Tag Archives: jaywalkers

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Jaywalking in the park

I’m definitely a fan of the Jaywalker socks, as you can see here and here. I made them with Koigu two other times, which was wonderful and delightfully soft. This version is made from Vesper Sock in the colorway Astro.

When helping me pack up my yarn room for my impending doom (I mean move), my friend Missy saw this yarn and remarked on its beauty. It had been sitting in my stash (wound even) for at least 4 years. I decided it was time to make it into something. I have habit of buying a lot of self striping or variegated yarns because I love them, even though they mostly lend themselves to a lot of plain stockinette. I first started knitting these in the Charade pattern, but I wasn’t in love with it, so I started over and made the Jaywalkers to give those colors and stripes the glory they deserved.

Vesper sock yarn comes in some amazing colors. It seems like this colorway is not currently available. I’ve heard she dyes in small batches and they’re snapped up quickly, so if you like the yarn, keep your eyes on the site or subscribe to their mailing list. I was a bit confused by the label. The yarn is 100 percent superwash merino, yet recommends hand washing. I checked with Missy to see if she would be amenable to caring for socks like that, and she said yes with no hesitation, so I forged ahead. If anyone has machine washed Vesper sock with luck, please let me know. Koigu is another yarn is superwash merino, and though the label doesn’t say it is safe to machine wash, I’ve had lots of success doing so. I don’t know Vesper sock well enough to risk it.

This is my first time using an afterthought heel. This kind of heel is mentioned all the time on the Knitmore Girls podcast, which I’ve been obsessed with lately. I didn’t want to interrupt the perfect little stripes in those Jaywalkers to make the heel flap. There are many different tutorials for afterthought heels available online if you’re interested in trying them. I think I will always love the heel flap for its inherent sturdiness a little more than the afterthought, but this heel was easy enough to execute, and it allowed for no color interruptions. It made a nice little bulls-eye with the colors.

Each pair of Jaywalkers I’ve made was knitted from the toe up so I could use the maximum amount of yarn. I find this especially important with yarns like Koigu that come in 175 yard skeins. I cranked these out in about a week. Now I’m on to some Staccato Socks for this week.

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Well, hello 2012.

My year started out in a pretty delightful way. While I was home on New Year’s Eve quite early (due to some massive fatigue), Matt managed to talk me into some hiking on the next day. He woke up energized and excited around 7:30. I was still grumbling and reluctant when he suggested going on an extensive day hike, but I went along with it, deciding I would probably enjoy it more than my 7:30 self believed. I was right. We went to a place called Hemmed in Hollow near the Buffalo River. It was a lovely day. The hike out of the waterfall area was STEEP and arduous, but it was all well worth it in the end. It was an excellent experience and I’m glad that Matt pushes me to spend more time in the outdoors.

I finished a second pair of socks for Matt. I also realized that I never posted about the first pair I made for him. We took pictures of them back in October, I think, and he still loves them.
This colorway is from the Opal Winter Fairy Tale collection. I don’t think it’s being manufactured anymore, but the color is 2150 if you feel like hunting for it. I love Opal sock yarns. I usually have some kind of plain stockinette pair on the needles and I love to see how the self-striping happens.It keeps me going. The yarn is also extremely durable. I have favorite sock yarns for softness (like Malabrigo, or Tosh sock, or Koigu), but for durability Opal and Regia are stellar.

The second pair was made with Ty-Dy sock yarn in color 1364. I also enjoy the chaotic splashes of color and the ways they co-mingle. I did both pairs from the toe up, using all but maybe a 1/2 yard of the yarn. This time I did some ribbing and followed it with 3 rows of stockinette. I read somewhere that if you finish with a few rows of stockinette and bind off normally then the cuff should still be stretchy. When I was beginning to bind off it did not feel especially stretchy, so I did Jeny’s Surprisingly Stretchy Bind Off like usual. I accidentally deleted the pics of these…so I’ll have to post some later when I get another chance to take a pic of his feet in daylight.

This almost ends my little sock parade. After I finished Matt’s socks, I realized that all I had left on the sock needles were a pair of Jaywalkers I started ages ago. So I finished them! I used Koigu (color 342) and they were a little shorter than I wanted with just two skeins. Koigu comes in 175 yard skeins. With Jaywalkers eating up a wee bit more yarn the patterning, I decided to pull some Shibui out of my stash and made a complimentary cuff. The Shibui color is called Blue Spruce. 

Damn, I love making socks.

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Jaywalkers at the beach


IMG_2847, originally uploaded by casystotyle.

Here is a mid progress shot of my Jaywalkers. I’m much further now, at least five or six inches up the ankle. The beach was kind of chilly, but I was able to knit and take a nice nap there. I will put up some shots of the Endpaper Mitts soon. Maybe just a finished shot. All I have is the ribbing at the top to go! I’ve been holding off because I’m using my size 0s for the Jaywalkers, but more are coming in the mail.

You might have noticed that this is the yarn from the top of my blog. I’ve been stashing it for awhile.

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Socks in the grass


Jaywalkers , originally uploaded by casystotyle.

Here are my sweet Jaywalkers. The Koigu colors are, of course, much more vibrant and beautiful in real life. I’ve been saving this Koigu for a long time and I’m really happy about the way these socks are turning out. The pattern is pretty fun and easy. I had to go smaller on the needles and number of stitches. My feet are not particularly small either. I’m a nine and nine inches circumference, but I tried twice before with crazy looseness. Anyone have suggestions for other patterns that work well with variagated yarn? I have more Koigu to use and some Colinette semi-solid yarn. I think I will do something lacy for the Colinette, but I want a fairly mindless and cute pattern for the Koigu.