plaid

long live plaid

and indigo

and whatever dyes were used to create these lovely lovely colors

these images were taken from the birds of ohio blog which gives more detail on its collaboration with blue farm textile.

socks!

in the nick of time.

encountering (adorable!) hand-knit sock posts here, here, and here inspired me to knit a pair for myself. during the holidays 2009, i knit socks for my family as gifts and was able to complete 3 out of 5 (sorry sis! sorry bro!) by then i was completely socked out.





for the body of the socks i used fingering weight wool from knitpicks. for the toe and heel i used a yak/merino/bamboo blend from still river mill. super soft yarn and kinda indulgent for socks, but hey my toes are worth it! actually, the yarn was rescued from an abandoned mitten project.





i knit them toe-up with a short-row heel. i used the tubular cast-on for the cuff and attached it using the kitchener stitch. probably a little over-the-top process-wise.





these socks are so warm! the perfect pair for these almost freezing temps.

darn

a trend in my wardrobe is that all my favorite sweaters are grey and full of holes.

i've taken up darning as a way to extend their wear-ability.

it took me a real long time to find darning thread, seems most knitting stores don't carry them. i finally found some in a brooklyn shop, but it only carried greys and darks, which would match my sweaters, but i really wanted my mends to pop! anyways, i bought a slew since it took me forever to find them (i know purl soho carries them, but i never find myself in the area.) so for now it's sombre, hard to notice mends.

here are my first attempts at darning. i played around with different methods and had fun with the task. i really enjoy the act of darning, and i'm really trying to take on more handiwork projects. the inspiration for my mending is from this japanese book which annekata writes well about. martha stewart herself also did a small write-up on darning with a short list of thread sources.

i think lace weight yarn would also work fine as darning thread. next time i'll buy a real fun color of sturdy lace yarn, knit myself a lace scarf and then darn my wool socks.