Almost every crafty person I know has, at some time or another, thought of making their own socks. I was intrigued when I saw the Authentic Sock Loom Knitting Board, which allows you to make socks without knitting! I had to give it a try! About the Loom The kit contains an adjustable knitting loom
Raspberry Stitch Loom Knitted Bag Crochet Pattern Personally, I like to work with the loom counterclockwise, whether I am weaving a flat panel or working without it. I am right-handed, and it is more convenient for me to hold the hook in my right hand and the thread in my left. If you are left-handed, …
Discover Lauren Rad's beautiful pattern offered in September 2021 for the mystery sock club and now offered for all!!! ♥ Lucida refers to the brightest star in any given constellation. During winter-time, the stars feel extra bright in the crisp, cold, night air, so that almost every star feels like it could be a lucida. The eyelets dan-cing up and down the front and back of these socks are meant to mimic a night sky dusted with twinkling stars. In addition to the knitting pattern, you need the following materials to knit Lucida socks: Louise Robert Yarns Collection – Super Sock [75% Merino SW and 25% Nylon, 400 m / 437 yds, 100 g / 3.5 oz] shown in color Exclusive color - we suggest Brooke (or 274-348 m / 300-380 yds of another fingering weight yarn). Circular or DPN’s needles of 2.5 mm (US 1.5). One stitch marker for beginning of round; optional additional markers between pattern repeats Cable needle. Tapestry needle for weaving in ends SIZES: S, M, L Finished sock dimensions: 18 cm; 7”, 20 cm; 8”, 23 cm; 9” circumference. (Note: most people like their socks snug, so choose a finished sock size that is slightly smaller than your actual foot) GAUGE : 10 cm; 4” square = 34 stitches x 41 rows in stockinette. SKILL LEVEL: Intermediate TECHNIQUES : cables, increases, decreases, knitting in the round. NOTES: These socks are knit from the cuff down with a 1x1 twisted rib cuff. They feature a center panel of lace and cables that runs down the front and back of the sock. The heel is constructed with a classic heel flap and gusset for the snuggest and most customizable fit, and the socks end with a wedge toe. This pattern is offered in a numeric PDF format: add it to your cart and follow every step to complete your order: a link to download your pattern will be provided once the order is completed and you will also get this link by email (make sure to check your spams if you can't find the email in your inbox)
You wake for the day, and there’s a chill to the air. This is the…
Lana Grossa Meilenweit 50g 80% Schurwolle, 20% Polyamid, Lauflänge 210 m/50 g; 50 (100 – 100 – 100) g Mint (Fb 1401); 2 Nadelspiele Nr. 3; 1 Rundstricknadel Nr. 3, 40 cm lang.
I’ve created this page to show all of the sock heel patterns I can find. It’s a page I can quickly use as a reference. If you have a heel you love leave a comment and a link and I’…
I used 2 colorways of Noro Silk Garden sock yarn: a bold brightly colored one for the warp and a more subdued one for the weft. I’m not sure of the exact color numbers. 8 dent reed, 13” wide x 96...
I've never been so glad to get a loom-knit project done. These tube bed socks/slippers I designed for hubby were supposed to be for Chr...
By Amelia © February 25, 2011 Wow! Madrona Fiber Arts Festival was a hoot! But more on that at the end... Last summer, I was contacted by a tapestry weaver about spinning some "3 ply yarn" for her. In fact, the yarn she wanted mimiced in handspun was Paternayan's, which has 3 strands or fingering-weight 2-ply loosely twisted together. And, her plan was to separate them to color-blend (tapestry weaving is so cool!) There was to be 10 pounds of fiber to be spun, from local sheep, locally dyed and milled at Taylored Fibers. 10 pounds. That didn't quite hit home until I (a) injured my foot in July, leaving me only e-spinning as a wheel choice and (b) got a temp job 4 days a week in September, which is still steaming along with a somewhat indefinite future. Now, this 10 pounds isn't like the normal production run you might do for a sweater: not all the same color, to be spun up and bobbin-swapped as needed to make the singles come out consistently. Not at all. This is 8 ounces of each color -- and we decided to do them 4 ounces at a time, so she would have each color as quickly as possible, with the second half coming later. So, I have to spin 4 ounces, ply it, repeat until done. How can it hope to remain consistent? Here are my tips: 1. Keep your sample card handy. Mine has actual Paternayan's (the source yarn to base everything on!) wound around it to see the twist angle in the ply, split into its singles and wound around it to see the diameter of the single, and fluffed out to see the fiber in the single. Every time I start a new color, and at random points as I spin that color, I compare back to that source yarn. At least once per ounce during the singles, and at the start of plying to make sure I have my rhythm right. 2. Focus. I don't drift off into conversations -- this fiber doesn't come with me to spin-ins, though the plying might, it's not as hard to get right. All spun at home. I've lost the thread of Stargate Atlantis entirely since I am paying more attention to the yarn than to the plot. 3. Use the same speed and tension each time. On my e-spinner, I set the dial the same; on my treadle wheel, I use the same ratio. And, I always back the brake band's tension off to soft-as-will-draw-on as I start each bobbin, since as the bobbin fills, the brake tension gets tightened bit-by-bit. Forget that, and the fiber yanks onto the flyer faster than I can say "boo!" 4. Use the same spinning style each time. If you start out spinning worsted, spin it all worsted. If you start out spinning with double-drafting, spin it all that way. Whichever method you pick, stick with it. This yarn, I spin with double-drafting. It's production spinning, and that's my fastest way to get the yardage on the wheel. For plying, I have been using The Gentle Art of Plying as my plying method, but recently re-learned Alden Amos' plying method (see my youTube video embedded here; it is described in his Big Book of Handspinning). Amos' plying method is continuous, always moving toward the wheel, which was gentler on my e-spinner and let it spin for longer before heating up the motor. I could do the whole 4-plus ounces in one sitting. It takes me about an hour to ply 4 ounces (400 yards) at 1200 rpm, close to top speed, on my e-spinner. [ For the techs out there .. that works out to 5 twists per inch. About right, for the ply twist for this yarn. ] 5. Measure and adjust. Not only do I work to stay on-task during the four ounces, but once it's done, I skein it up with a yardage meter (since I'm paid by the yard, it does double-duty). That tells me if I stayed in the target range. I should get about 100 yards an ounce. If it's too short, then it was too thick or too dense (spinning style - worsted is denser than woolen, or too much twist compacting it). If it's too long, then it was too thin or too airy (not enough twist will pouf out more in the plying). I make a note of the ones noticeably outside the target (over 10% off), and let the weaver know if a color might be a little thinner or thicker than the others, so she can compensate in the weaving. More than anything else, that sample card and staying on-task keep the yarn within bounds. The medium wool that I'm spinning -- some Border Leicester, some Jacob, some Romney -- all feels about the same, and all will spin into a slightly finer yarn than my target if my goal were fine spinning. Now, if all your fiber is the same color, you can spin a whole bunch of bobbins-full of singles, and then randomly pick from the singles to ply. That way, you can ply early singles by later singles or totally randomize, so your yarn diameter varies either as little as possible, or as randomly as possible. But I didn't have that option in this spinning journey. If you want to hear about spinning for a sweater's worth of fiber, Amy King has a great article on Knitty, Spin me a sweater! I just sent off the most recent 2 pounds to the tapestry weaver, shown here, bringing the total to 6 pounds, and got 2 more pounds to spin. All in all, it will be about a full year's journey to complete the 10 pounds. I have all sorts of luscious fibers lined up to treat myself with when my hands want a break from the medium wool. Pygora, Alpaca, Silk, and my own precious Llama -- all for laceweight. I'm thinking, though, I might want to dive into the stash for some wool/silk blend to spin into a thick single and tame with rough finishing, for a total change of pace. Or not -- 4-ply sock yarns are also on my spinning want-to's. ~~~~ So, how fun was Madrona? Wow. Franklin Habit's class on photography was eye-opening. I had a terrific time teaching a dozen or so folks the basics of spindling in the rotunda, did some stash enhancement to my silk weaving yarn at the Habu Textiles booth, picked up some lovely pencil roving from Crown Mountain Farms for learn to spin kits, and got to catch up with a variety of friends from hither and yon, including meeting several face to face for the first time. Syne, Sarah, Tasha, Anne-Marie, and many others -- however fleeting our hello's may have been, I always treasure meeting friends. And new friends, too -- Taryn, John, Selah, Judith W - how cool to meet you! If you didn't get to take one of my classes, there are e-books for all three of them on my website; Spinning Self-Striping Socks and the Mitts of Experience has always been fun to teach (see the review by kayak on ravelry for some hints why), and I'm pleased to announce two brand-new e-books for the other two classes, Power Spinning and the All That Yarn Scarf, and Silk on Spindles and the Lacey Vertical Rib Scarf. I hope you enjoy them! If you'd like to be on an email list for email announcements of upcoming workshops, let me know -- there are some fun ones coming up in March with Sheep & Socks as the theme. ~~~~ I ran across a great quote on You, Simplified worth repeating: Absorb what is useful, discard what is useless, and add what is uniquely your own ~Bruce Lee. How cool is that. Exactly. I hope you, dear reader, use my blog exactly that way: learn the useful, forget the useless, and add your own ideas into the mix. ~~~~ © February 25, 2011 by Ask The Bellwether, posted at http://askthebellwether.com/blog
Since I've been on a sock hiatus, I've been working on this sweater. The yarn is Columbia from Imperial Yarn and the pattern is Fuse Cardigan from Brooklyn Tweed. This was the first time I saw a pattern in a yarn store, paid for it and it was delivered to my e-mail to be downloaded onto my tablet. How far we've come! My hubby and I went to the Designing Weavers show and I almost didn't get past the front porch. I was fascinated by the weaving Trudy Sonia was doing on her inkle loom and she was gracious enough to explain and show me what she was doing. She designed this pattern for a leash and collar. It's pick-up. And now I'll know what pick-up means the next time I read about it. Some other woven goods that caught my eye. I wish I'd gotten the names of the artists. There were so many beautiful things there, I didn't know which way to look first! I wish I'd taken my camera out sooner. There was so much more! This woven sculpture is beaded. Now, back to my projects, this is the beginning of a tallis (prayer shawl) for my daughter's boyfriend. This was quite a family affair. They said blue, green and a little brown. My mom and I figured out how to Skype and chose the colors together. Winky decided she wanted to help sley the reed. I ordered this yarn from Halcyon. It's a cotton, rayon, and hemp or flax blend. I used the same yarn 13 years ago for my daughter's tallis. I sett it at 24 epi. For a little, a very little stash busting, I used two strands of 10/2 cotton for the design. It's a summer and winter. My younger son helped with knotting the fringe while my older son was our photographer. My sister did the counted cross stitch. I wove the fabric for the matching bag and sewed it all together. Then, we had a lesson on tying the tzitzit. If you look closely, you can see the reinforcement corner that my sister embellished. Here are my daughter and their friend working on the other corners. A little break for other pursuits. My daughter has been working on one of the needlepoint canvases I got from Solvang this summer. I needed a project for traveling, so I was knitting a hat for her. We also took time out to felt the slippers I'd made for my daughter and her boyfriend. Big mistake! They don't have a washing machine, so we tried using their kitchen sink. For an hour. We tried. Really we did. We ran out of hot water and had to boil some. Our arms and hands got tired. Jokes were made about working in a laundry. We had an hour of trying and hoping and hilarity, but no go. I ended up bringing the slippers home. Cross your fingers! This was the big moment when we celebrated my daughter's boyfriend with him wrapped in the work of our hands. And here's my daughter in her new hat. The pattern is a freebie I found on Ravelry. It's called Volkstricken, Neon Ski Bonnet. The yarn is Royal Alpaca by Aslan Trends. I bought it at my LYS.
Whether you're a sock maker or not, you might have at least one or two (or, hundreds!) sock yarn balls in your stash just like me. If you remember... there's time that funky 'self-striping' yarns were so popular in sock knitting world. I do remember. One day I met this mind-blowing yarn ball that makes pattern by itse
As soon as the cold weather hits, out come my crochet hooks! It's like an automatic reaction I have to winter. Yarn aisle at Walmart: watch out! I am constantly scouring the internet for lovely
