And then there were more socks!

This week has been quite about socks! I got a total of 3 pairs finished! My addiction for socks isn't getting any better! I just love knitting socks, they are so nice. Of course there are plenty of others things I like to knit, but socks are just so portable and so easy to knit.

So, on Monday I finished 2 pairs of socks. Both had been started before, so they weren't really quick knits. Though one pair might have been quicker if I had actually knit on them. But well, here they are.

First up is a pair of commissioned socks. For a guy, following a pattern his daughter used to use. I did tell my LYS lady this is the one and only pair I'll be knitting this way. The pattern is time consuming and at the price she pays me I cannot knit socks. I know it's not really possible to get a decent amount payed for knitting socks, as it seems rediculous to pay a bit amount of money for something so small as socks. But it's still quite a bit of work.




Yarn : Annell sock yarn (75%wool, 25%nylon)
Needles : 2,5mm inox circ
Pattern : broken rib I think (it's K2, P3 in one round, K2,P1,K1,P1 in the following round), long heel, dutch toe

These socks are huge. Each sock took almost a full 50gr ball. But they are done. Phew. On to some knitting for myself now.


Next up are some very plain socks for myself!




Yarn : Regia Canadian Colour (4ply)
Needles : 2mm addi turbo
Pattern : spiraling rib and then plain with short heel and dutch toe
Started : July 2007
Finished : November 26 2007

These were my "movie socks", so plain knitting. I just decided to finally finish them and start a new pair of movie socks! :D


Then, on Tuesday I started a pair of anklets for my sister. These are to replace a pair my mother felted in the wash. I had the yarn forever, but now they are done and Christmas present-ready!




Yarn : Hello Yarn handdyed 100% superwash merino yarn (dyed at my request)
Needles : 3mm knitpicks circ
Pattern : standard long heel dutch toe
Started : November 27 2007
Finished : November 28 2007

Quite a quick knit, right? I could have knitted them in one day if I had had more time on Tuesday (I started making a list of all my knitting books, but more on that later). But 2 days is quite quickly! Ok, these are only anklets and they were knit on 3mm needles but I'm happy they are done.


Phew! I love knitting socks :D. I even got more sock yarn this week, but that's for a next post! More knitting to do now!

Stash sale!

A few weeks ago I re-organized and cleaned out my stash room. The amount of yarn there was overwhelming, more then I had thought (though very little of it was a "surprise". Especially the sweater amounts I remembered all!).

Anyway, for several reasons I'm cleaning out a first part of my stash. I will be giving away some yarns, and selling others. Hopefully I'll be able to use the money first for a few books, then for a rigid heddle loom for weaving, and then hopefully for a Majacraft Rose spinning wheel. I promissed myself I will not buy these things from "new" money, only from things I sell. So please help me out.

Please, please consider buying some of this yarn!

I'm posting mosaics of the yarns. Underneath are links to the pictures on Flickr where you can find more information about the yarn. If interested comment here. I'll be selling on a first come, first serve rate. I plan on putting things up on Ravelry over the weekend and then on a Destash site. Email me when interested in yarn!



First the sock yarns for sale :





1. Annell Sock yarn, 2. Schoeller+Stahl Sock yarn, 3. Schoeller+Stahl Sock Yarn, 4. Regia Sock yarn, 5. Regia sock yarn, 6. Regia Sock Yarn, 7. Regia Sock Yarn, 8. Regia sock yarn, 9. Online cotton sock yarn, 10. Online cotton sock yarn, 11. Online sock yarn, 12. Online Sock yarn, 13. Opal cotton sock yarn, 14. Opal Cotton Sock Yarn, 15. Opal Cotton sock yarn, 16. Opal sock yarn, 17. Opal Sock yarn, 18. Opal sock yarn



Prices :

- Annel yarn $10 for the 3 skeins plus shipping

- Regia yarn $3,5 per 50gr (so the 100gr skein is $7) SOLD

- Fortissima and Online $8 per 100gr

- Opal $10 per 100gr



Special packs :

- All Fortissima and Online yarns (total 600gr) for $40

- All Opal yarns (total 600gr) for $50



Add shipping to all please! (see later for approx. shipping charges)


Cotton yarns :




1. Cotton, 2. Multi cotton, 3. Multi cotton, 4. Cotton, 5. Cotton yarn, 6. Cotton, 7. Cotton, 8. Cotton/acryl

I'm selling all this yarn for $15 and shipping. Some balls are started, some are not touched. All good cotton! I just don't like knitting with cotton.


Couture yarns :




1. Couture yarn, 2. Special couture yarn, 3. Bouclé wool - blues, 4. Thick 'n Thin yarn, 5. Bouclé wool - oranges, 6. Bouclé wool - pinks, 7. Wool Bouclé, 8. Bouclé wool, 9. Bouclé wool

These are all designer yarns of high quality, but they have no label. I got them from cones straight from the factory, taken away before everything was sold in Paris!

Selling all but #4 at $10 per 100gr, which is more then half of the original price. Except for the occasional nylon thread all these yarns are 100% wool. All stored in plastic bins. The grey is a thick and thin yarn that is probably superwash as it doesn't felt. A big ball of 400gr for $20. All is without shipping. We can agree on a price if you buy more. The cone is sold as it is, no winding off of the yarn, I'll give you a discount on that one!



Various yarns :




SOLD 100% silk, really nice quality! Superbulky, 100gr balls with about 70m each. Knits up really nice! Earthtones! $8 per ball, and I have A LOT of this! If you buy a bag of 10 balls it's only $60. Please consider this, it's really nice yarn!





Big ball of a mohair/acrylic blend. I lost the lable, it's 150gr and I remember it being enough to knit a sweater. I started knitting with it but then ripped. $10 for the huge ball!




Adriafil Merino, 100% Merino, Needles 4,5mm, 2 x 50gr ~ 120m

In a bright pink, baby wool. Both for $8.




Yarns for free!!

These are for free, I only ask you to cover the shipping.




Please visit Flickr for more info on the individual yarns! I'm shipping this as one batch!




Sock yarn, my pup got a hold of this and I had to reskein it. There is nothing lost. Please note you might have to wash the yarn before knitting with it. It's superwash sock yarn in very bright colours, I think it was from Online.




Golden thread, I can't read the lable, I think it's some kind of acryl? Nice for some accents. 3 little skeins.




Cotton yarn with nubs, in a nice blue. About 130gr. Good quality.




Shipping

Inside Europe (priority shipping, economy will be lower, ask me for prices):

Up to 350gr : $8
Up to 1kg : $13,5
Up to 2kg : $26,5
Higher up : ask for price!


Worldwide :

Up to 350gr : $8
Up to 1kg : $22
Up to 2kg : $43
Higher up : ask for price!

All these are estimates (I will charge you this, then go to the PO and either return you the difference or ask you for the rest). All these prices are priority. It'll take up to 3 weeks for a package to travel to the US with economy mail, but it will be cheaper. Ask me for those prices.


Payment

Inside Europe I can accept Paypal and bank transfer. Outside Europe I can only accept Paypal!

Thank you!

A few swatches!

Amazing, how quick time goes. It's been 12 days since my last post! So long for my good intentions to post more often!

Of course the knitting is going on, but as I have so many projects on the needles that it's hard to finish something. I still need to add hooks and eyes to my Glee sweater and then I need to find someone to take pictures of me, so no post about that yet.

As I said, I do have plenty on the needles, but little really inspires me. I'm stuck on my Lorelei sweater since I just don't have the guts to do the steeks. The idea would be to knit the upper body in the round, then use steeks and pick up stitches to knit the sleeves top down (with sleeve-cap) per instructions of Barbara Walker. I would allow me to hide the left over yarn from the steeks like described here. But more about that later, when I find the energy to pick the sweater back up.

I still have Raspy on the needles as well. I was going to knit it during the Summer as it's cotton, but the Summer came and went and no knitting on Raspy! Pff. Another sweater I still have on the needles, well, jacket, is the Nantucket Jacket. And a ton of socks, and at least 4 lace shawls/Stoles. And fingerless gloves.

But, there has been swatching going on! I haven't casted on yet, but I figured swatching was ok. :D

Lets see :




This is brown 100% superwash wool (don't remember the name on the lable but I think it's quite old and might be discontinued). Knitted on 4,5mm needles for a tunic for my sister. I still need to measure the gauge, don't know if it's accurate, but it's a very stretchy knit and the tunic is loose so it'll be quite ok.




I've fallen in love with the Tree Jacket from Zephyr Style. I wanted to do it with some stash yarn as I have plenty (hum :D) and I wanted black as that's so easy to combine. So I searched. To my great surprise I have very little black in my stash. But I found some supersoft mystery-wool (I swear I usually put labels with the wool as a lot of stuff I get from my LYS is without a label, but I must have forgotten). I swatched, and as you can see at the bottom the fabric was to light for my taste. Though I plan on layering with this sweater I still wanted a good winter fabric. So I added a strand of lambswool/angore (laceweight). That's the second stripe from the bottom. The fabric is way better.But then I tried adding a strand of black mohair. I love that fabric (3rd from the bottom) as it's much warmer. It has an extra sheen to it. And because it's not pure mohair it's not really scratchy. I then tried the mohair with a strand of sock yarn to safe the black mystery yarn for another project, but that stripe - though still a nice fabric - is less soft. So I will probably go with the mystery yarn and the mohair. What do you think? Of course you can't see the sheen on the picture, though you can see a bit of the hairiness at the side of the swatch.

So, looking forward to that knit! I imagine it being quite fast. But I think I'll need to finish the Nantucked Jacket to free up the needles (I swatched with a short Inox circ but as this jacket is knitted in the round I'll need a longer circ).




The last swatch I did was with this 100% wool yarn I got at my LYS (again, no label). The idea was to knit a cardigan from the top down, as long as the wool let me make it. It would be nice to wear as an extra layer, maybe even to go to special events. If it's not raining it might replace a coat. But then I saw this cardigan on the net, and then on Ravelry, a free design by DROPs. I love it. And I think it would look nice in this fabric though I'm doubting a bit as the yarn is tweedy. But I've seen quite a bit tweedy ones on Raverly, so I know it'll look ok. The shape is a bit doubtfull (the clock-shape thing), and I might prefer to knit it top down, though I'm not sure yet. We'll see. I first tried with 8mm needles as the pattern suggested (there are no needle suggestions with the yarn, alas the no-label thing) but the fabric was to loose. Then I tried with 7mm (top) and I got gauge and the fabric was way better.

So this one is on the list too! Call me crazy, ok?

Anyway, I need to swatch for the sweater for the boyfriend. I ordered a set of KnitPicks options through Get Knitted in the UK and it arrived on Monday, so now I can swatch (and I can start the Tree Jacket without finishing the Nantucket Jacket first! :D). But I'm still holding on to not casting on. I really need to try to finish up some other things first.

Of to knit a little!

Socktober wrap-up

Socktober is over and I'm a bit sad about that. I liked the month as it totally motivated me to get into knitting socks again!

And to my total surprise I finished a total of 3 pairs of socks this month! Not all of them were newly started, but even the ressurection of some very old UFOs was a great added bonus! I had hoped to get 4 pairs done, but I got stalled on the 4th pair in my efford to finish up a sweater (which I did! But no pictures, so more over the weekend).

Let me first show you the 3 pairs of socks I did get finished over October :

1. Red & Black socks (mostly finished during October, only the ribbing of one sock was knitted before) - a few people asked me to write up the pattern for these socks. I plan on doing so, but I want to do it right so give me some time!

2. Whitby socks for the boyfriend

3. Kool-Aid self striping socks

A bit more on the last pair of socks :

Pattern : regular top down

Yarn : socks yarn (70%wool, 30%nylon) handdyed with kool-aid to self-stipe, and some solid for the toes and heels as I had dyed up only 50gr of yarn

Needles : 2,5mm

Started: I think somewhere in 2005! Finished October 2007.

I basically only had to knit the second sock of this pair, but I had once put them aside and never looked back at them. It was only when putting up all my projects on Ravelry that I remembered about them. I did remember where I had put them so I pulled them out and finished. I would never again knit a pair of socks like this on 2,5mm needles, they feel to light knit for my taste. But I finished them!

I apparently ony dyed 50gr of yarn like this. Enough for these socks with even some left over! I'm quite happy with these in the end!


Next pair I'm working on is a pair for the boyfriend that has been on the needles for a couple of months now. Plus I started a pair of socks for my grandfather on 4mm needles and they look huge! But I think they'll be ok, nice warm socks for winter!

I have been feeling like finishing up stuff! I sometimes feel like just finishing things. I have been swatching as well, but no actual cast on so far. The thing is I really, really need an extra set of 4,5mm needles. I'm thinking about ordering a KnitPicks option set. It would solve some problems!

That being said, I'm still working on the yarn sale! I hope to get it done soon so I can hopefully have some extra money!



And added, for those interested in the thing with the test-knitted socks : I heard back from the person in question. She was very friendly and said she was embarrassed she hadn't thanked me for the socks, which apparently where knit ok. She is going to look for the socks but she's not sure she can get them for me. No mention of the other stuff. Again, no big deal, but sad afterall. I don't plan on testknitting for her anymore.

Off to get a bit of work done (I hate having to work today!)