About two weeks ago, I wanted to go to knit night, but had nothing to knit.  How lucky I was that the Spring Knitty came out that day.  After taking a look through, I decided to cast on for the Absinthe sock pattern. 

I knew that I had the perfect color yarn for the pattern.  It’s a Rare Gems colorway in Socks that Rock Mediumweight.  I’ve been working through the pattern, and there are a few errors.  The designer has been responsive on Ravelry, and has posted some corrections.  For anyone looking, the thread with corrections is in the Ravelry Knitty Socks group.  The corrected lace chart is also available.

I’m already finished the first sock, and am up to the start of the heel on the second sock.  I really hope to finish these this month.  

These have been impossible to photograph, so those will have to come later.

For previous readers of this blog, it should come as no suprise when I say that I’m a huge fan of Nancy Bush sock patterns.  A quick scan through my previous socks, and I’ve knit at least 7 pairs of socks from Nancy Bush patterns, mostly from her books Knitting Vintage Socks and Knitting on the Road.

While reviewing Nancy Bush designs on Ravelry the other day, I stumbled onto the Birch Leaves sock pattern that is buried in the book A Gathering of Lace.  I own this book, but had never really paid much attention to the pattern.  I decided that it looked nice and decided to make a pair.

I’m glad that I did, it’s a really nice leaf sock pattern with a small cable down each side.  I made very few changes to this sock other than knitting a longer leg than called for in the original pattern.  I’m really happy with they way they turned out.

Pattern: Birch Leaves
Designer: Nancy Bush
Source: A Gathering of Lace
Yarn: Pink Cottage Yarn Fingering Weight (450 yards/113 g)
Color: Gold
Needles: US0 (2.0mm)

Started: February 8, 2009
Completed: February 21, 2009

For a while now on Ravelry, I’ve been following the Ply by Night spinning group.  As a newer spinner, it’s really interesting to me to see what happens in it.  The idea is that everyone spins the same fiber, and then knits the same projects.  The group had their first spin-along in January, and I wasn’t sure I wanted to join.  But, after watching for a while, I’ve been kicking myself for not joining in.  It’s so interesting to see how different all of the yarns look.  I feel like I’ve learned so much about planning my spinning projects, not just sitting down with the fiber and spinning.

The next round of spinning is the March/April spin-along, and I decided not to miss out this round.  I jumped in and got the fiber.  This round, we’re using a custom dyed Blue Faced Leicester Top from Briar Rose Fibers.  I just got my four ounces yesterday.  It’s lovely, and so, so soft.  I can’t get over how much crimp still exists in the wool.

There is so much color variation close together, I’m not sure how to preserve some of the color differences when I spin.  I’ve been watching in the group, and bulky singles seem to do well at keeping the color defined.  I may try to separate the darker sections from the lighter sections and spin them separately.  I think I may watch a little longer before I jump in and spin this.

I liked the Ply by Night group so much, I invited the other local spinning Ravellers to join me in the group.  Some liked the idea so much that we’ve started our own local spin-along.  We’re using a few different fibers from Bellwether Wool Company, which is local to us.  We went over to the owner, Lois’s, house, visited the sheep, and picked our roving colors.  We decided that as newer spinners, we wanted some challenges both in spinning new to us fibers and in trying colors outside of our standard safe palette.  We opted for a total of four ounces.  It’s two ounces of the Tropics color in the center, which is a Border Leicester wool.  There is one ounce each of the Screaming Green and the Blue, both of which are Wensleydale.

I’m still planning what to do with this roving color combination.  I think that the green and blue will both be muted by the tropics if I blend more as I spin.  I’m just not sold on what to do yet.  There’s talk of a get together to try out the drum carders, so I may wait until after that to start spinning.

I’ve finished both of the Fire on the Mountain Leyburns, and I’m really pleased with the way they turned out.

Since I’m not a fan of a short-row heel, I worked a toe-up heel flap.  I used eye of partridge as the pattern on the flap to emphasize the color variations in the yarn, as well as fit with the alternating slipped stitches used in the pattern.

In the end, there was a little bit of color pooling on the leg.  However, this is such a busy colorway that you have to look closely to notice it.

Pattern: Leyburn Socks
Designer: MintyFresh
Source: pepperknit.com
Yarn: Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks that Rock Mediumweight
Quantity: 1 skein (380 yards/155g)
Color: Fire on the Mountain
Needles: US1 (2.25mm)

Started:  January 21, 2009
Completed: February 7, 2009

Pattern modifications:

• I knit a toe-up heel flap following the instructions from Miraim Felton’s blog, mimknits.com
• Knit the leg using 60 stitches
• Increased to 62 stitches in pattern after 5 rows of the leg by adding 1 stitch on both sides of the centered back stitch.
• Knit the leg to 6.25 inches before starting the cuff
• Knit the cuff in 2×2 ribbing over 64 stitches