Jobo Designs

I have lots and lots of sock yarn leftovers... it comes with the territory.  I rarely make socks that use an entire skein.  So I thought between the January and February KnitFromStashKAL socks I might try and use up a few little scraps that are cluttering up my studio space!

The Yarn:

- Knit Picks leftovers... if I can remember correctly - Stroll Tonal in "Wine Tasting" and Stroll Tweed in Flagstone Heather

lovey toes!

The Pattern:

- who needs patterns!  (yeah right!  We all do sometimes...)  I decided to fly by the soles of my feet on this one and make it up as I went!

- I began with a Turkish Cast On... aka Toe up.

- Next came a color switch, since I knew that I likely wouldn't have enough to make the entire foot in the grey shade, I thought I might go for some Valentine themed socks and throw in some purple and pink shades!  Gotta love the contrasting heels, toes and  ribbing.  Classic.

- What goes with February and Valentine's Day?  Hearts.  <3 <3 <3

- I improvised a lace heart on each of the toes.  Just one on each foot.  Simplicity Rules.

- Then I knit until I was almost out of the Pink/Purple yarn on each foot, and did a short cuff with K2P2 Ribbing, and cast loosely with a stretchy bind off.

- The heels were afterthought ones... (see my tutorial here!)

cuffs and heels...

Notes:

- Another easy and simple pair of socks... maybe not the best design to keep feet warm in this wintery season (we just finished up with a snow and freezing rain storm over the weekend and there is another big white mess coming this evening!) but they're cute, they cleaned up a little of the yarn mess in my studio, and I think they will be perfect for lounging around the house.  Plus - they match my housecoat!  Win win win!

SOCK TALLY FOR 2015 - 2 Pairs!

Knitting seems to help me feel more like *myself* – so I guess I should be making the effort to knit more often!

Over on Facebook I joined an “Addicted to Sock Knitting” group… which is full of great conversations about knitting socks, photos of the projects people are working on, and links to awesome yarns and patterns. 

One of their current fun Knit Alongs is for a year long series of projects (free patterns generously offered by Heatherly Walker) to be knit using yarn from one’s stash.  There will be prizes coming on the end of 2015, but what interests me the most is the opportunity to work along on something new each month.

There was a time when I could polish off a whole pair of complicated lace socks in 3-4 days.  A week was plenty of time to finish pretty much any kind of pattern.  So I think it should be reasonable for me to try and complete one pair a month.

The event’s rules say that you don’t always need to do the free pattern of the month… you can make it whatever you want.  So My plan is to see what the monthly pattern is… and if I like it – to just jump in and knit it.  If it’s really not my style or too complicated, I’ll just pick something else and go for it.

So without further ado – here is January’s pair:

Pattern:  “Hornet” socks by Heatherly Walker

Yarn:  KnitPicks Stroll Tweed.  Flagstone Heather

Notes:

It’s my first time working with the tweed version of Stroll… but as per usual… the Stroll line doesn’t disappoint! 

The pattern was a nice change from my everyday… I usually would not choose a pattern where the design is made up of plain knit and purls.  I’m usually more attracted to cables or lace, or cables WITH lace!  (Yes, a bit crazy).  I must admit though that I only loosely followed the pattern.  There were a few places where the pattern charts didn’t make a complete chevron on the heel and foot of the sock (a few rows missing to make the chevrons continuous…) which probably wouldn’t have been noticeable in the finished project, but I have issues with geometry and continuity.  So I modified to suit myself and was fine with this.  I’m cool with making small alterations on the fly like that.  If you’re a knitter who isn’t bothered by this sort of thing – go to town and knit as written.  The pattern makes a nice, tidy, well-fitting sock