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Handspun Leg Warmers

on October 26, 2007

Handspun socks are a wondrous thing, but I work from home and run around in my socks all day on wooden floors, so they’re not the best for me. My heart seizes up a little at the thought of blown out heels on handspun and handknit knee socks, in particular, but a fan of knee socks I am. It’s COLD here in Boston in my little old house and I have enough chubby wool socks, so what I needed was to extend the length of these socks. Hooray for leg warmers! These are fitted, not the sloppy kind of my junior high years. They’re pure function, if you don’t count the high voltage color. They don’t take much yarn, either! This is undoubtedly the first pair of many, because – WOW- they are cozy.

The Facts:
Yarn: Maisy Day Handspun 2 ply bulky weight handspun Merino wool 2 ply, 5 oz. and 202 yards (I used every bit of this yarn, splitting the ball in half with a scale to get the most out of it. Amazingly enough, they are the perfect size.)
Needle: size 7 Addi Turbo for ye olde magic loop
Gauge: 4 sts. per inch
Size: 13″ long and 11″ around at the top, 9″ at the bottom (measured in stockinette section, not ribbing).
Fit: My legs are 15″ around at the largest calf point and 8″ at the ankle, meaning I’ve got some negative ease going on here. I didn’t make them as tight at the bottom as the top because they need to go over chunky woolen socks. They’re soft and stretchy, so they are not binding in the least.

These are knit just like a sleeve. Cast on and rib a bit, and then start increasing 2 sts. per increase row with the increase rows spaced about an inch apart, until you get to the desired upper leg measurement. Work straight and do a bit more ribbing. These are knit at a firm gauge and stay up with absolutely no problem.

PS: I don’t normally wear my jeans rolled up that high, but I’m not promising anything now that I have such flash leg warmers. :)

PPS: Cobblestone’s coming. I haven’t had time to do her justice in both photography and a blog post. Soon!

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The Knitter’s Book of Yarn and Rhinebeck

on October 23, 2007

On Thursday, I got a great treat in the mail. It was The Knitter’s Book of Yarn by Clara Parkes, and marks the first release of a book that I wrote patterns for. There may have been childlike squealing. It was so difficult not to show these mittens as I was knitting them, because I was pretty darn excited. Thankfully, they’re free to be shown now.

Double-Thick Mittens, knit in Alice Starmore Hebridean 2 Ply. The whole mitten is stranded, even the solid sections. You betcha they’re warm. They’ve got a picot hem, Latvian-style braid, and twisted, tassled strings to tie them together when not worn. The yarn is a woolen-spun heather, which contrasts the graphic design nicely, I think.

Norwegian Snail Mittens, knit in super soft Dalegarn Baby Ull. I can’t praise Clara enough for allowing me to make such an amusing mitten for her book. These have circus-tent striped palms, fanciful motifs, floops galore, duplicate-stitched kiwi green accents, knit/purl patterning, and SNAILS. This yarn is a smooth worsted-spun solid that shows the pattern to great effect.

Mittens aside, this is such a wonderful book and I’m so proud to be involved. If you’d like to learn about fibers, yarn construction, properties, and selection for projects, this book is for you. The patterns aren’t half bad, either. ;) Right Amy? Amy has 8 patterns in the book!

Rhinebeck:

Rhinebeck was a total madhouse, mainly because I went with Jess and Casey from Ravelry and a bit of a hubbub follows them whenever they go near yarn-type people, but also because 12,000 people were there on Saturday alone. Being around Amy Boogie might have had something to do with the craziness, as well. Amy is like a force of nature, complete with a desire to party and a checkbook, all wrapped up in wool. She’s my kind of woman. I had a great time seeing old friends and meeting what seemed like 9,000 of the 12,000 people who showed up. The Ravelry party on Saturday was a ton of fun: I (well, the Fantom Bohus sweater) was felt up by many a knitter, and neither of us minded, the company was fantastic, and we closed that place down.

I took literally one (bad) photo, but other people were much more prolific. Want to see some Rhinebeck photos?

Ravelry events, including the festival
Rhinebeck 2007

Finished Objects:

I’ve got lots of knitting to show. Cobblestone is done, and I knit a pair of legwarmers (!) in the van over the weekend. I knitting like a maniac on the Jackyll and Hide from the Fall 2007 Knitty. The plan is to frighten the life out of every trick-or-treater we get.

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Rhinebeck

on October 19, 2007

Yikes! I have an FO to show, but no time to take photos and post. It looks like it might be quite warm at New York Sheep and Wool this year, so the rush to show you what sweater I’ll be wearing so that I’m recognized for Blogger Bingo and just plain saying “Hi” probably isn’t terribly important. Anyhoo, if the weather is cool, I’ll be wearing that Fantom Bohus or my Cobblestone, which is finished and really, really lovely! If it’s too warm, you can look for my giant bag.

There’s a blogger/Ravelry/blog-reader meetup at noon each day outside that big food building (building E). Come visit! I’ll be there both days. See ya!

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