18 days left.....are you ready?

Hello everyone...there are only 18 days left till Christmas.....are you ready?

I AM NOT!

But I am trying......I am just going to jump into what I have been working on......

I started some socks for a Christmas present for my niece, Grace!  Now, I have had a lot of people ask me how I make socks....so I put up a new free pattern on my blog here....it is not really a step by step pattern, but more of a recipe....it is how I almost always do my plain vanilla socks...I hope you enjoy the pattern as much as I do.....Here are the socks for Grace.

I worked on my mitts (so close to being done!)

and I mostly worked on the fingerless mitts for Darlene's daughter, Shyla.....

Now, I still need to start Paige's boyfriend a pair of baggy socks...but I was waiting on the yarn....and it came in!  Louise from Biscotte Yarns always does such a lovely job of packaging the yarn!  This yarn is soooooooo soft, I highly recommend it!

I also got a couple more Hiya Hiya Swap packages

The first is from Stacie aka knittingchic on ravelry.....Her package was so wonderful....she made me stitch markers and a bag for me...thank you so much Stacie....I can see the extra time you put into the package to give it just the right touch....thank you!!!

The second was from Jennifer at BugBear Woolens....she picked out the perfect color (Hook em Horns!) for me and look at the darling sweater ornament and some lovely tea....thank you Jennifer!  I love your yarn so much!

I also got Destination 4 of the Miss Babs Knitting Tour....it is Sydney Australia....800 yards of Katahdin in the Sydney Colorway, with beads, and a fleegle beader.....wow....great package!

I got my newest set of Northern Light needles from Dyakcraft...these were the Silver Northern light Needles, that they had dipped in nickel and polished like Nickel needles....you can see at the bottom that the line from the screw in tip is gone...these are going to be awesome to knit with!

I also got my secret santa package.....JoAn in Austin was my secret sister and she got me all kinds of goodies....A burlap Longhorn bag, Caron Simply soft yarn in a burnt orange colorway, two knitting books...one called Wire Knits and one called 60 Quick Knits, there is some Ghiradelli Chocolate, finishing needles, some split lock stitch markers and some Bernat Boa Yarn in beautiful Pink.  Thank you JoAn!

Last on my stash enhancement list......I am sure you all know that I knit at work during lunch every work day...there is a group of about 6 of  us....and we had a new one join us last week....her name is Amy....she did some practicing and then was ready to go....so Darlene and I started her on a weigh it shawl...Darlene brought in some Miss Babs Yowza for her to pick from and so did I....she liked my Mad Hatter colorway so she took that..but I loved Darlene's Deep Sea Jellyfish.....so we kind of did a swap....I no longer have the Mad Hatter, but I have this beauty!

Oh, and here is the start to Amy's shawl....she picked it up super quick (even if she was too hard on herself).

Well....that is really all I have.  I have lots of knitting to do this week so hopefully I have more pictures to show you next week....I leave you with a Genius Minion request to Santa! I am so in love with Self Striping socks...that I never thought of a Self Cleaning House!!!

Happy Happy Happy Knitting!!!

Self Striping Sock Recipe - Toe Up

If you read my blog, you know I love knitting Self Striping socks.....I wanted to share my 'recipe' of how I knit my socks:

 Self Striping Sock Recipe

Supplies:

100 grams self striping yarn ( Tested in Biscotte & Cie Felix Loopy Kisses Colorway and Must Stash Yarn The Wall Colorway and Must Stash Yarn Sesame Street Colorway)

Size US#1.5 (2.5mm) needles (or size necessary to obtain gauge of 8.5 stitches = 1”)

Size US#2 (2.75mm) needles (or size necessary to obtain gauge of 8 stitches = 1”)

Sizes S (M, L)

So, this pattern is really just a ‘recipe’ and not a step by step pattern.

For the toe and foot, I like to use a smaller needle, so with size US 1.5 (2.5 mm) I like to cast on 20 (24, 28) stitches using either Judy’s Magic Cast on or Turkish Cast on with 10 (12, 14) stitches on each needle…. After cast on, k all stitches once if using Judy’s Magic Cast On and k all stitches twice if using Turkish Cast On.

Increases:

Now, I do my increases a little different…..when reading this, it may sound like the increases are uneven….but I do it this way to make the ‘purl bump’ of the kfb to be consistent on both sides of the toe.

Increase Round:

Needle 1: kfb, knit to 2^nd to last stitch on needle, kfb, k1;

Needle 2: kfb, knit to 2^nd to last stitch on needle, kfb, k1

Knit Round:

Needle 1 and 2:  Knit all stitches

I like to have my toe just a touch rounder, so I do the following:

Round 1:  Increase Round

Round 2:  Increase Round

Round 3:  Knit Round

Round 4:  Increase Round

Repeat Rounds 3 & 4 until you have:

56 (64, 72) stitches

Now for the heel…..I like to either do an afterthought heel, or the Fish Lips Kiss Heel.  If I think I can get the striping pattern to work out evenly in the fish lips kiss pattern, I will use it.  If I want to use a contrast color or I just think the striping sequence will be messed up too much, I use an afterthought heel.

If using afterthought heel, I will knit the foot until sock measures approx. 2 ” less than desired length.

If using Fish Lips Kiss heel, I will knit the foot until sock measures approx. 1 ¾ ” less than desired length.  I cannot give you the directions for the Fish Lips Kiss heel, the pattern is available here.  Once the Fish Lips Kiss heel is completed, I switch to larger needle US #2 (2.75 mm) and continue knitting in the round until sock is desired height minus cuff height…..then k knit in k2, p2 rib for desired length of Cuff.

Bind off, and I recommend using “HiyaHiya Grandma’s Stretchy Bind” and I have a video of it here.

Here are the directions for Afterthought heel:

K28 (32, 36) with waste yarn, the slip all those stitches back onto to the left hand needle (do not knit to end of round).

Now I switch to larger needle US #2 (2.75 mm) and knit the waste yarn that you just knitted and then continue knitting in round until sock is desired height minus cuff height…..then knit in k2, p2 rib for desired length of Cuff.

Bind off, I recommend using “HiyaHiya Grandma’s Stretchy Bind” and I have a video of it here.

Now come back to the Afterthought Heel:

Using US #1.5 (2.5 mm) needle, pick up the right leg of 28 (32, 36) stitches just below the waste yarn of the heel.  Flip the sock around so that the top of the waste yarn is facing you and repeat picking up the stitches just above the waste yarn.  Using a spare needle, carefully remove the waste yarn to create an opening for the heel.

Start new yarn and work in the round….in the first round, *knit 28 (32, 36) stitches and then pick up and knit two stitches in the gap, repeat from *.  Now total of 60 (68, 76) stitches.

Shape heel as follows:

Round 1:  *k1, ssk, knit to last 3 stitches on needle, k2tog, k1, repeat from * on next needle

Round 2: Knit

Repeat rounds 1 & 2 until 16 (20, 24) stitches remain.

Cut yarn with tail long enough to Kitchener Stitch the heel.

  

Enjoy!!!

Happy Happy Happy Knitting!