Last of the Summer Socks

I have been as addled as Nora Batty, with her socks right down round her ankles!!!! In spite of events conspiring to stop me knitting, I have made some socks!! In fact I knitted the last sock yesterday and today, egged on by the fact it was the bonus last day of February!!! Lewis is very good sock knitting TV.

There are my Mum's The Word socks, in Blues Cashmere Merino from The Knittery. I used Barbara Walker's Diagonal Fern lace pattern with garter stitch in between.

The The Shocker Socks, in Empire from The BSODL. They're just in 2x2 rib in 8ply for Barry The GardyGardner. His foot is a whole foot long.

And finally The Mauvie Star Socks in Shepherd baby wool. My friend who lives in a mining town in Queensland is coming home so I have made her some Purl-less Monkeys.

I have been a poor poster but I have knitted vicariously through everyone else's socks!!!!

Socks On Holidays - Vote Now!

Here we have the entrants for our Socks on Holiday contest. Thanks so much to our entrants, who shall remain anonymous for the duration of the contest.

Voting opens the moment I hit publish, and will stay open for one week. Get voting! Great prizes abound!

See the side bar for the voting form.

Bells & RoseRed

Look whales! It's a sock!

Hangin' out with my Peeps

Just married!

The architecture of socks

Hello sailor! How about a bit of socks on the side?

...and another pair finished, and another pair started.

My Pomatomus/Sumotamop socks are finished! My yarn contingency plan worked an absolute treat, and I am very very happy with the result. That's six pairs finished for the KAL, and three of them are for me.
I've also started swatching for the next pair, which will be Cardigan socks by Anne Hanson at Knitspot, in some gorgeous Mountain Colours Bearfoot (colourway Indian Corn) that I have in stash. This pattern and yarn were made for each other! You wait and see.

My 9th & 10th Pair

Cast off 2 pairs of socks, one after another .....

Pattern : Back to Basics, knitty fall 07
Yarn : Araucania Semi-solid
Needles : Harmony 2.5mm dpns

Pattern : Wendy's Toe-up Gusset Heel Pattern
Yarn : Opal Acapulco

Needles : Pony Pearls 2.5mm dpns

Read more on my blog & now I am off to cast on another sock !

Time for an update

I just realized that I haven't posted here since my first post in November. Since then, I've accomplished three of my four goals:

1) I have been diligently remembering to knit second socks, and I have completed five matching pairs since November. Two pairs are Thujas, one is basic stockinette from Stephanie Pearl-McPhee's sock recipe, one is similar but with the whole leg in 2x2 ribbing, and one is basic stockinette from a toe-up pattern that I don't remember the name of right now.

3) I have tried knitting socks toe-up. So far I prefer cuff-down, but that may just be because I didn't like the heel on the toe-up pattern I tried. I'll have to try another one sometime.

4) I made a pair of socks for my mom (she got them as a New Year's gift because they weren't quite done for Christmas) and also gave a pair to a charity clothing drive.

That leaves me with:

2) Making socks that are more complicated than stockinette or ribbing. I'm not surprised that this is what's left; I've been knitting to relax more than to challenge myself lately. I'm considering casting on for Monkeys because I've heard that's a good pattern for variegated yarn, but I haven't decided for sure yet.

Nicole

Glib Socks

These are my fifth completed pair this summer and I'm still hitting my "one pair per month" goal. These have been the fastest to knit so far. Less than two weeks from start to finish!

The yarn is Cascade Fixation, which I bought online because the Snook hates wearing wool on his feet. It's thicker than a normal 4ply, and all the patterns I could find were either girly or boring though. I mentioned my frustration to Bex, and she remarked that she was working on a simple sock pattern at the moment. She e-mailed me the stitch pattern and it was perfect. (She's since put the pattern up on Ravelry as a free download.) I knitted these two at a time on two 4mm circular needles. I used Judy's Magic Cast On for the toe, and a basic short row heel for the heel. A little bit of 1x1 ribbing at the top, and Voila! Man socks. (More details in my notebook on Ravelry.)

summer (?) socks

Sorry about the extra photo (not of a sock) but man that was a funny shirt.


Here is half a sock at the cricket on last weekend, Southern Stars (aussie girls) V England for the only Ashes game. We lost, bugger!

Socks No. 5

Well considering I'd never knitted a pair of socks in my life before this Southern Summer of Socks started, I'm now showing pair number 5 !!!! And I'm enjoying knitting them immensely.

I finished these a few weeks ago but only got around to taking a pic 5 minutes ago. The colour in real life is so much better than my camera took, it really is just a delicious colour.


Yarn is The Knittery and the shade is Vineyard, purchased from the wonderful Helen at Knitting Inspirations. I can highly recommend for service and speed of delivery. Most impressed.

The pattern is Fiber Trends, Hellens Favorite Socks. Knitted on 2.75mm needles.

Now I'm up for challenging myself and I'm immersed in a pair of monkeys. Go me!!! LOL

My blog is Pins & Needles.

gratified

i needed a bit of a quick fix these last few weeks so i made myself a pair of 'instant gratification' patonyle ankle socks. finished this morning:


annoyingly, i needed about 55 grams for my rather largish feet:

i would make them slightly larger again, but they are lovely on. they even have properly grafted toes :)

kms xx

Addendum to Socks Ahead

Just to keep sharing the sock love...

:-)

Have a *close* look at the two socks here, can you spot the difference between them?

It's a subtle difference, and not immediately noticed. I didn't until right at the very end of sock #2. These were knitted from two separate balls of the faux fair isle Patonyle, both from the outside of the ball, starting a new ball for each sock.

The colour repeat is opposite on each sock, if I turn one upside down, I can match the colour repeats. I *almost* wanted to frog sock #2 (again) so I could knit it from the *other* end of the yarn. The end in the centre of the ball, which is still there for sock #1.

Socks Ahead!

These are my maiden pair of socks, getting ready to set sail for a life of fun-filled adventure. This is a genuine road sign here on the Eyre Peninsula - okay, maybe Photoshopped a *little*. I'm sure it's a surprise for many motorists who see the sign, then see *this* parked at the side of the road - transport with a difference!

Yep, a landlocked ship.

It is very difficult to get a good photo of socks alongside a good photo of a huge ship. Good thing the motorists driving past are going fast - the sight of two people taking photos, one of them waving socks above her head must have drawn some odd looks. I dunno, I didn't see, I was rather preoccupied...

I have a new respect for those who take photos of socks on their feet, originally I did try waving my feet in the air. Boy getting a good photo of socks on feet, and your props is hard!

For the last part of the sock's holiday, we took them to the beach for a little relaxation in the sand, sun and surf. Sorta, we skipped the surf bit, they'd already had a bath at home.

I hope we're not too late for the socks on holiday competition, I've spent days photographing the socks in various locations, and heading back for retakes of some.

These are the Patonyle basic calf length sock pattern, knitted top down using Magic Loop (yay!). They have increases at the back of the calf, to accommodate leg shaping. I did modify the pattern slightly, by adding a few more stitches - and learnt some *big* lessons...

• when you modify a pattern, and make notes for yourself...
  make copious notes, so when you are at the heel of the second sock, you can see exactly what you did
  
  
• when using Magic Loop...
  make sure of which needle you are pulling through before you pull, or you will be left with stitches not on needles anymore
  
  
• when knitting with Knitpicks circulars...
  keep an eye on what the puppy's playing with, coz she could be busy chewing her way through your cable
  
  
• when you're stuck on your heel on sock #2, again...
  it could be coz you *didn't* make enough notes as per note 1, or it could be coz you've made a mistake on sock #1 which you can't replicate on sock #2
  
  
• when you've frogged various parts of your socks several times...
  be glad that sock knitting is relatively fast, and enjoy the journey

Now that the socks are finished and photos posted, it's time to put them to the *real* acid test - wearing them and seeing what modification I need to make next time around.

Rosie

My 8th Pair

Pattern : A mix - C Bordhi's whirlpool toe, Wendy's gusset & Sensational Sock's Braid & Beads
Yarn : Zen Garden's merino/seacell in Mottlecah colorway
Needles : 2.25 Lantern Moon ebony dpns

I love the yarn as it's so soft & knits beautifully but there's some pooling at the heel & feet & the 2 socks are slightly different in color. If you notice, the sock on the top is lighter than the one at the bottom - this pair of socks is turning out to be a little unusual but that's alright as I will still wear them as they fitted perfectly & feels so good!

Read more on my blog !

Taking care of business

Can Assist
First up, thanks to everyone who put their hands up for joining in on the Can Assist sock donation project. If you listen to the podcast, Sticks and String, you'd have heard David mention the project, quite in isolation of what we're doing, so it seems there's some movement afoot on this and people are getting in on the act, wanting to help out Cancer patients.

We don't have answers to all the questions asked but plan to find out. So please continue to either choose socks from your collection or knit dedicated socks and we'll get back to you as soon as we can.

Socks on Holidays
We have only a smattering of entries to the Socks On Holidays contest. Entries close 15 February. If you have a picture of your sock/s reclining on beach, climbing a mountain, bushwalking or taking in a different city, click the link above for contest details and send them in by 15 February!

We are about to advertise another competition too, so stay tuned!

Award
Passionate sock knitting convert, Carol, nominated us for the You Make My Day award. Carol's blog is a wonderful place. Go say hello and check out her near encounter with skinny dipping! Thanks Carol! Love your work!

That'll be all for now. Happy sock knitting!

Bells & RoseRed

Fast and simple!

Introducing my first and second pairs of socks EVER!
(I knit a single ages ago but these are my first pairs!!!)



These guys are, knit from patons jet (just under a ball per sock), on 5mm (purple) and 6mm (grey) needles, from the Clafoutis Bedsocks pattern - as recommended by Taph.



As the title suggests, these were really simple, and super fast - perfect bus knitting.

They look kinda funny here, with the ribbing all skinny, but they're fine with a foot in them =)

Being so quick and easy these were the perfect project to kick off my knitting for Can Assist =)

A question of size

Can I please ask a question -

I am making random socks now, after having made a special pair for mum and myself. So I want to have a little stash of socks ready for gifts.

Most of the patterns I've been reading say to knit the foot to 1.5 inches less than you want it before starting the toe.

What is the average size that everyone is knitting to before starting the toe?

Would love to know what everyone else does if just making generic socks for gifting.

Thanks :-)

One Down, One Underway

Here's a finished Pomatomus, and the start of its Sumotamop mate. There was a bit of a hold-up, all of which is detailed on my blog (see the blue pooling at the toe? That's a clue).

Can you Assist?

Hi all,
With the help of the lovely Bells and Rose Red I've been making plans for the Can Assist sock drive project.

Can Assist aren't just looking for socks - you can also help by donating chemo caps, scarfs, blankets or any other nurturing item.

You can find out more at my blog, but let me tell you about the prizey side....

The knitters who donate the most socks and the most items to Can Assist between February 6 and May 2 will each receive a grand prize pack, including one year's subscription to their choice of the following magazines:
- Interweave Knits
- Interweave Crochet
- Vogue Knitting
- Yarn Magazine

as well as some yummy yarn and other fibre-crafty goodies!

You can contact the SSoS girls for more info, or email me at kraftykukaATgmailDOTcom (replace the AT and DOT though, ok)

Hope you can help =)

One Noropup and two Vog Ons

One Noropup is finished in a spiralling rib patterns and the Vog-ons are off the needles!

Both pretty and very wearable - love the Vog Ons - half a skein of TOFUtsies and fast!

Nutkins are on and I'm itching to start the Rockin Sock Club first sock!

Knitting Socks for Cancer Patients

Astute and caring blogger, Kuka, has alerted us to the fact that the people from Can Assist, the cancer assistance network, are looking for handknitted socks.

You can find information about the hospital, Jean Colvin Hospital, here.

The way it works is that patients come from rural NSW and stay on average 6 weeks whilst they undergo cancer treatment.

To make patients’ stays as comfortable as possible the guys at Can Assist are creating a welcome pack for them when they arrive, and wanted to include handknit socks in these packs.

The organiser of this project explained to Kuka that they were looking for about 150 pairs but so far had only received two!!!

Now as we're all beavering away on producing vast quantities of socks, I reckon there'd be a good chance we all have pairs we're happy to donate. I know I've made pairs that don't fit me quite as I hoped and that might go very well on the feet of people less fortunate than myself.

If you're interested in contributing, leave a comment and we might just have a contest for most socks knit for Can Assist!

Bells and RoseRed

Finished, Begun and Planning

It has been a while since I updated. I have finished:

The Feather and Fans Socks from Socks Socks Socks in STR yarn. Absolutely lovely, but they don't fit :( :( Anyone interested in a swap - some gorgeous hand knitted socks for some gorgeous skeins of yarn?? (You need to have a longish narrow foot and narrow ankle - if interested leave a comment on my blog and I'll get back to you). They do need a new home and they really are very pretty.

Also finished:

Lenahlias in STR Monsoon colourway. I love these socks!!

Begun:

Embossed Leaves from Favorite Socks in STR yarn (can't remember the colourway). Easy knitting and fantastic sock pattern.

My next project will be Kitri. I have had this kit for about a year and had totally forgotten it! Shows how fickle love can be sometimes... I am going to make myself get through sock 1 of Embossed Leaves and beginning Sock 2 before I will cast on for Kitri. I can't wait.

Details at The Blog.