Sock Endurance Monday: Monkeys

on the needles 

fresh off the needles

Monkey by Cookie A is the rock star of sock patterns. Most internet-savvy sock knitters (and about 99% of Sock Knitters, note the caps, on Ravelry) seem to have made this pattern.

My Monkeys were my second-ever pair of socks. I knit them out of a yarn I bought by name, Robot Overlord out of Lorna's Laces.
That was in August of 2011.

a year and a half later

They were my favourite pair even as others came along. The yarn is strong and sturdy and holds up to anything you throw at it.
By now, the socks are felted over, and they fit me like a glove. The sole is thinning out, and I fear they are not long for this world.
I could darn them, but I think I'll let them pass on in dignity.

Plus, I've just finished another pair of Monkeys! This is the only pattern I've repeated so far.

old and new

This time, the Monkeys were made out of Another Crafty Girl's Strong Sock in the dyed-for-me-first Pokemon colourway Chimchar. I'm sure these will be just as well loved as my first pair was.

Have you knit Monkeys yet?

Poke-Mitts

 It's no secret that I adore Another Crafty Girl's yarns. A lot. Especially her Poke-colours. In fact, I may need all of them...
I've had some leftover Bulbasaur from that awesome beret I knit a while back.
And I've had the Dustland Mitts pattern by Stephen West in my queue.
Perfect combo!
A quick and squishy knit, I managed to get all the way to the end before running out of yarn.
And while the generous Sarah of ACG offered to help me out, I needed the mitts done *right nao*, so I finished them off with some Malabrigo in Solis.
I love how they look, and I wear the mitts all the time.

Cloudy Days

The last of the Stephen West shawl club patterns, and it's a cutie.

The perfect project to bust some stash.

I'm using my leftover Another Crafty Girl in Squirtle, a colour I am insanely in love with, paired with leftover Wollmeise in Feldmaus. I didn't think I had enough yarn to complete the project, but I was hoping for wool magic.

Well, it didn't happen.
Fortunately, through the magic of Ravelry, I found some more Feldmaus in a destash, but unfortunately, it's much darker than what I had (and somehow not as pretty. It's much more mouse brown than nest brown).
But I could finish the shawl, and it's very wearable. It's really more of a sideways scarf, actually. It goes perfectly with a brown felt beret that is an autumn/winter staple for me.

Carry Me Along

 You know how sometimes, you love a yarn so much, you can't bear to have the leftovers just sitting there, begging you to use them?
No? Well, maybe it's just me.
I made the Swedish Chef hat out of Another Crafty Girl's gorgeous eponymous yarn, and I had some left over. Enough for another hat, perhaps, or half of a larger project.
Then ACG announced a KAL over in her Ravelry group, for any of her Muppets-based yarns.
Perfect!
So the leftover ball of Swedish Chef joined some Wollmeise Sanguinella left over from the Vulpix shawl, and an eye-poppingly bright combination was born.
I wanted an easy project I could knit on the train while hanging out with my mum, so I wanted garter stitch. but not stripes. I wanted each yarn to shine on its own.
Enter Wingspan, a viral pattern immensely popular for its bold, simple, but pleasing construction.

I didn't end up having enough for a full shawl, but the final shawlette is adorable, and very wearable.
Great pattern, great yarns, fun times. What more could you want?

Swedish Chef Hat

 The Swedish Chef is not just a Muppet, he's also the inspiration behind one of Another Crafty Girl's cuter colorways. She's got a whole series of Muppet-inspired yarn, in case you're curious.
But it was the wild colors (and fond memories) of Swedish Chef that spoke to me.
So much so that I custom ordered a skein to have it right NAO.

And it's adorable. Very Skittles in the sun, it's a pastelly yarn with tan to tame it a bit.
It had to be a hat.
I've made a hat from ACG's yarn before and loved how it turned out, but this time, I wanted to combine one of my favourite yarns with one of my favourite designers and some mods.
So I was going to take Stephen West's recently released Dustland Hat (originally written for worsted weight yarn) and modify it to work with fingering weight yarn for a lighter, slouchier transition weather hat.
After all, we still have quite a few warm days ahead of us, and hats are more fashion than function for a few months yet.

I cast on 120 stitches, going up from the largest size provided, but keeping my total divisible by 8, since that was relevant later in the pattern (well, ok it didn't really matter, but all the other sizes were divisible by 8, and I just wanted to belong).
After that, i did the ribbing to the same height as specified, then did each pattern repeat roughly 1.5 times to keep a similar height each time.
I did the crown decreases over two rounds to get me to the specified stitches, then worked the rest of the hat as written.

It turned out just like I thought it would. okay, it's a little bigger and slouchier than I expected, but it's all good. It works.
I couldn't quite decide whether I loved it or hated it at first, but I think it's a very fun, cheery hat, and I can't wait to wear it out and about.

Bulbasaur Vine Whip Beret

Okay, I'll admit it, often the name of a yarn will get me to look at it more favourably.
The first sock yarn I bought was Lorna's Laces Robot Overlord. No guessing what drew me to the yarn.
Fortunately, I love it (and the Monkey socks I made from it) very much.
So when I heard that Another Crafty Girl, an indie dyer on Etsy, had a series of yarn named after Pokemon, how could I resist?
I watched her shop for a few weeks, and when the Bulbasaur yarn came up, I grabbed it.
Not only did it really look like everyone's favourite grass-type monster, it is a gorgeously complex color in general!
I knew as soon as I unwrapped my parcel that this would have to be a hat.
But not just any hat.
This had to be a leaf-themed hat to complete the Pokemon picture.

I've been listening to Alana Dakos from the Never Not Knitting podcast for a few months now and I love her show.
She's also the co-author of the popular Coastal Knits, and she created this gorgeous hat pattern called the Vine Leaf Beret.
There's been buzz about this pattern around the blog and podcast world.
It was the perfect get-together of pattern and yarn.
This had to be it.

Neither the yarn nor the pattern disappointed. It was challenging for me, having never really done a lot of cables (or a hat that fit well, for that matter), but everything came out just the way I wanted to.
The yarn is gorgeous and squishy, the pattern clear and well written.
And the resulting hat?
Well, I couldn't be more pleased.
It's my new favourite hat (and I love hats!). If only the weather was cooler so I could wear it more often!
I still have some yarn left. Perhaps some mitts are in order. Or some Pokemon socks?
One thing is clear though. I'll be getting more of this fabulous yarn, and I'll be checking out Alana's other patterns in greater detail, too.