The few weeks leading up to Christmas can be a very hectic and sometimes stressful time for us grownups (at least those of us who fuss about gifts, cooking, decorating the house, etc., all at once, while still trying to run our normal lives on the side). But for kids, this time is part of the magic, full of anticipation, expectations, wishes and whispers.

Advent calendars of course make the wait a little easier with a little surprise every day and a way to see how many more days until The Big Day. With my kids I have tried many kinds of advent calendars--picture, chocolate, lego... but my favorite ones since my own childhood are the ones that mom or dad (or an elf?) can hide a little surprise in. When I was a kid, we had a fabric one that had 24 little pockets and us kids took turns to check what was in the pocket every morning. So I wanted to make something similar, but maybe something that would include knitting. Enter 24 little socks:

Each one is a little different, but they are all knitted using a very generic sock pattern. Depending on the yarn, I started with 28 or 32 stitches. Most yarns were about worsted weight. Fingering weight yarns I doubled to get to a similar weight. I used up a bunch of stash, which was great, and was able to make 1-2 socks per night (yes, I was playing catch-up with December). One sock took about 1 hour or so, i.e., one TV show's worth. Each morning there would be a small ornament or a wrapped chocolate in one of the socks and the kids got to take turns finding it.

Once all that hectic preparation was done, the wait climaxed in the tranquility of Christmas day:

Hope it was a good one for you and your kin! In anticipation of the next one, happy New Year to all!

New skills

Over the Thanksgiving holiday, I had a chance to try my mother-in-law's spinning wheel. I've only spun once before, and it was with flax (home grown, mind you), and I couldn't remember a thing about how to do it. I had some kind of an idea from tutorials on-line, and she (MIL) had some kind of an idea from taking a class, and so we tried to put everything we knew together, and gave it a shot. Her wheel is one on those made after and antique spinning wheel, and doesn't have a lot of adjustments one way or the other, so it wasn't the easiest thing to use. But nevertheless, I had a blast, and even ended up with some yarn!



The wool I was spinning was very nice and soft, but there were no details available about it, where I bought it. I got two half pound balls in two shades of dark red, which I was mixing as I was spinning.


I of course had to try to knit with my "fun novelty yarn" (my favorite quote from a tutorial: don't worry, if your yarn has thick and thin spots, you're making a fun novelty yarn!") My yarn had a little too much novelty in it at times, but at the end, I actually ended up with something you could call a thick-and-thin yarn, instead of the hard and snarly over-spun wire I made first. The hat is grownup size, but I asked the kids to model so I could get some pictures:



I also finished the socks for E:


A basic sock with 2x2 rib cuff and a heel flap. The yarn is Trekking XXL. I first attempted to make the socks symmetrical, but then noticed that the stripes just don't repeat the same at all, and I gave up. That's fine though, I think this is a real fun colorway for kids!

Black sheep -no, black alpaca!

I'm trying to post a little more often than once a month, so tonight I had to practically force myself to post something. The issue isn't that there would be a lack of crafts or knitting, not at all. I've just been way too lazy to take pictures and edit them to have something to show. But since my goal is to get back to posting once a week, I thought I really should do something about it tonight!

I have the pieces to the sweater from the last post just about finished, but I still have to put them all together and knit quite a bit of border to finish it. Not a very good mindless project, so I had to start something new. I wound the black alpaca I bought in Seattle into balls, and oh, my goodness, it is sooo soft! I just can't get over how this yarn feels! So even though most of the yarns in my stash have been waiting for much longer to be turned into something wearable, I started a sweater with this yarn. Modeled after my current favorite cardigan, it is going to be very plain, with a slightly shaped waist and a V-neck, button-down front and possibly small pockets (I haven't quite made up my mind about those, yet). It is a very true black, and therefore quite impossible to photograph, as you can see:


It has a bit of a sheen, and looks wonderful in a moss stitch, so I decided to do an inch of moss stitch in the cuffs and the hem:

If you can only see a black square, don't worry. That's pretty much what it is...

I also started a pair of socks to have a small portable project. I let the boys pick their own sock yarn from the stash, and this is what Mr S. picked:

And I thought I'd never get rid of that yarn... ;) I'm not sure how it ended up in my stash, but it certainly isn't something I'd pick now, so it must have been there for a while.

"Pinheads and Picot" sock pattern

Pinheads and Picot socks

*edited to add photos.
The socks are knitted using a main color and a contrast color. You will need about 100 g of the main color and a few grams of contrast color. The instructions are written for 60 stitches. Choose a stitch count that fits your foot and the yarn you are using. I used Inspirations Yarn Java on 2.5 mm needles, but this yarn is no longer available. It is similar in thickness to Koigu KPPPM, and some other a little thicker sock yarns. It is easiest to work the sock on a count that is divisible by 6, but any count divisible by 2 will work. (The flower pattern in the leg repeats 6 times. If your stitch count is not divisible by 6, the flowers will not be evenly spaced. It is up to you, if you feel that this is critical, or not.)

Abbreviations: MC = main color, CC = contrast color

Cast on 60 s using the main color and provisional cast on.

Picot: Knit 4 rows (you will have a total of 5 rows in main color, including the cast on). Knit 1 row in contrast color. Next row: *k2tog, YO*. Repeat *-* to the end of row. Knit 1 row. Switch back to main color, knit 4 rows. 5th row pick up the cast on stitches and knit together with live stitches. Pick out the waste yarn in the provisional cast on.

Leg: Knit 3 more rows in main color. Next row: *k1 MC, k1 CC*. Repeat *-* to the end of row. Next row: *k1, p1* (knit over MC stitches, purl over CC). Repeat *-* to the end of row. K 3 rows in MC.

Flower pattern: *k3, (YO, k1) 5 times, k2*. Repeat *-* to the end of row. Next row: *k3, (drop YO, pick up s) 5 times, place the 5 stitches back on left needle, knit through all 5 stitches: (k1, YO, k1, YO, k1); k2*. Repeat *-* to the end of row.

Knit 3 rows in MC. Next row: *k1 MC, k1 CC*. Repeat *-* to the end of row. Next row: *k1, p1* (knit over MC stitches, purl over CC). Repeat *-* to the end of row.

Knit 29 rows in MC, or to desired leg length. With the last 15 s of the 29th row, *k1 MC, k1 CC*, and continue through the first 15 s of the 30th row.

These 30 s are the beginning of the heel flap. Turn the sock. K3, *p1, k1* to the last 3 stitches (purl on top of MC, knit on top of CC), k3, turn. *Knit across, turn. K3, p to the last 3 s, k3, turn.* Repeat *-* until the height of the heel flap is 24 rows (including the 2-color set up row).


Turning the heel: Knit 2 stitches past the middle point of the heel flap (k17). Ssk, k1, turn. S1, p5, p2 tog, p1, turn. S1, k6, ssk, k1, turn. Continue in a similar manner until all the stitches have been used. 18 stitches remain on the needle.

Gusset: Knit across the heel flap and pick up 13 stitches from the side of the heel flap. Knit around the top and pick up 13 stitches on the other side. Knit in the round and decrease 1 s every 2 rows on both sides of the foot until 60 s remain.

Foot: Knit until the sock just covers your pinky toe.

Toe: On the top of the sock, *k1 MC, k1 CC*, repeat *-*. Wrap the last stitch on the top side without knitting, turn. *P1, k1* to the next to last stitch, wrap the stitch and turn. Continue in stockinette with MC, working a short row toe until 12 stitches remain in the center. Turn the toe and knit until all the wrapped stitches have been used up. Kitchener stitch the opening shut.


Weave in ends.

Copyright Lotta Breyer, 2007.

You may copy and use this pattern for your own personal use, but, please, don’t sell, distribute, or copy it for others without my permission.

Spring weather

We feel lucky to just have missed the severe storms that were moving across the area this weekend. Some towns got about 10 inches of rain, and there were several tornadoes going around. But as is typical of South Dakota spring weather, it fluctuates so much that you literally don't know what to wear each morning. I'm compromizing with one warm foot and one cool foot:


Or maybe it's just that I only have one of these done... :) Here's a detail shot of the cuff:


I got the idea for using the blue as an effect yarn from doing a provisional cast on and using the blue as my waste yarn. It just looked really nice together with the red, and I decided to give it a shot. I have to say, that I tried a few different things, before ending up with this design. The picot was pretty clear in my mind, but the rest of it I made up as I was knitting, and I think each part I ended up frogging at least once or twice.

Here's the heel detail:


And the toes:


I have to admit that I'm quite pleased with the result. And as always, this yarn is a pleasure to knit with. (Sorry I can't link to the yarn any more, it has been removed from the store web site. I'm looking for new sources of undyed yarns, so if you know of any good ones, please let me know!)


I might have to slow down with the second sock a little, because there's a competing project. I know, I know, I have more than enough unfinished projects that really should be competing, but Maud corrupted me. She knit this beautiful spring green sweater that really hit the nerve with me. I had to run and buy the yarn for it and start right away.


The pattern is Amelia's (Anna's) Pippa. It has a similar small cable that I tried in the pink swatch in the last post:

I'm using Rowan wool cotton instead of Debbie Bliss Baby cashmerino. The gauge is very similar and the LYS had a better color available in the wool cotton. Plus it's one of my favorite yarns, so it all worked out ok. I'm not quite sure, if I have enough yarn, but I'm using the age old method of knitting really fast to try to make it last longer. ;)

Warm toes

Last week I had to get some socks on the needles, especially considering that I have grown my sock yarn stash much bigger than it really needs to be, but also just because I didn't have any. On the needles that is. Except the swirl socks, but they are way too complicated to take them with and knit a little here and there, or even knit while watching TV or reading blogs. So I started a pair from the OnLine sock yarn that matches the Oxblood yarn and shoes.
I don't really have a "standard" pattern that I would always use for socks, but this is about as close as it gets. Top down, 72 stitches, 2.5 mm needles, k2p2 ribbing at the top, a few decreases in the leg, a Dutch heel (my new favorite that will replace the square heel I used to use most often), decrease back to 72 stitches, kitchener toe. I have "shapely" (someone with a poor selfesteem would say fat) calves, and I always need to do a few decreases in the leg to help keep the socks up, unless I do ribbing all the way to the heel.
Once I finished these, I immediately started another pair:
This is one of those wonderful Trekking colorways that I ordered from Germany (I think this is 76, 78 is what I used for the Pomatomus wrist warmers). Looks very close to the ones I just finished, but this is really much more purple, whereas the OnLine socks are more brownish. The gauge of Trekking and OnLine in almost exactly the same, but Trekking is much softer. Not that OnLine is hard, either, and I certainly don't mind it for socks, but Trekking is easier on my hands while I'm knitting.

Now to the contest for the promised sock yarn. I used Excel (my favorite piece of software, of course) and a random number generator to find the lucky winner. Therefore no pictures of drawing from a hat, or anything. But this way it's absolutely fair, and the geometry or the way I folded the pieces of paper don't matter. ;) And the winner is... (*drum roll*) ...PAT! Congratulations, Pat! Could you please e-mail me using the link in the left side bar, and let me know your name and address, and also what colors you would like in your yarn. I am going to dye some for you in the next week or so, and send it your way.

As far as my favorite project to knit... aagh, I can't choose!! But if I really just think about the knitting part of it, I think Hyrna Herborgar was my favorite. The yarn was very nice and soft, the pattern was interesting and the result pretty. All the other guesses were very good, too, and I could probably come up with a way in which every one of those projects was my favorite. Some are my favorites to wear, some I think are the prettiest, some were fun, some fast, many tought me something new, some gave me a huge sense of accomplishment... I can't think of anything that I didn't really enjoy knitting. I guess it makes sense, since I wouldn't have knitted it, if I didn't like it.

I have also been working on writing out the pattern for the stripy vest. I know a couple of people were interested, so I'll try to get it posted soon. After that, I'll do the same with the zippered cardigan.