Pattern Release: Mill River Socks

Just released and ready for your needles! The Mill River Socks are a fun and easy colorwork project, perfect for holiday gifts or to knit just for yourself.

Save 20% at Payhip and Ravelry with the coupon code SOCKS20. Sale ends this Sunday, November 22, at midnight EST.

The Mill River Socks feature easy-to-knit stranded colorwork on the upper leg, with another "bracelet" of color just before the toe shaping. They're worked top-down, but if you're a fan of toe-up socks, you can easily adapt them — the colorwork patterns are identical in both directions.

To make them, you'll need about 300 yards/275 m of sock yarn for the main color and 75 yards/70 m for the contrast color. For the sample pair, I used OlannGra Tommy 4-Ply Sock in the colorways November Skies and Pigeon Gray.

The pattern's named after the Mill River Conservation Area in Amherst, Massachusetts. The trails in the woods along the Mill River offer refreshing places to walk, sit and reflect, and knit or spin. It's a calming, restorative place, lovely in all seasons, and I'm grateful it's just a few minutes from home.

Find the Mill River Socks pattern at Payhip and Ravelry.

Yarn Giveaway

Instagram yarn giveaway! I have two pairs of 100-yard mini skeins of American Sock by Pigeonroof Studios to give away -- the lovely yarn I used for the contrast colors in my new Rowhouse Socks.

To enter, head to my Instagram feed and follow the instructions on the yarn giveaway photo. (Don't leave a comment here on the blog -- only on Instagram.) Good luck!

Rowhouse Socks by Bonnie Sennott

New Pattern: Rowhouse Socks

New in my Ravelry pattern store: Rowhouse Socks, a sweet colorwork design to brighten your winter knitting.

A pretty row of houses circles the calf in these top-down socks knit in three colors of fingering weight/sock yarn. If you've never done colorwork before, the Rowhouse Socks are a great project for getting your feet wet (sorry about the pun — I couldn't resist!). The colorwork pattern is an easy 8-stitch repeat, and you never use more than two colors in any round.

I knit them with yarns hand-dyed by Krista McCurdy of Pigeonroof Studios. The main color is her High Twist Sock (100% superwash merino) in the Picholine colorway. The two contrast colors are her American Sock (also 100% superwash merino), chosen from a mini skein set of six one-of-a-kind naturally dyed colors. Krista's colors are rich and vibrant, really perfect for colorwork knitting.

The pattern's now in my Ravelry pattern store. As always, you can save 20% with my Create Your Own Collection promotion: purchase four individual Blue Peninsula patterns at the same time to automatically receive a 20% discount on all four patterns (no coupon code required).

Thanks very much for reading, and happy sock knitting!

Sneak Peek: Rowhouse Socks

Kitchener stitch — do you love it, or hate it? When I first learned to knit socks, grafting the toes with kitchener stitch made me nervous. Incredibly nervous. I'm not sure why, because if you take your time and follow the steps, it's not difficult. Maybe it was just a big fear of "messing up." 

Anyway, I grafted the toe of a sock yesterday — and it went without a hitch. I have no nervousness whatsoever about kitchener anymore. So if it makes you feel queasy, hang in there! As with many things in life, the more you do it, the easier it becomes.

The sock in question is my next pattern, the Rowhouse Socks. They're knit in hand-dyed superwash merino by Pigeonroof Studios (the same indie dyer whose gradient set I used for my Purlish Mitts). For this design, I tweaked the little houses from my Rowhouse Hat so they'd work top-down, and jazzed it up a little by using three colors instead of two.

These socks require focused attention at the beginning, but once you're past the colorwork, the knitting is easy. That makes them a great travel project and perfect for taking to knit night or work. They also make good walk-and-knit projects, if you're so inclined. As you can guess from these photos, I love to walk and knit — as long as it's not freezing cold. 

The pattern's written and edited, and the socks are blocked. All that's left is a photo shoot. So they'll be ready for release soon — probably next week!

New Pattern: Tortoise Shells Socks

Just published: a new sock pattern called Tortoise Shells.

Worked in the round, from the top down, the Tortoise Shells Socks feature cable-and-lace medallions (like tortoise shells in miniature) encircling the upper leg. Pretty columns of faux-cable twists flow down to the foot, set off by a bit of 2x2 ribbing at the sides.

They're knit with 385 yards/355 m of sock yarn. The sample pair are in Dream in Color Smooshy with Cashmere, in a colorway called Strange Harvest. I loved this color more and more as I knit the socks. Its rich blend of golds and greens seemed absolutely perfect for fall.

The pattern provides complete instructions for a women's medium size. You can easily make them smaller or larger by changing the needle size and/or yarn weight. The stitch patterns are given in both written form and charts, and instructions for grafting the toes using kitchener stitch are included.

The test knitters in the Blue Peninsula Ravelry group have had very positive things to say about these socks: "This pattern is practically knitting itself!" "Pattern is well written and creates a lovely finished project." For me, it's been great to see that these socks look good in both variegated yarns and solids. View finished and in-progress Tortoise Shells here — maybe they'll inspire you to make your very own!

P.S. Did you know Etsy is holding a big Labor Day Sale? I'm excited to join the fun, with 25% off individual knitting patterns in my Etsy shop, August 31 through September 4. There's no minimum and no coupon code needed. It's a great time to stock up on patterns for your fall projects!