my stash yarn. Since my last post, I got out my neglected Cricket loom and wove 4 new scarves on it. I don't have any pictures of those yet because they haven't been washed. I've been thinking a lot about getting a new loom. I want a wider one and have been considering the 25 inch Schacht flip.

Our remodeling is still moving along. We now have a revamped pantry. We had to do that to be able to remove 3 cabinets from our kitchen. We had to move the cabinets to make room for the refrigerator. We had to move the refrigerator to free up the corner of the dining room where it used to be. One thing just led to another and half of this floor is a mess right now. I really like the new pantry.

Busy, busy. Lots of things going on around here.

Great News x2

Exciting stuff going on around here. Sheri over at The Loopy Ewe announce this year's plan for the Loopy sock club. It's changing and will be called Club Loopy. I was surprised when she announced the designers for the spring round. I'm so used to designing and then having to keep quiet about it for many months. I can't say what yarn I'm using or what color(s?) I've been assigned, but I will say that the yarn is pretty and soft. ;-) Is that vague enough?

This is the sock that I finished a while ago, but couldn't post. Allison posted about it on her blog, so I guess it's okay to talk about now. Months ago, she asked if I would design a sock for her Valentine's Day kit and if some of my recently designed socks were available. She liked Zurc, but asked for one change. I like to knit my socks toe-up and she prefers cuff down. Fortunately, Zurc was an easy design to flip.

Okay, there were two changes. I always knew Zurc would be a temporary name, but I have a hard time coming up with good names for my patterns. Allison's husband came up with Papyriform. I like it and it's so much better than the temp name. She knit it up in a great variegated/semi-solid color called Silver Plume. Check out the rest of the kit while you're there too.

The Complicated test knit is moving along smoothly. A few errors and typos have been found. One of these days, it would be cool if the test knitters found no errors. Haha! I'll most likely start up another test knit next week.

Complicated Testing

The testing itself isn't complicated, but Complicated is the name of the sock. The sock isn't that difficult, but I do like the "It's complicated" quote from The Count of Monte Cristo. Sadly, I've never made it through the whole book . I do like the movie a lot. It's one that I'll actually listen to while knitting.

Complicated is a toe-up sock with a gusset and slipped stitch heel flap. I have a call for test knitters in the Free Pattern Testers ravelry group. If you'd like to test, come on over and join the group.

2010 in review

Another year ends and knitting is still going strong. I've knit more from my stash, but somehow my stash didn't decrease. ;-) One of my goals this year was to mainly knit my own designs and I did do that. Here is my 2010 project count:

Scarves: 4
Shawls: 5
Legwarmer: 1
Fingerless mitts: 2
Christmas stockings: 2
Socks: 67

Of the socks: 10 were kid-sized, 23 were self-striping, and 30 were my own designs. I didn't design 30 different socks. I knit a few of them more than once either changing colors for the stranded pattern or different sizes. I did release 12 patterns this year. I hope to release more next year. I already have a few designs ready to be written and others that are ready to be knit.

Since I don't like posting without pictures, here are some of my latest finished socks. From top to bottom and left to right, the yarns are Wollmeise Twin in Taube, Dream in Color Everlasting in Tang, Dyelectable Yarns Lolita in Crimson Moon, and Light Brown Hare-Three Hares in Happy New Year.

Right now, I'm working on some self-striping socks for my husband. He's decided that he likes the Felici Sport weight socks the most in terms of warmth and softness. Coming from him, that's high praise for a hand knit sock. In the past, other socks were too thin, too scratchy, etc.

We also have a big project going on in our house right now. We've ripped out the carpet and are installing some laminate flooring. We live in an old log house and nothing is level or square. That makes any type of home improvement project a pain. We had a lot of problems a few years ago trying to get a new tub/shower into one of our bathrooms. Before putting the laminate down, we had to repair some old water damage (ugh!) and level the floor. To do that, we also had to take out the stonework around our fireplace. Below are before and after pictures.

I hope this next year brings a finished floor. Not just in our living room, but the rest of that floor. I also hope to publish more patterns. See you next year!

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!

Cables

November is here and I'm still busy. Pictured above are my Fenestra, Unicurves, and Downward Spiral sock patterns that have recently been released. The mystery sock OppAtt is going on in the Barking Dog Yarns group. Almost everyone participating is using the Opposites Attract yarn and it's fun to see the different pairs of colors.

Snakes, Pirate Danger, and an unnamed red sock for Saffron Dyeworks are currently being test knitted. Those should finish this week or next and then be released this month. The red sock above is the one that I designed for Saffron Dyeworks' Mini Mica sock yarn. It's a luxurious merino/silk blend. The yarn has a pretty shine to it and can surprisingly withstand multiple froggings without showing signs of it.

It's exciting to see my designs pop up as ones knitters have chosen to knit for the November SKA challenge. I'm participating too, but I'm designing a few new cabled patterns. Below is my first November sock. I used the new Dream in Color yarn called Everlasting Sock in the color Gilt. It's an 8-ply fingering weight yarn that leans towards a heavier fingering weight. These socks were knit with a 2mm needle and feel very sturdy.

A lot has been mentioned about comparing this yarn to Wollmeise. Everlasting feels thicker and squishier than Wollmeise. Wollmeise is smoother and shinier than Everlasting. Both yarns show off twisted stitches and cables really well and come in great colors. The extra plus that I would give to Everlasting is that it is easier to find.

Very Busy

Yeah, it's been a long time again. I thought about just giving up the blog. If I want to include pictures in my post, it takes me about an hour with uploading and formatting. That eats too much into my knitting/designing time. Maybe I'll just do a few posts without pictures and see how I like that. I'm pretty much on ravelry all the time now. Especially right now. I've been busy actually writing knitting patterns! I know...I've been meaning to do them, but I'm a lot more motivated to knit than to write.

I was voted in as a designer of the month at Sock Knitter's Anonymous and November is my assigned month! Woohoo! Because of that, I'm pushing myself to get new patterns out before November. I'm having several patterns test knitted. I've used the Free Pattern Testers group for the first time and it's been a great experience. Sure there are a few rules that have to be followed, but keeps the group running smoothly. I like that the pattern testers are not afraid to tell me the truth about wording and such. I hope it makes my patterns better!

I was also asked to design a sock for a November knit-a-long in the Barking Dog Yarns group. I'll be using her new Opposites Attract yarn. The idea is very cool and the results are interesting. You buy sock yarn in sets of 2-50gm skeins. One skein will have a dominant color with a few other colors. The other skein will be the opposite with one of the other colors as the dominant. This yarn is great for mirrored type sock patterns.

I have another pattern that will be released in November as part of a sock club. I can't really say more than that. I'm also working on another sock pattern for another indie dyer. That one will be released in mid-November. Preparing for November has kept me really busy.

Two of my patterns pictured in the post below have just finished test knitting. Split Cells and Chimes are now for sale on ravelry.

Focus

I'm lacking focus these days. I'm usually a one, maybe two project person. That's one easy one to carry around and one more complicated. Right now, I have 4 different socks on the needles sitting on my desk. One was a vacation knit that I'm not sure that I like. One is a test swatch for a pattern I'm trying to design. That was started and ripped multiple times on vacation. Two are colorwork patterns. I want to write the pattern while knitting the second sock of those pairs.

When I look at a new book, it's always the stranded patterns that stick with me. I rarely knit them because I have tension issues and have a hard time fitting the sock to my legs. But I'm determined to get it and that means practice.

Let me back up and talk about my finished projects from the past few weeks. Over on Sock Knitter's Anonymous (SKA), one of the challenges of September was to knit a Wendy Johnson pattern. I decided to challenge myself and knit knee highs. I've finally accomplished that. I wasn't happy with my yarn choice, but it was the only yarn that I had on hand with enough yardage for knee highs. Now I have ideas of designing my own knee highs.

Details:
Pattern: Catriona Knee Socks by Wendy Johnson
Yarn: Knit Picks Essential/Stroll Tweed in Black (3)
Needle: size 0 (2mm) circular
Mods: increased a lot more than the pattern states to accommodate my calves
Start: September 19, 2009
Finish: September 28, 2009

When we go on vacation, I usually like to take a lace project with me. On this trip, I took some Wollmeise sock yarn and knit Trevi. Those two are a great combination. Trevi really stretches a single skein of sock yarn into a good sized shawl. I like lace patterns with strong geometric lines like this one.

Pattern: Trevi by Anne Hanson
Yarn: Wollmeise 100% sockenwolle in Merlot
Needle: size 4 (3.5mm) for the main part and size 3 (3.25mm) for the knit on edge
Notes: I knit 6 repeats of chart B and had 15 gms of yarn leftover
Start: October 4, 2009
Finish: October 10, 2009

And when I came back from vacation, I was fed up with the socks that I took with me. I was trying to design a sock pattern for self striping yarn. I had a few good ideas on paper that I took with me, but didn't like the way they looked on the actual sock. bleh. Those are still sitting on my desk and I started this pattern. I'm calling it my H.F.V.B. socks--that stands for: home from vacation blues. ;-)

Pattern: H.F.V.B by me
Yarn: Opal uni 4-ply solid
Needle: size 0 (2mm) for the foot and heel and size 1 (2.25mm) for the leg
Start: October 14, 2009
Finish: October 21, 2009

Even with all of these projects going, I'm itching to knit another shawl. It must be the cold weather. Well it's back to knitting, I'll leave you with these pictures from my part of the world...

Cough, knit, cough, design, repeat

Ugh. I have a cold right now. I hope that I'm just getting it out of the way and will be relatively healthy for the rest of fall. I usually love this time of year when the temperature starts to drop, but I haven't been able to enjoy it because of this cold. I have been knitting a lot lately. I have new designs, more designs being written, and more socks being completed.

The first one is Decorated Diamonds. It's not written up yet, but probably will be. I have the different sizes all charted out and just need to write up the pattern with the correct numbers. You would think that after writing so many patterns that the numbers would coincide with something already done, but there's always something different.

Details:
Pattern: Decorated Diamonds by me
Yarn: Opal solid
Needle: size 0 (2mm) Knit Picks Classic Circular
Method: magic loop, 2 at once, toe-up, Turkish cast-on, short row heel
Start: August 13, 2009
Finish: August 24, 2009

This sock was knit for the Solid Socks group on ravelry. September's color is red and I love red! I had to knit some socks for this month. This sock is called 12 Legs. It was going to be something along the lines of spider until I counted out the "legs" correctly. ;-) I see this sock as one that I would wear inside of a mary jane type shoe, so the toe was done with more stockinette.

Details:
Pattern: 12 Legs by me
Yarn: Knit Picks Stroll Kettle Dyed in Wine
Needle: 2mm for the foot, 2.5mm for the leg
Method: magic loop, 2 at once, toe-up, short row heel
Start: September 1, 2009
Finish: September 14, 2009

And this is the sock that is keeping me busy right now. Yellow was September's challenge for the Sock Knitter's Anonymous (SKA) group on ravelry. I've had this neon yellow yarn in my stash for a while just waiting for the right pattern. I found one! These twisted stitches show up really well with the brightness of the yarn.

There was a huge response to this sock and I started writing out the pattern right away. The pattern is finished and it's being test knitted. I was overwhelmed and surprised at the number of people that offered to test knit! I've sent out the pattern to those that said they could start right away, instead of waiting for October. Why October? Because that's I'm the designer of that month at SKA. I want this pattern to be ready by then and October is coming soon.

Organizing test knitters isn't as easy as I thought it would be. I've tried setting up the pattern on ravelry and then sending out free links to it. But that gets complicated when I have to send out new links for the updated pattern. ugh. I think that I might have to set up a yahoo group. I wanted to keep everything on ravelry since that's where everyone is.

Back to the yellow sock. I'm calling it Everything's Connected. My husband and I have been watching the season 2 dvds for the now canceled Life show. We enjoyed it and it's sad that it won't be back this fall. The main character is trying to be all zen and "everything's connected" is something that he says often.

Details:
Pattern: Everything's Connected by me
Yarn: Cherry Tree Hill solid in yellow
Needle: size 2.25mm for the leg and heel, 2mm for the foot
Method: magic loop, cuff down, heel flap with picked up stitches, grafted toe
Start: September 15, 2009
Finish: September 20, 2009