In this episode, I talk about the Tour-de-Sock competition focusing on stages 3 (Bicycle Race by Heidi Nick), 5 (Flibbertigibbet by Lisa K. Ross) and 6 (Sidetracked Socks by Kirsten Hall). You can see me wearing my There Will Be Time short-row cardigan and I will also talk about some future plans with lovely Primrose Yarn co yarns and a work-in-progress with Isager Spinni and Alpaca 1 yarns.
Plan A: https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/plan-a
Odensjön Socks: https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/odensjon-socks
Bicycle Race: https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/bicycle-race-2
Arctic Blizzard: https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/arctic-blizzard
Flibbertigibbet: https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/flibbertigibbet
Sidetracked Socks: https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/sidetracked-socks
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy on Amazon: https://amzn.to/2vElEzz (As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases)
Primrose Yarn co: https://primroseyarnco.com/collections/sophia-mcn
There Will Be Time cardigan: https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/there-will-be-time
In this episode you can join our knitting circle on our journey to Turku to visit ILO Knitting Shop.
In this episode I'm working on
Flibbertigibbet socks by Lisa K. Ross: https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/flibbertigibbet
Sidetracked socks by Kirsten Hall: https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/sidetracked-socks
I'm wearing my favourite sweater: Alignment https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/alignment
In this episode I talk about my Arctic Blizzard sock pattern for Tour-de-Sock Stage 4: how the sock is constructed, how you can modify the pattern and tips for stranded knitting. Also why I was happy to get more snow in Helsinki in April.
Arctic Blizzard: https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/arctic-blizzard
Tour-de-Sock: http://tour-de-sock.com
Bicycle Race by Heidi Nick: https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/bicycle-race-2
I'm wearing my Alignment sweater.
In this episode, I talk about the Tour-de-Sock competition and show the first two pairs of socks. I also talk about Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and what that book has to do with Tour-de-Sock.
Tour-de-Sock: http://tour-de-sock.com
Plan A: https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/plan-a
Odensjön Socks: https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/odensjon-socks
Bicycle Race: https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/bicycle-race-2
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy on Amazon: https://amzn.to/2vElEzz (As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases)
Kaiku test knitting: https://www.ravelry.com/discuss/birkenwasser-knits/3814892/
Steller Tunic: https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/steller-tunic
Tour-de-Sock: http://tour-de-sock.com
Plan A: https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/plan-a
Odensjön Socks: https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/odensjon-socks
Bicycle Race: https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/bicycle-race-2
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy on Amazon: https://amzn.to/2vElEzz (As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases)
Kaiku test knitting: https://www.ravelry.com/discuss/birkenwasser-knits/3814892/
Steller Tunic: https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/steller-tunic
In this episode I talk about my latest pattern release, Astrum socks: what made me design socks and how the toe-up pattern is constructed. I also talk about the crochet rug project for my balcony.
Astrum socks
Odensjön Socks by Suzanne Sjögren
Crochet rug in Koukutettu blog
Astrum socks
Odensjön Socks by Suzanne Sjögren
Crochet rug in Koukutettu blog
I had my first attempt at painting a sock blank a couple of months ago at Kässäkerho Pom Pom Super Weekend. Obviously, I was anxious to get the sock blank on the needles. I painted the sock blank with a fade in mind, thinking that I would knit two socks at the same time, unravelling the sock blank from both ends.
I soon learned that this would not happen, as the blank only unravels from the top down and not from bottom up. I had to rip the whole blank and cake it before I could continue. This took a bit of the fun of knitting a sock blank, but it was still nice to wait for the next color to appear.
Pattern: Vanilla Reversed by Anneh Fletcher
Yarn: Hand painted sock blank
Needles: 2,5 mm (US 1 1/2)
By the time I got to the cuffs of Vanilla Reversed, I still had one color left on my sock blank. I wanted to use the whole sock blank for these socks, so I started increasing for calves and simply kept going until all yarn was used up.
Linking up to CreaDienstag.
I have a thing for challenges and knit-a-longs, so when Leeni Hoi announced that she's hosting a KAL for her cool X Sox design I knew that I wanted to participate. I had bought a skein of her Lystig Merino Sock in My Little Pony Overdose at the Knitmare Fest in October, and this would be the perfect occasion to knit socks for me using that yarn. Or so I thought. We had arranged for the kids to spend a week of their Christmas holiday with grandparents in Kuopio. That's north enough to have snow and a real winter; something that we have had in Helsinki for only the last couple of weeks (and that'll be gone by Thursday when we'll get rain showers that will melt the precious snow away). I was planning to continue with my last GAL projects until end of the year, and then cast on my X Sox on first of January. Then, on the train, I realised that we didn't pack woolly socks for Troll Princess.
"You can't possibly knit a pair of socks that fast!" said Business Woman, and if that's not a challenge, I don't know what is. I had three days before returning to Helsinki, but, obviously, there are other obligations when visiting the in-laws so it's not all knitting time. However, I had 4 hours on the train so I could get a good start.
The pattern has instructions for heavier and lighter weight sock yarn, and a note saying that you can get a larger size by using heavier yarn with light weight stitch count. I figured that it would work the other way around as well, and started with the stitch count for heavy yarn using this light weight yarn. It happened to fit perfectly, so there was no need for further modifications. The legs could have been longer, but I bound off the socks 10 minutes before we headed back to the train station. This was the size that was doable in three days. In the end, Troll Princess had a lovely week of playing in the snow with warm feet!
The problem with these photos is that you can't see the X in the Sox! I only realised when I looked at the pictures that she should have worn them the other way around for the X to show - now they look more like diamond socks... Sorry, Leeni!
It's CreaDienstag!
Pattern: X Sox by Leeni Hoi
Size: Modified (35)
Yarn: Lystig Merino Sock in My Little Pony Overdose (44 g)
Needles: 2,5 mm (US 1 1/2)
"You can't possibly knit a pair of socks that fast!" said Business Woman, and if that's not a challenge, I don't know what is. I had three days before returning to Helsinki, but, obviously, there are other obligations when visiting the in-laws so it's not all knitting time. However, I had 4 hours on the train so I could get a good start.
The pattern has instructions for heavier and lighter weight sock yarn, and a note saying that you can get a larger size by using heavier yarn with light weight stitch count. I figured that it would work the other way around as well, and started with the stitch count for heavy yarn using this light weight yarn. It happened to fit perfectly, so there was no need for further modifications. The legs could have been longer, but I bound off the socks 10 minutes before we headed back to the train station. This was the size that was doable in three days. In the end, Troll Princess had a lovely week of playing in the snow with warm feet!
The problem with these photos is that you can't see the X in the Sox! I only realised when I looked at the pictures that she should have worn them the other way around for the X to show - now they look more like diamond socks... Sorry, Leeni!
It's CreaDienstag!
Vivid Winter issue of Pom Pom Quarterly has so many lovely patterns that I had a hard time choosing which one to start with. I decided to go with the ones that I had yarn for first, and socks that I could use all those leftover sock yarns sounded like a good pattern to start with. Finding a fade of seven colors wasn't as easy as I thought, though. I tried several combos and ended up with this one. It's still not perfect, as the red is too dark. I took a black and white picture of the yarns, so I knew there was a problem with the red. Nevertheless, it was the best choice of the ones I had, so I decided to go with this combo anyway.
I wanted to knit two-at-a-time, and doing that with a single cake, knitting from both ends, and fading to the next color made quite a mess. It was doable, though, so I continued and managed to finish both socks at the same time. Unfortunately, the socks turned out too big. The instructions tell you to knit the foot until 3 cm less than the desired foot length, but my heel took 5,5 cm after that. My gauge was slightly off (32 sts and 48 rows instead of 34 sts and 45 rows), but that should actually work in the opposite direction. I guess the 3 cm instruction was for the smallest size, and with the largest size you need to work more rows. I tried the sock on after the heel, but for some reason I didn't believe it was that big, and continued anyway. Of course, this only means that I have to knit another pair and this time get a better combo for the fade and start the heel earlier. In the meanwhile, I think that I can wear these socks anyway!
Pattern: Fluorite by Andrea Mowry
Yarn: Hedgehog Fibres Sock in colorways Construct (A, 12 g) and Bramble (C, 23 g), Lanitium ex Machina Merino Sock in colorway Queen of the Elves (F, 31 g), Easyknits.co.uk Dusted Dreams in colorway Tiffin (E, 14 g) and Garn Surr Sokke Merino in gray-pink (B, 11 g), white (D, 13 g), and purple (G, 18 g).
Needles: 2,5 mm (US 1 1/2)
I wanted to knit two-at-a-time, and doing that with a single cake, knitting from both ends, and fading to the next color made quite a mess. It was doable, though, so I continued and managed to finish both socks at the same time. Unfortunately, the socks turned out too big. The instructions tell you to knit the foot until 3 cm less than the desired foot length, but my heel took 5,5 cm after that. My gauge was slightly off (32 sts and 48 rows instead of 34 sts and 45 rows), but that should actually work in the opposite direction. I guess the 3 cm instruction was for the smallest size, and with the largest size you need to work more rows. I tried the sock on after the heel, but for some reason I didn't believe it was that big, and continued anyway. Of course, this only means that I have to knit another pair and this time get a better combo for the fade and start the heel earlier. In the meanwhile, I think that I can wear these socks anyway!
Every now and then you notice that the kids need socks, and if you can't trick anyone else into knitting them there's not much you can do - knit socks it is then. Luckily, the Indie Design Gift-A-Long was just around the corner when the need for socks appeared, so I looked at the selection of socks and saw this interesting design: Diagon Alley by Dana Gervais.
I was hoping that the smallest size would be about Young Warrior's size, but as you can see there is room for growth. The pattern is made of short row sections that are repeated in pairs, and you can knit a couple of rows more for extra length, but knitting less would have meant leaving out the second pair of short row sections from foot. I didn't want to do that, so I followed the instructions and the socks should fit next winter.
After the photo shoot, Young Warrior insisted on wearing the socks for the rest of the day. "They feel so nice!", so being slightly oversized doesn't seem to be a problem.
Pattern: Diagon Alley by Dana Gervais
Yarn: Knit Picks Hawthorne, colorways Aquatic Speckle, Delphinium, and Poseidon
Needles: 2,5 mm (US 1 1/2)
I was hoping that the smallest size would be about Young Warrior's size, but as you can see there is room for growth. The pattern is made of short row sections that are repeated in pairs, and you can knit a couple of rows more for extra length, but knitting less would have meant leaving out the second pair of short row sections from foot. I didn't want to do that, so I followed the instructions and the socks should fit next winter.
I reversed the order of the contrast colors for the second sock. I prefer symmetry, but Young Warrior thought that it would look cool and he is really happy with the result.
After the photo shoot, Young Warrior insisted on wearing the socks for the rest of the day. "They feel so nice!", so being slightly oversized doesn't seem to be a problem.
The last round of Tour-de-Sock was a tough one. We knew beforehand that it would be four colors and quite a large amount of yarn. It turned out to be stranded knitting using four colors, which is still ok. The new thing here was jacquard floats, and these two combined made knitting slow. Very slow. Actually, most of the participants didn't even get started with these socks, and those who did dropped out pretty soon after noticing how much time it would take to finish this pair.
Pattern: Vertigo 2 Point 0 by Candy Degel
Yarn: CoopKnits Socks Yeah! in colorway 110 Malachite (MC, 49 g), Hedgehog Fibres Sock in colorway Bramble (CC, 35 g), Filcolana Arwetta Classic in colorway 252 Shock Orange (HC1, 31g), and Hedgehog Fibres Sock in colorway Banana Legs (HC2, 17 g)
Needles: 2,5 mm (US 1 1/2)
Unfortunately, I was not smart enough to skip this round. That meant that I spent a week using almost all my free time knitting these socks.
Jacquard floats was a new technique for me. It means that you add float stitches every two or three stitches apart and purl these stitches with yarns in front. This way the inside of the sock is also almost knitted, and there are no long floats to worry about. It does make the socks rather thick, though. You need to pay attention to the order of your yarns. I only noticed this as I was knitting my second sock: you can see how the float stitches are showing at the top of the large squares. At that point I was wondering how I managed to knit the first sock without learning the technique, but also at that point I didn't care anymore; all I wanted was to get these socks off the needles. In retrospect, I could have easily fixed those visible float stitches with a crochet hook at that point, but now I just have to accept them.
Another problem with these socks was the heel. Turning the heel meant working the square pattern in the middle and decreasing the gusset stitches on the sides. As the contrast color is not involved in the decreases, it meant that I got large holes next to the decreases no matter how hard I tried pulling the main color working yarn. For the second sock I tried wrapping the contrast color around the next float stitch on the sides, and that helped a bit, but I still took a needle and yarn to close the gap afterwards.
The good thing about finishing this pair was that it improved my standing in the competition remarkably. There were only 32 finished pairs on this round, and I was 13th. Those of you who have participated in TdS might find this hard to believe, but yes, finishing one week after publication of the pattern meant that I was 13th! In the overall standings I was 22nd and our team Finnish Sisu finished 6th. I was pretty happy with the result: there were more than 600 knitters who finished at least one pair in the competition! And it's all about charity after all, with registration fees going to Doctors Without Borders.
Here's my set of TdS socks. I got one pair that's too small for adults, and one with too many mistakes to give for anyone, but I also got 4 pairs that I can give as gifts when needed and learned many new techniques. All in all a good experience, that is! But I'll never knit socks again...
The 5th round of Tour-de-Sock included plenty of cables with some beads. There were practically no repeats on the pattern, so you had to look at the chart on every single row. Not something you can carry around and knit a round here and another there...
I was expecting something similar to last year's A Song of Beads and Lace, and I was going to use a precious skein of Lanitium ex Machina sock yarn and knit a pair for myself. That would mean some extra work because of a larger size, but for some reason I thought that I'd like to have socks with beads. The pattern came out on Thursday evening at 10 PM, and at first, it didn't look like socks that I'd like to wear, so I didn't want to use the LeM skein for these. A quick stash diving gave me this yellow Handu Merino sock yarn with red speckles, and I had some red beads left after my Arkema gloves project, so I decided to work with those and go with the smallest size (XS) again.
I had to re-check the pattern a couple of times when knitting the bead parts. Half of the beads are on knit columns, half of them on knit-purl columns. The latter ones would be practically hidden during knitting as the purl stitches make it like ribbing and the beads disappear between the knit columns. Luckily, this changed after blocking, as it stretched the ribbing enough to show the beads.
The pattern didn't include a picture of the finished sock, only a picture of the front cables and the back pattern. The heel and toes came as a surprise, so you simply had to trust the pattern and see what comes out. At some point I did check the TdS forum so I wouldn't repeat the mistake of not noticing errata on time, something that happened to me on round 3. I noticed that the last beads were made optional, with extra points for using them. I didn't understand why they were optional, (maybe so the sock would feel better in a shoe?), and I thought that they would look better with all beads in, so that's what I did.
On this round, I wasn't really competing, as I noticed on the previous round that I can't win even if I tried to (I used to have a t-shirt with a slogan "If you can't win, don't play"). I also knew that I couldn't stay up all night and knit, so on Thursday evening I first spent 20 minutes extra for winding the unplanned yarn and then got started with the ribbing. On Friday, I decided to leave sock knitting at home for our anniversary dinner, and then on Saturday it was family obligations, such as kids' circus practice. I finally finished the socks just before midnight on Saturday, and to my surprise I was 44th at that point when the competition had started two days earlier. This wasn't a very difficult or slow project, so I'm assuming that quite a few people have given up. Let's see how many there will be on the last round. We know it's going to be something using 4 colors.
Pattern: Accio by Heidi Nick
Yarn: Handu Merino sock (72 g)
Needles: 2,5 mm (US 1 1/2)
I was expecting something similar to last year's A Song of Beads and Lace, and I was going to use a precious skein of Lanitium ex Machina sock yarn and knit a pair for myself. That would mean some extra work because of a larger size, but for some reason I thought that I'd like to have socks with beads. The pattern came out on Thursday evening at 10 PM, and at first, it didn't look like socks that I'd like to wear, so I didn't want to use the LeM skein for these. A quick stash diving gave me this yellow Handu Merino sock yarn with red speckles, and I had some red beads left after my Arkema gloves project, so I decided to work with those and go with the smallest size (XS) again.
I had to re-check the pattern a couple of times when knitting the bead parts. Half of the beads are on knit columns, half of them on knit-purl columns. The latter ones would be practically hidden during knitting as the purl stitches make it like ribbing and the beads disappear between the knit columns. Luckily, this changed after blocking, as it stretched the ribbing enough to show the beads.
The pattern didn't include a picture of the finished sock, only a picture of the front cables and the back pattern. The heel and toes came as a surprise, so you simply had to trust the pattern and see what comes out. At some point I did check the TdS forum so I wouldn't repeat the mistake of not noticing errata on time, something that happened to me on round 3. I noticed that the last beads were made optional, with extra points for using them. I didn't understand why they were optional, (maybe so the sock would feel better in a shoe?), and I thought that they would look better with all beads in, so that's what I did.
On this round, I wasn't really competing, as I noticed on the previous round that I can't win even if I tried to (I used to have a t-shirt with a slogan "If you can't win, don't play"). I also knew that I couldn't stay up all night and knit, so on Thursday evening I first spent 20 minutes extra for winding the unplanned yarn and then got started with the ribbing. On Friday, I decided to leave sock knitting at home for our anniversary dinner, and then on Saturday it was family obligations, such as kids' circus practice. I finally finished the socks just before midnight on Saturday, and to my surprise I was 44th at that point when the competition had started two days earlier. This wasn't a very difficult or slow project, so I'm assuming that quite a few people have given up. Let's see how many there will be on the last round. We know it's going to be something using 4 colors.
Mosaic knitting is something that was expected and feared on Tour-de-Sock. When stage 4 pattern was released, there was a collective sigh of relief: it's a lovely pattern! This pattern makes great use of mosaic knitting: you couldn't really achieve the same result with stranded knitting.
This time the pattern was released at 6 AM, so I thought that if I'm ever going to get socks done in one go, this would be the timing for that. I can't stay up late and I can't knit if I'm tired, so any round that begins in the afternoon or evening (or night) means that I will eventually give up and go to bed. This time, I persisted until midnight and got the socks done! For the last hour, I was so tired that I would have normally given up and gone to bed, but as I was already knitting the toes I decided to stay up and finish the socks.
Unfortunately, blocking didn't even out my slipped stitches like I was hoping for. I'm still happy with these socks: I think the neon pink looks good and the smallest 60 stitch size turned into a women's medium size with my loose knitting.
Pattern: Mosaic Marbles Socks by Kirsten Hall
Yarn: Handu Merino Sock (Pink 41 g, Gray 21 g)
Needles: 2,5 mm (US 1 1/2)
This time the pattern was released at 6 AM, so I thought that if I'm ever going to get socks done in one go, this would be the timing for that. I can't stay up late and I can't knit if I'm tired, so any round that begins in the afternoon or evening (or night) means that I will eventually give up and go to bed. This time, I persisted until midnight and got the socks done! For the last hour, I was so tired that I would have normally given up and gone to bed, but as I was already knitting the toes I decided to stay up and finish the socks.
So, it took me 18 hours to knit this pair of socks. The only breaks that I took were lunch and dinner. Unfortunately, this meant that I had to realize that I'm not a very fast knitter. The winner finished 9 hours earlier! Apparently, I get a lot done because I knit all the time, it's not that I was a fast knitter. I did finish 17th this round, so sticking to it did get me the best ranking so far, but I still can't believe that I needed double the time that the top 10 used for their socks. Oh well, as I know now that I can't compete for the top rankings I won't need to knit another pair in one go. Because that's crazy. Who would sit on a couch for 18 hours to knit a pair of socks?!
Unfortunately, blocking didn't even out my slipped stitches like I was hoping for. I'm still happy with these socks: I think the neon pink looks good and the smallest 60 stitch size turned into a women's medium size with my loose knitting.
Third stage in Tour-de-Sock included lace and cables and many options. Picot cuff or ribbing, decorative heel or Eye of Partridge, and even more options if you are not competing: ribbed or patterned instep. First choice is yarn, of course, and for me there were only two options: wildly variegated dark green or this pink with gray and white tones. The reason for only two options was that we were visiting my sister and I only packed these two. The pattern was published at midnight on Friday, but I decided to go to bed early and then to wake up early to get started before everyone else gets up.
Pattern: Indecisions by Adrienne Fong
Yarn: Handu Perussukkalanka (78 g)
Needles: 2,5 mm (US 1 1/2)
After seeing the pattern, the choice of yarn was obvious, because the pattern would not have been visible with the darker and more variegated colorway. And after choosing this pink to work with, it was also pretty obvious that I would choose the picot cuff. Choosing the picot cuff and working the decorative heel would give a bonus point in the competition, so that was my heel choice then. Another reason for choosing the picot cuff was that with ribbing you were supposed to use German twisted cast on, and as I wasn't familiar with the technique, I figured it would be faster to work the picot cuff. Although, I have to admit that I'm not sure if I've ever done a picot edge either, but it's pretty straight forward and basically the same thing as in the Kanteletar socks of the previous stage, only the purl round is changed to k2tog, yo.
Unfortunately, there was a mistake in the pattern version that I was using. This meant that I knitted 36 rows of heel flap instead of 26. I did wonder if it was really meant that you do a cable cross on last row before the heel turn, and obviously this would have been the point where you check the TdS forum for updates. I didn't, as the instructions tell you to trust the pattern, and the help thread is so long that it would have taken forever to see if someone had asked about this. This resulted in a pair of socks with too big heels, so whoever uses these socks will have to walk on those last cables... I was hoping to have a gift sock stash after this Tour-de-Sock, so I could simply pick up a pair when a present is needed, but I don't think I can give these to anyone.
Weekend at my sister's was great, and I did get some knitting time here and there: in a park, on the bus, at a museum (I did check the exhibitions with Young Warrior, but when he wanted to inspect the exhibits at the Game museum more thoroughly I took the opportunity to sit down and knit). Now, this pattern isn't exactly optimal for on-the-go knitting: it looks easy enough to memorize by taking one look at it, but it isn't. That meant a lot of time wasted correcting mistakes. More time was wasted with the extra work on the heels and I only finished the socks on Sunday evening after returning home. That meant finishing 72nd.
Linking up to CreaDienstag.
For the second stage of Tour-de-Sock, I was prepared to be competitive: it was my last vacation day so I could just sit at home and knit. But then it turns out that the start is at 8 PM and that kind of ruined my plans, because I can't stay up all night and knit. I surprised myself by staying up until 2 AM, though, and the last bit I owe to Hippusia Johanna who was doing a live Instagram of her knitting and that kind of kept me in the knitting mood for so late. By the way, reminded me of when I was young and there were TV chats with hosts - the host reads SMS text messages that are also shown on the TV screen and then comments on them. Seemed to work in the knitting competition context! (Sorry for not participating in the discussion, but I was knitting so I couldn't type messages at the same time :)
The second pattern included colorwork, and it gave me an opportunity to try out my new yarn thimble. I forgot to show it on my recent post of Jyväskylä Summer Knit Festival, but it was actually my first purchase. I'm glad that the first booth that I visited at the festival was Goldsmith Sanni Lehtinen's, because she only had like 5 yarn thimbles left at that point and I was lucky to still get one. I have to say that it made knitting so much easier as I didn't have to worry about keeping the yarns in order.
The pattern also included Latvian braids, and that was a new technique for me. This is what I love about Tour-de-Sock: it forces you to try new techniques! I had seen Latvian braids before, but I'm not a big fan of the look, so I probably would have never tried them if I didn't have to.
I had some trouble with my choice of yarns. My first choice didn't match the pattern, so I had to think of something else after seeing what I would be knitting. I loved the Priha socks, also by Tiina Kuu, that I knitted on the warm-up round and the dark blue looked so good that I wanted to use it for these socks as well. I had 40 grams left, exactly the same amount as in the sample small-size socks listed on the pattern. Only thing is, that in the sample the main colour was not used in colorwork, which was mentioned, but I didn't notice it at that time. So, I ran out of yarn at toes, and had to use the contrast color, which doesn't look very nice.
Having already started knitting, I started thinking that my contrast colors might not have enough contrast after all, so I made one more change before starting the colorwork. This is where I lost my sponsor yarn point, as I switched from a Lanitium ex Machina yarn to the pink that I used here. To be eligible for extra point for using sponsor yarn, you'd have to use sponsor yarn in either the main color or both contrast colors. If I were to knit the socks again, I would use the dark color for the birds, and a lighter color as the main color.
Being in the competitive mode, I went with the smallest size. I thought it was a women's S, but the model in the pictures is my 6-year-old! She loves the socks, so we have a happy owner for this pair. Only thing she's not happy with is the tightness of the legs, she really had to pull hard to get them on. I was afraid of ripping the socks when I forced them on my extra legs to get the first pictures for the competition.
And the competition? Well, I finished 24th, so I did a lot better than the first round! For the next round, I'll be traveling again, so no competition there. I'm still hoping that there's going be one round that I can knit in one go. If I can knit socks that fast. I'd like to try.
Pattern: Kanteletar by Tiina Kuu
Yarn: Knitlob's Lair Väinämöinen in colorways Muste (MC, 40 g) and Puolukka (CC2, 19 g) and Handu basic sock yarn (CC1, 13 g)
Needles: 2,5 mm (US 1 1/2)
The second pattern included colorwork, and it gave me an opportunity to try out my new yarn thimble. I forgot to show it on my recent post of Jyväskylä Summer Knit Festival, but it was actually my first purchase. I'm glad that the first booth that I visited at the festival was Goldsmith Sanni Lehtinen's, because she only had like 5 yarn thimbles left at that point and I was lucky to still get one. I have to say that it made knitting so much easier as I didn't have to worry about keeping the yarns in order.
The pattern also included Latvian braids, and that was a new technique for me. This is what I love about Tour-de-Sock: it forces you to try new techniques! I had seen Latvian braids before, but I'm not a big fan of the look, so I probably would have never tried them if I didn't have to.
Having already started knitting, I started thinking that my contrast colors might not have enough contrast after all, so I made one more change before starting the colorwork. This is where I lost my sponsor yarn point, as I switched from a Lanitium ex Machina yarn to the pink that I used here. To be eligible for extra point for using sponsor yarn, you'd have to use sponsor yarn in either the main color or both contrast colors. If I were to knit the socks again, I would use the dark color for the birds, and a lighter color as the main color.
Being in the competitive mode, I went with the smallest size. I thought it was a women's S, but the model in the pictures is my 6-year-old! She loves the socks, so we have a happy owner for this pair. Only thing she's not happy with is the tightness of the legs, she really had to pull hard to get them on. I was afraid of ripping the socks when I forced them on my extra legs to get the first pictures for the competition.
And the competition? Well, I finished 24th, so I did a lot better than the first round! For the next round, I'll be traveling again, so no competition there. I'm still hoping that there's going be one round that I can knit in one go. If I can knit socks that fast. I'd like to try.
