Two Socks, One Week: Um, Yeah.

I've been a bit lazy posting all of my knitting projects in the last few weeks. I have two 2013 finished projects and a sock. Really, it's the photography that holds things up. But here is the sock.

One Lonely Sock

I'm following along K-line's Two Socks, One Week knit along as best I can. At this point, I should be finished with my second sock, but I'm really just a few inches into it.  I'm ok with this. I'm not a fast knitter to begin with and my wrists ached for a few days after I tried to catch up by knitting for hours on New Year's Day. It also didn't help that I decided that the first sock was coming out too big and started over with smaller needles after I had already knit 3 or 4 inches of sock.

Toshsock yarn in Envy colorway.

Anyway, I am undaunted. And I decided to use this KAL to write down my own master sock "recipe", which is really just the best parts of all the different socks I've knit, plagiarized and grafted into one frankenpattern. Here it is in pdf form:

Basic Socks a la Clio (appropriated from better-than-me knitters)***

A few notes on my method: Knitting from the Toe Up with magic loop
I like knitting socks bottom up. There are 3 main reasons. First, I'm never 100% happy with kitchner stitch or any of the toe closures that seem to leave a bump at the end. Knitting toe up seems to create the smoothest, least bump prone toe, at least in my hands. Second, I perpetually worry about running out of yarn. I never have, but if you knit toe up and run out, well, you just make a shorter sock at the ankle. If you knit top down, well, you end up without a toe. Third, I like to try on as I go, and toe up is pretty fool-proof in the try on and judge the fit department.  So, essentially, I'm knitting the opposite way from the KAL. Really, there is no right way, only a right for you way.

As for magic loop, I just prefer it, even though I'm comfortable with DPN's thanks to all the stuffed animals I knit this year. Part of the reason is that socks are a great take along project that I do on my commute, and I like that it is impossible to drop or lose circular needles, unlike DPN's. I used a US2 (2.75mm) needle for these socks. My favorite needles in general are Addi Turbos. However, the Addi size 2 is 3mm, which proved to be too big. Since I knit a lot of socks, I actually have 4 sizes of very small needles ranging from 2 to 3mm. In all seriousness, that quarter mm actually does make a difference in the end. 

And here's just a few in progress shots...

Under side of sock with grippy ribs

I like to add an inch or two of rib to the bottom at the arch to help the sock grip my foot.

Eye of Partridge Heel

For the heel, I like the diamond pattern of the Eye of Partridge stitch pattern. I also think it is sturdier.

And there you have it. Simple socks. I may do another pair of 'almost as simple' socks but just with a bit of colorwork incorporated into them.We'll see.

Either way, I hope to finish posting my 2013 projects this week so I can get on to 2014!


*** Wow, there is already an errata! I should have added that I start my heel gusset at 6 1/2", but you should start it about 3 inches short of your foot. I usually wear a size 9 1/2-10 shoe and have a medium foot circumference.

Last Frosting of 2013: Teaser Reveal

I fell a bit short of finishing my New Year's Eve outfit. The holidays were busy and joyous, as they should be, and I chose time with family and friends over solitary hours in the Craft Lounge. Also, I didn't want to rush through the trouser's welt pockets, which I'm still practicing on muslin. But I did finish the top. 

Here's a teaser on a frosty Friday.

I'll show the whole outfit once it's done. Also, IOU a 2013 roundup and my plans for 2014.

The Nice List (Giveaway Winners)!

It's been a hectic holiday week, but today we paused to finally draw two winners for our sock yarn giveaway and show off our holiday prezzies.

Dragon and Milkshake were our impartial name pullers, since we do things analog here at Trample Herd HQ.  Our winners, who most definitely were on the nice list this year, are...

In their Christmas scarves.

Lisette and T Sedai Hoosiermama*

(* T.Sedai had meant to leave a comment, and not to enter, so I re-drew for a new winner.)

Ladies, please email me your deets at Clio(dot)Phineas(at)gmail(dot)com and I will get two balls of navy Stroll sock yarn off to each of you asap.

Speaking of the nice list, there was much celebrating on Christmas day when Dragon, Milkshake and the Tramples awoke to find that Santa had indeed come and left them each a new knit scarf. Nothing is more exciting to knit critters than more knits. 

Tramples with scarves that match their ear frills.

I must have been on the super nice list this year, since I received a load of goodies including drape drape, Pattern Magic, a June Tailor pressing board and this...

... a tower of Belding Corticelli silk thread. (See here if you don't know why I'm so psyched about this.)

I also received some excellent cookbooks, including Melt: The Art of Macaroni and Cheese. Yes, it is a cookbook entirely devoted to one thing: the pursuit of mac + cheese.  So, I think another round of my search for the perfect mac and cheese recipe will be taking off in the next week or two. For those of you new to it, here is the most recent version.  Stay tuned!

The Herd Waits for Santa: Vanilla Salted Peanut Cookies

A very merry everything from all of us here at Clio & Phin, where the herd is somewhat patiently awaiting the arrival of Santa Claus.

Merry Christmas!

I know. Santa wears a suit, not a cape.  I tried to tell Dragon this, but he made a compelling case that Santa is, in fact, a superhero. Since I've never seen Santa, who was I to argue? Maybe he does wear a cape for dashing across rooftops.

Cookies for Santa.

Dragon has been asking for me to make him a Santa costume since Thanksgiving so he could have adventures with Milkshake the Elf and a herd of reindeer elephants. So, I whipped up some antlers from craft felt and an online template that I shrunk down to Trample Herd size. The Santa and Elf hats are made from scraps of fabric with trim that I knit from faux fur yarn. 

Reindeer Elephant

Anyway, since the real Santa comes tonight, I thought we'd share our cookie recipe. This is from The Baking Sheet, which is a bakers' newsletter put out by King Arthur Flour. Let me tell you: this cookie is right on!  It's rather unique - loaded with vanilla and complimented by peanuts, white chocolate chips and oatmeal. These flavors really go together better than you'd ever guess.

Good enough to get us on the nice list?

Vanilla Salted Peanut Cookies from KAF's Baking Sheet
1/2c butter (4oz, 1 stick)
1/4c veg shortening (1 3/4 oz)
2c brown sugar (15 oz)
2c old-fashioned rolled oats (7oz)
2 large eggs
2 tbsp vanilla extract (1oz)
1 tsp baking soda
2c AP flour (8 1/2 oz)
1 1/4c salted peanuts (6 1/4oz)
1 1/3c  white chocolate chips (8oz)

Cream shortening, butter and brown sugar. Mix in the oats, eggs and vanilla. Whisk flour and baking soda and add to butter/oat mixture, stopping to scrape bowl. Mix in peanuts and chips. Scoop by tbsp onto parchment lined or greased baking sheets and bake at 350 for 11-13min until golden at edges. Cool on pan for 5 min before transferring to a cooling rack. Makes 4 1/2 dozen. 

I've never really been into white chocolate, but this chewy cookie breaks the mold. The only thing I might do differently in future batches is replace the shortening with butter. It would mean the cookies would spread more, but I like the flavor and texture of all-butter cookies better than shortening. 

Waiting for Santa

Now if I could just get the herd to go to bed. Like all overexcited children on Christmas Eve, they are determined to wait for Santa.

Merry and Bright to you and yours! 

In the Works: New Years Eve/Anniverary Outfit

Things are pretty busy with holiday baking, shopping and merriment, but I'm trying to finish up a few more projects by the end of 2014. One of the sewing projects that I have in the works is my knock off of this:

BCBG Max Azria

I know. I've been talking about the top for a while now. But I've decided that it will be the perfect outfit for the holidays - including New Year's Eve, aka Phin and my anniversary - if I make the trousers, too.
  
So, here's where things stand. I've traced and then diced up the raglan tee pattern making the changes I needed and adding in seam allowances for the new pieces. I made the net cut out not quite as deep as the inspiration piece, but still deeper than most people would wear (ie: more tape!).

I bought black matte jersey and illusion net. So, I'm ready to cut and sew the top.

For the trousers, I decided to give Burda 04-2011-120 a try. 

Burda 04-2011-120

These are definitely a much wider/fuller and higher waist trouser than my norm. But I'm enjoying trying out different styles lately - things I might have only recently passed over as being not for me.

Nice details!

And these trousers - though different from the BCBG inspiration ones - have some really great features like welt pockets and cuffs. I'm a sucker for trousers with cuffs for some reason.

I've muslined them, made some changes and am going to sew them up in this beautiful stretch wool suiting that I bought at Mood. I was worried about pretreating the wool, so I sent it to my drycleaner to have it steam pressed. How do you like to pretreat wool?

Ralph Lauren Suiting -  It's a bit brighter in person

Since there are three welt pockets to sew, I decided to bone up on my pocket skills. I've always found welt pockets tricky. I'm watching Kenneth King's Craftsy class on drafting and sewing pockets. It's excellent. I know that different teachers and teaching styles resonate with different people, but I find that KK explains things in a way that makes sense to me. 

So that's where things stand. Now let's see if I can get it all done in time for the holidays!

Finished: Knee High TARDIS Socks and Giveaway!

My sister, Erato, is one of those super humans who - when she puts her mind to it - can pretty much follow through on any goal with gale force strength single-mindedness.  

Case in point: One month after running her first marathon, she ran a 50k trail run.

Hurricane Force

That's 31 miles, folks. Hardcore.  

While not as physically strenuous, the congratulatory socks I knit for her were something of a marathon, too.

It's not that my mash up of the TARDIS Socks and the Delicious Socks were particularly challenging. It wasn't. It's just that my sister is quite tall. Her calves are about 4" longer than yours...

I know. I'm jealous of her long limbs too.

That's a whole lot of sock to knit!

I already talked about the TARDIS socks when I knit myself a pair. The mashup I did with the Delicious Knee Socks was basically to follow their increase and decrease chart for the legs. I also did the short row heel of the Delicious socks, which is not my norm, but it worked out.  I worry a little that it isn't as strong as my usual Dutch or Band heel.

Other details are that I knit these from Cascade Heritage sock yarn, which is a superwash (ie: machine washable) merino and nylon blend. The merino makes them soft and warm and the nylon adds some necessary strength for long-wearing socks. It's a very springy, cushy yarn. Not my favorite for wearing with shoes, but the color was right. Also, I experimented with the cuff by knitting in some elastic thread  to add some extra grippy-ness, which I thought the yarn lacked. I'll let you know if this turns out to be a good addition.

Hardcore, peeps.

Congrats, Erato!  You are so amazingly hardcore. I hope these give your feet and legs the cushy warm comfort they deserve!

Giveaway
And now, a giveaway.  You see, while I was planning this project, I ordered a lot of sock yarn. Most was rejected for it's color - just not right for TARDIS.  One reject was made into socks for Phin - the blue was too blue-green for TARDIS. But I still have other yarns left over, and well, the truth is that... um...

I hate navy blue. 

Most sincerely. This is probably due to my years in a navy blue school uniform. So very uniform!

So, I'm banishing from my sight giving away 4 balls of KnitPicks Stroll sock yarn in navy. The socks I've knit from Stroll have held up really well and look just as good as when first knit. I bought 4 balls thinking that's what I would need for knee highs, but regular socks can be made with two. So, there shall be two winners!

Merino Nylon Superwash - 230 yards each

Just holler in the comments and make sure I can contact you before Christmas (ie: December 24 at 11:59 EST) and let me know what you think you might knit with this yarn. It's fingering weight, so could have lots of uses besides socks. If you've never dipped your toe into sock knitting but are curious,  K-line is hosting a Two Socks, One Week knit along over the holidays, and she is sure to have some great tips and tutorials.

Anyway, I hope that someone will take this yarn off my hands enjoy knitting navy blue more than I would. 

Bread: A Much Needed Victory!!

So, I had a much needed victory in the kitchen while it was snowing yesterday. Not only did my second try at this bread look good from the outside...

Good looking on the outside!

 But look at the inside!

Big airy holes!!

 

This is how its supposed to look. And it has a crisp, shattering crust, lots of airy holes, a nice soft crumb and tastes good, too.

I realize now that I made some kind of measuring error in my first sorry boule. This time I measured by weight, which is how I normally bake. Conversions are in the follow-up article about the bread. The dough looked totally different when I measured by weight, so I knew at once that I had made some kind of mistake last week.

So, the verdict is that this recipe is as easy as promised and, when I actually measured correctly, the results were great. I can see myself making this bread often. I do like kneaded breads, but don't always have the time to be home to do all of the rising and punching down in one day. With this bread, I mix the dough one afternoon (it takes 5 minutes including clean up), rise untouched until the next morning, and by lunchtime am taking the bread out of the oven.  

 

Anyway, three cheers for bread. I'm already thinking about all kinds of variations with whole grains and other enhancements.