old navy

finished a pair of socks for my brother who said he wanted "blue"socks; so blue socks it is!

" old navy socks"
regia line steps color #5374

us size 1.5 needles (2.5mm)
gauge: 8.5 sts/inch in sockinette
mods: cast on 72 sts because yarn is thinner and socks are for a guy! knit pattern on leg only; extended ribbing down instep; eye of partridge heel flap. and they match, too!

then, i decided to play with some of the new panda wool superwash that susan sent me. psup (nickname used by cpy) feels and knits the same as its mommy, panda wool. It's still a bit splitty but not extremely so. i only really notice it when i have to pick up stitches i've dropped or frogged. the test will be in the washing. i plan on knitting up a swatch from the left-overs and throwing it in the washing machine. the original pwool seemed to felt if you even looked cross-eyed at it!

my own pattern
socks for my sil
panda superwash "joyful" (color is pretty accurate in first picture)
186 yds/50 gm

needles: us size 1.5 (2.5mm)
gauge: 8.5 sts/inch in stockinette

i hate short row heels; and yes, you do see a short row heel in that sock. i don't like them mainly because they generally don't fit my high instep and because i can never get the two sides of the heel to look the same. nonetheless, you never can tell when knowing how to knit one will come in handy so i will periodically try different ones (which usually get frogged and replaced by a heel flap and gusset). i have learned that working a short heel flap with a short row heel or using 60% of the stitches works. i just have not found a short row heel that i like ... until now. this is a jojo heel with a tutorial here. both sides look pretty much the same. i am getting very small holes but think that those will go away with more practice. and i know you are probably asking when would i need to use a short row heel. well, two situations do come to mind. did you know that short row heels use less yardage than the traditional heel flap and gusset? so this is a handy trick for the times you don't have a whole lot of yarn. short row heels also cause less pooling of handpainted yarns and such. of course, adding the small heel flap will still cause some disruption.

jojo short row heel with small heel flap!

i can live with this one!

jasmine scarf

knit with mini-mochi strawberry-lime rainbow. lace stitch matches the fingerless mitt. if you don't mind a shorter scarf ( i calculated that you can make a scarf about 40" in length from one skein), then you can make a nice gift set of the scarf and the fingerless mitts from 2 skeins.

here is the cast-on edge, using a cute picot cast-on and garter stitch border
(i like the slight ruffle effect of the edge so would probably only lightly block the finished scarf)

this is the bind-off edge with a matching picot bind-off
(i think the two ends match very well)

and just for fun, i am showing a picture of my entire "scarf"

i used a us 5 and will have to knit a stockinette swatch to see what gauge is.
i like the fabric i got for the scarf.

edited to add gauge:
us 5 needles in stockinette (not washed or blocked)
6 sts - 8 rows/inch

it's not blocked yet. i am going to see what water does to this gorgeous yarn later today.

is that funny or what? it's about 6 inches long and weighs 7 gms. i can't wait until i have time to knit a real set for me out of neptune rainbow!

i am naming the set "jasmine". thank you, cait!

i have been trying to be good and stay away from this yarn. i have been working on my brother's sock. one done, and the other almost down to the heel flap...slowly, very slowly.

crazy over you

is up and ready for purchase. link on sidebar.

thank you for your interest and support.

margaritaville

...is spiffed up and ready for purchase over at my ravelry shop. there is a link on the sidebar!

oh boy! two patterns up! slowly getting the other ones ready. sigh.

chance to win MORE yarn

go visit to knit and write and leave a comment telling your favorite yarn and your favorite project.

please tell her i sent you over for brownie point entries. one winner will be the person with the most entries and two more winners will be selected by a random number generator. i love blog contests.

contest ends at midnight november 23rd! hurry, hurry!!!!

free mini-mochi!

did i get your attention?! yes, you can win some free mini-mochi. hey, don't look at me! i don't have any. you need to head on over to socks and more where they are holding a drawing. the deadline to enter is december 2nd, 12 midnight pst.

more details here. of course, if you win, you have to send the yarn to me! i want it ALLLLLL!













finished the sock. look at the gorgeous color transitions. it reminds of of a tropical sunset. hey, pass me an umbrella drink!

another mini mochi ball

susan sent me another color to play with. this one is strawberry-lime rainbow (#106). i am knitting the sample as a toddler size sock but am planning on using this for an uni-sex adult size sock. the slight texture brings interest to the yarn without distracting from the beautiful color changes. i did "cheat" and used the other end of the ball to knit the heel so as not to disrupt the colors as presented.

view of instep
(i still haven't reached the beginning of the next repeat yet)

side view
colors are close but not accurate. the orange is actually slightly more red than here.

i am wondering how this pattern would work with panda superwash. susan sent me a couple of balls of that to play with too. off to experiment.

you know this is really bad. i still have my windowpane socks and the mate to my brother's old navy socks to knit. distractions, distractions!!!!!! not good but oh soooooo FUN!

mini mochi, part 2

i finished my mini mochi fingerless mitt sample for crystal palace yarns. i am not use to knitting with single ply yarn so it took a bit to get use to the fluffy aspect of the yarn but once i did, knitting with it was wonderful.
i used around 22 gms for the one mitt so one skein of mini-mochi will be enough for a pair. the colors are a little faded in the pixs.


the colors are a little better in the photo below. you can see the color changes better on the palm side. just for fun, i used some of the stitch pattern from the top on the cuff ribbing.

the yarn is actually pretty sturdy. i had to pull pretty hard to break off the end when i finished the mitt.

i had a hard enough time taking a picture of my left hand in a fingerless mitt. you should have seen me try to take these pictures of my right hand in a fingerless mitt. let me tell you that it is very difficult; especially when i am right-handed and the button for the shutter on the camera is on the right hand side.

now comes the hard part...i need a name (kind of like the princess in never-ending story.)...hmmm, fantasia. maybe.

mini mochi

don't cha love that name?! reminds me of those japanese mochi which are absolutely squishable! this mini mochi (or mini m) is a new yarn ( self-striping single ply, fingering weight merino wool/nylon blend) from crystal palace yarns. it will come in some glorious colors (similar to noro sock). only this yarn is so much softer than noro. ask me how i know!

because..........(squeee) i am playing with one of only 8 partial skeins available in this world!

"heaven, i'm in heaven..."

flame rainbow (#102)
colors are a bit more subdued than in photo

and it is sooooooooooo soft! i would compare it to malabrigo; yes, it is that soft.
i want to make scarves!

but it is lacking one thing that noro has...

VEGGIE MATTER!
yep, no twigs, leaves, thorns, etc.

it has some thick and thin spots, as is common with single ply yarns, but the differences are not extreme. there is a nice halo to the yarn. and that blue one is to die for...i want it all!!! MINE! MINE! MINE!

you will need to get yourself some of this when it becomes available; if there is any after i get to it. and it will be cheaper ($8.60/50gm, yes, i had to ask) than noro.

i am working on a fingerless mitt (sample for the tnna show) to show off the color variations of the yarn . pattern for the mitts and a matching scarf will be available on the cpy website eventually. i want to make matching socks too! susan said i could!

i got some panda superwash (psup) to play with too but the mini mochi needed its own post. it is too wonderful!

merletto mitts

...are ready for my hands, just in the nick of time, as the weather has definitely turned cold this week. of course, next week is another story. this is california, after all.

i enjoyed the pattern; enough going on to be interesting, but simple enough not to boggle the mind. i did frog the first mitt back to the cuff after knitting the second one. first, i was hoping that i could knit both mitts with one skein of yarn (didn't quite make it) and secondly because i wanted to move the thumbs in from the edge.

merletto mitts
finished size: palm circumference - 6 1/2" relaxed
wrist circumference- 5 1/4 " relaxed

panda wool in lacquer red
us size 1.5 needles (2.5mm)
gauge in stockinette: 8.5 sts/inch
used slightly over one skein
i managed to knit both mitts minus the thumbs with one skein
but this is the original put-up for the yarn so you might be ok with the newer skeins.

i made quite a few modifications so they would fit my almost 6" wrist. i am showing the palm side of the mitt so you can see that the thumb placement is more anatomically correct.

• used smaller needle for smaller gauge. i knew the pattern as written would not fit my hand.
• did 14 rounds of ribbing instead of 10.
  
• continued the ribbing on the palm side of the mitt for 3 repeats of the lace so mitt would fit snugger around my wrist.
• knit 4 pattern repeats instead of 5 before starting thumb gusset.
• for right mitt: k6, pm, then started thumb per pattern. mirrored on left mitt. this helped keep the lace pattern centered over the hand. i knit the first mitt per pattern but found the thumb pulled the pattern sideways. increased every 3rd round instead of every other to compensate for tighter gauge.
• didn't like that the top ribbing did not match the bottom ribbing but could not find another way so finally just followed the pattern for the top. i did mirror the bottom ribbing on the palm side. also started ribbing on palm on round 7 of final pattern repeat.
• errata-there is a mistake in the first decrease/set-up round; the pattern assumes 29 sts on the palm side but there are only 27 sts.

i don't know how to photograph my own hand so that it is in a graceful position. this is about as good as it gets. it's kind of like trying to photograph your socks on your feet without making your leg look like an elephants.