a BIG sock.

I know another late post, but I'm trying to play catch up here. Give me a break! -PJ

After knitting FOR other people. I decided it was time for me to knit something for myslef. I asked my fiancee what I could knit for myself.

"You should knit me a sweater," she said.
"What?! I just knit you a beautiful scarf!"
"Well, you could make a matching hat?" she smiled.

I rolled my eyes and thought about it some more. A bright light dinged and i shouted "A SOCK!"

"A sock?" she questioned me like I was retarded.
"Yes a sock? Why not?!"
"What are you going to do with 'A' sock?" she replied back with a sarcastic look on her face and a hard emphasis on "A"
"Fuck you! You know what I mean!" I stuck my middle finger up in realization that I completely set my self up for that one, while she laughed and chuckled in victory.

the BIG sock

Red Heart - Sport Weight - 100% Acrylic - Camouflage: No dye lot

I was able to find a lot of resources online about knitting socks, but most of them were for using double pointed needles. I actually ended up figuring it all out using 2 circular needles. I found a neat pattern in one of my books that I decided to follow. Of course with some videos from youTube, I was able to get through the heal turns and the gusset.

This project was knit with 2 size 7 circular needles. I didn't bother guaging since I was more concerned about learning the technique than the end product. The yarn I used was definitely not a sock yarn. Instead of using a fingering yarn, I went with the yarn Katie picked out - Camouflage. Not only was it NOT soft, but it was 100% Acrylic. The sock of course ended up being really enormous, hence the name.


Throughout the project I often put the sock on to sample it, and decided that instead of using it as a 'military' themed christmas stocking, it would be a sock slipper. I still wear it, but because it's so big, it falls off sometimes when I walk around.

I was very excited after I finished my first sock, but once I cast it off - I had another one to do . Next time, I'm going to learn the knit 2 socks together technique. That will definitely make it even more fun. The socks took about a week to finish working on it on and off. After I finished, I threw it in the laundry to hopefully shrink it, but instead it just got a little soft - which was still a win.

Next time, I'm most definitely GAUGING!

A Christmas Knit.

I know that this is a late post, but I didn't want to spoil any surprises for the gift receiver. -PJ

This year I decided to knit my mom and sister something for christmas. After completing my first ribbed k2p2 project, I decided to do another one for my family. However this time around, my goal was to explore the world of color knitting.

The Red Scarf

Color A: Lions Brand - Wool-Ease: Chunky - Mulberry: 630-188
Color B: Lions Brand - Wool-Ease: Chunky - Wheat: 630-402
(Natural with tiny strands of black)

I knit this scarf with a knit 4:purl 2 pattern. I also knit this with a size 17 needle. I was quite happy with how it turned out.

The scarf is really nice and thick and very warm. I was actually debating on keeping the scarf for myself, but of course I couldn't do that. I figure I would just make myself one another day. However mid progress, a couple of my coworkers who seen me work on it really wanted to take the scarf too, but I was able to fend them off by threatening to stick my knitting needles into their eyeballs. The project took about 2 days to finish and took about 2 skeins of the main color to finish. I finished the scarf with some white fringes. Although weaving in the extra yarn proved to be really annoying. Thick yarn + Many weaves = Lumps! I tried to hide it as much as I could, especially when they were so close together but I guess it still turned out okay.

My mom really LOVED the scarf...but so did my sister! I'm sure she'll probably sneak into my mom's closet and wear the scarf. I should have made 2!


The Pink Bowler Hat.

Color A: Red Heart - Soft Yarn - Light Grey Heather: No Dye Lot
Color B: Caron - Simply Soft - Soft Pink: No Dye Lot

The hat was knit with 2 size 10 bamboo circular needles. I was not happy with the bamboo. It had too much drag, so now I try to buy non-wooden needles.

This was my first project knitting rounds. I did my research around the internet and found that I would probably and most likely hate using double pointed needles...I also found out that I was not alone! I decided instead, that I wanted to learn how to knit in rounds using 2 circular needles. Needless to say...I'm glad I went with my instincts.

This hat would have been perfect if I didn't experiment. But how would you learn if you couldn't experiment?! Because of my experience with The Red Scarf, I was afraid that I would have the same problems weaving in the ends. Reading a few articles about color knitting, I found out that when knitting faire isle, one usually carries the the non-working colored yarn over stitches. However, I should have realized that the technique probably won't work well when used with Intarsia. I ended up having a really stiff chunk where the color was. Instead of frogging the whole thing, I just cut the carried yarn and did more weaving than I would have wanted! As a result there were a bunch of loose stitches. I crossed my fingers and stuck it in the wash and dryer in hopes of it shrinking (my lazy way of blocking). In the end, it wasn't too bad.

The hat took about 4 days to make, but it sat cold for 3 weeks waiting to be weaved in. My sister like it, but she really had her eye set on The Red Scarf.
Thanks to my fiancee for modeling the finished product.