The Soapy Knitter

That’s Reader(s)’ Yarn Choice. This is another segment where I ask, you, my dear Reader(s), what yarn should I use for my next project!

When the new Knitty surprises came out last week, I was quite “Eh.” about both. But, then, Sue posted on her Little Knits blog about color combos for the Tempest cardigan. Also, Cristi and I chatted about it and well, the thing started growing on me. I also realized this would be a great stash-buster project!! So I pulled out some of my lace jarns.

Here are your choices:

Schaeffer Anne (one skein of shades of brown and gray; one skein of shades of red with some pink and orange)

Yarn Ahoy Lace Weight Merino (one skein in shades of teal/blue/green; one skein in shades of black/brown)

Morehouse Laceweight Merino (one skein each in lavender, baby blue, dark pink, light pink, and aqua)

Vote for your fave below!! Thanks for voting!

Nope. I wasn’t at MDSW. I was in New Cumberland, PA. Never heard of it? Yah, neither had I but DH is working nearby until further notice so we’d booked a room to go visit him. It was a nice enough little 3-day weekend. I loved that there wasn’t a lot to do around there so I should have PLENTY of knitting time. I did.

I was able to finish my mystery project: the one for the Little Knits design contest. I’ll block that this week and get it in the mail.

I also finished the River Nuts socks I’d started a few weeks ago when I asked you all what socks I should knit next. I opted for the Nutkin pattern with some mods.

The first mod: these were knit toe-up using magic loop. In the pattern, the designer has you do a 3-needle bind-off at the top of the toe to make a little ridge. I just knit two purl rows to create this ridge.

Next mod: the OCD in me decided that I couldn’t have the swirls all moving in the same direction on both socks. So I reversed one of the swirls on the back and the front of each sock.

I also increased to 68 sts from the original 64 and switched to needles one size larger after the heel because otherwise these babies weren’t going to fit. I had to also increase to 72 sts for the cuff to do a k3, p3 ribbing.

The biggest mod was the heel. I opted for the Riverbed arch expansion and plain heel from Cat Bordhi’s New Pathways book. I love the snug fit of the heel and the ease of working the “gussets” with no need of picking up sts after a “flap” but you get the flap heel-look!

Knitting with the Araucania Ranco yarn was fantastic! I loved the wool-y feel of it and even using size US 2.5 addi’s, it still produces a nice fabric.

Nutkin Socks

Source: Knitzi

Yarn: Araucania Ranco, Color: Acorn

Needles: Size US 1.5 & 2.5

Cost: $16, not bad for a pair of comfy socks where the yarn is a pleasure to knit with

Started: April 13, 2008

Finished: May 1, 2008

After realizing that these are my 6th pair of completed socks in the four months of 2008 so far, I decided I needed to switch my purse knitting to something else! I cast-on for Anne’s Alhambra scarf using some Misty Mountain Farm Alpaca Laceweight I purchased for a song at Rhinebeck last year. So far, it’s a nice easy knit and quick, too!  I’ll need to find a fancy pin like the leaf one Anne is wearing in her pictures!  HAWT!

Hello, dahlinks.  Thanks so much for all the beautiful comments you guys made to Esmie’s B-day Dress.  I enjoyed watching her face light up as she read them all.  She has a few mean friends in school that have been messing with her self-esteem so I was SO happy to see HER happy when she read the compliments.  And no, I did NOT pay her to write those comments about me.  LOL

WARNING - PICTURE HEAVY POST!  Sorry, but when a yarn is photogenic, you can’t stop taking pictures!

KnittingLeftie sent me an email at work - she’s the one I taught how to knit socks a few months ago.  I’m starting to be afraid to open her emails that have anything knitting-related in the subject line because it usually cause my pockets pain.  And yep, this is exactly what happened when she sent me the email about Flat Feet.

She thought I knew about this yarn already since she swears I’m the master of all things stash (even though the student has way surpassed the teacher in this subject!), but I’d never heard of it and quickly saw myself ordering a couple.

This one here is the Sunrise colorway.

This yarn comes knit up into a stockinette rectangle divided straight down the middle with scrap yarn.

You  unravel the scrap yarn at one end and start knitting from there.  Or you can unravel the center scrap yarn to knit two socks at once.  I’ll be sure to post a full review once I get a project on the needles.

I hear the yarn can kink up as you’re knitting with it, but that a good soak of the finished project gets those kinks right out.

This is the Tulip colorway.

The yarn was purchased from Paradise Fibers.  I ended up spending  ~$57 with the shipping.  Yes, it’s pricey.  At least for me it is since I usually don’t spend more than $24 on a skein of sock yarn, especially when I will also have to pay shipping!

But honestly, I think it will be well worth the price.  Straight off the bat, the fact that I don’t have to wind the yarn and split it into two balls by weighing it out makes up for the shipping.  The fabric as it comes is nice and soft and looks like it will be a pleasure to knit and wear.  I hope I’m not disappointed.  I’ll keep you updated!