Tag Archive | handknit socks

Boy Socks

I have made lots of socks for myself, several pairs for the girl, a pair each for a couple of SILs, and a pair for the husband. Somehow the boy has never gotten a pair, maybe because he was still growing? Maybe because he’s a teenage boy and sometimes their feet are…well, I’m sorry but sometimes they are a little gross, and I wasn’t sure I wanted to put good yarn on them. But he’s a good kid and I love him so I decided he needed a pair of socks.

He asked for a basic color, and I got him to agree on blue. But not a bright blue! And no stripes. No variegation. Just blue. I had resigned myself to pretty boring socks but then he agreed to a gray cuff and toe, so that’s something at least. It took me a while to get going but yesterday I needed a break from my huge endless Dotted Rays shawl so I picked it up and made it past the heel.

The yarn is Seven Sisters Arts Meridian Tangled Up in Blue and man, it’s a lovely yarn. It’s knitting up snug and dense and it feels soft in my hand but nice and durable in the sock. And the blue? I thought it would be boring but it’s gorgeous! I’m kind of glad that the boy asked for short socks–I’m hoping to get some shorties for me out of the skein too! He has long feet, though, so it may not happen.

Today I’ll go back to the Dotted Rays while I’m watching the US Open. I’m on wedge 13 of 15 but each wedge takes forever. I don’t mind the loooong rows if I have tennis to keep my brain busy! We had some family in town so the last couple of days have been a little chaotic and crazy at times, so I’m looking forward to a quiet, peaceful day at home today.

All the socks

Aug26

I cast on a new sock yesterday, giving me a total of four sock projects. They’re all relatively plain socks in varying stages of completeness. Commitment issues maybe?

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Yarns: Knit Picks Stroll, Mountain Colors Twizzlefoot Sock, Ancient Arts Sock, Biscotte Yarns Bis-Sock.

I’m going to commit to the newest sock, which is that pretty blue/green second from the left. It’s a new yarn for me, Twizzlefoot Sock Yarn from Mountain Colors. It’s super squishy and fun, a slightly different texture than I’m used to. I’m not sure if these will be for me or the girl!

Along with those four sock WIPs, I have three other WIPs on my needles: two shawls and a lace cowl. I think that might be more than enough for me. Now I need to buckle down and start finishing some things!

I’m a Ravenclaw

Jul27

Family Fun Day was a hit, I think. We toured the American Jazz Museum at 18th & Vine, which was really cool. Best part for me was the Ella Fitzgerald exhibit, complete with one of her gowns!

We had bison burgers at a fun restaurant, bought too many records at the record store, and saw Ant-Man and the Wasp at a fancy new theater which had leather recliners, complete with seat warmers! It was quite a day, but by the end I think we were all tired and ready for some quiet time.

I did take some knitting in the car with me, of course. Once I’d finished Jungle Boogie, I had to cast on a new pair immediately. Apparently I’m unable to go without at least one pair of socks on my needles at all times. It was hard to choose which yarn, though! At first I thought I’d use my Ancient Arts T-shirt and Jeans, but the more I looked at it, the more I realized it needed to be something even better than socks.

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I set it aside and rummaged through my self-striping yarn, finally deciding I needed to make the Biscotte Yarn Ravenclaw socks to go with my Gryffindor socks. I cast on Monday during my lunch break at work, and this will be my lunch/car knitting. Can’t go wrong with a vanilla sock in self-striping yarn! I did manage to get a few rows in while at the movie, but once I dropped a stitch I decided to set it aside until I had some light.

I don’t know that I’ll make the full set of houses. Yellow is my least favorite color, and do I really want to wear Slytherin socks? Okay, yes, some days I would totally wear Slytherin socks. But then if I make those, I have to make Hufflepuff just to have the complete set, right? Right. Bring on the yarn!

FO: Jungle Boogie Socks

Jul24

This is the final finished object from my busy weekend of knitting. Finishing the sweater and the Easy shawl felt so good that I wanted to wrap up the last project on my needles, the Jungle Boogie socks. I was just past the gusset decreases so it was easy stockinette in the round for a few inches. I watched some Fixer Upper and read some of An American Marriage (it’s super good so far) and grafted the toe late Sunday morning. Time to boogie!

Here’s the one tiny flaw in these socks: I can’t figure out how to photograph that bright, almost glow-in-the-dark green! I tried in different places, with different light, with different camera settings, and it just stumped me. Suffice it to say it’s really really bright, and these are amazing socks! I absolutely love the color combo. I’m especially proud because these are my first socks where the stripes match almost perfectly.

The yarn is Show Me Yarn Bootheel in color Jungle Boogie. Their yarn has quickly become my favorite sock yarn. The colors are vivid and fun, and the yarn is soft in my hand but still sturdy and firm, making socks that feel durable. It washes wonderfully and feels great on my feet. I’m sad that I only have one more skein in my stash. The contrast color is Amethyst Cherry Tree Hill Supersock Solids.

And with these socks done, my needles were EMPTY. That is a rare occurrence, and it felt so refreshing. But the best part about it was feeling free to cast on all the things!

Oh, and good news: my sweater has been washed and dried and it relaxed so beautifully! The yarn is much softer, and it has a lovely drape. The sleeves are way too long but I ended up with a sweater I can wear, so I call that a win.

I miss knitting

Jul13

It feels like I haven’t been knitting at all the last three weeks. We’re pondering the idea of stepping away from the fixer-upper life that we’re immersed in, so I’ve been spending most of my spare time doing a lot of heavy cleaning in preparation for listing it. I swear, this house hasn’t been this clean since we moved in, and it’s nice to see it all pretty and shiny. But man, I’m tired. Tired of cleaning and tired of not knitting. I get to do a tooth on my NGY Hitchhiker here and there, but most of my knitting has consisted of a little bit of sock knitting during lunch breaks at work. As a result, my second Jungle Boogie sock is looking pretty good.

Yarn: Bootheel by Show Me Yarn in Jungle Boogie. Pattern: Vanilla Latte Socks.

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Jungle Boogie!

Jul6

These socks are practically knitting themselves, I swear. I can’t believe how fast they’re going, and it’s all because of the awesome gorgeous fabulous yarn by Show Me Yarn! I started these on Sunday, as soon as I finished my last pair of socks, and I’m already very close to the toe.

The yarn is their Bootheel base in a color called Jungle Boogie, which I snagged at Knitting in the Heartland this year, totally drawn in by the colors. It’s not currently available on their Etsy site, but this new colorway is similar. I’m pretty sure I’ll finish this sock while watching Wimbledon this weekend, and maybe even get a start on the second sock.

And now I thought I’d share a photo that perfectly captures what life is like with dogs and teenagers.

Grace loves to sit on the dining room chairs, and apparently the table as well. Had I been there, I would have shooed her off the table immediately. But I was not, and the boy thought it would be more fun to take photos and encourage her naughtiness.

Fine. Yes. I thought it was pretty cute too.

FO: KITH Socks

Jul2

It feels like these socks were on the needles for a long time, but really it was only a little over a month. These are plain vanilla socks with a slip stitch heel, and right now it’s so hot I couldn’t even imagine putting them on my feet so the only photos I have show them on sock blockers.

The yarn is Show Me Yarn Bootheel in Flowers in the Mist, a special colorway for Knitting in the Heartland this year. It came with a matching project bag which I love.

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They really are pretty and they feel delightfully soft and squishy, but as soon as they were done, I was super excited to cast on a new pair of socks in bright self-striping yarn.

This is Show Me Yarn too, in the color Jungle Boogie! I’m adding contrast heels/toes in a lovely indigo from my scrap ball stash. I think I might like bright, crazy yarn like this better than the sedate, subdued yarns.

I’ve had to set my sweater aside for a bit. It’s been so crazy hot, and our A/C keeps malfunctioning, and I can’t have a lump of wool in my lap right now. But I’m on the second sleeve and as soon as it cools off even a little, it’ll be back in my hands!

Sweater is Growing

Jun11

I’ve been knitting along on my Tea with Jam and Bread sweater, and for the most part I’m very happy with it. I was glad to use almost all the navy on the first stripe, and got pretty bored during that middle stripe of the main color. But the French Open finals were this weekend, so I just knit around and around while I watched my tennis, and I made it all the way through the second contrast color. Once I had a good chunk of it, though, I started second-guessing myself. This new color is a tonal yarn, with a short stripey effect. The colors were great, but since the other stripes were solid, I was concerned that this looked weird.

However, I got validation on Instagram and from the girl, so I kept on with it, and it’s growing on me. It is kind of unusual but now I think I like it. This will be the fun pop of visual interest on the sweater. I’m now on the last stripe and I’ll be figuring out this whole pocket situation soon. I’m not really sure how it’ll work at this point, but if I go step by step, it’ll be fine.

I also have a finished sock, though I have no idea how I managed to get that done this weekend too. But I grafted the toe yesterday after the men’s final (I couldn’t do that while watching Rafa! I’m good at Kitchener stitch but not that good!).

It’s a plain cuff-down vanilla sock with a slip-stitch heel. The yarn is Show Me Yarn Bootheel in the special KITH color Flowers in the Mist. The sock feels wonderful, kind of squishy. I can’t wait to wear these! (Okay, I can, because I don’t want fall to be here yet. But I am looking forward to it.)

Alas, I did not knit in public for Worldwide Knit in Public Day on Saturday. I wasn’t in public at all that day, you see. But I did knit at the brother’s house for a family birthday party, so that’s pretty close.

FO: Monkey Socks

Jun1

Thank goodness these socks are finally done! They lingered on my needles for four months! Yes, FOUR. That’s eons for a sock, I’ll have you know. The first one went quickly because I was eager to see how it looked. And it was cute! I liked it. But man, the SSS (second sock syndrome) hit hard with this one. Turns out, I don’t really like knitting with brown. Brown isn’t pretty or fun or interesting to me. So I had to force myself to finish it just so I could call it done and put the yarn at the back of the shelf where it belongs, freeing up the needles for yarn that is beautiful! Anyway, bottom line, this squeaked in at the end of the month to become the fourth pair of socks finished in May.

I am quite pleased with them; I think they’re adorable. And I’ll have fun wearing them. But the brown is destined to become an accent color for future socks, and any other sock monkey knitting will have to be self-striping yarn! If you’re interested in details, you can see the project page on Ravelry here.

More fun has been my new sweater project! Despite the continuing heat, I have been merrily knitting along in the evenings and am over halfway through the navy stripe. Eight more rows and I’ll be ready to divide the body and sleeves! I’m looking forward to that; these are LONG rows right now. But look how pretty it is:

My goal is to get the sleeves on waste yarn and a good chunk of the body done this weekend, though I do have a recital and graduation reception for the girl tomorrow. With the exception of the sweater, I have a bit of finish-itis right now, so I think this sweater and the flower socks will be the focus of my knitting efforts for now. That is, if I can resist the siren call of the new Wonder Woman sock yarn I bought from a Ravelry destash…

Oops, I did it again

May25

I started a sock. Yes, the spell of the shawl is broken. I didn’t knit at all yesterday; I had lunch with a friend, then went home early with a muscle spasm in my back. The meds I took for that weren’t conducive to knitting, let alone lace knitting. This morning when I was getting my things together for work, I immediately grabbed this new yarn and project bag. Partly it was because I figured I’d have lunch with my knitting friend at work and needed something easy, and partly because I wanted something new and fun to work on. Specifically, I wanted my Flowers in the Mist kit from Knitting in the Heartland!

The yarn is Show Me Yarn’s Bootheel base, and it was dyed to match this gorgeous project bag (which also has two coordinating stitch markers!).

You could only get it at KITH this year, I believe, and I’m pretty sure I was the first one to snatch one at the special night of shopping after Franklin Habit’s keynote address. (I can move fast if yarn is involved.) I actually did cast on right after KITH but set it aside after just a few rows because I got distracted by other yarns. But now I want these pretty flower socks!

I just made it past the 1.5″ of ribbed cuff so it’ll be lovely mindless stockinette for a while, and I can see how the colors behave. I might not wear them for a while, but it will be nice to have them waiting for fall!