Dragon Socks

Dear Reader:

Yay for holiday knitting! I finished my dragon socks the other day, and I’m quite pleased with them. The pattern is Shur’tugal by Alice Yu (aka Socktopus). I titled my project on Ravelry Meraxes after one of the dragons in A Song of Ice and Fire (aka Game of Thrones) which I’m reading right now.

Meraxes Socks

The yarn is Sweat Georgia Yarn’s Tough Love Sock (80% wool, 20% nylon) and the colourway is ‘sticky jam’. I was worried the variegated yarn would overpower the stitch work, but I think it worked out. This was the first time that I knit with this yarn, and although I don’t really want to write anything negative about anything, I must admit I was less than enthralled with the yarn. The colours are great – amazing actually. It was the yarn itself that caused me to pause.

The yarn was very splity. Little coils of it would pop out here and there, and sometimes it was hard to get the needle tip into a loop. Another thing, which seems contrary to the last thing, is that it was very twisty. The working yarn would coil and twist up on itself, sometimes becoming a great tangle and a few times turning into a knot.

I caked the yarn quite a while back, so I don’t know if this had any bearing. This was also why I was knitting with this yarn. I’m concerned about the skeins I enthusiastically caked as soon as I got them, and I want to work through them a.s.a.p. It’s probably best to not cake your yarn until you are ready to work with it. Depending on your yarn winder and your winding, I guess. Let me know if you have any thoughts/experience with this. I’m starting to wonder if I shouldn’t even un-cake them?

The stitch work was interesting, a little challenging but nothing hard. The pattern was well-written and easy to follow. I may even knit this pattern again one day… Looking at my projects page on Ravelry, this is the most colourful item I have in there. Obviously, I need to knit with more yarn like this!

I’ve cast on some slipper socks for my DH. It’s quick knitting, but the first attempt was too short, so I had to tink back and add rows. Hopefully it will fit this time and I’ll start the second one. Every time he’s tried it on his response is “they’re warm.” Which is good! Maybe I’ll make another pair for myself. It’s nice to have toasty feet.

I purchased a dress form. It’s a bit indulgent, but I wanted it for taking photos of my finished projects. It’s hard taking pictures of yourself in front of the mirror in the washroom. Terrible lighting, awkward positions, mirror images. It just wasn’t working for me! The dress form may also come in handy when I knit sweaters (I will knit sweaters!). Something I hope to do in the future. It’s a bit scary for me now, especially since I haven’t really mastered gauge yet. But, one day!

Over the holidays, I discovered knitting podcasts in a big way! If you haven’t bumped into them yet, check them out. It’s a great way to spend your time knitting. Like sitting with friends. Here is a list of some of the ones I bookmarked:

• Adventures of a Travelling Sock Knitter – includes book reviews (fiction for sure, not sure if also non-fiction and/or knitting/craft related)
• Dramatic Knits – theatre-themed podcast, knitting book reviews, and more.
• Heartland Knits – a relatively new podcast, so you can get in from the beginning and follow Vicki along. She’s very talented and knits amazing sweaters and loves knitting socks.
• Holding the Sticks – a hockey-themed podcast.
• The Knit Girllls – Laura and Leslie chat about their projects and spinning, review books and lots more.
• Knitting Blooms – Tina’s podcast includes great tutorials.
• The Knitting Den – Denise doesn’t have any close friends who knit so she thought, “what better way to enjoy my knitting than to share it with my friends online.”
• Knitting in Circles – husband and wife team.
• Knitting on the Fly – pilot and knitter.
• Round the Twist
• SingleHandedKnits – often filmed on the beach in Hawaii, I adore spending time with Mel!

There are so many knitting podcasts it would be difficult to include them all here. I haven’t seen all the podcasts, and I haven’t left anyone off the list for any reason other than I couldn’t possibly create an exhaustive list and I don’t want to overwhelm anyone. I am terrible at writing reviews/annotations, but I tried to give you some idea about the ones I’ve listed. Where I haven’t written anything, it’s just because I couldn’t think of anything. They all have a similar format in that they talk about their FO’s (finished objects), WIP’s (work’s in progress), future projects, recent acquisitions, and those who spin discuss their spinning, etc.

There’s a tonne of things I want to cast on for, but I’m still staying monogamous. For now. It’s been very satisfying knitting all day and all night long over the holidays. Work really does get in the way of knitting, but it helps me pay for this wonderful addiction.

Well, that’s enough rambling for now. Hope you had a wonderful holiday. Thanks for reading my little blog! Let me know if there’s a knitting podcast you love.

About these ads