Christmas knitting!

[jaina]

I bring you pictures of my Christmas knitting! My mom, dad, and brother all got socks this year.

	Bitchin' flames socks! These were for my li'l brudder, dmbtuxwaddle. We've long joked about putting some bitchin' flames on his car, and now he has some for his feet. Yarn is Dale Baby Ull as called for in the pattern by Pink Lemon Twist. This was my first time doing stranded colorwork, and it was perhaps not the *best* idea to try to learn it in the round, on dpns. I did the two-handed method, and I'm just rubbish at the throwing side of things. I can never seem to keep hold of the needles *and* keep an even tension on the right-hand yarn.
	Bitchin' flames socks Since the pattern was for a woman's foot, I had to add an extra half-repeat of the pattern to make them big enough around for Sean's foot. That led to a little weirdness, but since it's on the bottom you won't see it. Except when I take pictures like this.
	Bitchin' flames socks
	Mom's lace socks My mama's gift, and the first lace I ever successfully completed. Woo! Pattern is Sheri's lace socks (that's a pdf) and the yarn is KnitPicks Essential in Burgundy.
	Mom's lace socks
	Mom's lace socks
	Dad's Nationals socks I could call my dad a Nationals fan, but that's not quite true. He's really an extraordinarily faithful Senators fan who waited years and years for Washington to finally have a team again. I remember he used to go into every hat store he could find, looking for Senators hats. Now he doesn't have to look so hard anymore. So of course I had to make him socks to match! Yarn is Dale Baby Ull, pattern is just the same dimensions as the flame socks, without the pattern. The W is duplicate-stitched on, and the baseball stitching on the toe is exactly that. I generated the pattern for the W using this nifty free widget that will turn any image into a knit or cross-stitch pattern.
	Dad's Nationals socks We joke that he should really wear these with sandals, shorts, a Nats T-shirt, and a bucket hat. Halloween costume!

Comments

[amizada.livejournal.com]

Loooooooove the socks! I especially love the flamey ones. SO FUN!

I gotta ask. Do you go toe up or cuff down?

[brightcupenny.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I love the flamey ones too, although I did not love them so much while I was knitting them!

I knit cuff-down. I was actually experimenting today with some toe-up techniques-- I love the look of short-row heels and toes, but not the actual knitting of them. But I do want to find a toe-up technique that I like, because it'll be useful to know.

[amizada.livejournal.com]

I can't do toe up to save my life. I really need to get to a class or find a kick ass tutorial. A lot of patterns I like are toe up and then I get angry lol.

[wendyhouse.livejournal.com]

OMG in teh knitting awe.

[brightcupenny.livejournal.com]

Aw, thank you!

[moorina.livejournal.com]

Those Bitchin' Flame Socks should be rightly called Those Bitchin' Flame Socks OF AWESOME, for that is what they are.

[brightcupenny.livejournal.com]

I know, isn't that just the best pattern ever? I was so excited to find it! :D

[hollywdliz.livejournal.com]

Those are all great, but I especially love the Nats socks! Very cool. MLB should sell patterns!

[brightcupenny.livejournal.com]

Thank you! It was actually really easy to make the logo-- there's this great free widget (http://www.microrevolt.org/knitPro/) that'll convert any image to a knitting or cross-stitch pattern. Actually, I should add that into the entry.

[evilbearhunter.livejournal.com]

I am in awe of that widget. Thanks so much for the link.

[brightcupenny.livejournal.com]

You're welcome! It's not perfect-- you can't specify how many colors you want, and things like that, but it's free and that makes it awesome.

[rosiewook.livejournal.com]

You could totally make a killing with those flame socks by adding in a SW Ep3 logo. ;-)

Those are all lovely socks. I especially like the Nationals ones.

[brightcupenny.livejournal.com]

Well, if someone is willing to pay me $400 for a pair of socks, then maybe. Those suckers took *so long* to knit!

Thanks!

[anirt.livejournal.com]

I love the flame socks, and thank you for the widget! I might use that for x-stich sometime.

[brightcupenny.livejournal.com]

Thank you, and you're welcome!

[bailunrui.livejournal.com]

Those look great! I am in awe. :)

[brightcupenny.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

Burn baby burn!

[dmbtuxwaddle.livejournal.com]

So Carol said she got socks for Christmas, too. I said my socks looked amazing (which they do). She said back that her socks were "hotter" looking. I responded that if her socks were HOT, then mine are on FIRE. (she hasn't seen my bitchin' flame socks yet, so we'll see if she gets the joke).

Re: Burn baby burn!

[brightcupenny.livejournal.com]

Hahaha, that's awesome. Bring your socks when you come next week, you'll want them for around the house.

[fieryredhead.livejournal.com]

WOW! Wonderful work! I used to knit alot in high school and just recently bought a pattern to try for a shawl. :) Need to remember how to do it! ;)

The flame socks are awesome!

[brightcupenny.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

[peddler-creates.livejournal.com]

Oh fun! I'd love to try my hand at socks, especially since I'm so sensitive and am never happy with the ones I buy. When I'm done knitting a few gifts I'll try socks. Thanks for sharing the pictures! BTW how'd your patterns class go? :)

[brightcupenny.livejournal.com]

Thank you! Socks are really easy, honestly-- I was scared of turning a heel, but I just followed the directions and it worked, and that was that!

Patterns class was great fun. Fairly low-level, I'm sure, compared to the classes you've taken, but for a community college class that cost $60, I can't complain. I'm signed up for Patternmaking II in the spring! I'll post my final project shortly when I do my 2007 sewing roundup.

[(Anonymous)]

Those are so fun! I love them :)

[koshka-the-cat.livejournal.com]

Uh, that was me :)

[brightcupenny.livejournal.com]

Well, I kindly thank both you and your anonymous alternate personality. ;-)

[knitress.livejournal.com]

Whoa. Those are made of awesome, all of them. I love the baseball stitching on the toe!

And yeah, working stranded colorwork on circs is waaaay easier than dpns. I'm totally a fan of two-hands-at-once for that. Do you usually knit continental or american/english?

[brightcupenny.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

I'm a continental knitter, I think because I started crocheting long before I learned to knit, so I'm just used to holding the yarn in my left hand. The lady who taught me was an English knitter, but I only lasted about a row before I just naturally switched over. My biggest problem doing the stranded colorwork was that the yarn in my right hand kept bunching up and getting in the way, and I just couldn't seem to keep a consistent tension on it. I think it's the way I hold my right hand when I knit.