Sunday, June 10, 2012

Year of Projects: Uinta Cabin 01

Knitting on the Road: Canada • Canal du Midi • Conwy • Dalarna • Denmark • Friday Harbor • Hiiumaa • Huron Mountain • New England • The Road to Oslo • Santa Fe • Spey Valley • Christmas in Tallinn • Traveler's Stockings • Uinta Cabin • Unst • Whitby

After finishing another pair of socks earlier this week, my sock needles were finally freed up to cast on this last pattern for my Year of Projects. For Uinta Cabin socks, Nancy Bush uses four different colours of sport weight yarn. To use fingering weight yarns from my stash I've altered the primary stitch count from 54 sts to 72 sts. For the stranded colourwork of the cuff and leg, I'm working on size 1 (2.5 mm) needles; when I reach the ankle I'll switch to size 0 (2.0mm) needles. Going up one needles size for colourwork has proven to be a very effective strategy, so I'm sticking with that.

Because I'm working from stash yarns I struggled to pick the four yarns for these socks. In fact, there were only three possibilities of sufficient yardage for the main colour - solid cream, solid khaki green and this dark variegated blue/green yarn. The latter won out, in no small part because it worked best with my remaining choices. The darkest contrast colour is dark grey. Although it doesn't provide a lot of contrast to the main colour, it is used for the heels and toes so this Wollemeise was the perfect candidate - I have enough and it wears like iron. For the medium shade contrast colour I chose this Fleece Artist yarn which reads primarily as a light lichen green with streaks of gold and sky blue. I just love the way it looks with the main colour. And finally, my choice for the lightest contrast colour is this leftover robin's egg blue from Viola Yarns. I wasn't sure about this choice - it seemed disconcertingly bright compared to the others - but I like it now that I see it knitted up.

As you can see from the second picture, I've ended up with the two very similar dark colours and two somewhat similar light colours. As a result the colour changes within the colourwork are somewhat muted. And I'm very happy about that. To be honest I left this sock until last because I thought the colourwork was a bit loud and garish as shown in the book. I like my result a lot better!

To this point, other than altering the stitch count, I've knit the sock as written. But I'm contemplating a couple of modifications for the rest of the leg. First, I think I'll knit the remaining charted elements which should be the lightest colour as the second lightest yarn - mostly to avoid running short of the robin's egg blue yarn. And secondly, I think I'll knit a few extra rounds of main colour above the ankle to make the leg a bit longer; as written the leg goes immediately from the colourwork to the heel. Other than that, I like this sock pattern a lot more than I ever thought I would. HEY! Wait a minute! That's not the first time I've felt this way about a Nancy Bush pattern, is it?

5 comments:

Pumpkin said...

I love your colorwork projects, they always look so perfect! What I would give for your stitch tension, it is spot on.

Anonymous said...

That is going to be an AWESOME pair of socks. Your colorwork is simply beautiful!

Marie/Underground Crafter said...

I love the muted colors, so you've definitely made the right choice. It has been great watching you work through this book, and no, that isn't the first time you said that about a Nancy Bush pattern :).

Kim said...

These are my favorite by far! I simply love the blue--wish I new in person so I could receive a gift from you. ;0 ;)
Have a super week--
*smiles*

Liz said...

I love the socks, the colour work is fantastic, and I love the colours you've chosen, they go together perfectly. I can never get my tention right with fair isle - I think that's something I need to work on this year. :)