Goodbye more sock yarn!

This year has evolved to be the year of using sock yarn stash. One of my goals for this year was to end the year with less sock yarn than I started with. To date I've used up enough for 6 pairs of socks and have only bought for 2 (and those 2 have already been used).

I credit this to 2 ravelry groups - Sock Knitters Anonymous and Stash Knit Down. The rules in the monthly SKA challenges have given me enough choices each month to feel both not contstrained and not paralyzed with too many choices. Stash Knit Down is great for the KALs and monthly achievement sharing. They've been just what I needed to focus but still be creative.

And with all that I have 2 more FOs to share with you today.

Multnomah

Multnomah was one of those knits that just took hold and flew. I love everything about this project - the garter stitch, the feather and fan, the yarn and dye job, the shape (a wider, narrower triangle that works so well bandit-style), the ability to use up almost all of my yarn.

Pattern: Multnomah by Kate Flagg
Yarn: Dragonfly Djinni Sock Yarn in Reluctant Dragon
Mods: Worked 11 repeats of the feather and fan pattern so I could use up all my yarn. The hank had very generous yardage - almost 500 yards.

This is a great size and shape for me and I expect to use it a lot once fall comes around (even though I can't imagine wanting to wrap myself in warm layers of wool after the week we've had here in the northeast).

Citron

I bought the yarn for Citron to use in a class I taught last year. The shawl required 2 hanks of sock yarn and since I never buy 2 hanks of the same yarn I had to get something. It turned out I didn't enjoy knitting the shawl so I never finished it (got about halfway through the first hank though so that was a lot of frogging).

Citron seemed like a good match - I wanted to knit it and I could add repeats to use up most of my yarn. In the end, I was able to do 7 repeats but had to cut the ruffle edge a few rows short.

Pattern: Citron by Hilary Smith Callis
Yarn: Woolbearers Kraemer Sterling Silver Sock Yarn in Colonial Blue, 2 hanks

Mods: 2 additional repeats, (unintentionally) a slightly shorter ruffle because I was running out of yarn

Thoughts: I like the shawl aesthetically - the color, the yarn, the ruching and the drape are all great. After taking it off the needles and blocking it though - it's *really* big. I don't wear shawls as shawls - I use them as scarves and wear them bandit-style. I'm not sure if this one will really do that of if it will be too bulky.

If it doesn't work out as a shawl-scarf I will definitely use it when knitting or watching TV during the cold months in the house. It will get use either way - just possibly not the way I had intended.

Future Shawls

After Citron's shaping education I've been thinking about more Baktus-style shawls. The shape is *perfect* for wearing under a jacket or a coat and patterns have been popping up like crazy using the side-to-side shallow shaping. Coquille in the new knitty (great for variegated or handdyed), Saroyan (knit in worsted but could easily be adjusted for sock yarn), and Galathea (shown in lace weight but could work for sock yarn too) are just three in this shape that I have in my rav faves.

To avoid burnout I'm taking a few weeks break from shawl knitting - working on my latest SKA sock and my Vesper. And of course I'm dreaming about my next big WIP - what to do for Rhinebeck. More on that to come...