Tag Archive | sock yarn

One Sock, Two Sock, Bright Sock, Blue Sock

Two socks have come off my needles recently. Sadly, they’re both first socks so I don’t have a new pair to wear, but at least both second socks have already been cast on. First to get done was my Rose City Roller, only I called it my Nebraska Roller since this yarn came from our college visit road trip.

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I’ve slipped it on and can already tell I’m going to love how short it is! I’m kind of hoping I can get two pairs of socks out of one skein. The yarn is Indigo Boulevards 2-ply sock in color Lost Diadem.

The second sock is my Girl Power sock, which FLEW off the needles. I could not stop knitting this sock!

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I love everything about this sock. Everything. The yarn is perfect. The pattern is simple and fits well and is perfect. The gray is the perfect accent to the bright colors. LOVE. Yarn is Show Me Yarn Boot Heel in color Girl Power, pattern is Vanilla Latte.

And then somehow I managed to buy another skein of yarn. I know! It’s crazy. Even crazier? The husband was right there with me when I bought it! We went on a little day trip to downtown Lawrence, Kansas and had to stop at the Yarn Barn of course, and this skein of Malabrigo Sock called my name big time.

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I decided that rather than feel guilty for buying more yarn, I would celebrate the fact that I only bought one skein!

Girl Power Socks

Apr22

It didn’t take me long to cast on some of my brand-new yarn from Knitting in the Heartland. I wound three skeins and cast on two yesterday. Two will be socks, and one I quickly set aside for lunch-break knitting this week. One will be a shawl but I haven’t decided on a pattern yet. And the last will be my new favorite socks, I’m pretty sure.

The Show Me Yarn booth was full of self-striping sock yarn, and they had wonderful samples out so you could see how they worked up. It was brilliant, because then I wanted all of them. One of them had a gray border on either end, and I knew instantly I needed to make socks like that, with gray cuff/heel/toes. I bought a skein of gray, but then decided it needed to go with the set of neon rainbow mini skeins for a fabulous striped shawl. (You can see them all in this post here.) However, luck was on my side because I had most of a skein of Knit Picks Stroll Glimmer in Chrome, and it would be the perfect accent yarn for this skein of Girl Power!

No big dilemma on pattern with these: they’d be my favorite Vanilla Latte socks, only this time I’d follow the pattern as written. I had to push myself through the gray cuff because I was so excited to get to the rainbow, but once I did? WHEEE! It started zooming along and I just wanted to keep knitting to see each color come up. I’ve got a good chunk of the leg done and I’m sure I’ll get down to the heel today because that’s all I want to knit right now.

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The yarn is fabulous, richly colored and soft, and I’m so glad I have three more skeins of their sock yarn in my stash!

Knitting in the Heartland

Apr21

This weekend is Knitting in the Heartland, a weekend-long conference that happens every other year and is put on by the Sunflower Knitters’ Guilt. They usually have a big-name keynote speaker who also gives classes. This year they have two big instructors, Edie Eckman and Franklin Habit, and Franklin was the Keynote speaker. I had so much fun the last time around that I signed up immediately, and last night the Knitting SIL and I joined my work knitting buddy and her friends for the Keynote. Franklin did not disappoint!

His speech centered on five important women in his life, and the shawls he designed in their honor, and his speech was funny, often in very dry way, but also touching and thought-provoking. It made me think about the people who have inspired my creative life, and whether I can be that person for someone else. I really enjoyed listening to him, but I also loved just being in a big room full of knitters! You can’t go wrong with a room full of knitters, am I right? You look around and see all these gorgeous handknit items and there’s no wondering if they made it themselves: you know they did! And we could knit while he talked and nobody was judging us or thinking we were being disrespectful or not paying attention because they all KNOW. They know that we knitters are so clever that we can use our hands and our ears and our brains all at the same time. Whew. Yeah. Good times. And that was just the appetizer, because honestly, as much as I loved Franklin’s talk, the vendor fair was the main course for me.

I beelined for Show Me Yarns immediately. I’d seen a couple of special show-only items on Instagram that I really wanted, and I’m proud to say I was the first one to their booth, where I immediately snatched up a gorgeous matching set of project bag and sock yarn, made especially for KITH. This booth was my favorite two years ago, and my favorite this year too. They had the yarns I wanted the most, gorgeous colors and the self-striping sock yarn that is my obsession right now. And they’re such delightful women too, so funny and happy to joke around and have a great time with their customers. I was more than happy to give them the bulk of my yarn money last night. Their Etsy shop is on a break right now, but you should totally check back with them. I love them. That’s all.

Then I grabbed more yarn, and basically didn’t stop for about an hour. It was terrible, or do I mean wonderful? Yeah. Both. Mostly wonderful. And I saw fun fun stuff. Nerd Girls Yarns was awesome, as always. Not just the yarns, but her displays too.

Isn’t that Captain America shield so cool?? And the Wonder Woman shawl is the crochet version, which I hadn’t seen in person. I still like my knit version better, but the crochet version was beautiful too, very drapey.

And I saw these sock hangers, which I thought were SO COOL!! I mean, look at them! You could totally hang your socks in your closet! If I didn’t have such a small closet, I would be all over this idea. As it is, my socks will have to stay in a drawer.

Whew, it was such a fun night. I just get such a high from being around so many neat people who understand why knitting is so important, people who love it as much as I do.

What? You want to see the yarn? Well. Okay. I mean, I’m not going to do individual photos because that would be too many and too long and I’m almost embarrassed as it is to do a group shot of it all. But since you insist, here you go.

I KNOW. It’s a lot. And it’s all seriously gorgeous. Most of it (top row) is from Show Me Yarns. The purple/gray and blue/purple are from Nerd Girl Yarns, and the orange/pink/green and purple project bag are from Supernatural Yarns.

And now I just want to wind yarn and knit all day long and all day tomorrow and all day for the rest of forever. That’s not unreasonable, is it?

Knitting in Fits and Spurts

Apr15

I’m in my new role at work full-time now, acting just as a temporary back-up for my former teams for a little bit longer, so both the work and my brain have settled down a little bit. I’m not feeling scattered and overwhelmed like I was last week. But I am remembering the “fun” of a new job: that learning curve where you make normal mistakes which make you feel kind of dumb and incompetent for a while. I mean, yes, I know I’m not either of those things, and this job is a great fit for me and I’m loving it. I just like it better when I settle into a job and know what I’m doing. Anyway, less stress at work means my brain isn’t quite as tired at home, so I’ve actually been able to do some knitting! I’ve abandoned my sock monkey sock for now, probably because it’s brown and brown isn’t fun and colorful, and instead I cast on for my first Rose City Rollers.

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The yarn is Indigo Boulevards 2-ply Sock, hand-dyed in Nebraska and purchased when the girl and I were there for a college visit. This is colorful and fun! And I couldn’t believe how quickly I got to the heel; I could get used to making short socks, I think.

My other little project is the girl’s Sockhead Hat. You might remember that this was one of her WIPs that I decided to finish. She’d gotten halfway through the ribbing when I started, and our gauge was crazy different. I tried to roll with it but couldn’t, so I frogged and started over.

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I like it MUCH better now. This yarn is Malabrigo, I think. I love the colors. I’m just about ready to switch needles and start the stockinette body. This will be great travel knitting for all the end-of-year concerts. (And…graduation! Gasp!)

But the most fun thing that happened last week was unrelated to knitting. Lately the boy has been itching to learn guitar, and he’s more excited about it than I’ve ever seen him about anything. So we decided to give in and got him his first guitar, a gorgeous used Les Paul, and he’s in heaven.

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We’ll get him started with lessons ASAP, but he’s spent the last couple of days teaching himself chords and he’s doing really well, apart from the sore fingers. And thankfully he can plug headphones into the amp when I’m tired of listening to him practice!

And for now, it’s cold and snow outside (hooray for Spring?) which means it’s perfect weather for snuggling with pups, drinking tea, and knitting!

WIP no more

Apr4

After two and a half months, which is a ridiculous amount of time, I have finally finished a pair of socks begun in January. These are the Mapleridge socks, a pattern chosen from Kate Atherley’s sock book, which I got for Christmas. I chose the cuff down option, and altered the toe to do my usual Kitchener toe.

I love the stitch pattern; it has such lovely squishy depth. And I think the yarn is a tiny bit thicker than some of the other sock yarn I’ve used, so on the size one needles, it works up into a dense, snuggly fabric.

I’ve tried them on but haven’t worn them so I can’t comment on fit, but I am interested to see how they wear. The heel and gusset are different than the others I’ve made, and the bottom edge of the heel hits a different spot on my foot. Plus there’s that little ridge from knitting into the back loop, and I don’t know how I’ll like that.

The yarn is Madtosh Sock, which is so soft but doesn’t have nylon, and I hope they wear well without getting holes too quickly. Still, I’m in love with the color, the style, the feel, so they’d have to be pretty uncomfortable for me to not want to wear them a lot!

Maybe it’s lucky that we’re having this endless winter? At least it gives me more time to wear my cozy handknit socks!

Working on WIPs

Mar24

I’m actually knitting things other than socks right now, can you believe it? I mean, yes, I do have two pairs of socks on the needles right now, but I also have two other projects! One is my brainless knitting, and it’s appropriately called Easy, by Martina Behm. I had two skeins of gorgeous Madelinetosh DK and I wanted to be able to appreciate the colors, and enjoy the feel of it as I knit along in garter stitch. I’m maybe halfway through the first skein; this is what I pick up at night when my brain is tired but my fingers want to knit.

When my brain isn’t tired, I pick up my Arya wrap, which is more complicated with lace color changes and repeats. It’s not difficult, but I do have to concentrate. I love the shape of this one, asymmetrical with pointy ends.

This yarn is Bamboo Pop and the cotton/bamboo means it will be the perfect wrap for late spring, and cool summer nights. Plus, in black and white, it will be striking and versatile. I’m a little bit concerned that it will be shorter than I want, because the pattern is telling me to start the decrease sections now, but it doesn’t seem long enough. I know blocking will help, but I’d hate to knit the whole thing and then not be happy with it. What do you think: trust the pattern, or try to modify for extra length?

While I ponder the Arya problem, I have a second sock that’s coming right along and is just about ready for a heel flap. These have been my lunch break knitting and I’m eager to have them done for spring.

Yarn is Madtosh Sock in Seaglass (LOVE!) and pattern is Mapleridge. I think I can get the heel and gusset done this weekend so that they’re ready for easy foot knitting next week.

Happy weekend, friends! I’m looking forward to lots of knitting and laundry! (Okay, no, not looking forward to doing the laundry. But looking forward to an excuse to stay in PJs, and having clean clothes.)

Always with the socks!

Mar23

Every time I have a FO lately, it’s socks. Today is no different: I finished my (Not) FlexiFlips Socks the other day and they’re so cool!

These are the ones I started so I could test the new FlexiFlip needles. I didn’t love the needles, though, so they were mostly knit on DPNs. I love that they’re fraternal twins, not identical. I didn’t even try hard to make it happen; the yarn did it for me. The stripes are the tiniest bit non-matching, and one sock might be a hair smaller, but you can’t tell unless they’re right up next to each other, and how often does that happen? Never, I tell you!

The pattern is my favorite, the Vanilla Latte, except I realized I’ve been doing them wrong all along. The pattern says to alternate the rib row with a plain knit row, and I’ve never done that. I always just do all ribbing. One of these days I might try it as written, just to see if I like it as much.

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The yarn is Diversity by Plymouth Yarn, and I really enjoyed knitting with it. It’s mostly acrylic with a little polyester, but it’s smooth and silky, unlike any other acrylic yarn I’ve ever worked with. It felt good in my hands, slid along the needles nicely, and wasn’t splitty at all. And it’s machine washable, which is perfect for socks! (Am I the only one who waits forever before washing their handknit socks??) Plus the stripes knit up nicely and the colors are bright. I’m looking forward to knitting the other skein of it in my stash!

Once I finished those, I felt free to cast on more things, as one does, so I’ve got two new shawls on my needles and I hope to get some photos to share this weekend. It’s a busy spring, partly because this happened recently:

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Yep, the girl is 18 now. Mind-boggling, I tell you. We’ve been in the midst of parties and dinners out and all the spring concerts, so there are things happening pretty much every weekend. I just keep telling myself to appreciate it, because pretty soon the weekends will be empty!

Bye, FlexiFlips

Mar7

I’m making progress on my FlexiFlip sock, but I can’t call it that anymore. I made it a little over halfway through the foot before giving up. I really wanted to make it through the whole sock, to give the needles a fair shot. They felt super awkward at first, then I kind of got used to them, then once I got past the heel and into the gusset/foot, it got awkward again. Well, more uncomfortable than awkward. Maybe I was doing something weird, but knitting with them made my hands feel tight and cramped, and it hurt to knit very long. I found that I was dreading knitting them just because of the needles, and that’s never okay. One should not dread her knitting! So the sock has been transferred to my favorite bamboo DPNs and I am much happier with it. Anyone want a set of size 1 FlexiFlips??

We had a day-trip on Monday, with about four hours in the car, and I made good progress on my Textured Pullover, even if I did get super bored of knitting it. I was smart and wove in all the other ends as I finished each section, so finishing will be quick. I did make a wee error, but I think it’ll be fine. As I read the pattern again for the second sleeve, I realized there were supposed to be decrease rounds all through the sleeve that I completely missed. So my sleeves won’t taper. Oh well. I’m totally okay with that.

Since taking this photo, I’ve made it over halfway through the second sleeve and just need to find the motivation to power through the rest. I think I can, I think I can, I think I can! I just need a good movie marathon to distract me. How do you motivate yourself to finish a lingering WIP?

The best news of the week is that the girl is now all done with her auditions for college! Now we wait for two more result emails, and final talent scholarship offers (fingers crossed) and then it’ll be decision time. I think we’ll all be relieved when it’s all said and done and we can focus on moving forward.

Updates on…everything

Mar2

I don’t have a FO to share today. I can share some progress on my sock, my FlexiFlip sock. It’s going well. I’m getting used to the needles and they’re not feeling as unwieldy as they did at first. They’re still not as fast as DPNs for me but I think I’ll get there pretty quick. I am loving this yarn. The colors are fun, and even though the color changes are different than I was expecting, I like it a lot. I mean, look how cool the heel turned out!

It’s smooth and slick, almost slippery, from the polyester, and maybe you’d think acrylic/poly sock yarn, what is she thinking? But no, seriously, it feels good, kind of cool (literally). It’s a nice switch from the wool/nylon yarn, though I’m sure that’ll always be my primary sock yarn blend. And it’ll make lovely spring/fall socks, I think. So yeah, these are zipping along.

My sweater, however, is not zipping along. I’ve got most of one sleeve done and I’m trying to work on it at night, but it’s boring and I keep having to adjust it as I go around the little sleeve and I’m ready for it to be done so I can wear it. We’re taking one more short road trip on Monday for the last music school audition, so I’ll take that and only that with me and force myself to work on it.

Edward went to the shop and spent a few days there getting a new front bumper and some new shields or something, and it went through my insurance so I only had to pay the deductible. We timed it out so that they could work on it while I was out of town with the girl last weekend, and then the husband and I carpooled on Monday, so I didn’t even have to pay for a rental car. So overall that whole experience was much better than I was expecting, and they did a fantastic job and even detailed him perfectly so that he looks almost brand-new and I love him.

Grace has adjusted wonderfully to her meds for Addison’s disease. I even gave her the injection myself last month! And we were able to lower her steroid dose so she’s not quite as thirsty and ravenous as she was at first. Her energy level is up and she’s very frisky and loves to play with Duncan again. She and Duncan are buddies; Jack kind of gets left out but also I think he feels threatened by Duncan at times. He’s usually pretty happy to hang out with his people while the other two go nuts.

Duncan hasn’t gone into any trouble lately (knock on wood) and keeping them in the kitchen when we’re gone seems to be working well. I don’t love it, but it’ll work until Duncan gets a little older and hopefully outgrows his destructive tendencies.

The girl has received acceptance letters from two of her four schools and I am delighted and super proud of her. We’re still waiting for a decision from one school and like I said, we have the last audition Monday, so we probably won’t have a final decision for another few weeks. We’re very lucky that she’s received automatic academic scholarship offers from all four schools, and a music scholarship from at least one, but even with those, and her college savings account, there’s still a lot of financial ground to make up. It’s scary, and it’s not even my college life! But we so want her to have a great experience, to have the education and flute professor and opportunities that she wants to have. I’m excited for everything that is ahead for her.

At the same time, though, we can’t just pay for it. It’s not feasible, and we can’t take on huge debt for it either. College is scary. If you have kids, start saving yesterday! But we’ll figure it out with a lot of little things. We’ll help a little. She’ll probably have to get a part-time job, a small student loan, and with luck, several of the private scholarships she’s applying for. I know it’ll work out, I really do. But I’m a mother, and a worrier, and those things together are rough when it’s time for college! Life is stressful in my house quite often these days, but there’s still a thread of excitement that comes out just when we need the encouragement.

Sorry this turned out so long; I didn’t mean to ramble. If you’ve made it this far, thanks for your patience!

Addi FlexiFlips: First Attempt

Mar1

I was super excited to find the Addi FlexiFlips on my road trip. I love knitting socks, and I prefer to use three 5″ DPNs, with a fourth as a working needle. I’ve tried 9″ circs and the tips are just too tiny to be comfortable to hold. I haven’t tried magic loop yet because it looks fiddly and weird and I resist trying strange new things. So these seemed like a great combination of DPNs and circs. As soon as I finished my current sock WIP, I grabbed the FlexiFlips and some sock yarn, and cast on.

Or rather, I tried to cast on. I got the needles on the first needle just fine. Then I split them evenly onto two needles. But then I couldn’t figure out how to join them like I would on DPNs. I fiddled for a little while before turning to the experts on YouTube. I found lots of videos on how to knit with them, but they all showed socks with several rows already started. I couldn’t find any that showed how to cast on and join in the round with these particular needles. But I’m not a quitter, so I knit the first row, slid two completed stitches to the next needle, and joined in the round that way. It was awkward, but I think it worked.

Once I got going, I realized it was going to take a bit to get used to them and to figure out how I wanted the needle not in use to behave. It took several rounds before I decided I liked to bunch the stitches onto the cable portion and bend the back needle so it was kind of out of the way. After that I was off and running!

One of the interesting features of these needles is that that have different tips. On each needle, one tip is more pointy and one is more blunt. That’s very versatile for different preferences…except it means I have to pause and make sure I’ve got the pointy tip each time I switch needles.

So far, these make for slower knitting than my DPNs. I can’t tell for sure yet, but I think my gauge will be a bit looser than with my DPNs, and I’ve got to be more careful about laddering, though I think that’s more about the learning curve and getting comfortable with the needles than with the needle design itself. I do like the metal, and it makes me want some Signature DPNs even more. And I like how they fit neatly in a project bag with no worries of stitches falling off! All in all, I wanted to love them, but I don’t. However, I like them enough that I’ll keep going with them through at least one sock and see if I’m comfortable with them after that.

Have you tried the FlexiFlips yet? What did you think?