Foxy Loxy

Another one bites the dust!  Yes, I have finished the second of my pre-2012 wips. It was a relief to get these socks off the sticks.  And I haven't even started a new project to celebrate fnishing these!  (yet - ha!)

Details
Pattern:  Fox Faces by Nancy Bush.  I quite enjoyed knitting these - I love the vikkel braid, although I have to say that the description she gives in this (free) pattern is not particularly helpful.  Fortunately, I have done one before and so pulled out the pattern, from Nancy's excellent Knitting on the Road, and used the much more helpful detailed instructions and diagrams.

I also love a sock with a plain back and patterned front.  I really liked the extra ribbing for the first few repeats, helps keep the sock up and just another nice detail. As is the eye of partridge heel - my favourite!

Yarn:  Wollmeise Twin in Aquarius (a We're Different skein) - 98g.  I love this yarn - shows a pattern so well and just feels wonderful on.  And machine washes so well, I am never nervous about putting my wollmeise socks in the machine.

Sticks:  I used 2.75mm KnitPicks harmony fixed circs for the rib and vikkel braid, and changed to 2.5mm for the rest of the sock.

Time:  30 July 2011 - 13 February 2012.

Modifications:  I did my sock over 64 stitches (rather than 60) - I added an extra purl bump between the lace repeats and 2 extra stitches on the back.  I also did a twisted rib, because I like the way it looks.  Otherwise made as written. Yay Nancy Bush! 

I'm not sure I can see the fox faces though.

You can never have too many

You can never have too many pairs of red socks, right?

I needed a nice easy portable project a while back (um, in February...) and what better choice is there than stocking stitch socks with a pretty yarn?  (let's not mention that I actually wound this yarn in May last year to take to hospital with me.  Yeah, it never left the project bag!)

I finally finished them, and seem to have taken almost as long to get around to posting them as I did knitting them!

Details
Pattern:  Just my basic cuff down plain vanilla socks!  Although I did add some calf shaping into these.  I think I started with 72 stitches and steadily decreased down to 64, as I moved down the leg.  I did a tubular cast-on and twisted rib, and my favourite eye of partridge heel flap, and wedge toe. 

Oh, I did do something different, I did a dutch heel, from Nancy Bush's Knitting Vintage Socks.  Thought I'd try it out, as others have commented on how they like it.  I don't mind knitting it, but I don't think it fits my foot as well as a regular heel.  Good to know!

Yarn:  A new yarn for me, Cascade Heritage Handpaints, a lovely blog prize from GeekKnitter.  I like this yarn, it feels nice but still sturdy, and I like how the colours behaved, with a subtle blue and purple stripe effect.  I would use this yarn again for sure.

Sticks:  2.5mm KnitPicks fixed circular, for magic looping - my favourite method for plain socks.

Time:  2 February 2011 - 1 August 2011.

And a nice little bit of leftovers which go straight to the Beekeeper Quilt yarn fund, heh!

Totally Terrific Three Tsock Pattern Club #1 Nutkins!

I've had this pattern in my queue for such a long time, and so was very excited when it was voted one of the patterns for the Super Special Six Pattern Sock Club (or in my case, the Totally Terrific Three Tsock Pattern Club!)

And I had the perfect yarn - the yarn called for in the pattern, in the exact colour used by the designer!  It was, in fact, this pattern, which made me covet the Wollmeise Spice Market so much.  Which is odd to me, since I hardly ever wear brown shades.  But this colour, I just love it.  The depth of colours, the way it works in this pattern. 

I'm really sorry that I can't capture it accurately in the photos!

Details

Pattern:  Nutkin, by Beth LaPensee.  I made a few modifications to this pattern - just to accommodate my personal preferences.  Lots of people in the group on Ravelry were determined to do the pattern as written, to try the short row heel and toe, but I  suppose I wasn't knitting them to learn something new, I just wanted a nice pair of socks that I knew would fit me - and short row heels are not friends with my feet!

Yarn:  Wollmeise Twin (80/20) in Spice Market (dark).  Cannot tell you how much I love knitting with Wollmeise and how happy I am with the way this colour knitted up!  I used about 105gm of the 150 gm skein.  What a nice bunch of leftovers! 

Sticks:  I used 2.75mm dpns for the cuff and first 3 pattern repeats, then changed to 2.5mm dpns for the rest of the leg and foot. 

Modifications:  Instead of the folded cuff, I did a tubular cast on with a twisted 1x1 rib.  Instead of the short row heel I did my favourite eye of partridge heel flap and gussets.  And finally, instead of the short row toe I did a standard wedge toe.

Time:  We had two months to knit this pattern, and I made it, hurrah!  1 March 2011 - 29 April 2011.

It's interesting, there is a lot of talk about how this pattern biases - which it does, for many people!  The designer suggests it is due to how you pick up the stitches when knitting down the turned cuff, but I think it is the pattern itself, as mine biased and I did a different cuff entirely.  But the biasing doesn't bother me, I just make sure the sock is twisted around correctly when I put it on!

I love my lovely new wollmeise socks (my first pair for myself - it won't be the last!)

Big Day Out

For Christmas, I bought husby a ZooFriends membership (and I bought one for me too) - I got a two for one deal that was too good to pass up.

We had to validate it before the end of this month, and last night we decided that today would be the day, as it was going to be a relatively cool. When we got to the Zoo, we found a bunch of other people had the same idea. Not to worry, I managed almost a whole repeat of this while waiting in the queue (yay!)

I remember going to the Zoo as a child (and I think the last time I went was at least 10 or 15 years ago) and feeling somewhat conflicted - "wild" animals in small enclosures, that sort of thing. I still feel that to some extent, but there have been a lot of advances in the management of animals in the Zoo, including much better enclosures, and the Zoo is doing a lot of work in conservation and education as well, and I think that work needs to be supported. Our membership also includes free entry to the Western Plains Zoo, which is an open range zoo about 5 hours out of Sydney. We'll have to do a weekend away for that one!

I'm not sure Connor quite knew what to make of it, but I'm sure he'll enjoy it more each time we return over the next 12 months.

I know I will! (check out that harbour and city skyline view the giraffes have!)

F-f-f-f-frankensocks!

Remember my Week of Wollmeise? Way way back in September 2009? Well, I've finally finished one of those projects! (and I have been knitting on a few of the others too). Yay for Binding Off 2011!

Meet husby's Frankensocks:

So called because they are a hodge-podge of patterns and because, well, they are a bit ugly. Not quite what I had in my head when I was planning them. But husby likes them, which is all that matters in the end. And I learnt a few new things too, which is always a good thing.

Pattern(s): I used the Latvian twist cast on for the top of the sock, from Nancy Bush's Canada sock from Knitting on the Road. Very easy! The downside - makes a bunch of extra ends to weave in!

Then a standard ribbed cuff. Next I used the chart from the Christmas in Tallinn stocking, from the same book. It worked over 72 stitches, and was a nice simple snowflake pattern. It wasn't very clear on the first sock, so I reversed the colours on the second one (top sock in photo below), and you can see the snowflakes much better.

The rest of the sock is regular stocking stitch, with a slip stitch heel flap and a wedge toe.

Yarn: Wollmeise of course! Wollmeise Twin, in Birkenrinde and Dunkle Kirsch for the contrast toe, twist cuff and fair isle section. I really really enjoyed knitting with this yarn and hope it wears well. Since husby is the first in our family to have Wollmeise socks!

Sticks: I used 2.75mm dpns for the cuff, 2.5mm dpns for the fair isle chart and the next few rows, and then 2.25mm dpns for the rest of the sock. You can see that the yarn flashes on the larger needles, but once I switched to the smallest sticks, the yarn started to behave quite nicely, and striped. I decided to use the needle changes to add shaping, rather than mess around with decreases as well as the fair isle band.

Time: 7 September 2009 - 31 January 2011. Although they were in hibernation from the end of 2009 until around December 2010. And with a bit of attention, the second sock took less than a month, weeeeeeee!

What I learnt: Latvian twist cast on! That highly variegated yarns don't really work in fair isle! How changing stick size affects tension and the way variegated yarns behave! (well, I did pretty much know that already, but this is a really good demonstration).

I'm so pleased to have these off the sticks!

Anniversary Socks

Now that it has been received, I can finally post about a little something something I made for the winner of my 2009 (!!) blogthday competition! (I know, I know, but I explained all to the recipient Sarah in advance!)

Details

Pattern: Anniversary Socks by Nancy Bush, from Interweave's 25 Favourite Socks book. I'm a big fan of socks with patterning on only the front or back (especially for magic looping) and of course being a prize for my blog anniversary, I thought this pattern especially fitting.

I really like how the small cable flows from the ribbing all the way down the leg and foot of the sock. I also like the combination of the cable and lace patterning. And the eye of partridge heel. Looks so good in this yarn (hmmm, better than in the picture!)

Yarn: Wollemeise Twin (80/20) in Dunkle Kirsch, about 85gm I think. I forgot to weigh the socks! These are the first socks I've knit (and finished) in the Wollemeise and gosh it is lovely stuff. Love knitting with it, love the stitch definition, love the finished product. It is a tad splitty, but I've found one of the benefits of being a slow knitter is that this isn't so much of an issue!

Sticks: 2.5mm KnitPicks Harmony fixed circulars.

Time: 31 August 2009 (yes, the day before my Week of Wollmeise!) - 11 December 2010 (um, it took me a while to block and post them to Sarah - my excuse was I wanted to avoid posting during the christmas rush!). I had a bit of a break in the middle there due to my pregnancy induced Wollmeise aversion - luckily for me, Sarah was very understanding of the delays!

Socks!

After what seems like an age, I finally have another pair of finished socks! Although not Personal Sock Club socks, I'm afraid. I have seriously dropped the ball on that idea!

Details

Pattern: Generic stocking stitch toe up sock, using Judy's Magic Cast on and Wendy's toe up gusset heel flap instructions for the heel, and a sewn bind off (after earlier trying to be clever and failing with a tubular bind off - and you all know how that turned out!).

Yarn: Wendy Happy, a 75/25 bamboo/nylon sock yarn, in colour 2502 Gemini. I picked this up in Tasmania last year, to match these shoes:

Pretty happy with these!

Sticks: I knit these at a tighter gauge than usual, as I was a bit worried the bamboo might stretch - so 64 stitches on a 2.25mm KnitPicks 80cm circular (normally I'd do a 64 stitch sock on 2.5mm at least). And they fit great! Hope they'll hold up with washing and wearing.

Time: Oh my...I just checked and I started these on 21 May last year!! I didn't realise it was quite that long!! That's what happens when you keep a project for commuting and rarely commute! I finished them on 10 April - so not quite a whole year...

One of these things is not quite like the other one!

I actually didn't intend to make the stripes match between the socks, but as it turns out, with the exception of the toes, they did! Totally on accident! I did the sock with the orange toe first - and there was a knot in the first grey section - obviously, the first bit reversed the colours. But I can still hardly believe that the second sock matched the first so well. I'd never have achieved that if I'd actually tried!

Desperate Measures

You know the saying "desperate times need desperate measures"? Well, I had one of those a few weeks ago.

Well, I probably wasn't really that desperate. But it did involve me taking the scissors to my knitting. And I wasn't doing a steek...

So I've been knitting these socks (RavLink) - just plain stocking stitch toe up socks in my Wendy Happy bamboo sock yarn. I thought I'd try a new tubular bind off method that I'd read in Wendy's Socks from the Toe Up book. I don't know if it was the instructions, or me (I'll hazard a guess it was me!!) but I stuffed it up royally. Far from being the nice stretchy bind off promised, mine was tight tight tight. Just no good at all. I was so cross - I reckon it took me at least an hour or more to work this method - which involved kitchenering (!!) ALL 64 stitches on the needle. GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

So into the naughty corner the sock went.

And then I finally pulled them out, and pulled out The Good Scissors.

And did this:

Ending up with this:

After about 20 minutes of painstaking frogging and putting the correct stitches back on the needle, I had this:

And then I did my regular sewn-bind off. And all was good with the world.

********************************

Speaking of making things better with the world, this Saturday (yep, tomorrow!) is Earth Hour. If you haven't signed up already, it's not too late. And turning off the tv, the computer, the lights and any other unnecessary electrical appliances, for an hour (or more if you like), and burning some candles, is a really nice way to spend an evening. I guess that means I'll have to cast on a nice easy garter stitch project...

Ah, so much better now...

I feel so much better now that I have these monkeys off my back (or more correctly, my WIP list).

I don't know why, but I found these socks a real slog to get through, particularly the second one. I don't usually suffer from second sock syndrome, and this pattern is ridiculously easy, so I'm not sure why I found these a trial.

But they are done now, and I am glad!

Details

Pattern: No-purl monkeys, pattern adapted by CraftyPancakes from Cookie A's Monkey socks. The no-purl variation is so easy - it's an 11 row repeat, with only 4 pattern rows, with the rest being all knit. And I think it is nicer than the original and works equally well with variegated yarns (one of the great advantages of the Monkey pattern).

Yarn: ShiBui sock in Pebble (col 3001). This is a really nice yarn to knit with, similar to Koigu or Louet Gems, but it can suffer from pooling, depending on your gauge. I checked out the projects on Rav in this colour and there were some shockers (if pooling is not your thing). Fortunately, mine striped rather nicely, except for the gussets, which I can live with.

Sticks: KnitPicks Harmony dpns, 2.75 for one sock cuff (I forgot for the second one!!) and 2.5mm for the rest.

Time: October 4, 2009 - February 2, 2010. And these were my May 2009 Personal Sock Club socks!! And I'm not going to start another pair from the PSC until I finish at least another sock wip (more on that in time!)

Modifications: I did a tubular cast on for these, which is a bit more fiddly than my usual long-tail cast on, but does make a slightly nicer stretchier edge, always good for socks. I chose an easy version of the tubular cast on (the first method described in the link), I probably should try the even fiddlier version because I suspect that looks even better (eg this one).

Despite my lack of enthusiasm for knittign these socks, I really am pleased with the outcome! Apart from any other considerations, a finished pair of socks is another pair that can actually be worn!

It's time again

It's time again for Southern Summer of Socks!

We've decided this year to host the group mainly on Ravelry, since it worked really well for the Tour de France KAL.

Hopefully lots of people will join us!

As for personal challenges this year, I think it will be pretty simple for me:

1. Finish 2 pairs of socks from my personal sock club (including the ones I'm currently knitting!) before the end of this year

2. Try to finish the other 5 (yes five!!) pairs of socks I also have on the needles right now, by the end of SSoS!

FO Friday

So I figure to get through this month of blogging every day, I might need some regular posts. So I'll start with FO Friday. Of course, this means I have to, you know, finish stuff every week ... so hopefully that'll happen too!

Fortunately, for today's first FO Friday, I have something I whipped up a little earlier (well, ok, I finished it the other day). Just in time for spring's warmer (ie not sock wearing) weather, I present my favourite ever sock pattern (so nice I've made it twice!), the embossed leaves socks!

Details:

Pattern: Embossed Leaves socks by Mona Schmidt, from Interweave Knits Winter 2005 and also Interweave's Favourite Socks book - buy this book, you won't regret it!

I am a total sucker for a knitted leaf. Pretty much anything with a knitted leaf on it and I'm there! Not everything mind, but just about! I simply love the ability to create one thing (a leaf) out of something completely different (knitting), and still make a practical, beautiful item (socks!).

Yarn: It was so good the first time, I figured I wouldn't mess with the recipe. Koigu KPM, 2 skeins of mossy olive green (col 231/0204). Love! I have seen these socks knit in other colours, but because I am literal, I do think they must be knitted in green! (although I do accept another autumnal colour may be appropriate as a second choice!)

Sticks: The cuff is 1x1 twisted rib, which can run a bit tight, so I used 3mm sticks for the cuff, changing to 2.75mm for the main part of the sock. This is probably a bit loose for Koigu, really, but important to ensure fit!

Time: 2 June 2009 - 25 September 2009. To be fair to these socks, they actually are a quick knit. I just had a bit of a break between sock #1 and sock #2 to work on other things.

Modifications/What I learnt: No modifications. I even tried the weird cast on prescribed for the sock, and found it didn't work - ie I couldn't get the sock over my ankle. Instead of ripping, I figured I'd try undoing the cast on, and doing a sewn bind off. To my utter surprise, when I undid the first cast on row, I ended up with a tubular cast on edging, which is probably what was intended, but not described properly (in my opinion) in the sock cast on instructions.

(I don't know why, but my camera ate the colour out of this photo...)

For the second sock, I did a different tubular cast on, and it worked perfectly! A lovely stretchy edge which fits over my ankle easily. Very clever and I will definitely use it again. If I can remember which one it was! (No, I can, it's the one where you cast on half the number of stitches using waste yarn, then do yo's between every stitch on the first row with the regular yarn, then do a bunch of rows where you slip every second stitch, you all know the one I mean, right? Right?)

I especially love the toe in this pattern, as the purl stitches and decreases continue the lines of the last set of leaves to finish them in the toe. So clever!

And finishing these socks means that I can get out my, um, MAY personal sock club package...well, what's a few months between friends?!

I did it!

I darned the socks! Huzzah!

Thanks to everyone for their excellent tips, especially Jan for her very detailed instructions, and to StitchBliss for the link to this video tutorial (which has a most amusing serious voiceover but which has an excellent level of detail!). Oh, and to Gae for suggesting to put a rubber band around the base of the sock-covered mushroom - that does make it a lot easier, by holding the sock in place on the mushroom (because it's a slippery little sucker!)

When I stretched the sock over the mushroom, I noticed a lot of weak spots around the hole, so I didn't end up sewing around the hole, but just started weaving through the sock, starting in a strong point and working from right to left to cover the weak spots and the hole, and ending on the stronger point again.

Then I turned and wove the other way, including the actual weaving portion over the hole.

All covered up!

When I turned it right side out, I found I had some strands that were not quite woven in as well as I would have liked, but all in all I'm pretty happy with this darning business.

I still hate sewing, but ten minutes of it to save a week of knitting - it's totally worth it!