ahhh ….. the joy of Kroy….

my first free pattern!

Well, I finally finished typing up my toe-up sock pattern ” The Joy of Kroy” – catchy, non? I have a new found respect for all those pattern writers and designers out there – it’s harder than I realized to describe how to do a heel, etc. Anyway, I hope it comes in handy for some knitters out there. I hope to cast on another pair today! You can access the pdf file on the right, or below – linky! Edited to add: I fixed a spelling typo! I hope you find Kroy to be a “thicker” sock yarn and not a “thinker” sock yarn as I had originally written – thanks Michele!

JoyofKroy

Enjoy and happy knitting!

Wollmeise!!

I can’t believe I finally got my hands on some Wollmeise, and it wouldn’t have happened without the enabling powers of a very dear friend and neighbour who just happened to catch a Loopy Ewe facebook update the instant it was posted. Seriously, this place sells out of it in minutes. Can you imagine? I’m not knocking it, don’t get me wrong. The depth of the colour is so strong, and I hear the stitch definition is great,too. Luckily, my friend and neighbour Ms. M shared her bounty with me!! I got a beautiful skein of Wollmeise Twin 80/20 in the gorgeous deep indigo colourway called blaue tinte and she got the colourway aquarius. What to make with it? Gah – so many awesome patterns. I’ve been thinking of making an Aestlight shawl for a while now. Some of the gloves that people are making with this yarn on Ravelry are incredibly gorgeous as are the socks of course….here is a shot of my beautiful skein in all her hand-dyed glory.

blaue tinte

I also broke down and ordered some Noro Silk garden sock yarn in the very muted and neutral colourway #269, to go with my other ball of Noro silk garden sock. The original ball I had was destined to be a silk kerchief but no other fingering weight yarn looked right when I swatched with it. The lumpy bumpy texture of Noro, and the colour was just not working with other yarns I had in my stash. Everything looked too smooth and industrial next to it. So I broke down and ordered this yarn as a companion to my stash yarn. I can’t wait to make the silk kerchief. I have knit it before, but with a worsted weight alpaca and a worsted Noro silk garden. Needless to say, it turned out to be more of a shawl. I’m hoping for more of a kerchief for this next attempt.

lumpy bumpy goodness

As for projects on the needles, I’m almost finished a Citron in Malabrigo Lace, in the colourway lettuce as pictured in Knitty and I’m really enjoying both the yarn and the pattern. It is so soft! It is definitely going to feel like a cloud around my neck. Not sure if I should wet-block it or not. I may check and see what other Ravellers have done….and I continue my Kroy sock-a-thon. I am knitting up a ladies-sized pair of toe-up, 2 AAT socks and then I will concentrate on posting my pattern for it. I’m thinking of a catchy name like “The Joy of Kroy”. Hmmm….

fine merino on a dirty dog...

Knitting paralysis….a cure….

I have this problem when it comes to luxury/hard to get around here yarns. I become consumed with finding the perfect pattern, for the perfect project for this perfect yarn. It’s a lot of pressure…..and several hours on Ravelry.com later, I pretty much just confuse myself – especially looking at sock patterns! – gah!

To the rescue – Kroy. Pedestrian, dependable Kroy. A couple of these balls were laying about and they seemed like just the ticket for February sock knitting – bright colours, soft and 3 mm needles. Perfection indeed.

Love the Humble Kroy!