Welcome to SSoS 2009/2010!

Yes! Summer is here! Well, the Southern Summer of Socks anyway. By the powers vested in me by, oh, me, I declare summer has commenced! Sock knitters unite!

Bells and I have decided that most of the action this year will happen on Ravelry, in the SSoS group - we both participated in the Tour de France KAL this year which ran entirely on Ravelry and it worked really well!

But we know not everyone is necessarily on Ravelry or has a blog, so if you want to post on the SSoS blog that's absolutely fine, we won't be shutting it down or getting rid of anything, as there's lots of good info and sock knitting on here!

We hope you'll join us and have some fun knitting socks together this summer!

Spoil Me Socks

These socks have to be the longest-to-knit-socks I have ever made!!!

They were started back in May 2008 and finished in January 2009.

It's not that the pattern was hard, it's just that I lost my mojo during that time.


The yarn is The Knittery's Merino Cashmere Sock (old style) in Cherries colourway and the pattern is my own - picot edging, eye of partridge heel and star toe.

There's a little bit about them on my blog Jo Knits (but not very much 'cos I deleted my blog and started again back in December).

On the upside - I think I've got my mojo back!!!!

Lost & Found

Around the same time I joined this blog I lost my sock mojo. Every sock I started ended in the frog pool.

It took me about 2 months to get 3 inches done on the Herringbone sock from Interweave Winter 08. Then I decided it was too much effort and frogged it.

Same goes for everything I tried with the Noro sock yarn I got AGES ago in a fit of excitement about Noro putting out a sock yarn.

But my sock mojo has been found. My sister-in-law gave me a ball of self-striping sock yarn (Online Supersocke 100) for my birthday and I decided to give it another go. Loving the simplicity of stockinette.



This is my progress in a week.

Sorry if I'm only supposed to post finished socks on this blog. It's been so long since I joined I can't remember the rules!

Last of the Summer Socks

Okay, so I didn't fully complete my challenge which was:

1. Knit more than 5 pairs.
2. Knit only from sock yarn already in my possession.
3. Try magic loop.

But I came close. I failed on the more than 5 pairs but I finished all 5 pairs that I did knit. I knitted only from sock yarn I already had and I tried and successfully completed a pair of socks using magic loop.

Here are the last two completed pairs:

The first pair is Embossed Leaves of which only the pattern part of the sock is the same as the original. The cuff and toe are plain old cuffs and toes. I'm a little bit lazy and took the easy road. They were knitted with Fleece Artist Sokomo in the Mermaid colourway. I really enjoyed knitting these socks.


The second pair are Luminare Socks. I struggled with these. I didn't like the yarn all that much, Knittery Slim Sock in Royal Velvet, and I kept having to rip back so often that it's a wonder they were finished at all. Their redeeming feature is that I love the colour and the pattern was sort of fun. I also made a mistake in not following the pattern properly but they look good and I am pleased with them.


I think I'm a bit socked out so that's all from me until next summer though I will probably knit some more socks during the year.

personal sockclub '09

second shipment:

Show-off Stranded socks (free) in Wired for Fibre "Rita" - colourway "Sorcery"(?)

and my latest shipment:

Seaweed socks (free) in Wired for Fibre "Rita" - colourway "Kelp"

more details at my blog...

When does summer officially end?

When does the SSOS officially end? Just in case I dont make it in time, here is my newly finished Escher sock (from Knitting Socks with Handpainted Yarn). Now, it just needs a mate.

TaaDaa!

Here is another pair

Show-off stranded socks in Blue Moon's Socks That Rock, Fire on the Mountain in mediumweight

Bringing out my (not very) inner colour tart! That's 6 pairs so far and another nearly sock finished (and 2 more just cast on!)

lion's mane socks

It's been a while since I've been here. I've been concentrating on lacy things this summer and have not done many socks. However, as things change in my life yet again, I'll be picking up more socks as I find them not only soothing and meditative but also very portable.

This is wool from Donyale It was a pleasure to knit and just look how evenly the stocking stitch knitted up. Easily seen on the foot. It's not a usual colour for me but I liked this as soon as I saw it. I have another lot of her sock wool, in teal colour. I'm still considering how I'll make these.

The plant is a kumara, sweet potato vine. I found one under the shelf in the pantry just before Christmas. It was sprouting, so as an experiment I planted it. It's grown very quickly and is attractive to look at, although I doubt f we'll get anything from it.

The insertion lace is the cat's paw print which I thought was appropriate for the name of the colour. It's a simple six row pattern over seven stitches and I added three rows between each pattern repeat. With just six rows, each repeat was quick to do and another repeat was quick to follow. Ive done shot row heels and toes many times but this time I pushed the sock through to the inside of the knitting and put the three needle bind off on the inside.



pass the slipped stitch over

I Have Been Lazy .....

....... eversince I came back from my holidays & have neglected to post these socks that I knitted during my holidays ....

Pattern : My own design

Yarn : Dream In Color

Needles : 2.5mm Harmony dpns

You can read more about these socks on my blog.

In addition, I have also posted a free sock pattern that I designed last year on Ravelry .....

Snakes and Ladders

Hope you enjoy these socks !

Ann

Catch up

I just realised I haven't posted on here for ages..... I finally finished the monkey socks I posted about ages ago, with some success (they are a bit hard to pull over my heel, is this normal with handmade socks???) I would have liked the legs to be longer. I have started a second pair of Cookie A socks, Marlene from Knit.1 which will hopefully not need to be frogged AGAIN... had some gauge issues which might have been due to the fact I was knitting with 2.5mm needles instead of 2.75mm. I don't know how that happened :)

I also got super crafty and made myself the sock blockers below which the monkey socks are on, it was super easy to make and cost me $2.99!

The first...

These are my first completed socks for the ssos (I'm a late adopter) and the first for my 2009 Personal Sock Club.



They are Nancy Bush's Child's French Socks from 'Knitting Vintage Socks' and are knitted from Araucania Ranco Solid in grey. More details on my blog.

My next Personal Sock Club 'delivery' is 21 February. I'm looking forward to being surprised by my next project - how strange to be entertained by a surprise I've arranged for myself!

At last - socks for your pleasure!

I've been a bit naughty about blogging on SSoS.

I have finished 5 pairs so far (one pair had one completed sock and had been abandoned for another love for a while, so it was a bit of a head start). Then there was the frantic Christmas knitting and so on.

Before Christmas I finished the Dragon Dance socks (finally!) and also started and finished Holidazed. That was the January and December kits from the Rockin' Sock Club.

Then while we were on our delayed Christmas holiday I finished 3 pairs L to R you can see Circle socks in CTH Champlain Sunset, Waving Lace in Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks That Rock Mediumweight in Seastone, and Mojos in Yarn Pirate BFL.


I have 3 more single socks and a half sock I would like to make friends for before the end of SSoS. We shall see!

Random Ribs Lucky #13

Yay a finished pair of socks - these were done last week but I was saving them for Valentine's day. S.V. lucky #13 pair.
They are Stephen Colbert Socks by Mason-Dixson book "Knitting Outside The Lines".
Knitted in Fleece Artist Blue Face Leicester Socks yarn from the wool shop in Mosman - can't remember the name.
They were alot of fun to knit but I did do my normal trick of knitting ove 1/2 of the first sock before trying them on the S.V. only to discover they were too small this time. Back to the start and over again - you would think the lesson was learnt.



Here is my Personal Sock Club for 2009

nearly done the first sock of the second pair.

Personal Sock Club - 1 done, 11 to go!

A thing I didn't fully realise about my personal sock club was how much of an incentive a new brown bag was going to be to finish a pair of socks! I've almost flown through the first pair of socks (well, to be honest, I cheated a little, but anyway) and am so excited to be picking out another brown bag soon.

Here's the ones just done - Bartholomew's Tantalising Socks from Cat Bordhi's wonderful New Pathways for Sock Knitters: Book One. I highly recommend this book if you don't already have it!!

You can read more about these on my blog!

Pomatomus Socks

These socks have been around for a while. i first started them around this time a year ago, abandoning them when i screwed up the first repeat.



In January this year, I started them again and got into a bit of a groove with them. Sort of.



i still found them to be a bit of a slog, but I'd grown a bit as a knitter since I first cast them on and they were not so hard.

Full details here.

Bells

Pink Pablos

I am so excited, I have finished my first toe-up socks and they fit. I knit them two at a time on one circular needle, also another first. They are the first socks in my Personal Sock Club.


Pattern: Pablo Blue Socks
Yarn: One Fat Slug Sock Yarn - Roses
Needles: 2.5mm Knit Picks Circular Needle

More on my blog

Melissa (HoneyBeeMine)

A Pair, A Pair, WooHoo A Pair

As you can tell, I'm pretty excited. I've only managed one pair of socks during the whole of this awful summer. The weather has been crying out for sock knitting, but not me, oh no, I begin a winter vest and then a winter scarf and finally some lace knitting... but no socks - except these ones :)
So, here they are:


They are the Chains and Ladders sock from TheKnitter.com in Silja - one skein olive and one variagated teal/olive/magenta. Very pretty and the slipped stitch pattern create interesting texture.

And... because it is likely to be my only pair for this SSoS (they are also pretty cute), here is another photo

Deborah

Pretty Plain socks

I haven't finished a pair of socks in a while, being occupied with other things to knit, but I had a plain pair going for a while to give me a break from harder stuff.

I'm thrilled with these. It's the Yarn Harlot's Basic Sock Recipe from Knitting Rules, and they fit me really well, something I don't often manage to get right. 64 stitches on 2.75mm needles. Seems to work well.



And I always love the Eye of Partridge heel. It suits variegated yarn so well!

The yarn is Regia, in a colourway designed by Kaffe Fasset. I think he missed his calling. He should be doing more of this. I like it better than his colour work designs!

Bells

Midnight Rose Meadows

Ta dah! Another pair of socks. I am on fire!


These are Blackrose Socks from the winter edition of Knitty in Midnight Meadows Sundara sock yarn. I loved this yarn, but it nearly had me beat. The varegiation in the dye is quite subtle and I wanted a pattern that would show it to its best advantage. I cast on a number of socks in this yarn which were frogged - Leyburns, Paul Attwell and Charades twice. Then I chanced on the Blackrose pattern. It is lovely! Just enough lace to be interesting, yet an ideal television viewing sock. However I did get slightly more than I bargained for when whipping up the left sock. I thought my stitch marker had disappeared, and then I found it knitted into the ankle of the sock. Alas, the marker had to be snipped.

Noro Ribs

first finished pair for 2009

Yarn: Noro Kureyon Sock - shade 184
Pattern: Simple 64st, 6x2 garter rib top-down with heel flap.
Needle: 2.75mm Knitpicks (ooh, sharp!)

more details on my blog...

Short and sweet

Lilac Tofutsies anklets, a quick post-Christmas treat for myself. For all the details, see my blog.

Kiss My Frog

Lovelies

Here are some new lovelies! Rock and Weave Socks in STR Jewel of the Nile.


They feature a linen stitch cuff which is made first, then the rest of the sock is knitted on to it. Rock on!

Your Personal Sock Club 2009

This is an idea I read about on Ravelry - a way of stashbusting, using your special sock yarns, or whatever - just fun!

If you haven't heard about it, the idea is that you select sock yarn from your stash, even choose a pattern for the socks if you want, put each yarn and pattern in a separate brown paper (or similar) bag, and then every month select one at random - and there you have it, your personal sock club! Of course, you can make up any rules you like for your club - it's yours, after all!

I put mine together on the weekend - you can read more about it (and see the yarns I've picked) here.

I can't wait to "receive" my first shipment - just have to finish a pair of socks first!

RoseRed

Last of the Christmas knitting.

A couple of weeks late, but I finally got my in-laws' Chrissy socks in the mail. Here they are!

First off the blocks, my FIL's thumping great feet will be well-clad in his favourite team's colours (he's a lovely bloke, but it just about broke me to make him Bulldogs socks!).

Pattern: Gentleman's Sock in Railway Stitch from Knitting Vintage Socks by Nancy Bush

Yarn: Patonyle, hand-dyed by me in royal blue, with contrast heel and toe in off-white Patonyle.

They took forever, partly because they are so damn big, and partly because we were moving house, so knitting time was at a premium (I know, I know, what were we thinking, moving house at the holidays? Never again!!!)

Next up is my MIL's lovely laciness.

Pattern: Fancy Silk Sock for a Child of 5 or 6 Years, also from KVS by Nancy Bush.

Yarn: Collinette Jitterbug in colourway "Mist".

These were a lovely, easy, quick knit; simple enough for TV knitting after a long day of unpacking, but interesting enough to keep my brain alive. Also, I had bloggy-friend visitors while I was working on these, so they were good for showing off a bit (ooh, did I say that out aloud?).

You can read all about them here and here on my blog.

Kiss My Frog

Better late than never.

I finished these socks in November, but forgot to post them. I have not cast on any more yet as Christmas projects had me distracted. Just a few other items to finish then I'm back to socks.

The yarn is Opal Feeling. The pattern is a basic top down sock with a 2x2 rib.

My First SSS Post - Hello All

These are my yummy Eki Riva Supreme 4 ply Alpaca lace socks. The wool is to die for. Everyone should try it at least once.

Cheers Grand Purl Baa