The Toe-Up! March KAL is......

Syncopated Rib Boot Socks! The pattern calls for worsted weight yarn knit at 6 sts and 8 rows per inch so I pulled a skein of natural Araucania nature wool out of my stash and hand-dyed it (a shade of purple, of course). Today was the official start date and this is the first time I have done Anatomical Toes. Think I am going to like them!

Venus has Risen

Here is my Venus Rising Cardigan, finished and with buttons!

The Kauni yarn really softened up with washing and the stitches settled down and look nicer.
I think the next one I do will be in Noro Silk Garden sock yarn and I may eliminate the hip shaping ??

Mix-and-Match Toe-Up's Finished

I finally took a picture of my Mix-and-Match Ribs socks and finished in time to start the March KAL, which is in the voting process right now and will be announced on Friday!

These are the best toe up socks that I have knit so far. I love the way they fit and have learned a couple of things. First, my prior attempts at toe-up's have been to loose on my foot and the other issue has been the placement of the heel, usually started to soon and my sock was too short. Thanks to the worksheets for toes and heels in Chrissy Gardiner's Toe-Up! sock book, my socks fit GREAT.

Can't wait to find out which sock we will be knitting for March and the fun of choosing the perfect yarn!

On the other hand......I was trying out a stitch pattern for some cashmere sock yarn which I volunteered to design a pattern for and it's not working. The stitch pattern I had intended to use is not stretchy enough and caused the heel to be too tight. I can wear the socks, but the pattern will not see the light of day. Fortunately, the cashmere sock yarn has not arrived yet so, back to the drawing board!

Need Buttons!!

The button band of my Venus Rising is picked up and knitted to the point of putting in the buttonholes so it is on hold until I get to town and find the perfect buttons. That day is looking like Friday as tomorrow I am giving a spinning lesson and Thursday is "Third Thursday at Kim's" in which a bunch of us meet throughout the day for fiber fun.

My Mix-and-Match Rib socks are not finished yet as I spent the day spinning. I'm hoping to get them finished soon so I can start the Skew socks just posted as a Knitty winter surprise. They are absolutley fascinating. Hmmmm, which yarn to use?

Venus Rising...almost finished

I've made a lot of progress on my Venus rising Cardigan and it is close to being finished...

The left side nonseam is grafted, the waste yarn removed and it is still in one piece! Minor hole at the underarm to be tidied up.

Then I removed the waste yarn to open up the front and back neck shaping, put the front stitches on hold and picked up the back neck stitches .....

And here is the finished back neck, a "v" in the back!

Now I am off to work on my Toe-Up KAL socks. I was planning to get 30 rounds on the leg of my second sock done tonight and finish them tomorrow night but it's getting close to bedtime....too much time at the spinning wheel this evening. Time flies when your having fun!

Venus Rising Update

Here is my Venus Rising cardigan with the waste yarn inserted into the front, the left side shaping complete along with the sleeve head short row shaping and I'm starting down the left sleeve. The green yarn on the left sides will be used as a grafting guide for the left "nonseam"! (it's there, you can just see a little corner of it in the underarm.) It pays to insert all those shaping and decrease markers and take lots of notes as you are knitting the first half. My brain had a hard time working in mirror image, but thanks to all the notes I took I had a linear image from which to work the left side in reverse. Can't wait to get this one done...already have yarn bought for the next one. What will it be....?

Toe-Up!!

I joined the Toe-Up Knitters group on Ravelry founded by Chrissy Gardiner (and mods) which is based on her new book Toe-Up! I have knit 3 pairs of toe up socks in the past and because they don't fit well I revert back to the cuff down technique. The book has worksheets designed to help you modify different toe and heel applications to your own measurements based on your stitch and row gauge and encourages you to try different toes and heels to decide which ones fit your foot structure and which ones , not so well.

The February KAL is the Mix-and-Match Rib sock. I am making mine with Fortissima Colori on size U.S. 2 (2.75mm) needles using the two circ's method and my gauge is 8 sts and 11 rows per inch. I chose to do the Garter Rib version. Hoping to learn how to knit a great fitting toe up sock!!