Thursday, July 20, 2017

Tour de Sock Round 1

"We have to continue to stretch our brains" Sue Stokes from Legacy Knitz Podcast. These socks fit the bill. I'm competing in Tour-de-Sock for the rest of the summer and they are going to make my knitting brain work.


This sock had an afterthought leg. I have never in my knitting career heard of an afterthought leg, but I have now managed to knit a pair in five days. Tour-de-sock is a sock knitting competition that runs in conjunction with Tour-de-France (bike race) and is a challenge race. Each pair of socks (six of them) is going to be complicated and contain skills that most people don't use in their everyday knitting.




These weren't really complicated to knit but the construction made me actually look at the sock differently. Essentially the sock was knit from the toe up, insert waste yarn, knit the heel. So I ended up with a sock that didn't have any foot opening. As shown in the photo above I wove my 9inch circs on each side of the waste yarn and then took it out. At a couple of different stages we had to take photos as proof that we completed the pattern the way it was written. I'm am really excited to see what the next pattern is going to look like! I'll keep you updated, it's coming out on the 25th!




Wednesday, July 12, 2017

Calle Cables

It's Wednesday and time for the third installment of the Summer Stripes Sock Series! This sock was named while on my trip to Spain in April of this year. Calle is the Spanish word for street or road, seemed to fit with the titles of the other patterns.

Calle Cables is a simple pattern that uses a single cable (cabling without a cable needle), knits and purls. This pattern works great with self-striping yarn (I recommend a yarn that just stripes vs. one that has self-patterning) the pattern is easy to remember and addictive. If you have any questions or comments on the pattern please leave a comment on this post or message me on Ravelry.




Calle Cables 
Self-Striping Sock Series
All Knit Up Designs

Ravelry: sierrak2010
Instagram: allknitup


Supplies: 

437 yards/400 meters or 100 grams of fingering weight yarn (Knit Picks Felici used in sample) 
Needle: Hiya Hiya 9 Inch Circulars US 1.5/ 2.5 mm
Two different stitch markers
Darning Needle
Pattern uses Modified Eye of Partridge Heel Flap and Wedge Toe

Abbreviations: 

K: knit 
P: Purl 
P2Tog: Purl two together
K2Tog: Knit two together
SSK: Slip, slip, knit 
SM: Slip marker 
WYIF: With yarn in front
WYIB: With yarn in back
WS: Wrong Side 
RS: Right Side 
----------
Starting Cuff:

Cast on 64 Stitches being careful not to twist. (Place a marker at the beginning of the round)

Knit 2, Purl 2 for 12 rounds

Leg:

Baby Cable Rib
Round 1, 2, and 3: * Knit 2, Purl 2 * repeat across round
Round 4: * K2Tog and leave stitches on left hand needle, knit first stitch, and slip both stitches off needle, P2 * repeat across round.

Repeat these four rounds for your preferred leg length. (I repeated the pattern rows eleven times)

Heel Flap:

(You will be working flat on half of your stitches, right side and wrong side will now pertain)

- Note: If you would like to add a contrast heel flap start knitting with your second color


Turn work with wrong side facing, you will be working back across the last 32 stitches

          Tip: I switch to using a DPN for the heel flap and turn when using a 9 inch circ

Row 1(WS): Knit 3, Purl 29
Row 2 (RS): Purl 3 * Knit 1, slip 1 knitwise with yarn in back * repeat to last 3 stitches, knit 3
Row 3: Knit 3, purl across
Row 4: Purl 3, * Slip 1 knitwise with yarn in back, Knit 1 * repeat to last 3 stitches, knit 3 

Repeat these 4 rows eight times total (You will have 16 Garter bumps along the edge) 

Heel Turn:

Row 1 (WS): Slip 1 purlwise wyif, P16, P2Tog, P1, turn
Row 2 (RS): Slip 1 knitwise wyib, k3, SSK, k1, turn
Row 3: Slip 1 pw wyif, P4, P2Tog, P1, turn
Row 4: Slip 1 kw wyib, K5, SSK, k1, turn  
Row 5: Slip 1 pw wyif, P6, P2Tog, P1, turn 
Row 6: Slip 1 kw wyib, K7, SSK , K1, turn
Row 7: Slip 1 pw wyif, P8, P2TOG, P1, turn
Row 8: Slip 1 kw wyib, K9, SSK, K1, turn
Row 9: Slip 1 pw wyif, P10, P2TOG, P1, turn
Row 10: Slip 1 kw wyib, K11, SSK, K1, turn
Row 11: Slip 1 pw wyif, P12, P2TOG, P1, turn
Row 12: Slip 1 kw wyib, K13, SSK, K1, turn
Row 13: Slip 1 pw wyif, P14, P2TOG, P1, turn
Row 14: Slip 1 kw wyib, K 15, SSK, K1 

(You should have closed all ‘gaps’ and have 18 stitches from the heel flap and turn) 

            If you used a contrast heel, you now cut your second color and add your first color back in before picking up your gusset stitches. 

Now you will pick up and knit 16 stitches along the heel flap (one stitch for every garter bump) 

Once you’ve picked up the first side of the gusset, pick up one extra stitch in between the
gusset and top of the foot (This helps close up any small hole between gusset and foot)

       Tip: Stitches picked up between gusset & foot should be knit through the back loop. 

Place marker A after picking up and knitting the stitch between gusset and foot
Work pattern across top of foot, place marker B. 

Now pick up and knit one stitch between the top of the foot and the next side of the gusset, pick up and knit 16 garter bumps from heel flap. (You now have 84 stitches on your needles, 32 from marker A to B, 52 from marker B to A) 

Knit one round plain (no increasing/decreasing, follow pattern at top of the foot) 

After knitting this round, stop three stitches before marker A 

Gusset:

Round 1: K2TOG, P 1, sm, work in pattern to next marker, sm, K 1, SSK

Round 2: Knit to one stitch before marker A, P 1, sm, work in pattern to next marker, sm B knit to last three stitches before marker A.

Repeat these two rounds until you have 32 stitches left between marker B and A
(You now have 64 stitches total, stitch count will stay the same until you start the toe)

Continue working in pattern across top of foot and knitting along the bottom (keep in mind to purl the stitch before marker A) until foot length measures 1.5 inches less than desired length.
 
Toe:

Start toe decreases three stitches before marker A (When knitting in the round becomes uncomfortable, switch to Double Point Needles)

Round 1: K2TOG, K1, sm, K1, SSK, knit to three stitches before next marker, K2TOG, K1, sm, K1, SSK

Round 2: Knit entire round

Repeat these two rounds until sock measures length of foot. (Stitch count will be determined by the length of your toe box)

Complete the sock with a kitchener stitch. (Here are links to two different tutorials)






Monday, July 10, 2017

Zebra Socks

If you're a regular blog reader than you've noticed I've put out a few sock patterns and plan to continue to do so. It's been a bit of a learning curve working on design knitting vs non-design knitting. But I've finally finished up a project I can share with you guys!


These are my Zebra Socks and I think they are so awesome! I really enjoyed working with the woolly Regia and just a simple stockinette sock. But they look so cool! Understated until your really look at them and realize what they are.


For being a back burner project these didn't take me very long to finish. To be totally honest I started them because I needed movie theatre knitting when a group of friends and I went to see Wonder Woman. Which BTW has anyone seen this amazing wrap on Ravelry? Need to knit.

And that's pretty much it about these socks, written and re-written while listening to this song.


Tuesday, July 4, 2017

#zk2017

This weekend I had the amazing opportunity to attend my first knitting retreat! Andrea and I flew to Rochester Minnesota to spend four days with amazing knitters at the Zombie Knitpocolypse retreat! With all the knitting adventures I've been on a retreat had not been on the list yet, this was the perfect one to start with.




We flew in on Wednesday and had the first morning of our retreat on Thursday. From then on it was meeting new friends, taking classes, swaps, and parties. Susan B. Anderson was the guest speaker, which was so much fun and inspiring to hear her talk about starting her designing and how it flourished.





I took a class on Boomerang shawls with Steve and a heels class taught by another retreat participant. I have a few new heels I'm going to try with the 50 grams skeins I received in my swag bag!

We had a s'mores party and a popcorn party along with tons of giveaways and fun events. I met so many new people! And I can't wait to get myself in another retreat!