Rocky's socks

The first pair of kilt hose are done for Rocky. His only complaint was that the feet were a little small. Yikes! I'm not sure how hard it would be at this point to try to take them apart and rip out the foot and redo it. He sounded as though he thought they would work but asked me to do the next ones bigger. So here are the pictures:

On the azalea:


Close-up:


In action - I caught one of Rocky while he was changing a sign during the Phoenixville Celtic Fest. Because of how the kilt is pleated, the white stripes are really highlighted in the sock:


Posed - he asked not to have red in the socks so that he could wear these socks could match other kilts:

Dress Purple Stewart Hose

They are finished!!! Hooray! I am really happy with how they turned out. They seem to fit well too. I deliver them tomorrow and hope to get a shot with the whole outfit on Saturday at the competition. There were some troubles with the gauge on the first pair. I actually ended up cutting (!) them down to size. The seam is a little bigger than usual on the inside, but that is the only evidence. I didn't notice it when I had them on and neither did the dancer. We'll see what she says after dancing in them for a day.

Here it is on the machine:


And finished!

Highland Dance Socks

I was meaning to post these at some point anyway, but here they are specifically for Karen at the dance.net forum. Erin's Highland Dance Hose. I used Jameison and Smith lace weight (2/14.5) the purple is L44 and was very hard to find the right color. It goes with her Dress Cunningham kilt. I used a one ply cobweb with the purple to make the marl and although slightly thicker than the solid color diamonds, it is really not distinguishable to someone unless they are a knitter. The stripes were duplicate stitched on top. And yes, if you look closely you can see that they aren't perfect and don't always cross exactly in the middle. All I can say is you try to knit these and see how you do!! Seriously, though, you can't tell once they are on and only a knitter would really look at that! I graphed the pattern taking reductions at the seam to get a fitted sock and figured the heel and instep from the Beehive pattern for Highland Dance Socks.

Oh, and I forgot to mention the reason they don't meet diamond tip to diamond tip at the top is that about an inch of growth is built in at the top. So, the cuff comes down over the first diamond to about the mid-point. Again, not noticeably obvious from the stage, but I won't have to be knitting new socks next year when she grows. i can rip out the toe and knit the foot longer if I have to as well. These were all tips I received from another sock knitter.

Here's a close-up to see the marl.

The Kiri Shawl

After 10 months of thinking I was going to keep a craft blog, I finally have my first real post. Well, really it is mostly pictures, but here is the Kiri Shawl with my handspun angora/merino. I love how soft it is and the little haze the angora gives it. I was pleased with the variegation as well. (Is that a word?)

And then my daughter and I tried some dyeing with plants. This yarn was spun with a merino roving treated with alum and dyed in a long goldenrod dyebath. We also did some with a short time in the bath and it is brighter. I wondering what to ply this with. A purple, a green, a blue, maybe something that keeps changing colors?