Inglenook

Inglenook, a photo by Project Pictures on Flickr.

I love socks. After my first few inevitable scarf and hat projects, socks were the next thing on my "must learn to knit" list. And a 2009 sock club was an extra-special treat from my husband.

After working my way through that club, I moved on to Cat Bordhi's New Pathways for Sock Knitters. I love this book. After walking through the very basic steps of sock construction through others' patterns, this book lets you leap off into the deep end of your own ideas.

And in comes Inglenook. Cat teaches us that our gusset increases can go just about anywhere they want to go, and I know that lace is made up of paired increases and decreases. So what happens if you leave out the decreases?

What you get is a pattern that grows on its own in a very natural manner. And you get a sock that grows without an obvious gusset.

Inglenook grew from one of my favorite lace patterns. Each motif reminds me of the licking tongue of a flame. These flamelets grow down your leg from a spiky picot edge and then turn under the heel in a cushy slip-stitch reinforced sole. The socks are wonderfully comfortable in open-back clogs.

Toes were something else that came to mind when knitting from other patterns. Knitting is wonderful in that it stretches and conforms. If you give it a shape reasonably close to what you want it to be, it will accommodate small differences. But you can also shape it to be exactly as you want.

Traditional toes decrease equally on the left and right side. But if you look at your foot, the big toe extends straight out from the body of the foot. I really like this sock's shaped toe to fit the line of the foot more naturally, and it's not that much of a stretch from a normal wedge-shaped toe.

And then, we have yarn...

Image copyright Jamie Dixon and
Twist Collective, used with permission.

While I tried these out first with yarn I had in my own stash, I had the opportunity to knit with some really lovely yarn, KnitGlobal Pollika sock yarn. This 4-ply yarn is fantastic for socks. It is a wool/nylon blend with a really firm twist. The four plies make the stitches just pop (and I'd imagine it would knit into some really amazing cables and twisted-stitch patterns) and it has a lovely, deep color. It knits up into a smooth fabric that I couldn't wait to put on my own feet (and did quite a few times before giving these babies their final careful wash and block to send them off). It's a real treat to have been able to knit with it.

All in all, Inglenook takes a whole bunch of individual design elements I really like and combines them into a cohesive whole. And in them my toes are just as toasty and warm as they would be if tucked up close to the flames dancing in my fireplace.

The pattern for Inglenook is available from the Twist Collective in the Winter 2011 issue.

2012 Crafting Goals

I ran my crafting life around a "four ounce rule" last year. Each month I tried to spin four ounces of fiber, knit four ounces of handspun, and in some other way work four ounces of commercial yarn. The idea was to work down the stash... which would have been quite effective if I hadn't bought more stuff. On the other hand, I did manage to meet or exceed the overall goal and spun over three pounds of yarn, knit at least that much and wove quite a bit, too. It was a very productive year. And a lot of it left my home as shop samples or family gifts, so that's less for me to store.

This year is going to be similar, but with the added caveat of no new stuff. I have half a mind for some small exemption for weaving materials as my weaving stash is a whopping two and one-half cones of 8/2 cotton (and two kits received for Christmas). At the very least I want to limit purchases to a planned-project basis. No more collecting "just because it's pretty". I have plenty of that. I need to go USE what I already bought "just because it was pretty".

Here is my list of goals for 2012:

1. Knit four sweaters (one every three months). I have yarn. I have patterns or at least plans for the pattern. I just need to Do. It. These will be: Finish my [Wheatgrass Truffle](/patterns/library/wheatgrass-truffle). [Primrose Path](/patterns/library/primrose-path-2). Something from Knit Swirl to use up Noro Transitions that Mom gave me. Some Other Sweater, possibly the [Honeybee Cardigan](/patterns/library/honeybee-cardigan) since I have Sundara yarn for that. If not the Honeybee, then maybe a personal design with the handspun I originally created for the WiseSweater.
2. If sweater knitting is finished before the 3 month deadline, then 4-oz projects will be selected to fill in the open months. These can be knitting or weaving. Must be done *from stash materials*.
3. Spin some stuff. Let's say 4 oz/month again. That was pretty reasonable. Again, spin the stash and not new fiber.
4. Finish spinning, weave and sew a jacket. Some of this will be the 4oz/month. I already have at least half the yarn spun that I believe I will use for the warp. I need to figure out weft. And I have a seamstress on hand that says she'll help since my sewing skills are not as well developed as my spinning or even weaving. A purchase for appropriate weft materials is permissible. This is a big project and I want it to be Just Right.
5. Keep up with classwork. I'm going to be taking one class per term. This is going to cut into crafting time. So it's important to make a goal of keeping up with it and not putting it on the back burner for more fun stuff.

Stashdown 2011

The goal: To spin 4oz of fiber, knit 4oz of handspun and work 4oz of millspun each month
Did I do it? Yes! On average I met each of my goals. Some months I did more, some less, but I worked through a lot of materials this year!

However, I didn't meet the spirit of the goal.. which was to use stash. Many of my projects required new fiber or new yarn to complete. Sometimes I bought new yarn/fiber just because I wanted to (and really, who doesn't?). So if this goal was "Production 2011" then I certainly produced. Did I reduce my stash? Not so much.

Next year, I want to work from my stash. In fact, I'd like to work entirely from my stash for both spinning and knitting materials. (I am leaving an exception for weaving, because I don't have much yarn suitable and may need to purchase particular yarn for projects I have in mind. Still, I'd like to keep weaving-purchasing limited to planned-projects only. No "just because it's on sale" buying!) I will not be making any pledges as to how much I get done each month, but I hope you'll join me for a "work from what you've got" year!

January:

   

February:

    

March:

   

April:

    

May:

   

June:

  

July:

   

August:

 

September:

    

October/November:

   

December:

  

Yak and Silk

Yak and Silk, a photo by Project Pictures on Flickr.

Yak.

And silk.

Can we just say "luxurious"? I knew we could!

This is wonderful yarn (if I have to say so myself). The silk single is spun from dyed mulberry silk which has amazing almost-metallic shine. The yak is matte and fuzzy, spun woolen to make it even softer. The two together are sublime.

They also match the color-scheme of a slowly-growing stash that I am seriously considering for making a hand-woven jacket.

Yes. A hand-woven jacket.

I'm so excited about this!

But there's still a lot more spinning to do, so I'll get back to you on this again, later!

P.S. This is 3.5 oz towards December Stashdown. Almost done!

Holiday Gift Scarf

Holiday Gift Scarf, a photo by Project Pictures on Flickr.

I love weaving and I love twills. I think my best purchase this year was the 4-shaft table loom I picked up in the summer. Although along with that I ended up grabbing a used bobbin winder and that is just as awesome! (But the two really support each other, because without the table loom, I wouldn't really want the bobbin winder, and the bobbin winder makes working on the table loom that much more fun.)

But I digress.

This is a lovely "turned point twill" I wanted to try before leaping into a slightly more intricate gothic cross pattern. I also needed to get something special done quickly, and this fit the bill.

I hope the recipient loves getting it as much as I loved making it!

Mixed Mythology

Mixed Mythology, a photo by Project Pictures on Flickr.

Here's November's goal of knit-up-handspun yarn. This is a lovely pattern known as "Vlad" on Ravelry. It's a free download. Check it out!

I had some small problems with Vlad. Nothing that should trip anyone else up, but for some reason my brain had a hard time holding on to the change in pattern at the center. Once I put in a stitch marker to remind me to knit the center section, everything went a whole lot smoother.

October/November spinning

Merino/yak/silk, a photo by Project Pictures on Flickr.

I'm doing some catching up all around. I have projects in the works that can't be blogged, and I have projects I haven't blogged because it's Holiday season and we're all a little crazy!

In fact, things are likely to slow down a bit on the crafting front.

I'm going back to school. I'll be trying to ease into it a bit at a time so as to not be overwhelmed. Next term I'm taking one class (Statistics). I hope to take one in the Spring term and perhaps two over the summer since I have a lovely young woman looking for babysitting work then.

But until then, I need to get caught up! So here is a shot of some gorgeous Merino/yak/silk blend. My wonderful husband bought this for me for Christmas last year (so it's good to get it done before this Christmas rolls around, yes? YES!). The bag had "approximately six ounces" written on it. I bought another two ounces to round that out to eight so I could combine it with another eight I have of dyed Merino/yak/silk in a big project. I have plans for this stuff, yes I do!

But here is the finished yarn. I'm extremely pleased with it. Even if my current idea falls through, this would make quite a stunning knit shawl.

Happily, this counts for my spinning goal for both October, and November!