All Buttoned Up

Introducing the Strangling Vine Scarf:

• Knit with less than a single skein of Sea Silk (a skein of SS is 430 or so yards of fingering weight)
• Size US 4 needles (but it’s a scarf, so gauge is not essential - it’s about which drape you like most)
• Not reversible (it’s a pretty pattern, but there is a wrong side - sorry)

And… it’s available for free!!

In order to be worthy of the pattern you must…

Do at least ONE random act of kindness. This is something that you have to do (you can’t just join a facebook group where someone else, somewhere is going to donate money for some cause) and it can’t be something you did yesterday before you read about this. I’m not going to tell anyone that whatever they did wasn’t enough… but try to do something that will have a little bit of an impact on the “good” quotient in the world- you know, do something that makes you feel warm and fuzzy inside! PLEASE leave me a comment letting me know what you did (so I can feel warm and fuzzy too).

Why am I doing this? Well, the pattern isn’t too genius, but I do think it’s kinda pretty - and some people might want a copy of the pattern. This made the trouble of writing up the pattern “worth it.”

At a loss for what to do? Here are some suggestions:

• If you’re on Ravelry, donate! (Casey and Jess are working so hard… and now they’re doing this full time… They need some support!)
• Send a college student you know a care package
• Knit a square for a charity afghan or a scarf for the red-scarf project.
• Send a letter or postcard via snail-mail to a person who’d never expect it and may not have anyone else who’d send them something.

Click the download button to get it now!

Yay! (Don’t forget to do your RAOK!)

12/23/07 -ETA- I used to offer this pattern via email - but it became WAY too much to keep up with (grad school is crazy ya’ll!) and so now… there’s a link! Yay. Less email junk for me to keep up with.

Note:  I think this is going to be the last of the posts about my 9 to 5 socks.  I don’t want to bombard you with tons of posts about this pattern!

I’ve had some questions about modifications to the 9 to 5 socks and I wanted to share my suggestions with you.  What follows is also in a clever and pretty PDF document here, just in case you want to print it out. (Those who’ve surfed here can find the post about this pattern here.)

 For a Smaller Sock or a slightly thicker yarn:
Change the number of stitches you cast on to 60.  Redistribute the stitches so that you have 18 stitches on N1, 12 sts on N2, 18 sts on N3 and 12 sts on N4 and work according to the pattern.  Before you begin the heel flap, move stitches as directed in original pattern so that you have 17 sts on N1, 13 sts on N2, 17 sts on N3 and 13 sts on N4.  When working Row one of the heel flap, work the same, except only work the *K1 Sl 1 wyif* portion only 9 times.  To do the heel turn, work the first row as follows:  Knit 14 sts, ssk, k1 turn. Work the remainder of the heel turn as written.  On the round preceding the gusset, work as written, but only twist the stitches that you picked up from the sides of the heel flap.  Work the rest of the sock as written, shortening the sock as necessary.

For a larger sock:
As written in the pattern, the sock has a lot of stretch to it.  If you feel like you need to make the sock larger, add a pattern repeat to the top of the foot.  Cast on 78 stitches.  Redistribute the stitches so that you have 18 sts on N1, 24 sts on N2, 18 sts on N3, and 18 sts on N4 and work the sock according to the pattern.  Before you begin the heel clap, redistribute the sts so that you have 17 sts on N1, 25 sts on N2, 17 sts of N3 and 19 sts on N4.  Work the heel flap as written, lengthening as necessary, picking up an appropriate number of heel stitches when preparing to work the gusset.  Work the rest of the sock as written, lengthening as necessary.

Other ideas for modification:

Allergic to wool?
The sock is worked in a thinner fingering weight sock yarn and so substitutions should be of a similar weight if you intend to work the original pattern.  You can also use a slightly thicker sock yarn (maybe something like Cascade Fixation) and work the pattern modification for the smaller sock.  Gauge is almost everything here.  If you get gauge and you like the yarn, use it.  Also, this pattern really is VERY stretchy and so it can be very forgiving with sizing issues or problems.

What about those # 1.5 US needles?
If you’re looking for needles of that size, you can find them in most yarn stores that have a wide variety of needles.  Knitpicks.com has also started carrying the size.  I liked them for this pattern because it wasn’t much smaller than the US 2s that I’m used too - but not quite so thin and scary as US 1s.  Remember, needle size is less important than gauge - and again, gauge is only almost everything with this pattern - it’s very forgiving with sizing because of it’s stretch.

What about yarns that aren’t a solid color?  Variegateds and hand-dyes?
Try it!  I used a solid yarn because I knew it would photograph well so that I could properly show off the pattern.  I can imagine that the sock would look amazing in an almost-solid color - something that is kettle-dyed and is subtle tones and shades of the same color.

More questions?
Shoot me an email.  My email address is nicole.hindes@gmail.com . You can also come back to the blog at allbuttonedup.wordpress.com.

I’ve designed some socks! And, in a bold move… I’m offering them for free!

These socks remind me of how I feel after working from nine in the morning until five at night, sometimes more than just five days a week. I get all wound up! The sock also has a dressier quality to it, so it can be a work sock too.

These socks feature a deceptively simple stitch pattern that looks like it would require a cable needle – but it doesn’t! The heel uses a half-linen stitch that creates a woven look that perfectly compliments the two spirals that continue down each side of the heel flap. This sock also features a special method of picking up the heel stitches – a way which places the column of selvedge stitches on the outside of the sock, creating a decorative braid that further sets off the heel. This sock is very stretchy because of the ribbed nature of the stitch pattern.

I owe a big thanks to Ruth of Ruthless Knitting who did a test-knit for me. In her amazing-ness, she even knit this sock super fast - and was prepared to knit it faster when I was going to try to make a certain deadline. Super kudos to you Ruth!

And, without further ado… the free pattern! (the link is a pdf!)

(ETA - I put together a little video explaining the special twist stitch that the sock requires. Look here.)

You can click on any of the photos to see more photos of the socks (look for the 9 to 5 socks set). Oh, and don’t forget to add this to your ravelry queue (if you’re on ravelry - if not, wait patiently, you will be soon)!

Here’s the same scarf as below with some better lighting to show the colors better.

And another….

Also - I’m going to write up the eas-peasy patterns I do (mostly to get practice writing up patterns and designing pattern pages) and make them available to you - I’m going to call them the quick-and-dirty patterns because they’ll be super easy (good holiday/christmas gifts) - and the pattern will be less-checked than my other free patterns are.

I’m not claiming them to be rocket science - but if you’re a knitter who likes the comfort of a pattern telling you what to do - maybe this will be helpful.

The link to the above pattern can be found here—

quickanddirtyhorizontal.pdf

You’ll need adobe acrobat to view it. You can get that here. It’s free.

My first free pattern! Indeed! I did it!

Finally!

The specifics:
Pattern: The Not-Quite-Straight Scarf
Needles: US 9 (I used my Brittany Birch ones, always a treat with scarves)
Yarn: Andean Silk from Knitpicks

Description: This scarf is knit on a bias so that the ridges of reverse stockinette create diagonal lines. It is incredibly beginner friendly and unlike many bias-knit scarves, it features squared ends instead of points.

The pattern is simple to memorize and simpler to execute.

I designed it because I wanted to make a scarf for my brother for Christmas. I wanted something less boring that garter stitch or ribbing but still something that could be masculine. His version is in black. You can see more photos of both the red and black versions on my flickr site (see the sidebar to the right).

In additional to being available on my Free Patterns Page -
Heres the link to the PDF: Not-Quite-Straight-Scarf

I’ll only have it there until the new Google platypus Gdrive finally happens (google it - it’s going to be amazing)- then I’m going to host it over there.

In the meantime, send me links of your finished scarves - I’ll love to make a gallery of them sometime… I hope you enjoy the pattern - let me know if you have problems (this is the first time I’ve written a pattern, be easy on me).

(Oh - and the people modelling the scarves on this post are not me. They are my friends Leah and Kyle).

Oh - and an update on the sock curse - for now, my boyfriend and I are giving it another try. But there’s no way I’m knitting the other sock anytime soon. Thanks for all your encouragement by the way. You all are great!