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Thursday, December 29, 2016

Christmas Socks

My Father-in-Law had a Christmas tradition where on Christmas Eve he wore green socks and on Christmas Day he wore red socks. When he died DH inherited the socks and the tradition.

I gave the socks shown at the end of this post to DH. as I had made them too long for my feet. He said they would be his Christmas Eve socks. Periodically I ask him if I can knit him socks and he always says no until he finally broke down and said I could knit him Christmas Day socks. When I went to Fiber Space earlier this year, I found the perfect red in a new-to-me sock yarn - Entice by Hazel Knits. Next to choose a pattern. I didn't want to knit a plain (vanilla) sock, so I looked at simple knit/purl patterns; there really is too much choice. I finally decided on this pattern. Enough going on to keep the knitting interesting but simple enough for a male to like. The pattern is by Meaghan who used to be in my knitting group but then she moved to Oregon this year. I have knit two of her other patterns - the hat shown at the end of this post and the shawl I made a few months ago.

The only change I made to the pattern was the type of heel. The pattern has a wrap and turn short row heel; I worked a short row heel with gusset; using reinforced German short row double stitches.

The pattern is toe-up and I worked three full pattern repeats on the leg before the end rows and rib. Before cutting the yarn after working the final bind off stitch I checked that I had enough yarn for the second sock; one of the advantages of owning a balance scale. I had not used half the yarn, which was a relief, but I did use more than 100 grams in total. Something to be aware of if I ever knit more socks for DH. Birthday, Thanksgiving, New Year, Super Bowl. There are plenty of possibilities for special socks.

I finished the socks on Christmas Eve and I gave them to him on Christmas Day but he still hasn't worn them! They should fit as I got him to try the first one on when I was working on the foot. This means I don't have any good photos. These are the ones on my sock blockers which are too small but it gives you some idea.

Monday, December 19, 2016

Knitting With Some Bad Photos

So after the last post, I need to show some knitting.

These were gifts that have now been mailed across the pond so it is unlikely that I will get better photos.

I have noticed that although I am not a repeat knitter, I certainly am when it comes to hats. Having made these patterns in the past for my granddaughter I decided they were worth making again for my great nieces I even used the same yarn as I had plenty left over.




And I nearly forgot this one; a Christmas present for my niece. The yarn is from Candy Skein, the worsted weight I bought at the Vista Fiber Fiesta. The pattern is my own design after searching pattern books for something that I thought would work with variegated yarn.






Sunday, December 18, 2016

Sewing With Some Bad Photos

I know myself and blogging. If I've got a photo I should just write and post as the likelihood of getting a better photo in a short time frame is slim. So here we are, a couple of sewn items and photos of when they were tried on.

Quite a while ago, in Jo-Ann, I picked up the pattern sheet for this rain jacket. It was in my head to make at some point but I never bought the fabric required. Fast forward to last month and the grandkids' mother gave me all her sewing stuff and sewing machine. There was a lot of Babyville PUL so now I had (mostly) what I needed to make a rain jacket for each of the grandchildren, plus although I wasn't using the PUL as originally intended it was being made into something for the original intended recipients. I just had to buy wicking fabric and I made sure I had a good coupon.

This is an easy pattern and the crafting time stated is pretty accurate. The pattern does not add anything for seam allowances, so the jacket will be shorter than knee length and won't go down to the wrists if you do not add an extra inch to width and length measurements. I also thought top stitching one-inch from the edge was too wide so I stitched about 1/2-inch. The wicking fabric was a pain to deal with as it stretches. If I use it again, I will stabilize it first.

But the important thing is that my granddaughter loves hers, grandson couldn't care less which is why it was hard to take a photo and their dad thinks they are wonderful too.