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Category Archives: Stitchings
Knitting: My first toe-up two-at-a-time socks
Tonight I finished my fourth pair of socks. These are the first socks I knitted from the toe-up, two at a time, and this is also the first time I worked cables (even though they are mock-cables, just over one). I found knitting from the toe up as easy as from the cuff down. The only thing is that knitting from the toe-up means you start the fun bits first, and from the heel to the cuff is not much fun at all.
The pattern is mock cable socks from the book Socks from the Toe Up by Wendy D. Johnson. I knitted them in Zitron Trekking 6 fach, 1818 colorway, from both the centre and the outside on a 3.0 circular needle.
Cross stitching: Another Vierlande emblem
Inspired by my previous finished emblem I continued on, and finished another one, a round one this time…
Cross stitching: Permin Vierlande emblem
After a long hiatus I picked up my cross stitching again. I love the Permin Vierlande sampler and really want to finish it so it can be framed and hang in our flat. For now there is still a long while to go, but at least I finished one again.
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Knitting: Getting my first orders and making my first gifts
I’ve been knitting so much that the people around me have started to notice that they might want some of the things I make. Which makes me very happy and proud of course, but which also means I cannot knit for myself at the same time. But, I do it out of love and enjoy doing it.
For Sinterklaas I gave my father-in-law some nice warm, hand-knit socks, which were basically the same as the ones I made H.:
And after seeing my hat, my mother-in-law (who gave me the yarn I used) wanted one for herself. So she picked up some yarn, made a request for a double cuff and voila!:
And after seeing the complete winter set I made myself, my grandmother asked very nicely if I couldn’t knit the same set for her, in different colors and with a slightly more manageable scarf. Of course! So that is the next order on the list.
Knitting: Surviving another cold winter
Sinterklaas (see below) gave me (amongst many books and DVDs) some yarn. The colors are really bright, and the yarn is really thick and soft. I immediately knew what I wanted to make, a winter hat for myself, since mine has a hole in it, and it has been very cold here. A quick look on Ravelry and I found the pattern, the Anyway – Chunky Hat. And in one evening it was knitted, and it took exactly one ball of yarn. It isn’t quite as floppy as in the pattern, but that is fine by me. I made it a bit larger after the gauge swatch I made was a bit tight; I cast on 48 instead of 40 stitches.
That left me with one ball of yarn. So, I decided to attempt to make some mittens. Another search on Ravelry gave me the pattern for Lion Brand Yarn’s Midwestern Mittens. I have resized the pattern a bit. I did a cuff of twelve rows, I added in ten rows after the cuff and my thumb was 12 rows. The rest of the pattern was a bit more free and I followed it. I cast on the larger size and this made for some tight fitting but very warm mittens.
I felt I needed to complete the set with my dream scarf, so back to the store we went and I got seven more balls of yarn. I used this and a generic basket weave pattern to knit a scarf that is very wide, very long and very thick… This all should keep me warm this winter!
The yarn used is Zeeman’s Multi Colour 30, 9 balls. This yarn is an acrylic/mohair mix, with the fluffy yarn wound in thread. The scarf and hat are knitted on a size 8 needle, the mittens on a size 6 (European sizes).
Knitting: H’s winter hat
H’s has been complaining how his winter hat from last year was just too short and tight, and wouldn’t I knit him one that fitted right? Of course I would. We picked out some aran weight grey/brown yarn (Bergère de France Irland 21658) and a pattern. It was a pretty quick knit (less than a week). I cast on the large size and lengthened the main part of the hat (up to 62 rows instead of 46) so it would go over his ears.
Knitting: My second pair of socks
Now that H. got his pair of socks, I wanted to make some for me. At the craft fair (handwerkbeurs) I found the yarn (I wanted something purple) for my pair. I used two 100 gram skeins of Zitron Trekking XXL 334, which is a mix of a lot of purple with some brown. For the pattern I used another one of my Two-at-a-time patterns, Twilight this time. It is a basic combination of knit rows and a knit and purl ribbing. Very easy, but it looks very nice. It took me exactly three weeks to knit, and that is with some busy weeks and weekends. The only thing I would change next time is use a looser and wider cast-on. Right now it is pretty tight, and with my fat calves, I cannot pull up the socks all the way. But on the other hand, this time I managed to knit the two socks almost entirely as meant in the book, so that is an improvement over last time.
Knitting: A real pair of socks!
After the success with the little trial socks I just had to knit a real pair of socks. Nobody appreciates nice hand-knit socks more than H., he always wears them at home when it gets colder. So, H. and I picked out a pattern from my 2-at-a-time book (by Melissa Morgan-Oakes) and we went to the wonderful yarn shop in town, and he picked out this yarn. It is Scheepjeswol Super Noorsewol Extra (two parts white, one black, number 1716). The pattern is Ragg Hiker, the very last one in the book.
It took me some work to find out the correct gauge. I never did manage to get my swatch to match the book, but after some trying I figured out that if I knitted the smallest size of the pattern, it would come out large enough for H. I used a size 4 (EU size) circular needle.
It seemed to me that the leg took forever to knit, and I could not wait to start turning the heel. When working on the heel I messed up a bit with regards to the 2-at-a-time technique, I knitted the reinforced heel one at a time, but I should have knitted them for both socks at the same time. This caused my socks to be on the needles wrong, so for the rest of the heel and the toes, I moved each sock on to its own needle.
The only thing I am not quite happy about it the final closing of the stitches using the Kitchener stitch. This leaves a bit of a bump on the tip of the sock, so maybe next time I will knit my final stitches on a much smaller needle and help it close up that way.
Knitting: My first pair of socks
I just finished my first pair socks and I am so proud, despite the mistakes and the small size. I used “2-at-a-time socks” by Melissa Morgan-Oakes. When I fixed the errata the method worked really well and it was much easier than I thought. So, here they are, my first pair of socks. :-)
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