limedragon :)

Other than the Color Blox socks I posted about last weekend, I haven’t been able to share my recent FOs.

I worked on my first-ever stranded colorwork, the Easy Colorwork Cap from Nannette Blanchard’s Stranded Color Knitting. I chose to make mine in only two colors, Lion Wool Lemongrass and Cocoa. I had a lot of fun practicing and am pleased overall with my results. There was only one place where I changed colors during a pattern repeat that looks wonky. I haven’t washed or blocked to see if it improved, but I was careful with color changes after noticing this.

I also learned that for larger projects, I would probably prefer circulars (or at least non-metal DPNs—I had some trouble with my Inox Greys slipping out of the stitches a few times). There’s another colorwork hat pattern in the booklet, and I hope to try it with my leftover yarn from Stitches classes.

I also liked the look of the hat; it would be so easy to adjust for fit and patterning. Next time, I would knit about 2-3 extra rows of the main color before closing the top—depending on the method used. I didn’t even think to Kitchener the top, which would have “eaten up” less than the three-needle bind-off I used. You can see how little brown there is at the top, above.

I didn’t want to sew on any tassels or pompoms, but the hat needed some kind of decorative finishing touch. I thought about I-cord, but weaving and a bit of sewing would still be needed. I played with some lengths of yarn and suddenly it came to me… braids, or braided tassels as I’m calling these. I simply threaded the yarn through opposite ends of a corner (like a X). This gave me four strands to braid together; you could easily re-arrange the yarn strands for a traditional 3-strand braid. When finished braiding, take one strand and wrap it around the end of the braid a few times, then thread it onto a needle and push it through the wraps, from top to bottom, pulling taut. Trim the fringe and voila! Easy and fun accent. Exactly what I wanted. Since you don’t have to weave ends inside, you can easily add on more braided tassels.

I had some leftover yarn and knit a pair of kid-sized socks for CIC. I used the Swirling Confetti Kids Sock from 6SoxKAL’s July CIC challenge. As you can see, I ran out of the Cocoa before finishing the instep.

I also finished the Rock and Weave socks, but they’re not finished. I still need to sew on the buttons. But I had enough Fairgrounds yarn left to knit another pair!

So cute! I used the “Baby Knee Socks” free pattern from Blossom Knitwear. Only, because I wasn’t sure I had enough yarn, I knit these toe-up, and the ribbed leg/cuff is 3.5 inches instead of the 4 asked for in the pattern.

I just realized I haven’t updated my sock count for quite a while. I will definitely have to do that later this month.

PS, I do believe I’m over my recent brown-and-green phase. : )