So I did finish the sock.

And I started the next one. And I only ripped back the cuff part twice. Once for thinking I still had the chart memorized from the first sock, and once for not paying attention.



But it's OK, because these may be my favorite socks EVER and they're worth getting right. We'll ignore that one of the motifs starts in a different place on each sock (again due to thinking that I still had the chart memorized from the first sock), OK?

And it's time for the Knitting Olympics. I was a year late for the first go-round, and so I've basically been looking forward to the 2010 Olympics for three years. But now that it's here, I don't wanna. I have two pounds of wool sitting by ready to be spun into a sweater amount of yarn and right now I don't wanna. "Don't wanna" is probably not part of an Olympian's vocabulary, but this is my hobby and I don't want to make it suck. For one thing, I keep swearing off big spinning projects, and I keep starting them. I have a 3-ply sock yarn on the new wheel* now that's been going since December, and I am not a multi-project spinner. Also, someone I know has a birthday coming up soon, and her mama has decided to sew her not only a birthday dress, but toys as well, and I don't think she should put that off until the last minute. Especially since the party is at our place. And it might still be chilly, so she might need a knitted shrug to wear over her sleeveless party dress. So will I compete or not? If I decide I want to, I will. Maybe I'll finish that sock yarn and knit the socks. Some challenge, huh?

* Did I mention I got another spinning wheel for Christmas? No? Well, that's a whole other post.

I leave you with this image from today. Blurry spots are snow on my lens.

Snow angels, she says, are not so fun after all.

I may never finish knitting this sock.

I've had this sock yarn (Lorna's Laces in Old Rose) in my stash forever, mentally tagged with this pattern (Nancy Bush's Traveler's Stockings). I think Grumperina knit that combo way back in the day, and I thought it was pretty. I think I maybe even tried the pattern in a different yarn somewhere along the way and got lost in all the twisted stitches. But not this time. This time, those twisted stitches were actually fun.



But, alas, the fun ran out all too soon, leaving me with nothing but stockinette and zigzag clocks. And as much as I love a sock with clocks, these clocks are driving me crazy. For some reason, I am obsessed with having one clock zig where the other zags, and it doesn't take very much mindless knitting for me to get them going at different rates. Which leads to dropping of stitches and fiddling and frustration, and, finally, ripping.



But at least I have this shiny new little nook in our bedroom in which to be frustrated with my knitting, accompanied by my favorite podcasts.



My mom bought me the chair at an estate sale. It's really too pretty to cover up with my lace, but you have to put the lace somewhere, right? How else do you enjoy something that you have knitted but will never wear? One of these days I'll even get curtains up in our room.

Oh, and that door behind the spinning wheel? That's the wool closet.

Um, happy 2010!

Turns out I still knit socks.

Between "I'm no longer interested in doing a lot of fancy work on socks that are hidden by pants and shoes," and "Stockinette socks are cute, but they sure are boring to knit," and "How many pairs of handknit socks does one person need, anyway?" (my count: 23) I was beginning to think my sock-knitting days were over, at least for a while. But then I got a case of cold feet (literally), and, suddenly, socks were appealing again. Before I knew it, I had finished three pairs of socks during Socktoberfest, without even meaning to.

First up, Spina di Pesce by Yarnissima (buy the pattern here or through Ravelry).

My Ravelry Project
Wollmeise yarn in "Tiefer See" [Deep Lake], the dark version
US1s

I started these back in March and knit the first one straight through, but then knew I would need a break. This sock also possibly led to the feeling of "All that? For a sock?" I was also worried that I had knit it too tight and too tall (even though I firmly believe Wollmeise socks should be tall), so I shoved it in a closet and forgot about it. But then I pulled it out and tried it on, and, yeah, it's a little difficult to get on, but it fits pretty well, and, for a tall sock, might just stay up. So I knit the other one, which came out slightly larger, even though I'm pretty sure I used the same needles. I guess I've mellowed out lately. The camera picks up on the skin showing through in spots more than is obvious in real life. Also, it doesn't define the cables that well, but they look sharp in person. I'd definitely knit another Yarnissima pattern.

Then there's the Retro Rib socks by Evelyn Clark, from Interweave's Favorite Socks.

My Ravelry Project
Koigu, with leftover Wollmeise for the contrast toes
US1.5s

My husband bought this Koigu for me late this summer. He had a work appointment on the same block as the Shabby Sheep in Dallas, and came home with yarn -- six skeins of Koigu. He said he didn't even ask for or accept any help in the yarn store, this is just what he picked out, because he was concerned I hadn't been knitting lately. He's a good boy. So I cast on for these socks, got a couple of inches into the cuff, and then left them in the Jeep for a while. I just wasn't feeling it. But now they're finished and soo soft. Once again, I knit a tall cuff, which meant I ran out of yarn before finishing, but some leftover Wollmeise saved the day.

And last, but certainly not least, while I was enjoying my handspun socks in New Mexico, I decided I needed another pair right away. Luckily, I didn't even have to wait to spin the yarn, because I had some lovely Fleece Artist spun by Karen at String Theory that I received in the HHHH swap. So, following some tricks I learned from the Yarnissima pattern, I whipped up some plain ribbed socks.

The color in the first photo is more accurate (and, look!, it matches my sock bag).
My Ravelry Project

I even knit a sock for my husband!

See Ravelry for details.

But he's going to have to wait a little while for the second, because I'm busy trying to finish Mom's lace. My Nancy Bush Estonian lace book should be here tomorrow, and I have some lovely silk lace yarn that I've been hoarding, and I'm sure I'll want to cast on for something ASAP.

This is why I shouldn't get in too much of a hurry.

Even though I weighed the finished first sock and the remaining fiber and so determined that I should have more than plenty to knit another sock just like it, this happened.

I guess I was in such a hurry to spin the yarn for the second sock that I spun it a little thicker. And even though I had 1/2 oz. extra, I still came up short. Which led to this:

I still need to cut the cuff off of the first sock to match and redo the cast-on/off for both socks. You know, after one more row of this:

Delusional.

So, I spun up half the roving for the MIL socks and told myself that I'd knit the first sock while I was spinning the yarn for the second, all multitasking like. Except it's hard to multitask two activities which require both hands. I vaguely remember thinking after I turned the heel that I should stop and go back to spinning, but I finished the sock anyway. And then I spun the rest of the yarn. And then I couldn't work on the project while it was blocking.

It's certainly not the end of the world; the first sock went pretty fast, so I should be able to finish by the weekend, anyway. And it gave me a chance to finish the 4-ply cabled handspun socks. This morning when DH woke up, he said, "I'm going to wear my new socks today!" and was disappointed when I told him I still had to weave in all the ends from the stripes, so I got to it first thing this morning.

I duplicate stitched a faux toe seam to tie in the stripes, and I think it really works. Rugged, manly socks. They feel slightly rough on the feet, but very cozy. The yarn was a little splitty to knit with, but worth it if the color placement or durability of the cabled yarn is a goal.

Oddly enough, aside from the colors, the rovings for both pair of socks looked pretty similar. It just goes to show what a difference the spinning can make. I don't think I'll ever get tired of that.

More of the same.

I was itching to see what all that work would look like knitted up, so I started some socks for DH with the 4-ply cabled sock yarn. I started two at a time on two circulars toe up, but gave that up in a hurry because, 1) I hate knitting anything two at a time, 2) While I prefer two circulars to magic loop, I prefer DPNs better still, and 3) I'm not a big fan of toe-up, either, so I should stick to just one thing I don't like per pair of socks, I think.

I was able to work in an extra inch and a half or so in the cuff by adding some stripes in matching stash yarn. It's not superwash like the handspun, but, really, if these socks ever see the inside of a washing machine I think I'll have a coronary anyway. Ignore the odd blue yarn laying over the yarn ball -- that's a scrap from the shell socks that I didn't notice until I uploaded the photo. I'm such a poor housekeeper.

I've had to leave them by the wayside while I quickly spin and knit socks for my MIL, whose birthday is this weekend. Since she helped buy my wheel and has generously mailed me mohair and promises of wool are on the way, I figured some handspun socks are due.

This may be my best handspun sock yarn yet. I split the roving four ways lengthwise, predrafted two of the strips (unusual for me) and spun them onto a bobbin at the second-highest ratio, and then Navajo-plied them on the lowest ratio. I only meant to go down one ratio for plying, but I must have been tired, because I went down two. Anyway, I'm loving the colors and the softness of the less-tightly-spun-than-usual sock yarn.

If it wasn't for things like dinner, laundry, and dogs, I think I'd have no problem getting these done in time. As it is, I think it will be a little bit of a push. Bruneaux got out of the sunroom where he is sequestered from the little dogs this morning (turned the knob and opened the door!) and thankfully I saw him in the backyard before I hopped the fence. He's become quite the handful.

I also feel a little guilty about neglecting other projects that I was hoping to get done this week, like DH's socks, above. And I need to decide which of the two '07 holdovers to battle next. The gloves have sat stagnant since I finished the first and decided that I wanted to do a roositud tutorial on the blog with the second. Mom's cardigan needs sleeves and probably a new neckband, but since I'm making it up sort of as I go along, there's lots of room for error.

Personally, I think it makes a rather nice vest, but, alas, it was a cardigan that was promised.

No second sock syndrome here.

I've been churning out socks like a mad woman.

First off, another 2007 holdover is finished:

Child's First Socks in Shell Pattern
Nancy Bush, Knitting Vintage Socks
Sundara Sock Yarn in Indigo over Aquamarine
US0 DPNs

I started these socks in December, and they were my purse socks. It took me about three months to finish knitting the first one -- actually, to even get to the heel of the first one -- because they had several perceived problems. First, I had decided to knit them on US0s instead of the recommended US1s because I wanted the lace pattern to open up a little more when worn, and I have this thing lately about snug-fitting socks, but then I was afraid that they would be too small. Second, the yarn tangled on everything in my purse, and the socks came off a needle or two more times than I'd care to count. I was just frustrated with them. But, since I am slowly knocking out the carry-over projects, and socks knit up pretty fast, they got moved to the top of the queue. And when I got the first one finished, I was so in love with it that I knocked out the second within another week. I really like how the subtle variegations in the blue yarn really highlight the shell pattern, and the fit turned out to be spot on.

The Cherokee-inspired Jaywalkers are also finished:

Jaywalkers by Grumperina
Knitterly Things Vesper Sock Yarn in Knit and Tonic
US1 DPNs

The Child's First Socks may be the pair that has taken me the longest to knit, and these may be my quickest pair of socks. Four days for the pair. There's something about self-striping yarn that just makes it go so fast. I think it's because I always want to knit a whole color repeat at a a time, or maybe because it's so easy to measure progress.

I did modify the toes on these, because I figured if I was doing decreases on the instep, why not work them into the toe shaping? So, when I was ready to start the toe (four color repeats from the gusset pick-up), I just left off the first and last increases on the instep and continued the chevron pattern until there was only one stitch on either side of the double decrease. Then I continued the toe as normal, abandoning the center increases as well. I think it looks pretty sharp.

In other news, we're going to have to find a new home for Bruneaux. :( He and Duke used to be best buds, but apparently the had a falling out when we weren't looking, because they've gotten into a couple of fights (which thankfully we were around to break up), the last of which ended in stitches for Duke. I don't think Bruneaux was trying to hurt him -- in fact, I think he was trying not to hurt him, or it would have been much worse, it's only a superficial wound -- but, nevertheless, he just doesn't understand how gently he needs to play with the little dogs. Duke, understandably, is terrified of him now, in that little dog I-think-I-can-take-you-but-I-can't way which is just sure to cause more trouble.

My first instinct was to just keep them separated and put Bruneaux outside a lot more, but he's figured out how to hop the fence. So, we can't keep him outside and he can't be inside with the little ones, which means we have no place for him. My MIL is going to look for a place for him on a ranch where he can be a working dog and get some of his energy out. I think he'll be a better dog for it, and happier, but I will miss him.

So this is what no car payment looks like.

I used to drive a black and white Mini Cooper. It was cute, it was zippy, and it was perfect for city living. But I don’t live in the city any more. And I always said I wouldn’t have that car if there was’t a service center nearby, so it was time to move on.*

So, last week, I sold the Coop’ and set out to buy a Jeep Cherokee. I’ve wanted a Jeep Cherokee since I was in high school, and it just so happens that you can pick one up (a Jeep Cherokee from when I was in high school, that is) for about the same price as I had positive equity in my car.

As of this weekend, this is my ride:

It met all of our criteria but one: the color. Now, before you tell me it’s not that bad and you actually kind of like it, bear in mind two things. One, I have always always always had black cars, so this is extremely bright to my eyes. Two, that’s easy for you to say; you don’t have to drive it.

I think it’s already seeping into my subconscious, though.

* And, honestly, I found the service center was a pain to deal with even when it was nearby. My last visit was the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back.

ISO the perfect handspun sock yarn

I learned to knit socks about a year ago, and in that year I've managed to knit over 25 pairs of socks. So, naturally, when I picket out and received a spinning wheel, my first priority was to learn to spin yarn for socks.

My first attempt was a Navajo-ply. I split the roving in two, and by the second half, I was really cooking with gas. It resulted in some nice stripy socks.

For my next pair, I did a traditional 3-ply. I tried to spin strips at random to break up any striping. The result was a tweedy-looking sock with subtle stripes.

Both successes. But then I got to thinking, a lot of my favorite commercial sock yarns are 2-ply, so why am I focusing so much on 3-ply sock yarns?

Next up, 2-ply merino sock. The roving was merino from Enchanted Knoll Farms on Etsy, in the Fortune Teller colorway. The roving was slightly felted, which made it difficult to draft in places, resulting in a less uniform yarn than I would like, but it is so bouncy and squishy; I love it.

Then the Yarn Harlot wrote about a 4-ply cabled sock yarn, and of course I had to try that, too. I pulled out some superwash merino I had dyed, and I think it came out looking a lot like denim.

The difference between the finished 2-ply and the 4-ply cabled yarns is night and day.

For one thing, the 2-ply was much quicker and easier to make. Two singles, plied once. The 4-ply cabled yarn was much more involved. Four laceweight singles, plied three times.

The color interplay is also worth noting. The 2-ply should look somewhat stripy when knit up, whereas the 4-ply is all tweedy and marled.

The yardage also came out drastically different. I don't remember the yardage for my 3-ply yarns, but it was at least 350+. Enough for plain socks with some left over. The 2-ply yielded about 400 yards. The 4-ply cabled yarn? 278 yards. And you can see in the photo it's a little thinner overall than the 2-ply, too. I was *so* disappointed.

I agonized over what to do about this. Normally, if I thought I would run short of sock yarn, I'd do contrasting heels and toes. But the whole point of a cabled sock yarn is strength, so it would be pretty pointless to spend all that time spinning a super sock yarn and then use a commercial yarn for the places that would see the most wear. I had just about decided to dye up a couple of ounces in a contrasting color when my husband suggested that I just knit as much as I can with what I have (the yarn is intended for socks for him). I guess that's what I'll do.

I'll continue this discussion once I have socks knit out of these last two yarns, and probably again after a while when we've had a chance to see how they're all wearing.

In the meantime, I think I'll stick to the 2- and 3-plies. I haven't had a pair of socks wear through yet, so I think I will avoid the extra work and extra fiber required for the 4-ply cabled for the near future.

Updates

I can't believe it's been a week already since I last posted. The first half of the week I was working hard on the house, and the second half I've been knocked down with a cold. In fact, I'm typing this mainly to stay awake until I can have my next dose of Theraflu, so forgive me if I get a little incoherent. I did manage to get a little knitting and spinning in, though, so I have lots of pictures.

The Baby Surprise Jacket is finished, but this is the only picture I have, so I'll tease you with it. I noticed a discussion of this pattern on Ravelry, about whether it was a process or product knit and whether it was dated. Someone said that whether it was dated depended on the yarns chosen, and I think I have chosen some dated-looking yarns, but, in my opinion, it adds to the charm. Let's just call it retro. I have never been really drawn to the pattern, and knit it mainly because I had about the right amount of yarn for it, but I really like how it turned out. There's something satisfying about folding a mess of knitting into a jacket.

The handspun socks are finished, and they are just about my favorite thing ever.

There's a visible difference in spinning quality between the first and second socks, but you can't tell when you're wearing them. (Yes, I broke them in before taking the FO pic, I couldn't stand to wait!) I love them for their imperfections, just like I love how my very first pair are noticeably different gauges and the grafting sucks.

I spun up the other half of the Ashland Bay merino and plied it together. One bobbin had a lot more on it than the other, so I Andean plied the leftovers, and it wasn't as scary as it looked. Yay for new skills. Makes me want to pick up a spindle again.

I counted the wraps on the niddy noddy, but I didn't write down the skein length, so I kind of forgot. I think it was about 270 yards. I also didn't measure wpi or put a coin in the picture, but it's about a sport weight I think. Let's pretend the dog hair is for scale.

And then last night I did this:

Low twist singles at a fingering-to-sport weight. About 260 yards. This is half the roving, split down the middle like I like to do, and slightly predrafted.

I need to work on spinning thicker yarns on my wheel, and spinning them evenly. Right now the only way I can get worsted is to three-ply.

OK, the dogs are driving me crazy, and it's time for my medicine, so I'm going to take it and go to bed.

I leave you with this funny moment from earlier in the week.

Duchess, the little one on the left, won the tug of war. She's tiny and mean, and the boys know to give her what she wants or bear the consequences.

ZOMG - Sock Yarn!

When I ordered this roving, I was thinking baby sweater, but apparently it wanted to be socks.



I split the roving down the middle and spun half of it up, then chain-plied it. I overplied it on purpose, because I had just read this, and I like how it looks.

I finished plying and started spinning the second single yesterday, and I could hardly wait for the first skein to dry. It came out at about 194 yards and 18 wpi.

I am just beside myself, I love this so much. Here's hoping the second skein is a reasonable match.

Too bad I actually have to be productive today. Stupid Christmas decorations. Stupid laundry. Stupid dust bunnies. All I want is socks.

Take gauge and cast on.

As expected, my Jamieson & Smith Shetland came yesterday. I had intended to knit a swatchcap, but I decided to go quick and dirty instead.

I am so glad to see this thing in natural light. I was running around from lamp to lamp last night trying to see if I liked the colors, if there was enough contrast or if it was all going to blend together. But I think it looks ok. And if I switch the blue and the green in the design above, I think it will look even better. Now all I have to do is take gauge and cast on.

The yarn for the Tomten has, I fear, been delayed. I ordered it from the same place I ordered the first batch from, figuring that's my best chance at matching dyelots. But I have this thing where it's almost impossible for me to buy just one item. I've put stuff down that I really sort of wanted or needed and left a store because I couldn't find anything else to buy. So of course I looked around before checking out. And this bag fell in my cart. (Actually, I wanted to buy it a while ago, but, well, I couldn't find anything else to buy with it.) And I only noticed later that it's backordered.

Lastly, the November sock prohibition has ended. Sunday night I was too tired to knit anything with a chart (so no Aino's Glove or Mom's Cardi), I didn't feel like i-cord casting on for the second mitered mitten, and I was nigh out of yarn for the Tomten, so sock happened.

Sock is good.

I'm no quitter.

So I made a resolution after I finished my Ringwood socks that there would be no socks in November. I've knit 23 pairs since I learned to knit socks in March, and I needed a break. I wanted to knit hats, mittens, gloves, and other small accessories (they'll have to pry my DPNs out of my cold dead hands), but no socks for a while.

I even toyed with the idea of casting on a pair for my husband on Halloween and then leaving them untouched for the month because I had said I'd have a pair on the needles for him until he had seven pair, but the feeling of not having any socks on the needles was delicious, and I didn't want to lose it. So I amended my rule; if I'm knitting socks, I have to be knitting socks for him, too.

It's working. A week into November, I'm tempted everywhere I look. I get my KnitPicks catalog, and suddenly I must knit the New England socks in my green Smooshy. [They looked better in the catalog.] I've been dreaming of knitting some Scroll Lace Socks in my blue Wollmeise. And there's the Fancy Silk Socks and Child's First Socks and Gentlemen's Socks for Evening Wear and Child's French Socks that I've got the yarn picked out for. All your vintage socks are belong to me.

And now Terhi has posted her beautiful Ringwood socks, and all I want to do is knit another pair with a contrast detail like hers.

Does anyone believe I can hold out until the end of the month? Right now the only thing that's keeping me from casting on is that little promise I made that means if I cast on one pair, I have to cast on two, and I still want to focus on the mittens and gloves and hats. And sweaters.

Socktoberfest!

Coming in just under the wire, his and hers Gentlemen's Half Hose in Ringwood Pattern, from Nancy Bush's Knitting Vintage Socks.

Mine were knit exactly according to pattern on US0 DPNs with Wollmeise Sockenwoole in Brombeere (light). The color here is pretty accurate. I love this yarn. And I especially love that there's plenty left over for a pair of gloves or something. Excuse the jeans showing; the socks are so tall, it was hard to keep my pants rolled up high enough. And they're both the same length, despite what the picture says.

His were modified, mainly because I was afraid that the Cherry Tree Hill Supersock (Bark) didn't have enough yardage for half-hose, but he's still got some tall-ish socks. I knit them with US1 DPNs, starting with 64 stitches and decreasing to 56 at the ankle (that ringwood pattern is stretchy!), with a Dutch heel, and worked the foot over 60 stitches. If I had known I'd have so much yarn left over, I'd have knit 40 rows of ribbing on his, too, instead of 20.

I'd knit these again!

Fall Colors Socks

This was the yarn that I petted every time I visited my stash. It had so much potential. When it is fall, I thought, you will become socks. So, when I saw this in our backyard, I knew it was time.

I wound the yarn into a cake and put it in my purse. Things started out well. I decided to learn a few new tricks, so I started with Judy's Magic cast-on. I was hoping for more random color placement, but, the spiraling was ok. I was even starting to 'get' Koigu. Knit on size 1s, these socks had an entirely different feel than my first foray, the Embossed Leaves socks.

I turned the heel (using Wendy's toe-up gusset) and then, suddenly, pooling. I thought Koigu wasn't supposed to do that! I suppose "random color placement" must include both spiraling and pooling. Kind of like how your iPod will chose the same songs over and over when you set it to random. 50/50 odds doesn't mean that half the time you get heads and half the time you get tails; you can flip heads every time. Or, in this case, tails.

I used to wonder (before I learned that there are not only people who don't mind pooling, but also people who like it) what on Earth would cause someone to finish knitting a sock that looked like that, let alone knit a mate for it. And now I know: the same thing that causes traffic jams at accident sites, morbid curiosity. Is it going to get better? Is it going to get worse? When will it end? Until I ran out of yarn. And also, if it's your purse sock, you knit it even when it gets ugly or you have no knitting.

So, for the second sock, I figured I'd continue the theme of trying something new. At this point, what did I have to lose? This time, short row toes. Of course, I cast on 30 instead of 32 and didn't realize it until I was almost done with the toe (major disadvantage of short-row toes!), but, I figured, whatevs, these socks are fugly, I'll just increase to 64 on the first row. The Koigu answered with some more "random color placement." Despite my mistake, I think I prefer the short row toes. I just tied a slip knot with a decently-long tail, and used the tail for my provisional cast-on; no waste yarn required.

I used the same heel, but I reversed the direction of the shaping, using k2tog and ssp instead of ssk and p2tog. Sula's right, that does look better. You can see the difference below, the second sock is on the right.

What could possibly happen next? More spiraling. And then more pooling.

I topped them both with my garter stitch cuff, holding my breath that there would be enough yarn to finish.

And there you have it: a tragedy in handpainted yarn. Unless you like that sort of thing. And, adding insult to injury, they're baggy.

At least I have a trusty toe-up recipe now. But I may be off socks for a bit!