Lime and Violet have a blog that lists cool stuff called The Daily Chum.   (They also do a really cool podcast). My Catoptrical sock design made the list. WOOHOO!! I’m doing the happy dance :)

See the post here.

ca·top·tri·cal: “formation of images by mirrors”

The latest sock pattern I have designed. You can purchase it at The Knit Foundry pattern page and you can see it at Ravelry here. Huge thanks to my test knitters: Marta and Marie

I don’t know why, but after a hiatus where I knit NO socks at all; suddenly I’m sock crazy! The sock yarn in this picture was purchased so I could work on some new sock designs. I needed solid yarns to show off the patterning. Yes, there’s a multicolor yarn in there too (I just couldn’t resist those pretty colors). Keep an eye out for new patterns coming! (or maybe I’ll submit to knitty.. hmmmmm. heh).

The only knitting I’ve been doing lately is on these socks. I finished the first one tonite. (Except for weaving in the ends). The sock weighs 1.6 oz; and I enough handspun left to make three more socks; so I’ll get two pair total. I’ll want a different pattern for the 2nd pair - any suggestions?

This is what I’ve been knitting lately. Of course this is a sock made out of my fabulous and wonderful handspun. It’s so fun to knit with my handspun! I have been spinning a ton of yarn lately; I’m falling behind on washing the skeins.

Normally I hate short rows, all those wraps are totally fiddly; and the end result never looked very good for me. I decided to try socks with short rows again, and wanted a different method.

Japanese Short Rows are really cool. Here’s the heel only halfway knit. Yes, you do get dangly little saftey pins everywhere.

After knitting, a sample fitting:

Other views:

I tried to use those saftey pin like stitch markers, but they were too thick. These weren’t even coilless saftey pins, which I would recommend, as it would be a bit easier to remove the saftey pin if you happen to catch that coil on the wrong side of the loop. If that happens you have to stretch the yarn in that area a tiny bit more to get the saftey pin off. Mine came out about 80% correct, and 20% wrong. The heel still looks awesome though.

Back to Knit Visualizer.

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a few hours later - an update on that KV2.0 thing. I have the demo versions ready. I have the full versions ready (I hope! no more last minute bugs please!). I have the upgrade webpage about half ready. I still have to build the coupon codes for upgraders (this is a biggie) and do some PHP for the demo download, and then upload the finished/changed web pages and then email everyone about it.

So recently I was contemplating spinning some sock yarn. I have this:

or maybe this:

which has pretty colors:

Much discussion between myself and the other members of my totally awesome spinning guild about how to figure out what size single to spin to get a specific size plied yarn. Shane did some research and found a formula to use. The size of the singles is equal to the square root of the number of plies times the wpi of the finished yarn.

Yikes!

To make it simpler for you, I’ve created a little online calculator

Spinning WPI Calculator

You’ll also notice that link is now in a “tools” section on my sidebar. I found a commercial yarn that has around 13 WPI, and I want to make a 3 ply yarn. Now I know what size to spin the singles yarn (go use the calculator to find out) :) Enjoy!

How many times can I blog the same finished project before anyone notices?

I finished my pair of monkey socks last night at my knitting group. (Technically when I got home, because I still had to graft the toe). This is what i did to make the pattern complete on the foot:

I try to not do too much gift knitting. I can’t handle the pressure! This year though, we’re under a severe money constraint for Christmas, so I thought I’d do a bit of knitting from the stash. Project number 1 is a pair of ‘Happy Honey Socks’ for my husband:

It’s been a bit of time since I’ve made him a pair of socks. I found this yarn on sale at Webs for a pretty good price. I really like the Regia 6ply yarn. It makes a nice durable sock, and it’s not quite as much knitting as fingering weight socks would be for his big feet.

I had tried a more fiddly pattern, but in the end it turned out too fiddly. This ribbing is the same as you find on the knitty thuja socks; but this yarn isn’t as thick.

For the record, most of the other Christmas knitting is dishcloths.  With the exception of a sweater for my son - I haven’t figured out what pattern to use for him yet, I do have the yarn already for it.