The  BWT project is collecting color images for all of the knitting patterns from Barbara Walker’s books.

1. Hand Knitted Socks
2. The fact that I don’t seem to be allergic to superwash wool, baby alpaca or cashmere.
3. Stitches West takes place near my house so I can afford to go, and it’s during President’s Week, so I can take the time off.
4. The Secret Garden, by Francis Hodgson Burnett. I read it again every so often. The weather here is getting more springlike and things are popping out all over.
5. Koolaid is good for something.
6. The fact that my husband doesn’t like football.
7. Counterprogramming on TV against the Super Bowl (see item #6 above). I got to see the National Ice Skating Championships which I missed in January.

If I had to go to a yarn store and break my stash reduction resolution, this is the one I should have gone to. I already knew about this organization, and carry the tape measure they gave me at Stitches West in my accessory bag. I managed to spend a little over $100, but I got a great deal on some soy silk and wool yarn (Karaoke) that my DD liked. She slept in the car while I was in the store. I also got some variegated blue/purple/grey Kroy sock yarn and a royal blue with silver metallic Berroco ribbon yarn (one skein to add to something else). The salesperson also gave me two sets of bamboo needles in larger sizes that will go to the middle school knitting class. I plan to knit a hat or two to donate to the Stitches from the Heart effort. There is an article in the March 2007 issue of Creative Knitting about this non-profit store and charity knitting organization, along with a pattern for a preemie hat.

If we had gone back on an earlier flight, that would have cost $100 extra, so the yarn purchase can be justified, especially since all of the profits at this store go to charity. The bag of yarn had to be stuffed into the overhead bins on the airplane, since it wouldn’t fit into the suitcase. Remember, this was just an overnight trip. I managed to knit a few rows on my sock project on the return flight, where I sat in the middle seat between two ordinary sized people. On the flight down I was squashed in the middle between two football players who kept their arms folded resolutely.

I have a lot of different sock yarns in my stash waiting to be tried. The first test in the LYS is to feel the yarn, then look at the colors (and price). I have to say that STR is the best feeling sock yarn ever! It feels like silk, but it’s somewhat expensive. I have one finished pair, but they are a little thick to get in my shoes, even though I used the lightest weight.

I absolutely love the wool/cotton blends of sock yarn. One of my favorite socks is made from Online Linie’s cotton/wool blend in the Petticoat pattern. 100% cotton sock yarn is too hard on my feet, but the blends feel like cotton and have all the benefits of wool. They wash and dry well, too. I stocked up when I found them on sale because I was afraid they would be discontinued. Sockotta is a great price and makes nice socks. Fixation is a little thick to get in my shoes and I find it hard to knit with, plus it bothers the soles of my feet somewhat.

The pearled superwash wools like Fleece Artist, Claudia, Opal Gems, CTH Supersock, Koigu etc. are definitely soft enough. I am using some of Lisa Souza’s Sock! right now but I haven’t test worn them yet. I have some Anne yarn, but it may wind up as a shawl instead of socks. I knit the Pomatomus socks from Fleece Artist last year and they are one of my favorite socks.

Superwash 100% wools like Cleckheaton are much softer than the wool/nylon blends like Opal and Regia, but I do wear my Opal and Regia socks and give them as gifts to people with less sensitive feet. I also have some KnitPicks Gloss to try which feels great. I am very interested in trying SWTC’s new Tofootsi’s yarn, made from soy silk.

I did love my first pair of hand knit socks, made from Mountain Color’s Weaver’s wool, but my husband washed one of them with the regular laundry. It was loosely knit, so it still fits, but I am afraid to let the other sock be washed in case it shrinks too much.

I tried using my swift this weekend, and the tip of the wooden screw that tightens the open swift into the correct position has broken off, and the place it screws into is stripped, so my swift is out of action. Has anybody else had to replace the screw and the part on the swift that the screw goes into? I dyed some Lion Brand Fisherman’s wool with koolaid and just wound it into a (rather large) ball. That’s when I realized my swift was broken. The hank was 8 ozs., so I didn’t want to hold it around my knees. I used little figure eight ties made from nylon cord, which didn’t take the dye as well as the wool. around the skeined yarn to keep it from tangling. It was a little bit fuzzy/felted from the dye process, but relatively easy to wind, even after I had to put it around my knees. The figure eight knots wind in and out of the skein and then get tied in a knot, not just around the whole hank.

I also finished the third (of four) to be felted Christmas stocking two years late, but it will be ready for next year!

I also “felt” the swatches at Michaels and decided against felting any of my SWS yarn projects. I have found that using slip stitch patterns works well to double up too light yarn without obscuring the pattern. They felt beautifully, and are much easier to make than a fairisle type stranded bag.

Here’s a link to one: http://knitty.com/ISSUEfall06/PATTlittleslip.html
and another http://elann.com/ShowFreePattern.asp?Id=41024

Neither of these would work (IMHO) with the SWS, but this one should: http://notanartist.blogspot.com/2006/04/andrea-bag-pattern.html

Knit and felt a swatch first.

I heard about this Knit from your Stash plan in late December and have been trying to follow it, with one change. I made an inventory of my sock yarn a few weeks ago and determined that, at the rate I have been knitting socks, averaging 9 pairs a year since 2000, I have 20 years worth of sock yarn to knit with. That’s at least 270 skeins of sock yarn! (Some are 50 gram and some are 100 gram skeins.) So, no sock yarn purchases either. Sock books, yes. I have my eye on two new books, Sensational Knitted Socks Two and the new Interweave Sock book.

Last year I made a concerted effort to finish all of my second socks and pretty much succeeded. I only have two single socks that I am not actively knitting on sock #2, down from a high of nine. I’m bored with all of the socks I am currently knitting, though (six different pairs, all started last year). I was gifted with a brand new set of vintage Boye Balene prototype DPN’s, so I started a new sock over the weekend using stash yarn. It’s a combination of this Dutch pattern and Ginger Luter’s Swatch Your Step pattern from her wonderful book, Module Magic. I am using Lorna’s Laces yarn in the green, teal and purple Lakeview colorway and a solid color medium aqua blue Special Blauband. I’ll post pictures soon.

I love using slip stitch patterns. They also work well in socks, for uniting leftover balls of yarn using a 50 gram ball of a solid color as the contrast. and use the leftovers as your contrast color. This makes a striking sock, but there are lots more ends to weave in. I have found they are actually less stretchy and I need more stitches. YMMV, and the slip stitch pattern you use also has a lot to do with it.
I published this pattern on my website, which needs updating desperately. I made these socks quite a few years ago using a similar idea in reverse.

Multiple of 4 stitches:
Round 1 and 2 with MC Knit
Round 3 and 4 with CC *Knit 3, slip 1*
Round 5 and 6 repeat round 1 and 2
Round 7 and 8 with CC Knit 1, *slip 1, Knit 3*, repeat around between *’s
Repeat rounds 1-8 for pattern

I’ve also been distracted by learning entrelac, and made a bag from leftover Kureyon and a larger bag from Elann’s Peruvian Aran, wool and alpaca in nice heathered colors. I’m not using the same colors as the pattern, but close. I like blues, greens and purples myself, but I also included a nice dark heathered red.

This yarn would also work well in the Vogue fairisle bag. I have a swatch card, so I am going to look and see if there are enough of the right colors to make the bag.