On the Go!

It’s not usually like me to have more than 2 projects on the go at the same time, aka *startitis*.  Until recently it seems!  

I’ve had 5 projects in various stages, filling all available storage and horizontal spaces in my bedroom/office/knitting room, not counting the yearly sock re-knitting projects: 

* a stockinette knit bag (to be felted),
* a pair of slow-going fingering wt. socks at 8.5 sts/1”,
* a Fair Isle mitten and hat design, with just one mitten knit thus far,
* a worsted wt. striped pullover, and
* the last 2 samples for my newest design - Midnight Snowfall Stockings (whose first 2 samples sat waiting since 2020!)

As the Christmas stockings are done, I’m down to 4 WIPs.  But, only temporarily, as I have a Bohus-style yoke design to swatch.

As for the sock re-knitting, almost every spring to summer I assess my sock drawer to see which are worn enough to need their cuffs through heel flaps cut off from their feet, so to reknit the heel turns and feet.  When re-knitting, I use whatever yarns I have available, as, inevitably I won’t have the exact yarns or colors with which they were originally knit.  But I’m not fussy about such things – they don’t need to be pretty or even matching, just functional and warm.  One pair has been mended again, and will eventually be re-knit again!

Re-knitting makes good use of down time, when I need a rest, or just need something mindless to knit on, while I mentally figure out a design or other issue.  

For a long time, I’ve been fond of a k2, p1 rib for cuffs, as the repeat translates well into the stitch counts my socks need:  36 sts for bulky wt., 42 sts for chunky wt., 48 sts for heavy worsted, etc., and which work with my preferred 6 pt. round toe dec.  I also prefer how the this rib looks, as well as being less tedious to knit than k1, p1 rib!

And these WIPs are just the knitting projects.  We still need to finish putting the floor loom back together, upstairs, then I can rethread the rug warp for the remaining 3 rugs in a new series.  

The first rug in the series is still sitting, waiting for me to knot the warp ends, sew the hems, trim the tails and adjust any weft irregularities, then wet finish it.  I have read that rugs don’t need wet finishing, but I don’t find that to be true.  A good soak relaxes the materials used, helping to even out the fabric, and drying,  whether outside on a warm day or in the dryer, lets me know how the rug will wash and dry, for its new owners.

I’ve been putting the finishing off, rationalizing that until I can weave off the rest of the rugs, *this* one doesn’t really need to be finished, as I do want to present the entire collection at the same time.

As for new pattern – Midnight Snowfall Holiday Stockings – I began this design in 2020, then I went off on a tangent, designing the tea cozy, then the hat and mittens, then the cell cozy of the same name! 

In this design, I’ve kept my usual round toe shaping, but used wrap and turn short row heels, the shape and size of which seemed to suit the stockings.  I also tried the German short row heel for this design, but I find it easier to *read* the wrapped stitch heel turns rather than the pulled-snug double stitch heel turns in the German SR heel.

I've not knit SR heels in my socks, or wearable sock designs.  As you might guess, I’m a dyed-in-the-wool heel flap and V-heel sock knitter!  I like that a heel flap can be reinforced with heel stitch, eye of partridge stitch, or color patterns, none of which can be used in a SR heel, without a fair bit of trouble.  A heel flap's height and width is easily adjustable – it can also have as little or as much depth as is needed.  It seems that the only way to easily reinforce SR heels is by knitting a finer, strong yarn along with the sock yarn.

Thankfully, Christmas stockings don’t need to be reinforced, and SR heels *are* quicker to knit than a flap, heel turn, and gusset.  In an allover stranded pattern, like these stockings, a SR heel also eliminates the need to add in a separate gusset pattern, which I can imagine turns off some knitters, as they are more complex to knit, especially if the sole is *also* in a separate, though coordinating pattern.  Keeping track of 3 patterns while decreasing the gussets is a lot to be getting on with!

The pattern offers two sizes each in two yarn weights.  

Knit in Lamb’s Pride Worsted and Bulky along with Nature Spun Worsted, held single for the worsted stockings, and doubled, for the bulky stockings.    

Design details include:
corrugated ribbing,
allover stranded pattern,
duplicate stitching in a 3rd color,
wrap and turn short row heels,
rounded toe shaping, and
applied I-cord edging with a hanging loop.

Pattern includes 4 easy-to-follow color charts, and 4 short row heel turning charts.  The heel turnings are also written out.

Substitute Yarn Weights:  heavy worsted and bulky

Pattern is $6, available on: Ravelry, Etsy, Payhip, and soon, Lovecrafts

Start them now, and they’ll be done long before Christmas, to hang from your mantel, or string up and hang on your staircase!

Onward, to, hopefully, finishing more things than I start!

Happy Knitting!
Dawn