Escalator Socks

Finally, Logan's socks are done!

He loves them, and thinks the pattern is "cool" without being too busy for him to wear them.

I made the pair using one skein of Cascade Yarns' Heritage sock yarn in color 5634 (lot 005) on US size 2 dpns. I'm not sure if that's enough to make the pattern as written, since I altered how high up the leg they went. Logan isn't a fan of very high socks, so I stopped them after two repeats of the pattern, rather than at the measurement the designer specified.

I would highly recommend the pattern, as it's easy to follow. These are my very first socks, and the only thing I had trouble with was grafting the toe shut. Well, that, and I changed the way the toe was worked, because the decrease wasn't symmetrical as written. I'm sure it would have been fine, but mine worked out pretty well.

If you want to make your own, the pattern is available for free here.

Fiber Friday: Saturday Edition

Lame excuse for not posting on my self-imposed deadline: I hosted a party last night, and between technical difficulties and frantic cleaning...

Anyway, I'm still slugging away on the wedding shawl (and will be for a while), but I also have a pair of socks for Logan on the needles. They're the Escalator Socks that seem to be pretty popular on Ravelry, and for good reason. They're really fun, easy enough for me to handle them as first socks, and have a pattern that is both "manly" (according to Logan) and engaging.

This is the second sock (my second sock ever) and I just finished the best part of them: the short row heel. Turning the heel is so magical, so inspiring, so downright cool that it makes the boring parts of the sock totally worth it (I'm looking at you, ribbing). I just love how blindly following the directions, because I don't really understand the mechanics of the short row heel yet, turns a flap of fabric into a nifty little cup and gets your needles going in a new direction.

I think it might be a form of magic.

Next week, I'm going to try to have a finished pair.

Fiber Friday/Monday: Wedding Shawl

After much delay, I bring you Fiber Friday on Monday!

I'm getting married in December, and as soon as Logan proposed, I knew I had to make something for the wedding. After a lot of pattern perusal and talks with my knitting friend, I decided on Cheryl Oberle's "Sampler Shawl." If you're on Ravelry, follow this link: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/sampler-shawl.

I decided to knit the shawl in laceweight, so it would be extra delicate and fancy. The wedding colors are black, white, and red, and this skein of Colourmart cashmere/silk in Vina was perfect.

The colorway is more brick and less tomato in person, if that makes any sense.

The yarn is a dream to work with, and has made my first delve into lace a treat. I'm halfway through the third of five different lace panels, and it's finally starting to look more like a shawl and less like a pile of tangles.

I've made lots of mistakes, but that's ok. If I wanted something perfect, I would have gone out and bought something, rather than taking all the time to make it myself. I can hardly wait to block it to unleash it's full beauty, but it's a BIG shawl (400 stitches per row, lots of rows) and that won't be for a while!

Oh well, it's pretty just the same.