White C.C. Copycat Beanie

My second knitting project this year is a hat for Gaby. As in that Bulgarian saying about having the button, so the only thing left is to make the coat, I had the white pompom (bought to round up an online order, you know how these things go :), so I had to make the hat.

A few year ago I made a white sweater for Gaby and I had quite a significant amount of sequin yarn left. I have also lots of white Italian bobbins of merino yarn, bought with the intent of dyeing it one day. And I have a very clear step-by-step instructions for the C.C. Copycat Beanie on my blog. All I had to do was take out the yarn, combine a few strands to get the right thickness and follow my own instructions. Easy peasy lemon sqeezy.

Although the fact, that I have the description of the hat was one of the main factors for choosing that design, it was not the major one - I simply adore the pattern and in my mind it has the best balance between slouchy, beanie-volume and visual interest. And it is so easy to knit!

Pattern: C.C. CopyCat beanie
Yarn: three threads, merino, polyester, sequins
Needle: 4.5 mm, 5 mm
Time to knit: 5 days 

A while ago I bought a collection of leather "Handmade" labels and I have plenty of white ones, but all white can be sometimes too much white, so in the end I chose a brown label for interest.

And I also made a simple cozy lining for the hat out of a piece of double-knit white fabric I had in my leftovers bag - Gaby prefers her hats to have a warm lining.

I used the opportunity that Gaby is visiting for Christmas to take a picture not only of the hat, but also of the jeans and the pink hoodie I made for her earlier this year. I'm really happy that she appreciates and wears the clothes I make for her.

Men's Knitted Socks

A pair of men's socks I knitted this year in between many other project. I took these photos while we were at Pchelina lake in November, but put off publishing them, mostly for lack of time, until today.

For the socks I used again my usual sock recipe for toe up socks for men, with 64 sts, Judie's magic cast on, fish lips kiss heels and stretchy cast off. I used pre-striped sock yarn by Alize and my 2.5 loop needles. This is my first and one of only two knitted projects I finished this year, the other being a hat, I plan to post about soon - my knitting mojo is still away, mostly for lack of time - the year was super, super busy.

Pattern: Striped Socks (personal pattern)

Yarn: Alize Superwash, 70 g

Needle: 2.5 mm

Time to knit: unknown, between projects

I like how these came off and it was fun to knit them, but next time I use striped yarn, I think I'll make the heel an afterthought heel and keep the stripes, or add a solid color for the heel and toes.

Yellow FIFA Sweater

It all started with my new noise cancelling wireless headphones. This autumn I've been obsessed with listening to audiobooks during my daily walks, and even on my trips downtown. The weather this autumn was very mild, even warm and if i needed a hat, it was my cap to shade my eyes from the sun. 

And then came late November and it became too cold to walk in the park for an hour, often longer, without a warm hat. The headphones work over a hat, but not as effectively as directly on the ears. So, faced with my tiny problem, and as stupid as it sounds, I googled images of hats and headphones and came upon this picture of Selena Gomez from Only Murders in The Building. I was absolutely fascinated by her look with the yellow hat and the yellow sweater. Probably this is the inspiration I've been waiting for all year long, for I immediately started searching for suitable yellow yarn and planning a similar look.

Just then the sales for Black Friday were happening and I settled upon a sale offer from a Bulgarian yarn company, that I have used before - Performance yarn. The yarn I bought is supposed to be 100% merino of fine quality, 250 m / 100 g - exactly in the range of thickness I was shopping for and in a delightful mustard yellow color. 

Even with the sweet 20% off from the BF sale, the yarn was expensive, within the price range of the Italian bobbin merinos I've been buying these last years. Maybe I've been spoilt, but the quality of the yarn did not meet my expectations, given its price, so I won't be shopping any time soon from this company.

But I cast on my sweater anyway. I wasn't planning it as a FIFA World Cup sweater, I even thought of boycotting the football cup because of Qatar's questionable hosting, but football is football and I simply couldn't miss the emotions I get from following the matches every four years. And thus for two weeks now I've been watching the games and knitting my yellow FIFA sweater.

The inspiration sweater is a machine knitted raglan fisherman rib sweater. I'm knitting mine in half-fisherman rib and so far I've done the front and the back up to the armholes and this evening, while my beloved Spain lost to Morocco :(((, I cast on one of the sleeves. I plan to knit the two sleeves up to the armholes as well and then I'll decide whether to continue the sweater raglan or with separate sleeves.

I'm also playing with the idea of adding small zippers at the hem sides of the sweater, but I'll think about it when I come to that AND if I can find suitable zippers. I hope I'll be able to finish the sweater till the end of the World Cup and if I have enough remaining yarn, I plan to knit the matching hat too.

Fire Socks

My third pair of socks this year, dyed with the help of a sock blank. My husband is a sucker for warm colors, especially orange, and has been requesting some fiery socks forever. So, for my third sock blank I chose a warm dark to light to dark transition from dark red wine to dark chocolate, or at least that was the plan.

What I realized once I had finished the painting of the blank was, that this scheme placed the lightest color - the yellow, in the middle of the blank, which would probably work well for a scarf or a hat, but for socks it meant that the lightest color would be at the heel, and this is far from ideal. I debated with myself whether to cut some of the brown and move it to the heel, but firstly I didn't know how much to cut, and secondly - that would have inevitably broken the color transition. In the end I decided to go with the flow and knit the socks as I had dyed the yarn and, hopefully, learn a lesson about better planning next time.

Pattern: Fire Socks (personal pattern, 64 sts)

Yarn: Alize Superwash, 72 g, hand-dyed 

Needle: 2.5 Addi circular needles

Time to knit: one week

Despite the definitely awkward color placement, husband loves the new socks and declares them his favourite. Until the next newer pair of socks, I suspect :)

Yellow Blue Socks

My second pair of ombre socks, which I knitted again as a present for a friend. I enjoyed the process with my previous hand-made ombre yarn so much, that soon I wound a new double-threaded ball of yarn, made it into a sock blank and dyed it with bright blue and orange-yellow color variations and combinations. It did not turn exactly as I had hoped and the ombre effect was a bit spoiled due to some bad planning of the color gradiation;anyway, I still find the resulting socks pleasing.

I knitted the socks almost entirely during our short journey through the country. As usual, it took me less time to make the socks, than to photograph them, but I am happy to be finally able to show them on the magnificent and quite matching background of Cherni Vruh on Vitosha.

The sock blank, just painted and before the fixing of the colors in the microwave.

 The washed and dried sock blank, ready to be unraveled and knitted into a pair of socks.

Pattern: Yellow Blue Ombre Socks (personal pattern), 58 sts

Yarn: Alize Superwash, 54 g, hand-dyed hand-knitted sock blank

Needle: 2.5 mm

Time to make: 4 days

Husband's Berry Socks

A few pictures of the pair of woolen socks I made for my husband. They are a perfect match to the pair of socks I knitted for myself earlier this year, based on the cable pattern of the Nalu Mitts. 

Unlike the yarn for my socks, which I dyed with instant drink powder, for my husband's socks I experimented with acid dyes and I think the color saturation and variation came out even better. Alas, the phone camera does not reflect completely the true colors of the socks - it makes them more pink and in real life they are much closer to wine red.

For our photosession we took advantage of the beautiful scenery we had at our feet during our hike on Lulin last Sunday. We actually had our picnic here, on Dobrinina skala peak, overlooking Vitosha across and the vast Sofia valley down and out.

For the socks I used again my usual sock recipe for toe up socks for husband, with 64 sts, Judie's magic cast on, fish lips kiss heels and stretchy cast off. The twisted stitch cables are mirror symmetrical, placed on the outer side of each sock and at the end flow into the twisted stitch rib of the socks.

Pattern: Nalu Socks (personal pattern, using Nalu Mitts cable)

Yarn: Alize Superwash, hand dyed, 70 g

Needle: 2.5 mm

Time to knit: several weeks with breaks

Ombre Socks

Those couple of weeks I spent in my reclining chair, watching TV shows (I finally succumbed to Netflix produced Korean shows :) and nurturing my back, I found nothing better to do than study German and knit socks. More about German later, now the socks.

I finished two pairs of socks, one for my husband (still not photographed) and one women's size, probably a gift for a good friend of mine, who has been asking for a new pair of woolen socks.

In order to dye the yarn for the socks, I initially wound it in a double thread cake and knitted a sock blank. Then I dyed the blank in a sort of ombre effect, from bordeaux to dark purple, using my red, bordeaux, brown, purple and grey dyes.

I fixed the dye in the microwave, washed and dried it and then wound it into two identical cakes.

 

The socks are knitted toe up, using my simplest sock recipe, with magic double cast on, fish lips kiss heels and stretchy cast off.

Pattern: Ombre Socks (personal pattern, 58 sts)

Yarn: Alize Superwash, 52 g, hand-dyed 

Needle: 2.5 Addi circular needles

Time to knit: 5 days

I enjoyed the process so much, this mindless knitting in the round, while watching some mindless TV dramas (Crash Landing on You and the one I especially liked - Memories of Alhambra), that I am thinking of repeating the experience with another ombre dyed sock yarn, this time in some yellow, green and blue shades.

Nalu Socks

I have a new pair of socks - aren't they gorgeous, if I say so myself :)))

Back in December, I dyed a skein of Alize Superwash, trying to recreate my first hand-dyed yarn. I had planed to knit the socks during the Christmas and New Year holidays, but then other projects jumped the queue and the tasty berry yarn stayed put in its new project bag.

The plan was to make the socks a sort of a complimentary pair to the pair of fingerless mitts I knitted with the previous berry yarn. For this purpose I took the cable pattern of the Nalu Mitts, adapted it to my aesthetics, as previously with my fingerless mitts and incorporated it in my simple and trusted sock recipe - 60 sts, toe up, fish lips kiss heels, twisted rib, invisible cast off.

Pattern: Nalu Socks (personal pattern, using Nalu Mitts cable)

Yarn: Alize Superwash, hand dyed, 52 g

Needle: 2.5 mm

Time to knit: two weeks

 

 

My husband loved the color of my socks so much, that now I have made him a promise to knit a pair of matching socks for him. Soon. Probably.