Pink Socks

Pink socks with beads and a picot cuff ~ how much cuter does it get? Wear these with girly-girl shoes, or different girly-girl shoes, a glittery bracelett and maybe a poodle skirt..

Project notes:

Yarn: Zitron Trekking Sport XXL
Needles: Knitpicks 48" circulars, size 2.25
051009 Started my new socks with sale sock yarn. Love sale sock yarn! It's the usual pattern: 72 stitches, picot cuff w/ #8 seed beads, clear pink ones this time. So cute! This is a new method for me, working both socks at once on one 48" circular from Knit Picks ~ it's my new favorite way to knit socks and my new favorite sock needles!

The heel flap is worked in Eye of the Partridge, which is a first for me but I thought the delicate girlie-girl pink needed a little dressing up from my regular 'sturdy' heel ~ it's not a wear-spot for me anyway. Knitting Eye of the Partridge in pattern does take paying attention to though. I always extend the *slip one, knit one* from the heel to under the heel because that IS my wear-spot.

080409 Finished during the Bluebird Reunion at La Push, WA. We will do an entry on that weekend shortly. These socks are so darn cute!

Gansey Socks

Back interest

Knitter: Peggy
Pattern: Gansey Socks, designed by Beth Brown-Reinsel in 1995
Yarn and Needles: Alice St*rmore Scottish Fleet in pink; #2.5 2-32" Addi Lace
Project Notes: The project served 4 purposes --

1. Something fairly straightforward to work on at the retreat

2. Refreshing my interest in Gansey knitting

3. Using STASH yarn left over from knitting Jade St*rmore's Beadwork sweater (pattern found in Winter 99/00 Interweave Knits) a few years ago (2004?)

4. And in so doing, giving me socks that match a sweater I love to wear.

My Beadwork

Arrow Lace Socks

The Book:
Socks
from Interweave Press

On the cover: Arrow Lace Socks
The book is still available even though it
was published in 1997. For the spinners amongst us,
each pattern is based on and knit up in handspun but
commercial yarn can be used with good success,
as follows:

Yarn from The Artful Ewe, one of our favorite LYS's. Heidi does a masterful job at her dyeing and the resulting fiber and yarn is fabulous and very economical. This sock yarn is 75% Superwash and 25% nylon. We added a picot top with #8 24k gold plate seed beads. Knit by Rebecca for her buddy Pat B. for the "Friday Knitters 2007 Sock Exchange." (Photos of the results of this event will be posted at the end of the year.)

Sock yarn is 3-ply 100% Blue Faced Leicester from Wool2Dye4. Knit by Rebecca, this yarn was given to me by my buddy Pat B. the day the Friday Knitters got together for dye-day earlier this summer. This creamy yarn turned into a successful purple. Same 24k beads because they were just wonderful on this color.

Sock yarn from The Artful Ewe (in a different red colorway) and these were knit by Peggy with the same24k beads because we love them!

All socks knit between September 7th and October 18th.

Boy Socks

I told David I'd knit him socks only if he promised to not tell anyone who did it. You know the problem: knit one person some socks and then everybody wants some. He's a very sweet graduate student in the department at the UW where I work, saw me knitting one day and pined for some hand knit socks with "red cuffs, heels and toes and crazy yarn in between." It took quite some time to knit them. Boy Socks go on forever!
Knitter: Peggy
Yarn: Opal in the leg/foot and the red is Fortissima Socka mit Bamboo, both purchased locally at Village Yarn.
Pattern: Basic stockinette with more stitches for The Boy, size 2 needles.
Note to Self: "No more Boy Socks."
Big Doily: It is called 'Willow Basket Lid' and the pattern can be found on page 99 in Traditional Lace Knitting by Furze Hewitt, published in 1997 by Kangaroo Press. This was a gift to me, knit years ago by Rebecca in #5 cotton. I keep it under glass on my end table.

Merino on KoolAid

Spinner/Knitter: Peggy
Fiber: 100% Merino top, some wonderfulness that we talked our buddy Sandi into sharing. We got together with good friends back in March for a pot luck and many hours of dying. We used Mother McKenzies Miracle Dye for some wool and KoolAid for others.
Project notes: Space-dyed with KoolAid and then separated down the middle and spun. The single was chained in order to keep long color runs and BONUS: the socks match so well and it must have been totally great dying/spinning/knitting MoJo! The pattern is just basic stockinette with the picot top.

The Socks of Summer

Including the 11 pair of Monkey Socks, we two knit a whole lotta socks this summer, 27 pair so far June through September and more on the needles. The following are knit from our own basic stockinette pattern with the proper number of stitches for the needles we like, dressed up with the picot beginning and most have beads.

Socks by Peggy

Opal
Dicentra Sock Yarn
Opal

Socks That Rock
Farmhouse
Socks That Rock

Harlotty
Socks That Rock
January One
Socks That Rock
Ruby Slippers
Artful Ewe Sock Yarn
Opal
Regia
Regia
Tiny Baby Socks

Trekking XXL

Socks by Rebecca

Socks That Rock
Jewel of the Nile
finished on 06-11
Austermann Step

06-23 to 06-28
Dicentra Sock Yarn
07-11 to 07-29
I put a bead at the beginning of the gusset
Artful Ewe Sock Yarn
08-08 to 08-19
The sock blockers are from Blue Moon, purchased at Black Sheep.

A monkey on my back

This is Peggys first and only Monkey

Austermann Step Sock Yarn
06-23 to 06-28

These are my Monkeys

(I can't stop)
#1.
Socks That Rock
06-11 to 06-23

#2.
Fleece Artist
06-23 to 07-10

#3.
Socks That Rock

06-26 to 07-02

#4.
Artful Ewe Sock Yarn
07-29 to 08-04

#5.
Dicentra Sock Yarn
08-04 to 08-07

#6.
Socks That Rock

08-07 to 08-13

#7.
Koigu

08-14 to 08-18

#8.
On Line Supersocke 100
08-18 to 08-26

#9.
Regia
Designer Line by Kaffe Fassett
08-19 to 09-05
and finally, because at some point
we have to post the Monkeys to date,
and ten was as good a number as any:
#10.
Mt. Colors Bearfoot
08-26 to 09-08

Knitters: Peggy and Rebecca
Time frame: Summer, 2007
Fiber: Various. We worked from stash yarn, although we purchased some during our vacation in June. I have to say that knitting with Socks That Rock yarn was great ~ it's the perfect bouncy type of sock yarn that makes it fun to knit on small needles ~ but my favorite is the Bearfoot from Mt. Colors. That Juniper color has been in my stash for years, waiting for the perfect pattern. Found it!
Pattern: Monkey Socks, by Cookie A. It's a great pattern, easily memorized. It's almost as simple as plain stockinette socks, which is probably why I made so many. All my other patterns are packed away until I land in a permanent place so I'm sticking with Monkey Socks until then.
Needles: We use 2.5mm, mostly, and usually have two pair going at any given time, hence the overlap in dates. We always knit both socks at the same time on two circulars; this results in the two socks being exactly the same and also satisfies our compulsive/obsessive natures. We have recently switched from 24" Addi Turbos to the 32" Addi Lace, with the gold needles/red cable. While the points are excellent for socks, as well as lace, the needles bend after awhile and the cable tends to get a permanent kink if bent too severely ~ the Turbo cable didn't seem to do this so much. Also, the printing on the cable wears off pretty fast, resulting in the need for a needle gauge ~ no biggy since we're all used to that anyway. We're still searching for the perfect sock needles although Peggy discovered that 32" is WAY better than 24" for knitting two socks on the same two circulars.
Embellishments and changes: We don't do regular ribbing for tops of socks. Right now we're into the picot edge ~ provisional cast on, knit ten rows, yo k2tog around, knit ten rows and then knit the provisional cast on together with the next row. Simple. On most socks I did 4 repeats on the leg, some had 5 repeats but the Koigu had just 3 ~ it had the least amount of yardage. With every yarn I could have knit another repeat on the leg, had I known how much left over I would have had. Forewarned etc.
Beads: Pre-stranded, we started with one row just after the picot turn and then went to 3 rows of two different beads. After that came smaller beads ~ two rows, off-set ~ or a single row of larger beads in the center of the outside ten knit rows. Most of the beads came from stash. The beads do not interfere with comfort because there is the backside of the picot hem to cushion them from the leg.
Notes: We needed new socks. We checked over the ones we've been wearing for the last years and wow, some are getting pretty thin. It was time to upgrade and it's nice, since most of them are for us, to not have to wonder what size to make, although some will end up as gifts.

Toe Up Socks

Spinner/Knitter: Peggy

Fiber: Blue Moon roving -- 70% Merino/30% Mohair in the colorway Pink Granite. Purchased at Madrona Fiber Arts in January, 2007.
Pattern: Basic Toe-up Sock pattern FREE from off the internets and, while free can be good, this one did not include the picot cuff - added that myself.
Spinning Details: Using my Chinese Elm wheel made by Betty Roberts, I loved spinning this fiber - it was so well prepared. I started spinning right at Madrona -- just couldn't wait to get at it. BUT FIRST, I pulled out a lot of the black to spin separately. I thought that the Pink Granite colorway had too much black in it and hoped by pulling a lot of the black out the resulting yarn would be pinker. With socks in mind, I chained the black singles separately from the pink/white/grey singles, and luckily the total yardage was enough for socks! However, the gauge turned out to be sport weight instead of sock weight. (Oh well.) The spinning and plying took about 8 days -- I was done by February 5th, 2007 .

Knitting Details: The knitting began on March 25th and I finished the project on April 11th. I started the toes with black and had every intension of black heels and black cuffs. By the time I got to the heels, I realized I would have more than enough of the pink/white/grey yarn for the rest of the socks - and besides, it's darned tedious to join colors when the yarn is sport weight and chained, too, so I just kept knitting with the pink/white/grey and decided against black heels and black cuffs.

Observations: I'm planning to wear the socks more as slippers for walking around the house and for when I'm spinning (instead of bare feet.) They are nice and cozy and don't come up too high on my leg. I will definitely look for more of this fiber in other colorways. Next time I will spin it somewhat finer, so when it is chained the yarn will be sock weight, and the resulting socks will fit into my shoes!

Have socks. Will travel.

Socks don't count as a 'real' project, we all know that. I use sock projects the usual way: as my travel/emergency knitting. I never leave home without them. I don't get to knit on them every time I take them out for a spin (snark snark) but they're with me just in case I get stuck in Seattle Traffic (hey hey hey! It could happen!) or have to wait for longer than 5 minutes for 'what-ever' reason. The last reason was at the road-side fruit stand while my husband yakked (and yakked) with the talkative fruit-stand guy. He walked away with $20. worth of aging fruit and I knit 1" on my socks. It was a good deal for me. For him, not so much. He threw out half the fruit the next day but I still had another inch on my socks.

These socks.
Yarn: Socks That Rock, color Falcon's Eye.

Cute little picot cuff
and a purl every 6th stitch for about 1-1 1/2".

I've been intrigued with the idea of knitting socks without a heel flap or gusset and found the pattern in the Fall 2000 issue of Interweave Knits. The pattern is called "Priscilla's Dream Socks" and it was interesting. It's certainly faster than building a heel flap, picking up stitches on both sides of it and decreasing for what seems like forEVER at the gusset.

I will probably make them again, with modifications other than the ones I've already made (like the picot.) I need my back-of-heel and my under-the-heel reinforced, so doing sl1/k1 on the right side and purling back on the wrong side will have to be worked in on the next pair. I could not make the toe shaping work as written, which is the same as the heel shaping and it should have been fine but no. It just didn't work.
I did not like the loosey-goosey-hole-y-ness of the heel shaping and just couldn't do it again at the toes, so I fell back on my usual technique and also did left/right toe shaping.

I loved the color wave on the leg but lost it when I decreased 4 stitches for the foot, also not in the pattern but I was running seriously low on yarn and needed to conserve. After blocking they fit fine, except that I still don't like the heel shaping ~ too gappy. There must be a way to snug up the k3tog/sssp's. I just haven't got it yet, which annoys me because I've been knitting far too long to be stumped by shaping. I'm digging out all my knitting manuals for this one and I will beat it, oh yes I will.

I love knitting socks.

They're so cute!