Category: Ravelry Projects

Really really really easy little hat. I probably could’ve made the R1 section a little longer, but as it is, it fits quite nicely.

Bulk of the work was done July 16 – Aug 5; I started these during or right before my LA trip, but really restarted them after finishing the Foreign Correspondent Scarf.

Lots of knitting while watching training videos.

Really, this pattern is more of an inspiration. Doing toe-up, pattern only on the instep, and a tighter garter rib (k3/p2). Decided I wanted an ankle sock vs something longer, so just a couple of rows of pattern (slightly tweaked) all around before going to an inch or so of a ribbed cuff.

Still trying to decide if these actually fit, though. Possibly the foot is a smidge long; I find Rachel’s heel construction tricky to size to my feet. Possibly the cuff is too big or too loose. Maybe both.

Bulk of the work was done July 16 – Aug 5; I started these during or right before my LA trip, but really restarted them after finishing the Foreign Correspondent Scarf.

Lots of knitting while watching training videos.

Really, this pattern is more of an inspiration. Doing toe-up, pattern only on the instep, and a tighter garter rib (k3/p2). Decided I wanted an ankle sock vs something longer, so just a couple of rows of pattern (slightly tweaked) all around before going to an inch or so of a ribbed cuff.

Still trying to decide if these actually fit, though. Possibly the foot is a smidge long; I find Rachel’s heel construction tricky to size to my feet. Possibly the cuff is too big or too loose. Maybe both.

Once I restarted this near the end of March, it went really fast, so the time-to-finish is not particularly accurate. (I started while still working on the purple socks.) Decided to make this even bigger than the first one, which was itself about the largest size in the pattern.

I used 2 full balls of the “slate” (which is more purple than I expected), a ball of light blue, and about half a ball of silver/grey that was left over from the first shawl.

Still no fringe. Not my thing, I don’t think.

Just really wish I had a proper place to block something this large, TBH. I laid it out over a drying rack, but really only the top half was “blocked.”

I hope it’s the correct use of “irony” to be amused at how I fumbled my way through the socks I made out of the yarn I bought while at a content strategy conference.

All I knew starting is that I wanted to use Rachel’s toe-up-top-down heel, and that I was going to want something a bit more complicated than plain stockinette.

So I went with a pattern that used that heel, but it had a slightly different toe: narrower, longer. And too big; I ended up only increasing to 64 stitches, instead of all the way to 72. That would’ve been HUGE.

Unfortunately, about as soon as I started the main pattern, I realized I hated it. 3-stitch cables, bleh. I like the look, but not the way it feels while I knit.

So I went looking for a different pattern; the “Zigzagular” is a nice little twist pattern, and although it’s designed for top down, it works great for toe up, too. Although it took me a few rows to realize that I was doing the twist entirely wrong.

And then I decided it needed some 3×1 ribbing. Thankfully, that ended up being a nice solid pattern all the rest of the way!

The heel itself was not too bad, although it wasn’t until after I did the first one that I realized it could’ve easily been done two-at-a-time. (Strategy!) And if I were to do it again, I’d love to figure out how to start the ribbing in with the gusset.

Final tiny regret: I totally could’ve made these even longer.

On the other hand, the zigzag + ribbing looks fab with this yarn, the socks are super-comfy, and the length is pretty good.

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Finally using the yarn I bought last May! Going to try Rachel’s toe-up-top-down pattern, but a cable variant to do something a bit more interesting.

1/15 – got to the first cable and was like: nope. Way too frustrating. So I’m trying out the Zigzagular design. If that doesn’t work for me, I might frog & start over with a new sock pattern.

1/17 – added some 3/1 ribbing across the top of the sock. AND I figured out that I was doing the twists wrong; now the zigzag is looking much better. If I can get all of these odds & ends to work together, I’ll have my own entirely new pattern. 🙂

1/26 – made it through the heel flap, turn, and gusset pickups on both socks. I think they might be a tiny bit short, but there’s nylon in this yarn, so it might work? Will try on again after I’ve done the gusset reductions just to be sure.

I actually started making another Hitchhiker with this yarn, but didn’t like the way it looked (too subtle variegation) so I frogged and just looked up patterns for scarves and shawls for fingering weight yarn on #3 needles to have SOMETHING to knit during AlterConf.

And I’m very happy; first few rows required a bit of attention, but it’s quite memorizable. It’s a great pattern to knit and it looks lovely, if absurdly long.