2-at-a-time review! part 1

As an extra bloggy present, I'll post a review I wrote a while back of the new sock book that's sweeping the nation, 2-at-a-time Socks by Melissa Morgan-Oakes. If you're on ravelry, I'd encourage you to go over to the rav group for the book. Melissa herself is live and in person there quite frequently, and as much as I liked her in the book, the real live her is even more awesome.

I'm going to preface my review by saying that, though I don't like every pattern in this book, I am very glad I bought it, and it has a higher ratio of patterns I like to patterns I don't than any other knitting book I've bought yet. I'll start by reviewing each of the patterns individually, and in a later post I'll review some of the things that make this an awesome book, format wise. I'll preface that later post by saying this has my favorite format of any knitting book I've ever seen. I'll explain why later. =]

On to the pattern reviews!
So, first, for a little knitting history. The first socks I ever knitted were knitted this past summer. Not because I had some deep desire to knit socks – knitting socks seemed quite silly to me – but because I’d gone to the lovely ‘local’ yarn store (local to where I was this summer, at least) asking for a nice small project. “Have you tried socks?” “They seem to hard.” “Nonsense!”
With that exchange, I got started. My first sock took probably over 3 months to complete, and my second was finished up in (I think) less than a month. My second (completed) pair of socks was a pair of no purl monkeys, and those I managed to get through in about two weeks.


The patterns: (in the order they are in the book)
Sample Socks
I decided not to knit the sample socks for one simple reason. There is no toddler in my life, and it is likely it will be many years before there is one. That said, I love the write up of the sample sock, and in working on the other socks (or thinking through the other socks) I keep referring back to this. That strikes me as a Good Thing.

Berry Season
I’m not sure if I’ll ever knit berry season. The socks are made out of a thick yarn, but they’re ankle socks – for me, if I want the warmth the thick yarn would give, I’d prefer a little more leg power. I’m also not a big fan of the roll at the top of the brim. That said, I’ll probably use the stitch pattern in some future Franken-sock of my own. These socks are very pretty, and maybe potential GiftSocks, but not for me.

Spice
These socks are also not for me. Or, at least, not for me as written. I’ll admit the colors here are not my personal favorites, and I have a hard time trying to think out the pattern in different color combinations. Also, right now, socks don’t warrant the time and effort of color work to me. I like the contrasting toe and heel, and I might like these socks with just a plain stripe where there is now the color worked section, but as written, I’m unlikely to knit the socks. Of course, many other knitters probably enjoy color work, and these socks are for them.

Be Mine
These are the socks that sold me the book, plain and simple, and they’re the first socks from the book I’ve started. The cable pattern is beautiful. I love the way the hearts are somewhat subtle (because they’re cabled hearts, not color work), but the socks themselves look oh so deliciously girly and fun. I have a pair of dansko mary janes that I believe will show off the pattern quite well. That said, it’s slow moving for me on these socks. As many times as I’ve tried to learn to cable without a cable needle, I haven’t managed, so that keeps me having to have an extra needle in hand. The pattern itself (for my size foot) is a 32 row repeat, and not one that I could memorize. This makes these nice audiobook socks, but pretty bad tv socks. Of course, I still think they’re the prettiest things ever, so don’t let my warning scare you off.

Varsity
I’m not sure if I’ll ever knit these socks or not. I suspect I might someday, but not necessarily soon. I like the striping sequence, and I think this could be a good ‘guy sock’, but I don’t have any guys to make socks for. Personally, if I knit these I suspect I’ll combine the orange and green stripes into one larger stripe for added symmetry and because I like the look better. I also might prefer to have the heel in that orange/green color, instead of in the white the way it currently is. That, or try and have the first rows before the heel in white, and the heel in the burgundy. (If you have the book, that’ll make sense. If not, buy it already!)

Belle Epoque
If Be Mine sold me the book, Belle Epoque is what convinced me my money was well spent. Like Be Mine, these are girly to the extreme. Dainty lace and a delicate cable, combined with an adorable picot edge, make these too cute for words, but they’re definitely ‘serious’ enough that they could be office footwear. I want to do these in black. I suspect a dark color would best set off the lace surrounding the cable, but they look delicious in the green they are shown in. Though I haven’t started knitting these yet, the chart looks much less intimidating and much more intuitive than Be Mine, so I suspect these would be a faster knit. It’s almost all made up of K, P, K2Tog, and Yo! I can do those with my eyes closed! I can’t wait to cast on for these.

Frolic
These socks, like the sample socks, I will probably not knit until a toddler comes into my life. They look cute and a little complicated, so I can see how they’d get good gift knitting mileage.

Coquette
Coquette, like Berry Season, is an ankle sock. It reminds me of socks I wore as a child, and it’s honestly difficult for me to imagine an adult wearing these, though I think that’s partly because of the color they were knitted in. They were knitted in a very busy multicolor that, honestly, makes the socks look a little like The Kind of Socks Knitters Who Give Knitting A Bad Image wear. Yes, that’s horribly judgmental of me, and yes, I know there are plenty of cool knitters (Melissa included) who apparently like this kind of yarn. I wish there’d been a secondary picture of these in a solid color. I suspect I might like them more then, and I’ll keep my eye out on Ravelry for a good pair to prove my dislike wrong.

Socks for Aidan
See above (Frolic) re: no kids in my life and see above (Spice) re: not loving color work in socks. Again though, IF I had kids that warranted knitting, and IF I wanted to knit color work, these are cute. Not for me, but cute. I like how the color work is on the folded over cuff. Sock cuffs were very important to me as a kid, and this makes the cuff itself part of the design.

Twilight
I can’t tell if I like these socks because I like the pattern, because I’m in love with the yarn, or both. Melissa says this pattern works best on hand painted yarns, and I believe her. It gives the socks a little texture to add some visual interest, but I suspect these would be perfect TV socks, train socks, or socializing socks. I look forward to knitting these sometime.

Sugar Maple
With these socks too, my love is part pattern love and part yarn love – coincidentally, this is the same yarn as before…maybe I should get myself rich so I can buy a skein or three. =] These socks scream fall to me, in a very good way. I like the pattern and it’s versatility. Though this looks great in a hand painted yarn, I suspect it’d look equally brilliant in a solid color. It looks a twinge more thought-involved than Twilight, but I’d say these can still qualify as TV socks….just, maybe not House or Lost socks.

H Sock
I might like these socks, but I can’t tell. I have to say, as much as I love Lorna’s Laces, this colorway (or maybe this yarn) did not show off the pattern to its best. The colors are so busy that I have difficulty making out the pattern even in the close up section, and the on-feet picture isn’t much better. I want to see this pattern with different yarn before I fully judge, but right now, I’m not positive I want to make these.

Athena
Damnit MMO, why must you make so many beautiful things with cables?! If the name of this pattern hadn’t sold me, the picture would have. I love the way these look. Of course, that said, I’m a little curious what it would be like to wear them – the cables look on the bulkier side, and I don’t usually want thick and bulky socks with shoes that show off how pretty the socks are. I don’t know if I’ll ever knit these, but I’ll sure as hell drool over them.

Emily’s Socks
What with how these are also kiddy socks, you might think you know exactly what I’m going to say – but! Hah hah! These are *also* the socks on the cover. (Well, mostly…) I actually like these much better in the cover shot than in the kiddie version because I think the yarn is better suited to them. In the kiddie version, the yarn’s got some mohair, and that kind of ruins the stitch definition. In fact, when I look at the close-up photo of the stitch pattern, it looks to me like ribbing, not like anything fancy. The cover however is much nicer. On the cover, I can see that this is a fun texture, but not a super busy pattern. I can definitely picture myself knitting these, both with or without the super cute picot edging.

Sailor’s Delight
These just look awesome to me. I love the color, and though these socks have a bit of mohair too, the yarn doesn’t detract from the stitch pattern at all. Of course, that said, I wish that the closeup picture had been on white sock blockers or some other way to make it easier to see exactly how lacey this looks. I definitely plan on making these. These, too, look like potential good TV socks, and they seem like they’ve got a lot of buck for the bite, or whatever the expression is.

Pitter Patter
Nice simple kids sock I don’t think I’ll knit forever.

The Classic Sock
This is basically the two-at-a-time version of my first socks, and I love them. Mine were in Trekking Pro Natura, not XXL, but same difference. I have a special place in my heart for k3p1 ribbing in socks – it looks much nicer to me than k1p1 or k2p2 – it’s a design choice, not just a way to keep the socks on the feet! I like that MMO included a mens large size for these, though I think if I’m ever going to knit something for a guy with large feet, a hat would probably be faster than the massive pair of socks.

Ragg Hiker
If I wanted to make worsted socks, these’d be the socks I’d want to make. They look perfect for going under boots – nice and thick and cozy. I also love love love the yarn choice here. A good pattern to end the book, though not really a pattern exactly. Either way, very nice.

Long time no see

So...um...hi! ::waves::

It's been quite a while, I know. Largely I haven't been updating since I haven't been crafting, but that's not completely true. Since my last post, I finished my monkey socks and my fire fetchings, and I started sewing an apron. Oh, and I finished the first heart on my Be Mine socks. Partly I've been going slowly because I've never really gotten momentum on my Be Mines, but since they were my project spectrum feb/march socks, I didn't feel comfortable starting a new project until they were done. Now, though, now it's april. This means "earth" is officially in swing, and I can start my next pair of socks, which I've admitedly been getting more and more excited about. Even better, I can sew the project bag whose fabric has been sitting stacked next to my computer!

For my earth one-person-KAL with already purchased yarn, I'm going to be knitting the Embossed Leaves socks from the Interweave Favorite Socks book, in Knit Picks Risata in Grass. I think the 'leaves' aspect of Embossed Leaves makes this a good thematic choice, as well as the fact I think I'm just in love with the pattern. I can usually recognize it right away if done in most solid colored yarns, but there are some times when I'll see a pair on flickr or something and think "wow, those socks look awesome! I want to knit those!" Another thing I'm liking about this pattern is that it's all friendly stitches: mostly knits with a few purls, k2togs, ssks and yos thrown in there. As much as I think the Be Mines are maybe the cutest socks in the world, their pattern is too thought intensive for me. These should, hopefully, be a little easier.

If I end up finishing these, or if I end up devoting a lot more time to knitting these months than I previously have, I might work on finishing up my Branching Out, in it's beautiful and thematically appropriate yarn choice. The trouble with the Branching Out is that I don't like the needles it's currently on. It's on some of my grandmother's old aluminum straight needles. They're too long, overly heavy, and they make a sound when knitting that reminds me of nails on a chalkboard. After the major crush I've developed on the Knit Picks long circular sock needles I bought, I've been heavily debating getting a set of their Options, once I've saved up the money. I know there have been some complaints about the cables breaking or the needles coming undone from the cables, but I think I'm willing to risk it. For things like the branching out that I'm currently doing on old-but-annoying straights, I suspect options would be prefereable. As it is, I think I prefer circular to straight simply for the portability factor, and the nice smooth cables of the Options add to that.

As far as my sewing goes, I've been working on a skirt from Sew What Skirts, but it's been frustrating me. I'm looking forward to a nice break with my pattern bag. Though I have a decent amount of fat quarters to choose from (I stocked up when JoAnn's was having a 1 for $1 sale) I ended up chosing two that aren't my favorite pattern or color, but which go very well together. Both are from a fat quarter package I purchased at PurlSoho back in NYC. The outside is an asian inspired brown fabric with orange, pink, yellow, and green flowers and leaves. The lining will be a lime green that matches the green on the outside pretty well. Unfortunately, the only zipper I have that'd work size wise for the project is dark green, and I'm not much in the mood to go out and buy a new one. I'm trying to convince myself it'll look kicky, not tacky.

Oh well, off to work! I'll try and post more pictures once I've started knitting/sewing.

The front of a weekend

Hello!
Since we last met our hero, she has been crafting up a storm!
We'll start with my weekender-in-progress:

There's a picture of the front and back 'main panels'. As you can see, I attempted to match up the pattern on the pocket and, for my first time, I think I did pretty well!
Here's a closer photo:

So far, I'm very pleased with my bag. I think my first attempt at piping went well, as did my first attempt at using heavy duty interfacing for anything but the bottom of the bag. I'm happy to report that so far, I've had no needle breakages or other major sewing disasters. Sewing a consistent distance from the piping is difficult and my seams aren't perfect, but I'm okay with that. In the end, my goal is to make a pretty bag that I'll be able to use, and I think I'm well on my way toward doing that.

One modification I've made already: Instead of sewing the handles onto the bag just by horizontal stitching, I made two little "x"s between two horizontal lines on each handle. I think they are quite stable, so I'm hoping I won't have the handle-falling-off problem some bloggers have reported.


Also in the sewing world, I finally have pictures of the 'project bag' I made for project spectrum 08, fire.
The open bag:

A side view:

The filled bag:

I made that losely based on the Drago[knit]fly box bag tutorial, but I'm planning on writing up a tutorial of my own that will explain how you can start with the size of finished bag you want, and work your way backwards to figure out how to cut your fabric.
My bag was made from two fat quarters from JoAnn Fabrics, a 12" red zipper, and some flannel lining. The bag itself has two layers of flannel, and the handle has four, so the handle is more sturdy than the bag, but as you can see, the bag is capable of maintaining its shape while empty.

Tune in again to hear the story of what you see IN the bag, my new favorite sock knitting book, and the story of the fastest sock I've knit yet!

Just checking in...

Sorry it's been so long since I last blogged. I was hoping to get a nice post in once I got my knitpicks order, but sadly it has yet to arrive. I have to say, the tracking portion of their website is incredibly confusing: it suggests my package arrived already, when I know for a fact it did not!

Although I have yet to start my official project spectrum socks, I do have one knitting FO and one sewing FO to take pictures of and post about, but those will have to wait.

For now, I'm going to write about my most scary exciting sewing project ever: tackling Amy Butler's Weekend Travel Bag! I've admired this pattern ever since I saw it, and when I was in New York at the end of January, I bought the pattern from Purl. A few weeks ago I bought fabric (well, my first round...I'll explain THAT in a bit) from JoAnn's and I've just been waiting for some inspiration to start cutting. Last night I found the inspiration! I was looking through the Flickr group for UHandbag blog's Amy Butler patterns and I found some *beautiful* weekenders I'd like to share with you:



1. Weekender, 2. Weekender Bag, 3. Weekender Bag, 4. Melissa's Weekender Bag, 5. sew11, 6. Weekender Bag front view, 7. weekender1, 8. Amy Butler Weekender Bag, 9. Amy Butler Weekender Bag, 10. amy butler weekender bag, 11. DSC_0302a, 12. Amy Butler Weekender bag.

Simply beautiful!
So, last night I started cutting my fabric. I decided I was going to approach this project slowly so I wouldn't get too frustrated or intimidated by it, so my goal for last night was just to cut out the exterior fabric. All went well, and I even managed to (somewhat) match up the patterns for my front pockets! I tried matching the side pockets, but that didn't go quite as well. Oh well!

This morning I started cutting out the lining fabric. The way the pattern is written, you're supposed to be able to cut out both the handles and the main panels on the same side of the fabric. (If you have the pattern you'll know what I mean.) Like the instructions said, I started by cutting out the handles, but once it came time to cut out the main panel, there simply wasn't enough fabric left. I'm usually overly conservative when cutting fabric, but this just turned into more and more of a disaster. I've cut out all the pattern pieces for the actual lining, but I need to go out and buy more fabric for the piping. I'm sure this is my fault, but I'm not pleased.

The other thing I'm frustrated about has nothing to do with the pattern exactly, but has to do with the help at my local JoAnn's. (Yes, I know large chain stores aren't as nice as smaller local stores, and if I *knew* of any small local stores I'd be there in a heartbeat, but we work with what we've got!) I'd brought the pattern with me when I was buying all the fabric in hopes of getting some help with the Timtex and the interfacing. The woman at the cutting counter very nicely helped me select something for each of them, but somehow I didn't notice until today what she gave me for the interfacing was actually tear away stabilizer. Argh! Maybe I am a little bit frustrated at the pattern for this...so far as I can tell, Timtex is out of business. The replacement is, inevitably, Pellon, however I haven't found information *anywhere* about how to know *which* Pellon I want to replace Timtex, or what I should buy when a pattern just says "heavy weight sew in interfacing." That's my rant number two.

My rant number three is completely the pattern's fault. In the materials list it telsl you you need 1 sheet of Dritz 12"x18 heavy duty template plastic, which I happily found and purchased. However, once you cut the plastic, you are supposed to be able to cut *two* pieces of 7"x16.5". I realize I wasn't a math major, but I'm pretty good at basic arithmetic, and there's no way you can cut two pieces that size out of the sheet of plastic I bought. 7+7 is not <= 12! I'm going to make do by just using one piece of plastic for the bottom, but I'm a little frustrated about that problem with the pattern. Though my other issues with the pattern are at least partly my fault, that one is not. (And yes, I did read through the entire pattern before purchasing materials, but I hadn't caught that because when the pattern said "cut two pieces of this size from that plastic" I trusted I could do it. So much for trust!)

Well, enough writing about the problems - I'm going to go to the fabric store and get all the extra stuff I need. I hope they have the fabric I want in stock still! I'll try and have some photos of my own stuff in the next post. Later!

Project Spectrum "Knitting club"

For at least the past year, if not the past two years (it's so hard to keep track of these things) I've been reading and loving Lolly's blog. Last year I admired all the Project Spectrum posts and I realized that sort of a project is exactly why I wanted my own blog.

Well, now I have a blog, so I can join Project Spectrum!
If I was as wonderful a blogger as Lolly or some other people I could mention, I'd bring my camera with me everywhere and have pictures of everything in every color. Unfortunately, I have yet to get into that habit, and even when I've remembered to take my camera with me, I've forgotten to take pictures! I decided that for my own personal way of celebrating/experiencing project spectrum, I was going to make up a knitting club.

When I say knitting club I don't mean a "lets get together and knit" stitch and bitch type club, I mean like the Rockin' Socks club. I'm going to assign myself to knit (or at least start) at least one project spectrum project for each of the four elements. I purchased yarn for the first three on Knitpicks: red sock yarn for fire, green sock yarn for earth, and grey lace weight for air. I'm going to pack up the earth and air yarn and force myself to wait until the appropriate months before taking it out and knitting.

My goals for creativity for project spectrum are as follows:
1. Knit (or at least start to knit) one theme project per element.
2. Sew one theme project per element.
3. Try and join all the ATC swaps.

When it comes to what I'm knitting and sewing, I'm giving myself some leeway as to how I interpret the theme: at the very least, the color must be one of the accepted colors. Ideally, the pattern will meaningfully relate to the theme as well, but especially as far as the sewing goes, I'm giving myself some options there.

I've already started my fire sewing project. I'm making a box bag (the likes of Dragon[knit]fly) for my fire knitting project. I've wanted a project bag, and this pattern keeps popping up on all the cool blogs, so I figure I'll start here. All I have left to do is make the handle and the lining, but it's too late now. I'll post more later. (And update this with links!)

The Year of the Hat?

Another finished object, can you believe it? So far, two of the things I've finished this year are hats! I therefor dub this the year of the hat. Or at least the few months of the hat. (I have a pair of fetchings I have to write up too, but they didn't take as long as the hats. Maybe it'll turn into "the year of the extremities"?)

Jak's Jaques Cousteau[R]:

Pattern: Marsan Watchcap[R] by Stacey Joy Elkin
Materials: Cascade 220 Wool[R]; 220y/100g; 100% Peruvian highland wool; color: 8339 marine; dyelot: 9733
Purchased at: Natural Stitches in Pittsburgh, PA
Amount: less than 1 skein
Needles: size 7 clover DPNs, followed by 16" #7 Addi Turbo (swoon)
Gauge: what's that? (aka, never checked)
Size: L
Cost: $5.61 yarn, + $16.00 addis = $21.61

Started: 1/27/08
Finished: 2/03/08
Total time: 1 week




Pattern notes:
When I first learned to knit, I thought you knit into the back of a knit stitch, so all my stitches were twisted. This made knitting the twisted rib in this pattern very easy. I have to admit, I'm still not a big k1p1 rib fan when it comes to the knitting enjoyment, but nothing else works quite like it. I suspect I'd gotten this hat confused with the actual jaques cousteau hat somewhere along the line, but I'd described it to Jak as a jaques cousteau hat, so that's what he knows it as. I think this is a nice mens hat pattern, and I'd probably knit it again. I don't yet know what the recipient (a 21 yr. old male) thinks of it, but we'll see. It was a nice chance I could use the yarn I'd gotten on sale (with no plan for what to do) to make this belated holiday gift. The color's beautiful, and I'm sure I'll get it again.

A Fun Little Meme and some more Fos!

" You are breakfasty, like a pile of pancakes on a Sunday morning that have just the right amount of syrup, so every bite is sweet perfection and not a soppy mess. You are a glass of orange juice that's cool, refreshing, and not overly pulpy. You are the time of day that's just right for turning the pages of a newspaper, flipping through channels, or clicking around online to get a sense of how the world changed during the night. You don't want to stumble sleepily through life, so you make a real effort to wake your brain up and get it thinking. You feel inspired to accomplish things (whether it's checking something off your to-do list or changing the world), but there's plenty of time for making things happen later in the day. First, pancakes."


That just might be my favorite quiz I've ever taken! Breakfast, especially a breakfast at 10am, (which, to me, means a leisurely breakfast) is my favorite meal of the day, and reading the paper every morning has become an important part of my daily ritual. That time of morning always holds so much promise for things to be accomplished in the day!


I really haven't been doing a spectacular job at updating the blog. I blame this on the fact that I'm still not in the habit of unloading my camera each time I use it, and who wants a pictureless blog post?


Since finishing my Urchin, I have two more recent FOs, neither of which I've had a chance to photograph. A pair of Fetchings for me, and a watchcap for my stepbrother. Though I'm not officially trying to only knit from my stash in any real way, I *am* trying to keep it from getting much bigger, and both of these projects were good stash projects. The Cashmerino for the fetchings I bought back in December when I was making a pair for my friend, and the Cascade 220 was bought in Pittsburgh at the beginning of the year because it was on sale. Happily, its shade of blue works well for my stepbrother!


The other finished objects I'll have to share with you are two sewing projects I made - two purses which were belated Christmas presents for friends of mine. Those I can show you now! (The astute might've noticed the green tweed purse as having appeared on my giftmas wrap up page a while back.)

Erika's Tweed Pleated Beauty:

Pattern: Pleated Beauty Bag from Bend the Rules Sewing
Materials: Sparkly tweed "holiday" fabric, green "spring suiting" fabric, interfacing, flannel, magnetic snap
Purchased at: All materials are from JoAnn's Fabric.
Cost: I should pay more attention to this...

Started: 1/6
Finished: 1/12
Total time: 3+ hours, over a number of days





I like the way the green fabric sets off the gold sparkles in the tweed. Though this is definitely more of a fall/winter bag, hopefully the green can help it transition through spring.

Hannah's Clutch:

Pattern: Pleated Beauty Bag from InStitches
Materials: Brown cotton, Alexander Henry Loteria fabric, cotton batting, magnetic closure.
Purchased at: All materials are from JoAnn's Fabrics.
Cost: I should pay more attention to this...

Started: 1/12
Finished: 1/20
Total time: 4+ hours, over a number of days
Modifications: Due to a mistake on my part with the magnetic snap, I had to remake the closure tab, and make it longer than the one in the pattern. I also chose to line the tab with the lining fabric instead of with the exterior fabric.






Pattern notes: This was the first Amy Butler pattern I'd sewn, and the book was from the library, so there was a bit of a time crunch. Though the pattern was not as simple and easy to understand as the patterns in Bend the Rules Sewing, it was more precise. Steps like basting all layers together, though a pain to do, helped to make the finished purse look professional. I definitely plan on purchasing the book for myself so I can make more of these, and so I can make some other patterns in the book. The pattern was quite frustrating at times, but this was also the first "real" pattern I've sewn anything from, so I'm pleased with the result.

As far as the fabrics go, I love the loteria fabric, and it reminds me of the style of jewelry my friend Hannah, the recipient, wears. I liked how I was able to center the magnetic closure on the center of the devil, and if I had enough of this fabric to work a pattern like this again, next time I'll pay more attention to matching up the pattern. Though the brown wasn't an obvious choice to match with the fabric, I think it works, and Hannah enjoys brown.

There, that's enough for now I think!