New Socks For Winter

Yesterday was an autumn day when the wind didn’t stop. It roared outside my walls and took all but the most stubborn leaves off the trees. I’m going to miss waking up and seeing branches covered in red and yellow.

When I started these socks, it was summer and and they were good travel project. When I bound off the cuffs, the weather still felt like summer. I washed them and tucked them away in my sock drawer for winter. Now that the days are getting chilly I’m glad I didn’t slack off and keep putting these aside for more interesting projects. This pair is another of my basic ribbed vanilla sock pattern. To keep them from feeling like a complete slog since my last pair of socks had a 2x2 rib, I went with a 3x1 rib. It’s not as stretchy, but shows off the random patterning of the colors much better. Also, I’m really glad I don’t have to make all my socks match perfectly. It would have been impossible with this yarn and would have driven me up a wall. 

Ya know, knitting socks is an awesome thing to do any time of year. They were one of the things I wanted to make when I first learned how to knit. Even my rage-inducing first attempts with DPN’s could not persuade me otherwise. I’ve lost count of how many pairs I’ve knit over the years and in climates where wool socks weren’t exactly a necessity. Now that I live in the land of snow, wind, and really cold winters, all these wool socks I’ve made seem even better than they did before. 

FO: TurtlePurl Socks

I rarely walk out my front door without knitting in my purse. Having a simple project to keep my hands busy while I’m in line or killing time in a waiting room is a must. Plus, I enjoy it more than playing the same game over and over on my phone. Vanilla socks are my favorite purse projects, but a pair can hang out for so long that I get incredibly bored with them. I try not to chuck the offending socks into a WIP bin never to be seen again though. Instead, I make myself finish knitting, so I can start something new guilt free. Need fewer needles that way too. That’s why I finished this pair of socks, which I cast on way back in March. Going Cold Sheep and #YarnFort definitely had something to do with it too. 

The yarn, Turtle Purl self-striping Absinthe, was a gift from a good friend of mine, and caught my eye when I was rummaging through the stash. The stripes seemed like the perfect thing to keep a pair of vanilla socks interesting. I didn’t even have to do any work to make sure the socks matched since the dyer did all that work for me. I made a lot of progress because I kept telling myself to finish just one more stripe. And when I was figuring out when to bind off, the stripes made it so easy to make sure each cuff was the same length. Self-striping yarn keeps getting better and better. 

This pair followed my default vanilla sock pattern: toe up, a simple rib, about 6.5” of leg, and Jenny’s Surprisingly Stretchy Bind Off. I wanted the stripes to look the same over the entire socks, so I skipped the heel flap and gusset for an afterthought construction. However, instead of adding an afterthought heel, I worked an afterthought leg with instructions from the Houdini Socks by Cat Bordhi. Knitting the toe, foot, and heel in one go was so much less work than making the usual tube and adding a heel later. I didn't worry about having enough yarn for the heel or have to find the right spot in the stripes to join. The technique worked even better than I hoped too. Not only was I able to bind a ready to wear pair, the heels used enough of the stripe repeat to put me back on the green I needed to start the cuff! Adding an afterthought leg is going to be my default method to make afterthought socks from now on. 

Before I get started on the next pair of socks, I’m stepping on my soapbox to talk about blocking for a moment. Blocking works wonders for knitting, even on a basic pair of socks. I soaked the socks in cold water - the water turned a little blue, but the color didn’t fade in the slightest - with a little Eucalan and hung them up to dry. That’s it. I didn’t worry with sock blockers or shaping the socks at all. Once dry the stitches were much more even, and the yarn had relaxed and softened. The socks look better, fell better, and fit better. Okay. Getting off the soapbox now, and putting this pair in the drawer to wait for a cold snowy day. 

A video posted by April Klich (@aprilklich) on Aug 22, 2016 at 4:30pm PDT

FO: Colorado Socks

The yarn I used for these socks has taken a very long, circuitous journey. I bought it on a trip to Denver way back when in 2012 and it came back home with me to Birmingham. It hung out in my stash for years and made good friends with all my other sock yarn. I can’t remember whether it was the part of the travel-stash I hauled cross-country when I moved to LA or if I hauled it out later. Either way, it was a beautiful part of the stash. However, it wasn’t until I knew The Bearded One and I were moving to Colorado that the yarn was ready to be a pair of socks. 

I had this grand idea that I’d cast on, knit the pair up in a flash, and wear them the day we drove into the state. I totally could have done it too if I’d actually worked on them more than once in a blue moon. The yarn was gorgeous and the pattern simple so the socks hung out in my purse. They made pretty good waiting in line knitting and stuck in traffic knitting too. I put a few rounds on them and turned the heels while binge watching Netflix, but they were mostly purse knitting. Other yarn and patterns kept me busy at home. When we finally did drive across the Colorado state line, one sock was finished and I was lackadaisically knitting the cuff of the second. Then there was there that 2 week period where I couldn’t knit at all. Boo. 

When I could knit again the urge to finish all the things took over. The last few inches went fairly quickly at fiber guild meetings, in line at the DMV, and binge watching Haven. I didn’t even even in the ends before I pulled the pair on. After all the waiting, they were just as warm and cosy as I’d hoped.

I did eventually weave in the ends and wash the socks. The pair went on a set of blockers after I squished out all the water which I don’t usually do with non-patterned socks. The ribbing definitely wasn’t as giving when I put them on afterwards - expected, but surprising annoying. Turns out I really like pulling on snug socks. I’m hoping another bath will return the ribbing to a stretchier state. 

Even through I didn’t finish these socks in time to wear them for the move, I’m really glad they’re done. Now the grand plan is to wear them tromping around Denver.  

The Specs:

Pattern: My own toe-up vanilla sock with 2x2 ribbing and an alternating band on the cuff

Yarn: 364 yds Sleep Season Goods Sock Yarn - Two Sugars

Needles: 2.5 mm circulars 

Dates: December 13, 2015 - May 9, 2016

@Ravelry 

Knitting Fail

I had to count on my fingers to figure this out, but I have been knitting for about 10 years. Over those 10 years I have learned a lot about the art of knitting and worked with a lot of yarn. I’ve knit small things, big things, geeky things, comfy things, and completely frivolous things. I’ve also knit things that I am incredibly proud of. Even with all that experience under my belt I still make silly mistakes. Example A, these socks.

They look the same, right? The stripes match, except for the heels. They’re the same length from cast on to bind off. But they’re different.

The first sock I knit on a 2.5 mm needle. I knit the second sock on a 2.25 mm needle, thinking that it was the 2.5 mm needle. I didn’t realize the difference until after the bind off when I had to cajole it on to my foot. The first sock is a half inch larger and much more cooperative. 

This week’s knitting public service announcement: If you ever have to snag your sock needles for another project between the first and second sock, do yourself a favor. Use your trusty needle gauge to make sure you’re using the same size needle for both socks.

After leaving the pair to its own devices for a night, I came up with two options for how to fix it. Option 1, unpick the bind off and rip right back to the toe. Nope. Option 2, wash the socks and stretch the second sock into shape over a sock blocker. That’ll happen as soon as I get my hands on my blockers, but it’s not as necessary as I’d first thought. In the few minutes I wore the socks to photograph them, the tighter sock (on the left) relaxed enough to be comfy. Snug, but comfy. All those stitches were not in vain and I still get a pair of socks!

So this knitting fail wasn’t a complete lose. Plus, I’ll get the added bonus of seeing how long each sock holds up. Will the looser knit but better fitting sock outlast the stretched sock with the tighter gauge? Only time and steps will tell. 

Pattern: Full pattern notes on the Ravelry page.

Yarn: 2 balls Patons Kroy Stripes - Spring Leaf Colors

Needles: 2.5 and 2.25 mm circulars

Date: January 29 - May 27, 2015

Shur'Tugal Socks

I sometimes forget how hard it is to take attractive photographs of one’s own feet only to be reminded whenever I try to document a new pair of socks. I’ve tried several times to get good photos of this pair but they never came out. Either my feet looked like amorphous blobs or my legs took up have the shot or the lighting was terrible or… You get the point. Yesterday, the marine layer filled the sky and the diffused light was perfect for taking photos. So, I took one last attempt and, 5 months after binding off, the Shur’tugal Socks finally get their spot in the limelight.

I love the pattern and I love the yarn, Sweet Georgia Tough Love Sock, but these socks were not a fast knit. At the cast on I wanted a slightly more interesting sock than plain ribbing but Shur’tugal turned out to be more complicated than I wanted for purse knitting. So they languished and spent more time in the bag than they did being knit. They languished even longer when I had to rip out an entire gusset because it started too late. The motivation to finish didn’t hit until a big trip was right around the corner and I really didn’t bringing these unfinished socks cross-country again. I finished them one repeat at a time and finally cast off a few days before getting on a plane.

Of course, there were mods. The biggest was working the socks toe-up though I didn’t bother to flip the charts. No point with this particular stitch pattern. It looks good going up or down. The secret bonus of working these socks from the toe was that it let me test out the stitch pattern. It was stretchy enough for my foot but didn’t have enough give to go completely around and up my leg. I worked a few repeats right after the heel before switching to 2x2 ribbing up the back. No way I’d be able to get those socks on without that ribbing. Plus, it was much easier than figuring how to add an extra repeat in pattern. 

The Specs

Pattern: Shur’tugal Socks by Alice Yu

Yarn: Sweet Georgia Tough Love Sock - Lettuce Wrap

Needles: 2.25 mm Circulars

Dates: Jan 31, 2013 - December 9, 2013

@Ravelry

I haven’t had much of a chance to wear them because, most of the time, LA isn’t cold enough for wool socks. Looking forward to living in a different city where knitted goodness can become a regular part of my wardrobe again.