Skip to main content

Knock Your Socks Off

Back in 2011, like millions of thrifty fashion lovers, I camped outside (okay, I got there five minutes before the doors opened) my local Target waiting to shop the highly anticipated (and well-marketed) Missoni for Target line.  Weeks before the launch, I had scoped out the look-book and identified exactly which items I wanted to buy.  But despite having a disciplined plan of attack, all restraint, and apparently reason (my own, in case that wasn’t clear), was cast out of my cart, presumably so I could fill it up with things I had never planned on buying.

As if that wasn’t bad enough, after hauling my purchases home and trying to forget how much money I had blown, I then… logged onto the website – or at least tried to – to purchase even more zig-zag wares!  From there, the my insanity escalated.  Before I knew it, I was trolling Ebay bidding on overpriced merch that would make the seediest loan shark blush.  There I was at 2 am scoping out auctions, initiating bidding wars, and getting outbid in the last three-tenths of a second (I was more successful with auctions that ended at 4 am).  Clearly, I had plum lost my mind!
 
It’s now two-and-a-half years later.  I still have and use many of those items, but I’d be lying if I didn’t say some failed to hold up (I’m looking right at you zipper-less, frayed fabric roll on suitcase).  Knowing now what I didn’t want to know then, I could have saved a lot of money (and gotten a bit more sleep – which is more valuable than liquid gold with two small boys running around) if I had only dusted off my stitch dictionary and de-stashed some self-striping yarn.
 
But alas, that’s what I’ve been up to this week in order to satisfy my insatiable appetite for that beguiling stitch - the chevron.  In digging through my stash, I came across two skeins of the ridiculously affordable Knit Picks Felici self-striping yarn in Building Blocks.  The saturated hues remind me so much of the Missoni for Target’s Colore colorway.  Up until this project, my sock knitting has stayed true to vanilla stockinette or varying 2x2, 3x1 rib stitched patterns.  But I’m feeling more confident knitting on two circs, and I felt it was time to explore the innumerable combinations of knitted increases and decreases (because that’s really all chevron is). 


Self striping yarn is fun and rewarding to knit.  There are no tails to weave in or jogs to correct.  And my pace has picked up too.  I’ll tell myself, "Just one more stripe." But then I get to the next color, and I find that one more stripe becomes two, and before you know it, you have the entire cuff and leg knit.  

I so adore these socks that I’m thinking I may put another stashed skein to good chevron use.  But before I get zonked by my zig-zag fantasies, I’m putting some order in my project queue.  So next up is to take my left over LL’s Christmas in Paris and make a slip stitch, Supah Slouch Hat.  I think it will compliment my Linen Stitch scarf.  Until then, bon tricot!
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Back to Basics

The first week back after a long holiday is always the hardest.  I also find it’s where I tend to lose focus of my goals…and so it went this week for journaling and the yarn diet.  While I managed to journal four nights in a row, I missed three by week’s end.  I also fell off the destash wagon visiting a charming LYS seven minutes from a conference I was attending for work.  I don’t feel as badly about that relapse since I bought a non-fingering weight yarn in a 100% marled alpaca.  They also had some knitting notions that I’ve only seen online – bamboo chunky circs and a Knit Kit. The Knitting B, Richmond, VA But how to explain the sock yarn purchase?   FOMA (fear of missing out).   One of my favorite dyers posted a 24-hour- only skein to celebrate her 6,000 th sale on Etsy.   Those exclusive speckles did me in. Canon Hand Dyes by the amyleeshow on Etsy This week has shown me that it’s easy to get off track, so before I ...
Post a Comment
Read more

A Tale of Two Toques

I finished my Chelsea Market Hat this past weekend using Madelinetosh Chunky in Reindeer.  This was a fun project.  I had originally queued this hat up to use with a different yarn, Canon Hand Dyes Gustave MCN Aran in Frank Wolverton Randall, the first shipment in the Among Friends Outlander Club .   This skein was rich and buttery, but with 180 yards, my garment selection would be limited to either a hat or a pair of mitts.   I wanted something with texture, and cables captured the Celtic, Outlander theme. I came across Caryl Pierre’s Chelsea Market pattern first.  I particularly liked the slouch effect and the chunky cable combined with the garter rows.  But after seeing a post in another Ravelry forum, I decided to use Justyna Lorkowska’s Sand Bank .  The reason for the change?  Cables.  I need more cables (said in my best Christopher Walken voice - pathetic, I know). Sand Bank Hat   That left the Chelsea Market Hat f...
Post a Comment
Read more

Spring Cleaning – Whipping Out Shawl WIPs

I decided it was time for a little spring cleaning.  I had two shawls in different states of finishing: my Drops of Honey Shawl not started and Claire Randall Fraser one-quarter knit.   The Drops of Honey shawl is the first installment of Indie Untangled’s Where We Knit Club, and since I knew the next installment was shipping May 1, I was motivated to cast on-cast off. This is my first time using merino-silk yarn.   It was quite the treat!   The golden-honey hue is not one I would pick for my blue-grey-turquoise loving self, but I couldn’t be happier with the finished product.   It’s a great neutral and can be paired with anything.   My son, who was fascinated with this project, compared the shawl to honeycomb.   Sounds like something an aspiring knitter would say.   Besides the merino-silk fiber, this is also my first time knitting a Janina Kallio  pattern.   But it won’t be my last.   In the meantime, I’m woe...
Post a Comment
Read more