Possessed to Knit

Gyokuro Socks Completed

Here are my completed Gyokuro socks from Cookie A's August 2012 Sock Club installment.  I knitted them for my neighbor, Kristin, who helped us so much when we moved from Virginia to Alabama.  Amongst other things, she sent us our mail that had not been forwarded, checked on our furnace repair, and put out our overflowing recycling.  She certainly is busy enough already with her young family and her novels and we are deeply indebted to her for her generosity.

The yarn is Enchanted Knoll Farm Superwash sock yarn in the Genmaicha colorway and this color happens to look very nice on Kristin.  I used my 2.25 mm Signature Needle Arts 32 inch circular needles.  I hadn't been very happy with the needle joins, but the stiletto tips were very helpful for this project.  I used my 2.00 Addi Turbo needles for the heels, but not the toes.  I thought the size difference would detract from the toe patterning.

I had an issue with the foot pattern and the lone twisted stitch in the middle.  The reverse stockinette before this stitch was looser than the reverse stockinette after the stitch and this made for a very uneven looking sock.  One might see this better on the Ravelry project pages.  For the second sock, I started the Magic Loop on the far right of the foot instead of just before the middle twisted stitch like I did on the first sock, and this improved the disparity between the two sides.  I tightened up the stitches of the first sock with a dpn, a bit tedious, but well worth the result.

Thank you to Kristin for being such an amazing neighbor! 

Lawrence's Manly Aran Socks Completed

These socks are a belated Christmas gift for my good friend, Lawrence.  At the end of January, Al started a new job so we moved from Northern Virginia to central Alabama.  Needless to say, the move put a big crimp in my knitting time.  We are slowly getting back to normal and now I finally have some time to knit and spin. 

The Manly Aran sock pattern is in Wendy Johnson's Toe-Up Socks for Every Body and the yarn is Knit Picks Risata in the Wood Sage colorway which is the closest I could get to Lawrence's favorite color of jade.  I like the yarn as it is a wool/cotton/elastic blend which should keep its shape and not be too warm.  Lawrence received Turkish wool slippers for Christmas and hopefully, he can wear these socks with his new slippers.

Wendy's patterns are a lot of fun to knit and she cleverly designs them so they look more difficult than they are.  For instance, every other row of this design is just knitting the knits and purling the purls.  She also gives a nice range of sizes which I find helpful.  I started with size 0 Addi Turbo needles for the toes and neglected to realize that I needed them for the sole and went to the 2.5 mm Addi Lace needles for the entire sock.  I eventually discovered my mistake (as the socks were larger than I expected) and got back on track.  I also knitted both of these socks at the same time as I have been disappointed when my socks would turn out differently knitting them one at a time.  I found making a neat bound off edge challenging, too, and that took a few attempts, but well worth the effort.

Thank you for your patience, Lawrence, you will receive your socks this week!

 

Sock Experiment

I have been experimenting with my travel socks, which are what I knit when I am standing in line or any other time I happen to be waiting.  The sock on the left is Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks That Rock sock yarn in the X-Mas Rock colorway.  The experiment is that I cut the skein in half and knit one round with one half and then switch to the other half for the next round.  I did this because my first attempt gave me an even uglier green stripe down the middle.  I did stagger the colors when starting the second skein half, but as you can see, there is still a green stripe down the middle (and a yellow one down the back).  So, I will give one of Yarnissima's patterns a try, either Brainless or Fire Starter.  I will not be switching skeins either, as I found it to be a bit tedious and did not like the line of warped stitches where the skein change occured.

The other sock is Yarn Love in the Flirt colorway.  I had tried this on size 0 (2.00 mm) needles and it was too small.  I'm using my new Signature Needle Arts 2.25mm circular 32" needles and I'm not crazy about the needle join.  When I go to move the stitches around to work the Magic Loop, the needle edge catches on the stitches and is a bit of work to push the needle through to the other side.  The cord gets twisty, too, and I wonder if I will eventually break the join.  I'm using Chia Goo size 2.00 mm on the X-Mas Rock socks.  The cord is a bit stiff, but the join is much smoother.  I like the joins on my Addi Turbo needles, but I bend those needles as I knit tightly, so my search continues for the perfect sock needles. 

Maria's Deepest Purple Wollmeise Socks Completed

Here are my completed 100% Merino Wollmeise socks in the Maria's Deepest Purple colorway.  I used my 2.25 mm Addi Turbo circular needles for all but the heels and toes where I used my 2.00 Addi Turbo circular needles.  I have had holes develop quickly in my Saami 100% Merino Wollmeise socks, so I added extra plying twist to this yarn with my spinning wheel before I knitted these socks.  I also made them a little shorter as I have noticed my socks stretching out a bit after wearing them.  I hope I do not have to reknit the heels and toes on these uniquely colors socks. 

Summer Fresh Socks Completed

Here are my completed Summer Fresh socks from the English translation of Stefanie van der Linden's Knit Socks for All Seasons.  I really like this book and want to knit nearly all the patterns in it.  I used Socks That Rock lightweight yarn in the Goody Goody colorway and size 0 (2.00 mm) Addi Lace circular needles for the entire pair of socks.  The crossover cable was a bit tricky, as it involved 6 stitches, but it gives a nice effect. 

I have seen much nicer stitch pattern and variegated yarn combinations on Ann's lovely blog, but this combination worked well enough.  These are very dense socks and each weighs about 60 grams and I am fortunate that my skein of yarn was very generous instead of the usual 100 grams.  These socks turned out to fit my sister, Teresa, perfectly.

Brighton Socks Completed

Here are my latest socks knit with Three Irish Girls Adorn sock yarn in the Brighton colorway.  I used my 2.25 mm Addi Turbo needles for all but the heels and toes where I used my 2.00 mm Addi Turbo needles. 

I worked k2, p2 ribbing for 72 rounds followed by 20 rounds of knitting to a short-row heel down to 12 unwrapped sts.  I then knitted 72 rounds to the toe which I decreased down to 10 sts on each needle.  I passed the edges stitches over the next inner stitches and then grafted the final 8 sts on each needle together.

I almost ran out of yarn and just had a few grams left.  Fortunately Three Irish Girls is generous with their skeins of yarn and gave me more than 100 grams.  Next time I will make the cuffs a little shorter to make certain I have enough yarn.

Turbulence Socks Completed

Here are my completed Turbulence Socks from the April installment of the Cookie A Sock Club.  Cookie includes two patterns along with the yarn, a simpler one and a more complex one.  I find myself choosing the more complex patterns as I really enjoy Cookie A's designs.  I am also introduced to new sock yarns which is a lot of fun as I thought I sampled nearly all of the hand-dyed sock yarns available.

This yarn might be my favorite sock yarn of all time, though I would like to see how well it wears.  It is Socktopus Sokkusu Original sock yarn in the River Styx colorway.  This yarn has a lot of twist and it is springy, so it should hold up well over time.  I'm amazed at how much bounce it had as I have seen springiness disappear when I add extra plying twist to my handspun yarns. 

I made the medium size and used my 2.25 mm Addi Turbo needles for all but the toe where I used my 2.00 mm Addi Turbo needles.  I had enough yarn to knit this intricate design, and I did not have much leftover.  The pattern was entertaining and the yarn was delightful, yet another winning Cookie A Sock Club offering. 

Skyline Parkway Socks Completed

Here are my completed Three Irish Girl Adorn socks in the Skyline Parkway colorway.  This colorway was one of five limited edition colorways dyed by Three Irish Girls last fall.  There are a lot of flecks of color in this yarn so I can only imagine what a challenge it was to dye this particular colorway.

Adorn sock yarn is very nice with 80% merino and 20% nylon.  I used my 2.25 mm Addi Turbo 40" needles and 72 sts for most of the sock going down to size 2.00 mm for the heels and toes.  I like the short-row heel a lot as it is easy to replace when necessary, however, it gives less space in the ankle/heel area than flap heels do.  Going up to a 2.25 mm needle for the leg and foot of the sock helps to compensate for this. 

Now I just need some cooler weather before I can wear these new socks!

Wayward Sock

Here is my completed right sock from the February installment of the Cookie A sock club.  The yarn is Richness of Martens fingering (75% fine superwash merino/15% cashmere) by Alisha Goes Around in the Genevieve colorway.  This yarn is absolutely divine as is the pattern. I am using my 2.5 mm Addi Lace Turbo needles and though the leg fits fine, the foot feels a little big.  I should have used a smaller needle for the sole, but that really breaks up the knitting for me. 

I inadvertently did not check the updated version of the pattern and ended up unknitting 30 rounds so I could decrease 4 more sts after the heel (I should have checked on the number of sts for the toe before I reached the toe) which did improve the fit.  The toe is a bit square even after I moved one stitch from each edge over the corner stitches and I grafted the toe in the ribbing pattern.  It does look much nicer on and it is a lot of fun to knit.  We have already received our April yarn and patterns which is inspiring me to complete this lovely pair.

Cookie kindly includes two of her wonderful patterns to choose from, one more simple and the other more challenging.  Of course, I go for the more challenging patterns.  One modification I did make was to do an eye of partridge stitch heel instead of the ribbed heel as I prefer the look of the eye of partridge stitch.

Punk Rock Socks Completed

Here are my latest socks in Knit Picks Stroll Handpainted yarn in the Punky colorway.  I have found the Norwegian purl to tighten up my ribbing quite a bit so for these socks I used a 2.25 mm Addi Turbo 40" circular needle for all but the heels and toes where I went down to size 2.00 mm.  The slightly larger needle works well for 72 sts (my prefered sock stitch count) and the short row heel which is a bit smaller than a flap heel.

I knitted k2, p2 rib for 72 rounds followed by 20 rounds of stockinette, a short row heel down to 12 sts, and then 80 rounds to a traditional toe.  I have been finding holes in the toes of some of my handknit socks and hopefully, I will not have that problem with this pair of socks.