I appreciate all of the great input on the last post about ripping. I think I will ultimately finish it, and if I don’t want it perhaps it will become a gift or I’ll sell it to someone for the cost of the yarn. After switching to the Araucania, there was such a difference in the springiness of the yarn. I’m not sure if I really want to rip and knit anything else out of the Solemate after all. I’m only about 12 rows from being finished when I do pick it back up, so that seems like the better option in the long run. The Araucania Ishbel is finished and gorgeous. It has been blocked and I will post pictures soon, along with the finished Featherweight Cardigan. It’s been hard to find a time of the day to take pics with Matt (the fella) when it’s not sweltering and neither of us have other things going on. What I wouldn’t give for a cloudy 75 degree day right about now…
The socks you see above are what I did for most of the weekend. I’m pretty proud that I got about half done while knitting these just a bit on Friday, a good chunk of Saturday, and more on Sunday. I thought about switching to something else on the heel flap, because, as knitters that knit heel flaps may also attest, that goes so much more SLOWLY than any other part of the sock. I refuse to do short row heels, no matter how cute they look, because I just don’t think they would wear as well and I didn’t particularly enjoy them the one time I knit them. Matt says I was able to get so much done because I “have no life” but I wholeheartedly disagree. On Saturday I spent time hanging out (and sometimes knitting at the same time) with four different sets of friends at different times during the day. And I baked lavender cupcakes. So there.
These socks happen to be for Matt. They’re Wendy D. Johnson’s Sneaky Argyle Socks from Toe Up Socks for Every Body. I have two of her toe-up sock books and this is the first I’ve gotten around to making a pattern in one. I don’t make a lot of patterns from books, but I love owning them. Matt wanted black socks. I refused to make them that boring, and cables don’t have a lot of oomph in black socks. He was ecstatic about the argyle option. I added colored toes and heels to the sock to make them more interesting.
If you’re curious about the lavender cupcakes, I used this recipe, added some homemade lavender extract (1 cup vodka and 1 TBS dried lavender flowers in a jar for about a week), added 3 TBS dried lavender flowers to the batter, and used this recipe for the icing, subbing lavender extract and a little lemon extract too. My lavender extract was not nearly strong enough yet, so after I used some, I added 2 TBS more of dried flowers and I’m giving it more time. I’ll get it right eventually. I think they’re pretty good though, because we can’t stop eating them.
Those cupcakes look delicious! I’m stealing that recipe! And I’ve been wanting to try making my own extract. I just need to do it!
The socks are so damn great! I’m doing some tiny, tiny socks to bust my stash right now (and I still have to re-start my cardigan … *sigh*) – but I DEFINITELY want to learn how to knit with different colours – even if it is “just” changing from one to another.
They’re so great! 😀
Thanks for the tips on baking with lavender! I had some terrific lavender coffee cake at a coffee shop in Tucson a while back, and it’s gotten me interested in trying my hand at some lavender edibles, too!
Your featherlight sweater looks great, and the cupcakes sound marvelous. Sadly, I can’t consume any alcohol (medical reason), otherwise I’d definitely try them. 🙂
The amount is the same as any other extract, which is probably high for the extract itself, but very minimal in terms of the whole dish. That’s unfortunate.
Cassy, could you refer me to a place where I can learn how to make the heel of a sock in a different color? I tried to wing it on my own with your Summer Slice pattern, making the heel the same as the toe but I got really lost when I tried to go back to the main color after the heel turn and gussets. In fact, I had such a mess of balls of yarn and needles and such, that I frogged them back to the heel flap and then I was way confused about how to get the needles and yarn going the same way as before. I was using toe up, magic loop, two socks at a time. I spent a good deal of time learning how to do that the week bdfore but was feeling petty confident that I could make the heels contrast. Bad idea. It was my first try with this technique but everything was going pretty well up to that point. Now I am continuing with the main color. I’m not sure I have the work on the needles properly, but should know the next time I sit down to knit. How do you get anything else done, by the way. I want to knit all the time… all the time…
Hey Paula, I usually knit only the heel flap and turn in a contrast color for this method of sock knitting if I do a contrast. That way you don’t have to worry about using intarsia. If you only do the flap and heel turn you don’t have to worry about going across the instep. I don’t know of a good source that would discuss alternate heel colors for this particular method of sock knitting, but it seems when I see contrast heels on top down socks they are mostly on the heel flap only. If you ignore the heel flap and use something like an afterthought heel, you can easily make your heel in a contrast color. I put a link with info about afterthought heels in this post: http://knitthehellout.com/2012/07/10/jaywalking-in-the-park/. I hope this helps a bit.
Cassy