FO: Eunice

Pattern: Eunice, by Cookie A, from Sock Innovation
Yarn: Spindlefrog Sock yarn, 75% superwash merino/25% nylon, 425 meters/100 gr, colorway "Bronte"
Needles: US 1/2.25 mm, magic looped (!)
Gauge: Hunh? Close enough...the pattern is written for women's medium, but with the lace it stretches enough to fit my 9.5" circumference, size 41 feet.
Start/finish: 12 Oct - 31 Oct 2009 (just in time for SAM!)
Comments/mods: Once again, a screamingly fast pattern from Cookie A. The yarn was some I picked up in September at Stash - their Yarn of the Month selection - and I love how the colorway works with the pattern. Since the colors are mostly quite similar (dark green, black, grey) the lighter bits make a nice accent instead of muddying the pattern.

There is a bit of pooling on the soles, but it's not noticeable on the top of the foot, so big deal. The yarn was lovely to work with - a bit on the thinner side of fingering/sock weight (similar to Trekking XXL), but nice and soft, and the dyeing is lovely. I hope it holds up well!

I did change the toe, yet again, since I don't like the steady decrease rate that Cookie uses. Instead I decreased 4 stitches every third round 4 times, every second round 4 times and then every round 4 times. Same number of decreases called for in the pattern, just distributed slightly differently. Other then that, I didn't make any modifications but if I knit these socks again, I will do more repeats on the leg to make them a bit longer. I have a ton of yarn left, even after knitting them long enough for my feet, and while I don't typically like long socks, these are a bit short even for me. I must also mention that I'm now two for two on patterns with errata from this book. I hope that's not true for the whole thing, but I will be sure to double check before I start Installment #3. Which is looking like it will be in December, since this month is not conducive to an entire pair of adult socks.

Status update

Well, the good news is that I seem to have broken my standard Halloween pattern, in so much as it is October 29th, and I have two small, un-frillified princess dresses sitting on my dining room table. I have also discovered that I seem to have retained some of the sewing instruction passed down from my mother since I was able to completely wing a "pattern", and cut out these things on the fly.

So, tonight is for putting on ribbons and flowers and other crap. Boo has been invited to wear her costume to school tomorrow, so I need to find a pale blue headband for her to lose as soon as possible.

Unfortunately my other deadline project is still 60+ rows from completion. Lovely yarn, lovely pattern, and they actually fit me, but it may be a rough haul to the finish line.

And just a warning: next month's blogging will be intermittent at best. Not only do I have lots of unbloggable sooper secret Christmas knitting, but I've also taken complete leave of my senses and signed up for this again. Last participated in 2004 before Devil was born, and for some reason, this seemed like the year to start back up again.

Stop looking at me like that!

Oh crap!

Last night, the Viper Pilots and I had a come to Jesus meeting.

Actually, it was just one pilot. And not even a whole one at that. I have finally made it to halfway down the foot, and it occurred to me that it might be a good idea to try the damn thing on.

So those pretty twisted stitches and cables and such like? Not so elastic...who knew? (OK, I knew, but Denial is not just some big river in Africa somewheres.) The leg of the sock would go over my foot ok, but the heel? No dice.

The Viper Pilot(s) are now in time out. I wound up this yarn to start Installment #2 of the Cookie A Project. Here's hoping I can get them finished by the end of October...They were going to be for me, but I suspect that fit is going to be an issue once again. Mom, I know you got Glynis for your birthday, but maybe you need a pair of green socks for Christmas?

FO: Glynis

Last week we had to drive from my MIL's house in southeastern Vermont to my parents' new abode in southeastern Maine. As anyone who has ever tried to drive from Vermont to Maine knows, yuh can't get theah from heah.

Well, you can get there, it just takes 5 hours. Or forever, depending on how many children you have in the car with you. The good news is that, even after driving part of the way, I still had time to finish up some socks.

Pattern: Glynis by Cookie A, from Sock Innovation
Yarn: Green Mountain Spinnery Sock Art Forest, 70% wool, 30% Tencel, 400 yds/100 gr
Needles: US size 1/2.25 mm (do I knit socks with anything else? Apparently not)
Gauge: Close enough to the required gauge so as not to have to make any alterations
Comments/mods: Again, a very fast knit from Cookie A. Although, to be fair, I did knit 6 pattern repeats on the leg instead of 9, and the socks are plenty long enough. There is a slight caveat to the leg chart: at the end of row 5 you have to shift the start of the row to the right by one stitch. I managed to notice this before I'd done too much damage, but some others weren't so lucky...

I didn't change anything on the heel flap/gusset/foot at all. There was a small error in my version of the foot chart in row 8, but it was pretty straightforward to figure out (k2tog instead of k3tog). There are some errata for the book available, so for future installments I will check the errata before starting off.

I did change the toe, as promised. Instead of decreasing every other row 12 times, I decreased every third row three times, every other row four times and every row five times. I realize that the mathematicians out there will have noticed that this is more decreases then called for in the pattern. But I've recently taken to reading all grafting instructions as "Decrease to a small number of stitches, cut off your yarn, thread through the remaining stitches and pull tight". This has been necessitated by the fact that a) I have maybe three darning needles left out of some ludicrous number (like 15) and I don't know where they are and b) I cannot remember how to graft to save my life. This is much easier.

The yarn: I liked this yarn less then the yarn I used for the Pomatomuseseses. It felt a bit harsh in my hands, and was a bit stiff to work with, unlike the Forest which was wonderfully supple (and ended up really soft after blocking). I will admit that I have not yet blocked these at all, so they may soften up quite a bit, but in the future I'll stick to the mohair version of GMS sock yarn.

You may have realized that finishing these socks* meant I could start my obsession. Which I did. But that will have to wait for another post...

* Two FO posts in a row with socks? What is the world coming to?

FO: Mermaid Socks*

Now that these have been presented to their new owner, they can be shared with y'all.

Pattern: Pomatomus by Cookie A.
Yarn: Green Mountain Spinnery Sock Art Meadow, 50/50 wool/mohair, 400 yds/100 gr
Needles: US 1/2.25 mm
Gauge: 9 sts/12 rows per inch in stockinette
Start/finish: 7/21 - 8/5/2009
Comments/mods: After several months of doing my own sock patterns, it was a relief to get to follow someone else's directions for a change. These socks were so speedy, in part I think because the lace pattern is so intriguing. I kept knitting to see how it was going to come out next!

The yarn is awesome - it has a similar toothy feel to Araucania Ranco (which I talked about with these socks), and the yarn feels really sturdy. The colors were perfect for Mermaid socks, although it wasn't until I was done that I really noticed all the yellowy-green in there. In any event, the colorway was perfect for sea-type fish-scaly socks. It's tightly plied as well, so the twisted stitches really pop.

The only mod I made was to only do 2 repeats on the leg instead of 3. I always have yarn panic when I do top down socks from one skein of yarn, so I opted for fewer repeats. Turns out I have a whack-load of yarn left, so three repeats would have been just fine. However, the legs would have been really long. I'm not so in to really high socks myself, so I tend not to make them at all. This long leg seems to be a trend, because Glynis (now underway - squee!**) calls for 9 repeats of an 8 row pattern plus an inch of ribbing before the heel flap. I might get 7 repeats if I force myself.

The other mod that I didn't do for these socks but will do for future Cookie socks is to change the toe decreases. These came out really really pointy. They look fine on the foot, but silly otherwise. So I'll switch that up in the future.

In conclusion, really well written pattern, amazing stitch pattern, lovely yarn (wish I could justify getting more!), speedy knit and (hopefully) a happy Mermaid with toast warm tail fins this winter. Win all around.

* What is the plural of Pomatomus anyway?
** Glynis is also speeding along in the same "Wow, this is a cool stitch pattern!" way, thanks to a viewing of GI Jane and Mulan (all in one day!).