a sock by gosh!

a sock by gosh
Originally uploaded by spindledreams

Well almost grin I still need to knit the leg and cuff but I finally got that blasted heel done. I really should not try something new when I am half asleep. After 3 tries I finally understood what the book was saying and I now have my first sock in thin yarn waiting for its mate to catch up.

A matter of toes

Yall have read and seen photos of my Socks by Gosh as I have been calling them. The fit is wonderful! I am busy with the heel right now and totally frustrated. Grin I messed them up and have to tink a few rows but that is for another day.

Which explains why I fell for the Siren call of another of the sock yarns. I grabbed that beautiful blue multi color I got off eBay and figured I would give the toe in the book a try or at least her numbers...
Queen Kahuna cast on of 12 stitches. Increase every other row. Pretty yarn, wonderful to work with and sigh this pair will go to a friend. Why? The toes. And since a picture is worth a thousand words.



And this yarn is making such a fascinating coloring in the sock toe so far. I really love the colors but well not in a frogging mood ;-)

Edited to add a photo of the sock toes both at 72 stitches around notice the extreme difference in the shape of the toes.

FLAK progress

 

LOOK! I am actually doing the back of the FLAK sweater! Boy there were times when I never thought this would happen. But all the hard work is now paying off. I am realy pleased with how this is looking so far.

Remember that bright sock yarn...

Well combine it with the new Cat Bordhi book "New Pathways for Sock Knitters" and a new friend who is an avid sock knitter. What you get is sore fingers and a half done sock grin.

Needless to say my sweater has been on hold for the past two weeks as I chugged away on this little oddity. It uses the Upstream Architecture from the book and I am now trying to figure out the heel.

Notice how short and blunt that toe is?

That is where Linda helped. I have rather short toes and most socks I have seen have toes that are way too long. So we started on 14, yes 14, stitches and increased every row for most of the increases. It may look blunt to some of yall but it fits wonderfully.
The diamond running up the leg is the result of the Sockitecture I am using.
Much as I normally hate knitting socks I am really looking forward to wearing this pair.

Are these bright enough?

bright enough?
Originally uploaded by spindledreams

Okay my LYSO says I have been buying too many muted and dull colors and need to add some bright yarn to my life. Specifically she suggested a pair of socks. So we spent about half an hour looking through her sock yarns to find a "bright" yarn I approved of. We came up with the Trekking on the right.

Then yesterday I was in Ft Collins for "tea" at Lambspun and my friend Linda said she agreed with my LYSO. She then helped me pick out another hank of yarn with "color" the center ball which is Araucania Ranco Multy color number 303.

When we got home I was digging around looking for something else and found a wonderful ball of hand painted merino/tencel sock yarn that I had bought off eBay earlier this year. I really wish that picture could show you all the wonderful colors in it. Besides the vivid blue, red, and yellow that really show up it has lavender and green areas.

Next question now is which do I use for that pair of socks....

Wow we have actual progress on my FLAK

Grin I got to start the sweater this weekend. My cable swatch is done. You can see it here before I cast off using EZs sewn bind off. That was fun as I underestimated the amount of yarn needed and finished with just an inch of my tail left.

My cable swatch has been washed, dried and measured. I enjoyed knitting this swatch and really love the way the cables have turned out.

I have the saddles started and tomorrow I may be able to start the back of the sweater :-) I am so thrilled to have actual sweater progress pictures. Another nice thing that happened this weekend was the arrival of my new stitch markers from Chappy. They are beautiful and stand out nicely on this yarn. I adore the row marker. It has been a huge help while knitting the saddles. (Wry grin)They have a 4 row cable repeat in the center and I kept getting my rows mixed up until that little marker arrived. Thanks Chappy.

We have a winner!

Whew I was so relived when this set of cable plans turned out so nicely. I picked Attempt 2 to swatch first as I liked it a bit better then the Attempt 1. I just picked up were I was on my cable swatch which meant I actually started on Row 2 and knit upwards. I managed to finish row 12 before my stitches started to blur when I looked at them. Grin I figured that was a sign I had been up too long. Took some pictures and I am headed to bed as soon as this post is finished.


cable swatch
Originally uploaded by spindledreams

This photo is about the best I could get to show the new cable plan. Notice that the swatch for my orginal graph is below the current work. This lets me compare both patterns easily but grin I don't think there is any contest between the two plans. The second plan shows off my cables much better and is much closer to what I was wanting.