Back to socks

My friend Kate talked me into doing the (free!) sock knit-along that Craftsy offered last month. It was taught by Lucy Neatby. Lucy has some very interesting tips for sock-knitting, and I learned some new stuff! Always a good thing. The first sock in the knit-along involves a smocked stitch. This particular stitch is fairly fussy to perform, but ends up looking quite nice. I think one pair of smocked stitch socks will be enough for me though.

The really interesting thing about these socks is that when I was about half-way through the leg of the 2nd sock I noticed that the wool produced stripes. I hadn't expected that, because in the ball, the wool looks sort of mottled and muted. However, not only does it stripe in a quiet way, it also happened to do it in a way that made these 2 socks identical. That is amazing. Such luck. Such happenstance. I suppose I ought to say I made it happen, but that would be a lie. Sheer flukey luck.

Debbie Macomber Blossom Street Petals Socks in the Alpine Strawberry Colourway. 50% merino, 20% angora, and 30% nylon. Socks are Lady's size 6 shoe size, 60 sts., 2.5 mm needles. I used 63 gr of the 100 gr.

The 2nd fabulous thing I want to show you today is this:

and this:

and this:

and this:

OK, so that makes 4 more things. The above-mentioned Kate made some lovely project bags, and donated them to the Lyndhurst Feral Cat Project for fundraising. These bags are now part of the online auction that's starting today on this Facebook page. You can bid until next Thursday at 7pm EST!! And these are completely mail-able! Go have a look. You know your socks-in-progress would look great in one. (Or, I guess, your lunch would!!)

Little Christmas Socks

Something magical happened. As I neared the toe of the first sock, I recognized that the colour repeat was starting over. What luck.

I should have put something in the photo for reference. The little socks are about 6 1/2 inches from heel to toe. Cute!

Christmas leftover socks

I am a saver. OK, a hoarder. I made a pair of Christmas socks for someone special way back in 2009. I used Wisdom Yarns' Marathon Socks in the North Pole colourway. The required red and green, plus a gold glint. I had a little bit left. I very carefully put it away in its own little baggy, and promptly lost it. Completely lost track of it. :(

There's a very special little person now, and I thought, "How cool to make that little girl a pair of matching socks!" Yes, indeed. That WOULD be cool, IF the yarn wasn't lost. So, imagine my glee when I found that yarn this week while searching for something else. It was well stashed. But now, it's found. All is forgiven.

The original skein weighed 100 gr. This leftover weighs 30 gr. I have my notes from 2009, although the notes are nowhere near as thorough as they ought to be. I do better now, keeping everything in a nice hard-backed notebook with colour photos.

Here is the first sock. I know, it doesn't look much like a sock yet. More like a tube with a toe, right? I've planned afterthought heels. You can just about see where they'll go. Will they be fraternal twins or identical twins?? Stay tuned to find out, 'cuz I really don't know yet.

Another lovely green mystery

... and another pair for the gift pile.

Mr. Coco saw this sock yarn come into the Kingdom, and I think he was a little worried the stocks were intended for him. However, I know him well enough by now to be certain this would not be his colour. Too flashy!

However, they fit him, and he was gracious enough to model them for the camera this morning while the sun was streaming in. See the cable? One runs down the outside (or the inside) of each sock.

The wool is Lang Jawoll Magic. Started on October 29.

Notice how they are mates. Identical mates. And remember this. I knit a pair of men's socks in 2011 from the same yarn, (slightly) different colourway. They, too, ended up identical mates. Again, I say this is a complete and total fluke. Had I knit a smaller size, or a shorter leg, the colour repeats would not have lined up. I have one more ball of this stuff in my stash, in a beige/tan mix. Once I knit that up I will be able to say for sure, but until then, I believe if you knit a 72-stitch man-size sock on 2.5 mm needles, with 8 inch legs, and almost 10-inch-long feet, this yarn will produce identical twin socks. Against all odds, I just happened to knit that combination with this wool, totally by chance.

It's beginning to look a lot like.... you know

Time to think about gift socks. These have been under way for a long time now. My notes say I started them on August 6th. Yikes! I generally have socks on the go, although they don't generally take this long. They make good TV knitting.

I can't quite express how luscious is this yarn. Misti Alpaca, Tonos Carnival. It's 50% Alpaca, 30% Merino, 10% Silk and 10% Nylon. It is exquisite. The colour is TF25 Truffle. All warm browns. I have one more skein in navy, so I will have the pleasure of knitting another pair of socks in Tonos Carnival in the future. As well, I seem to have a fairly large ball of leftover yarn from this pair, since there were 400 meters in the skein. This yarn was made in Peru. I don't think I've found a Peruvian yarn yet that wasn't luscious.

Grandma Coco gives Misti Alpaca, Tonos Carnival an unreserved thumbs up!

The power of colour

It's November now. November is grey. And gloomy. Colour is the antidote.

Don't you feel better already?

Dragonfly Socks

Someone we know likes dragonflies, but she doesn't like wool. Sad, but true. Here are socks I made for her from 100% bamboo yarn. The band of dragonflies is superwash wool though. I hope she won't mind. And I really hope superwash merino and bamboo play nicely together in the wash. The bamboo did some squirelly pooling.

 

 

Here's a close-up of the chart, if anyone else wants to knit dragonflies. It's a 14 stitch repeat. With 14 rounds.

 

 

 

Details: I used 2.5mm needles for the socks, but went up to 2.75mm for the dragonfly band, because the fair isle bits tend to work tighter. I also used the method the ladies use in the Maritimes for catching floats. Basically, they catch each stitch so there aren't any floats. I love it, but I still have a few problems with my tension. More practice required.



Big socks take a long time

We finally finished the man-size Tipsy Stripey Socks. 

Now that we've made them in kid-size, and lady-size, and man-size, 

we think we may finally have got this design out of our system.

Still in an orange sherbet frame of mind

First of all, many thanks for the great response to our very first attempt to raise money for the Gananoque Humane Society. Thanks to Elaine for (so quickly!) buying our bracelet, and thanks to others, like Maria, for sharing our photo on Facebook and helping to spread the news. We very much appreciate you all.

We seem to be drawn to this particular shade of orange just now.....which is kinda weird since it's not a colour we would ever wear. Yesterday, it was beads. A couple of weeks ago it was some lovely salmon-coloured laceweight yarn that we just couldn't resist. Today, it's socks! We had a ball of Austermann Step yarn in our stash. It's been there a long time. Self-striping. When we first came up with the Tipsy Stripey Sock design, we knew this is what that yarn has been waiting for. It's a lovely yarn....SOFT! and infused with aloe. And we love the slightly drunken staggering stripes!! Don't you? They blow the 'boring' right out of self-striping yarn. :)

Tipsy Stripey Socks

Sometimes it seems we have the most fun when we use up our odd balls of leftover yarn and just go for it.

Here's a case in point. We had some very loud self-striping Kroy socks, and we had some green Kroy socks that was leftover from the Corduroy Roads Socks we made for ourselves. They were made to go together.

This pair is sized for a child with 8-inch long feet. (They almost fit us....Ladies Size 6....just a touch snug.) They're destined for Afghans for Afghans for their current campaign. We are told green is the colour of Islam. In our eyes, green is definitely the colour of hope. If you're interested in knitting for the women and children of Afghanistan, this is a very easy way to do it. Any sock with a foot length between 6-1/2 and 10 inches is welcome. Use up your leftovers. Slip the socks into an envelope. Slap on a couple of stamps.

We're adjusted the comments setting yet again because a number of people reported blogger was being 'difficult'. Hope to hear from you soon!

Proof of Life

New socks for Mr. Coco. Simple, simple. Plain, plain. Crystal Palace Yarns Panda Superwash, 51% bamboo, 39% superwash wool and 10% nylon. 2mm needles. 78 stitches.

Out of intensive care

There! Not perfect, but better. By picking up the stitches at the top of the pattern and working the ribbing up to the top, we now have matching single rib socks. Not completely identical, but Good Enough.

We began these socks on June 15, 2013, and they languished for quite a long time while we were busy elsewhere. This is a very good lesson for us. Although we do keep notes when we knit, we need to be very precise and, more importantly, we need to refer to our notes!!

If you're squeamish, don't look

Remember these?

They've been on Grandma Coco's mind a lot lately. What to do with them? They're too nice to wear (although Kate might disagree). GC thought she might give the socks away, but didn't feel quite up to the Lance Armstrong-ness that this would require....."Mistake? what mistake? They're perfect. Why, I looked up the definition, and I can assure you, there's nothing wrong with these socks."

So this morning she got out her trusty scissors.

(Here, if you're easily upset, look at this instead . . . 

. . . and think calming thoughts. Deep breaths.)

So, which one will it be?

We vote for the K2, P2 to take one for the team. 

We like the single rib better, we think. 

It's daintier. (It's also the way the pattern was written. Duh!)

Done.

The surgery, that is. What's the prognosis for the patient?

You'll have to check back tomorrow to find out.

Joke`s on us

We started a pair of socks a long time ago now. We started them on June 15, 2012, to be exact. We know this because we keep a little project book, with all the details. That's how organized we are. We do this so we'll be able to pick up where we left off if something happens and we don't back to the project for a while.

Here are the socks as they came off our needles this week. Pathetic, right?

But, wait! They only need the magic of blocking to bloom from ugly ducklings into the swans they were meant to be.

Except.....Just as we went to post this photo, we thought, "Hmmmm, isn't there something a little ..... weird! ... about the cuffs?" Yup. One of them is 'by the book' and the other is ...... not. :(  But if anyone out there thinks we're going to re-do that sock, s/he's out of his/her everlovin' mind!

Pattern: Embossed Leaves Socks by Mona Schmidt. It's a GREAT pattern. We've made it before with no problem. It helps if your head's in a place where you can concentrate though. We bought an entire book just to get this pattern. Now, you can buy the pattern all by itself.

Yarn: Louet Gems fingering weight yarn, soft coral. 2 skeins (185 yd. each)
Needles: 2.5 mm double points

Sunglasses needed!

We've had a lot of knitting time lately. Straight ahead knitting. Round and round on socks, knitting. Not fancy stuff you have to be focused for. No, plain old socks. We know someone ... a man ... who likes brightly coloured socks. We think these might just fit the bill. They are certainly bright!

We had 2 balls of this dye lot. It's Patons Kroy Socks Jacquards, Colour 55612. And yes, that's a real, acid, lime green. We got the yarn on sale and we always thought we'd use it for one of those fake Fair Isle projects where you work it with plain black for a very cool effect. However, plain socks made from this are far from plain and that fit the mindless knitting bill nicely for us.

The sock at the top was knit straight from the ball. You can see how much is left over. For the second sock, we thought it would be cool to see how closely we could make it match the first. We peeled off enough yarn from the second ball until we reached the point in the colour repeat where we had started the first sock. That's the little ball of yarn between the 2 socks. And then, you can see how much yarn we had left when we finished the 2nd sock. That's the flimsy little snippet in the lower right. We hadn't finished off the first sock yet because we were sure we wouldn't have enough yarn. Our contingency plan was to rip the first toe back to the same spot and do both toes with some leftover blue sock yarn from our stash. This way's much better though. Makes us look like we might even know what we're doin'.

Plain Ol' Sock on 64 stitches/3mm Brittany birch double-point needles and a tubular cast-on, reducing right after the ribbing to 60 for the leg/foot of the sock. Round toe with 10 decrease points. Now we just have to cut the yarn, draw up the toe stitches and work in the tails.

Ravelry and Craftsy stuff

Ravelry is running a contest right now to celebrate their 5th anniversary. They asked for design submissions for an image to put on a project bag. This is our entry:

There are a LOT of very good designs in the running. If you're signed up for Ravelry, you can choose your favourite until May 14th at midnight EST.

As well, over on Craftsy ...
We've uploaded a .PDF of our Corduroy Roads Socks. It's freeeeee! Help yourself, if you'd like.

Finishing the Corduroy Roads Sock

AND, we're back! To the Corduroy Roads Sock, that is.

Detail: The Heel (being a ribbed stitch, the heel flap is slightly stretchy)

Now, where were we? Oh, yes. We'd just turned the heel and reduced at the gusset to finish the foot on the same number of stitches we had for the leg... 60 for the large size OR 54 for the small size.

Detail: The Cuffs (with their fabulous tubular cast-on)

We continue to knit round and round until the foot measures 6 inches from the edge of the heel flap (where we picked up stitches for the foot) for the large size OR 4 inches for the small size. This will give us a finished foot length of approximately 10 inches for the large size OR 8 inches for the small size. If you're following along and you need to adjust for a slightly shorter or longer foot, do it now.

We're going to do a Round Toe which is our (current) favourite toe treatment. The instructions, in this case, are the same for either size.

Rnd 1: * K4, K2Tog, rep from * to end of round.
Rnds 2-5: Knit
Rnd 6: * K3, K2Tog, rep from * to end of round.
Rnds 7-9: Knit
Rnd 10: * K2, K2Tog, rep from * to end of round.
Rnds 11 & 12: Knit
Rnd 13: * K1, K2Tog, rep from * to end of round.
Rnd 14: Knit
Rnd 15: *K2Tog, rep from * to end of round.

For large size only, next round: (K1, K2Tog) 3 times, K1.

Cut the yarn leaving a 10 inch tail and draw the tail through all the remaining stitches. Pull up tight and fasten. Darn in all the ends.

Two Full Pairs!

That's it! Thank you for helping us get our second sock completed. They have already been claimed by Mr. Coco (who knows a handsome sock when he sees one.)

We can't shake the feeling that there's much more to explore on the heel flap of the simple sock.

Tubular Cast-On Tutorial

Or, at least ... How we duz it here in the Kingdom!

There are so many nifty ways to ... we were going to say "skin a cat" but you know how we feel about cats ... so we'll just say "to DO things". There are so many Cast-ons and Cast-offs and so many different ways to increase and decrease or to turn a heel or shape a toe on a sock. That's one of the reasons knitting is so much fun. It's such a pleasure to find new techniques and learn new skills. The right technique well-used is an elegant thing.

The Tubular Cast-On that we use can be found all over the internet. We don't claim to have thought it up. We think whoever the originator was, she or he was a genius!! We have tweaked the process in a way that suits us and that's the process we're going to share with you today.

This Cast-On gives a lovely stretchy edge that is perfectly suited to the cuffs of socks and we use it a lot. After today, you will, too.

This cast-on starts with a provisional cast-on. Using the waste yarn, crochet a chain of about 40 stitches. We're using a worsted weight yarn so the stitches will show up better but we would generally use the same weight of yarn that we're casting on with. Just be sure you use a good contrasting colour.

On the back of the chain of crochet stitches, you'll see a line of regularly spaced loops. Knit into the first loop with your knitting needle, picking up a stitch of your sock yarn (main colour).  Wrap the yarn over the needle in a Yarn Over then pick up another stitch and make another Yarn Over. Continue picking up stitches and making Yarn Overs in pairs until you have 31 pairs for the Large size or 27 for the Small size.

Pick up one more stitch and then, instead of a YO, wrap the yarn around your thumb as if you were doing a regular long-tail cast-on but slip it onto the needle without knitting it).

It will look like this when it settles down onto the needle:

Next, arrange the stitches on 3 double-point needles. We like to start back at the first stitch we picked up and slip them deliberately....1 knit stitch, 1 YO, 1 knit stitch, 1 YO, etc.  Arrange them so there are 8 pairs of stitches on each of the first 2 needles. (1 knit stitch and 1 YO make a pair).

Join in a circle and start to knit in rounds.

Round 1: The first stitch you see is a knit stitch. Knit that stitch. Slip the next loop (which is a YO) WITH THE YARN HELD IN FRONT. We slip stitches purl-wise. Continue knitting each knit stitch and slipping the YO's with the yarn held in front all around.

Round 2: The first stitch you see is the knit stitch. This time, slip that stitch WITH THE YARN HELD IN BACK. We slip this stitch purl-wise. Purl the next stitch. Continue working your way around slipping the next stitch with the yarn in back and purling the following stitch.

Don't worry if there's a bit of a gap at the point where the rounds start. That will sort itself out later.

Repeat these 2 rounds once more.

Round 5: Now for the part where it gets interesting!! Knit the first stitch, drop the second stitch off the needle and knit the third stitch (OR as we like to do....knit the first stitch, insert the tip of your needle into the third stitch, ignoring the stitch in between. Knit that 3rd stitch and when you slide it off the needle, allow that unknit stitch to go, too.) Scoop up that dangling stitch with your left-hand needle and purl him. Purl the next stitch. Now you have 2 knit stitches followed by 2 purl stitches, in that order, on the right-hand needle. Continue all the way around re-grouping the knit and purl stitches. You'll have the start of a perfect K2P2 ribbing.

Work one round in K2P2 ribbing for insurance and then just remove the waste yarn. Sometimes it will slide right out once you unzip it correctly. Sometimes, you have to snip it out Very Carefully.

That's how you make a 2x2 Tubular Cast-On.

For the purposes of the Corduroy Roads Socks, we introduced the second colour in Round 5 where we separated out the 2 knit stitches from the 2 purl stitches but there is no real need to do that. You can start your corduroy ribbing in the next round. We just wanted to explain why our socks will look slightly different.

If you're like us ... and not exactly what you'd call a "quick study" ... you'll want to make up a cheat sheet and keep it in your knitting bag. We seem to need to refer to it each and every time we attempt a Tubular Cast-On but it is absolutely worth it.

So, that's enough for today. Tomorrow, we'll continue on with the corrugated ribbing. We hope you found this helpful.

~ Spreading Joy and Knitted Elegance throughout the Kingdom!

PS....You will have a total of 56 stitches on the needles for the small size or 64 stitches for the large size.