Handknits by Susan

Nerd Wars

handknitsbysusan — Fri, 29 Mar 2013 22:18:26 +0000

I say, it’s been quite a while since I updated my blog. I joined Nerd Wars (not the TV show or movie) on Ravelry and have been quite busy knitting projects to fulfill nerdy challenges. I’m on team Most Amused and it’s been great fun so far! Here are some of the projects I’ve knit for the different challenges:

The Octoberfest socks, this time for my Mom. O’zapft is!

The Octoberfest socks yet again, this time in yellow for Markus. I can’t get enough of these socks. Three Sisters socks

Some little grey wristwarmers for me. (Spatterdash Wristwarmers by Dagmar Mora). I am just so pleased with these mitts. I will surely knit more pairs.

A lovely shawl for me. Dear Alan, it’s never the blue whale (Schmetterling by Adrienne Ku)

my year of socks

handknitsbysusan — Sun, 20 Jan 2013 18:30:32 +0000

Last January I decided I wanted to challenge myself by forming my own sock club. My sock club, I decided, would have a strange twist. My goal was to knit a pair of socks each month for one year based upon my version of synesthesia. I imagine words as colors, so the color of yarn I planned to use would correspond directly to the color of each month. Needless to say, I was the only member of my synesthesia sock club. I successfully made 12 pairs of socks last year. Some of the socks were knit from published patterns, and the rest were my own designs.

top row (left to right): Dembow socks (my own design), Penuche Twist socks, Oktoberfest Socken (my own design), Paraphernalia.
middle row (left to right): Freshet socks (my own design), Maurice Moss socks (my own design), Freshet socks (my own design), Brezel Socken (my own design).
bottom row (left to right): Cadence Socks, Síguelo (my own design), Paraphernalia, River Rapids socks.

Just for the heck of it, I created some charts showing the frequency of yarn brands and colors I used throughout the year.

The most popular color was apparently green (in various shades). My favorite color of all 12 months was the midnight blue I used for the Oktoberfest Socken. No surprise there.

The most popular yarn brand was overwhelmingly Fiber Optic Yarns Foot Notes. This is a great workhorse yarn that comes in some beautiful colorways. I highly recommend it. So far the yarn is holding up really well in all my socks. Other yarns I quite enjoyed knitting with are Zen Yarn Garden Serenity 20 and Dream in Color Smooshy with Cashmere. They both contain cashmere which makes the socks super soft.

All in all, my synesthesia sock club was a success! And because I needed another challenge this year, I decided to join Nerd Wars on Ravelry. My team? Team Most Amused which focuses on britcoms and British sketch comedies. I mean, come on, how could I resist???

Dembow socks: the finale

handknitsbysusan — Sun, 13 Jan 2013 16:22:40 +0000

My December Dembow socks are finally done and I’m very pleased with them! With this pair of dark green socks my Synesthesia Sock Club is complete. I’ll write up a recap of my year in socks soon.

Pattern: Dembow socks (my own design)
Yarn: Zen Yarn Garden Serenity 20 (70% Merino, 20% Cashmere, 10% Nylon) in colorway Forest Dew
Needles: US 1 – 2.25 mm
Rating:

I would have never chosen to knit with dark green yarn had it not been for my synesthesia. It turns out I like this color! And the cashmere in the yarn makes these socks dreamy soft. These will be a treat to wear.

Next up on the knitting agenda:
1. baby shower gift
2. mittens for Dad
3. more socks!

December dembow socks

handknitsbysusan — Sun, 06 Jan 2013 17:54:15 +0000

Well hello there and happy 2013! Here’s a synesthesia sock update because yes, I have yet to finish my December socks, even though it’s January.

I’m calling these Dembow Socks because they feature my Dembow stitch pattern I’ve used so often on hats. I’m really pleased with these socks so far. The yarn is Zen Yarn Garden Serenity 20 in the colorway forest dew. I’ve used this fabulously soft yarn once before and love it. These socks will be for me- mine mine mine!

This holiday I received some lovely gifts from my family. Some of the gifts I’m most excited about are certificates to Natural Stitches, Miss Babs, and Verdant Gryphon. Now I can buy ALL THE YARNS, mwahahaha!

I also have a new Google Nexus phone! This was not a gift but a much MUCH needed upgrade from my previous pay-as-you-go excuse for a phone that I bought years ago. Now I need to remind myself to stop messing about on my phone and get some knitting done because I have some knitting goals for 2013:

*Finish my December dembow socks
*Knit some gifts (baby shower and birthday)
*Resume the Breckenridge sweater that I started in October of last year
*Finish the Hanket that I started way too long ago
*Consider publishing some of the synesthesia sock patterns I designed last year, though don’t hold your breath…

let’s do the bachateo twist at dover castle

handknitsbysusan — Sun, 16 Dec 2012 21:33:17 +0000

Hi. So here’s what I’ve been up to (instead of blogging…) First of all, my yellow November synesthesia socks are DONE! Hooray!

Pattern: Penuche Twist Socks by Cynthia Levy (my project name is Bachateo Twist)
Yarn: Cherry Tree Hill Supersock Select Semi Solids in the colorway wheat
Needles: US 1½ – 2.5 mm
Notes: These turned out quite nicely. I love the golden yellow color, it’s so cheerful and reminds me of the characteristic guitar sound in bachateo music. Not to mention that it is the exact shade of yellow as November. The pattern was well written/charted and I only made a few modifications. The first was to replace the heel flap listed in the pattern with an eye of the partridge stitch. I also made the heel flap longer than I normally would (by accident) and ended up with a large gusset. That worked out just fine, actually, and and they fit well.

The second item recently off the needles is a shawl that I am giving as a gift. It turned out gorgeous!

Pattern: Dover Castle Shawl by Judy Marples
Yarn: The Sanguine Gryphon Bugga! in the colorway robberfly
Needles: US 6 – 4.0 mm
Notes: I loved knitting this shawl and I will definitely make another, perhaps in the same yarn and colorway. This stitch pattern is fun and easy to knit, and the lace has such a lovely textural quality. I used just shy of 1 skein of Bugga! I did 11 reps of the chart and it measures about 51″ wide.

I have more photos of these projects in my Ravelry notebook. Next up, December socks- the 12th pair this year. Where did the year go?