Sock it to me Monday 48

A couple of Christmasses ago (I think), my brother bought me a sock kit from Siobhan’s Crafts. It’s really lovely and I was excited to get it, but for some reason it just sat in stash mountain until this weekend. Then I absolutely had to cast on RIGHT NOW! Isn’t it odd how the urge to make something can pop up out of nowhere?

Past-me has snapped so many sock needles that I had to dig out the ridiculously long 2.5mms for these socks. It’s a wee bit faffier than usual, especially when the non-working ends keep getting caught in the cuffs of my Oodie, but if it means I can have two lots of socks on the go at once then I’m willing to put up with it.

I’ve already modified the pattern a wee bit by doing fewer rounds of ribbing, and I’m going to skip some of the leg because I really don’t like long socks. Plus I’ll probably go with my usual integrated heel so I don’t have to pick up any stitches. I missed the point where my knitting became advanced enough for me to treat patterns more like guidelines…

This rainbow sock turned out to be the first of another pair so I don’t need to worry about matching it up with anything. I just have to keep trying it on because, even after all these socks, I always underestimate how long my feet are. Maybe I’ll learn eventually.

Hannah

xXx

Sock it to me Monday 46

I finished my shortie socks at the weekend so they’re ready to wear, yay! Just as soon as the heat wave passes on and I can stand to have wool on my feet again.

I went with not quite matching stripes, and there’s still enough yarn to make another pair so I think I’ll make them the same, so I can mix and match the four of them.

Hannah

xXx

World wide knit in public day

In case you didn’t know, today is world wide knit in public day!

I had to travel down to my parents’ today so I got to work on my sock in the train station, on the train, and in a coffee shop!

Sock knitting in the train station

Is anyone else knitting in public today?

Hannah

xXx

Sock it to me Monday 42

I’ve decided what to do with at least one skein of my advent yarn, and of course it’s socks.  Seeing as I can do colourwork now I decided to give it a go with some fairly simple patterned shortie socks.

The black is Navia sock yarn from Hobbii, the yellow is that one bright skein that didn’t fit in with the rest of my advent, and the pattern will be a shortened pair of On The Fence (Rav link).

This is my second attempt – the yarns are a bit thicker than I usually use for socks so I adjusted the stitch count, but I over-compensated and it was too small to get over my heel, meaning I had to frog it all and start again. So far it seems to be fitting alright so I think I got the correct count this time.

I am so looking forward to wearing my own pair of colourwork socks!

Hannah

xXx

Sock it to me Monday 41

I feel so productive right now. I sewed in the ends of my Christmas socks and wore them for some toasty toes. I finished my shortie socks.

Aaaaand they fit at last! Now I just need the motivation to sew those ends in.

Then I got itchy fingers and cast on another pair, with yarn I think I got from Emma ages ago.

At this rate I could finish another whole pair before Christmas!

Hannah

xXx

Sock it to me Monday 40

I got seriously side-tracked by charity knitting, but this week I’m back to my socks. Third time lucky, I finished the first of my shortie socks and made a start on the second one.

This time they’re fitting perfectly, hooray!

Hannah

xXx

Sock it to me Monday 38

The shortie socks did not work out. After the first sock didn’t fit very well I made adjustments when making the second, but it still didn’t fit so I frogged them both.  I still can’t believe my gauge is so different just because I used a circular rather than DPNs.

The socks will still happen though! I can use the DPNs that are free now because I finally finished the Christmas socks, despite their best efforts to be frogged.

Yes, it bothers me that the toes aren’t identical, but after at least 10 mistakes/frogs/restarts there’s no way I’m undoing one just to add a few rows of red. As far as I’m concerned they’re pretty darn good for my first ever striped socks. Plus they’re nice and warm, which is perfect for the Scottish pre-winter Autumn.

Man I love making socks!

Hannah

xXx

Sock it to me Monday 37

Socks are progressing woo hooo!

I’m on the foot of my second shortie sock right now.

Buuuut I’m considering frogging the first one and redoing it. It turns out that my tension is quite different on a sock circular compared to DPNs and it doesn’t fit quite right. I love knitting socks and I love the yarn so why not!

Also I finally finished the first Christmas sock. 8th time lucky.

So far I’ve only had to cast on the second sock twice, and I’m really hoping that will be the only restart this one needs. Fingers crossed, tight.

Hannah

xXx

Sock it to me Monday… *checks notes* number 36

Well it has been a while. I believe my brain is trying to make up for lost time because all I can think about is knitting away at my socks. 

I’ve already finished one shortie and started its partner.

And the Christmas socks have made an appearance again. Can you tell where I just gave up with the pattern?

The last few cable rounds I attempted were giving me soooo much trouble, but then I remembered that I don’t even like texture on the bottom of my socks because I tie my shoes quite tight and end up with odd patterns imprinted onto my feet. So I stopped faffing about with cables and just knit straight, and I can’t believe how fast that foot whizzed by. There’s only a toe left to do and it’s finished. 

For the second sock I might stop the cabling even earlier – they’re going to be hidden in my shoes so nobody would know anyway! Either way I’m hoping to have two pairs of finished socks to show off next week. Time to get back to it.

Hannah

xXx

Sock it to me Monday 33

Have I mentioned that Diagon Ally is addictive? I started a pair for myself last week and so far I’ve knitted them on the sofa, in bed, in the car, on a park bench, and in a cafe!  All this work means I’m already halfway through the first foot.

I’m using the Schoppel Boots yarn bought in Dunoon, just to see how the cotton content plays along. So far I can’t tell much difference from my usual wool/nylon yarn except that this feels ever so slightly rougher on my fingers as I work with it. It’ll be interesting to see what effect soaking/blocking will have when I’m done.

As for the shortie sock, that has been frogged. I hadn’t worked a stitch on it for weeks and it was on the verge of becoming a UFO so I bit the bullet and pulled it all out. Part of me is sad that my plan for the socks didn’t work out, but mainly I’m relieved that I don’t have to keep working on something that wasn’t making me happy at all.

So that’s my sock news for this week. What’s everyone else working on?

Hannah

xXx

Sock it to me Monday on a Tuesday

Is it definitely Tuesday? I’m having some trouble with days at the moment. That’s probably why I haven’t got much sock progress to show (it’s nothing to do with playing a lot of Zelda, obviously).

The second heel has been turned on the boyfriend’s socks and I’m now whizzing through the foot section.

The pattern is mirrored from the other sock so I can’t quite coast along already knowing what I’m doing, but I’ve got the gist of it. I’m hoping these will be FOs pretty soon.

As for the shortie sock, I’m STILL undecided so it hasn’t had a single stitch added yet. I just don’t know.

In other news, my recruitment agency has found me a job to start tomorrow. Good news is it’s working from home. Bad news is it’s temporary.

I want to be happy that I’ve got something, but my brain is telling me the rest of my life will be jumping from temp job to temp job, never being secure, always the new girl, renting forever because I’m a bad bet for a mortgage. Isn’t anxiety fun.

I’ve got a video call with them this afternoon and they’ll give me more details, so hopefully that will help ease some of my worry.

Hannah

xXx

Sock it to me Monday 30

I finished my happy neon socks at last and wore them at the weekend.

These are Hermione’s Every Day Socks (Rav link) using Neon Rainbow sock yarn from Siobhan’s Crafts (I cannot recommend enough).

The first Diagon Ally sock is done and I’m whizzing through the leg of the second one.

And my shortie sock currently looks like this.

But there’s a wee niggle at the back of my mind telling me to frog it all. I’m not sure why, but I’m just not that happy with it. I’ll give it a few days in the naughty corner and see how I feel after that.

What do you guys think, Blogville?

Hannah

xXx