Sockmadness 2015: Round 1 & 2

Hello everyone,

I’m participating in Sockmadness for the second time this year. I’ve just finished the second round (and made it to the third) and figured it was about time I caught you guys up.

What is sockmadness you might ask? Inspired by the March Madness in the USA some nifty knitters wanted to create a sock knitting competition. And sockmadness was born!

It consists of several rounds in which you need to knit a pair of socks as fast as you can. Patterns are supplied and since they’re usually very awesome a great motivation to sign up. Entering is free and everyone knits the exact same socks. There are certain minimum requirements each round to keep things fair. One of my favourite parts is that you have so many people knitting the same pattern and yet each pair still looks unique.

The sockmadness community is amazing and kind and the social aspect is another good reason to sign up. Even if you don’t like the speed aspect, pass the first round (you need to finish a pair of socks in 2 weeks to qualify) and you can choose to be a cheerleader. You still get all the patterns and fun, but can knit at your own leisure. The first round also helps the moderators to make teams. Teams are based on speed. You compete against your team with people dropping out every round until one remains This person will then compete against the winners from the other teams! And then eventually there is one great winner who wins a huge mountain of prizes! Not so fast and bummed you’ll never win (like me)? Not to worry! Sockmadness is awesome and awards fun prizes all thought the competition. For whatever reason! If you take a very funny picture, had heaps of bad luck, or like me in round one conquer a fear (i wrote about having to self inject every week and how i always get nervous and end up taking forever to gather some courage and just do it. I managed to get over it a bit faster this time with some encouragement from the Sockmadness round 1 chat thread).

To summarise: Sockmadness is just plain awesome. Time to show off some socks.

Round 1

Pattern: Alohomora by Malena Andersen

Yarn: Hjerte Garn Sock 4 Superwash in 1100 Grey. I used 70 grams of yarn.

Needles: Knit Pro Karbonz double point needles in 2.0 mm

Experience: I really love this pattern. It’s just simple enough to memorise without being boring. The finished socks are very comfortable. I had to use the tiny 2.0 mm needles due to the minimum size we had to knit, it would have ended up far to big for me and i wanted to keep these. I could have gifted them but… nah.

Round 2

Pattern: Cable Madness by Karen Buhr

Yarn: Crelando Nina Sock yarn in a green/blue/grey tonal. This yarn is sold at lidl and retails at 5 euros for 4 balls! I used 73 grams for these socks, so i expect to get three pairs out of these 4 balls!

Needles: Knit Pro Karbonz double point needles in 2.25 mm

Experience: I really like how well the cables pop despite the subtle variegation. The yarn has a high cotton content so has little stretch. This means that you have to knit the socks exactly to size. Mine are also hard to get over the heel, but fit perfectly once I have them on.

 

I can’t wait to see what the pattern for round 3 will be! I’ll have to be patient for a little while though as round 2 runs until april 13th!

Love, Renée

Mitts, mitts and more mitts

Hello,

Today I have some recent finished objects to share with you. These were (belated) Christmas gifts so I wanted to wait to share them until they had all been gifted.

I tried to pick patterns and colours that fit with the recipient and from the reactions I seem to have done well enough!

Pair 1:

Pattern: The pattern used for these mittens is the Beeswax Mitts by Amy van der Laar. I modified these by adding more rounds of ribbing.

Needles: I knit these on 3.5 mm bamboo double point needles.

Yarn: I used Lana Grossa McWool Merino Mix 140 in colour 440 Grey. This comes in 50 grams with 140 metres.

Experience: This pattern was great fun to knit. The chart is very clear and easy to follow if you have some experience working with charts. I love how the pattern is continued on the thumb, it just gives it that extra wow factor.

 

Pair 2:

Pattern: These mittens were made using the pattern H.G. by Zhora Design.

Needles: Knit on my 2.5 mm carbonise double point needles.

Yarn: These were made with Rico Design Superba Klassik 4-fadig in colour 103 Red. This comes in a 100 grams and has 420 metres.

Experience: Such a quick and easy knit! I spotted some tiny mistakes in the pattern, but the designer was very good about correcting the pattern as soon as I notified them. I had already knit the first mitten without noticing, so had to carry it through on the second one, but it’s very hard to notice even if you know about it. The recipient doesn’t knit so I’m pretty sure she won’t notice even if she reads this.

 

Pair 3:

Pattern: These are the Emilee Dee mitts by Paula McKeever. The pattern is written for sportweight and DK yarn.

Needles: Knit on 3.5 mm bamboo double point needles.

Yarn: I knit these in Lana Grossa McWool Merino Mix 140 in colour 414 petrol.Once again this was a 50 gram ball with 140 metres.

Experience: My yarn was knitting up too loosely on the needles recommended for the DK weight yarn (even though it’s technically DK weight yarn) so I knit on the needle size recommended for sport weight and followed the sport weight pattern. These ended up a little roomy, but very cozy. The pattern is super easy. The mitts look cabled, but are actually a lace pattern. Even though there’s lace they are still quite warm.

All three recipients seemed pretty pleased with them, so I’m pleased. A pair of mitts takes relatively little time and yarn and they’re fun quick knits. After seeing these my sister has also requested a pair (still looking for the perfect pattern) and I’ve also cast on a pair for me with some stash yarn (bought on my birthday trip to New York).

Do you ever knit fingerless mittens?

 

Love, Renée

Pattern: Alpine Comfort

Hello,

I hope you’re all having a wonderful day? Mine was pretty damn good! We had the final presentation for the adopt-a-text project (more on this soon, for now you just need to know it was a uni project and very fun!) and I felt surprisingly well today. I am of course dead tired now, but from laughing a lot instead of being dead on my feet after getting dressed in the morning. I know what I prefer!

Today I also have a new pattern to show you. It’s paid so you can’t download it here, but you can find it on Ravelry.

 

Alpine Comfort is a cozy cabled headband. It reminds of sipping cocktails at the après ski or zooming down the slopes. Whatever you’re doing, Alpine Comfort is sure to keep your ears warm!

The cables are pretty basic and should be easy enough for first time cable knitters whilst still being a interesting (although quick) knit for more advanced knitters.
You do need to know how to do a provisional cast-on and how to kitchener the headband closed.

The pattern has been fully written, but has also been charted. You can pick the version you’re most comfortable working with.

You’ll need 5.5 mm needles and aran weight yarn.

The price of the pattern is €3,00 (€3,40 on Loveknitting due to the exchange rate).

Love, Renée

Tadaa: Diamond Shreddies

Hello Everyone,

I have a finished object to share with you of which I am particularly proud. Te finished result probably won’t look all that special as I have made socks before. No, this project is special because of the process of knitting this one. It was hard. Harder than your average sock pattern. There were times when I seriously considered giving up and frogging the entire thing. This project was painful both physical and mentally.

I’m talking about my Diamond Shreddies. these were the socks we had to knit in the second round of Sock Madness (see my round 1 sock madness socks here). Because of the competition there were certain requirements your socks had to meet. You weren’t allowed to change the pattern and there was a minimum of rows you had to knit. The pattern was written with a tiny gauge of 9 stitches per inch and 15 rows per inch. To get this gauge I had to knit as tightly as possible on 2.0 mm needles. I really wanted to make gauge for these socks as I wanted them to fit me and people had said that without at least approaching gauge the socks would be too big. Mine ended up fitting perfectly, so they were worth the hard journey. I just don’t think I’ll be making another pair very soon!

The stats

Pattern: Diamond Shreddies by Carrie van Kessel. The pattern has you cast on a very large amount of stitches, but because of the tiny gauge they end up fitting. I usually wear a 56 stitch sock and these were a little tight, but i did end up with a slightly tighter gauge than suggested.

Yarn: Aldi/Hofer Sokkenwol. This is sock yarn that I bought at Aldi in a pack of 4 (2x 50 gram balls in 2 colors) for 5 euros. Considering it’s so cheap I wasn’t expecting too much. Turns out it’s pretty great! My socks ended up soft and feel like they will never wear out. They’re sturdy! The leg, due to the small gauge, could actually stand on it’s own…

Needles: 2.00 mm aluminum 4 inch/10 cm dpns by Addi. I had started with 15 cm bamboo dpns, but ended up snapping 2. I ordered the Addi’s thinking 10cm was the same size, but ended up liking the shorter size. It didn’t hurt my hands as much as the bamboo ones which were very sharp and harder to hold.

Love,

Renée

Time: I started these on March 21st and finished them on April 4th. They have been in time-out several times during this time as I needed to wait for my new needles and  because my hands were just to sore.

Experience: The finished socks are nice and pretty comfortable, but I’m not sure I enjoyed knitting them. I like the experience of knitting for sock madness and being in a team, but the socks themselves weren’t fun. The tight tension really did me in. It made my fingers hurt after just one row of knitting and I could only knit an hour at most in one sitting. My hands and right elbow are still sore and I expect it will take a while to fade completely. I usually love cables, but because these were so tight I dreaded them. But: the resulting socks are really comfortable and very soft.

FO Friday: Jonium and Thorin!

Hello Everyone!

I have a major FO to share with you today! It’s officially my favorite project to date and the FO has, in the time between blocking and being posted here, been used quite a bit.

My Jonium!

I never quite understood shawls, until I bit the bullet and made one. I didn’t decide to make one because I suddenly understood, oh no. I had seen someone else’s shawl and realized i had the same yarn. And i felt like making it. It was Stephen West’s Boneyard Shawl (for which I am finally going to take some pictures tomorrow, as it’s been finished for ages, but I was using it so much I never seem to get round to it). It’s a basic top down triangle shawl. A lot of stockinette stitch with the occasional bit of garter to keep it interesting. the perfect beginners shawl! As a matter of a fact, I’m urging my mom to make one too, as she keeps grabbing mine when she sees it. I made it out of an Aran weight tweed yarn and it’s perfect for snuggling under on the couch. I ended up using that one a lot. I get cold often in my dorm room as the heating there is pretty shoddy and I can just fling this around my shoulders and the soft shawl keeps me warm. But a adam weight blanket shawl is a lot different form a proper fancy shawl with lace and cables. I had this vision of myself in the spring, which, your mouth is probably falling open in shock, is my least favorite season. I get allergies (yuck!) and i hate that transition between winter and summer clothes. I frequently dress to warm and end up sweaty and hot and very very annoyed. In these days of torture a shawl could be the ultimate solution! I could wear my cute summer clothes and stuff a shawl in my bag. If i get cold, voila! I have my fancy shawl that will keep me toasty (but not too toasty). And so I went looking for the perfect pattern. I found it pretty quickly!

Stats:

Pattern: Jonium by Tiziana Sammuri. Wow. I knew instantly this had to be my first fancy shawl. The samples were nice and large and the pattern looked like a fun and challenging knit.

Yarn: Knit Picks Palette in Chicory. It’s an impossible to photograph, but totally gorgeous blueish purple. In some light it can look almost cobalt!

Time: Long. I worked on this for almost 6 weeks by doing a little bit every evening. Near the end of the shawl the rows had 500 + stitches and each row took me over an hour! This is a pattern where focus is critical. It’s not a mindless tv knit. I think this slowed me down quite a bit.

Needles: I used 4.5 mm needles with a 100 cm cable (the pattern recommends 3.5, but I knit really tight!). Near the end of my project it was pretty full. I think with 80 cm you would really have to squish the stitches on there!

Experience: AMAZING! Tiziana was a great great help. I really cannot thank her enough. The pattern was a little bit above my skill level so I got confused a few times. She was always quick to respond and provided me with detailed explanations for the parts that had me puzzled. The pattern was amazingly fun to knit. You start with cables and slowly some lace creeps in and eventually you end up with a lot of lace. Fun! It keeps such a huge project interesting. I’ve gotten so many great responses to the finished piece already! I love wearing it, it makes me feel very cool (shawl are nonexistent where I live apparently). I thought it would’t be as warm due to the holes caused by the lace, but it’s perfectly warm!

I had a fair bit of panic ever since the shawl was halfway done until it was off the needles. I had this fear that it was turning out a lot smaller than all the samples. Hahaha! I was so surprised after blocking. It was suddenly at least double the size it was before.

Hihi. I like this photo, but it keeps making me laugh. I was having  horrid time trying to pose naturally because my mom and I were joking around the entire time. Suddenly she was pointing loudly somewhere in the sky so I looked. And then burst out laughing again. She took the picture just a few seconds before so I look a little awkward, on the verge of an outburst of even more awkward laughing.

I also made good progress on my Thorin Oakenshield socks. I finished the first one! I have zero hopes of finishing before the end of the olympics so am taking a teeny break from the bobbles and focus by knitting a (hopefully) easier sock. More soon!

Love, Renée

 

Tadaa: Magic Mirror

Hello Everyone,

Finally I am back in blogland. I’m so very sorry it’s been so silent here! Somehow I got sucked into my exams and then i had to finish my christmas things and i just didn’t seem to get around to blogging anymore. My resolution for 2014 is to keep this blog a little more up to date!

To kick off the new year on A Lazy Beauty, i’m going to start with a recently finished object. In fact, it’s one of the reasons it’s been so silent here. It was a birthday gift, but it ran a little late so it might as well have been a christmas gift. I never used to get it, but i totally understand why some people stress about gifts for Christmas. I ended up wrapping several balls of yarn with a picture from the pattern and a lot of promises to finish it as fast as possible. Have I done anything on them yet? No, my wipe are slowly drowning me. But I’ll come back to that in a later post, today is show and tell! I made my sister a set of a hat and gloves for her birthday. It was my first time using fancy yarn apart from the occasional pair of socks.

I loved knitting them, but there were some challenges. First off, both the pattern for the hat and the mittens was by Drops. Lovely, loads of free patterns. But they are notorious for being very sparingly with their instructions and being a little confusing. They sort the steps by segment (so there’s a separate segment for the thumb and the rest of the mitten), even if sometimes things form different segments have to be done at the same time. It’s best to read the pattern through once or twice and to mark when two things have to be done in the same round. I actually like that they’re a little sparing with their instructions, as I’m not very fond of patterns that feel the need to spell everything out. They can make me feel a little dumb. It’s like they assume you’re working above your level and need the be told everything 3 times in 3 different ways. It’s actually a little confusing when you’ve already figured out what to do after the first instruction.

Another issue with the Drops patterns is that a lot of them are translated, in my case from Norwegian. Sometimes this causes sentences and instructions to lose some of their meaning and sense. It wasn’t too bad in my patterns, but sometimes an instruction left me a little puzzled because it was formulated differently from what i was used to.

I love the yarn i used for both the mittens and the hat. I combined a strand of Drops Alpaca and Drops Kidsilk. They’re both very soft on their own, but they’re amazing together. The only issue is that when they get wet, they stink! Really really bad! I tried washing them with some nice smelling soaps and such, but i don’t think it did much.

Here is the hat (and the mittens) as modeled by my lovely sister. They’re lovely and fuzzy (thanks kidsilk!), but still show off the cables quite nicely!

Stats: Pom Pom Hat

Pattern: Knitted hat with cables 125-12 by Drops Design

Needles: 4.0 mm and 4.5 mm circular needle with a cable of 40 cm

Stats: Magic Mirror Mittens

Pattern: Magic Mirror by Kristel Nyberg

Needles: 3.25 mm dpn’s and a cable needle

I’m a little jealous of the mittens, the cables are so pretty! I’ll just have to make an other pair sometime!

Love, Renée

Tadaa: Dawlish

Hello Everyone,

I finished something! Last wednesday I finished up a pair of socks that I had been working on for a while. Time to show them off!

These are the stats.

Pattern: Dawlish by rachel Coopey. I have the Coop Knits sock book and this is my first sock from that book.

Yarn: Rico Design Superba Poems in the colour 7 (gradient from light grey to black).

Time: These socks took about a month to finish, but I wasn’t working on them the whole time. The actual knitting took about 2 weeks (I took it slow).

Experience: These were my first socks using fingering yarn and smaller (2.5 mm) needles. I feel like this pattern was a great choice. The pattern was very clear and explained each step without using too much words. The pictures in the book are spectacular, they make me want to knit all the patterns in the book. I was a bit unsure about the size at first, but after a good blocking they fit perfectly. Before blocking they are snug and tight to get over your heel, after blocking they slide on easily. These socks were fun! The pattern kept the knitting very interesting and the finished design is very pretty.

Love, Renée

Tadaa: Mom’s Mittens

Hello Everyone!

I have another finished object to share with you today! remember this post a while back where I showed off my new mittens? Well I wasn’t the only one who really liked them. My mom loved them! And as I liked making them I was very willing to make her her very own pair. And as I still have to finish the scarf I promised her for her birthday in March (I’m completely out of love with it, but I WILL finish it! Soon!), but meanwhile this will be a good way to tide her over until I do finish it.

So I let her pick from a few yarn options (which I new she would like and would work for this project) and set to work.

Here’s the deets:

Pattern: Eugenia’s mittens by Mollie Woodworth

Yarn: Royal by Zeeman (A dutch Budget store) in a dark purple (colour 40).

Time: This second time round I was already familiar with the pattern so it went a lot faster than the first time.  I took my time on the first glove as I started them during my exams, but the second was done in 3 evenings.

Experience: I still like knitting these even though I have now knit the pattern 4 times. These make perfect gifts! I have noticed that I really ought to alternate projects like this one, that use fatter dpns (4.00 mm and up) as they really hurt the joins in my right hand. I feel it after as much as one night knitting so I should probably be careful with that. It can really mess up my motivation! But I’m stubborn and knit these and until I finish one glove don’t alternate at all. Life on the wild side!

Which do you prefer, red or purple?

 

Love, Renée

Tadaa: Eugenia’s Mittens

Hello Everyone!

It’s friday, so it’s time to show off something I finished recently! I blogged about the project featured in today’s Tadaa when I cast on, you can read about it here.

I finally finished my Eugenia’s Mittens! This was quite a challenging project! It took me several tries to get the pattern straight, I had never made mittens before and the cable pattern is very intricate (but oh so pretty!)I had to start over more than a few times, but that made finishing these that much more rewarding. I love the finished product and will wear then a lot once winter comes around again (or even fall… we’re having a few good days now with lovely weather, but it’s been very rainy and cold for the biggest part!).

The pattern: Eugenia’s mittens by Mollie Woodworth (the pattern is free on Ravelry!)

Yarn: Vintage Acrylic in deep intense red (Zeeman – Royal). This yarn comes in balls of 260 meters and I had at least half left over. These mittens would make perfect little stash busters  (could be a great christmas gift too!)

Difficulty: 4/5, it’s certainly doable, but I often forget I am still a novice and can’t make everything in the blink of an eye (kind of glad about it too, learning new stuff is fun!) For experienced knitters the cables might be a bit of a challenge, just because it’s so intricate. Lifelines are a good useful tool for these mittens!

Time: These mitts knit up pretty fast, but because I had to start over a few times the first one took a while. After that the second took me about 2/3 evenings of relaxed knitting. I’ve started a second pair (and a third and fourth pair are on my list, they were quite a hit here and everyone requested a pair haha!)for my mother and I’ve completed the first of her mittens in record time!

This photo shows the colour of the mittens best, the red is really bright!

Leftover yarn

Can you imagine? Me in my dark, long woolen trench coat, hair carefully coiffed into a stylish bun (maybe someday!) with these red babies on my hands? Snow softly falling around me… Ah I love winter! My mom’s pair is going to be a dark purple as that is her favorite colour and the third pair (for a friend) will be grey. My sister is getting a slightly variegated red.  I really like making these, so if you need a pair of mittens be sure to give this pattern a try!

Love, Renée

Casting on: Not so business casual

Hello Everyone,

I mentioned them briefly in my Project Mania post, but on the 13th of March I cast on my second pair of socks! The first socks I ever made, I made in February and they were plain basic socks. I loved the process so much that I had been itching to try a more intricate sock with a pattern. When I stumbled across the perfect pattern, Business Casual by Tanis Lavallee, I couldn’t resist any longer. Even with all my other projects, I picked out some fun (and very bright) sock yarn and cast on.

Example sock – Tanis Lavallee

Casting on

The yarn I’m using is Strengels Acrylgaren in the colour 103. It’s a really really bright variegated yarn with pink, red, purples and a neon orange. I’m using a ball (50 grams/ 125 meters) per sock, so 2 balls total.

And this is my progress so far.

Not so business casual

Not os business casual

I’ve done ten rows of ribbing, one full pattern repeat and am halfway through the second repeat. The pattern suggests 3 repeats, but I’m only going to do 2. I have slightly less yarn than recommended by the pattern and don’t want to run out near the end. If in the end this leaves leftovers I can just use these for hexipuffs!

The pattern looks tricky, but is actually really easy to do! You just have to keep counting and remember which row you’re on. I’m really enjoying knitting these!

Lots of Love,

Renée