FO: Rainbow Socksssss!!!

 

Here they are!  My awesome rainbow socks!  The colorway is called "Nothing Says Screw You Like a Rainbow" and is by White Birch Fiber Arts on etsy.  Convo her if you want a hank of it and she'll reserve it for you next time she dyes this colorway.

 

Ignore the white of my legs here.  It is hard to take pictures of your own feet.  I was out camping along the Tennessee River in Alabama.

 

I used the Fish Lips Kiss heel  formula to make these socks.  I did plain stockinette (obvs) and about 2" of ribbing on the cuff.  I increased 2 stitches every 4th round beginning about 2" above my heel to accommodate my calves.  You can read more about my hate for this heel formula in this post over here.

  Sure the socks turned out nice in the end, but ugh.  I was having some not-so-great feelings at the start.

 

I think they turned out pretty nice! I need to wear real shoes more often so I can wear my fun handknit socks (now that I have a pair that mostly fits).

 

Bonus tent shot.

 

Double Extra Bonus actual rainbow.

WIP Wednesday: Clouds & Rainbows

It's been a long time since I've done a WIP Wednesday post.

I'm making crazy-fast progress on my rainbow socks.

 

One of my knitting friends persuaded me to try the fish lips kiss heel pattern  (which I usually call fish lips, fish sticks, or fish kiss because the thing is too many words).  The designer has a special formula for the knitter to follow in order to get the PERFECT fit.  This involves having a partner trace your foot on a piece of cardboard and marking the heel hinge line on the cardboard.

 

I made my socks toe-up because I thought it would be the easiest way for me to see if my heel fit my foot when I was finished with the heel portion of the formula. The photo here represents the heel hinge line and the point where you are supposed to start your heel is marked with a dpn from end to end.

 

Here's my sock so far.

 

After following all the designer's notes and instructions exactly, my heel is too big. 

 

It's too big by quite a bit.  I've had this problem with heels and ankles on socks I've knit for myself before.  I don't know if I have a more narrow heel or thin ankle or what, but it's quite frustrating to make a sock and have the heel and ankle just bag  up on me.  I thought I might need an hourglass set of increases and decreases while I was knitting the top portion of the heel pattern and I posted some pictures on the designer's forum.  I won't say too much because I'll get really pissed off, but the designer justified every single portion of her sock formula and said that if I had a problem with my heel, it's because I did x, y, z, and alpha things wrong.  It wasn't because the heel was too big for me.

  

And you know what?  The heel was too big for me.  I frogged back and used a smaller needle size for the heel and that worked famously.  I could still decrease 2-4 stitches on the ankle, but that's less of a big deal.  I'll try that on my next pair of socks.

AKC: FO: Alexandria Cardigan

"Alexandria Cardigan"

 

I finished my Alexandria Cardigan last week.  It used just short of 8 skeins of Knitpicks Gloss DK in Cranberry.

 

It was another crazy-windy day.  I need to get my hair cut too.  Hopefully that will happen next week.

 

I think this is the most perfect shade of red.  

 

Here is the detailing of the cardigan.  This cardigan is perfect for me.  It's the right length, width, everything.  I normally have problems with the sleeve caps being too tight in the biceps, but not with this one.  The only thing I would change is I would prefer to have a closure of some sort.  I am considering adding a zipper for that purpose.

I've been mostly out the last week.  I just returned from Savannah where a few of my friends ran the Rock 'N Roll marathon.  I was being supportive (and I love Savannah!).  Ryan ran the marathon in 3:15 (unofficially) and convinced me to run a half-marathon in Panama City Beach next month.  That means I have to go essentially couch to 13.1 in 7 weeks.  What have I gotten myself into?

Giveaway!!

Isn't that everyone's favorite word?  I wrote a guest blog post for YarnExploder featuring my uberfancy Entangled Stitches gloves.  I look like a hot mess in those photos!  Terrible!  It was hot and I was a mess. 

 

 

You can read my post over on her blog.  I was feeling really generous when I was writing the post and I decided to give away a digital copy of the pattern, a skein of yarn with which to make awesome gloves of your very own, and (I'm not done!) a sweet project bag to keep it all in.

The bag will hold at least 200g of yarn and has a divided interior pocket.  These are the types of bags I prefer to keep stuff in, so that's what I made for the weiner.  :)  I keep scissors, sometimes a starbucks giftcard (gotta keep my spending in check), candies, and a pencil in one of the pockets and my Altoids tin of goodness in the other.

The outer fabric is a Michael Miller garden gingham something or other and the lining fabric is a coordinating blue with dots that remind me of snowflakes.  That's not actually what they are, just what my imagination came up with.  I gotta be honest, I kinda hated that fabric when I first got it.  (Hey, it was part of a package deal and I really wanted the other fabrics.  I was taking one for the team.)  But now that I see it put together with that lining fabric, I want lots of things in ditzy garden gagnam style stripe.  Just sayin'  I guess the flowers grew on me.  Haha!  I'm so punny.  I crack myself up.  =D

The winner also gets this skein of Knitpicks Stroll Tonal in Pearlescent.  (Flake of cardboard in the center of the skein not included.)



Go forth and enter to win my stuff over on the Yarn 'sploder blog.  I'm not really sure when the entry for the giveaway closes.  I'll have to edit that in later since she didn't add that to the post.