Irish Moss

I finished this a couple of months ago.

I don't love it. It's too short. I did 2 fewer pattern repeats than the instructions called for because it seemed so long. I have enough yarn to make it longer but that means taking it completely apart, making it longer and then putting it all back together. The "making it longer" is the easiest step. Putting it back together is tedious (it took me two weekends the first time) but I can deal with that. Getting it apart will be a nightmare. I've worn it a few times and it's shetland wool so it will have started to felt.  I am not looking forward to this but it really is too short. The sleeves are the right length, so there's that I guess.

Harrison's Shalor

This is Shalor by Penny Straker. You can see how much he loves this sweater. The enthusiasm is written all over his face.

The yarn is Berocco Vintage  in Tide Pool. It's a wool blend so it's not too warm. I don't remember exactly what size it is since I knit this last fall but it's mediumish; 42" at the chest.

I knit this before in Berocco Ultra Alpaca, which is a wool/alpaca blend and it's very warm.

I don't usually like knitting the same pattern twice but this is a nice pattern to knit, as are all Penny Straker patterns.

Denmark Socks are Done

I love these socks. I love the colorway (Twilight by Lorna's Laces) and I love the pattern (Denmark by Nancy Bush). These are knit with Shepherd Sport.

Coincidentally, Jimmy Beans announced in their July 2010 newsletter that this colorway has been added to their permanent collection. Obviously, I'm not the only one who loved it. My pictures make the yarn look brighter than it really is. Purples are difficult to photograph. I took dozens of shots, indoors and out, but none were accurate. These are the best I could do.

The pattern is from "Knitting on the Road" by Nancy Bush and is a fun pattern to knit. It's a very basic cable pattern with 54 stitches cast on. There are nupps at the top of each cable. They're not really nupps; they look like nupps but they're easier to knit. I think they're an interesting design element so I'm using them to liven up some basic ribbed socks that I'm working on now.

Denmark Socks by Nancy Bush

This pattern is from "Knitting on the Road" by Nancy Bush. The yarn is Lorna's Laces Shephard sport in Twilight. I didn't intend to order this in sport weight but I guess I wasn't paying attention and this is what ended up in my cart.

Turns out it works perfectly for this pattern, which only calls for 56 stitches cast on. For a pattern with cables, that's not going to work for me with a fingering weight yarn.

Love the pattern; love the colorway. I wish I could get more of it but it was one of the limited edition colors from Jimmy Beans (January 2010) and it's sold out. They describe it as "similar to Black Purl but without the black." I've got Black Purl in my stash so I think I'll dig it out and compare the two.

Yet Another Pair of Cabled Socks are Complete

The good news is, these are done. The bad news is, they're still pink.

I'm really pleased with they way they turned out, except for the pinkness. The cables are 3 stitches (a knit, a purl and a knit) and are separated by 3 purl stitches. I crossed them by putting the first two stitches on a cable needle in back, knitting the third stitch, returning the second stitch to the working needle, purling it, and then knitting the stitch remaining on the cable needle.

The cable crosses on the cuff get closer together as they get closer to the heel but are uniform on the top of the foot.

These are 72 stitches worked on size 2.75 needles. The sole is 27 stitches and the top of the foot is 39 stitches. There are six sets of cables at the toe, each of which is reduced by two on the penultimate row, bringing the stitch count down to 27. I closed each set of cables by slipping the first stitch, passing the third over the second, slipping the second, passing the first over the second, returning the remaining stitch to the working needle and purling it.

Yet Another Pair of Cabled Socks

I don't really like pink but I had the yarn in my stash and it's perfect for cables.

This is Regia Silk 4-ply. I'm using 2.75 needles and cast on 72 stitches. The pattern is very similar to these:

except the cables and ribbing are K1P1K1 instead of K2P2K2 and I crossed all the cables the same way. I'm really happy with the way these are turning out. The Regia Silk is very nice to work with and the cables really pop. I don't know why I choose this color since I'm not a "pink" person but there it was so I will soon have a pair of baby pink socks.

Let's Just Finish These Already. Or Not.

Seaweed lace in Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock in blackberry are done:

The pedicure socks in Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock in rainbow have been given a reprieve:

The stranded socks in Bristol Yarn Gallery Buckingham in natural and lite Lime are getting frogged:

I've decided I'm not going to like the Lorna's Laces rainbow colorway in a different pattern any better so I may as well live with this. I'm going to rip out the toes and try something different but otherwise leave them alone. As for the second pair, I like the stranded pattern but I don't like it with a short row heal. I don't like short row heals under the best of circumstances. They're always too snug across the top of the instep because the sock has the same circumference all the down but my foot does not. It might work with something stretchy like lace but there's no give in stranded knitting so the socks are uncomfortably tight. A gusset would solve the problem but a Fair Isle pattern like this don't work with a gusset so I'm ripping it back to before the heal and will only use the pattern on the cuff.

Let's Just Stick With Things We Like

I need a "quick score" after the unsuccessful pedicure socks so I decided to go with a pair of cabled socks in a near solid colorway; two things I'm pretty much guaranteed to like.

This the "January Blues" colorway in the fingering weight superwash wool/nylon blend from Piece of Vermont. This is 72 stitches cast on with 2.25 mm needles. The pattern repeats over 8 stitches. The cables really pop when the fabric is stretched. The colorway is a dark denim-y blue with a little purple. I'm down to the heel flap on the first sock. What's not to love?

Irish Moss, and This Time I Really Mean It

This is Irish Moss using Jamieson's DK in the Pacific colorway. I'm knitting the large on size 4 needles, which should give me a finished underarm measurement of 42-43". This is two pattern repeats. It goes fairly quickly so I'm hoping to finish it before it's too warm to wear it. We'll see how that goes.
It's not purple but I do love the color. It looks like a denim-y blue from a distance but up close you can see that it's two plies of slate blue and one of aquamarine. There's a little bit of red in there too.

I'll use the Jamieson's Worsted for Aranmor, also from Aran Knitting by Alice Starmore, and the Rowan DK has been returned to the stash for some future project not yet determined.

Cabled Socks

These were made with Cherry Tree Hill Supersock on 2.75 mm needles.

72 stitches were cast on. The ribbing is 1/1. The cable pattern repeats over 12 stitches and 11 rows as follows:

rows 1,3,4,5,6,8,9,10,11: k1, p3, k1, p1, k1, p3, k1, p1
row 2: k1, p3, k1, p1, put next 4 st onto cable needle and hold in back, k1, return 1st st on cable needle to the holding needle, p3 from cable needle, k1, p1
row 7: put next 4 st onto cable needle and hold in back, k1, return 1st st on cable needle to the holding needle, p3 from cable needle, k1, p1, k1, p3, k1, p1.

with the exception of the first pattern repeat, which is worked as follows:

row 1: (k1, p1) 36 times
row 2: (k1, p1) 3 times, put next 4 st onto cable needle and hold in back, k1, return 1st st on cable needle to the holding needle, p3 from cable needle, k1, p1
rows 3, 4, 5, 6: (k1, p1) 3 times, k1, p3, k1, p1
row 7: put next 4 st onto cable needle and hold in back, k1, return 1st st on cable needle to the holding needle, p3 from cable needle, k1, p1, k1, p3, k1, p1.
rows 8,9,10,11: k1, p3, k1, p1, k1, p3, k1, p1

The cables pull in so much that the stockinette sole was pulled up onto the sides of the foot so I knit the foot with 8 fewer stitches on the sole. The heel flap was worked over 35 stitches and 37 stitches were held for the instep. I did the gusset decreases in the usual manner but continued until there were 29 stitches remaining. The 37 instep stitches were worked as 3 pattern repeats and 1 purl stitch On the last row of the pattern, I did a p2tog at the center of the 1st, 2nd, 5th and 6th cable. On the first row of the toe decreases, I transferred the first stitch of the instep to the first needle, the last stitch of the instep to the 3rd needle, giving me 15, 31 and 16 stitches on needles 1, 2 and 3 respectively. The toe was worked in the usual manner.