Summer Heat

Hey Everyone! 

Since my last post, I have completed one pair of socks and I am working to get another pair done before this summer gets even hotter. We are expected record heat here the next few days and I want to take advantage of that in order to quickly dry these socks once I get them washed and blocked. Today I got the first sock of the second pair I intend to wash. 

While organizing my KnitPicks Palette Yarn I realized that I have sock yarn that color wise matches the Cascade Eco+ Yarn I am currently using to knit a wrap. I totally had not intended to have socks that match the wrap. It is cool that I will have socks that match my wrap. 

I have also put together a spreadsheet to keep track of the pairs of socks I make and the sock yarn I have in my stash, as well as the Palette yarn I have yet to purchase to make socks and a color swatch out of. 

I definitely want to try other wool sock yarns in addition to what I already have used, though I have found that for wool sock yarn, the KnitPicks Palette is my favorite to date. In addition to the Palette yarn, I want to try the other KnitPicks fingering weight yarns for socks and see how they knit up. Now that I have worked with the Palette yarn, it has given me the most consistent end results. It has so far been the easiest Wool sock yarn to have worked with. 

As much as I am not a summer person I am trying to put this hotter than average summer to good use and get as many pairs of socks knit up, washed and blocked while it is warm enough outside to put the socks out on the line and not have to use extra electricity to get my socks dry or to keep the sheepy smell in the house (those I live with wouldn’t appreciate the sheepy smell). 

More Swatches!

Hey Everyone! 

Yesterday I got industrious and started making color swatches for the KnitPicks Palette yarn that I have. I decided to pull out the yarn I have used so far to make socks, which amounts to six colors and started making color swatches. 

I also started a personal KnitPicks Palette Yarn inventory of what colors I have, what colors I want that I don’t have, how many full balls I have in my stash, how many partial balls, do I have scrapes left over that would be just enough for stripes, how many pairs of each color I have, how many pairs I have using the partial balls and combined colors etc. I also added a column to note which colors I have and do not have color swatches for. 

Yes, the spreadsheet and knitting up swatches has taken a lot of work. I started about 3 pm yesterday (Tuesday) afternoon, and now at 4 pm Wednesday afternoon, the six color swatches plus two gauge swatches of Cascade Eco+ Yarn are drying while pinned to a blocking board. 

I should also note that I was also up until 2 this morning working on swatches. So I am kind of dragging today. 

The plan is, going forward, with the KnitPicks Palette yarn is to knit the color swatches each time I start a pair of socks using a new color that I don’t have a swatch for yet. That way I will for sure have a swatch for said color. It will also alleviate the pressure to knit so many swatches at once. It will also make it easier if colors are similar, each color will have a swatch knit up, washed, blocked and labeled before I move on to another color. 

But Erica, why are you wanting all these swatches? That’s a good question. I want to make some sort of swatch board or swatch cards of the KnitPicks Palette yarn, because it is so far my favorite wool sock yarn, and swatches are a lot smaller and easier to deal with if I am wanting to decide on a color combination for a new pair of socks, or if I want to figure out what color a certain pair of socks is. That is why I am kind of leaning toward the swatch cards so it will be easier to move around and put colors next to each other. Then I am not trying to dig out my leftover yarn tubs and making a huge mess to find the yarn I want to use, and mix everything up. 

Being able to know what I have in my stash and how much, is why I did the spread sheet. I like being able to see pretty much what I have and how much I have and have that at my fingertips. I am a person who is about being as organized as possible. 

I am not a huge fan of wearing socks when I am around the house and such. I am working on so many pairs of socks, because the ones I make are a better quality and thick enough to be good boot socks without being too thick. Beings that I love knitting and love hiking, I figured I could teach myself how to knit my own boot socks, for when I go hiking. That is part of why I went with the Palette yarn in the first place, because it is 100% wool, yet is lightweight. It keeps your feet warm without being super bulky. 

Tweaking the Pattern

Hey Everyone!

My journey to finding the perfect basic sock pattern is still evolving. I have it pretty well pegged down, though every so often I try something a little different to see if I like it any better than the previous version. 

This time I tweaked my go to pattern ever so slightly. This time around I added 7 rows to what I had been putting between the cuff and heel flap of the sock, bringing the total to 10 rows. I have to say that I actually am liking the 10 rows between the cuff and the start of the heel flap over just 3 rows. 

I am hoping this is the last tweak for a while. 

With 3 rows between the cuff and heel flap:

With 10 rows between the cuff and heel flap:

I think it looks a little more like a sock should this way. 

Knitting, interviews and Life

Hey Everyone!

In what free time I have had the past few days, which hasn’t seemed like all that much, I have made some progress on my second pair of KnitPicks Palette yarn in Victorian socks. I am currently working on the heel of the first sock. 

Today I had an interview with a local small yarn producer and Shop. I am not going to say which one, for privacy sake. I have to wait a few more days until I find out whether I move on on the hiring process. This job would totally be #jobgoals for someone like me.

That is one of the things I love about living here in Portland; There are so many locally owned yarn stores.