fo: Hermione's Everyday (Cuban) Socks

It's official - I've been bitten by the sock bug.

It's a little painful at first, but before you know it the bite mark has healed up and you barely remember a time when you didn't have an undying love of knitting around and around and around and around and then doing the fun heel turn then the gusset (my favourite part, for some reason) and then around and around and around before OMG WE'RE AT THE TOE THEY'RE ALMOST DONE THEY'RE ALMOST DONE and then the brain-breaking but magical part of kitchener-stitching the toe closed so you can't even tell there's a seam.  MAGIC I TELL YOU.

Okay so when I put it that way, objectively it does sound really boring.  But not anymore in my brain because I've been bit.

Pattern: Hermione's Everyday Socks
Yarn: Fibre Artist's Trail Sock in some mystery colourway that doesn't show up anywhere online, apparently.
Needles: 2.25 mm dpns
My Ravelry project page
Mods (because I can't not modify any pattern ever, apparently):

• Cast on 4 extra stitches to account for wide calves/ankles/foot.  Next time (because lets admit it, there's going to be a next time - this pattern is delightful!) I'd probably do 8 extra stitches
• Reduced height of sock to only 12 pattern repeats instead of the suggested 18
• Knit two extra rows on the heel flap and picked up an extra stitch on both sides
• Decreased every other round on toe up to 24 stitches remaining on each of the top and bottom, then decreased every row until 15 stitches remain (don't ask - something weird happened and I fudged - luckily the same weirdness happened on the second sock) before kitchenering.  I have blunt toes so this fits them better (JUST BLUNT TOES NO MISSING TOES, I'M NOT AN EVIL CHANGES-CHILDREN-TO-MICE WITCH I SWEAR - even if I do love practical shoes).

(I loved that book when I was little, and definitely need to re-watch that movie!)

Most of the mods were to account for wider-than-apparently-average foot and ankle/calves widths, but also because I've noticed that the heels are always a little short on me.  I suspect this is why I sometimes wind up with pooching of the sock on the top of the foot at my ankle.  Maybe?  Who knows, but I'm going to experiment with more height on the next pair because I'm bitten - what does more experimental pairs of socks matter?

These socks were my Cuba project (you might recognize them from this blog post) - started the day we left Whitehorse and knit everywhere from the plane to the lobby bar to the beach to the pizza joint down the road over fantastic pina coladas, and even in a 50's classic Chevy!  They were a fun travel project - interesting enough to not be boring but easy enough to pick up and put down without paying too much attention to them.  And they charmed a few of the local ladies working at our hotel - I don't think knitting is all that big there, but boy are there a lot of crocheters!

I'm pretty proud to say that I finished off one whole sock while in Cuba (kitchenered the toe shut on our last day there!), and got a good third of the second sock on our torturous 36-hours-of-no-sleep travel day.  :P

Taken during our epically long layover in Edmonton. That iced cappuccino was AMAZING.

Why did I pick this pattern?  Well, everyone else seemed to be doing it, so...

No but seriously, the Ravelry pattern page has over 12,600 projects posted and at least 3 people in my knitting group has knit them.  It was only a matter of time.  Just waiting for the sock bug to bite, I guess.  This yarn was perfect for it too - beautiful colours (including that gorgeous creamy brown that reminds me so much of delicious Cuban coffee and makes me weep over my mug of North American crap).  Trail Sock is wonderful to work with and I'll definitely be knitting more socks with it in my sock bug poisoned future.

I immediately cast on another pair of socks once I finished these. Except toe-up cast on SUCK HOLY COW.

I'm warning you now, escape while you can!  This blog is now infested with sock bugs, and if you want to save yourself from witnessing the spiralling insanity of the newly obsessed sock knitter, or want to avoid the poison yourself, RUN AWAY.

RUN AWAY NOOOOOWWWWW.

Pants!!!

On goodness guys, I SEWED PANTS!

These are seriously my kryptonite.  I was traumatized early in my sewing career by pants sewing, and despite a few tentative attempts, have never been able to sew a pair that fits.  But then Gillian made a pair of (polka dot!) Style Arc's Elle Pants which looked awesome, and she encouraged me to brave this pattern since it's real simple.


So yesterday, I finally did.  Sadly, the above picture is all your getting today.  I had everything set up to take some photos today, when the camera said "please charge battery".  Ugh.

Well, at least it said please.

*~~*~~*~~*~~*

And uh, sorry for the long delay with posting.  I had a great Cuba post all written up, but then blogger ate it and that ended any motivation I had to blog.  Whatever, I'll try rewriting it another time!  For now, here's a picture of some kite surfers we watched while drinking rum from a coconut on the beach.  OH YEAH.

Yarnworking and Coffee Drinking in Cuba

Hola folks!  Don't have much time online after checking my email and updating facebook (and my Mom, as ordered) on my 1 hour of time.  But the Boyfriend declined the chance to check in himself so I'm stealing this time to send you all a hello and some progress pics for my yarnwork projects.

I might've mentioned it, but I brought along yarn to knit socks while here.  The first pair I'm working on is a pair of Hermione socks, which is one of those super popular patterns that everyone and their dog has knit.

I'm making pretty good progress so far, and should have this first sock done soon.  I love the yarn I chose.  Can't remember what it is, but it's in lovely shades of browns, greens and turquoise that remind me of the sea and also the wonderful Cuban coffee I can't get enough of.  These will definitely be dubed the Cuban socks once I'm finished with them.

I think I'll hold off on sharing the other planned sock pattern, just in case I don't get to it.  But the other project I'm working on is my crocheted summer top I'd hoped to bring along with me.  I got the first sleeve done and, as you can see here, have started on the second one.  Then all I'll need to do is sew it together and block it, so hopefully I'll have a chance to wear it before we head back to wintery Whitehorse!

Anyways, I'd better sign off if I want to get this posted before my internet time cuts off.  I hope you all are doing wonderfully!  I'll catch up with what you've been up to when I get back, but please do tell me any fun(ny?) stories below!  If you do, I'll share some of the funnier photos of our trip, including my snog-fest with a (fake) cactus and the time I won a bottle of Cuban rum by singing in front of a crowd.  BTW?  I don't ever sing, so I'm DAMN PROUD.

Cheers!

Vacation Sewing!

Okay folks, I don't have a lot of time (so no editing) and only a handful of (crummy) photos, but I'm sharing my sewing progress, dammit!  I'll try to take better pictures in Cuba, but no promises.

Moneta on the left, an easy slap-dash patternless dress on the right.

I knew that I wanted to basically live in dresses while on our trip to Cuba.  So much more comfortable, and after discovering Body Glide, doable with my wonderfully squishy thighs!  I figured a comfy t-shirt dress would be a comfy option, and Colette's Moneta seemed to fit the bill perfectly!  I cut this pattern out two weeks ago, but only got around to sewing it this weekend (and hemming it tonight).

I made it out of a cotton spandex I bought in Winnipeg a few years back for something like $3/m, and I still have a ton of it left.  I originally figured it'd just be for test sewing, but when I was digging through the stash cupboard, it looked and felt a lot better than I remembered.  The dress is so comfortable and easy to wear (exactly what I wanted!), and I think the fabric was perfect for it.  And POCKETS!

The striped maxi dress above was beyond easy to make, and even with ripping out the elasticized waist once it still only took me about an hour to sew.  I basically took a plain black tank top, chopped off the bottom half, and stitched on 1 m length of fabric.  I took a page out of Moneta's book and used clear elastic to gather the waistline of the skirt before attaching it to the tank, and didn't even bother hemming the dress since I liked the drape as is and this fabric doesn't roll or fray at all.  I'm not sure what it is exactly, but it has gorgeous drape and feels very cool and slick, and I found the knit at my local fabric shop.  It's going to be a wonderfully easy dress to wear, I just know it.

Oh man I am so very white.  I'll be so very red when I come back, you just watch.

Since I promised you modeled pictures, here's my swim top!  I think it turned out pretty well, other than some epic looseness at the small of my back.  That's probably because I have a very prominent butt combined with a full tummy.  I suspect I can fix this a bit by taking in the back along those side seams, but I don't really have the time to play with that right now (we leave on Friday ye gods!) and it's way better than anything I could find at the stores (especially since it's not actually possible for me to find this type of swim top in my size here).  This is going to be perfect for keeping the sun off of my pasty white back!

And as observed in the comments of my preview post, this top is basically the neon-bright colour of so many fishing lures, so I'm probably going to see some fishy action while snorkling!  Hopefully of the "pretty tropical fish" variety and not the "big hungry shark" variety...

The pattern itself is Fehr Trade's Surf to Summit top, and I can't recommend it enough!  The pattern is cleverly drafted and the instructions are some of the best I've ever seen.  She even goes into details on how to adjust the pattern to fit your body - square shoulders?  full bust?  width needed at waist?  She's got it covered!  I actually did my first princess seam fba here, and her instructions made it easy peasy.

I will definitely be making more of these, yes ma'am!

Anyways, I'm basically all ready for our trip, now that my sewing is finished.  I'm usually a "one hour before I have to be at the airport? Guess I'll start packing now" type of person.  This time though, I was basically packed last night !(3 whole days before we leave).  Other than the two dresses I had to hem (Moneta) and sew entirely (slap-dash no-pattern), of course.  This is unprecedented, for me!

So, have you ever created a slap-dash pattern that becomes an absolute favourite before?  Because I'm pretty sure I'm going to live in that maxi dress...

Sneak Peak: Surf to Summit Top

I'm going to try to get some modeled pictures before we leave on Friday, but I thought I'd give you guys a peak at my finished Surf to Summit top, just because I teased you about it last night/very early this morning.

It turned out really good - I can't believe I sewed it.  I mean, there's some issues with the neckline entirely related to my less than stellar finishing technique, and I think I need to take in the waist a bit on the back, but it's pretty fantastic as is.  I definitely want to make up more of these for running and possibly casual wear.

I'm not done sewing today - I'm hoping to get a Moneta dress sewn up this evening.  It's all cut out and ready to go, and I can't imagine that it'll take more than a few hours.

Although after my shouting match with the collar of my top, I think I should take a little break first.

Sleepy Fabric Cutting

It's nearly 3 am here (ah oops crap, didn't realize), and I just finished cutting out the fabric for a Surf to Summit top.  I already have a swimsuit (purchased, as it was surprisingly perfect), but I wanted something that would cover my back more, and I didn't want to be stuck wearing a t-shirt.  I figured, if Suzy did it, so can I!

More on this later, after I get some sleep and spend some time in the sewing room!  What do you think about my fabric choice?  :)

Okay to bed for me!

A Pile of Hats

I love knitting toques.  There's something about watching the stitches fly around my 16" cable, building a hat-shape in no time flat.  And there's more patterns and styles and designs than I could ever possibly wear myself, and many that I just can't pull off. 

Doesn't stop me from wanting to make them though.

Thankfully, I live in a place that has cool to cold weather most of the year, and epically freezing for sometimes long stretches.  This means that most locals and visitors won't refuse a toque when I try to pawn them off, and they always make great presents.  This also means that they're a popular item for charity knitting!

That's where the pile at the top went, as well as the one above.  I dropped them off last week at our LYS during knit night.  I'm not sure what project or projects they'll go toward, but hopefully someone appreciates a nice warm toque!

I made this toque a couple of years ago, but it's been sitting in a basket unused for a while and I thought I'd send it along for someone to get some use out of.  I made up the colourwork pattern myself, which was fun!  It's a little small for an average adult's head, but would probably fit a kid perfectly.  The colours are off here - it's actually a bright teal against a dark grey background.

This is another oldy, but in a different way.  I made it back in 2012 as a Christmas gift for an old roommate.  Unfortunately, I didn't get it finished in time and got her something else.  In the mean time, it went into the UFO basket and I ignored it until two weeks ago.  It honestly took me less than a half-hour to finish up, and once blocked is actually a really cute hood! 

The pattern is Capucine and I knit it from two strands of Cascade 220 held together.  I think it's a little shallow (probably my gauge was off), but it's not too bad.  I traded braids for the original tassels at the front, but made a honkin' big on for the back.

I love this big, bulky, glitzy toque so much.  It looks horrendous on me, but when I won this yarn I knew immediately that it had to be made up in either this pattern (Vermonter) or as a giant bulky cowl.  This gold flake yarn looks pretty horrendous on the skein, but I figured it would knit up nicely.  I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out.

Modified Stash-Bustin' Hampton

Now this toque, this one is my favourite of the bunch, and it was tough to not keep it for myself.  It's actually the same pattern as my Haines-inspired Hampton, but with the lace pattern removed and doing some major stash-busting.  I grabbed some left-over green worsted weight yarn and knit until it ran out, and then switched to some leftover light grey with the intention of knitting the rest of the hat with it. 

That...didn't pan out.  About 5 rows from the end, I ran out of grey.  Digging through the stash pile though, I found this brown and though "eh why not", ripped back a few rows and finished the hat with the brown.  It looked a little odd, but a small loose pompom in the brown at the top tied everything together nicely.

I'd meant to donate it much sooner, but the stark line between the green and grey bothered me.  Eventually, I stash dived again and found a teeny tiny bit of dark grey and duplicate stitched on the zig zag above.  SO MUCH BETTER!  I think it's a fantastic toque, a great pattern, and was so much fun to knit from scraps.  Also, I killed 4 small balls of yarn bits doing it, so yay!

Do you have a favourite type of thing to make?  If so, do you ever wind up pawning them off on everyone else because your love of making them exceeds your use for that item?  I sometimes feel like I did that one summer when I underestimated the amount of zucchini to plant and was reduced to literally abandoning them on my neighbours doorsteps because no-one would take them voluntarily anymore!