socks

This is my 2009 tally für preemies. You might know that I support the German knit for preemies charity Frühchenstricken, who collect preemie knits and distribute them to the hospitals who request them. I usually send one packet a year, and this is the one for 2009 (they asked me to wait over Christmas to send it, so I only sent it last week).

What I made:
2 cotton blankets, ca 55x60 cm big
5 pairs of preemie socks
5 preemie hats

OK, it's not so much, but hey, every little helps and I know these items will beused by those who need them. Plus preemie knits are so great for quick stashbusting projects!

PS. What do you think about the new background Nick made for me?

Another free knitting pattern from Worsted Knitt! I'm getting the hang of this :)

This sock pattern is perfect for self-striping and self-patterning yarn. It can be so boring knitting plain stockinette socks with these yarns, but any complex pattern will not show in the striped yarn, or it will just look bad and messy. This simple moss stitch rib doesn't disturb the colours, but makes the sock more interesting to work on and to look at.

A word of warning: the pattern is not symmetrical. If you love your order and symmetrical ribbings, you possibly won't like this pattern. It doesn't really show that much, but better to give you a heads-up to avoid disappointment.

I'm back! I hope you all had a great Christmas?

I'll see if I'll post some pictures from Paris, but first I'll just show you some of the Christmas presents and a pair of funny socks I made.

The green adult booties are for my sister and her husband. The pattern is by Ysolda, and they're so quick and easy I decided to make them as presents this year. I already had one pair ready from October so I had good choice trying to figure out which booties had the best size for the gift receivers!

The booties are knit with vintage superwash wool held double on 5mm needles. The smaller pair is European size 39-40, and the bigger one should fit a foot quite a lot bigger! They took approximately 100 grams of yarn per pair, and that's held double! Really nice.

I've knit some small things last month and I thought I'd show them to you, as they came out nicely, I think!

First we have the Grown-up bootees. The pattern is by Ysolda Teague, and it's a part of the Whimsical Little Knits 1 collection. I've knit them with vintage superwash wool held double on 5mm needles. This pair fits me, so the size is ca. European 39. They took approximately 100 grams of yarn. I'll be making more as Christmas presents!

Next I have two more pairs of preemie socks for the Sukkasato-KAL. Again 28 stitches around, made on 2,5mm dpns. The yarn is of unknown quality, but I did dye it myself (except for the toe of one sock, as I ran out of the self-dyed yarn). The KAL is finished now, my total: five pairs of preemie socks, and the grown-up bootees. Not bad!

Just two more pairs of little preemie socks for charity. I'm also counting them in the Sukkasato sock KAL.

The yarn is a nameless sock yarn I received from a friend a while back. The socks are made on 2,5mm dpns, and have 28 stitches around. The cuff is 1x1 rib and the foot is plain. As simple as it gets!

Sukkasato has started again, the Finnish 2-month sock KAL in which I also participated last year.

Like last year, I'll be making small socks for charity. Here's the first pair of preemie socks. Made on 4mm needles using 24 stitches around, the yarn is Hjerte Sock held double.

I have more pairs on the needles and will post them throughout the KAL. They are so sweet and quick!

I don't know what I thought when I packed the April small item last year. I had packed some Regia Galaxy sock yarn, and a pattern for yoga socks which calls for DK yarn!

As I had recently made yoga socks I decided to find something more suitable for the Galaxy yarn. I found a pattern in Ravelry called LIR Galaxy, which was designed for this yarn, and seemed fun enough.
Stats:
Needles 2,5mm dpn's
Yarn: as stated, Regia Galaxy
Pattern mods: I had some trouble understanding the pattern, mainly I was too lazy to read it through, so I made some modifications. I made the back increases differently, plus I didn't omit the ribbing in the foot.

I should have made a bit more ribbing in the beginning, the socks slouch a bit, but other than that I like them. The yarn even made some galaxies!

A while back I made myself some yoga socks. They've been really useful and I've been using them now and then. After we got the Wii Fit board, Nick wanted some for himself too. So I whipped up a yoga sock following the directions for thicker yarn. However, the sock was a little bit too small, so I had to modify the pattern.

Yarn used: Regia Solid 6-ply, and Regia Solid 4-ply doubled for the stripes.
Needles: 3mm
Modifications: I cast on 52 stitches instead of 42, worked 14 rows of 1x1 rib, then 26 rows of 2x1 rib (where the last rib was 3x1 as 52 doesn't divide through 3...). I cast off 28 for the heel, and obviously cast on 28 too. The foot I did as advised, only I didn't cast off in rib but plain knit, as I found this reduces the ribbing from spreading out too much.

And I knit 1 kilo 611 grams in it - in one month, February! I can hardly believe it. That's a lot for me. This was a really fun knitalong and I will certainly take part next year too.

Here are my last two FOs in February.

First the gorgeous, gorgeous Chevalier socks by Tikru. I made the exactly following the pattern, with some mistakes. The yarn is from Villa Laurila, from the nearly-extinct breed Ahvenanmaanlammas. I used 3mm needles, and the socks weigh 124 grams.

I love these socks. I hardly take them off, they're so warm, but not sweaty, snug, but not too tight. Really lovely FO, the trouble was worth it!

Another FO! These were finished a few weeks ago but I'm just so behind on updating the blog! Sorry... well here they are.

The yarn is Novita's 7 Veljestä, a thick Finnish sock yarn. The pattern is actually from the 7 Veljestä ball band! A very simple ribbed cuff and plain foot, with some colour changes to cheer them up. The socks were knit on 3,5mm dpns.

I'm modelling them in the pictures, so that's why they look so droopy and big - they are! On my feet. On Nick's feet they're just right!