Django Socks by Cookie A.

Well, I finally feel like I'm making some progress on my Django socks. I had to rip the cuff twice -- the first time because it was too big and the second because I made a mistake right at the beginning of the cabling. Now that I have finished the cuff and a full cable repeat on the leg I can say that this pattern is truly beautiful. The pictures of the yarn make it look like the cables don't stand out that much but it's just the way it photographs. I'm really enjoying this pattern -- the charts for the cabling are really clear and easy to follow and after half a repeat it becomes sort of intuitive.

Front of Sock

Back of Sock

Swaptabulous

Ok, this is a little late in coming, but the morning after we had the swap I found out my grandmother had died. I'm just now starting to get back to reality and my blog.

I just got done with an awesome swap (if I do say so myself, as organizer) in Bubbo's Pants on Ravelry. It was a Swaptabulous Pantascular Swap. We set a price limit and all of us filled out little surveys on our likes and dislikes. We used Elfster for the names drawing, and it worked out really well. I have a couple ideas on how to organize better for next time, but I think it went pretty well for a first time swap.

Ah, but now! On to the goodies!

Here is what I got from my swap partner -- the fabulous deedeeknits!

Super cute stitch markers from SummerStar Creations on etsy. Unfortunately, this picture does not do them justice. They are opaque and glossy and sparkly and a super pretty blue!

1 skein of Andey Originals yarn in Enigma! Yummy tan/gold colorway.

A cute little printed tin with matching stationary, also stationary with my name!
My favoritest, most missed US snack: Cheez-Its. They unfortunately are already gone. Yum.

Also, some Black Cherry Kool-Aid to use for dyeing yarn! Unfortunately Canada is not so great on the variety of colors of Kool-Aid. Although, we do have Magic Cherry which I've heard is pretty rare.

So, "yay!" for swaps!

Django Socks

I'm now working up the Django Sock pattern -- I'm calling them my Good Morning! socks. Worked the cuff to the end then realized that it was going to be too big. Frogged, CO on smaller needles and we'll see how it goes this time. I've wanted to make this one for quite a while because the cabling is sooo beautiful and follows the contours of the foot. I was a little intimidated by doing top down socks, but we'll see how that goes.

Working the pattern in Araucania Ranco Multi in blues, which is slightly more periwinkle than the picture shows:

Epic Fail!

I'm designing some colorwork socks right now, and do you think I swatched the colorwork? no... I swatched with one color and then planned up a few sts which resulted in:

Epic Fail!!

they were too tight. The yarn is now in time out... I'm going to restart these after I'm done with the KAL/CALs I'm currently involved in.

Soap Saver Recipe

You can use any sport/dk or worsted/aran weight cotton or cotton/linen blend yarn for this. Once you have picked your yarn you can determine hook size. For example, on the tan soap saver pictured I used a worsted weight cotton and a 4.5mm hook. This gave me a very dense scrubby fabric. On the yellow one I used a larger hook to get a softer fabric. Choose your hook based on your tension and the effect you're going for. Just keep in mind that you want it to dry out between uses so if you go for super-dense you may want to make it a bit bigger than the bar of soap.

Chain until it is a couple stitches longer than the long end of your bar of soap.
1. HDC in second chain from the hook and once in each chain across
2. Make turning chain and hdc once in each stitch across.
repeat row 2 until you have a rectangle that covers the bottom of your bar of soap


Now we are going to switch to crocheting in the round.
Rd1. place stitch marker on your last hdc. *Now hdc down the side of your rows, one stitch for every row.*

When you get to the corner turn so that the bottom of the chain is up -- hdc across this row once in the bottom of each chain.

Response to a question: When you initially crochet across the chain row you are (most likely) crocheting into either one of the loops, or the little bump on top of the loops, depending on your preference.

Once you get to this point in the pattern, I'm asking you to turn the piece until the un-worked loop(s) are facing up and crochet into the remaining loop(s)

Please let me know if this helps or if you have more questions -- that was my very first pattern.

When you get to the corner repeat from * to *. Check to be sure there are the same number of stitches as on the other side.

Continue to stitch one hdc in each stitch until you come to your stitch marker. Check to make sure that you have an even number of stitches around. If not work one inc. in last stitch of round
(2hdc).

Rd2. Now we begin the moss stitch. Starting in the stitch where you placed your stitchmarker, +work 1sc, 1dc in the same stitch, skip the next stitch+ repeat from + to + across row.

repeat rd2 until your soap fits inside with 2 rows sticking up over the top.

OPTIONAL -- If you'd like to put in a little bit of mesh to show off nice handmade soaps, you'll need to insert the following at whatever height you wish. When you have gotten to the part of your soap saver where you would like to insert the mesh:

MeshRd1. hdc across all stitches
MeshRd2. ch4 (3 for dc, +1ch), * skip 1 st, dc in next st, ch1 * repeat from * to * across. slip st in top of beg. ch 3.
Do this for 1 or 2 rds then work moss st across top by working sc, dc in dc from prior row and skipping chst

Final Rd. Work 1dc in each st across. Slst in 1st dc to join.

To make your drawstring there are 2 methods.

1. cut 3 strands that are about 1" - 2" longer around than the top of your soap saver tie them together by placing a not near one end, braid them, then tie the other

--OR--

2. make a chain about 1" - 2" longer than the top of your soap saver measures around, tie a knot on each end and snug it up against the chain. trim ends.

Finally, thread thread drawstring through dc round, tie ends in a knot close to the other knots, fill with bar soap.

Yarn Review

Andey Originals

(Ravelry yarn page, Ravelry fan club, store link)

This is a review I wrote for Crochet Uncut, when I was working with the Marigold originally to make some crochet motif armwarmers... but decided they were too much work (I hate piecing things together) and ended up doing socks.

softness
It feels like high quality cashmere even though she labels it as merino. Softer than Lorna’s Laces, another soft fingering weight that I like.

crochet friendliness
Wonderful! Unlike some yarns it does not untwist or twist more tightly as I crochet with it. Also, it retains a good level of softness even with single crochet.

frogability
I have been able to work with the same length of yarn, frogging at least 3-4 times without having it start to look like frogged yarn.

color
The colorway is wonderful! All of the orange and yellow shades are incredibly vibrant and they blend well.

I would definitely still agree with all of this. Now that I've frogged even more to get to the socks, I would have an even greater respect for its durability, especially when you consider how soft it is.
Since then, I have also received her Purple Passion and Sorbet, sent to me through my mother. She's a pastel artist and wanted to keep them to look at even though she doesn't crochet, knit or weave because the colors are so vibrant.

Marigold, Marigold

In honor of finishing my FIRST EVER SOCKS I deleted my old shoddy xanga account that is filled with pages of quizzes and irrelevant chatter from my college days.

So, on to my first completed pair of socks. I knit them toe up using the free Marigold Sock pattern on Ravelry, but I also used the Universal Toe-Up Sock Formula from Knitty.com to determine fit. Through trying it on as I went I discovered that the length calculator wasn't accurate (at least for me) so I made them a bit shorter, but everything else worked out really well. I used this stretchy bind off.


The yarn I used was Andey Originals Sock Yarn in the Marigold colorway -- the line is hand dyed and hand painted by an indie dyer. The lace pattern on the Marigold socks was very simple to follow but pleasing to the eye and worked well with the colorway.