Huddling indoors

Oh the weather outside is frightful,

But the fire is sure delightful,

And since there's no place to go,

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow....

This wonderful yarn arrived in the mail today from Mountain Girl Yarns... I am in love! I wanted to get a picture of this beautiful yarn up on the blog today, but it is dark indoors... so outside in the snow we went.

We quickly moved back inside, where you'll find me taking advantage of the snowy weather to huddle indoors and continue working on the Daybreak shawl from Stephen West. I started this one earlier in the week, and it is a nice easy knit for a nice easy day.
Stay safe and warm, Sam xxx

Happy Valentines Day!

Hello Friends,
Are you having a good Valentines day? Any fun plans?

We'll be driving down to Colorado Springs today - that's where Joe and I met, 14 years ago. Its just a short drive down from Denver and we always enjoy spending a day in Old Colorado City and seeing Garden of the Gods.

But first, I wanted to quickly share the socks that I finished for Joe.



These were completed just in the nick of time yesterday evening.



The yarn is Crazy Zauberball (the Black/grey/white) and Shibui sock (red). I like that they both appear to be the same from the cuff down to the heel, but that one foot has the darker yarn and the other foot the lighter yarn. I hadn't planned them to work out that way... but for me that's part of the fun of working with these types of yarn.



The pattern is one that I made up as I went along. I share it here in case you might be interested:
The socks are worked from cuff to toe, using size 2 needles.

Cuff:

• Cast on 70 stitches and join for knitting in the round, place a stitch marker at the beginning of the round to help you keep track of where each round starts and stops
• Work 10 rounds in a K1, P1 rib

Leg:

• Work 5 rows in K9, P1 pattern
• Then work the heart pattern below (retaining the K9, P1 pattern as illustrated in the heart chart), using your contrast yarn for the hearts

• Once the heart chart is completed, continue working in K9, P1 pattern until leg is desired length (for my socks this was approx. 8.5 inches)

Add in waste yarn for a provisional heel:

• Using a waste yarn of a contrast colour, knit 35 stitches
• Now, reknit these stitches with your working yarn (in my case the zauberball) retaining the K9, P1 pattern around
• Here's a good resource for how to do this, from the Knit Purl Hunter:

Foot:

• Continue knitting in K9, P1 pattern until the foot is the desired length (for my socks, this was approx. 6 inches)

Toe:

• Arrange the stitches so that you have 35 stitches on needle 1, and the other 35 stitches split fairly evenly between needles 2 and 3
• Switch to the contrast yarn
• Knit 1 complete round
• Then knit a decrease round:  On needle 1: K1, SSK.  K until there are 3 stitches left on the needle.  K2 tog, K1.  On needle 2: K1, SSK, K to end of needle.  On needle 3: K until there are 3 stitches left on the needle.  K2 tog, K1.
• Work a knit round, and then work a decrease round and keep alternating between these rounds until there are 30 stitches left
• Using Kitchener stitch, graft the live stitches together

The afterthought heel:

• Go back to the waste yarn and place these stitches on your needle, while removing the waste yarn
• Follow the instructions for the toe, to complete the heel
• Again, for a great resource, the Knit Purl Hunter has the following instructional video

Darn in all ends and then repeat for the second sock. :)
That's all there is to it.



For the folks in the US, wishing you a lovely long weekend!
Happy Valentines to all,
Sam
xxx