In this episode of the Eldenwood Craft knitting podcast I shared progress on my Cumulus Tee, showed a new pair of socks on the needles as well as a new knitting interest, and I also showed off a couple of newly finished projects, including unusually for me a crochet project.
You can watch the episode by clicking this link or read on to find out the details of what I’ve been working on.
Striped socks
I’m ever so pleased with these finished socks. They’re a great way to use mini skeins or left over yarns from other projects. Here’s how I knit them.
- I cast on 60 stitches and knit about 15 rounds of 1 x 1 ribbing
- I then switched to the main sock which is essentially a vanilla sock with colour blocking
- I worked out how many rounds to knit for each colour by firstly taking the number of rounds I normally knit for my foot from the end of the heel to the point where I start for the toe. For me this is about 68 rounds. I knew I wanted four or five colour blocks on my foot and I did an easy bit of maths to work out that four blocks of colour / contrast fits into 68 rounds nicely (17 rounds each - 14 rounds for the colour and 3 rounds for the contrast).
- From then on it was a straightforward knit. I knit four sections of colour / contrast before knitting a heel flap and heel turn, and then continued to work four more colour/contrast blocks before knitting a wedge toe and Kitchenering the toe closed.
- I used the clasp weft join method to deal with the ends of yarn when I changed the colours which meant no weaving in of ends, apart from the cast on and bind off tails.
I’m really happy with how these have turned out, they look great and are a fantastic way to use mini skeins. I'm sure I'll be knitting more pairs of socks like this.
Yarn: Birdstreet Yarn mini skein set (colourway : Great Outdoors) and the contrast is Drops Fabel colour 100
Half Granny Square Cowl
This was a surprise project for me to work on because I don’t often crochet. In fact just about the only thing I’ve ever crocheted that I can remember is a granny striped blanket and if I’m honest I didn’t really enjoy that process very much. However, I was watching an episode of the Edible Thoughts Makes podcast and Stephanie showed a cowl that she had crocheted using a half granny square construction and I really liked it and thought that I would give it a go too.
There are lots of tutorials for how to make a half granny square online, and I read a few to understand the process. It’s very easy. I crocheted a half granny square until I had pretty much just enough yarn to do a little bit of sewing together of the ends of the cowl at the end. Then to turn a triangle into a bandana style cowl I took two ends of the long edge of the half granny square, crossed them over and sewed them together, ensuring the cowl could fit over my head easily.
I like this style of cowl and I’d be tempted to make another one, but perhaps using a less gappy stitch.
Yarn: Camijoknit DK in colourway Coquinas
Pattern: inspired by a similar project shared on Episode 103 of the Edible Thoughts Makes podcast
Cumulus Tee
The last time I showed my Cumulus Tee I had just split for the sleeves. Since that point I’ve knit both sleeves and am well on my way down the body. I enjoy simple round and round knitting, but I’ll admit to this becoming a little bit of a slog due to the large number of stitches on the needles. However, I’m getting there, I’ve probably got another 10 or 15 rounds to go, and then I can bind off with an icord and the body will then be finished. All I'll have to do then is another icord around the neckline and that will be a finished object. I expect it to be finished next time I record a podcast. Hold me to it!
Pattern: PetiteKnit
Yarn: Sandnes Garn Tynn Line (colourway 8561). Purchased from Knitt.
Beehive Yarn socks
This is a new pair of socks on the needles, because when you finish one pair you have to cast on a new pair straight away. I’m knitting these toe up, so that I can test out another way of binding off at the top of the cuff (in recent podcasts I've spoken about how I had found the last pair of toe up socks a little bit tight around the cuff and I’m exploring other ways of binding off). I've used the umbrella toe from the Umbrella Socks pattern by Kay Jones, and I'm knitting both socks at the same time, or at least concurrently on separate pairs of needles. I’ve got a handful of rounds to go on the second sock before I think about which heel I’m going to put in. More than likely this will be a regular short row heel, but I might do the shadow wrap heel.
The yarn is beautiful. It's my first skein from Beehive Yarns and I'm sure there will be more in my future.
Yarn: Beehive Yarns sock set in the colourway Grassflower
Nanna the Lady Duck
This is another project that surprised me hugely. I don’t knit toys, I don’t have anyone to knit toys for, and I don’t like to have too much unneccessary 'stuff' in the house. However, I had seen the book Mouche and Friends on Instagram and it infiltrated my mind so much that I found myself having to buy the book and I’m so glad I did. It’s a book by Cinthia Vallet and there are about 12, very cute and very stylish little toy animals to knit. I’m very taken with Alphonse the pig, Agi the sheep, then there's the squirrel, the donkey…there are so many really sweet animals to choose from.
I decided to start with Nanna the Lady Duck because she looked the most straightforward, and I thought it would be best to ease myself into this sort of knitting. Most of the patterns call for a 2mm needle, which is smaller than I’m used to using, and I’m using DPNs so it’s a little bit fiddly, but I’m enjoying it. I’ve only really knit the beak of Nanna so far, and a few rows to start shaping the head, but I’m really keen to get stuck in further, probably once I finish my Cumulus Tee. This is another project which is great for using up odds and ends of yarn that you have lying around. Looking through the different projects in the book, most of them seem to take less than 50g of yarn for each project.
Pattern: from the new book Mouche and Friends by Cinthia Vallet (widely available).
Other mentions in this podcast episode
New Yarn
4ply British wool from Woolyknit in the colourways Skiddaw Nep Brown and Mallard Green
Books
Finished listening to: All the Broken Places by John Boyne
Currently reading: The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah