Things are changing around here – most notably, the look of hungryknitter.com! I upgraded my wordpress theme and I’m still in the process of de-wonkifying things. I’ve cleaned up the last couple entries already, but if you delve into the archives things might get a little weird. And by weird I mean the pictures are going to look all out of whack – nothing really life-shattering.

And in self-promotion news, Stacey of the Knit Picks Independent Designers Program (through which I worked up and published Adva!) recently interviewed me and the results are now up on the KP Staff Blog, Stash. So if you’ve come here for the first time via the KP website, welcome! If you already know me here and have a burning desire to learn all about my crafting life, head on over to Stash. I’m thrilled to be a part of the IDP and I can’t get over how much the program has grown in just the last couple of months! I know I’ve added quite a few IDP patterns to my queue lately.

Really, is there any better way to start the day than to wake up and see that a pattern you dreamed up, knit up, wrote up, and poured hours and hours of time, blood, sweat, tears, etc into has won a sock contest? I think that pretty much takes the cake. When Elinor announced her sock contest I thought, “great! an opportunity for me to make this chart I’ve been fantasizing about into something real!” (Yes, I fantasize about charts.) Like most things I do, if I hadn’t had a deadline it never would’ve gotten done, and because of that I’m eternally grateful to Elinor for organizing this whole competition, all while picking up and moving her life, kids, and dogs a few hundred miles.

In order to celebrate (besides taking these pictures of the smaller size Brocade on a foot smaller than my own) I added about a bazillion new sock patterns to my ravelry queue. You can check out all the entries in the contest here and queue up your own faves! First up for me are the Burning Stripes – that heel is clever as all get out, and what a great way to work with the long stretches of color of the zauberballs. (I never get tired of that word.) I’m also looking forward to Circuitry, where I’ll learn about mosaic colorwork, and Oh Jamie, My Jamie, where I’ll get to knit stags and a fabulous strawberry toe. (Can you tell I’m really into colorwork lately?) And finally, I’m really drawn to the vintage aesthetic of the Solstice Stockings. Which contest patterns caught your eye? It’s a fabulous collection, and whatever your knitting proclivities, I’m sure there’s something in there for each of us, and I’m so flattered by the recognition for Brocade.

Ahem, and if you haven’t been there already and would like to go, here is the Brocade pattern on ravelry, where it is available for purchase/download.

I feel I should mention that the subject heading of this entry is a bit of a rhetorical flourish. I’m sure regular readers realize that I’m prone to, um, strong feelings when it comes to knitting and that I’m not actually blogging from beyond the grave.

That said, I knit this shawl a little while back and I had to give it away and now I’m just going to DIE if I don’t get one just like it very, very soon.

This is Herbivore, a design by Stephen West. I have had a big huge crush on this pattern for the longest time, and when some local knitters decided to hold a little shawl swap to commemorate Anne’s visit to Chicago and I drew Sara I knew Herbivore would be a great pattern for her. It’s got nice clean lines; it shows off a nice semi-solid colorway; and it has a large wingspan for a small shawl.

The only reason I hadn’t previously cast on for Herbivore is that, honestly, I thought it would be boring to knit. It’s a bit of an idiosyncrasy, really – I love long clean lines, but dear lord are they ever boring. But for whatever reason I cranked this sucker out in just a couple of days. I think I was doing a lot of knitting on the bus, in which case a simple pattern that doesn’t require me to keep looking at a print copy is always best, but I think the lack of boredom is also a result of the construction of the shawl itself. For whatever reason I didn’t take any pictures that show this clearly, but you cast on for Herbivore at the top center point, increase along both edges and around the center stitch, and then add two more axes of increases in the middle of each half between the center and each edge. (That’s not exactly the most clear written description, so if you’re curious take a look at some of the pictures on Herbivore’s ravelry page – you’ll see what I mean.) This variation between twisted ribbing and stockinette around three axes was just enough interest to keep me going.

So you may notice I took quite a few pictures of this shawl. That’s because I didn’t want to take it off. I definitely didn’t want to give it to Sara, but she’s a good friend and she brought chocolate/salted caramel cake and beer over to my house, so I did. And the minute I get some time to make something for myself for once (sadly that won’t be for a little while) I’ve got my eye on another Stephen West design: Daybreak.

Just in the nick of time for Elinor’s deadline, I bring you the Brocade Socks! This is my second self-published knitting design, and I’m very, very excited about it. It is available for purchase ($5!) through ravelry (and also faving and queuing).

Here’s the run-down:

The chart for the Brocade Socks was loosely inspired by a pattern called Elbistan Stitch, from Betsy Harrel’s 1981 Anatolian Knitting Designs: Sivas Stocking Patterns Collected in an Istanbul Shantytown. In addition to the distinctive colorwork, the socks feature a cuff in corrugated ribbing and a sturdy heel flap worked with the yarn held double stranded.

Fair isle socks are less stretchy than non-stranded socks, and as such they should be made as close to the actual size of the wearer’s foot as possible. The pattern includes directions for two sizes (achieved by adjusting gauge and weight of yarn) with notes on customization.

Skills:
twisted German cast-on, knitting stranded colorwork in the round from a chart, basic sock techniques, picking up stitches, grafting

Finished Sizes:
S/M (M/L)
cuff and leg circumference: 8.5”(9”)
foot circumference: 7.5”(8”)
foot length: 8”(8.5”)
shown in size S/M, pink/brown; M/L, cream/orange

Yarn:
S/M version in pink/brown:
MC: 1 skein North Loop Yarn Silky Merino Sock Yarn in Cotton Candy
CC: 1 skein North Loop Yarn Merino Sock Yarn in Brown Black (This line has been discontinued another color of the Silky Merino Sock would be equally suitable for this pattern.)

M/L version in cream/orange:
MC: 1 skein Koigu Premium Merino (KPM) in 0000
CC: 1 skein Brooklyn Handspun Soft Spun Plus in Lil Pumpkin

a note on yarn choice: For the M/L socks, use heavier sock yarns that are almost sport weight. For the S/M socks, use more lightweight sock yarns.

Needles:
S/M: US 2 (2.75 mm) circular needle, 32” long or 1 set US 2 (2.75 mm) DPNs

M/L: US 3 (3.25 mm) circular needle, 32” long or 1 set US 3 (3.25 mm) DPNs

Notions:
tapestry needle, 1 stitch marker

Gauge:
S/M (M/L)
7.5sts/8.5rnds (7sts/8rnds) per inch in chart A pattern in the round

Notes:
This pattern is written for a knitter who is already familiar with sock techniques and stranded colorwork.

In both samples I held the CC as the dominant yarn throughout. For most knitters who work stranded colorwork holding one color in each hand, the dominant color will be the one held in the left hand such that the floats run underneath those of the MC.

I prefer to knit socks on a single circular needle using the magic loop technique and although you may use your favorite technique for working in the round the pattern is written with the magic loop in mind and thus may not be specifically tailored to the use of double pointed needles.

The different sizes are made by slight changes in weight of yarn and gauge, and thus the same numbers and charts are used for both sizes.

In order to follow the pattern exactly as written and make socks that are the correct length you must match both stitch and row gauge. If you cannot get both stitch and row gauge with the same size needles you may match stitch gauge, as the charts are easier to adjust for length/height than they are for width/circumference. Tips for customization are included with the pattern.

Oh what a week I’m having. There are two crafty deadlines, school work that has stepped up a notch or 15 recently, and then I was called in for a full day of jury duty yesterday. Despite the fact that waiting in the jury room all morning was really, really boring and that I’m now going to be playing catch-up all week, the experience was actually kind of interesting in the end. I know, I’m totally batshit crazy.

But in the meantime, I’m really psyched to be able to share a design preview with you all and talk about process. When Elinor announced the Socks Revived Design Contest a few weeks ago, it seemed like a great opportunity to work up a chart I’d been toying with and make it into an actual knitted object. The chart began as a reworking of a particular design in this book, which I recently discovered we have in our university library.

I modified the chart to make it fit my gauge and stitch count for a pair of fair isle socks, cast on and went with it. My first attempt looked pretty great from the front:

so you’ll just have to take my word for it when I say that the back of this sock is a disaster. I tried to break up a large chart of overlapping repeats by putting a bunch of vertical stripes down the back of the leg. While this is a nice way to break up the visual “jump” that you encounter with colorwork in the round, and offers an easy way to adjust size, it looked crappy and it was an awkward width when it came time for a heel flap. Rrrrrrip!

I futzed with the chart more, and by this time it had been so futzed with that it can be described as being loosely inspired by what I originally saw in the Anatolian Knitting Designs book, made it fit my stitch count, and after trying 900 different and ridiculously complicated heels, I decided what I like best, and what fits my foot best, is a good, sturdy heel flap with gussets:

This will be the heel in the final pattern. I love it because it’s worked with the background color held double-stranded so the fabric is a pretty close match to the feel of the rest of the sock. And I have heels of steel, apparently, and will felt and wear through almost anything, so I’ll take all the extra sturdiness I can get.

The problem with the sock you see in that picture, however, is that the toe is heinous:

It pained me so to even take that picture, and then to post it on the internet?! I assure you I ripped that sucker out long ago. That ugly, square, floppy, weirdly bendy toe is long gone. I was trying to continue the lines from the chart and ended up with some really long floats in which my toes would always be getting caught, and then there’s the ugliness factor. Yuck. I decided the best thing to do was just to continue the chart as I had been working it and maintain that design as best I could while decreasing on the edges of the sock. And I’m quite pleased with the result:

And what you see there is, with a few details tweaked, what the final design will look like. As per the rules of Elinor’s contest there will be more than one size, which has been my main challenge given the large, unwieldy chart. In the end I decided the best way to deal with that would be to do what a lot of designers do to make fair isle mitten patterns with multiple sizes: change the gauge. The orange and white socks are designed for my feet, and as a result, they’re kind of big, and I like sturdy yarn so I’m using pretty heavy sock yarns (more on yarn details when I unveil the final product). I’m currently working up a smaller version using more lightweight yarns and so far as I can tell it’s working well, and it’s helping me work the rough edges out of the pattern. Now if I can just finish it all in time to publish by Friday!