Yarntherapy

Sockstandard

2011-12-20T10:18:00.001-08:00

I posted my Quick sock formula on the web ages ago and I still use the same principle to make a sock pattern if I have non-standard sock yarn.

However, for most socks in standard 4ply sock yarn I have standard pattern scribbled on to a tiny note in my knitting bag that recently disintegrated. To not loose that precious pattern and also share it with the world, I decided to post it here.

Yarn: any standard 4-ply superwash sock yarn, I quite like Regia 4-ply
Gauge: should be 30sts x 42r for 10x10cm / 4x4inch
Needles: either 2.0mm (if you knit loosely like me) or 2.5mm DPNs
Size: 5.5UK / 38-39 EUR (works for 36-41 I would say, you just need to make the foot bit longer)

Cast on 60sts. (I work with 4 needles, so 20sts on each needle)
K1 p1 for 20 rows.
Knit until piece measures 17cm from beginning (or longer if you want longer socks).

Now it is time for the heel.
Redistribute the stitches so that you have: 15/30/15sts on the needle.
The first needle (with 15sts) is needle 1, the needle with 30sts is needle 2 and the last needle (with 15sts again) is needle 3. See chart.

Knit all stitches on needle 1.
The heel will be worked over the stitches on needle 2. To shape the heel we will use short rows, if you are not familiar with working short rows you can watch this video:
http://www.knittinghelp.com/videos/advanced-techniques
watch: short row with wrap. They explain it better than I can.

To make the heel knit the stitches on needle 2 until there is only one stitch left on the needle. Turn the knitting and wrap the last stitch as learnt from the video or the way you have always done it. Up to you.
Now purl the stitches on the needle until you reach the last one. Turn and wrap this stitch.
Now knit back, but this time stop 2 stitches before the end and wrap the one before the last one (the last one has already been wrapped, so you can just ignore it for now).
Purl your way back and wrap the stitch before the last one on the other side.
Now knit all but the last 3 stitches, wrap the unwrapped one of the three.
And so on, until you have 8 stitches wrapped on either side (with 14 unwrapped stitches inbetween), ending with a purl row.

Now knit until you reach the first wrapped stitch (not the first one you wrapped but the first one of the wrapped stitches on the left side that you reach knitting). Hide the wrap by knitting it together with the stitch as shown in the video. Now turn the knitting and slip the stitch without purling it (the stitch that you just created by knitting together wrap and stitch). Now purl until you reach a wrapped stitch on the other side. Hide the wrap as explained in the video (by purling it together with the stitch), turn work and slip the stitch. Now knit until you reach a wrapped stitch and so on.

When all wraps have been hidden you should be at the beginning of needle 2. Now knit all the stitches on needle 2 and 3 and then continue knitting round, knitting all stitches on all needles.

Knit until the foot measures 17.5cm, measured from the heel (see very small photo). This length is for 5.5UK, adjust for smaller or larger sizes by knitting less or more.

Now start the decreases.
A decrease row works as follows:
Needle 1: knit until there are only 3 stitches left. K2tog, k1.
Needle 2: K1, SSK, knit until 3 left, k2tog, k1.
Needle 3: k1, SSK, knit to end of needle.
See chart for a visualisation.

Now that you know how to do a decrease row, here is how the decreases will go:
1 decrease row
3 rows without decreases
1 decrease row
2 rows without decreases
1 decrease row
1 row without decreases
1 decrease row
1 row without decreases
1 decrease row
1 row without decreases
5 decrease rows

There should be 5 stitches left each on needles 1 and 3 and 10 on needle 2.
Knit needle 1.
Now combine the stitches from needle 3 and 1 on to one needle. Now you should have only two needles, with 10 stitches each.

To finish the sock, join the two sides using kitchener stitch, a great tutorial can be found here.

Be good and weave in your ends immediately.
That's it. Socks done! :-)

World map pillow

2011-12-20T07:11:00.000-08:00

Thinking about this years Christmas presents, I found photos of one of last years presents. It is a world map/UK map stitched on a pillow cover. Then little colourful dots will mark the placer where the owner has been!

Beetroot cake

2011-11-03T06:21:00.000-07:00

I don't like beetroot. For all of you who know me that might not be a surprise, since I'm a fussy eater. However, the lovely vegbox company Abel&Cole only allows you to ban up to 20 fruits/vegetables (or categories, like cabbage) which they then will not put in the box.
I have been told that you can call them and request more items to be banned, but I'm a bit embarrassed about how many things I don't like so I'd rather not do that.

So, that's how some beetroot came into my possession. With it came a recipe that claimed to convert everyone to like beetroot (at least in the form of that particular cake).
It is a chioggia beetroot that's why at has the lovely stripes and isn't very red.
Pretty, isn't it?

And it resulted in this cake:

And I have to say it DID convert me. I still only like beetroot in the cake, but this cake is absolutely amazing. Just don't tell people it contains beetroot, otherwise they will refuse to eat it.

I just got more beetroot in my vegbox this morning (the dark red variety), so I'll post a picture of a red beetroot cake if I get round to making one.

Frankfurter Kranz

2011-11-02T07:08:00.000-07:00

Another cake:

This is called "Frankfurter Kranz" and is a typical regional speciality in Germany.

Stencil cake

2011-10-20T07:09:00.000-07:00

And another cake photo. I found this in my cake photo folder and I quite like it (I made this cake loooong ago).
It is a hazelnut cake a chocolate stencil of Connor Oberst, the singer of the band Bright Eyes.
For the stencil I printed the image, transferred it to baking paper and then used a scalpel to cut a stencil out of the baking paper. As far as I remember, I used a few drops of water to loosely stick it to the iced cake and then painted the cutouts with dark chocolate.

Tetris cake

2011-10-16T06:00:00.000-07:00

And another birthday cake for a housemate:
Tetris cake!

The tape strips mark the arena, our housemate had to play it before the cake was eaten!

Nyan cat cake

2011-10-10T06:57:00.000-07:00

Right, I really need to catch up. I have made so many cakes since the last post and I even managed to get them from the camera to the computer (generally photos stay on my camera for a while until they make it into the computer). So why are there no photos of cakes then you might ask?
Well. I actually have prepared some cakey posts (by uploading the pictures and adding them), but they are lacking witty descriptions. Since no witty descriptions have magically appeared since the last post (which was in August...), I have now decided to just post them. I am sure most of you are here for the pictures anyway. You are probably not even reading this but instead drooling over the finally posted cake pictures.

One of my housemates loves internet-cat-memes. A particularly nice one is nyancat.
So for his birthday I made a nyancat cake with help of another housemate.

The body is made out of normal cake mixture and filled with custard buttercream and then coated with marzipan. The legs and head are chocolate cake with chocolate custard buttercream iced with dark chocolate. The tail is made of A LOT of biscuit.

Lehmus lace scarf

2011-08-16T07:00:00.000-07:00

Remember this yarn?

I DID knit a lace scarf with it in the end:

I actually finished it last year, but forgot to blog about it. The pattern is called "Lehmus"

It is a nice knit and well written. With the yarn I used it was a fairly quick knit.

Garden produce

2011-07-30T06:47:00.000-07:00

It has been a while since I posted anything and while I'm digging through my photos to see which projects I forgot to upload, I'll show you a picture of what our garden produced this week.

Courgettes, purple beans and runner beans. I chopped them, fried them and made a salad but forgot to take a picture of it.

Harvey

2011-01-10T10:40:00.000-08:00

I made this rabbit based on a character from the German computer game "Edna bricht aus". He is called Harvey.

Mustard Moss stitch hat

2010-03-28T10:49:00.000-07:00

I knit this slouchy moss stitch hat in colour the colour mustard and I really like it!

and here is my pattern:

set of 5 DPNs, 3mm

I used 1.5 skeins (190m) of Wolle Roedel Siena in the colour 9966 (mustard yellow).

gauge: 25sts x 46rows, 10cm

The moss stitch pattern:
row 1: k2, p2
row 2: k2, p2
row 3: p2, k2
row 4: p2, k2

The pattern:
CO 128sts to four DPNs (32sts per needle).
Knit 2-2 rib for 5.5cm. Then knit row 3, increasing 4 sts on each of the four needles (now 144sts, 36 per needle). Knit row 4.
Knit 5 repeats of the moss stitch pattern (should be approximately 5.5cm long, if not just knit full repeats of the pattern until piece is 11cm long).

Now on to the decreases:
Decrease in pattern row 1: k14, p2tog, p2tog, k2tog, k2tog, k14, repeat this for every needle
(128sts afterwards, 32 on each needle).
Knit rows 2-4.
Knit 2 pattern repeats.
Decrease in pattern row 1: k12, ssk, ssk, p2tog, p2tog, k12, repeat this for every needle
(112sts afterwards, 28 on each needle).
Knit rows 2-4.
Knit 1 pattern repeat.
Decr in pattern row 1: k10, p2tog, p2tog, k2tog, k2tog, k10, repeat this for every needle
(96sts afterwards, 24 on each needle).
Knit rows 2-4.
Knit 1 pattern repeat.
Decr in pattern row 1: k8, ssk, ssk, p2tog, p2tog, k8, repeat this for every needle
(80sts afterwards, 20 on each needle).
Knit rows 2-4.
Decr in pattern row 1: k6, p2tog, p2tog, k2tog, k2tog, k6, repeat this for every needle
(64sts afterwards, 16 on each needle).
Knit row 2.
Decr in pattern row 3: k4, p2tog, p2tog, k2tog, k2tog, k4, repeat this for every needle
(48sts afterwards, 12 on each needle).
Knit row 4.
Decr in pattern row 1: k2, p2tog, p2tog, k2tog, k2tog, k2, repeat this for every needle
(32sts afterwards, 8 on each needle).
Knit row 2.
Decr in pattern row 3: p2tog, p2tog, k2tog, k2tog, repeat this for every needle
(16sts afterwards, 4 on each needle).
Pull remaining stitches together and weave in ends. You might want to thread an elastic thread through the ribbing for better fit, I'm planning on doing that, but so far the hat stays on without it.

Woodpeckers birthday

2010-03-25T12:13:00.000-07:00

The person I got for secret santa last year (yes, I'm a tiny bit late with this post, I know...) is a major xkcd fan. And likes coffee. Therefore I transformed one of his favourite xkcd comic strips into a mug:

First Quilt

2010-02-21T12:06:00.000-08:00

I've always wanted to make a quilt and after a friend gave me a huge bag of fabric leftovers in red and white, I knew this was the time. It is the most simple pattern you can imagine, but I'm still very proud of the result as my sewing skills are not the best...
I gave it to my grandmother for her birthday and she really liked it!

sunshine, lovely sunshine

2009-08-09T07:58:00.000-07:00

My second marathon-spinning project (ok, it was only 1,2km of yarn running through my fingers but it definitely FELT like a marathon).
The fiber is bamboo, silk, merino and alpaca. 2-ply, 400m, 130g

I'm planning to knit a lace scarf with it.

floss bobbins

2009-08-02T08:04:00.000-07:00

I recently picked up embroidery again and found a nice design idea for floss bobbins on craftster. For the people who don't know why you need such things:
Newly bought embroidery floss is wrapped up nicely but when you start using it, sooner or later it will tangle, produce knots... Wrapping it around a piece of cardboard prevents this. This design is especially nice because you can put them on a string so you'll can grab all colours that you need at once when leaving the house in a hurry. And of course they look cute...

Handspun socks

2009-08-02T07:45:00.000-07:00

For my mothers birthday I've knitted my first socks made from handspun yarn. I couldn't understand why people spin kilometers of yarn and then knit socks when handspun 2-ply yarn is much weaker than commercial sock yarn. I just knit these socks because I had some handspun yarn left over from a lace scarf.
But now that I've tried them on for the photos, I think I might need some handspun socks...

The pattern I used is:
http://www.exartstudent.net/?p=60
It's a great pattern and fun to knit!

And another photo:

Tissue Holders

2009-06-01T04:38:00.000-07:00

I've recieved fabric tissue holders in a craft swap and I think they are really useful. Yes, I know, you have to transfer the tissues from their plastic packaging to the tissue holder. BUT: you can refill them the next day even if they are not completely empty, which prevents having ten plastic packages in your handbag each with one or two tissues left.
So I decided to sew a few more for myself and some additional ones as Christmas presents (remember: only a bit more than 6 month left until Christmas! ;-) ).
I've used this tutorial as a guideline and bought the fabric from various sellers on etsy. Here is another design using plain fabric and cute ribbons:

Unicorn Earhangers

2009-06-01T04:26:00.000-07:00

This is the result of my first try with Shrinky Dinks:
After cutting and baking I painted them using metallic acrylic paint.
I love how they turned out, even though they are huge, ostentatious and sometimes poke you in the neck when wearing them...

painted mugs

2009-05-15T10:23:00.000-07:00

I love painting mugs with porcellain paint or porcellain markers! It is really easy and a customised mug is a great gift.
This is my last mug creation based on a button of my favourite band:

first lace scarf finished

2009-05-15T10:10:00.000-07:00

Over a year ago I started my first lace project. Unfortunately I decided on using mohair and knitting with blunt knitting needles with bad joints...
For the non-knitters: this is similar to running a marathon in Flip-Flops... possible but you could have it much easier.
Well, I finished this beast!
To be correct it is my first started lace project, but I've finished others because this was such a pain to knit.
But here it is in all its fluffy glory:

Knitted with one skein Vivaldi from Garnstudio. The pattern is this but I decided to make the scarf one repeat wider.

horse cakes

2009-04-28T14:11:00.000-07:00

And another cake post...
Today I show you the perfect cake for the horse lover in your life. The cake is simply cut out from a rectangular cake and very easy to make (but still cute).
The first cake is a chocolate-cherry-cake horse:And the second is a lemon cake. The inside is coloured in the colours of the rainbow. This one is actually not my idea, I saw a cake like this on craftster.

raspberry cookies

2009-04-19T00:49:00.000-07:00

I think I have a new favourite cookie recipe... They sell American Cookies in the university cafeteria but I calculating that making them at home would save me 70% of the cafeteria price and allow me to put as much chocolate in them as I wanted convinced me to give it a try.
I searched the internet for a recipe and found this (German).
Instead of using the grated nuts I used additional 100g flour and substituted the chocolate for white chocolate. Then I added some frozen raspberries broken into small pieces. Though the combination sounds a little bit strange, they are delicious!

Rose's wrist warmers

2009-04-08T14:07:00.000-07:00

I love Dr. Who! Sadly the show isn't on TV anymore here in Germany (but I'll assure you that Germany otherwise a civilised country). To do something for my Dr. Who obsession I knitted the wristwarmers Rose wears in "Doomsday".
Even if you're not a Dr.Who fan they are a great knit, because the pattern is well written and easy to knit (but not boring). And the result is really beautiful:

They turned out a little bit small, but I think that is my fault because I had to substitute the yarn and maybe my swatch was not big enough (or I should have swatched the cable pattern... *cough*) Luckily I have small hands! So if you have bigger hands I really recommend knitting a swatch with the cables.
You'll find the pattern here.

Cake Week

2009-04-08T13:27:00.000-07:00

Last week was cake week. I made three! birthday cakes. But I had a lot of help from friends...
Here is the first cake:
Knitter's cake

The next one is an apple-apple-cake (inspired by this cake)
We didn't have a laser ready in our baking laboratory so we improvised and cut by hand.

And last but not least a cake with cream filling:

No, just joking... :-) The next picture shows the real cake. The ugly one was made with the leftovers. Of course we first pretended that it was the real cake, hehe.
And there is another birthday coming up... So stay tuned for the next birthday cake!

Not your ordinary cheese cake

2009-03-28T11:58:00.000-07:00

I always bake birthday cakes which have something to do with the birthday childs likes or hobbies. Usually I just take a plain cake and decorate it. But the birthday cakes for my father are always a bit difficult. He rarely eats cake and only eats certain sorts of cake. The only cake he really loves is cheese cake.
But I always have a hard time coming up with fun decoration ideas for cheesecake.
Some time ago I found a pig baking mould in a shop and I knew I had to buy it to make a birthday cake for my father who loves pigs. But cheese cake in a pig mould? I was not sure whether that would work out...
But it did! And my father loved it!
Here the proof that it is really a cheese cake:

For those of you who are curious how such a masterpiece of cheese cake was made:
I made a plain shortcrust pastry and put it into the (greased) mould. Afterwards I prepared the filling and the only thing I altered in the recipe was to add an additional two tablespoons of starch.
After baking I let the cake rest for about 3 minutes and then turned it out onto a plate. I still can't believe that this worked out, I thought the cake would break, stick to the mould or do anything else horrible...

Customized Converse

2009-03-17T13:11:00.000-07:00

I got a pair of plain black Converse Chucks for Christmas. Of course they are absolutely adorable, but everyone seems to have the black ones. Not that I'm being snobby and want to wear only one-of-a-kind designer pieces but I want to know which shoes are MY shoes when standing in front of one of these stundent-party-shoe-piles. Because my drawing skills haven't improved since I'm ten I decided to stitch them. Things I make with some kind of string in general turn out better than projects that involve pens and brushes...
Here is the result:
The thread is glow-in-the-dark thread. How cool is that?

After this successful customization I took a pair of plain brown chucks, which were a bit too plain for my taste.
Stitching on fabric shoes is much easier than I had expected. If you want to try it yourself just make sure that you don't use knobs for fixing the loose ends of the thread. I just stitched a few times through the inner fabric until it looked like the thread would stay were it should.
And last but not least I'll show you the painted pair. I really love how it turned out but you'll understand why I think stitching is the better option for me...

Procrastination...

2009-03-17T13:00:00.000-07:00

is starting a craft blog...
I usually don't have much time for crafting. I still craft a lot, but some ideas have been on my to do list for ages and I never felt I had time for them.
Well that was before I started studying for my last university exam. I've become a professional procrastinator in the last weeks and I think I haven't been so productive craftywise since kindergarden (you know the time when you produced 10-20 masterpieces of art a day).
So instead of studying, I finished 6 craft projects, started 4 new projects, ordered fabric, cleaned out my wardrobe so there is more space for new (knitted and sewn) clothes and invented a new point system for cleaning our apartment.
And started a craft blog...