Sock bag!

I just made a sock bag.

It’s a 23.5 by 19 cm drawstring bag with a clip on top, so you can clip it to your belt, purse strap, whatever. Fits a sock project with some space, and I have a crochet hook, a darning needle , a pair of scissors and a measuring tape in the bottom.

I haven’t sewn anything in ages, so this was… an adventure, to say the least. Plus I’d never made a drawstring bag before. But it’s turned out alright, but the next time I do this, I’ll make sure to sew the sides up before doing the tunnel :P

But really. This was more of a spontaneous project (I still had the fabric left over from making a shirt back in November) and it was a good way to try out stuff, like aforementioned tunnel sewing before making the more fancy bag I’ve been planning for some time, which will have pockets for implements, a strap, and will be a bit bigger, for bigger-ish projects like scarves etc that don’t really fit into purses that well. Eventually. When I’ve sewn more stuff and learned to make perfectly straight seams.

Woot, the author of the Mojo pattern requested to use a pic of my Mojo socks for the pattern page!

this is exciting to me :D Slightly too much, the small rational part of my brain says, but anyway :D

Stash OCD what?

Wow. I just wound yarn leftovers into a total of 17 center-pull balls, weighed them, photographed them, labeled them and organized them in my Ravelry stash. A total of 260 grams, ranging from bulky to sock weight. Mostly Lana Grossa Joker though, 8 different colors, I bought a bunch on sale for Christmas presents last year and I had so much left over. But now my hands feel pretty much crippled. Good thing I wound them on a wine bottle though, and not on my thumb. Ah, shiny.

I also went to a Ren Faire today and bought a bag of about 150 grams’ worth of different rovings. I’m hoping to make a spindle on Monday, get up earlyish to go to Praktiker and get a wheel for the whorl and a wood axis before work. V. exciting. I can’t wait, I just wish the spinning wheel we have upstairs as deco actually worked. And/or that I could go to the spinning meetup on Wednesday, but as luck has it I have to work.

Okay, now for real

Today is multipost day.

Anyway, I finished the first Mojo sock for the second time, and it’s now a tad too small for me. Which means it should fit perfectly for Sammy.

Looks better now, imho. The purl strip was interesting, but sort of a mistake.

So now it’s:

CO 64
left sock design in general
2×2 rib for 20 rows
starting with k, 3 ribs, end on k
2×2 for 25 rows
Heel flap 20 rows in 2×2 (seamless from leg), pick up 10+1
With joining the foot, start k of ridge on top.
Dec to 16 per needle, after dec do 3ridges in the round ending on k strip
5 rows of 2×2
‘Primavera toe’ in 2×2, to 20 sts – k2tog, k2, ssk every other row. Graft together.

Toothpicks. Waxed. Toothpicks.

‘Oh Captain, my Captain!’ say the boys in Dead Poets’ Society to their teacher. I said ‘Oh! Toothpicks. Waxed toothpicks!’ when I started working with my 15 cm DPNs today. It’s odd, certainly, and it takes some getting used to  to not have huge chunks of wood  protruding at 8 points in your knitting.

But honestly? I’m in love. While they still feel somewhat waxy (it’s waxed bamboo after all), they’re a lot easier and more stress-free to handle than the regular ones. I don’t have a problem with 20 cm DPNs, mind. But these are simply superior to knit with! Especially since I’m decreasing right now – I did rip out the toe already, and finishing that now before continuing the second sock (probably with the short ones then) – so with only 10 stitches on each needle they still don’t get tangled and unwieldy as 20 cms do.

The only problem I fear is the knitting just slipping down and off them, since they’re so short. But then, they do have a good grip to them, so I’m hoping for the best and am starting to snoop around the house for a transportation case.

Yarn shopping

Oops, I suppose. I went yarn shopping today, AGAIN. I mean, it’s not like I just went and bought sock yarn on Saturday, no. I had the random urge to try out the biggish yarn shop somewhere at the end of the world in Hamm, and I had a car, and I had a little money burning in my wallet. So I went. And spent that money, obviously.

First, the store. It’s a little way off from the city center, which doesn’t really matter when you have a car and come from my direction, since it is actually before the center from here. It looks a little grungey from the outside, but inside? Yarn, yarn and more yarn. Lots of Lana Grossa and the biggest selection of Regia I’ve seen so far, but also Opal and other/no-name brands. And two or three shelves full of clearance – I got three balls of yarn for 75 cents each!

These are the first two clearance balls – simply gorgeous, variegated yarn with gold threads in it. Gorgeous, I tell you, gorgeous! It’s Ornaghi Filati (which I’d never heard of in my life) , New Wool/Polyester blend for 6-7mm needles, and likely to become a hat or neck wrap of some sort. For colder days. Or maybe wristwarmers… hm.

More clearance yarn – I fell in love with this and randomly grabbed it, not knowing how much it was. Turns out it only cost 75 cents, too! Cotton/acrylic for 4mms, and I have absolutely no idea what to do with it. It’s only 100 m… maybe I should go back and buy another ball. Or make yet another hat with it. Or a summery, skinny Quant entrelac headband? With the changing colors, I imagine it would look interesting to say the least, but I don’t know if that’s the right yarn for it. Time will tell, eventually, I’m sure. And until then, it can just chill out in my luxury/other yarn bag.

Then, with all the cheap-ass yarn, I decided to ‘splurge’ a bit. Meaning €2,95 per 50g ball, which is still pretty cheap. Especially for what I got – pure wool.

I have planned socks with these, even though the label says approximately 150g for a pair of socks. But I’m just gonna knit them toe up and see how far I get. I wonder, with the 100% wool, if they’d felt? *tries to decipher symbols* … hand wash at 40°. Sounds like they would. Well, that’s cool with me. They’d be more of a pair of slipper socks, so if the sole felts nicely and smoothly with wear, that’s awesome.

Last but not least, the priciest purchase of the day: new DPNs. I’m kind of rolling my eyes at myself for this, cause it isn’t like I don’t already have bamboo 2.5mm DPNs. My only justification is that they’re 15cm (6″) instead of 20 like the ones I have, and I’ve heard a lot of good stuff about shorter needles. So I figured I’d give it a shot since I saved so much money on the yarn.

Look at how tiny they are! But I suppose it will make redoing the toe on the mojo sock a lot easier, and I can do it NOW. That is, after I’ve extricated the carefully weaved in yarn from the tip of the toe. Groan.

What is mojo, anyway?

Well… I just tried the Mojo sock on again. It’s definitely a tad too big for me, which means it’s gonna be huge on Sammy. So what I’m gonna do… is finish the second mojo sock without the purl stripe and see how that goes. Maybe I’ll do the Primavera toe, too, since that is shorter – by how much, I’ll figure out tomorrow. Maybe, since there won’t be a purl stripe, do the toe in stockinette or reverse stockinette – that would be nice, with the stockinette decrease strips going up the side… hm.

And then I’m gonna rip the toe out of the first sock. Sigh. I really hate frogging (well, except for that stupid cup cozy) especially of things I’ve already weaved in the ends. I’m a very throughout weaver-inner. This is gonna be fun *rolls eyes*

Holy moly…

… I’m already done with the first Mojo sock! It’s super easy, minimal concentration required, yet interesting enough to keep you on the needles. Not to mention it’s cool as hell. I think I might have to make myself some eventually.

I more or less took the Mojo idea though: Ridges and ribs. The rest? I did the ridges and ribs whenever, started from the top down, added a flap heel that drags the 2×2 rib to the bottom. The toe is ribbed, too, since this is supposed to be a sock worn mainly around the house instead of slippers. The only thing is that the toe is longer than the book said, so I’m afraid it might be too big. Though really, the ridges have a lot of ease. *crosses fingers*

What I did:

CO 64
left sock design as overall idea
2×2 rib for 20 rows
starting with k, 3 ribs, end on k
2×2 for 25 rows
Heel flap 20 rows in 2×2 (seamless from leg), pick up 10+1
With joining the foot, start k of ridge on top.
Dec to 16 per needle, after dec do 3ridges in the round ending on k strip
12 rows 2×2, p 5 rows
Bandspitze from DGSW (p 71) in 2×2

Yarn pirate weathering the storm

Despite my headache from hell and a cold, I finished the Primavera socks last night. Yay!

⇒

And today I went to Dortmund. In the rain. And I forgot to take an umbrella. -.- But I desperately needed new yarn, I knit about 3 or 4 rows of the damnable Q sock on the way there and it was horrible and they’re never gonna be finished. But at least I’m only really working on one sock at a time now, I suppose? And at least my feet were warm and snug in my Primaveras! The foot has stretched a bit now, like they always do, and I’m really glad I made the foot relatively short. It looks weird when they’re not being worn, but, you know.

So, anyway. I met a guy from the class under me, Markus Dell, who had some time left before the soccer game (uggh so many drunk soccer fans in the city :/) and came with me to buy some yarn. We talked mostly music and books on the way there and back, and I bought 200g of sock yarn for €9. Brown, tweedy yarn for Sammy’s Mojo socks, and red-pink yarn for the socks I gave my mom a voucher for on mother’s day.

I brought my bamboo DPNs for the way back (yay trains), and good thing I did! I hung out at the station for almost an hour cause the train I thought I’d take didn’t stop where I needed it to, and the train I could take came 45 minutes later. Except it had a 10 minute delay. -.- Ah, public transportation. But apart from the freezing cold I didn’t mind as much, since, you know. More time to knit.

Cell Phone Sock

This is a miniature sock with thick yarn, big enough to protect your cell phone from scratches and dust. It’s a great way to practice short-row heels for beginners. It knits up in just over an hour from scraps, and is a great stashbuster, last-minute gift and instant gratification project in one!

You’ll need:

– 3.5 mm (US4) DPNs
– scraps of yarn recommended for needle size – I used two colors, red (MC) and yellow (CC) nondescript cheapo cotton yarn leftovers from washclothes. If you just use one color, disregard the color instructions.

Abbreviations:

k: knit; p: purl
k2tog: k next two stitches together
ssk: slip next two stitches seperately as if to knit. Insert right needle back into the stitches and k through them

How-to:

1. Leg

CO 24 in MC – long tail cast on, or any kind of stretchy cast on, works well on this. Distribute evenly on 4 needles, join into round, being careful not to twist.

k1, p1 for 6 rounds in MC

*Switch to CC, and continue in stockinette for 5 rounds. 1 round of MC. Repeat once from *, add another 5 rows of CC but leave off MC row.

2. Heel

The heel is worked over the 12 stitches of needles 1 and 4 in MC

Review the Wendy Johnson’s Generic Toe-up Sock recipe for the heel. Work first half until you have 4 stitches wrapped on either side and 4 “live” stitches in the middle, then work second half until you are back to the original 12 stitches. Work the single MC stripe color.

3. Foot

Work foot in stockinette stitch, repeating the 5×1 striping twice before cutting CC.

4. Toe

The toe is worked in MC.

Round 1: k to last 3 sts on needle 1, k2tog, k2 (one on needle 1, one on needle 2) ssk. K to last 3 sts on needle 3, k2tog, k2, ssk.

Round 2: k

Repeat these two rounds until you are down to 8 stitches.

5. Finishing

Cut yarn, thread the tail through the leftover stitches and pull tight. Weave in ends. Insert phone.

If you want to and if your phone is small enough, you can add a crocheted loop on the one side of the ribbing and a button on the other side of the leg. However, this might take away the “authentic sock feeling”.