Power Ten Rowing Socks
This sock features every rowing motif I could figure out how to knit: rowing shells (quads) on the instep, followed by a ‘wake’ cable pattern. There are oars along either side of the foot, with hatchet blades extending into the heel gusset. A ‘ripple’ cable pattern that flows up the back of the leg extending into the heel flap, and there are two more boats on the front of the leg, finishing with a wavy picot bind-off.
Honestly, it’s a pretty complex pattern: you have two charts going at once. On the other hand, only one stitch at a time moves on all of the cabling, making it easy to do without cable needles, and since it’s only in one color and knitted tow-up, there is no finishing needed except to work in the two yarn ends at the start and finish. One warning: do not do this one in a highly variegated yarn. There’s no point in working all those cables if you can’t even see them!
Free Ravelry Download (you don’t have to be on Ravelry to use this)
Semi-Swedish Hat
I re-engineered this pattern based on a hat we saw in Gamla Stan, the old part of Stockholm. This one has a tvaandsstickning (Swedish twined knitting) brim and stranded colorwork top. There are brief instructions for the tvaandsstickning technique in the pattern, as well as links to more detailed instructions.
This was my first colorwork project, and I think it’s a good place to start – you use two different traditional colorwork techniques, also using a traditional sport-weight yarn with some stretch to make tensioning easier, on a project small enough to make the first-time awkwardness of dealing with two yarns tolerable. I definitely noticed I was going along a lot faster by the end.
Free Ravelry download (you don’t have to be a Ravelry member) here.
Tributary Sock
Construction: toe-up, flap-and-gusset heel, hemmed picot cuff. The Mock Cable pattern is provided in both words and charts.
I created these toe-up socks when I wanted something fast and fun (and cozy), after a complicated sweater that took me four months to knit. Since I was going to be knitting them during travel and a holiday I knew I’d have time to concentrate so I wanted something a little more interesting than plain socks, but still fast and easy. This pattern brings together a lot of my favorite things: the mock cable pattern used in Nutkin socks, Judy’s Magic Cast-on and Jeny’s Surprisingly Stretchy Bind-off, a flap-and-gusset toe-up heel, a gusset I unvented myself, and a hemmed picot edge. The pattern is called Tributary both because the mock cable does remind me a bit of ripples in a river and to convey the idea of tribute to all of its sources of inspiration.
Download pattern here
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Wombat Blanket
This is the blanket you want to sit and read under on a cold night. It’s called the Wombat Banket because it’s marsupial; there’s a pocket for your feet so they don’t get uncovered. The pocket is only a foot or so deep, though, so if the phone rings or you get hungry you can get up without getting tangled up in your blanket.
It’s written with plenty of options: choose among a garter version, a stockinette version with a cable (as shown), a ‘recipe’ version that lets you choose whatever stitch pattern or center cable you want, and an optional knitted-on cable border (shown below). Make it just the right length for yourself or whoever you want to give it to (one test knitter pointed out that it would be a great stroller blanket for a toddler).
The one in this picture is knitted with two kinds of Peace Fleece, a strand of sea-green DK held together with a strand of gray worsted, but it can be knitted with any bulky or super-bulky yarn, or any combination of yarns that add up to bulky / superbulky.