Monday, January 16, 2012

things to do with sock yarn

2/7 of a rainbow by gradschoolknitter
2/7 of a rainbow, a photo by gradschoolknitter on Flickr.

Since I "finished" my sweater the other day (buttons notwithstanding), I figured it would be ok to cast-on for another project. Also, colourwork mittens are not exactly great a great project for knitting-while-reading/watching tv. They are dedicated concentration knitting and I needed something a little more simple.

I have a couple of very close friends who are expecting this year and so it's time for the invasion of the baby knits! Above is the beginnings of a Super Easy Baby Blanket from Purl Soho. The original calls for sport weight but since most of the babies I'm about to meet are due in the summer, I though finger weight would be more appropriate. I also wanted something fun, gender neutral and happy so I'm going with ROYGBIV: all the colours of the rainbow. I just started on yellow, right after this picture was taken, and I'm loving this blanket. Squishy garter stitch in soft knit picks stroll tonal (looks like I ordered at just the right time as several of the colours I chose are no longer available) make for a yummy knit. And, of course, washable. I have no romantic notions that my baby knits will not get spit up on at some point in their lives.

And hey, if you want to keep your sock yarn for socks and socks alone, you should totally come join us over at the international sock swap! Sign-ups are still open and will be until the end of January! Knit a pair of socks for someone else and get a pair in return. You get the joy of knitting and gifting to someone who will really understand and appreciate the work you put into it AND receive a handknit gift yourself (something that I don't get very often... although I do love to gift my knits too).

3 comments:

Andi said...

Love that blanket and what a great idea to knit with the colors of the rainbow!

Allison said...

That looks great! I made a couple of pairs of socks with Stroll and liked it, although my red pair keeps bleeding even though I've washed them over 20 times.

gradschoolknitter said...

Thanks for the nice comments, all!

Hmm... I'll have to look out for bleeding, wouldn't want to ruin the rest of the rainbow. I made a pair of socks out of stroll last year too and love them, but they were in the violet range, so maybe the bleeding was less noticeable?