FO Friday

Two finished things to talk about this FO Friday – both happen to have a definite leaning towards purple, although that wasn’t planned. 🙂

First up, I finished Terrain. This design by Janina Callio of Woolenberry is a simple scarf, knit mostly in garter stitch with a few sections of stockinette stitch and a simple increase/decrease pattern that creates a mountain range effect. I used a 5-mini skein set from The Dark Crystal box Dragon Hoard Yarn had a year (or more?) ago. I picked a range of red-purples and laid them out in what I thought would work to create a fade. I knit most of the first one until I started to worry about running out, which got me within 10 rows of the end of a pattern repeat. I then alternated by working 2 rows with the next color, 2 rows with the old, 2 with the new, 2 with the old and then continuing on with the new color into the next set of repeats. I was able to work 2 complete repeats and a third repeat where the fade happened at the end of it for each of the colors. (Obviously, the final repeat was all just the last of the 5 colors).

I’m really happy with how this came out. I was able to use up virtually all of the yarn, and I love that such a simple pattern really has a lot of visual appeal. You could certainly knit this using any fingering-weight yarn (it’s not written for multiple colors) but would be a great way to use up oddments too, I think. It blocked out to a nice adult person size – maybe not quite long enough for a very tall person, but works great lengthwise on me, allowing for a full wrap around the neck and ends still long enough to hang down/wear inside a coat.

Next up, I finished up the Brighton socks. Pattern design is by Rachel Coopey. I used 3 colors from West Yorkshire Spinners in their 4-ply: Dusty Miller for the MC, Amethyst for the dark purple and Blackcurrant Bomb for the bright red-purple. The pattern comes with an option for knee-highs or mid-calf length and I opted for the latter. (You could further shorten the leg/cuff by knitting only one repeat of the charts, or mixing and matching them to your preference.) I knit the foot and ribbing on US 1 (2.25 mm) needles and worked the colorwork/stranded leg portion on US 2 (2.75 mm) which helped keep the colorwork from drawing in and they fit perfectly. I really liked this yarn for colorwork. The colors are nicely solid and the twist in the yarn makes it easy to carry it and not snag the floats (although the floats for this pattern are pretty short.) I have had this one in my queue for a while and I’m so glad I put these on the needles as I really enjoyed knitting them! These are the “B” socks for my Socks A to Z challenge.