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

Sock it to me Monday 29, and a request

Okay, Blogville. I have a job interview tomorrow, which I understand is a good thing from a financial point of view. But.  I still feel like I’m… is grieving too strong a word for a job?  I’ve been made redundant before and it was awful, but this time I thought I’d found my ‘forever’ job and I’d work there and progress until my retirement, so losing it has hit me so much harder. It’s not even been two weeks since the redundancy was confirmed, and going for an interview already feels terribly rushed.   

On the other hand I will need a job at some point, and the sooner I get into one the sooner I’ll be made permanent and will finally be able to apply for that elusive mortgage so we can buy our own place. 

I will go to the interview, but I’m worried that my confused feelings will get in the way of doing my best.  So my request is this: if you have any useful advice, please give it. If you pray then please will you pray for me. If you don’t then please send any happy/peaceful/decisive thoughts and feelings my way. If you can think of any other way to help then I am open to suggestions. Please and thank you.

Now, on to the socks.

I finally found a disadvantage to the integrated heel, when I opted for a contrasting heel colour. Because the gusset increases are knitted in the round (and I’m a fairly noob knitter), I couldn’t use the contrast colour on the heel flap so this is all the contrast I’ve got:

Not very impressive, but there’s no way I’m going all the way back and using a heel flap so I shall just live with it.

Diagon Ally is turning out to be a hugely addictive pattern. I don’t think I’ve ever knit a foot this quickly!

Just look at that gorgeous diagonal line.  

It’s not quite long enough as is, so I’m going to add on a few plain rows before starting the toe. I already can’t wait to cast on the next one!

 

Hannah

xXx

Sock it to me Monday 28

I am very dim sometimes.

I read all the way through the Diagon Ally pattern before making a start, and I would have bet my redundancy money that it had written instructions for the whole of each sock. I definitely saw them. And yet, at this point of the sock knittage:

The next instruction is simply “work row 1 of the pattern chart”.

Rats.

Yes, I did say I might try something new and use the chart, but that was when things were going somewhat better for me and I had a bit of brain-power spare for such things.

So that sock immediately went into the naughty corner, and I started a wee pair of shortie socks I’ve been planning for a while to use up some partial and mini skeins. There’s not much to see yet, but here they are.

The plan is for these to be sister socks rather than twins, to make sure I can use up as many scraps as possible. Personally, I think they’ll look quite good! But feel free to reserve judgement until they’re finished.

Hannah

xXx

Sock it to me Monday 20

The shortie socks ended up not quite matching, as I suspected.

I would really rather have got a matching pair out of it, but I’m not too disappointed – I can’t remember the last time I used every last scrap of a skein!

The yarn was Lilac Blossom sock from JK Fibers and I got a long pair of socks and these shorties out of one skein, which is more than I expected. I wonder where I got the idea that one skein is just enough for one pair of socks?

Right now I’m working on a second pair for the boyfriend, using the yarn he bought in Dunoon. So far it’s turning out much more green and less purple than it looked in the skein.

These will be basic socks (Ravelry link) again, and then for the next pair I’m going to try a new-to-me pattern. Probably Hermione’s every day socks, but we’ll see.

Hannah

xXx