Eskimimi Knits knitting blog

Re-routed socks

My latest socks are finally off the needles.  They have been lingering at about 70% completed for an absolute age, and when I finally did find a little bit of knitting time they were knitted, kitchenered and blocking in only a couple of hours.  I am rather pleased with them.

They are perhaps the simplest of socks with just a few tweaks to my own preferences.  Knitted over 72sts on size 2.25mm needles, they are in smooth, simple stockinette.  The cuff is a super-stretchy turned cuff (a favourite of mine)

Stretchy comfortable cuffs

I also used the all-in-one heelflap and gusset construction from the Sleepy Hollow socks, with the only tweaks being that I kept the gussets in stockinette (rather than reverse stockinette) and knitted the heel flap in an eye-of-partridge stitch for the simple reason that I had never tried eye-of-partridge stitch before.

I used the rounded toe instruction from Cookie A’s book Sock Innovation, but I think the numbers were a bit too general to work as I would have liked over such a densely knit sock with this high stitch number.  I have used a rounded toe before, but the numbers were different – I should have got up and sought out the numbers I used last time, but was obviously being lazy and grabbed the nearest resource.  I shall have to figure out my preferred decrease numbers and stick to them in the future.  All in all, though, I am declaring these socks a success.

Oh, and they match.

I have finished piecing together and adding the finishing touches to my latest FO, Kaffe Fassett’s Tumbling Blocks cushion.

Tumbling Blocks cushion

This is my first full scale intarsia project.  Knitting the intarsia was not difficult at all, but it can test the patience. T key to success is definitely  a combination of preparation (dividing the lengths of Rowanspun into equal length bobbins), the patience not to lose your temper when the 27 bobbins become tangled every few stitches, and consistency.  Work out how you are going to deal with twisting together the sections of yarn where the colours meet and stick to it.  As long as you twist the same way each time then it should look OK.

I also decided to use a zipper closure on the cushion.

Zip closure

The making-up instructions in the pattern seem to suggest that you sew each of the sides together to give a non-removable cushion cover, but I find that fibre-filled cushion pads tend to lose their squishiness after a while, and as I hope that this cushion will travel with me from home to home as I grow older I forsee that it is going to want laundering once in a while, so I wanted to be able to remove it to give it a spruce up and a new cushion pad from time to time.

The reverse of the cushion is made from a piece of 100% cotton fabric, so there was a bit of planning involved to balance the stretchy knitted front and un-yielding woven back, so I had to make sure hat the front was blocked to the absolute correct dimensions before I hand-stitched the whole thing together.  The fabric, a wonderful stripe, works wonderfully with the colours of the cushion front, but I guess you might expect that as it came as part of a kit.  However, I have seen some of the other combinations of fabric/yarn that this kit came with, and I think this was by far the best marriage.

Stripy back of cushion.

Craig has declared the cushion to be the best thing I have ever knit, and he definitely has his eye on it, but for now it graces my favourite armchair in a riot of colour, stripes and tumbling blocks.  I do love it.

My colourful chair is now even more colourful

I have finished the knitting section of my Tumbling Blocks cushion project and have diligently weaved in the 138 yarn ends. The cushion front has had a swim in a bath of Soak (a Christmas present from Craig, saved for my most special projects) and is now blocking to a perfect 16×16″ square.

How I love to block things

I am wet blocking the cushion front, rather than follow the pattern instruction to ‘Press carefully using a warm iron over a damp cloth’, because I am not domesticated enough to own an iron. I did own one once, but decided that it was never in use so threw it away. I know, I am a domestic goddess in every sense.

I am eagerly awaiting the cushion front being dry and so find myself checking it every half hour or so, even though it was still quite damp when i checked on it this morning.  The blocking mats have done an entire tour of the flat through the day as I move it from one warm and breezy spot to another as the sun makes it’s trip across the summer sky.

I just can’t wait for the next step in the making up process, where I get to sit down with my knitted cushion front, piece of co-ordinating fabric for the cushion back (a section of cloth included in the kit, the size of which is known as a ‘fat quarter’ – a fact that keeps making Craig giggle for some reason) and a zip I made a trip to the market to buy this morning.

Zip and fabric

I have a sewing machine (yes, that’s right. I have a sewing machine; in fact I have two sewing machines and yet no iron) but I think I am going to hand sew this project together.  I have hand-sewn since I was about 6 years old.  My Nan was a seamstress and taught me how to sew and embroider.  Even she was amazed at the neatness and precision of my tiny stitches when I was younger, so it is something that I have always felt comfortable with and enjoyed.  I find it relaxing and calming, and i think that will be the perfect way to finish this cushion which has been an exercise in patience.

I have been applying myself to the k2, p2 rhythm of Nan’s jumper, with its even rib and repetitive motions, for the last few evenings.  It is fantastic television knitting, not requiring concentration or heavy application of the mental faculties, it leaves the brain free to wander over to what is flickering away on that big box of lights, watching the new political make-up of the UK unfold, refold and change its mind before playing happy families.  It’s not very engaging, though, for when you want to sit down and create, and watch a pattern unfurl itself from a pile of numbers and abbreviated terms into something surprising and wonderful. So, because I am weak-willed and too easily distracted, I have cast on for the aptly-named Diversion socks, from Knitty.

Like many of my knitterly friends in the UK,  I was tempted in the Kemps sale of a few months ago to part with some hard-earned electronic money in exchange for some sock yarn by Kaffe Fassett for Regia.  At £1.20 (or thereabouts) per skein it was too bargainous to pass up.

Regia Design line by Kaffe Fassett in 'Landscape: Twilight'

Since first using Regia’s Kaffe Fassett self-striping yarns I have been searching out patterns which employ various ways of using the stripes to create different effects.  The first pair of socks I knit were one of Kaffe’s colourways ‘Zany: Easter’, if I remember rightly, and I knit a very vanilla pair of socks and just let the yarn do exactly what it had been designed to be – be all ‘Kaffe’.

Stockinette socks. Regia Design line by Kaffe Fassett in 'Exotic Colour: Easter'

The next time I turned to this line of yarns for its ‘let me take care of the colour changes for you’ convenience I knitted Lucy Neatby’s Mermaid Socks, which has been re-published in Issue 4 of The Knitter magazine.  This pattern allowed the stripes to become fractured in a stepped spiral down the leg and along the foot to the very tip of the toes.

Mermaid socks. Regia Design line by Kaffe Fassett in 'Exotic Colour: Turquoise'

My most recent Kaffe-a-thon resulted in the extremely involved Harlequilt socks, from Sandy Beadle’s Annetrelac Socks pattern, which this time used and entrelac-in-the-round technique to utilise the stretches of colour in yet another variation of stitch and technique.

Annetrelac Socks. Regia Design line by Kaffe Fassett in 'Exotic Colour: Zany'

I have a few more patterns lined up for future uses of my Kaffe Fassett yarn, each employing the stripes in different and interesting ways, for when I need a diversion from other projects-on-the-go.

Yes, yes, you wouldn’t think it if you saw me bobbing around now, but when I was younger (much younger) I used to have ballet lessons, and I studied dance at university. ‘Entrelacé‘ was variously purred, sometimes barked (depending on if that day’s teacher was a cat or a dog – she could be both depending on what mood you caught her in) as an instruction in those classes.  My very limited GCSE French would demystify this term to the less grandiose ‘interlace’; Entre-lacé = to inter-lace, to interweave.

In a roundabout way, this brings us to my new adventure in knitting techniques – entrelac – an interweaving pattern of slanted knitted sections that give the appearance of basketwork on the diagonal.  An almost 3D effect of puffed up quilted diamonds.

Of course, if you are going to swathe any part of your anatomy in a patchwork of diamond motifs, why not take inspiration from the jesters of old and turn yourself into a member of the commedia dell’arte and make like a harlequin?  And who’s going to better provide you with that riot of colour but Lord 37 Colours Is Never Enough, Kaffe Fasset.

Kaffe Fassett crazy colour in 'Zany' - 4-ply sock yarn by Regia

So, armed with what is not exactly the subtlest of yarns I embarked upon my crusade to make the world most caustic-looking socks.  A pair of  ’oh, no mummy, make that lady’s jeans a bit longest, the slight raising of the hem as she walks – it burns my eyes!‘ pair of foot coverings.  The shade above is aptly named ‘zany’ and the resulting socks will hopefully not disappoint in reflecting that moniker:

Harlequilt socks

As diamond after diamond slowly climb in tiers towards the next adventure of ‘my first heel flap’ I have to admit that I am looking forward to the stockinette foot portion, which I am sure will zoom by and set me with a bit of respite, ready for another slowly progressing interweaving of diamonds and a second harlequin’s sock.
The Annetrelac sock pattern is available to purchase from interweave knits