Socks! Socks! Socks!

I’ve been a sock knitting mood while we’ve been spending more time at home in light of the Corona Virus Pandemic.  I found a great pattern on Ravelry called “Instant Gratification Socks”.  For these socks, you hold two strands of sock weight yarn together while you knit so the socks go really fast. The pattern suggests using US Size 2.5 needles which seemed really small.  I bumped it up to US Size 3 needles and I like the fit of my socks.  The pattern called for a traditional heel with a heel flap, heel turn and gusset decreases, but I opted for a Fish Lips Kiss (FLK heel) that I love.

The purple yarn I used is Knit Picks Stroll in the “Majestic” color way.  The self-striping yarn is Regia Design Line Kaffe Fassett; I am not certain of the color way. I love how the two yarns knit up together.  

Below you will see some socks I have decided to frog. The yarn is Opal.  The pattern is called “Katniss”.  The socks are way too snug. I had both socks done from the cuff to the heel (I did a FLK heel) and, when I finally tried them on, I could see they were too small.  I will reknit this yarn with a strand of natural color (white/cream colored yarn) and I plan to use the “Instant Gratification Sock” pattern again.  That will be fun.  

I tried out this yarn last weekend in a really fun pattern called “Mystic Spiral Sock”.  Great pattern! But I just was not liking this yarn in this particular sock construction.  I’ll come back to the Mystic Spiral pattern again sometime in the future when I find a better suited yarn.

Below you’ll see some tube socks I am working on for my husband.  This yarn is really old and I cast on this project over a year ago.  I think I get kind of bored when I am knitting the tube socks.  I’ll get them done eventually.

Here’s another completed pair.  My local yarn shop (Yarned & Dangerous, Canon City, Colorado), is now carrying some great Regia 8-ply sock yarn.  This yarn is worsted weight so these US Size 14 men’s socks for my husband were done in just a few days!  Amazing.  I used US Size 3 needles for the cuff and US Size 4 needles for the remainder of the sock.  As you can see, the dogs were my photo assistants when I was taking pictures of these completed socks.  The pattern I used for these socks is called “Rye”.  I found it on Ravelry; it’s a design from “Tin Can Knits”.  I think the Rye sock pattern called for a traditional heel with heel flap, heel turn, and gusset decreases.  I opted to use a FLK heel in these socks as well.  

It feels good to be finishing up projects.  I am grateful for my creative hobbies during this time of so much uncertainty.  I spent some time tidying up my really messy craft room the other day. I came across a number of items I think I will work on soon.  I’ll continue to share things with you as I complete them.  

Stay safe and healthy.  Best wishes to you, your family and friends.  

Socks of Kindness

Socks of Kindness 

Yes... that’s a dog under the sock because Sandy is always on my lap.  

Brutus is in the photo too in the top left corner.  This corner of the couch is crowded but cozy.

My friend, Belinda, discovered this sock pattern called “Socks of Kindness” and I really liked the looks of it. I had cast on this yarn and I was knitting a plain old vanilla sock when I learned of the pattern. I ripped back to the cuff and switched to the Socks of Kindness design.  The only special stitches are “knit 2 together” and “slip slip knit”.  Of course there are “yarnovers” as well.  I opted to use a “Fish Lips Kiss” heel in my socks.  The Socks of Kindness pattern calls for toe decrease which are more like decreases at the top of a hat.  I did follow that part of the pattern as well.  This was a really fun knit.

The yarn I used in these socks is rather colorful.  True story: I am not sure where this yarn came from.  It’s either from my Mom’s stash (Thanks, Mom!) or it’s something I got on sale (the price was marked down to $4.00!)  The yarn is Zitron Trekking XXL which I have used a number times in the past.  

Here is the link to the Socks of Kindness pattern. Currently, it is a FREE pattern on Ravelry:

Link for Socks of Kindness Pattern:  Click HERE

Walking Uphill... for Chocolate

Walking Uphill... for Chocolate

Not too long ago, I started to follow a lady on Instagram.  Her name is “Kaythearkydesigns”.  Here is her Ravelry profile as well (Click HERE).  I noticed a shawl she had completed called “Bojagi”.  I liked it so much, I knit the design myself.  Since I noticed her Instagram name included the word “design,” it made me wonder if she had some knitting patterns available.  Sure enough she does so I decided to buy some of her patterns and knit them up.  

This is her pattern called “Walking Uphill”.  Since my yarn reminds me so much of chocolate, I decided to call my project “Walking Uphill... for Chocolate”.  Ha, ha!  

This was a really nice knit.  It’s garter stitch and a little eyelet and involves short rows and wrapping and turning of stitches.  I used yarn from my Mom’s stash. Thanks Mom!  The yarn is called Araucania Huasco Semi-Solid.  You can see the yarn above.  The yarn had just enough color variation in it to show of this pattern’s unique design.  This shawl is knit from the bottom up. It starts with a wedge which leans one direction and then the next wedge leans the opposite direction.  Each wedge grows significantly as you work your way through the pattern. This is a great knit for TV watching. We’ve had a very snow February here in Southern Colorado and my husband has been recovering from a hamstring/knee injury. We have been watching way too much Netflix.  I watched a lot of the show “MADMEN” while knitting this shawl.

Lately I feel as if I have been completing a lot of projects. It’s amazing what happens when you just pick a pattern/project and only work on one project at a time (as opposed to randomly casting on a gazillion projects and haphazardly abandoning things before completion).  Finishing things feels good!

Here is a link to the “Walking Uphill” pattern from KAYTHEARKYDESIGNS (Weird name right, turns out Kay is a retired archaeologist who lives in New Mexico... I encourage you to check out her cool designs on Ravelry).

https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/walking-uphill

A nice generous sized shawl.

Ahh, here you can see those right and left leaning wedges and you can see how they wedges grow larger and larger from bottom to top.

Not the best photos.  Hard to photograph this shawl.

Knitting with two dogs. Sandy at the bottom of the photo (head under shawl) and Brutus at my feet toward the top of the photo.  This is how we watch TV at our house. I don’t need a blanket.

I’ve had this cool shawl pin in my craft room for years. It was a free prize included in a knitting magazine I purchased at Barnes and Nobel years ago.  There are some cool knitting magazines on the shelves at Barnes and Nobel and they are wrapped in clear plastic and often include a fun knitting related item or pattern booklet.  I think these magazines are from England.