UCONN Wins!

So had to put this in...I am a big, big UCONN fan and men won last night and got into the final four. Amazing!
Check out the story!
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/27/sports/ncaabasketball/27west.html

Fair Isle Men's Socks

And so after doing those polka dot socks I thought I would try these.  These were knitted with Berroco Ultra Fine Alpaca yarn (Peruvian Wool, Fine Alpaca and nylon). I have found that using a finer yarn weight than sock yarns when knitting Fair Isle is less bulky and much more smooth on your foot. These are in combination of Grey, Black and White.   

Had gotten the book Sensational Knitted Socks by Charlene Schurch from my daughter and loved the way she laid out the various patterns used in socks in the book. This pattern #2 was an example of taking the pattern and just using portions of it for these socks. I also did not do the heel in short rows but used a flat flap heel. The book has many various cable and stitch patterns A good book for your library. 
I love this yarn…very easy to work with and soft and warm and will probably work with this yarn again. 

Cable Double Twist

Really nice to see this sock pattern sell on Etsy. I love this pattern and next will knit it in white...but first finishing up a black and white Fair Isle pattern sock that is really looking pretty good. I know I said I wouldn't do another of these Fair Isle patterns but had the Berrocco Ultra Alpaca yarns and just had to try using them again. This is becoming my favorite yarn for softness and warmth!


http://www.etsy.com/transaction/44884252

Polka Dot Socks Finally Finished

The pattern base was from Patons but never again...Finally finished this pair of socks and took much too much time…but probably because i had knitted them and took them apart 4 times. The pattern is not great for many reasons but first and foremost it really doesn’t really have size changes. You really have to figure it out for yourself. Instead of casting on 64 stitches i had casted on 72 for the cuff and then added 5 more stitches for the leg to accommodate for the pattern…which was crazy too. Not enough room here to tell you why but I really did the pattern differently because my first attempts following the pattern ended with a not so perfect placement of the polka dots. They were not evenly dispersed in the pattern. Adjustments and more followed as the heel was really not written well and went to another source to do the short row heel!! Would love to try this again but not for a long while as was not fun to do…but for what it is worth I don’t like to not finish a project before I start a new one and I did finally finish this one. Would not recommend this pattern to a novice knitter! Well I guess my husband's happy he has another pair of socks. At lease they are warm and I can recommend the Berroco Ultra Alpaca yarn...beautiful to knit with and so soft and warm.   Can't wait to start my next pair...back to cables for me I think.