School haze

School is taking its toll on this house, and my poor January socks aren't coming along very quickly. I'm almost to the toe decreases on the first sock, which is record slow sock knitting for me. Bonus, in 8 days we'll be driving up to Washington to see a couple friends and go to Madrona, a fiber festival in the Tacoma area. Drive time is knit time, and I'll get to ogle gorgeous wool while we're there!

In the meantime, I snapped a picture of some wool longies I made for Pixie out of my handspun yarn. She's growing like a weed, and I swear outgrows woolies every week.

Backtracking

Back when I had started this project, I told some friends about my crazy scheme, and one had made a comment about wishing she could make socks, she's never had a pair of hand knit socks. Me, being a good friend (or trying to be) thought it over, and said hey... some people just aren't sock knitters. I clearly am. I should offer to make her a pair, since I'm doing this anyways, right?

I thought about it some more, and decided yes sure. I could give her the pattern list from the book, make her a pair of socks, it'd be win-win. I sent her a message that said I would be willing to make her a pair if she picked up the yarn, just as soon as I finished the custom order I was working on at the time. She answered me back thanking me, but that she actually wanted socks for her grandmother. She was in the hospital dying from brain cancer, and the room was so cold that she always complained her feet were freezing. She was worried by the time I made 2 pairs of socks, her grandmother would already be dead.

So I took a break to whip up a pair of socks for a woman I will never meet. I spent 5 days knitting every chance I had, including while breastfeeding the baby. I chose "lace anklets" from the Purl Bee website, because the pattern was fast and easily memorizable. I am happy to say she got them in time to enjoy them. They were warm but didn't dig into her ankles like other socks, they were nicknamed Mindy's Magic socks. They weren't Cookie A, or intricate, or part of my goal for learning new techniques, but they made someone happy, and at the end of the day, I have to think that it's what matters.

It's a Kind of Magic

I got recruited to make a pair of socks for an old friend, and so November is turning into another month of not knitting from my wonderful book, but learning more about sock knitting. Somehow it ended up that I picked toe-up socks. Stupid to try a very different technique probably on a pair not destined for my own feet, but I jumped right in, and immediately changed the pattern. I had to try "Judy's Magic Cast On" invented by Judy Becker here in Portland. She is a genius knitting demigoddess of some kind. http://knitty.com/ISSUEspring06/FEATmagiccaston.html (For what it's worth, Knitty is solely responsible for turning me from the person who was casually learning to knit to the full-blown knitting fiend I am today). At any rate, her technique is genius, and I'm going to be incorporating into any provisional cast-on I can.

On the downside, I learned that I despise blunt needles and toe-up socks. Decreases I can handle. Increases, constantly digging to pick up stitches drives me batty. Increasing with blunt needles has helped me teach my 3-year old an embarrassing new vocabulary. The socks are, so far, gorgeous though and I'm glad I decided to try the pattern. Even if I misjudged how much room I would need to do the heel and ripped out 6 hours worth of knitting... by the way, how are toe-up socks supposed to be easier to fit? I like the idea of stopping when it's long enough and grafting the toe shut, rather than "stop approximately 3 1/4 inches less than desired length, unless it's a Monday, or your yarn is stretchy, or your row gauge differs slightly. The only good thing about turning a heel toe-up is that when I reworked the foot I managed to memorize the entire lace pattern and didn't have to look at the pattern again until I got to the end. Sigh.

Here is a link to the project in Ravelry for anyone interested http://www.ravelry.com/projects/scaethach/diamond-rib-socks-from-the-toe-up

Yeah I suck

I'm on here out of guilt and neglect of my blog. I went on hiatus because I spent time working on my "super secret stealth project" which I will explain at a later date. (Promise). Then I got contracted to make socks for a friend. Now I'm back on task with the original quest - to tackle the holy grail of sock books... and went back to basics. I decided to recruit friends, and started a knit-along for the pattern Monkey. I think there are 9 of us at various stages of knitting them this month, I'm on the heel of sock #2. So while I slack at writing, I haven't slacked on my socks!

First pair almost done!

I finished my first Thelonious last Saturday, I love it!



Sock #2 has gone a lot faster, I'm sitting here grafting the toe in between typing. I finished the entire thing in under a week, with a lot of other projects going on, and my in-laws visiting.

Unfortunately, I'm going to take a temporary hiatus from my challenge as I set it. I know, one pair and I'm already wimping out?? Not exactly :) I'm part of an online community of fiber fiends, and with all the sock talk that's been going on lately, one of our resident dyers put up a challenge of his own - knit him a pair of socks in the pattern and yarn of his choosing, and he will dye 8 oz of fiber(roving, sock yarn, etc.) in the knitter's choice. Since an opportunity for this quality "man-dyed yarn" was too good to pass up, I will be pausing to add to the Dear Husband sock stash. While I wait for his sock yarn to arrive, I'll be doing a little spinning and doing some "karma projects" - helping out others in appreciation of the help I have received from other Moms in my online community.

Never fear, I will be updating, even though it's not technically scheduled programming, and hope to be back on track for the Cookie A. sock challenge soon!

The project is underway

This will be a brief post since it is the wee hours of the morning, and since I have 2 sleeping children I should really join them. I attended Sock Summit on the 31st of July, I only did the marketplace this year, although of course even the marketplace had some workshops/lectures going on. Somehow I bought no sock yarn, but walked out with a good chunk of spinning fiber. So when I got home I made it my goal to spin a good sock weight yarn (sacrificing some merino/silk blend I had on hand for practice).

The end result:



It wasn't as smooth as I might like for socks but it was good practice, and turned out 460 yds/4oz, so a perfect sock weight.

For fun, here is a picture of the fiber I got from Sock Summit, from Woolgatherings and Becoming Art (check them out on Etsy, and bring a drool bucket along, both AMAZING ladies/dyers!)

Sock Summit is here!

And I've picked my first socks to be made! I'll be making the Thelonious socks that can be seen at http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/thelonious-sock, and I'll be making them in a brown Tonal sock yarn. After taking some measurements I decided to use a size 1 needle for the calf and size 0 from the heel to the toe. Today was mostly spent organizing my yarns and winding skeins into cakes and deciding on an actual pattern. I grabbed some photos of my starting supplies:

The book, the sock bible I will be working through for this project:


The starting yarns: Knitpicks (KP) essential sock (now stroll) in a solid green, brown tonal, and variegated pink/purple. Also 1 skein of Malabrigo sock that is dying to have a project to match it to.


Sock sized stitch markers made by my awesome sister-in-law:


And last but not least, the needles I have for starting. A selection of DPNs and a couple circulars for magic looping. Not a fan of magic looping socks, but if the pattern works better that way, so be it: