The Joy of Tea Cozies

Remember the tea cozy?


This is what it looks like now:


The first pattern I tried looked awful with the yarn I picked. I ended up frogging it and using the Kureyon Kozy pattern from Knitty. Then I ended up sending that cozy to my sister-in-law for her birthday - she says it fits her tea pot perfectly - and going with something more matchy with my pink, white and green tea pot.

Three First Socks

Anybody coming here for the Egypt travelogue, I'm still "retroblogging" it. I will continue to add new entries, but they will appear below the ones with dates in 2008. Just scroll down to see them, or use the archive links below at the right!

I'm having a teensy problem with startitis recently. These:


are what I have on the needles in the way of socks at this time. (Don't even ask about last summer's lace scarf.) At the left is the famous Monkey sock by Cookie A, in Schaefer Anne, color Candy Cane. (And boy, is that yarn tiny, too.) In the middle is the Spiral Sock I blogged about the other day in Knitpicks Gloss, colors Burgundy and Bare. At the right is a generic sock in OnLine Sierra, color 889.

The sad things about them are that 1) they are all the FIRST socks of their respective pairs, and 2) they are in order as to when I started them, so you can see my fickleness and how I always and only turn to the newest sock in my pack. What is the collective noun for socks? Maybe since they're wool, they're a flock of socks.

So what do I do when I come home tonight?

Start swatching for a tea cozy.

Spiral Socks

I have been wanting to knit "candy cane socks" for just ages. My latest try:



These are spiral socks, knitted of leftover bits of Knitpicks Gloss from two other projects, on a 32" 2.25 mm Knitpicks circular needle, according to the technique described in detail by Grumperina and also in the Stashbuster Spirals Socks pattern. They describe the technique much better than I could, so go there to learn how.

Nifty, eh? Mods are as follows:
1) I'm working top-down.
2) I cast on 72 stitches because I always think my admittedly-huge legs are the size of a regular person's waist. Since that's too big, I added some calf shaping and brought the total down to 66 stitches.
3. I did a heel flap rather than a short-row heel.

As you can see, I've still got a ways to go. Also,there are two other "first socks" on the needles so I really need to find some focus soon.

Also, as you can see, there is a weird "pinch" of fabric along the sides of the leg. That is because whenever I switched colors I pulled like a freight train on the new color and accidentally way overtightened it. So if you try this technique, just knit like a normal person with each new color as you come to it.