olympic sockey

awesome socks for the olympics, originally uploaded by gradschoolknitter.

Another pair of socks for the boy, this time made as part of the ravelympics. Finished them up while watching the Canadian women's hockey team win gold last night!

Yarn is the left overs from the first pair, about .9 of a skein of Jawoll Silk.
Pattern is Rudy Got Sole.
Needles: Size 1 (US)
Mods: Only cast on 70 sts, rather than 80, and basically forgot to look at the pattern again after that. Did a heel flap, decreased to 65 stitches on the gusset... but they fit him perfectly, which is what I was going for!

EDITED TO MENTION: Those are the boys feet, he was super great about being a foot model and even attempted some pictures on his own. He didn't really understand it, but he was a great sport (get it? Olympics?) about it anyway.

snowcation!

Just over a week ago the mid-atlantic east-coast of the US saw unprecedented amounts of snow and we got snowed in for the better part of a week. So what did I do with my snowcation? Well, I already showed off the finished scarf-exchange scarf, but I also whipped up this hat:



Which is a total franken-hat, in that I had little available resources and had to sort of go with the flow. And when it was originally finished it turned out to be way too short so I added the extra orange stripe on after the fact... it's for the boy and he likes it, so I'm not going to worry about it. But definitely not my best on-the-fly pattern.

Other than that, I cast on a pair of socks (also for the boy) for the ravelympics during opening ceremonies on Friday night. No picture as of yet, but hope to be through the first one by the end of this week (or earlier, preferably).

Pre-snow I was in new york and one of my travel companions had looked up habu textiles pre-trip and I got 2 cones of this:



If you don't know where they are you'll never find them. The building is completely unmarked aside from street numbers and they're on the 8th floor in a room without windows.

scarf exchange scarf

scarf exchange scarf, originally uploaded by gradschoolknitter.

I joined a scarf exchange and finished off this scarf for my partner during this snowed-in time. There's not a whole lot else to do and internet is intermittent, possibly because of the weather, so I'm posting this as an "FO" even though it's not blocked and I haven't actually sewn the ends in... snow-boredom / cabin fever is beginning to set in...

Yarn: Cascade Baby Alpaca (2.5 balls)
Needles: US 10.5
Pattern: Vogue Stitchionary 2 - #68 "Avocado"

happy birthday!

earl grey-ish, originally uploaded by gradschoolknitter.

The new(ish) boy had a birthday yesterday AND it was our 3 month-iversary. So I made socks!

These are the yarn harlot's earl grey pattern in Jawoll silk. I had to use just a toe's worth of a second skein, not because he has gigantically huge feet, but because the cuffs are super long.

He probably needed wool socks this weekend 'cause we got hit with the second biggest dump of snow this area has seen in over a century.

Here's me, knee deep (and not actually touching ground) in the snow:

Socksposé! The loved.

OK, finally. The "fun" post! Here, in no particular order, I will detail the sock yarns I have loved and why.

First up: Zitron Trekking XXL:



I love the way the self-striping of the Zitron worked with the pattern AND it has held up fantastically over a year and a half.

Storm Moon Knit's (now out of production I think) Twilight Sock:



These have fuzzed up considerably, but they're my comfort sock.

Malabrigo Sock Yarn:



I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOOOOOOOVE this yarn. By far the softest sock yarn I have ever used and it just gets softer with every wash. My one complaint about these socks have to do with the heels (aka, why I chose to put this picture up). See the heel? How it continues the pattern right down? Complete with yarn overs? Yeah. Yarn overs + heel = bad idea. I think Cookie A makes BEAUTIFUL socks (these are her Twisted Flower Socks rav link) and part of that is due to the fact that the heel fits into the pattern seamlessly. But I've had to darn the heels on both socks and I think if I had just done a traditional-style heel that would never have been a problem.

Crystal Palace Panda Silk Solid:



Truth be told, I don't get a lot of opportunity to wear knee-high entrelac socks (shocking, I know) but the yarn is still shiny and beautiful after a few washings and I get so many compliments when I wear these. I'm sure, in part, it's due to the fact that people think I have to be out of my mind to have knit knee high socks (let alone in a pattern that many knitters find daunting to begin with) but I think it also has something to do with how great the yarn is. Oh, and these are the socks that met the harlot.

Schaefer Anne / Bamboo mix:



I said in my previous socksposé post that schaefer anne might not be meant for socks. And I'm sticking to that. Especially if left alone. But these were the first top down socks I made and I did it straight from the pattern. A blind "ok, if you say that's how you make a heel flap, I'll believe you" stab at it. And it worked. And that first heel that I turned I was AMAZED. IT WORKED. And I still wear these, regularly, almost 3 years later. It's the bamboo. The schaefer still attempts to felt to itself but the bamboo gets in the way. So they're a bit fuzzy but still fit and are probably the warmest socks I own.

Crash Into Ewe Jewel Collection



Only worn these a few times since they were finished just over a month ago, and every time I wash them I worry that the giant holes created by the pattern will get caught on something in the machine. But, so far so good. The colour has faded quite a bit considering they've only maybe been washed a total of 4 times. But I still think they're pretty and the sparkles haven't all fallen out, so that's good!

crystal palace

mini mochi, originally uploaded by gradschoolknitter.

I've been blogging about the sock yarns I've used and how I've felt about them. My first post about yarns I've disliked, drew the attention of a crystal palace employee who emailed me to talk about the mini mochi I used in my socks that felted. Although I probably won't use it for socks, they were kind enough to offer me 2 skeins of yarn to replace the socks. It's way above and beyond for a yarn company to even notice a little blog like mine, let alone offer a replacement, so I just want to say thanks to crystal palace for being a pretty upstanding yarn company. I know through a friend who owns a yarn store that some of the companies can be hard to deal with, but I've never heard complaints from anyone about CPY and now I know why.

I'm thinking perhaps a gathered scarf?