Knitter in the Kitchen

On the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, I enjoyed a lovely visit with Danielle and Teresa at Knitique. Knitique carries beautiful yarns and has an incredibly warm and inviting atmosphere, making it one of my favorite yarn stores. I am always glad when I stop in for a visit. Although I spent most of my time there chatting away, I did do a little shopping and picked up two skeins of Claudia Hand Painted Yarn for a new pair of socks.

My knitting plan for the Thanksgiving weekend was to start the socks and also work on two scarves. But as soon as I cast on with the Claudia Hand Painted Yarn, I couldn’t put the sock down! The yarn is luscious. I knit and knit and knit, and the scarves got woefully neglected. I took the photos below on Sunday afternoon, but I actually finished the first sock already and cast on for the second one. Apparently I’m addicted to these socks as I have no desire to knit anything else!

I love the colors — there are varying shades of pink with hints of purples and browns sprinkled throughout.

As you’ve probably noticed, I’ve been taking a rather “vanilla” approach to socks — ribbed cuff and stockinette leg and foot. I like my sock knitting to be easy, and my feet are small so many published patterns would end up being too big unless I made pattern adjustments. But I do have Sensational Knitted Socks, which offers multiple sizes, so perhaps I will branch out soon.

I also bought a skein of Yarntini self-striping sock yarn from Knitique. Aren’t those colors fun?

I’m looking forward to knitting my first pair of striped socks, and I’m even thinking about trying them toe up with Magic Loop. For those of you who have tried both top down and toe up, which method do you prefer?

Right before Thanksgiving, I got quite productive with my knitting.

Pattern: Top down sock pattern from The Knitter’s Handy Book of Patterns
Yarn: Sundara Sock Yarn, Mixed Berries, 2 skeins (old size)
Needles: US #1 / 40″ Addi Turbos for Magic Loop

I started these socks a full six months ago. I knit the first sock rather quickly, but the second one languished on the needles for months. The last time I worked on it was over the summer while waiting for a couple of wedding banquets to begin. I had almost given up hope of ever finishing this pair, but I experienced a burst of motivation recently. Sundara Sock Yarn is wonderfully soft and plush, and the colors are saturated. I would definitely knit with it again.

I also knit myself a pair of fingerless gloves.

Pattern: Fetching
Yarn: Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran, Color 300610, 1 skein
Needles: Lantern Moon US #4 DPNs
Modifications: Decreased needle size; plain bind off instead of picot bind off

I used smaller needles than directed because my hands are small. Even then, I still think that the handwarmers are a tad big — I would prefer to see the ribbing stretched out a bit more. Perhaps I should cast on less stitches next time. This is a great pattern, and knitting the thumb wasn’t as difficult as I anticipated.

I cast on for a new project and will show it later this week. Let me leave you with a photo of my favorite tree ornament. I hope your holiday season is off to a lovely start!

While I haven’t posted much lately, I’ve been knitting a lot and it feels great. I’m really excited about knitting again and have been picking up the needles at every spare moment. I’m happy that I’m finally getting over my knitting blahs - yay!

First, I finished my sister’s replacement Karaoke Scarf. I didn’t wait for good natural lighting to take a photo, since it looks exactly like the original one. Let’s hope she doesn’t lose this one because I’m not up for knitting a third black Karaoke scarf.

As soon as I finished the scarf, I cast on for a hat.

Pattern: Ann Norling Spiral Ribbed Hat
Yarn: Filatura di Crosa 127 Print, color #19, 1 skein
Needles: Clover Takumi US 9 / 16″

I bought this yarn about six months ago, and I liked the colors so much that it survived my massive destashing. Considering how much I sold off, that’s definitely saying something! I started to knit a rolled edge stockinette hat with it, but found that the random color stripes bothered me a lot. I added the spiral ribbed pattern as a way of detracting from the stripes. I like the hat much better now. While the yarn was great to knit with, I’m not sure I would buy it again because of the odd striping.

Lastly, I finished my sister’s birthday present.

Pattern: Entrelac Scarf
Yarn: Noro Silk Garden, Color #224, 4 skeins
Needles: Clover Takumi US 8

As you can see, the 4 skeins did not contain all the same colors. The two ends of the scarf (shown in the first and third photos) look drastically different. Surprisingly, this doesn’t bother me. I think it gives the scarf a bit more character! I’m planning to cast on for my own Entrelac Scarf soon.

I have a couple of other projects on the needles, and hopefully the weather will cooperate for photos next weekend. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!