Somehow the stranded socks I made for Ulli for x-mas made me wish for a pair of socks with a geometric pattern for myself. And when it comes to sock knitting... No sooner said than done! :)

I chose a stitch pattern called Uneven  from Andrea Rangel's wonderful AlterKnit Stitch Dictionary and combined a solid mass produced anthracite grey with a hand-painted green yarn by Handu. Happy about my new socks! :)

After a bit of a relaxed and lazy start into 2020, I'm finally back on my desk, taking care of my patterns. And the first one to release this year (well, actually it is a re-release since it was published in Knitscene before), is Accented Socks.

The pattern is a great introduction to stranded knitting. The stitch pattern forms geometrical shapes, so it’s easy to keep your place in the chart. Also, they’re designed so that you never have to deal with a long float; the small pattern repeat keeps the yarns tidily lined up on the wrong side.

These socks are worked from the cuff down with a so-called mock short-row heel. This type of heel is worked with decreases and increases (by picking up stitches). The pattern includes three sizes, woman's S, M and L and it comes with charts and full written instructions for the stranded motifs.

As of today, Accented Socks is available as individual download from my Ravelry Store, here.

I hardly ever knit a pattern more than once - but every now and then there is an exception to the rule and I've started of the New Year with one of these exceptions.

The last few days I've happily knitted away on another pair of Thank you for the Music Socks as a birthday gift and I think they turned out great  - now to hope the recipient will like them. 

The other day when we went for a walk, we found a beautifully painted little rock. Of course it put a huge smile to our faces and when we learnt that this is an idea to just do that: gift other folks a smile, we were intrigued. You can either choose to keep the rock or take it with you and put it somewhere for somebody else to find, which is what we did (unfortunately without a picture).

Anyway, we found the ides so cute, so we used our long holiday break for some rock painting as well. :)

The ones above are not yet ready, but will need their finishing touches before they start their travels, but the one below, painted by Ulli, is already out in the wild. Let's see if we get to see it again in the Facebook group dedicated to #Deistersteine (Deister Stones - Deister is the name of a chain of hills in the region where we live).

... in hand-knitted socks!

It took a while, but I finally finished my Gift Along project! In the beginning I wasn't sure whether I'd be happy with a pair with one sock knitted cuff down and the other toe up, but I decided to follow the pattern and I love how they turned out!

The pattern is Partying it UP and Getting DOWN by Megan Williams and I used my souvenir yarn from Woollinn Yarn Fest 2019, hand dyed by Dragon Hill Studio.

The trickiest part of getting my x-mas gifts ready in time? Find some leisure knitting time when Ulli is not around. My dear hubby absolutely loves to wear hand-knitted socks, so it has become kind of a tradition to gift him a pair every year.

This year he gave a pair of store bought socks with a tumbling blocks pattern to me for St. Nicholas' Day and joked that this would be a nice design wor hand-knit socks... well, his wish was my command... ;-)

Here's the handmade gift he'll find under the tree tonight  and I'm really happy how they turned out. Pretty sure he'll love them. :)

A short while back I received a lovely surprise in the mail: my copy of Knits from the Greenhouse.

It came as a surprise since the release of the book was postponed from June to 'some day' (thanks to the insolvency and the following sale of Interweave Books to Penguin Random House) and when it was publsihed in November it happened rather silently and unnoticed. Which is a pity, because this book, dedicated to designs using plant-based fibres only is filled to the brim with 18 gorgeous designs for accessories and garments.

My contribution to the book is the Spring Sprout Stole, a rectangular stole inspired by rows of cultivated seedlings, worked from one short side to the other.

The garter stitch blocks seem to be tipped at angles, but are simply worked in straight lines. The groups of increases and decreases, which slant either to the left or right, pull the garter squares one way or the other, creating a most unusual pattern. The simplicity of the stitch pattern makes the stole a perfect project for relaxed knitting.

The easy to memorize stitch pattern shows off beauty of pure linen yarn perfectly. The sample shown was knitted in Purl Soho Field Linen.

The book Knits from the Greenhouse is available from book stores worldwide.

What do you need when it's all the time grey, cold and ugh outside? Yes, exactly, you need to knit a pair of lacy socks in a cheerful summery colour. So that's what I did. And not only that, I turned the idea into a new pattern right away.

Okay, the picture taking bit means that you either freeze your butt off or you have to stick to indoor pics, which makes you go bananas because of the poor light, but still: My new socks make me really happy.

I called the pattern Ornamental Socks because of the intricate lace panel running down the front of the socks. The easy to memorize lace pattern is worked with clustered stitches for extra texture.

The socks are knitted cuff down with a short-row heel. The pattern includes three sizes and you can choose to work the lace panel from charts or written instructions.

So, if you are any like me and a new pair of socks is for you the perfect pick-me-up against the weather blues, as of today the pattern is available from my Ravelry store, here: Ornamental Socks.