More Socks, Socks, Socks

Clearly I have been knitting lots and lots of socks lately but I have not been taking the time to show them here.  Here’s a quick post to show you my latest socks. These “Shorty Socks” are a quick knit except for the fact that I knit one socks back in July 2020??? and I did not get around to the second socks until this past weekend.

The pattern is from a collection of patterns by Summer Lee. The pattern collection is called “Shorty Sock Set“.  Here is the link:  

https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/shorty-sock-set-2

I knit these socks in yarn from Leading Men Fiber Arts “Show Stopper” and the color way is called “Yarn Hoarder”.  The contrasting heel and cuff are Plymouth Yarn “Dye for Me Happy Feet” in the color way called “Natural”.  I have never used yarn from “Leading Men Fiber Arts” before.  I will look for their yarn again.  It is very nice.  

Here’s a pair of socks knit in Sport Weight yarn from Knit Picks.  The yarn is from a kit my mom had purchased and I dyed the yarn with Easter egg dye last fall.  I’ll share more about that in another post.  For these socks I used a pattern called “Woodland Walk Socks”.  The pattern calls for fingering weight yarn.  Since I was using Sport Weight yarn, I modified the pattern by casting on only 52 stitches and I used larger needles than what the pattern called for.  The socks were fun to knit.  I did knit them cuff down, two at a time, on one long cable needle in Magic Loop.  This seemed like a good option since I was following a chart and knitting two at a time ensured they were identical.  I also opted to use a Strong Heel for my socks since I like that kind of heel when knitting two at a time in Magic Loop.

Here is the pattern link for the Woodland Walk Socks:

https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/woodland-walk-socks

Here is a post about the Strong Heel: 

https://www.theknittingsquirrel.com/heather-socks-featuring-the-strong-heel/

Here’s fun knit. This is a pattern called “Solar”.  It looks great in self striping yarn, don’t you think?   

Here is the pattern link for “Solar”:

https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/solar

For my socks, I opted to work a “Fish Lips Kiss Heel”:

Here is the Fish Lips Kiss Heel pattern link:

https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/fish-lips-kiss-heel

For my “Solar” socks I used yarn from Wisdom Yarn called “Prose” and the color way is called “Surf Shorts”.  I found this yarn at the store called “Tuesday Morning”.  I have purchased Wisdom Yarn brand yarn at Tuesday Morning a few times.  The colors in this color way are not my favorite but the socks fit great.  You can’t see it in the photos, but when these socks are worn, they are quite lacy with holes created from yarn overs.  They will be a good pair of socks to wear when the weather is a little warmer.  I have to admit I felt a little breeze blowing through my socks the other day when I wore them on a cold morning walk.  

And finally a pair of socks for my husband.  The yarn is Regia Design Line by Kate Fassett.  The color way is called “Jewel”.  I always like to knit with Regia yarn. This is just a plain sock that fits my husband well.  I use 72 stitches per round on 2.25 mm needles and I insert a Fish Lips Kiss Heel (pattern link noted above).  

So there you have it... our toes are toasty and our sock drawers are filled with colorful hand knits.

 

Happy Scrappy Socks

 

Scrappy Socks

Whoa!  It’s been a long time since I posted any completed projects here on my blog.  Let’s get caught up! Here is my most recent project. 

I have wanted to make Scrappy Socks for the longest time.  I have been making socks for years and I always have leftover bits of yarn.  Why, I even have leftover bits of yarn when I make Men’s US Size 14 socks for my husband.  The problem with making socks with leftover bits of yarn is that you have to come up with a good way to join new yarn and you don’t want to have a gazillion loose ends to weave in when you are done knitting the socks.  

I recently joined a Facebook group called “Strictly Sock Knitting” and I got a few pointers from folks in that group. I also noticed some folks on Instagram making lots of scrappy socks and I asked questions about yarn joins and weaving in loose ends.  Just recently I heard of a “new to me” yarn join.  It’s called Cate’s Clasp Weft Join. I watched a video and I was convinced this was just the technique I needed.  I think the video suggests you need not weave in the loose ends because the join is so strong.  I fretted about that a bit and ended up weaving in my loose ends. Truth be told... it did not take a million years to weave in the loose ends and it was not totally awful.  I think the inside of my socks look pretty darn tidy.  I am pleased I took the time to work in the loose ends; I will feel more confident about washing them in the washing machine.  Another thing I feel to compelled to point out is that, while my socks do look really colorful, I did not change yarns as many times as you might think. A lot of my yarns were very colorful, self-striping yarn so sometimes it appears I switched yarns when really it was just color changes in the yarn itself.  Looking at the photos of my socks just now, I would estimate that each sock contains 13 different yarns.  

I definitely see many Happy Scrappy Socks in my future. I have a tub of leftover bits.  I think Happy Scrappy Mittens would also be a fun project.

For my socks, I used 2.25 mm double pointed needles.

I used a long tail cast on at the cuff and the toes were grafted shut with the Kitchener Stitch.

My socks have 64 stitches per round and I used the Fish Lips Kiss Heel (pattern available on Ravelry for $1.00... totally worth it; it’s my favorite heel and I have it memorized).

Here is a link to the YouTube video showing how to join yarn using Cate’s Clasp Weft Join.  

Video link:  https://youtu.be/bsLUpFAxudI

Rainchain Shawl

 

Rainchain Shawl

A few weeks back, my local yarn shop owner, Ann, contacted me and asked if I’d like to knit a “shop sample” for the store. She had a pattern printed out for me and she said I could pick any yarn in the shop to make the project.  

Ummm... yes, please!

This is “Rainchain Shawl”.  I knit the project in Canopy Fingering weight yarn by The Fibre Co.  The color I selected is called “Guava”.  The fiber content is alpaca, merino wool, and bamboo. This is really dreamy yarn; I’d love to knit with this yarn again!

This pattern is by designer Meghan Jones who calls her design shop “Little Nutmeg Productions”. Cute!

This pattern is now available for purchase on Ravelry but the pattern is being offered at many yarn shops for an upcoming event called “Local Yarn Store Day”.  My local yarn shop is observing this event on Saturday, September 12, 2020.  If you purchase yarn at my local shop, you can get this pattern for free.  My shawl will be on display and will hopefully inspire some other folks to make this pattern as well. My local yarn store is Yarned and Dangerous in Canon City, Colorado.

I knit up this shop sample in a week.  It was hard to put down. It was a really fun knit.  The pattern includes instructions for a fingering weight version and a worsted weight version.  There are also instructions for a small shawl or a larger shawl.  I followed the instructions for a small shall and I used fingering weight yarn.  The pattern specifies you need approximately 800 yards of yarn for the small version but I estimate I only used about 464 yards of yarn.  Clearly I could have made my shall much larger but actually it’s a very nice size.   

Here are a bunch of photos to show you the details in this project.  I enjoyed this pattern so much that I have cast on another Rainchain Shawl.  I plan to add some beads to the design.  

I hope you can get out and support your local yarn store!  The pandemic has been tough on so many small businesses.  There are fewer and fewer yarn shops around it seems with so many folks shopping on line.  If we want small yarn stores to continue to exist, we must support them.

The photo above shows the project before and blocking and after blocking.  

Magic Potion Socks

MAGIC POTION SOCKS

Just a quick post to show you my latest socks.  This is really fun yarn by Opal.  The yarn color way is called “Zaubertrank” which translates to “Magic Potion”.  Opal seems to come up with themes for their lines of yarn and then the color way names fit into that theme.  The theme for this line of yarns is “Fairytale”.  My friend Belinda also bought some Opal Fairytale yarn and her yarn color way is called “Elfenlachen” which translates to something like “Laughing Elf”.  See, all that German I took in High School and College is really paying off.  

The pattern I used for this sock is Fruit Strip Gum Socks.  I think this pattern was a fun choice for this yarn.  When you compare the leg of the sock (which is knit in the spiraling rib pattern) to the foot of the sock (which is just knit in stockinette) you can see how different this yarn looks when knit in the fruit strip gum pattern vs. plain old stockinette. Of course this yarn would also look great if just knit up socks in plain old stockinette.  

Here are a few more photos to show you these socks.

I mailed these socks to my good friend Tracy W.  She loves anything Harry Potter and she loves purple.  Since the yarn is called “Magic Potion”, I was reminded me of Harry Potter and I thought Tracy would love these socks too.  

Heel Toe Do Si Do Socks

Heel Toe Do Si Do Socks

Another pair of socks... hot off the needles! 

This yarn is great. I got it at my local yarn shop, Yarned & Dangerous in Canon City, Colorado. The yarn is called “Uneek” by Urth Yarn. The yarn is self-striping as you can see and comes as a “kit” which contains two pre-wound identical cakes.  I knit my socks from the cuff down and I opted to pull my yarn from the center of the cakes since I liked the colors of the yarn I saw there.  Of course you could opt to pull the yarn from the outside of the ball if you prefer.  

The pattern I used is called “Heel Toe Do Si Do” and is available for purchase on Ravelry.  

Here is a link:

 https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/heel-toe-do-si-do

I can’t recall what sort of heel the Heel Toe Do Si Do pattern calls for. I opted to work my favorite heel which is called a “Fish Lips Kiss Heel”.  Some time ago I got a great idea; I wish I could recall where I read it.  

As you may have noticed, sometimes I make obsessively matchy-matchy socks and sometimes I go to great lengths to accomplish this.  Basically what I read suggested that when you work your heels of your socks, use the strand of yarn from the opposite end of the yarn.  More specifically, in these socks, I was knitting the socks from the cuff down, pulling the yarn from the center of the cake of yarn. When it came time to work the heel, I grabbed the yarn from the outside of the cake of yarn. When I was done working the heel, I resumed knitting with the yarn from the center of the cake of yarn.  I never cut the yarn coming the center of the cake.  It was just on hold while I worked the heel. I hope that makes sense.   

This one last photo shows you this sock design a bit better. It is interesting to me because the chevron stripes are just on the front side of the leg and the top side of the foot.  I really enjoyed knitting this pattern and I LOVED knitting with the Urth Uneek yarn.  It is very soft and squishy.  

I Knit a Butterfly...

Butterfly Cowl

This is a pattern by Marin Melchior and it’s called “Butterfly Cowl”.  It is a rather small cowl that I would call bandana or kerchief shaped.  The cowl is primarily knit back and forth on a long circular needle, but as the project is nearing completion, you join to work in the round (see photos).  It’s fun to check out the completed Butterfly Cowl on Ravelry to see the great yarn and color combinations other folks have chosen.  My color choices definitely remind me of a Monarch butterfly.  

You can find the pattern at the link below:

https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/butterfly-cowl-11

Some folks might feel that this pattern is kind of expensive but when you see how well done and how well written the pattern is, you will understand all the hard work and creativity that went to this design.

This same designer has a larger shawl in a similar design called “Butterfly / Papillon” and it is stunning.  You can find that pattern here:

https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/butterfly--papillon

I think the designer notes that if you are not sure if you will like knitting the larger shawl, you might first wish to try out the smaller Butterfly Cowl design to see how you enjoy the technique (Short Rows and Wrapping and Turning).  Well, I definitely liked the technique and I definitely plan to make the larger Butterfly / Papillon in the future.  

The multi-colored yarn I used in this project is called Jojoland Melody Superwash.  The black yarn, leftover from another project, is from Canon Hand Dyed Yarns.

More Socks for Ron

More Socks for Ron

My gosh. Can you handle yet another post about socks?  I think I have made nine pairs of socks during the 2020 Pandemic.  I have lost count.  During the first part of the Pandemic when my local yarn shop was closed, I did make a number of pairs of socks with scrap yarn or yarn I had on hand. When my local yarn shop was able to open up again, I went down to the shop and bought a number of skeins of sock yarn.  

My favorite yarn shop, Yarned and Dangerous (Canon City, Colorado), has been carrying yarn from West Yorkshire Spinners (WYS) for awhile now but this is the first time I used it. I like it. The color way is called “Kingfisher” (Signature 4-ply Self Striping).

When I initially cast on this yarn, I was intending to make socks for myself. Not that I needed any more socks for myself though.  Ron saw the socks and for some reason the orange yarn at the very top of the cuff really caught his eye. He said he liked the yarn/socks for himself.  Great! I like that kind of input!  I ripped out what I had done and cast on the socks again with 72 stitches so they would fit him.

I just knit plain old socks and once again used my favorite heel (Fish Lips Kiss Heel).  

Ron tried on the socks and they are a good fit. It’s nearly hitting nearly 100 degrees F everyday in Southern Colorado this week, so these socks won’t be getting worn out anytime soon.