Tag Archives: Nancy Bush

One, Two Buckle my Shoe…

Posted on by Elka Bolhafner
Gentleman's Sock in Railway Stitch

Gentleman’s Sock in Railway Stitch

 

Taking pictures of socks in ones feet is difficult.  Plus late night and poor light but look at the loveliness.  Just look.  I knit the mate in 2 days! In part because my MC yarn ball was starting to look smaller and I panicked that I might run out and in part because I wanted them on my feet.  Also, well, it was the weekend.  The two together again poorly modeled:

a pair of beauties

a pair of beauties

I adore the stripes so much.  I have been long admiring striped socks on Ravelry and finally conquered my fear of jog {not applicable in the heel} and multiple ends to weave in when done to take a baby step into the land of striped socks.  Couldn’t be happier.  Some of my absolute favorite pairs are

I also admire the striped shawls that are out there and will probably break down and knit one sooner or later 😉

On the knitting front I pulled out the bag of yarn I received in the 7 skeins yarn club which introduced Kate Davies’ Buachaille and cast on for the mittens last night.  I am making decent progress and really enjoying working with the yarn.  It is sheepy smelling but not the least bit scratchy, has good body without being weighty if that makes sense, and is proving to be a joy.  The pattern not so much.  She suggests that we change color dominance on front and back of mitten which flies against everything I have been told in the past 40 some years of knitting.  That makes for a bit of slow going-switching which hand holds what yarn.  Plus the yarn tangles that way so I need to spend some time untangling.  Furthermore, having now knit something that will end up in my most beautiful knits ever category, I am oddly not loving it.  I suspect it will be a while before I am loving anything I knit.  For the curious the most beautiful knits ever consists of these socks, midnight tam, and my poor shawl that is now awaiting repair.  Interestingly enough all 3 projects have a yarn with reddish purple cast to them.  I might have to find more yarn in those colors and see if my favor is easily garnered by something so superficial….

yarny days and knitterly evenings~ Elka

Knitting ADD

Posted on by Elka Bolhafner
Heel Stripes from Gentleman's Sock in Railway Stitch

Heel Stripes from Gentleman’s Sock in Railway Stitch

Sometimes I believe I have Knitting ADD.  Not only do I suffer from an inflated sense of how much I can knit but I also grapple with what to knit next.  Now admittedly, in my defense, I used to knit professionally and am well aware that I can whip out a sweater in a week.  Back in the day when I didn’t have failing eyesight, bad neck issues, and a full time job outside of the house.  

I have a habit of purchasing the pattern I will knit next, or the yarn I must cast on right away. My latest pattern acquisition is the lovely tam set designed by Lorraine aka Twisted Traditions called The West Wind.  I am fairly certain I have most of the yarns called for in my stack of shetland yarns.  Maybe missing the pink she calls for but I need to look at numbers on my hanks since I do not believe the colors are actually named. Anyway I am on a low to no buy yarn binge at the moment and hope I have everything listed–mainly because the # 1 reason I was drawn to the pattern was the colors she picked.

To get to the shetland yarns I have been wading through boxes and bags of yarn picked up for those small projects such as socks and mitts.  I decided to combat my Knitting ADD {KA from here on out} I would bag up all the sock yarns and put them next to my newly assigned knitting chair.  I also put my bag of Buachaille yarn purchased just when it was being released with the sharing same name booklet. Kate Davies is a lovely designer and writer. Her old blog, Needled, was one of my favorites.  I do admit that the new layout does not appeal to me although I am sure that if I delved closer I would find it equally informative.  But that one or two sentence just doesn’t draw me in at all.

Anyway onto the what am I knitting content.  Currently I am working on what I believe to be the loveliest socks ever knit in the universe.  In large part to Nancy Bush’s pattern and the excellent dye job on the yarns.  Deep stash: one of my precious two hanks of Sundara Sock yarn and Sanguine Gryphon {Verdant Gryphon as of 2012} combined to make the gorgeous stripes pictured above. My youngest, ever honest, told me that they were not the most beautiful socks imaginable since knee socks in those stripes would be lovelier.  boo. Still I believe these will fall into the most gorgeous items I have ever knit category.

I have also talked to a friend about making me a blocking frame.  My back can no longer take the bent over pinning out of shawls which was, as I have mentioned before, not something I enjoyed in the first place.  For this reason my Stonington is still awaiting blocking.  But in the meantime I am going through washing all the woollies, checking for repairs etc, prior to putting them away for summer. I found two holes in my Inky-Dinky Spider Stole which makes me want to cry.  I actually parted with the extra hank I had post knitting so am see sawing between knitting another, helpful in the stashdown goals, or finding a few yards of the yarn I used, not as helpful since asking for a few yards from somebody is trickier.  If you are not one for looking at holes please have a yarny day otherwise witness the sadness:

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Okay that is it for now….

 

yarny days and knitterly evenings~ Elka

 

Classic Socks

Posted on by Elka Bolhafner

I consider my basic go to sock pattern to be Michelle Molis’ Basic Sock pattern and have been knitting it, happily, for over 10 yrs.  It is, quite frankly, perfect.  Easy mindless knitting that results in perfectly fitting socks for my feet.  However the re-release of Nancy Bush’s Folk Socks, updated etc etc, had me pulling out my tattered copy of the book from ’94.  Well I believe I purchased my copy in ’95 or ’96 but either way the not updated version is what I own.  I had the good fortune to take a class many years ago with Nancy Bush at a Stitches Midwest and find her to be an excellent and generous teacher.  This comes through clearly in her books.  She is a passionate about her knitting and a really proliferate designer.  Although I have been knitting close to 40 yrs now {off and on} I am still able to learn little things from her projects.  Not so with this pattern:

 

A Classic Sock from Folk Socks: The History and Techniques of Handknitted Footwear by Nancy Bush

A Classic Sock from Folk Socks: The History and Techniques of Handknitted Footwear by Nancy Bush

 

 

The yarn was purchased in March of 2005 on a trip to Memphis with the ex-husband.  We had gone to Memphis to celebrate our 10 yr anniversary and while there we met a fellow knitter and did a yarn shop visit.  It is Mountain Colors Bearfoot sock yarn in Mountain Twilight color way.  I believe this particular color way is discontinued.  At first I was very upset to learn I could get no more of this color but as soon as I put it in the sink I understood.  The water turned violet and even as I was rinsing the third time the water run off was vividly violet.  Very non stable but gorgeous.  I am glad I didn’t consider using it for a two color project.  Here are a few more pictures of the sock to show color variations… it is mainly purple with some flashes of a raspberry color shooting through it:

 

 

 

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I also tried retaking some  photos of Retro Prep to show off the color of that better.  The tweed yarn  makes my camera go crazy but I felt so bad about the fuzzy blob from last post.

 

Retro Prep side shaping

Retro Prep side shaping

 

This was the first sweater I put in side shaping on.  I have actually been rather interested in how sweater trends wax and wane…. just like any other fashion item I guess.  I recall oh over 10 yrs or so ago people starting to complain about how boxy dropped shoulder sweaters were so unflattering on every single body type and more fitted sweater patterns were becoming more common.  Being short and kinda round I resisted the whole shaping of the waistline for fear I would place it incorrectly although I had no problems putting in a modified if not full on sleeve cap.  Recently I have noticed a trend towards boxy drop shouldered sweaters popping up on my Ravelry friend’s feed.  I think one sweater that was recently released has 16″ of ease.   Anyway just something I noticed and have been thinking about  lately.  As I mentioned last time I have gained some weight since I started this sweater and I had made it with the intention of it having the ever popular at the moment slight negative ease with shaping thrown in.  Well the slight negative ease is now too much negative ease so it is folded and set aside for hopefully next winter:

Retro Prep all folded up for storage

Retro Prep all folded up for storage

 

Ah!  I forgot to take a picture of my current project.  One of the WIP I had listed in January was Rock Island Shawl which I  had purchased the lovely yarn for in April ’11.  It had a beautiful purple Lorna’s Laces Helens Lace that came out at the same time called Grand Street Ink and I fell in love with it as soon as I saw it.  The shawl not so much but the color… Oh My.  Well I immediately got in touch with The Loopy Ewe, then local to me, and purchased the kit as my annual birthday yarn gift and struggled with the edging.  The shawl has been sitting in a little box ever since and yesterday I pulled it out.  A few more struggles with edging and I frogged that baby, and restarted with some Classic Elite Alpaca Lace yarn I had sitting around.  I don’t know why but just the yarn change was enough to have everything fall into place for me.  I have just completed the 21st edging point and will not discuss how it is going for fear of jinxing myself.  Anyway imagine a picture of some scraggly gray fuzzy lace edging here and you have my current active WIP

 

yarny days and knitterly evenings

 

Modified Flame Socks

Posted on by Elka Bolhafner

The Flame appreciates hand knit goods.  He spent quite some time indirectly asking for socks.  You know how it goes:  Oh those look warm and I bet those feel good while looking at my hand knit socks.  So after much time I broke down and knit him some socks.  Your basic 80 sts short rowed heel and star toed numbers and made a couple of socks by that formula since he wears them almost every day.  Which gladdens a knitter’s heart to be sure.  Then I came across some old stash yarn and felt it would suit him much better than me but men’s feet are bigger than girl’s feet, generally speaking and I started worrying about the yarn running out.  Plus the 80 st socks have a tendency to look baggy around the ankles~ most likely because they don’t get washed often.  I turned to the most excellent Nancy Bush and her Folk Socks book, which I might add has been updated recently, and followed her Simple Sock pattern that calls for 64 stitches.  Voila Modified Flame Socks.  Of course I was on tender hooks wondering if they would be too tight or not fit right on the heel and toe so had to give them to him well in advance of his birthdate in March.   In use shots of my beloved’s feet in socks:

yarny days and knitterly evenings to you all, Elka