Category Archives: Socks

Broken Promise Year Socks – Finally Finished (Or, Putting It All Behind You)

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I finally finished the stockinette stitch self-striping socks that I have been working on throughout this year. Somehow, finishing them is cathartic, and some, superstitious part of me believes that finishing these socks means I will not carry the badness of 2008 into 2009.

Here are the socks:

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Oh, the irony of them being orange and green – colors of fertility in an infertile year. But, I must admit, they are still rather comfy.

The vitals:

  • Toe-up, two at a time with magic loop. (I bought two balls of yarn, so, enough leftover yarn for another pair.)
  • Stockinette.
  • 2×2 ribbing for 1.5 inch cuff.
  • Square Toe
  • Sockotta Yarn from The Plymouth Italian Collection. (45% Cotton, 40% Superwash Wool, 15% Nylon)

You know, it should not have taken a whole year to knit these. Even I, the world’s slowest knitter, can knit faster than that…

I think in 2009, I’m going to try out entrelac knitting – and maybe even attempt the Lady Eleanor Shawl.

2-at-a-time Socks

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21x-dcHUuVL2-at-a-Time Socks: Revealed Inside. . . The Secret of Knitting Two at Once on One Circular Needle Works for any Sock Pattern! by Melissa Morgan Oakes is one of the best books on knitting two socks at the same time. The only weakness in my mind is that none of the patterns are toe-up!

Truthfully, I’m incapable of doing one sock at a time anymore. I make too many mistakes with any given pattern and it makes it so much easier to have matching socks when you are knitting both at the same time!

I have knitted the Beloved pattern – mostly without the errata (http://www.storey.com/books/book.php/y/5/p/0/order_no/67691), but they look great anyway! I found Melissa’s Ravelry group after finishing the leg – and I hate to frog anything. Yes, I am a lazy knitter.

Her instructions are very clear with really clear photographs. There are some corrections in the errata (linked above). This is a great book and belongs in any sock knitters library – from beginner to advanced.

2-at-a-time Be Mine Socks Done!

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socks2I will be reviewing the book in the near future, but I finished the first pair of socks I knit from the book, 2-at-a-time Socks by Melissa Morgan Oakes!

I love the Rosehip variegations from Mountain Colors Bearfoot. Despite only having about 350 yards a skein, I managed to have a little yarn left over. Very little, but a little.

Now, I didn’t find the errata until about the time I turned the heel, so the corrected chart only occurs on the foot, but I think they look rather nice. And, my husband likes these socks too!

The instructions were very clear, so I can’t not recommend the book! But, I’ll save my review for May. That way, I have time to knit another pair from the book to give an even better assessment.

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It is kind of hard to see the pattern due to my lack of photography skills, but the pattern does show up on this skein of yarn! Hopefully, the picture to the right gives a better view of the way the pattern shows up. It probably shows up best in a solid, but I seem to have a problem with boredom when dealing with single colors.

Oh, and they are mighty comfy on cold feet! I really liked working with the Bearfoot yarn. That is a yarn, that despite the expense, I will be looking at using again. The spinner and dyer really knows how to make a fun to work with yarn.

Of course, I am thinking of investing in learning to really spin in the near future… If only my husband didn’t insist on a walkway through the house.

Note: My email was unaccessible from Friday till this morning, so I am once again even further behind in certain obligations. Sorry!

Finally Finished – Multi-color Socks!

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The socks are done! Lots of colors in this yarn without much pooling. DH thinks they look like what a harlequin would wear…

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20080222 013I kind of like the way they turned out. Maybe they will bring me luck…

I am of course the world’s slowest knitter so this pair took me three months to knit.

I started a new pair (no picture yet) from the book 2-at-a-Time Socks by Melissa Morgan-Oakes called Be Mine in Bearfoot yarn in the color Rose Hip. I think they are going to turn out quite nicely. I started this week and am actually on the second cable pattern repeat on the leg!

Two Socks, Toe Up On A Circular Needle

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To keep my mind off things, I have been slowly knitting 2 socks, toe-up on a single circular needle sans pattern. (Well, I am using a formula I learned, but mostly just making it up as I go.)

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I love the colorway that I got at Hissy Knits in California. I am actually supposed to be working on a sweater – but socks are so nice and small and portable!

It is taking more time to recover from this surgery than I am accustomed to! I shouldn’t be as tired as I have been. Today is my first day back to work, I wonder how it will go?

Finished Socktober / Venka’s Stash Elimination Sock!

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Well, it was supposed to be a Socktober 2007 sock. Really! Here is where it was at the end of October:

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And here it was at the end of November:

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So, finally, we come to the completed sock!

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This, of course, was finished with a picot edging at 2:30 AM Pacific Time on Dec. 7, 2007.

SSEC

Three months for Socktober 2007 Socks (I am not counting that they were technically started in September.) Of course, I have not had a lot of time for knitting of late. But, I am glad I joined Venka’s Sock Stash Elimination Project!

Next up, December Dishcloths for Christmas Gifts. (They always ask for them!)

Socktoberfest 2007 – Starting Sock

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Since it is October, and for some reason I have taken to the color orange, I have decided to start with a pair of socks for me:
Starting Orange Socks

I like the contrasting grays, greenish grays, and blacks with the oranges. It isn’t too orange.

It’s Koigu from one of our local yarn stores – I can’t find the tag for which colorway – being knit on #1 KnitPicks fixed circulars. I have discovered that I love doing toe up two at a time. (I think this is because it is easier to mask mistakes I make in the pattern by simply doing the same mistake on both socks at the same time!)

Oh, come now, what knitter doesn’t occasionally want to just push through when the design won’t really be hurt by that little mistake? Lace can be so forgiving!  (Of course I am doing a cable this time…)

I’ve decided to do a modified version of the April 7 365 Knitting Stitches a Year Perpetual Calendar pattern – Cable Fabric for the design. I’m anxious to see how it turns out since it is an 8 row repeat and I usually try to stick to 4 row repeats.

After this one is done, I have to do my friend’s purple socks that she wants done like the black and red socks I did for my mother.

Socktoberfest 2007 to Distract – and What Kind of Knitter?

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I have a lot of medical stuff happening this month. I will be out of the office for half of October and my workplace is not realizing that I will not be there if they give me certain projects. I am pretty sure it is part of the end of financial year silly – so I am stressed there as well. Usually, they are a lot more aware of reality than right now. I’m pretty sure it will pass.

I need to distract myself – and, of course, I am behind in writing up book reviews – so, I have decided to participate in Socktoberfest 2007. Lolly Knitting Around started this in 2005 and since I didn’t knit socks that much till this year, I didn’t participate before. Now, I have two new books to inspire:


Vogue Knitting The Ultimate Sock Book

New Pathways for Sock Knitters

Vogue Knitting The Ultimate Sock Book: History*Technique*Design (Vogue Knitting) and New Pathways for Sock Knitters: Book One are both good books, but, in the little time I have had to look at them, Cat Bordhi’s book beats the Vogue Knitting The Ultimate Sock Book: History*Technique*Design (Vogue Knitting).

New Pathways for Sock Knitters: Book One has a better breakdown on technique and an index – which is sorely lacking from Vogue Knitting The Ultimate Sock Book: History*Technique*Design (Vogue Knitting). A generic table of contents does not replace an index!

I will be doing in-depth reviews of both books once I have a chance to try a pattern from each during Socktoberfest 2007!

And, now to the type of knitter I supposedly am:


What Kind of Knitter Are You?


You appear to be a Knitting Guru. You love knitting and do it all the time. While finishing a piece is the plan, you still love the process, and can’t imagine a day going by without giving some time to your yarn. Packing for vacation involves leaving ample space for the stash and supplies. It can be hard to tell where the yarn ends and you begin.http://marniemaclean.com
Take this quiz!

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200th Post – And It IS About Knitting!

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Well, yesterday I was sick, and it was my birthday. This is normal. My birthdays never exactly go very well…

But enough of the whining. I have knitting news! I think I am getting to be a faster knitter! And I bought myself a little gift!

Why is this relevant to knitting? Because, on a birthday whim, I got myself Stitch Motif Maker and Sock Wizard PC. Now the Stitch Motif Maker makes making knitting charts a breeze. I just wish that there had been warning that you cannot use it for any sort of profit-making before it is installed. I didn’t see anything indicating that!  I will still have to learn Photoshop or Excel design unless there is a commercial license available since I want to learn to create designs for others. (I believe in respecting the intellectual property of the small designer/writer/artist/etc.!) I’m somewhat less impressed with Sock Wizard since you don’t have the ability to actually put in your designs and let the computer do the math for yardage.

I have been knitting up a storm – for me – between canning tomatoes, apples, etc. On August 28 (before I got the software), I had only had this much done on the toe-up socks I made (and designed) for my Mother-in-Law:

I made it with Fixation Cotton Sock Yarn in a really pretty purple that I just could not capture for the blog. I finished – including the picot edge – on September 18 :

Here are some details of the pattern:

and the edging:

Of course, I had to block the socks since they were a gift (a great excuse to get a blocker).

This left me just enough time to knit a hat for my nephew’s first birthday being celebrated on 9/23 (not the actual date):

I used the Motif Stitch Maker software to figure out the design and knit it up in Encore Yarn on size 8 dpn and circular needles.

My nephew really seemed to love the hat. His mother was appropriately annoyed (SIL), my brother was like “cool.” Since it is double-stranded, I’m thinking a matching sweater (with room to grow) and attachable mittens?

But I have a ton of sock knitting to do first, though:

This is only the first of the “birthday” shopping trips I gave myself. I hit two LYS’s – one has a nice birthday discount, and well, who can resist that?

So, now I have to figure out where to start. I have explicit sock requests, Cat Bordhi’s awesome new book, and the very nice (but lacking an index) Vogue Sock book – not to mention the things I just want to try.

This, of course, does not include the Christmas knitting that is being kept secret from those who might, possibly, run into this blog, but rest assured, some of them will be getting what they requested!

Yarn diets, of course, do not include yarn bought for sock knitting or gift knitting, right?

I am going to do the Rockin’ Girl Blogger nominations very soon, but darn, Pamela Jean, (coming2terms), it is really, really, really hard to nominate just 5 people! I read too many different blogospheres and am afraid to offend someone!

New Camera, Saugatuck, MI – No Pictures?

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DH and I went to Saugatuck, MI last weekend to get away from it all. It has been a difficult year for a number of reasons, some of you know them, some don’t. No marital problems – just life and its twists and turns. To start with the trip, DH bought a pocket digital camera for me from my BIL so I can take pictures more easily while traveling.A friend recommended her friend’s Bed and Breakfast – Spruce Cutter’s Cottage Bed & Breakfast in Fennville, MI near Saugatuck. Did I take pictures? One, of the cute labrador mix the guys who own the place had.

Innkeeper’s Labrador Mix

We stayed in the Tiffany Suite and it had a lovely jacuzzi bath tub that I took advantage of while DH spent his time playing with the DishTV. (We don’t have cable or Dish at home. Netflix is where our entertainment comes from, and lots of reading.)

We could only get the room for one night because we did this at the last minute. But Saturday morning, the breakfast Mike, the inn keeper fixed an awesome breakfast – and was great about handling my allergies! No small feat! We spent the day in Douglas and Saugatuck, MI. These are the art communities in Western Michigan. We spent the time going into various antique stores and art galleries.

Most of the art we saw was not to our tastes – but we were very tempted by a hot air balloon shaped Tiffany lamp. Since we aren’t about to spend approximately $1900(USD) on a single fragile table lamp, we passed it up.

Saturday afternoon we found Timberline Motel with a vacancy and outdoor hot tub. It was raining, without any lightning, so we decided to take advantage of it. The cool rain and the hot, hot tub was just the way to get the aches from walking around shopping and seeing sites all day out. It also had cable with FoodTV and Discovery, so there was something to watch once you were tired of doing stuff, but not tired enough to sleep.

Reading the reviews, I have to wonder how many people understood they were staying at a MOTEL in a TOURIST town! The Timberline was clean and reasonably priced for the area – 5 minutes from downtown.

Of course, it continued to rain through Sunday. So, we decided to meander back to Metro Detroit via the back roads. We stopped at a couple of antique places along the way – without finding anything exciting. We also stopped at a cider mill selling peaches. I bought a peck but got so busy with some sudden opportunities which made my schedule even more hectic than normal, they went bad before I could do anything with them. <sigh>. The entire drive home it rained – but I did manage to finish the toe-up socks I started in December ’06 for my mom. Here are some pictures of them from the car trip home:

Mom’s Feather and Fan Socks 1Mom’s Feather and Fan Socks 2Mom’s Feather and Fan Socks 3

So, no Virtual World Tour for me.

Of course, SMR was not happy with us when we got home. He had a top rated pekinese/house sitter, who, I know, spoiled him while we were gone because she is a dog lover. (And she has told me what a wonderful host SMR was.)