Is it socks again?

I often take my knitting out and about with me, in the car, to friends houses, on holidays and day trips. When people spot me quietly adding a few stitches to my work in progress this naturally this sparks the question "what are you making?". Nothing unusual there. Of late though I've noticed that this is sometimes followed with the second question "is it socks again?!".

Why yes, yes it is. Socks, socks and more socks. They're certainly not the only thing I knit but it seems every time I finish another project and I hit that lull where I'm just not sure what to make next socks are always the answer. Small, useful, portable projects with endless possibilities to be tried. I think the real trick though is that they take a relatively standard weight and thickness of yarn so I never have to worry about getting the right pattern/yarn combination, I can just grab a ball from my box, find a pattern that tickles my fancy and away they go. 

Where they're all going though I'm not sure as I still only have one pair of hand knitted socks to call my own, so my latest pair - these ones are for me.

Pattern: It's Tea Time from Around the World in Knitted Socks by Stephanie Van Der Linden

Yarn: West Yorkshire Spinners Signature 4ply in Nutmeg.

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Birthday Socks

Do you ever find that you're busy making something that you want to blog/instagram/facebook/tweet about, something that you're really pleased with, that's working just the way you want? Except you can't. What you're making is a present and the recipient is bound to notice if you put photos online - particularly if the person is the sort that has a sixth sense about these things. This was the case for me earlier this year and for a while I had to make do with just showing them to Joe at least once a day (which he loved, I can tell you).

Finally, however, the day has come when I can show them to you too. Water for Elephant Socks using Regia Extra Twist sock yarn in Violet and Yellow.

Happy Birthday Mum.

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Lessons from a Sock

I'm working on another pair of socks - Edwardian Boating Socks this time, so named for the little rowers that paddle up and down each leg. I'd like to say I've definitely got the hang of this sock knitting thing, but since I had to turn the heel on the first sock several times I'll think I'll hold off making such grand claims.

This is what I've done so far:

1. Follow the heel turn instructions "sl1, p to gap, p2tog, turn" etc. The purl two together stitch combines the first two stitches after the gap. This gives a nice semi-circular heel but 21 stitches, not the 11 they say you should have.

2. Undo the heel and follow the pattern again, this time combining one stitch from each side of the gap, therefore having 11 central stitches throughout the heel. Barely get halfway through this and decided that surely a square heel isn't right either (I think that move in itself was the fatal one).

3. Undo the heel turn again and set off as before. Turn the heel in a nice smooth curve but end up with too many stitches.

4. Continue with the gusset and do extra decreases until I'm back to how many I should have. Proceed with the foot.

5. When most of the foot is done try the sock on and realise that there is a flap of fabric on the sole caused by those extra stitches.

6. Attempt to remain vaguely calm as I rip back several evenings work. Fail.

7. Try the square heel version again. Follow it through to completion this time and decide its quite nice really.

8. Finally finish sock one.

9. Start all over again with sock 2, skipping steps 1-6. Hopefully.


Lesson learnt?  I'd like to think so but I'm not optimistic!

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Socks by Numbers.

81:  Grams of sock wool used.

3: Heels turned. I redid the heel on the first sock as it was a little tight. I added some length to the foot and then continued the gusset increases for another four rows to ease the ankle.

15: Repeats of the main Scylla pattern. 4.5 per foot, 3 per leg.

11: The size of Joe's feet.

... compared to my size 4's.

2: Finished socks

66: Stitches cast on for the next project.

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Big Foot

I've just finished turning the heel on my first sock for Joe and so far have used 27 g of wool which is good news. I was a little worried that I would put too much into the foot and would therefore end up with really short legs but I think 50g per sock should turn out to be quite reasonable.

I decided in the end to make Scylla which are conveniently toe up. They have a 20 row repeating pattern block which makes the knitting seem to go faster. I always find a good memorable pattern is very conducive of "just one more row" syndrome.

I do like to amuse myself by trying them on intermittently though....

Too big, do you think?

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A Toe and a Bag

It's been quite a while since I shared some knitting here on the blog so I thought you might like to see the start of my latest project.

I'm attempting to knit some socks for Joe. Yes, attempting. The element of uncertainty here comes in the size of Joe's feet - somewhere around a size 11 or 12. Since most sock patterns aren't aimed at this I'm making it up as I go along. So far I'm finding the challenge quite fun.

I'm working toe-up as then I can knit the leg until I've used half the yarn before moving onto the second sock and I'm keeping the general pattern quite simple. If this all goes horribly wrong then either someone with smaller feet wins a pair of socks or Joe can wear them on top of another pair when he's cold.

On a related note, Friday was my birthday and I had the day off work to do whatever I wanted. I had a lovely relaxed day and as part of it I took a couple of hours to make myself a little project bag for keeping my current work-in-progress tidy and easy to cart around. I followed the pattern here and found it all came together very nicely. I was worried it would be too small as my sock needles are 8" long and the bag is only supposed to be 7.5" tall, but I hadn't taken into account the volume of the bag. The needles sit diagonally with room to spare.

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To Knit Or Not To Knit...

So I finished the baby socks I was working on. I love how quick and simple they are, though I'm a little dubious that they are "newborn" size. Ah well, at least they'll be grown into.

My quandary is this; what next? There are so many lovely patterns I'd like to knit, my favourites board on Ravelry is growing and growing. What I'd like to do next though is use up some of the wool we already have, and that's where I'm struggling. I'm feeling very uninspired. Every penny saved at the moment is going towards our trip, so if I can knit without buying more yarn then bonus!

I've decided to start by adding some finger caps to some fingerless mittens I made a few years ago. They've been getting a lot of use recently, but would be even better if they could keep the ends of my fingers warm too. It's been a quick knit, and this weekend I finished the first. The problem is I'm not sure I like it. I think where the original pattern had been for handwarmers they didn't cover much of my fingers, so the new cap's ended up being quite long. I think I might undo this and return them to just being fingerless.

 What do you think? Keep going, give up (and maybe make a whole new pair of mitts) or start again?

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Mini Knitting

I love how quickly knitting for babies comes together. By the time I'd thought about telling you I'd cast on a new project, this had happened:

One newborn size hat! Next up, some mini socks.

We have a few friends with babies due in 2014 and I'm quite excited about all the knitting opportunities that this produces. I'm spending lots of time browsing Ravelry for interesting looking patterns and playing with small double pointed needles.

Since battling with dpn's for the sleeves of my cardigan I've found myself using them more and more, I've still not quite got the hang of a smooth transfer from one needle to the next, but relaxing rather than trying to force the tension to be correct seems to be helping. I now seem to knit in the round more often than I do flat.

What are you knitting/making at the moment?

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