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I debuted with a post of DIY Valentines gifts. So update and add to your feeds! Even if you don’t craft normally there are some great and easy projects to help make your Valentines Day a little more unique.

pic on flickr

Thanks for checking it out!

You might be wondering why Shiny Knits is so quiet, I’ve mostly migrated all my blogging over to Shiny Shiny, though I’ll continue to post here about my crafty posts on Shiny Shiny. Update your feeds!

Update:

• The Eclipse Socks Pattern is now available directly on my blog, it can be found here.

• BD Socks will follow later today! The charts make its conversion to a blog post a little more time consuming.

These socks were inspired by the cover of the book Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer, the third in the Twilight Saga.
You will knit both socks in black with a red cuff, toe and heel. The ribbon and any other added details are all added later. You have lots of options with this pattern too. The ribbon is meant to be done on one sock only, but you can do both if you want. You can also add other elements to the blank sock. See the end of the pattern for these additional design elements!
You can always change the style of sock you knit as well. The ribbon chart is only limited to stockinette stitch, so feel free to change the heel, toe or cuff to your liking.

Materials

[MC] Knit Picks Essential Black; 2 skeins
[CC] Knit Picks Essential Burgundy; 1 skein
1 set US #1 (2.5mm) double-point needles
or size needed to obtain gauge.
Scrap yarn

Size

One size fits most.

Gauge

8 stitches/inch

Pattern

Cuff

Using CC CO on 64 stitches. Divide stitches onto 4 needles, 16 stitches per needle. Join to work in the round. Work 1×1 twisted rib for 1 inch. (k1tbl, p1)
Switch to MC and begin working in stockinette stitch until you have roughly 45 rows, or the leg is the desired length. Continue onto the heel instructions.

Heel

Knit all of the stitchs on Needles 1 and 2 in stockinette. Drop MC yarn. Pick up scrap yarn and knit stitches on Needles 2 and 3. Pick up MC yarn again and continue knitting in stockinette stitch. See Afterthought Heel when you are finished with the toe on how to knit the heel.

Foot

Knit in stockinette stitch until foot measures approximately 2” less than desired length.

Toe

Switch to CC.
Row 1: Knit to last 3 stitches on Needle 1, k2tog, k1. On Needle 2, k1, ssk, knit to end. Knit to last 3 stitches on Needl3, k2tog, k1. On Needle 4 knit, k1, ssk, knit to end.
Row 2: Knit.
Repeat these 2 rows 7 times more (32 stitches remain). Repeat Row 1 until there are 16 stitches remaining. Break yarn leaving 10” tail.
Slip stitches from Needle 2 to Needle 2. Slip stitches from Needle 3 to Needle 4. Graft stitches on Needle 1 to stitches on Needle 4.

Afterthought Heel

Return to the part of your sock where you knit half of one round with the scrap yarn. Start to unravel the scrap yarn. As you undo each stitch you will have a loop left over, one from the side with the cuff (top) and one from the side with the toe (bottom). Slip each of these onto a different needle so that all the top stitches are on one needle and all the bottom stitches on another needle. You should have 32 stitches on the top needle and 31 on the bottom. Start knitting with CC on the top needle. When you get to the end pick up two extra stitches, then knit across the bottom needle. At the end of the bottom needle pick up three stitches. Mark as the begining of your round.You should have 34 stitches on both needles now. Divide your stitches onto four needles. (17st each needle). Continue to decreases.
Row 1: K1, ssk, knit to end of needle 1. Knit to last 3 stitches on needle 2, k2tog, k1. On needle 3 k1, ssk, knit to the end. Knit to last 3 stitches on needle 4, k2tog, k1.
Row 2: Knit.
Repeat these 2 rows until 16 stitches remain.Break yarn leaving 10” tail.
Slip stitches from Needle 2 to Needle 2. Slip stitches from Needle 3 to Needle 4. Graft stitches on Needle 1 to stitches on Needle 4.

Finishing

Weave in ends. Block if desired.

Anyway, I guess I don’t have any fancy pretty pictures either, but I will once I finish this cowl. Then maybe I’ll finish my sweater since winter is rounding up again. Hey, my 2009 goals only consisted of finishing that sweater and I have FOUR months to go.

I even know exactly which closet my sweater is hiding in.

Been committing craft adultery. I haven’t been knitting. I’ve been cross stitching. More to come soon I’m sure!

So what is that? It’s a quote from Joss Whedon’s show, “Firefly” with Mario and Yoshi. I suppose if you’re a fellow Brown Coat you know what it means. If not… get thee to Netflix and watch Firefly! You won’t be sorry.

I double posted this over at my regular blog. I’ll be posting crafting updates there as well from now on. Mostly there, since this is “knitting”… or something. Plus it makes less work for me! Visit shinyshiny, update your feeds and add it to your Google Reader!!

Look at all that gorgeous yarn… notice the distinct lack of yellow yarn?? Totally weird. I guess I should look into more of that color. And clearly I don’t need any more blue or pink. Ever. I think there’s enough there to last me for years…

I also took a non artsy-fartsy one with it all splayed out for cataloging purposes. I’m slowly adding notes to FLickr for it all. Lots of work. A lot of the neutrals didn’t make it into the color wheel because the Knit Picks Bare yarn took up a lot of space… Maybe I’ll dye it yellow ^.^

I also recently had an interesting dyeing incident… I dyed this yarn about six months ago. It sat in my stash for months while I pined over other things. I finally decided to bust it out and do something with it last week.

It’s gorgeous right? Yeah I’m tooting my own horn, but its totally cool yarn! So I popped it onto my swift (did I mention I got one for Christmas? And a ball winder?) and spun it into a pretty ball. There was only one problem… when I started to knit it up it started to look like clown vomit. No I did not take a picture of said clown vomit. It was that bad!! So I wound it back into a hank and dyed it. Black.

I used dilluted black so it turned my clown vomit into (drum roll) goth clown vomit!

Its still a little overwhelming so I’m not sure its destined to become anything yet. I’ve got some other things to keep me busy until I try this one again. >.<

I finished my fabulous Noro scarf last night!! I used one skein of each color so its a bit shorter than I usually like, but it works fine at keeping my neck warm! The colors turned out gorgeous! I want to make more of them!

I’ve gotten past about half the ribbing I need for the rest of the body. Isn’t it super cute?! I don’t know how much ribbing I’ll add to the neckline because I like where it is right now. Still debating on the sleeve length… Its a full length sleeve in the pattern but I like it short too. Then I thought maybe 3/4… but I don’t know how that will look since the sleeves are mostly knit in ribbing.

The goal of this pattern is to make a whole sweater with no messy shaping, hence all the ribbing. So far I love it but I’m tempted to change the sleeves so I don’t have to do them in so much ribbing. We’ll see when I get there!