FO: Greenhouse Socks

The next round of Sock Madness gave us a pattern called “Greenhouse socks”. I have no idea why they are called that. I’m sure there is a reason.

Anyway. The special thing about these socks is the foot. The leg is pretty standard, some diamond lace motifs that just fly by. The foot, however is something else entirely.

The sole of this sock is actually shaped like a foot. I neglected to take a photo of the sole, but if you look at the bottom of your foot, that’s what it looks like. It makes for a very interesting fit.

The toe section goes wide, and has an almost three-needle bind off, and is pretty crazy. But, if you have a wide foot like me, it gives the sock a SUPER comfortable fit.

There was a bit more confusion with this pattern than other patterns in the Sock Madness challenge. It was a bit unclear as to where to start the toe shaping and I felt that it could have been explained a bit better. It has you work one pattern on the sole, then another on the sides, then another on the top of the foot. At times, they do not work in tandem. For my own socks (and sanity) I fudged the numbers just a little once the diamond motifs were done to make the top and bottom of the foot work in together at the same point in the pattern.

You can see a bit of the foot shaping in this photo.

As well, it assumes you know your own fit. I would not recommend this as a beginner sock knitter pattern, since if you follow it to the letter you will end up with a 16″ sock for a 9″ foot. You basically just stop knitting when you reach the desired length, and bind off; there is no indication of this in the pattern (that I saw).

This pair was knit in Nooch Fiber‘s Morningside Sock in the Cigar colourway. Let me wax poetic about this yarn for a moment.

It’s amazing. So very soft and squooshy, yet a substantial yarn. It has amazing definition, and was such a delight to work with. It practically begs to be a sweater. You know, if this indie dyer made sweater quantities of this yarn.

Close up of the bind off

The only issue I had was it was only 400 yards per skein. That is not normally an issue, except it makes a bit smaller sock; and this was not the right pattern for that. Admittedly, I made a bit of a change by adding an extra repeat on the leg since I like a longer leg sock. You can see in the first photo the toes have a different colour to them. Had I not made the change there would have been enough yarn to finish the pattern as intended.

When it became apparent I wasn’t going to have enough yarn to finish the second sock, I took a chance in the Sock Madness race to pull out the toe on my first sock (which didn’t actually take a lot of self-convincing to do – it was an inch too long anyway), then I knit with the end of that yarn and pulled back to the same part on both socks. Then I knit both at the same time to have the same end point with the Nooch yarn. This left only 7 rows (plus bind off) on both socks that needed a different yarn.

All in all, I’m very happy with these socks. And my gamble paid off; I advanced to round 4!

FO: Flying Dutchman Socks

The second round of Sock Madness had us knitting intarsia, which is a method I have never tired before. It’s a method of colourwork that is worked back and forth by twisting the threads, instead of carrying your yarn like fair isle. It is a preferred method of colourwork if you have a motif to knit rather than an entire band of colour change.

These socks have alternating colour stripes, and the stripes reverse for a motif that shows a ship on the leg. These were absolutely brilliant. The result of switching out the striping colours is a slightly hidden motif. The socks were named the Flying Dutchman of course in reference to the famed ghost ship.

I LOVED LOVED LOVED knitting these socks. The instructions were very clear, the pattern easy to follow, and I absolutely love these socks.

I want to knit them again. One for every day of the week.

I was concerned when I was knitting the ship that I may have been pulling my threads too tightly as I’m a fairly tight knitter; but I needn’t have worried. It came out beautifully, and I found that I didn’t have the spacing that I saw other knitters have on the same sock.

These were knit with an alpaca blend for the purple, and Red Heart Stardust for the peach.  The alpaca is not the best for socks, I admit, but I hope that if I stick to the hand washing/air drying of them they will last a bit (and that will give me a chance to knit more!).

I also found I really really really wanted these to be a sweater vest. Maybe one day?

Needless to say, I loved these so much that they were knit up in no time at all, and I advanced to round three of Sock Madness without any issue.

FO: Sock Madness the first

If you have been reading my blog for a while you know I partake in Nerd Wars on Ravelry; a 3 month crafting challenge (tournament 8 sign ups begin May 15, btw!). This past tournament I participated in a different team that I normally do and one of the discussions we had was about another tournament called Sock Madness.

Sock Madness emulates March Madness in that it gives out 8 knit sock patterns and challengers whittle down tournament style to see who is the fastest knitter. I found this intriguing  and though I realize my sock knitting speed is far from being fastest, I did want to see how far into the tournament I could get.

The first sock pattern issued was Sockdolager. This is a cuff down sock with a fleegle heel and kitchener toe. The leg has a chevron pattern that looks really great in a self striping yarn.

The pattern was super easy. In fact, I am sure this is the first knit I have ever done where I didn’t have any dropped stitches or errors on my part at all. It was a very easy, pleasant knit.

That being said, I don’t like it. I really really want to, but I just don’t. I originally knit it in a blue Red Heart Stardust yarn. It is a pretty yarn, but as I went it seemed to not suit the sock. Once I finished it, the sock came out too large despite multiple measuring as I went along. It turns out the first sock was knit with 2.75 mm needles rather than 2.5 mm, which would account for most of the issue.

I also felt like this sock was emulating a mid-80s sweater. You  know the ones I mean. The bulky striped sweaters that were worn with tight pants and high tops. And everyone wore them.

So I tried the second sock in a different yarn and the correct needles. I had some Wollemeise remaining from my Wingspan and it did come out a little bit better. The fit was closer, and as the yarn has a bit more structured to hold up. By this time, however, I decided I just didn’t like those darn chevrons enough to keep the pair. They are now pulled out and the yarn waiting for another project.

As far as Sock Madness is concerned, however, I made it through the first round.

FO: Hobbes

I had intended this project to be finished in time for my nephew’s birth as well. Unlike the baby diamonds blanket, I was too late for that event, but he does have it now.

This is a free pattern that is fairly easy to work up. There is a bit of free thought involved here and you do need to do a few steps in a manner that suits you the best. The designer does do her best to give you as clear instructions as possible, but sometimes that isn’t always possible.

The only changes I made were the face pieces were crocheted instead of using felt. I did place his eyes a bit too high, but otherwise I think this guy is absolutely perfect – right down to his crooked mouth. The only problem with finishing him is now I need to crochet five more for each member of this family.

FOs: Baby coccoons

I do a bit of custom orders for folks through my shop, and recently did some baby cocoons as photo props.

The first was a mermaid tail. This was a knit pattern from 4aSong on Etsy. This was a pretty easy and enjoyable knit. I like the effect the drawn forward yarn had on the tail to create a scale effect. The tail itself was pretty easy, and the whole thing knit up very quickly.

Aside from a small error in the pattern (line 103 should read as line 87), I had absolutely no issues with this pattern.

Special thanks to Pinkie Bear for modelling.

The next cocoon I worked up was not so lovely. I purchased this pattern, and quite frankly am irritated I spent the $3.50.

It is no secret I knit and crochet a lot of free patterns.  I’m fully aware that you get what you pay for and with free that is no exception.

Having purchased this pattern, I would have expected it to be at least better written than a free pattern. This read to me like it was someone’s notes after the fact and she forgot half of what she did. There were errors all over the place, no indication of colour changes in the hat, it was not clear at all what needed to be done with the top of the carrot. Double crochet rows were to be started with a single crochet, which of course doesn’t match the height at all and if I had started each row this way, each row would be horribly messy and lopsided.

In the end, I did it my way, and could have spent my money elsewhere. Quite frankly, it baffles me since this designer has 109 patterns up on Ravelry, many with a lot of loves to them. I honestly don’t think I’m expecting too much from an obviously experienced designer to have some clarity in her patterns.

Lesson learned, I guess. Not everything can be a rose every time.

FO: Baby Diamonds Blanket

This was a project I started in November, and took me a bit longer than I wanted to get it finished. I had intended this blanket to be finished before my nephew was born; and it was, by only a few days. The trick now was to get it out to him before he turned 20. Since making it to the post office seems to be an issue for me.

This pattern came from a stitch dictionary, The Complete Photo Guide to Crochet. Actually, it has a super long title, you’d think this was written in the Renaissance, but no. For brevity I’m shortening the title here. I’ve actually reviewed the book here.

Anyway. This blanket uses a Tunisian Entrelac method, which is a very interesting technique. Once you get going, it is pretty brainless crochet, and if you are doing it correctly, there is not even any need to count as it seems to form itself. It makes for a nice substantial fabric, not too heavy, but not something light and breezy. It was enough that I thought adding a liner to the back might be too much for a baby.

If I remember correctly (seriously, I need to at least draft these blog posts when I’m done with a project, or take better notes), I did more rows than the pattern called for just to make sure my own colour pattern matched. As a result, my border would not work out in the count it suggested so I created my own border. It’s pretty similar to the pattern, just a basic shell around the outside, ensuring a corner shell was applied in the right spot.

Photo courtesy of my sister

You will be happy to learn I did make it out to the post office before my nephew’s birthday, in fact he only received it a few months too late. Here he is enjoying his new blanket.

One other little thing to share, I try to get my photos with as much natural light as possible, so I propped this baby up in the window to get some good shots. When I was done, my son grabbed his doll blanket and put it in the window as well, so that I could take a picture of that, too.

FO: Dragonfly Wings

Wow it’s been a while, I apologize for the hold up. I was on Ravelry this morning doing some updates and realized it’s been 10 finishes since I last blogged. Ten. That’s quite a while.

So I thought I would share my most recent one first since I’m super excited about it, and I’ll post over the upcoming weeks about the other finishes.

The Dragonfly shawl is complete (Iink is to my Ravelry project page). I used Central Park Fingering in the colour Roller Rink by Nooch Fiber.

This was such a fantastic project, I cannot express how excited I am. I felt like dancing every time I picked up the needles to work on it, I was sad every time I had to put them down.

The pattern is SUPER easy, I love that the designer put the stitch count at the end of every row. Since my most used knitting tool is my crochet hook (to pick up my dropped stitches), this was invaluable.

This took me three months to complete, not because it wasn’t easy knitting, but because I paced myself to do it right. During this time, I’ve knit a few other things that showed exactly how badly I’ve been doing my increases. In fact, if you look at the center row of this shawl, my increases look more like yarn overs instead of M1L’s and M1R’s.

That’s not to say they were horrible enough to pull out, just that if you didn’t realize they weren’t supposed to be yarn overs, you do now.

Adding beads was far easier than I thought it should be. Not that I’m complaining, mind, but I had more trouble finding beads than I did actually putting them on. Thankfully my daughter has a nice collection of beads that she was willing to share with me, since our local stores were woefully lacking.

The yarn is delightfully squishy. It feels fantastic on the skin, and it is absolutely fantastic once it’s blocked.

If you are looking for a new project to cast on, and are thinking of lace, I highly recommend this one. Super fast, super easy, and super rewarding.

Recipe: Bacon Broccoli Pesto

We eat an awful lot of pasta in this house, which is quite unseemly for an Irish family as my husband likes to remind me. However, it’s cheap and plentiful and we love it.

Well, most of us. The girls don’t like it as much as Scott and I do, and would like to see a bit more variety than the red sauces and cheese sauces we normally use. I’m pretty sure I could never tire of a good bolognese, but there are others in the family to consider.

So we’ve been trying out pesto, and I think last night I came up with the best combination ever. Because one of the deciding ingredients is bacon, and we all know how full of win that is.

So here’s what I used:

1 pkg bacon
2 cups mushrooms cut into large chunks
2 red onion, sliced into large slices
a fair amount of fresh broccoli (we love broccoli so I added quite a bit)
450g rotini (enough to make about 6 cups cooked. I did mention we love pasta?)
Pesto sauce
Salt and pepper to taste

Here’s what I did:

I cooked the pasta and broccoli separately. I almost always cook the broccoli separately since we are pretty picky about how we like it, and don’t prefer it mushy or burnt. So when its added to anything, I pre-cook it, then add it in at the end. (This includes stirfrys, etc.)

I cut the bacon into chunks, and set it to fry. Once it was almost done, I drained most of the fat, leaving a little bit so the rest didn’t stick to the pan. I added the mushrooms and onions, and fried it until the onions were sauteed the way we like it.

Once everything was cooked up, we just mixed it all together. That’s it. We used a jar of pre-made pesto, since it’s still the middle of winter here in Canada and I don’t have access to good fresh basil. Mix all the parts together, add your salt & pepper as you wish and voila. It is fabulous with a bit of parmesan as well.

This made enough for our family of five plus there are left overs for lunch today. Let me know what you think and what you would do differently!

The Guardian Progress Report

Yes, you read that right. I’ve been cross stitching.

I had been knitting on my Dragonfly shawl, when I suddenly realized I was very close to the half way point. Since it is a three month dissertation project, I decided to set it aside and work on something else.

My fingers have been having an urge to cross stitch for a little while, but I had wanted to complete some of my yarn projects first. My realization of my not having any other yarn projects on the go (there are several waiting to get started as soon as I get the yarn, hopefully this week) brought my stitching craving to the forefront.

So here is where my stitching was two days ago, and now. I hope to finish the page I’m working on today, and get that tail back stitched. I made a lot of progress yesterday, since it was yet another snow day here in constantly snowing land, where it is always snowing.

Snow.

Where was I? Oh yes. Snow day. So the girls were home from school which meant Sean had others around to play with, not just Mommy. So I turned on some Star Trek: The Next Generation (thanks to Netflix it has been my most recent re-watch choice), and away I went.

Despite the constant thread changing (which I realize is part of why this piece is so lovely), this is an addictive stitch. It comes together so quickly, I just want to stitch more.

And today, I think I will!

Granola cups

My family loves granola bars. The problem with commercial bars is, however, they are never quite right. They are often too sweet, full of ingredients you can’t pronounce, and far too many taste like cardboard. (I’m reminded of a certain brand which shall remain nameless. Their commercial offered customers a free box of their all natural granola bars, and if you didn’t like it, the owner of the company would eat the box it came in. I sent back the box, although I’m sure the cardboard tasted better.)

Since it’s just a baked good at its core, I decided to try to make my own granola bars. And so off to Pinterest I go. I found lots of recipes for baked oatmeal, but that really wasn’t what I wanted. I then found a recipe from Smitten Kitchen, a site that I have used before for cookies with great results.

The recipe from Smitten Kitchen bakes the granola in a cake pan, then it is cut up into bars. In my Pinterest travels I found a recipe for personal sized baked oatmeal that I found interesting, and decided to try the bar recipe in cupcake cups.

The recipe itself is very easy and very customizable. Made with very basic ingredients, even I had them in my pantry.

She leaves it open to your choice of fruits and nuts, as long as you meet the proportions. I used almonds, sunflower seeds, raisins and chocolate chips (I used a bit less sugar to compensate for the chocolate chips, since we don’t enjoy an over sweet bar).

My helper. Posing for the camera, like the ham he is turning out to be.

 

I then put them into baking cups, a table spoon at a time, pushing the dough in to make sure it would stick.

I then stuck them in the oven for 40 minutes and off I went to knit.

Now those of you who know anything about baking and have checked out the recipe I used have just said, “OOOOOOHHHHH NOOOOOO”. And quite right.

For what ever reason, my brain was not in the correct baking mode yesterday. You see, when changing a recipe from a cake pan to a muffin tin, one must also alter the baking times. It takes much less time in a muffin tin than in a cake pan, since there is less space taken up by the batter.

Now normally I would catch myself since I rely on my sense of smell when baking. The moment it smells done, regardless of the time left on my oven timer, I check it. I’ve learned that every recipe is written for the writers oven; and my oven is not her oven. I’ve had far too many things come out burnt/undercooked using recommended timings. And so I should have caught the smell of these long before the timer went off.

But, as I said, I was knitting. With that wonderful yarn. I’m sure I only got 3 stitches done (at least that’s what it felt like) when the timer went off. And as soon as the timer went off, I KNEW. I could smell those burnt raisins. And that’s not a pleasant smell.

Now being an adventurous type, I still tried these babies. Picking out the burnt raisins, they are still VERY tasty. But you need a pickaxe to eat them.

I’ll definitely be making these again, but perhaps I’ll find something else to do while they are in the oven rather than knit. Like housecleaning or something else otherwise distasteful so I pay attention.