Category: Yarn Projects

Socks: An Update

Several months ago, I started a new side quest in knitting – making socks. It’s a windy and treacherous climb, fraught with new equipment and an entirely new approach from a garment like a sweater. At the beginning it’s like casting on a mitten or a small hat, yet as time goes on you realize you are somewhere between a knitter and a sculptor, looking for the heel shape in your amphorous block of yarn. It is the most challenging garment I’ve made, culminating in going over the waterfall, at least that’s what turning the heel felt like at times.

What makes this ubiquitous garment so hard to learn? It’s a project of multi-tasking, like dribbling a basketball and moving at the same time. You are not only knitting a pattern – a sock, but you are also learning it on a new court – double pointed needles or with a magic loop configuration on circular knitting needles. There is also the third option, the one I leaned on when I was baffled by hitting gauge on my project and fed up with ripping out my progress over and over, knit flat tube socks that are sewn together to form the tubular shape.

My first two completed sets of socks were made this way, with straight needles to help me process all I was learning from these new techniques. It was the confidence boost I needed to keep going and finish the sock. I get overwhelmed in new projects when nothing is familiar but taking one part, flat knitting, and keeping that as the control part of the experiment let me knit and see how it should look and feel when the socks are completed. To better understand what I was working towards on double pointed needles or circular needles. Flat knitting also gave me the chance to try something I’ve never done before as a knitter, I cast on two socks at a time on my needles. It was incredibly satisfying to finish each sock at the same time!

Attempt on DPNs
Finshed tube socks pair knit at the same time on one set of straight needles

With this new found confidence I carried on and cast back onto the straight needles, making a brown pair of socks from recycled acrylic that wash and wear well. These green socks above are a blend that is mostly wool with a hint of acrylic in the yarn and they are hand wash or steam only for me. I wash them gently with either shampoo or conditioner in the sink, carefully to prevent felting. For my next project I wanted to explore fiber content, so I cast on a sock with three strands – two fingering weight wool and one acrylic. I chose this composition to test wear and washability, to make these a sock I could worry less about washing yet would insulate my foot, this was during a month long stretch of cold weather, dipping into the negatives fahrenheit so my mind was on cold weather. I decided to make these chunky socks into a sock I would use to insulate my L.L.Bean duck boots which are waterproof but are canvas, not insulated at all. They are a boot I want to wear for cold weather and snow, but they make my feet cold even with two pairs of socks.

As I got to the heel portion, I knit these socks cuff down, I made a last second decision and transfered my project to my round needles, joining the row into a round a stitches. With my heel turning reference book in hand I began turning that heel! It wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be! I don’t think I executed it perfectly, but I conquered a fear. Now, the tough part of the process is that my handwork for circular knitting is subpar. I hold my stitches too tight and the tension hurts my fingers the longer I knit on a project. The only way to improve this is to keep practicing, yet I don’t want to practice. The second sock is cast on but I have yet to make progress on project because I am dreading the circular process and those tight stitches that come from inexperience.

Is this sock the best fitting sock I’ve ever made? Yes! Is it better than store bought ones? A 1000% yes, and I’m a novice so they are going to get better with practice. It’s an art form we wear everyday without thought, but it is truly a sculpture of yarn. Next time you put on a sock, have a moment of appreciation for the geometry, the symmetry, and the sculpture adorning your foot.

Hot Air Balloon Knit Hat

Do you ever pick up a knit object and the fiber feels buttery soft? That’s exactly how this cerulean blue yarn feels to the touch. It is a bulky weight yarn blend of super wash Australian wool and acrylic fibers. It’s a yarn that I believe has been discontinued by Knit Picks but I hope they bring it back because no project has been a joy to knit up like this one. It glided across my needles! It’s one of the reasons I chose to knit this fiber into a hat that would be soft and warm on my head. It’s cozy. Another reason was because this skein of yarn was a destash from my mom, there was only one skein so I decided to make it the focus of one small project.

I’m not very good at using one solid color throughout my projects so I paired this was a Brava bulky in red also from Knit Picks to add visual interest to the hat. I think it looks like a hot air balloon from an illustrated book. An imagination filled tale, like how the heffalumps and woosels turn into hot air balloons during Winnie the Pooh’s trippy dream during the flood. I love how bright the contrast is between the delicate red lines and the vivid water-like blue. It has a bit of the Apres-ski vibe with the vivid color story of the late 80s and early 90s.

I made this knit hat on size 10 bamboo straight needles in two pieces that I seamed together. I made the decision to construct this hat using two pieces because I had not made a hat in over a year and felt a bit rusty. I also wanted control of the taper of the crown, without needing to also refamiliarize myself with circulars or double-pointed needles. I made this hat in August 2024 and I was coming off the big move into the storage unit for two weeks and then into the new house. To be honest, I was feeling a bit creatively stir crazy from the busy summer. I’ve learned a lot since I made this from my dabbling with sock knitting and could confidently make this now with a different construction, but as a quick beginner project or knitting warm up when you’re feeling rusty it’s an easy to make project. I believe I made this over one weekend, potentially one day? I can’t remember how focused I was.

You will need a tape measure or a knit hat that fits you the way you would like your hat to fit for reference. Cast on stitches according to your head size for one half of your head. Knit ribbed stitches for 3 inches and then switch to stockinette for the rest of the hat. Switch yarn at the end of rows and don’t decrease too quickly. I’ve made this mistake before. You will need the width across your crown to join at the top and you can decrease quickly at the end so be filled with care as you taper and don’t hesitate to frog and try again for the right fit. Adding a safety line where you plan to unravel your project to, is a huge life saver! Mirror your second side and stitch the two halves together with a tapestry needle. An easy knitting project that is useful and can help you practice skills like purling, ribbing, yarn over decreases, crown shaping, and yarn tension.

Were My 2024 Fashion Predictions Accurate?

At the beginning of January 2024, I made a post for fun predicting what I thought would become popular trends in 2024. Now that it’s December, how well did I do? I accurately guessed 6 out of 10 of the predictions I made! So what were these trends that I predicted and what did I get wrong? Let’s jump in!

Gameday Outfits

The NFL had a moment this year with the spotlight of Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce, and her gameday outfits became a source of public fascination. This created a wave of gameday outfit inspiration online, sparked by Blokecore in 2023. This carried on through WAG fashion and trickled into the mainstream. The Paris Olympics created fashion buzz, as did the movie Challengers. There was a rising fascination for F1 in the US. Not to mention the popularity of the team-branded baseball cap and Adidas soccer shorts paired with a button-down shirt. This one was a big deal and was unifying to be honest because who doesn’t like at least one of these sporting events? There is something for everyone.

Patches and Visible Mending

This definitely became a trend as DIY fashion and upcycling continue to grow in popularity online for sustainability and creative expression. Mending and learning to sew continues to rise in popularity as people choose to opt out of the fast fashion loop in search of clothing that will last all while standing out in a crowd. I think we can agree there was a hive mind within fashion since the Tik-Tok “core” aesthetics took off at the beginning of the decade and we are all looking for original ideas again.

Colorful Knit Accessories

Similarly, knitting along with crochet has continued to grow in popularity as hobbies and as a way to create DIY fashion by hand. It was so popular that chatGPT patterns and AI-created crochet and knit images cluttered the creative space. With Balletcore being popular, so were leg warmers and slouchy socks. Fingerless gloves, colorful hats, and brightly colored vests made 2024 what it was – a fiber artist paradise.

Exaggerated Tailoring

This was seen on the runway, with tailoring having a moment with trousers, vests, and blazers finding popularity once again. Dramatic shapes were popular on the runway. I also saw vests and dramatic trouser shapes in mainstream stores. I think this should always be in style so let’s keep in that way fashion trends. It’s a classic.

Resurgence of the Flip Flops

Yes, these were hailed the “It girl” shoe of the summer after Gisele Bundchen (yes I know I’m missing the umlauts) was seen wearing them. The specific flip-flop brand Havaianas, was the iconic style of 2024, but luxury brands tried to corner that market with $900+ flip-flops. I think it makes sense for these to come around again after how long the Birkenstock sandal has been the favorite choice, followed by Tevas, it’s the next logical evolution from clunky to delicate. Personally, all three of these drive my feet nuts but I’d probably choose the Teva for comfort or flip-flops for sheer chillness. Flip-flops were also worn by athletes at the Paris 2024 games.

Jersey Shore Nostalgia

Indeed Ed Hardy and Von Dutch did trend again this year! Mainly with teens and tweens, but this styling returned to the runway with Kim Petras’ Spring 2024 collection which featured Ed Hardy’s iconic designs. I’m excited for this era of fashion to return because I enjoyed the late 2000s-early 2010s fashion and the over-the-top spectacle of it. I’m certainly more for this than the mob wife styling of early 2024.

Parasols for Sun Relief

This one I thought, was a long shot but it made sense for it to become a trend because of how practical they are while protecting skin from UV damage. They are technically better for the planet than single-use sunscreen. I was not wrong. This market is projected to grow from 2024-2032 as the parasol or sun umbrella market is anticipated to grow globally. In 2024, there was significant growth as a trend for Japanese men. That’s a result! 🙂

What Did I Miss the Mark On?

  • ARMY-core was not a thing even though all BTS members were in the military this year, no trends emerged from this across the K-pop sphere. The only popular examples of camo I saw were from Chappell Roan’s ‘Midwest Princess’ camo hats from her tour and the Harris-Walz campaign hats which copied the same style.
  • Gilded Age Finery did not take off like I hoped. The only instances I found were Bad Bunny’s Met Gala look and Paris Fashion Week using late Victorian and Regency era opulence as inspiration for glamour.
  • Bonnets this was a flop except for two key shifts. One I hope I explain right because I am not familiar with the hair culture. According to a few articles I found black men styled bonnets as a protective hair style in 2024. Secondly, hats became popular again with rope hats and pillbox styles being the most talked about.
  • Cosmic Cowboy or Sailor Cowboy would have been accurate if I had dropped the qualifiers. Cowboy was the most iconic aesthetic of this year with cowboy styling, media, and country music being a key player in pop culture. Americana in general had a moment which is odd but hopefully a turning point for unification in my divided land.

What were your favorite style moments of 2024? And did you participate in any of these trends?

Knit Star Keychain Pattern

Back in the spring, I had this grand idea that I would learn how to crochet. I had a friend who crocheted next door, I had recently found TL Yarn Crafts on YouTube. Toni made it look so fun. I was enamored by what I saw others creating with crochet hooks. Crochet rose in mainstream popularity again through 2020 and beyond in 2024.

My Impression of Crochet

The internet is chock full of crochet plushies, dresses, sweaters, bags – you name it you can crochet it. I didn’t see this kind of creativity from my corner of the knitting internet. I had this impression that knitters were serious and crocheters were mavericks. So the hook was calling to me.

I bought a crochet hook and spent a few weeks watching videos, perusing a book my neighbor lent me, and getting the hook into some loops. It’s a weird transition from knitting. I apparatus from two is a change. There is a posture, one hand, and yarn holding. There is a new way to keep yarn tension, and there are a lot of new stitches. There was more emphasis on turning your work than the orientation of the wrong side and right side. Single crochet and double crochet were not a one-for-one of knit and purl. That surprised me.

Granny squares were a bit more involved than I expected. It’s an art form that deserves respect. I definitely respect it. It kept me back, I had the tightest tension and felt like I had never done yarn crafting before. I was shocked, shouldn’t this be a piece of cake? I’ve been knitting off and on since 2012. Yeah, it’s not that simple.

Fluff Around and Find Out

To be honest, the way that I learn best is to just go for it, and doing these basic crochet stitches on a project that was a rectangle, all while it looked like a tattered mess was discouraging. I wanted to make one of the little plushies or shapes that seemed to be a sculpture that only crochet could create. But I was seriously not getting it. So I paused and thought about it. Is there any way to apply this creative point of you, the sculpting of yarn that only crochet can, but try it with knitting needles?

This might seem weird to consider if you don’t knit or crochet but the processes seem vastly different to me. There’s a strategy to knitting. You have to do things in stages, like knitting a section and transferring stitches to a stitch minder or picking up stitches that were bound off or are just part of a knit edge. While crocheting builds on itself and is an amorphous thing that is truly sculpting and adding as you go.

So I decided, what if I made something with the sculpting element of crochet but with knitting steps. I decided on a star as you can see above that was crafted out of multiple knit sections that were stitched together. This pattern has a lot of little steps but I think it was effective.

Star Knitting Pattern

Star Point Diamond – Row 1: Cast on, Knit 1, Row 2: Purl 1, Add Stitch, Row 3: Knit 2, Add Stitch, Row 4: Purl 3, Add Stitch, Row 5: Knit 4, Add Stitch, Row 6: Purl 5, Row 7: Knit 4, Decrease 1, Row 8: Purl 3, Decrease 1, Row 9: Knit 2, Decrease 1, Row 10: Purl 1, Decrease 1, Row 11: Knit 1 and Bind Off.

Repeat four times until five are made. Then using a tapestry needle, join the five points together at the center so that you have the base for a star, then join the sides of the diamonds together so that you have a flat star. Repeat the whole process one more time so that you have two flat stars and then sew them together with the tapestry needle.

So now that you have a star what can you do with it? I had planned originally to make a star garland for Christmas, but then the Fire Nation attacked and I had to move.

So we pivot to the bag decoration trend of 2024. This is a combination I’d say of Kpop, Xiaohongshu style trends, and the Japanese Ita bag becoming popular in the West. If you would like to learn more about Ita bags, I would highly recommend Addy’s video on YouTube. And these little stars in the original green and its pink starfish cousin have made excellent DIY plushie keychains.

Finished Product Used as a Keychain

Final Thoughts

I think creativity is about experimentation and learning as you go. I think sometimes it is important to do it the normal way and other times it is more satisfying to try a new method, a new medium, and make something you may not have thought you could. I still have incredible respect for crochet and I also think knitting has more potential than I thought. I have also learned that if a key chain or other small trinkets are not specifically branded I should try making them before I buy. It’s a great way to use up materials in my stash, level up my skills, and keep my consumption down and my wallet happier.

Socks, A Journey

Today I completed the most stressful cast on of my knitting life, casting on a sock. This was with three strands of lace weight yarn and four double pointed needles, size US 1. Why double pointed needles? Why not! It got me out of my comfort zone and pushed me to be a focused, careful knitter with dexterity and cultivated patience for myself, the materials, and the technique.

Once the first round was joined, I felt the tension coursing through my body settle, like a war had been won in needles and yarn.

How will my first sock turn out? Who knows, but I’m optimistic. I have a sock knitting book, a step-by-step pattern, and properly gauged materials. I’d like to have cute socks to wear, the ruffly kind so here goes nothing! 😃

Landscape Painting with Yarn

This year I’ve been looking for ways to use my stash as completely as possible and use up what I have to make new fibers and new projects. One way I accomplished this was through color palette knitting and through the stripe hype sweater. But another project idea I had this summer was to try minimal colorwork knitting by “painting” with yarn through a mix of new cotton yarn I purchased and yarn extras my mom passed onto me. This helped stretch the teal cotton yarn I bought, underestimating how much I needed to make a t-shirt. It was an opportunity to make a “graphic print” t-shirt out of yarn, something I didn’t have in my wardrobe, but sounded like a fun piece to wear.

These are the yarns I decided to use for the landscape painting section of the garment. Cotton yarn that was originally purchased by my mom to create handknit dishcloths in a color selection of blue, green, and pooling gray-to-white-to-blue, a lime green cotton-bamboo yarn, and the teal cotton I purchased. The pooling yarn was perfect for the clouds. Each side of the garment is unique because of this pooling yarn like a real sky. The plain blue was used for water, the dark green for a marshy grown-up bank, and the lime green for sunkissed meadows of grass. The teal was used for a distant tree line that was framed by the clouds.

I opted to make this oversized with a short sleeve opening, somewhere between a vest and a t-shirt because I haven’t decided how I want to wear this. As a t-shirt of course but do I want this to be a layering piece in the cooler months of the year? Or do I want to make detachable sleeves? That is something I am still milling over in my mind. I did split the back of the piece in a moment of indecision, where I thought it would be cute to make it a short-sleeved button cardigan. I may do this in the future. I opted to keep the t-shirt structure for simplicity and the ability to wear it more quickly. I was impatient to wear it.

I love projects that utilize things I already own and use techniques I haven’t tried before. Since this project I’ve begun to learn proper colorwork knitting, it’s been fun. Thank goodness for YouTube and knitting books to make the complicated things, like learning how to switch colors, feel approachable!

How have you been expressing your creativity this week? Do you like getting crafty? Are you a knitter and have you tried colorwork knitting before?

#64 – Weather Changes and Shifting Projects

I find myself in an October slump which I discussed in a previous post. Last year I was much less productive with my writing goals in October than I wished, and its happening again! I’ve paused on sewing and have taken time to recharge, yet its still happening! I think I know why, the weather.

Since we were in Erie, my hometown has been having some pretty cool temps which has sent me into the knitting zone. I have been working on a cowl, some mittens, leg warmers, and reading up on how to make socks.

It’s been my trend for a while, I tend to focus on sewing fall/winter pieces in August and September to be prepared for the first cool days. Then in October when it drops and I get that first taste of cold hands or ears, I hurry to knit those cold-weather accessories. Like a light bulb goes off. It’s fun making things with the seasons too.

Stray Kids have been going insane with song releases so far this month too with two soundtrack releases for for the anime Tower of God and a third collaboration for Arcane on Netflix. Itzy and Ateez released new albums in October as well, plus Aespa’s upcoming release on the 21st, it’s been a distracting few weeks. Not to mention Mario Party Jamboree which I cannot wait to play tonight!

Currently, I’m dabbling in colorwork and its unlocking this whole world of possibilities for intricate storytelling across the canvas of wool.

I have a few knitting projects I excited to share that were the start of these colorwork projects. I just need to motivate myself to put down the needles and type.

Maybe I’ll do that now? Okay, I’ll meet you back here in a few. 🙂

I Made the Stripe Hype Sweater

This is a weird knitting project for me because I usually can’t follow a pattern, at least it has been a few years since I tried to make anything with a pattern, and that was Butterick Retro ’44 #6374 and Butterick Retro ’44 #6485. They didn’t go super well.

This is the only picture I saved from #6485 because it was so bad. It felt like a weird Star Wars dress. But I digress, with knitting, I would like to rectify my aversion to patterns to learn new skills and appreciate the creativity, celebrate even, the creativity and talent of my fellow knitwear designers. So I was inspired by Making Cassie’s Stripe Hype Sweater knitting project and through my move, I decided to use up leftover yarn in my stash to make a sweater someone else designed. It was one of the most rewarding knits I’ve made all year!

Who Designed the Stripe Hype Sweater?

The original Stripe Hype sweater and sweater pattern was designed by Veronika Lindberg and the pattern was published on Ravelry in 2023. Now I didn’t realize there was an actual Ravelry pattern, I just gave it a go off of other people’s versions of the Stripe Hype Sweater on Instagram and YouTube, like playing a song by ear. Whoops! Sorry, Veronika! But here is the link to her pattern.

My Take on the Stripe Hype Sweater

This is one of my favorite sweaters I’ve made because it challenged me to do things I wouldn’t gravitate towards like using white on a sweater. After all, I’m pale and I’m clumsy so stains. But dang it’s a fun background for the colors of this sweater. It taught me how to balance color, to mix colors with more abandon, and to bring balance and order to my pieces. This is also a make that grew my skills as it was the first project where I tried casting back onto sections – such as the ribbed collar and the sleeves.

It was a rewarding experience and reminded me that even though I like designing my own pieces there is always something new I can learn from using a pattern and although I can find it tedious, it puts limits on my creative energy to channel it into a direction I may not have gone if not for the guidance of the pattern. Always have a teachable spirit, my grandma would say, and yeah she’s definitely right about it when it comes to knitting!

Have you heard of the Stripe Hype Sweater? Would you wear or make something like this design? What colors would you choose? Until next time, thanks for being here, dear reader. I hope you have a lovely day!

Blueberry Speckle Sweater

In my post about summer knitting plans, I featured a lovely blueberry speckle cotton yarn. I expressed interest in making this yarn into a t-shirt. Initially, my goal was to knit a long-sleeved tee but as time went on and I started getting into knitting podcasts, I realized that knit t-shirts are truly adorable – and versatile! I pivoted and I am absolutely thrilled with the result!

This was my first time making knitwear for the summer and it unlocked a whole new world of design possibilities. For this project, I self-drafted my pattern, which consisted of four pieces. Two body pieces with a shaped neckline and two sleeves that were all sewn together afterward. I used size 6 US needles and used 7ish out of 10 skeins of 108 yards. A grand total of 756ish yards were needed to complete this project.

2000s Style Off-The-Shoulder Sweater and Tutorial

In middle school, I had a black off-the-shoulder sweater with a wide fold-over collar and a coordinating skirt in gray and black stripe. It was the first skirt outfit I tried wearing over pants, a trend that has come back in popularity over the past few years along with the 2000s style. All of this has made me nostalgic for my old sweater, but not interested in buying one like it because I don’t love the new take on 2000s fashion with our current-day fabrics and fast fashion construction. It’s just all off-kilter from the original subject material.

So, I had an idea. What if I tried making one with the yarn in my stash? I had several skeins of this navy tweed from Big Twist that I didn’t buy with a specific purpose, and it took up space. It seemed like a fun color I could coordinate like I did with the Houndstooth Denim dress worn as a maxi skirt. It was an ambitious make.

I’ve only been making sweaters for a few years and had no experience designing a pattern with no collar or shoulder seams. There was a lot to think about. How could I incorporate the big fold-over collar? How do you add sleeves with the new style lines? How do you keep it on the shoulder enough so it doesn’t fall down? As with most of my makes, I dove head first into the project ready to fail if that meant I learned something!

The first obstacle I found was not having enough yarn, shocking right? I was surprised I had multiple skeins of this blue, but it wasn’t enough to get the longer length, so I had a choice to buy more or get creative in this stashbusting project? I decided using what I had was more important than keeping the original vision so I chose this gray yarn I also had in my stash from the Bunny Hat project. It brought an interesting contrast to the tweed and I actually loved the color blocking once it was done.

The arm holes were such a challenge. As I was knitting this piece top down, I first knit the ribbed collar and then reduced down for the body section, leaving enough of the collar on the edge to insert an armhole after I was done with both the front and then back. All was seamed together and for a first try, I’d say it was a success. The geometry definitely worked. I had a free range of motion. It was a win!

What was not a win was my over-calculation when it came to fit. I forgot to accommodate the size needle I was using, a US size 8, which knits up with a larger gauge. I had been using US size 7 more recently and I sized like I would have for this gauge. My second mistake was not accounting for the stretchiness of this yarn. It is an acrylic and nylon blend that gets roomy with wear leading to a sweater that simply didn’t fit.

After the move, several months after this project was done, I tried this on again and realized that I had toned up more than I thought carrying all those boxes because the sweater slips right off my shoulders and off my hips too. It’s a total size failure! Now I’m not sure what to do with it. I’ve already taken in the collar back in April, I don’t think I can take it in again and it is constructed well so frogging this project is not going to be easy. It’s a shame because I think I had a good design here.

I think my only option is to potentially re-home it and make another one following the tutorial that I shared on Instagram which was my first time doing that. I felt such imposter syndrome! To my surprise, it was met positively even though it was not created for circular needles. It showed me that sharing my craft and creating tutorials is becoming a calling, free tutorials, and free knitting and sewing tips because I just want people to do this too.

Create a website or blog at WordPress.com

Up ↑