Sarsaparilla & Hamantaschen

November 19th, 2012

For the sock club, I like to feature colors, yarns, and patterns that are more “guy-friendly” in October. This month’s yarn and pattern are rustic and homey, appropriate for the rugged man who loves flannel or for anyone who loves sitting by the fireplace sipping cocoa or mulled cider. Of course, now that an autumn chill is in the air and the holidays are fast approaching, many of us are also thinking about gift knitting.

The yarn is a wool-tencel blend that was exclusively milled and dyed for the club by Green Mountain Spinnery. We tested the yarn to see how it held up, and it surprised me by holding up better than many superwash merino / nylon blends after repeated washings and even a dry cycle. In my book, that makes it a great candidate for gift socks that are likely to accidentally get put in the dryer.

The Sarsaparilla socks feature a chunky cable pattern that goes well with the rustic nature of the yarn.

The Hamantaschen socks feature triangular patterns that are tiled to look like diamonds.

Club members have been keeping busy knitting up this month’s socks, and for good reason: a finished pair of October socks is worth two entries into the Grand Prize drawing to win a membership to next year’s sock club. If you’re in the club and you haven’t been posting photos of your finished projects in the appropriate Ravelry threads, now is the time. You have until December 15th to post photos!

Dorie from Washington knit up a pair of Sarsaparilla socks in Hazel Knits Artisan Sock in a gorgeous brown, perfect for fall.

Mia from Germany also knit up a pair of Sarsaparillas in an intense shade of purple Wollmeise:

Josiane from Switzerland knit up her Hamantaschen socks in the club yarn:

And it looks like those sheepy sock blockers are popular! Ann from Boston is also showing off a pair of Hamantaschen socks  on them.

These patterns are exclusive to Cookie A Sock Club members until October 15, 2013. Want in on next year’s club? Sign ups open next week on Monday, November 26th.

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Are you knitting along?

November 15th, 2012

Bethany from Ontario is the winner of October’s prize drawing for the Shapes + Form knit-along!

Here’s Bethany in her Slope sweater – it looks great.

Bethany gets a copy of My Grandmother’s Knitting and 5 lovely skeins of Alchemy Synchronicity.

Are you working on a Shapes + Form project? Be sure to join the discussion on Ravelry and post your finished projects to be eligible for prizes!

I have finally finished my Conic sweater in Socktopus Sokkusu-O, in grey. I loved working with Alice’s yarn, which she gave to me when we met up in Toronto earlier this year.

Here’s a close-up of the sleeve decreases:

I’m pretty sure I’m going to be wearing it everywhere.

 

Posted in Contests, Shapes + Form | 1 Comment »

Conic everywhere!

November 6th, 2012

I’m seeing lots of great Conic sweaters on Ravelry. Let’s see some Conic FOs!

Judy in Ohio added extra ribbing to make a shawl collar on her Conic, knit out of Madelinetosh tosh merino light. What a great idea!

Wollmeise has been a really popular yarn choice. Birgit in Germany has knit her Conic out of Petit Poison no. 5.

Gus is done – doesn’t Conic look great on her? She used Wollmeise 100% in Aquarius.

Henrike in Germany used Wollmeise in Absinth for her Conic.

Another Raveler, Woollyknickers, has also used a beautiful lavender shade of Wollmeise for her Conic.

And MBeata in Finland has finished hers, too.

Finally, Tracey in Portland, ME is spinning the yarn for her Conic out of a Gotland lamb fleece. It looks so soft!

I’m still working on my Conic, but it’s nearly done. After that,  I think I have to knit Quotient for myself in – you guessed it – grey!

Posted in Shapes + Form | 4 Comments »

My Kind of Town

October 29th, 2012

I just got back from Chicago where I taught at  Vogue Knitting Live at none other than the Palmer House Hilton. Fun tidbit: This is the same hotel where my high school prom was located. Ah, the memories!

Classes were great as always, and I had wonderful students. Frances, a member of the sock club, not only knit Reykjavik, but spun the yarn for them as well! This photo doesn’t do them justice – she has more photos on her Ravelry project page for you to see.

I spent a little time in the marketplace where I visited the Green Mountain Spinnery booth to share the latest sock club socks. It was great to see so much of their yarn in person. I only wish I got to spend more time in the market place.

On Sunday, I participated in a panel discussion about publishing. This is the Red Lacquer Room in the Palmer House Hilton before everyone got there – very swanky.

And of course it wouldn’t be a trip to Chicago without an Italian beef sandwich (or two)! Also, who knew that asking where the best place to get a beef could result in so many strong opinions? I can’t decide between Al’s and Portillo’s. Personally, I prefer the Italian beefs my dad used to make from scratch (I’m still kinda sad that he sold his meat slicer instead of giving it to me), but Portillo’s and Al’s are pretty darn good too. Mmmm, beef. Luckily, no fights broke out, even when a non-Chicagoan student asked the class where the best place to get pizza is.

How was your weekend? I’m glad to be back in sunny California – are you in the hurricane zone?

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Looking for more socks?

October 25th, 2012

Just in case I haven’t kept you busy enough with sock patterns, here are some sock patterns I contributed to books that have come out in the past year.

First of all, I am excited about  The Knitter’s Book of Socks by Clara Parkes, author of The Knitter’s Book of Yarn and The Knitter’s Book of Wool. 

Clara Parkes spends a significant portion of the book discussing the various pros and cons of all different types of sock yarns, focusing on how twist, ply, and fiber content work together to create elasticity, durability, moisture management, and stitch definition. If you’ve read her other two books on yarn and wool, some of the ideas here will be familiar to you. However, the specific application of all this knowledge is really valuable when it comes to making socks that behave just the way you want them to.

The remainder of the book features 20 sock patterns. The patterns are organized by technique, starting with simple ribbed and textured patterns and moving on to cables, lace, colorwork, and slipped and twisted stitches. There are 15 top-down socks and 5 toe-up patterns to choose from.

See all the patterns from The Knitter’s Book of Socks on Ravelry here.

In Elm, I used a careful pairing of increases and decreases within a simple rib motif to create the illusion of smooth, overlapping branches. While the pattern has less elasticity than a straightforward k2, p2 rib, there’s still sufficient stretch for a comfortable fit. The socks were knit in String Theory Caper Sock, a hand-dyed merino-cashmere-nylon blend that’s become a sock club favorite.

 

 

For so many knitters, knitting is definitely a family affair. My Grandmother’s Knitting by Larissa Brown celebrates the passing on of these crafting traditions and honors the influence of those who’ve come before us with 21 patterns and 17 family stories. It’s always interesting to learn how people got their start in knitting or designing.

See all the patterns from My Grandmother’s Knitting on Ravelry here.

My family history is complicated, with lots of travel around Asia and the United States. The curved lines on these socks represent their journeys. I named the Wan Jai socks after my grandmother, whose name translates to ‘sweet heart’ in English. These socks were knit in Zen Yarn Garden Serenity 20, a beautiful and soft merino-cashmere-nylon blend.


 Sock Knitting Master Class by Ann Budd is a wonderfully complete sock technique book. Inside, there’s information on all the different cast-ons and bind-offs that are good to use for socks (8 and 7 of them, respectively) as well as 6 different heels and 5 different toes.

It features 10 top-down patterns and 7 toe-up ones. Nearly every possible technique is featured: cables, lace, stranded colorwork, entrelac, twisted stitches, intarsia, shadow knitting, replaceable soles, traveling stitches, stripes – there’s something for everyone. Many of the patterns have multiple sizes and Clara Parkes has written helpful notes on every yarn featured in the book.

See all the patterns from Sock Knitting Master Class on Ravelry here.

I contributed the Asymmetrical Cables socks. The semi-solid color and texture of the Pagewood Farm St. Elias yarn I chose for these socks called for a bold pattern, so I decided to knit hefty yet simple cable panels with garter-stitch interiors. Each sock has a stockinette background that showcases the movement of the cable panels. The panels start out in parallel on the side of the leg, then they diverge as one panel swoops across the front of the leg and the top of the foot to create an elegant visual line.

 

Posted in Book Review, Patterns | Comments Closed

Quotient sizing

October 22nd, 2012

Quotient is next up in the series on sizing for the garments in Shapes + Form. This is one of my favorite garments from the collection because it’s drapey and bouncy and easy to wear over anything. I have store-bought cardigans that are in a similar shape that I wear all the time, so I’m super happy to replace them with a hand-knit sweater. I’m tempted to knit one in black or grey.

For the sizing notes in the pattern, I recommend a lot of ease because I personally like it that way. You can definitely get away with less ease if you prefer a closer fit. Here’s what it looks like on some “real life” knitters and family members.

Quotient + Rectangle

Quotient + Radial

Quotient on Eileen

Rotation + Quotient

Quotient and Radial

Check out all the photos of Quotient here with measurements for the “real life” models.

 

Posted in Shapes + Form | 3 Comments »

Munch Hoodie Vest

October 18th, 2012

When Kristine from A Verb For Keeping Warm asked me to design something for her Pro-Verbial club, I jumped on the bandwagon! She is always telling me that I dress like an Expressionist with weird hoodie vest things that drape and look odd. For the club, I decided to tone myself down a little bit and go a somewhat prettier route with a lacy hoodie vest that makes the most out of the yardage of the yarn. The Munch Hoodie Vest (named after the Edvard Munch) is worked in Reliquary II, a lovely naturally dyed laceweight merino-silk 2ply. The brown color is perfect for autumn.

The construction is kind of interesting, starting with the lace panel at the bottom edge, then picked up for the back, then continuing the lace panel from the right front to create an armhole. The panel and back are joined to work the hood which is shaped kind of like a heel turn, then the edge panel is worked all the way around the remaining parts to make the left armhole and the end is seamed to the beginning. Armholes and edges are picked up and worked in ribbing in the round. Did that sound confusing? I made diagrams in the pattern that don’t sound nearly so confusing, I promise!

 

The pattern is exclusive to the Pro-Verbial club for 6 months and will be available to non-members in April, 2013.

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Hex and Slide

October 15th, 2012

Welcome to October! Two more patterns – Hex and Slide – from last year’s sock club are now available.

Autumn was my favorite season when I lived in the Midwest. The brisk weather and color changes are invigorating, but for this shipment’s theme I went a different direction. I know for many it is the start of gift-knitting season, so this installment was a “man-issue” of sorts featuring many men’s favorite color: grey.

For the patterns, I wanted something simple that my husband might actually wear. Both patterns play on geometry.

The Hex socks feature a hexagonal pattern all over the leg that transitions into plain stockinette on the foot that my husband definitely approves. One of our favorite tools is the hex bit for our drill which we’ve used a LOT to assemble furniture over the years. So consider this also an ode to Ikea!

$6.50

The Slide socks are a traveling rib sock that angles the rib down the leg and the foot, just like a playground slide. These were inspired by the color of the yarn. I love the simplicity of these, and of course the pair is mirrored.

 $6.50

The yarn I chose is Fleece Artist Sea Wool which hails from Canada. When I began knitting socks, the first pair that I knit and actually liked was made with Fleece Artist merino sock yarn. Those socks traveled with me to Canada, Turkey, Alaska, England, and Iceland. I really wanted to use a Fleece Artist yarn this year and decided on Sea Wool, a Seacell blend.

What is Seacell? It’s a fiber that’s created from seaweed, similar to how rayon is created using other plant fibers and bamboo rayon is made using fiber from bamboo plants. It has a sheen that I think goes very well with the pewter color of the yarn.

Posted in Patterns, Sock Club | 1 Comment »

What I did on my summer vacation

September 20th, 2012

In between working on Shapes + Form, the sock club, and all sorts of other knitting-related fun … I’ve been doing a little traveling.

I went hiking at the beautiful Mount Rainier where I saw a grizzly bear!

Later I went to Toronto and met up with my friend Alice Yu. (You can see me in her phone!)

It was my first time meeting Amandine who is super cute.

We headed to Lettuce Knit and ogled some yarn.

I went to the top of the CN Tower… here’s the view from the glass floor, looking down 1,122 feet to the ground.

The funky photo styling is courtesy of Instagram. I’m on there as cookieaknitwear.

Finally I went to Reno to visit my friend Kristi. We may have taken a side trip to Jimmy Beans Wool. They may have let us into the back. There may have been a LOT of yarn there.

Did you go anywhere fun this summer?

Posted in Miscellaneous | 2 Comments »

May the knitting force be with you

September 14th, 2012

I might have had a lot of fun putting together the patterns (and, as you can see, the photo shoot) for this August’s sock club shipment. The socks are knit in Enchanted Knoll Farm EKF Superwash Sock yarn which is squishy yet durable.

This is Jedi Mind Tricks – which of course looks far more complicated than it is.

And this is Gyokuro, named for a type of Japanese green tea.

These patterns are exclusive to the Cookie A Sock Club until August 15, 2013.

Posted in Patterns, Sock Club | 2 Comments »

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