Fall Leaves Socks

I’ve finished another pair of socks. These are knit from a pattern in Interweave Press’s book, Favorite Socks called Embossed Leaves. In this lovely rust colour, I am calling them Fall Leaves. The pattern is a bit lacy, and looks like leaves running in columns up the foot and leg. It was quick to knit and easy to memorize. I didn’t like the cast-on that the pattern called for, though. I find it fairly tight around the calf. If I was to knit this again, I’d use a regular long-tail cast-on over two needles.

I also ignored the instruction to break the yarn after knitting the heel flap, and begin the instep from a new place – I just kept on knitting as usual, picking up the instep stitches as I went.

The toe shaping is different than usual, and makes a nice rounded toe that compliments the leaves in the pattern.

The yarn is a one-of-a-kind (well, technically two-of-a-kind, both of which I bought) colourway of FlockSock sock yarn from Holiday Yarns that I picked up last fall in Rhinebeck. This is the second pair of socks I’ve knit from this yarn, the first being Baroque in Blue. I like working with it a lot – it has a nice, tight twist and shows stitches well. It softens nicely with washing, holds its colour, and wears well. The skeins are generous in size, too.

Here is another view of both socks.

The details:

Pattern: Embossed Leaves, by Monica Schmidt, from Favorite Socks, Interweave Press. (Ravelry link)

Modifications: I did not break the yarn at the heel – I just kept knitting, picking up the stitches along the left side of heel flap first. If you do this, it’s important to note which needles are 1, 2, 3 and 4 (Needles 3 and 4 hold the patterned stitches) when you start knitting the instep and foot.

Yarn: Holiday Yarns FlockSock sock yarn, 75% wool, 25% nylon, in a one-of-a-kind colourway, purchased at the New York State Sheep & Wool Festival in Rhinebeck, NY.

Needles: 2.75 mm

Crooked Rail Fence, Take Two

I have finished sewing the blocks together for both of the Crooked Rail Fence quilts. Want to see?

Here is the first one:

And here is the second one:

Although they are both very similar, there are some noticeable differences between the two in colour distribution. The first quilt looks a bit more red and pink, and has most of the orange in it. The second quilt looks more blue.

I’ve decided that I will put a border on each of them to finish them off. I haven’t picked the colours yet. I am hoping that I have something in my stash that will work for them both. Stay tuned.

And as for the quilting, I am planning to do simple in-the-ditch quilting for both of them, with something else in the borders. We’ll see what it needs when they are put together.

Previous posts about these quilts:

Crooked Rail Fence

Crooked Rail Fence, Take One

Crooked Rail Fence, Take One

Happy New Year! I hope that you had a great Christmas and New Year. I had a great holiday, and have been feeling determined to get a lot of projects done this year. I still have a couple of projects from 2009 to write about, but I need to get some pictures of them first, so they will have to wait.

This is just a quick update on the Crooked Rail Fence quilts that I described in an earlier post. I finished stitching and trimming all of the blocks for two quilt tops. I have 160 blocks, and am going to make two quilts of 8×10 blocks each. At 6” square finished size per block, that means the quilt top will be 4 feet by 5 feet – which I think is a good size for a lap quilt. I haven’t decided yet if these quilts will get borders. I’ll wait to see if they seem to need them or not.

Here is a picture of the first quilt, up on my portable design wall (click photo to embiggen):

I’m pretty happy with it. Now to get sewing the blocks together. Unfortunately, my design wall isn’t big enough to lay out both quilt tops at the same time, so I am just going to trust that the second one will look as nice as this one does. The blocks are mostly randomly placed, with the exception that I tried to make sure that the same fabrics are never touching each other. Of course, I keep spotting places that I missed, and every time I move a couple of blocks around to keep same fabrics from touching in one place, I create the same thing somewhere else. In fact, I just spotted another one – hang on while I fix it. At some point (like now, perhaps?) I will just have to give up on that, go with what I have, and live with the results. Wish me luck!