1:06 pm - February 15, 2012 - AngelaH

A Trio of Socks

From left to right, three pairs of hand-knitted socks, in chronological order. These are all based on the same pattern, with a few variations. (The pair on the right looks skinny because of the rib, but I assure you it stretches out nicely).

The grey and purple pair (knit with Berroco Vintage) were the first pair of socks I ever knit. They took me almost six months to knit – well, two weeks for the first sock, and then I got distracted and then summer came – but they came out pretty well all things considered.

The middle pair, knit on Tanis Fiber Arts Yellow Label DK weight 100% superwash merino, which, let me just say, is a gorgeous yarn to knit with. I used olive and sand and got that pair finished in a week over the Christmas holidays. They turned out much better than my first pair (go figure) and are both warm and light-weight. The pattern is pretty basic, but look at how nicely it shows off the hand-painted yarn. Gorgeous.

Tanis Fiber Arts in Olive

The third pair are for my mom. They’re also knit with the other half of my Tanis Fibre Arts yarn, but with a 2×1 rib down the leg, because my mom found the leg on the green pair a little too tight. I went back and forth about knitting the heels in olive as well, but was worried I wouldn’t have enough; as it turns out, though, I certainly would have, so that’s something to keep in mind if you plan to knit these socks.

Tanis Fiber Arts in Sand

So, here are the basic details:

Boot Sock
(This assumes you have some knowledge of sock knitting, if that is not the case, e-mail me for a more detailed pattern)

These were knit on 3.75 mm needles, using worsted weight yarn. For the grey pair I cast on 40 stitches, for the olive pair 46 and for the sand pair 48. The cuff is 8 rows of 1×1 rib, after which I just knit until the leg was 7-inches long. Divide, knit 17 rows, and turn the heel as follows (written out for 40-stitch cast on, thus 20-stitch heel):

Row 1 – sl 1, k 10, ssk, k 1, turn
Row 2 – sl 1, p 3, p2tog, p 1, turn
Row 3 – sl 1, k 4, ssk, k1, turn
Row 4 – sl 1, p 5, p2tog, p 1, turn
Row 5 – sl 1, k 6, ssk, k 1, turn
Row 6 – sl 1, p7, p2tog, p 1, turn
Row 7 – sl 1, k 8, ssk, k1, turn
Row 8 – sl 1, p 9, p2tog, p2tog, turn

Pick up 12 stitches along both sides of the heel flap and work the following decrease rounds until you’re back to your original number of stitches:

Round 1:
Needle 1 – k to within 3 sts of the end of the needle, k2tog, k 1
Needle 2 – knit
Needle 3 – k 1, ssk, knit to the end of the needle
Round 2: Knit

The middle of your round is now in the middle of the heel.Knit up foot until you’re 3 inches from the total length (to measure gauge length, measure your foot on a piece of paper and then add 1/4 inch). Decrease for toe as follows:

Round 1:
Needle 1 – k to within 3 sts of the end of the needle, k2tog, k 1
Needle 2 – k1, ssk, k to within 3 sts from end of needle, k2tog, k1
Needle 3 – k 1, ssk, knit to the end of the needle
Round 2: Knit
Knit these two rounds until you’ve decreased half the stitches (that is, there are 20 remaining). Now work only round 1 until a total of 8 stitches are left. Break yarn and, using a darning needle, thread tail through remaining stitches and pull tight. Weave in ends.

Categories: Knitting, Patterns Tags: gift knits, merino wool, socks, Tanis Fiber Arts

11:10 am - February 13, 2012 - AngelaH

Wintry Weekend

Toronto has had a pretty pathetic winter so far, with temperatures ping-ponging above and below freezing and more rain than snow. So, when we woke up Saturday morning and it was snowing (and had clearly snowed most of the night), we decided to take advantage of it.

It was early enough that most of the snow was still untouched, although all along the streets in our neighbourhood people were out shovelling their driveways and the sidewalks in front of their houses. We saw a lot of little kids excited for an excuse to wear their snowsuits.

Speaking of which (although only sort of): I knit this scarf in early January when I was still gearing up for the cold and snowy winter that seemed imminent.

I may get around to writing a proper post about it (with a more representative photo), but in the meantime, the easy details are that it’s knit with Cascade Eco+ on 6 mm needles. It is cosy and warm and goes surprisingly well with my bright read coat. Also knit with Cascade Eco+ are my Diamond-Backed mitts (pattern, and less blurry photo, forthcoming).

We had a lovely walk and a busy rest of the day, so on Sunday we decided to be homebodies. We’ve been watching the new season of BBC’s Sherlock, and oh, it is excellent. I knit through the first episode and then we decided it was time to make some lunch. What could be more perfect for a cold and lazy day than pizza? The recipe for the dough and sauce are below; toppings-wise we used Buffalo mozzarella, roasted red peppers, sundried tomatoes, and capers one the first and all those things plus red onion on the second. Yum yum.

Yeast-free dough:

1.5 cups all-purpose flour

1 tbsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup water

2 tbsp olive oil

1 med. potato, mashed

1. Combine dry ingredients. Add mashed potato and olive oil. Mix together while slowly adding water.

2. Turn onto lightly-floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic (about 5-7 minutes). Shape and layer with toppings.

3. Bake at 450F for 15-25 minutes (depending on thickness of toppings, desired crispiness, etc.)

(Makes dough for one pizza).

For tomato sauce, I use one can of Marzano tomatoes (remove about 1/2 cup of the liquid), gently mash the tomatoes with a spoon and season with salt and pepper (if you want it a little bit spicy, add some chili flakes). Freeze whatever you don’t use for later.

Categories: Cooking, Knitting, Recipes Tags: mittens, photos, pizza, scarf, snow

2:38 pm - February 10, 2012 - AngelaH

Heels are annoying

Okay. To be fair, that isn’t entirely true. I don’t mind knitting heels most of the time, but they do require more direct attention than most of the rest of a sock. This heel was turned nicely (if I do say so myself) and I picked up all my gusset stitches without any trouble. Perfect. Lovely. Then I proceeded to decrease as if I was at the toe, meaning that instead of decreasing two stitches per decrease round, I nixed four. I didn’t realize this until I was six rounds in. Rrrriiiipppp.

I tore it back all the way to pre-gusset, re-picked up my stitches, started again, and wouldn’t you know it, I was halfway through the instep on my first decrease when I realized I hadn’t decreased at all. Tink tink tink, back to the appropriate point, make the decrease, knit back. Oy. Things seem to be back under control now, but really, what the heck? Clearly I need to pay just a little more attention to where I am in a sock before I go at it willy-nilly.

Edited to add: I will put up full details about these socks once they’re finished. This is the second and I have a deadline that is fast approaching, so I should have wool and pattern details up shortly.

Category: Knitting Tags: beginner's luck, heels, photos, socks

6:22 pm - February 8, 2012 - AngelaH

A knitting blog?

Well, not quite. I mean, yes. This will be a knitting blog. But it will also be about cooking and recipes, and interesting household-y things I find.

Why? Well, I learned to knit just over a year ago and have been ramping up my productivity lately and thought it would be fun to have an online outlet. I already blog about books, so the idea of blogging is familiar and has proven a good motivator in the past. As for the cooking aspect, well, I work nights so I don’t get many chances to cook and I miss it. I thought this might motivate to do more cooking, and make more interesting dishes, when I get the chance.

I will update weekly – likely on Mondays – and maybe more, so check back and let me know how I’m doing, whether there are other things I should be focusing on, and what your favourite sites of this sort are.

Categories: Cooking, Knitting Tags: hello