Actually, it is off the needles and being blocked. The Faroese style shawl made from leftover sock yarn. My gauge is way off, but it still made a fair size shawl. I must knit really, really tight. So, the shawl is finished, just in time for 80 degree weather, but it will be waiting when the winter chill returns.
After making the socks that I have been posting about since January, I have a lot of leftover sock yarn hanging around. I decided that before I make any more socks, I’d try to finish off those pieces. I found a free pattern on Ravelry, specifically designed to use up leftover sock yarn. I’m less than half way thru this shawl. The designer alternated between garter and stockinette on the stripes, but since it starts out with over 500 stitches, I’m just knitting. No way am I going to purl rows of 500 + stitches, not even using the Norwegian purl, which causes much less cramping for my hands.
Some of the yarns were self striping, the turquoise is the most obvious of these, and as you can see, doing something too much larger than a sock really eliminates the stripes. The pattern is Leftovers Faroese Shawl, it uses approx. 1600 yds of yarn. For mine, I’m alternating the leftovers with a few skeins of solid purple that I had on hand….one of those “oohh, I like this, I’ll figure out something to make from it later” purchases.
I still have one pair on the needles, ready for the heel turn. That makes 6 pairs finished since the beginning of the year. I was hoping to make a dent in my sock yarn stash, it is more of a dimple. I’ve also started a shawl out of the leftover sock yarns, we shall see what that looks like, if it goes from a ‘Joseph’s coat of may colors’ to a coat of way too many colors, I will try over-dying it, but probably not as I only plan on wearing it around the house.
I have been knitting away, finished these socks:
and have turned the heels in two other pair, working up the legs on them. For me, this is tremendous, as I have been known to take more than a year to knit just one pair (can you say distracted?)
Of course, there have been distractions, namely this handsome gent:
It has been a long while since I posted. Flue, holidays, lots of time with the new grandbaby and whatnot, but I have spent some time with my fibers.
This week I finished two pair of socks:
I knit socks two at a time, toe up. I’ve tried a few different methods of starting the toe, usually using the Judy’s Magic Cast On, which is a very good method, but awkward for me, I feel all thumbs. With these socks I tried Cat Bordhi’s variation on the Judy’s method, and it works better for me. It is the method she describes in her E-book on Sweet Tomato Heels and her book Personal Footprints for Insouciant Knitters.
I also used the Sweet Tomato Heels for these socks, and followed Cat’s instructions for fitting the socks to my foot. I’m very pleased with these methods, they seem to fit well, be relatively easy for me to execute, and produce good results (barring my own ‘creative’ moments).
Currently I am keeping several on the needles at various stages, so I can get some variety when I start to get bored.
The dark pair is Brown Sheep Company Wildefoote , color Rhapsody. The turquoise with pink and orange is a self striping Online Supersock 100, color Holiday. The final pair, which is ready for the heel, is Paton's Kroy Socks FX, cascade colors.
Stop over at Patchwork Times to see what other knitters are working on.
