Here is the pattern for my bamboo bamboo socks! I figured a green bamboo yarn deserved a bamboo patterned sock. I only wrote it in one size, 9.5 inches around the foot (which happens to be my size, what a coincidence), but the stitch pattern is super stretchy so it should fit a wide variety of feet widths. I'm an approximate rather than perfectionist knitter, and I'm assuming you have some sock-knitting experience, so caveat emptor. Or caveat tejedor, as the case may be.

You will need:
2 size 1 circular needles
2 skeins of Panda Silk color 4005
gauge: 7.5 st and 9 rows = 1" in pattern, slightly stretched.
abbreviations are standard.

CO 64 stitches, and join, being careful not to twist. Your starting needle is needle 1. Arrange the stitches so you have 32 on each needle. Work 2 rows in k2 p2 rib, then begin bamboo pattern following the chart or the following written directions (I know charts don't work for everyone).

chart here

Written directions:
rows 1 and 2: *p4, k2, p2* repeat around
rows 3 and 4: *k2, p2* repeat around
rows 5 and 6: *k2, p6* repeat around
rows 7 and 8: *k2, p2* repeat around

Repeat rows 1-8 9 times, or until sock leg is desired length.


close up of bamboo pattern:





To set up for heel flap, slip 2 stitches from needle 2 to needle 1 on the side that doesn't have the working yarn. There should be 34 stitches on needle 1, 30 on needle 2.
On needle 1 work eye of partridge heel flap as follows:

1st row: k2tog, *sl1 wyib, k1* (on following rows, *k1, sl1*, k last stitch)
row 2: purl
row 3: *sl1 wyib, k1*, sl last stitch
row 4: purl

repeat rows 1-4 8 times.

Heel turn:
row 1 (RS): sl1, k17, ssk, k1, turn
row 2: sl1, p4, p2tog, p1, turn
row 3: sl1, k until 1 stitch before gap, ssk (1 stitch each side of gap), k1, turn.
row 4: sl1, p until 1 stitch before gap, p2tog (1 stitch each side of gap), p1, turn.

repeat rows 3 and 4 until you have used up all the stitches on either side of the center stitches (you should have 19 left, or so, and you should be on the right side of your work). Knit across all your stitches, and knit the last 2 stitches together so you have an even number. Pick up and knit 16 stitches from the side of the heel flap, and then knit 15 from instep needle in pattern. With needle 2, k15 from instep in pattern, pick up 16 st from side of heel flap, and then knit 9 stitches from the sole.

The round now begins from the middle of the bottom of the foot.

Needle 1: knit until 2 stitches from where the instep pattern begins, ssk, place marker, work in pattern until end of needle.
Needle 2: k 15 st in pattern, place marker, k2tog, knit until end of needle.

Next round: k all stitches, knitting instep stitches in pattern of course.

Following rounds: Round 1: k until 2 st before marker, ssk, slip marker, knit in pattern until next marker, slip marker, k2tog, knit to end of round.
Round 2: k all stitches, knitting instep stitches in pattern of course.
Keep repeating these rounds until there are 64 stitches again (I think you might have to throw in an extra decrease on one side, whatever, just fudge it, it'll still be a nice sock).

now rearrange your stitches so the instep stitches are on needle 1 and the sole stitches on needle 2.
Now knit, with the instep stitches in the bamboo pattern and the sole stitches in plain stockinette, until your sock is 1.5" shorter than your actual food.

Toe decreases:
round 1: k1, ssk, k until 3 stitches from end of needle, k2tog, k1, repeat on next needle.
round 2: knit
Repeat until only 24 stitches remain, graft toe, repeat to make another sock, and enjoy!

BTW, if you are kitchener/grafting challenged like me, here is a super video.

(actually I got back Monday night, I've just been busy since).
I had a very relaxing long weekend hanging out with my mom and my friend Sarah and doing absolutely nothing. It was very, very nice.
My dad gave me some family heirlooms:
3 big boxes like this full of textiles


They are full of things like this:

Made by my grandmother, her friends and sisters, and my greatgrandmothers. There are also random mass-made dishtowels and potholders, but I plan to dig through them this weekend and document any treasures!

Finally, would you like to make this sock?



Wait patiently and I'll have the pattern up in a few days!

I got around to typing up another pattern, also available on Ravelry!

buy now

Spangenhelm is now for sale as a Ravelry download! I am so excited. I will be thrilled if someone buys it!

Birgittestrikker at ravelry wanted to know if anyone had designed a coozy with a strap suitable for drinking out of at rugby games so your hands are free for clapping or holding a camera or making obscene gestures or whatever else you might want to do at a rugby game. Since we just don't have enough coozies at our house, I figured I could go ahead and design one. This pattern involves knitting intarsia i-cords into the fabric of the coozy, but don't be intimidated, it's really extremely easy!



You will need: 2 colors of worsted weight, 100% wool yarn (I used Lion Wool, and the contrast color used only a very small amount of yarn, you could use up some scraps with this project). For the contrasting color you will need 2 lengths -- you can either wind a few yards on bobbins, or you can do what I did and knit with the inner and outer ends of the same ball of yarn, which made a tangly mess, but I'm ok with that.
Size 10 double pointed needles
1 tapestry needle.
Technique: I-cord: Using dpn's knit 3 stitches. Slide the stitches to the right end of the needle, pull the yarn around the back of the stitches to knit into the first stitch to make a little tube, and repeat.

Pattern overview: Starting at the bottom you are going to knit a cylinder. You will knit intarsia i-cords into the sides, which, once you bind off the top edge of the cylinder, you will continue knitting and eventually join together to be the straps.

Pattern:
CO 5 stitches and distribute them as evenly as possible on 3 double pointed needles and join to begin knitting in the round. (this bit is a little fiddly but it gets better soon).
Knit 1 round.
Knit into the front and back of every stitch (10 stitches). It might look a little puckery at this point but it's ok because you're going to felt it anyway.
Knit 3 rounds.
Knit into the front and back of each stitch (20 stitches). (See, this is getting easier.)
Knit 6 rounds.
Knit into the front and back of each stitch (40 stitches) (You can add another needle if you want at this point if you prefer knitting with 5 dpn's -- I do).
Knit 5 rounds
Now you are going to do something cool!
Using contrasting color (CC), knit 3 stitches. Knit 17 stitches with main color (MC). Knit 3 stitches using a different length of CC, , loosely pulling MC behind those 3 stitches, then knit 17 more stitches with MC.
Next row: You need to knit those 3 stitches of CC, but you will notice that the yarn is to the left of the stitches. This is perfectly ok, you just pull the yarn over to the right so you can knit the first stitch. You need to twist the CC with the MC, or else you will have a gap. This is easily done by poking your needle under the MC yarn and picking up the CC yarn from underneath it. Knit the 3 stitches of CC, then repeat by picking up MC from under the CC yarn and knitting the next 17 stitches. Repeat once more.
Repeat the previous row 18 times.


Next row: K 3 st i-cord. Bind off 16 stitches MC loosely, then knit last MC stitch together with 1st CC stitch, using CC, then knit the next 2 CC stitches as normal. BO 17 MC stitches, break MC yarn.
Now you should have the top edge bound off with 2 sets of 3 live CC stitches. Continue working each CC section in i-cord until it measures 15" from the bound off edge, or desired length (it will lose a little length in felting, but not much -- mine only lost an inch or so). When the strap is at desired length, join it by grafting or sewing the end stitches together (it is ok if it is wonky because you're going to felt it anyway). Alternatively, you could bind off each end and tie them together in a decorative knot after felting.

Now felt your coozy using your desired method (in the sink, in the washing machine, in the shower, etc). When you are done it will look a little squat and the bottom might be a little pointy. Block it by pulling it tightly over a can and allow to dry. Ta da!

My husband was for some reason really impressed by this pattern and by the way the i-cords were knit in, and told me I was like MacGyver for inventing things. So yay, I'm the MacGyver of beer coozies!

This was inspired by a challenge from my knitting group to a)figure out what to do with the little bits of pieces of yarn that accumulate in your stash and reproduce when you aren't looking and b)also figure out what to do with all the sparkly, fringey, fluffy novelty yarn we've all been seduced by, brought home, and then woke up the next morning, looked at, and thought "what on earth am I going to do with you?"

So here is a basic recipe to use up those odd (and sometimes VERY odd) bits, and keep your beer cool and festive-looking at the same time (NOTE: you could use these for non-beer canned beverages, say, soft drinks, if you felt so inclined. and then you wouldn't get kicked out of conservative knitting groups).

1: Rummage through your stash and find some bits of worsted weight yarn that look halfway decent together: (I'm sorry the photos are so blurry, y'all. I think the funfur yarn deranged my camera).



OK, I'm not trying to be patronizing here, but remember that they have to be wool (and not superwash wool) or they won't felt and you will wind up with a floppy useless sack (ugh.)
It is OK if the novelty yarn is not wool; if you double it up with a wool yarn, it will felt into the fabric of the coozy (more about this later).

If you want to use bulky yarn, that is cool, but you will need to cast on more stitches because you'll be making a thicker fabric. Check out my other coozy pattern, which was made with bulky yarn.

The basic recipe is this: take your double pointed size 9 (5.5 mm) needles, cast on 36 stitches (if you don't like math, I already figured it out for you, it's 9 stitches per needle -- and if you remind me one day I'll show you a neat mnemonic device for remembering your 9's tables, in case you flunked elementary math, like me). Cast on with your preferred method -- knit on cast on, long tail cast on -- whatever you like, it doesn't really matter. Then you knit about 30 rows, switching colors as you like, and then you make the bottoms like this:
row 1: Knit 4, k2tog (all the way around)
Row 2: Knit 3, k2tog
Row 3: Knit 2, k2tog
Row 4: Knit 1, K2tog
Row 5: K2tog.
Then cut the yarn, and pull it through the remaining stitches (I think there should be 6 left?) and voila, you have a shapeless thing that you will then felt and make a joyful beer cozy of happiness.

What? You want more pictures and a better pattern? Well, all right then.
If you look at the above photo of yarn, I have a fair bit of Paton's wool, so that will be my main color. I also have a bit of blue/purple wool left over (why yes, that is the wool that caused the Great Gauge Disaster of 2007, but I am giving it another chance), and then I have this fluffy stuff that I think might be Lion Brand Fun Fur. Anyway, I cast on 36 stitches of the main color, and knit 5 rows. Then I added on the other wool and knit 6 rows. And by the way, when I am knitting in the round and want to add another color, I just make a slip knot and pull it through as the first stitch, as demonstrated in the following blurry photo:



I don't know if that's the textbook way of doing it, but it works. And, in particular, when you are going to felt something, it doesn't matter if you don't do it exactly right; once it's felted no-one will ever know.

Once the other wool ran out, I took back up with the Paton's wool, and knit 3 rows. Then I added the eyelash yarn. As you can see, I just held it along with the wool and knit the 2 of them together. It's actually easier than just knitting with the eyelash yarn would be, because you can actually see the stitches, and again, if you don't hold them together, the eyelash yarn won't felt and you'll have a strangely non-felted bit in the middle of your feltiness.



I knit about 8 rows like that, and then the fluffy yarn ran out so I continued with the plain wool for 7 more rows, and then worked the bottom as explained above. Then I took my hairbrush and brushed the part with the eyelash yarn because an awful lot of the eyelashes had gotten twisted into the knitting stitches, or wanted to poke out the wrong side, and so it was looking kind of sparse. Brushing gently helped pull them to the front and made it nice and fluffy*.
This is as good a point as any to mention that I would NOT put the eyelash yarn too much towards the top of the coozy, because you don't want to get fluff in your mouth. And yes, I pulled apart the first prototype coozy because I didn't think of that until I had it about half knitted.
When I was done knitting, I had this strange little thing:



Then, I felted it (see previous patternif you want to learn more about felting), and pulled it on a can to shape it, and left it to dry. Now, environmental responsibility forces me to point out that most of the Southeast is in the midst of a horrible drought with resultant water restrictions. Therefore you should combine your felting with another water/soap/heat consuming task, such as laundry, or even bathing. Now I'm not saying that I did this (mostly because nobody wants to know that they coozy they're using was rubbed on my butt), but you COULD put a bar of soap in this coozy and use it as a sponge and that would felt it very nicely while you bathed. It's just a thought. I would not, however, combine dish-washing and felting, because getting bits of food and grease in your coozy would just be nasty.

And here is my festive (and guess what, Sarah, it's TASTY!) beverage!





*Yes, it got fluff in my hairbrush which will ultimately transfer to my hair. But if you knit with any kind of enthusiasm, you probably already have fluff in your hair.

Inspiration: Wouldn't it look awesome with googly eyes? Teeth? Ears?
What if you had green fun fur and made your beer a hula skirt?



P.S. I will design something other than a beer coozy someday, I swear. Actually, I think the gloves I'm making have deviated so far from the original pattern that they now qualify as an original design; I just need to go through my notes and figure out how to turn them into a pattern that will make sense to someone other than me.

Here's a pattern I made up yesterday! I decided to write it up in case anyone else needs one. It turned out to be a very succesful gift for my hard-to-knit-for husband!



( Click here for the pattern! and it's a really great pattern! )

Edited to add: We tested this out today and it succesfully kept beer cold in 100 degree temperatures. It kinda worked for a beer bottle as well, although if it were skinnier and longer it would have fit better. So if you want to make it for a beer bottle, add a few rows and either felt it skinnier or lose one of the pattern repeats (although that might make it too skinny). I might come up with a bottle coozy pattern too, I'll let you know!