Pattern: Anne
Source: Download from mk carroll. $5.50 US Dollars and well worth the price of admission.
Size: N/A
Yarn: Aquarium Sereknity Hand Painted Worsted Superwash Merino, 4oz., under a skein, over half a skein.
Hook size: US G, 4 mm (I run tighter than most designers gauge, but it’s a scarf, so I just made more motifs.)
Pattern Modifications: Sixty-one repeats of the third motif instead of the forty-two recommended in the pattern.

I have to admit, since I started knitting, I haven’t had much desire to crochet. This pattern brought back some of my love of crochet. I think it’s a perfect example of why people should be able to do both. I also think it’s a good pattern for a novice crocheter. It’s all done with four of the most basic stitches (US: chain stitch, slip stitch, single crochet, and double crochet. English: chain stitch, single crochet, double crochet, and treble crochet) so you get practice working them all. It works up quickly, so within a few days you have either a nice gift or a little something special for yourself.

Blocking.

I couldn’t wait to share this one and I wanted to block it, because even crochet lace deserves to be blocked, so I took my pictures in my normal blocking spot: On top of the washer and dryer. The designer shows all her examples in solids, but this shows off the beauty of the Aquarium so much better than the socks I made from the other skein, it looks like it was made especially to make this.

It’s about 64 inches long.

Looking at the scarf, you’d think it took forever, but it was mostly done by the time I went to bed last night. I only had to add on nine motif repeats this morning and it was ready to have the ends woven in. Because it’s joined as you go, there were only two ends to weave in at the end. Yay! That’s a design bonus in my book.
(Please pardon the mess in the the background of this picture. Our basement is only semi-finished and the laundry room/work room is in the unfinished part.)

A view of the end.

The design of the scarf is such that both ends look very similar. I love the scalloped edge and all the little flowery picots. I think it’s going to look fabulous against my white denim jacket.

Stitch detail.

This shows just how beautifully the colors blend one into another and it’s very color accurate, at least on my monitor. I imagine that it’s very similar to how the skein looked when Heather from Sereknity.com was actually painting the yarn. Hand dyed yarns look so different between when the artist dyes them, when they reskein them after they dying process, and then when someone actually works with them. It’s like seeing three different yarns. This particular pattern works out perfectly to bring some of the original back.

I love the way it turned out. I loved it so much, I made an LJ icon from one of my photos.

Pattern: Broken Rib Socks
Source: 101 Designer One Skein Wonders
Size: Medium (My feet are, by US sizing, a size 8 and D width.)
Yarn: Aquarium Sereknity Hand Painted Worsted Superwash Merino, 4oz., a tiny bit more than one skein, due to pattern modifications.
Needle size: US 5, 3.75 mm (Next time I think I’d slip down to US 4 dpns, as the yarn is nice and elastic and my feets are not quite so big as I think they are.)
Pattern Modifications: I knit the leg of the sock to 6.5 inches long instead of the six inches the pattern calls for trying to accommodate how much the length would shrink up when I put them on my thick ankles. If I’d knit to the pattern length, I would have been able to get both socks out of one skein of the yarn.

I just finished the second sock so now I have an I now have have an honest to goodness pair of socks. They’re currently soaking in warm, soapy water laced with a cup of vinegar, part “blocking,” part trying to gently rinse out any excess blue dye (see Sock Knittah! and Why Buying From Individual Artisans is beautiful for details. The early rinse didn’t seem to have any signs of the blue dye bleeding out so at this point it looks like all they needed was a good post knitting rinse to wash away the excess dye, just as hoped, so all’s well in the world of sockie goodness.

I tried them on when I got them finished and snapped a few pictures for your sock viewing enjoyment.

Fraternal Twins at the Piano

Looking Down at my Feets

Relaxing with the Cuffs Down: How I’ll probably wear these socks.

At this point, I’m highly satisfied with how these came. The yarn is nice and mooshy, which will make these a comfortable pair of house socks, which is exactly what I wanted. I’m sure there are more socks in the future, despite the insanity of knitting socks, because I really like these socks.

Artisans, like Heather from Sereknity.com, care about their work. The Big Box companies, not so much.

I got an email from Heather today after reading about my problem with the blue crocking a bit while I’m working Aquarium Broken Rib Socks, which are being knitted from the lovely tree froggy hand-painted yarn she created. She sent me the nicest letter complimenting my sock (really, she’s done all the work, I’m just letting the yarn speak for itself), and sounded absolutely beside herself.

I think Heather’s right that the color’s fully set and I’m just getting some transfer from a bit of residual dye on the blue sections. That blue’s so vibrant. It really makes the whole color scheme pop. I can imagine it’s really difficult to work with in the dying process, but the end product is completely worth it.

She suggested I try vinegar in the blocking bath. At the moment, I’m just past the “regular ribbing” part of sock two, just ready to start into the broken rib part of the leg, so I expect to finish sock two this weekend. When sock two is done, I’ll try a bit of vinegar in the blocking bath.

Pattern: Broken Rib Socks
Source: 101 Designer One Skein Wonders
Yarn: Aquarium Sereknity Hand Painted Worsted Superwash Merino, 4oz.

I now have have a sock, singular. That’s the first step on the way to a pair, though, unless you knit two at once.
I’ve finished the first sock and cast on the second in my second attempt to knit my first pair of socks.

I fell in love with the yarn when I saw it on Etsy. The colors are very pleasingly tree froggy. Unfortunately, it’s been a bit of a bugger to find a sock pattern that works with it.

The first pattern I tried was Hiker Socks from the first One Skein Wonders book. That ended in a frogging before the first sock was done because it looked like someone vomited a well chewed tree frog all over my sock. It was so bad, I couldn’t bear to take a picture to document the level of pure unadulterated “f’ug.”

I think Hiker Socks would do better with a self striping yarn, which this hand painted yarn beauty isn’t.

The real modem toad models the sock.

This pattern looks significantly better and really lets the yarn shine. Admittedly some people may not go for the way the blue pools and spirals around the leg, but I’m grooving on it.

A Closer View

The greens and oranges almost look like they want to stripe, but I think if they did, then the blues would pool in a stripe I wouldn’t care to have.

Modem Toad shows off the start of the second sock.

One thing I have noticed working with this particular yarn is that the blue is rubbing off on me. I think when I block the socks I’ll have to try to throwing in some salt to mordant it a bit better. I hope when I’m blocking that the blue doesn’t foul the other colors when I soak them before blocking. I’m hoping that if I’m careful and gentle I’ll minimize any potential bleeding.

My other news is I’ve got a new point and shoot I’m trying to figure out. I’m still trying to figure out all the nifty things it can do, but it looks like it’s going to let me take more and better pictures, so this blog won’t be quite as visually boring.

Well, at least that’s the theory. It’s still not the Rosie One’s nifty sweetness of a camera, but for the price I paid for mine (thanks again, Mom) I’m sure as heck not complaining by a long shot. I went from 2 to 5 megapixels, which is a huge upgrade. The color fidelity is pretty darned awesome.