Tag Archive | sock knitting

Sock It To Me Monday

Happy Belated Mother’s Day to all my mom friends out there in the US. The best thing about the holiday this year was that I got to spend time with family, in person! Saturday night we were out on my Knitting SIL’s patio, celebrating a niece’s birthday as well as Mother’s Day for my MIL. The boy, who usually works all weekend, had sprained his ankle so he was even able to join us. Last night we were on my brother’s deck along with my sister, mom, and my siblings’ kids. We had pizza and very strong margaritas and much hilarity ensued. It just felt so good to hang out with them again, and this time we got to hug each other because we’re all fully vaccinated! I’m looking forward to being more social this summer, especially on my new big deck.

But here’s the thing: today I am exhausted and I don’t want to talk to anyone. Being social has always taken a lot of energy, but now I’m out of practice and I did it two days in a row. I’m even kind of glad the workmen aren’t here today, as much as I want them to finish the job. Today I’m just going to quietly work and knit and pet dogs.

Speaking of knitting, I have socks to share! I finished my first pair of Desert Vista Dyeworks socks, the Twilight-inspired color named Bella and ZomBody Edward.

I used a ball of leftover blue sock yarn for the heels and I’m happy that I got them to match almost perfectly. I just started the toe a row or two sooner on the second sock, I think. Close enough for me!

With those done, I worked on my striped socks, cast on a purple sock for the boy, and pulled out a ball of brightly striped yarn for a new pair of shortie socks. I just love shorties in the spring! The only problem is that I am running out of space for socks.

Does anyone else have that problem? If you have a brilliant sock-storage solution, let me know!

WIP Wednesday

May5

There are a lot of WIPs at my house lately. The house is the biggest work in progress, still. They’ve gotten a lot done but I’m guessing we still have at least a week of work left, if not more. I’m hoping they finish the deck stairs today, and they’ve started putting up the new clapboard siding.

I’m totally in love with my new deck. It’s 12′ deep and there’s going to be plenty of room for the grill and a table and chairs, and maybe even a lounging chair for napping in the sun, plus three dogs. I’m so glad we decided to splurge on a huge deck, since sitting out back with the dogs is my favorite part of this house. Who knows, maybe we’ll decide to stay here after all!

Of course I’ve got my knitting WIPs too. Even though I have probably six things on my needles, I’m still only working on one or two projects at a time. One is a sock and one is a bigger project. I just finished my Walls wrap, which I’ll share Friday, so right now, these are the two.

I’ve got maybe four or five rows left on the sweater before I get to join in the round. I’m still totally in love with this yarn and I think I’m going to love wearing it. And my Twilight sock is growing nicely and look, I even managed to match the stripes! It totally doesn’t bother me when they don’t match, but it does tickle me when they do.

The last bit of news is that we got the boy a car on Monday! He’d had a 1963 Mercury Comet for a couple of years, but they never really got it running, so he wasn’t able to drive it. With us working from home so much, it was no problem for him to just use one of our cars. But things are starting to open up, I might be going back to work at least part-time this summer, and he’s graduating high school this month. It was time to get him some reliable transportation of his own. We found a nice used car with super low mileage, and though it’s not the cutest car, it’s got space in the back for him to lug around his guitars and amps and other music gear.

He seems thrilled with it and I’m glad we’re in a position to be able to help him with this — though it might have been nice if it hadn’t been at the same time as needing to pay for the renovation, haha!

Happy Wednesday, friends!

Nothing finished over here

Apr23

It’s Friday but I have zero FOs to show off. Not the knitting, and not the house. But there has been good progress on both this week. Since I finished my last bigger project (which I think was the Water shawl??), I’ve been focusing on my gradient Walls (Circus) wrap, and it’s getting enormous. When it’s done, it’s supposed to be over nine feet long! I’m on color four of five and to be honest, I’m quite bored with it. But I’m sure I’ll love it when it’s done. I do love the yarn, which is a gradient set from Neighborhood Fiber Co. I also started another sock. I stumbled onto a great sale at Webs and bought several solid colors of Cloudborn sock yarn and had to cast on for a striped sock right away.

The house project is coming along. The demo is done, and they removed the back of the house so they could do spray foam insulation. Insulation wasn’t a thing 100 years ago when this house was built, so I’m excited to get at least one side insulated. Yesterday the crew was here almost a full 12 hours doing the insulation, sheathing, and vapor barrier. It was supposed to rain today (though of course it hasn’t yet) so we’re getting a nice break from the noise and intrusion until next week, when they’ll start putting the clapboard siding back on. After that, it’ll be a deck and paint, I think!

Yes, there will be some windows and a door on this side! Overall, living through the reno hasn’t been as stressful as I expected, but I definitely miss having easy backyard access for the dogs. They’re enjoying all their walks though!

It’s been a productive week over here — hope it’s been good for you too. Happy Friday, friends.

Weekend Adventure

Apr20

Whew, I’m tired, guys. The husband and I went on a quick weekend road trip to visit the girl in Colorado and watch her perform her junior flute recital. We packed two days full of adventure and good food and vaccinated hugs, and it was all fantastic.

Of course I had to visit a yarn store in Fort Collins! And Longmont! Plus the husband found me the perfect travel mug at a kitchen store. So I came home with yarn goodies and a finished sock.

But there was a day of driving on either end, and we came home to minor renovation-related electrical issues, two dogs coming home from boarding full of craziness, one upset dog stomach, one damaged car bumper from an altercation with a curb, plus the usual unpacking etc. Fortunately, the clever husband blocked the gaps in the fence with some temporary fencing, so we’re able to take the dogs to the backyard when the workmen aren’t here. That helps so much! They’ve made amazing progress on the demolition; now they’ll move on to cleaning up the side of the house. The extra wiring and light fixtures will go away, the two upper doors will become windows, and the wall sections will be replaced with clapboard siding. No idea how long it’ll all take, but I’m hoping no more than a couple of weeks. Three dogs and limited backyard access is not fun!

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to take a nap before dinner! Happy Tuesday, friends.

FO Friday: Socks

Apr2

After I finished my Water shawl last week, I went back to socks, and that’s been my main focus this week. I finished the first Ewe Turn Dyeworks DK sock and the second Ella Fitzgerald inspired sock — and I have 54 grams of the Ella yarn left over! I’m totally going to make another pair but with purple contrast bits next time.

Before I do that though, I really need to cast on one of my new sock yarns! I fell deep into the Desert Vista Dyeworks website and couldn’t resist the yarns inspired by Twilight, West Side Story, and Wonder Woman. Pretty sure Bella & Edward will be first, and I might even do a Twilight marathon this weekend while I knit them.

Happy Friday, friends.

Sock It To Me Monday

Mar29

I finished my rainbow shorties late last week, which meant it was time to cast on another sock … even though I still have one sock WIP on my needles. Two sock projects at one time is fine, right? This pair is with new DK yarn that Shannon sent me, part of her new yarn business, Ewe Turn Dyeworks.

The pattern is a simple purl chevron that I got from a book, like an actual book in my knitting library. I’m trying not to use Ravelry and since I have four sock books, I should make good use of them! The DK feels so thick and squishy after doing fingering weight socks but I did have some size issues. Last night I got to the toe and realized the foot seemed larger than usual. It probably would have been okay, but I decided to frog back anyway. I pulled back to the end of the gusset decreases and just did two more decrease rows. Should be a better fit now!

Yesterday Sarah and I tried for one of our outdoor knitting dates, but our excitement about “spring weather” was a little early. Instead of sunny and temps in the 50s, by 1:30 it was only 46, and it was sunny but windy. We survived two hours and even though it wasn’t as long as we’d hoped, it should tide us over until it is actually warm enough!

Hope you had a good weekend too. Happy Monday, friends.

Life besides knitting

Mar24

Let me just tiptoe back into my little blogging space here, see if my mojo has actually returned. I haven’t been knitting as obsessively as usual the last couple of weeks. Instead, I’ve been obsessively playing with LEGO. I say “playing” but I really mean sorting and bagging. The boy used to love LEGO as a child, so we have A LOT of sets, and over the years the blocks got all mixed up. We started sorting them all by color a few years ago, and finished that job last year at the start of the pandemic. Since then, I’ve slowly started putting together the pieces for various sets. Some of them I assemble and display (Harry Potter, Indiana Jones), some I assemble and then bag up (superheroes), and then some I just bag up (City, Creator, TMNT). So the last two weeks I’ve spent a lot of time combing through tubs of LEGO bricks to make complete sets, and bagging them up in little baggies for each color. It takes forever but it’s so stupidly satisfying for me. It’s also satisfying to know that some of these sets will now be going to new homes and out of my attic!

Last weekend was gorgeous weather, so I took a break to play outside. I repotted a few plants, planted a new one in the planter in our front yard, cut back some dead blooms, and watched the husband cut down a small tree. We’re getting closer to our renovation project and I’m getting so excited to have a prettier house! Along the way I also found some pottery shards and other interesting bits in the yard. I think I’ll save them and put them in the bottom of my next potted succulent.

And I have been knitting, just a bit. My Water shawl is almost done so I’ll share that soon. I’ve also got two easy socks on the needles, both second socks, which are perfect for work Zooms.

Happy Wednesday, friends.

Happy Women’s Day

Mar8

Today is International Women’s Day and it also happens to be the girl’s 21st birthday! We’re not able to be together today (darn that growing up business) but we did FaceTime this morning and we’ll see her next week. I feel both as young as I was back then and also like I’m kind of old, but not in a bad way, more of a wise badass away. And she’s well on her way! (To being wise, I mean. Not old. Though she’s on her way with that too, I guess.)

Here’s to strong women: may we know them, may we be them, may we raise them!

I do have a sock to share today, too. I started a pair of shortie socks last week with some leftovers and finished the first one yesterday. Short socks are so much fun to knit!

Pretty sure the second one will be cast on today. Happy Monday, friends, and Happy Women’s Day to all my fellow wise women!

WIP Roundup

Mar4

We are four days into the new month and I’m making good progress on two new WIPs. I had to cast on a new sock of course, and I cast on for the Blogville Water shawl KAL. Last night I made it to the end of the first garter stitch section and I’m ready for the first short row section. Before I dive into that, though, I need to make sure I know how to do the special stitches. Hopefully I can get into that tonight!

But I also have new things on deck! With warmer temperatures arriving, I’m discovering that shortie socks are my favorites for spring, and I only have four pairs. That’s not nearly enough, so I dipped into my bag of leftovers for a couple of little balls and I’ll cast these on later today. The rainbow yarn is my happy mail from today and my first yarn from Desert Vista Dyeworks! It’s Rainbows Run the World with colors inspired by all the women we saw on Inauguration Day. Why do I have two skeins? I don’t know, I just loved it so much I wanted enough! I know one skein will be socks, maybe the other will become a cool cowl or something.

What’s your favorite non-sock thing to make with self-striping sock yarn?

It’s March! And Monday!

Mar1

Hooray hooray, it’s March today! That is happy because it means that spring is coming. We could very well still get another cold spell, possibly even some snow, but somehow it’s easier to endure in March than in February. Plus this is the girl’s birthday month and she will be coming home for a visit and that is also very happy. Another happy thing is that I did manage to finish that sock yesterday, adding one more FO to my February total. (No, I don’t know what the total is. More than two and less than 10, that’s all I got.) These are my Sorry Not Sorry socks from Hedgehog Fibres, with contrast yarn from Less Traveled Yarn.

The first thing you may notice is that one heel is solid pink. That’s the annoying thing about this sock. See, I had a 20g ball of that contrast yarn but once I got past the second cuff, I only had 5.5 grams left and I wasn’t convinced that was enough for a heel and a toe, and I wanted a contrast toe more, so I went the safe route. Of course then I got done and I’m pretty sure I could have done the heel too. Next time I do contrasts, I think I will weigh as I go so I know how much yarn each little contrast element takes.

Now it is March and I carried over only two WIPs, a lace cowl and the gradient shawl. That means I can cast on all the new things, right? I have to have a sock on the needles and I don’t think I can resist my newest yarn, from Kenyarn and inspired by the Ella Fitzgerald Barbie doll. But I am also ready and eager to cast on the Water shawl (Rav link) for the Blogville KAL that Alissa is running. My yarn isn’t very water-ish but it is the only two matching skeins of fingering in my stash and there’s no way I was buying new yarn for this, especially since this gorgeous yarn (from The Periwinkle Sheep) was waiting for a project.

I might also cast on for a hat for the husband, and maybe the cowl with the Woolfolk. I have all these project bags, I might as well put them to good use!

Happy March Monday, friends.