Knitting@roosterhillfarm.com

Noro socks

Presenting my first pair of Noro socks. They are knit top down on 2.25mm wooden needles with a short row heel. I knit them mostly while on the road, and finished them while watching the Academy Awards last night.

Noro socks

I did my best to line up the striping. I had to trim some yarn from the ball before starting the second sock, and the stripes turned out very matchy-matchy. I do have quite a but left over though, which tells me I could have made them taller than 6″. All told, there are 45g leftover. I also have 2 more balls of Noro to knit with. I am going to play with the striping more, maybe with some Sidewinders and a pattern that will draw the stripes out of the rows.

Yarn Pirate Feb Club shipment “I want candy”

I think I have joined a total of 3 sock clubs this year: Socks That Rock of course (been a member since the beginning), made it into the Loopy Ewe Club which starts this spring, and the Yarn Pirate sock club.

What’s different from the Pirate club is we get yarn - and lots of great accessories like pink circs. But no pattern. The rest is up to us. There is a Yarn Pirate group on Ravelry that makes it all very interesting. We can share what we make with the yarn every month.

Spiral Eyelet

My first take with this yarn was the Spiral Eyelet sock. On size 2.75 at 48-ish stitches, the striping is wide. I really liked the stripes, the eyelets not so much. I wanted a pattern to smear the stripes, mix it up a little. I wanted to do something new to me.

Swirl Socks

So I tinked and started over. And started over. And over. Ended up with a toe up at 60 stitches on 2.25 needles. Stripes are still there, but the change in gauge has certainly affected them. I wish I had those wide stripes back, but frankly they would not fit an adult foot at the gauge I had before.

The pattern is Swirl Socks with a little bit of Wendy’s generic toe up thrown in.

Noro Socks

Another recent knit includes the new Noro sock yarn done in a basic cuff down sock at 56st with a short row heel. I am just at the heel on the second sock. I have adjusted the yarn so both socks are the same, and it looks like I will have a lot left over. So a tip for you - on size 2.25 I think it is - you can go more than 6″ on the top of the sock and have more yarn. I would bet you could do 8″, more if you did not care about matching.

Stella’s Hat

I kinneared myself while driving to catch my new hat in action. It’s Stella’s Hat in malabrigo. Quick knit! I did it while watching the Grammy’s!

Nutkin

January Pirate Booty Club shipment: Kalamata. It looks variegated but is a striped yarn with 4 colors. I thought this yarn would look good as Nutkin. Nutkin reminds me of Monkey, do you think so? I think it is important to keep track of your YO when doing this sock: I have seen some pix where the holes are very noticable and I don’t think that fits the pattern well. One thing I am sure of: I am terrible at picot CO and often the cuffs are too small and tight when I am done. This is the case with this sock too, and I have lost interest. I am sure I will pick it up once more when I finish a couple other socks on the needles. This is also done with a short row heel. I am on a short row kick lately. Word to the wise: wrap your stitches or face holes in the heel. This process is clearly explained in Wendy’s Generic toe up and applies no matter what direction you knit your sock, imo.