The Knitter May Safely Knit

Hello friends. I am in a much better knitting mood than when we last talked about my knitted socks. Last time, all my socks decided to mutiny. After several weeks of battle and many more rippings, I now have two pairs of socks that are willing to be worn. First off, my Sheep May Safely Graze socks now have brand new heels.

 The previous heels wore out after wearing the socks twice. After repairing them, they didn't even survive another day out. New heels were needed.

I ended up using two sets of circular needles to get the job done. The new heels were knit out of Baah La Jolla! in the La Perla color way. I'm happy to have these socks back in my sock drawer.

The other pair of socks that has finally decided to behave are my Concrete and Tulip socks. 

Yay!

I really appreciate everyone on instagram who gave me great advice on how to keep my socks up. I chose to rip back the socks past the ribbing, reknit everything in stockinette, then add some new yarn (Anzula Squishy) for the hem. I ran out of grey as well, so I used Anzula Squishy in Charcoal to turn the hem and Anzula Squishy in Boysenberry to make the insides more cheerful. The Charcoal was used again for sewing the hem down.

It was tough figuring out what elastic to use. Did you know that there are a bunch of different kinds? I didn't. After stretching just about every type and size, I selected a 3/4 inch braided (not knit or woven) elastic in black to get the job done. To test out how tight I might need it, I cut a length, safety pinned it together, then put it over the sock and wore it around. I even went on an hour walk like this, every once in awhile pulling my pant leg up to adjust the elastic. I felt a little dorky when people passed by as I was safety pinning away. To get though it, I pretended to be a designer for a high end fashion house. 

I also need to give credit where credit is due. Tech Knitting's articles on creating a hem with elastic and how to sew a hem down were invaluable for finishing these socks. 

After all these knitting successes, I am feeling quite good about my next set of knits. Connor and I even finished a project each, but I'll save that for another day.

Sock Mutiny

This post was supposed to be a success story. A story about how even though my socks had been acting up, I was able to tame them and able to blissfully wear them all. Instead this is a story of how all my socks mutinied against me.

It started off like any other day. After working hard to get my Concrete and Tulip knee high stripes to match perfectly, which included several rippings,  I was ready to debut them. Connor helped me get some lovely pictures.

Half a skein of Caterpillar Green Yarns in the Concrete and Tulips color way was used for each sock.

I even was going to have a bit of a victory lap by showing off the perfect calf shaping.

Look at that shaping. That slight negative ease. The socks were perfect.

Then disaster struck. After getting the pictures, Connor and I went for a walk. I thought to myself, I'll just wear these socks since I've got them on. I've re-fixed the color (Like I do with all my socks now), I've gotten the pictures... so now I can wear them. By the time we went down the driveway I felt the dreaded sag. By the end of the block it was like I had donuts around my ankles.

I've since reached out to people on instagram and have a vague plan involving elastic to make these wearable.

Fine, fine. I've had socks misbehave before. It's really disappointing, but that's how it goes. Just as I was finishing up the Concrete and Tulip socks and feeling smug, I thought I'd fix my Sheep May Safely Graze socks. They had been misbehaving for awhile, but the Concrete and Tulip socks were going so well (at the time), that I was convinced I could fix them "really quick."

The Sheep May Safely Graze socks are a tale full of woe. It was difficult to find the right white yarn for them. When I finally did, it turned out to not be well wearing. I wore them three times and had to mend the heels twice. Obviously, it would be a better use of my time to just rip out the heels and put new ones in. The socks sat on the mend pile for some time, but it was getting colder and I wanted to wear them. Carefully, I ripped out the heel, picked up the stitches, and started to replace them. I didn't have any sport weight yarn, so my plan was to hold some fingering weight double. The heels would be beefy and I'd never have to replace them again!

Except that I didn't realize that my plan would also make the heel so beefy that it would be uncomfortable in every pair of shoes I own. Look at that thing. It's huge! So the heel goes back to the frog pond... along with my patience.

So now I'm trying to finish my Christmas socks in time for Christmas. I started these on December 5th. Plenty of time, I thought. So much time, in fact, that I could finish up my knee highs and replace some heels. Well my friends, I'm getting a little nervous about finishing my Christmas socks on time.

Stray Cat Socks in the color Kiwi Christmas using the Geek Socks pattern.

Connor asked me after the knee high debacle, "You aren't going to let a pair of socks ruin your day?" I'm not proud of the answer... which was yes. I was a bit grumpy the rest of the day. Of course with three pairs of rogue socks, who knows what the rest of this week will be like.

As The Needles Click

I have not been well for awhile. The last time I mentioned that things were not right was in April. I thought I was on the mend back then, but it wasn't to last. Since then I have visited many a doctor and been probed, scanned, and prescribed. After ruling out some really scary things, I made it to my nutritionist and it looks like we may have found an answer. I'm on a rather strict diet of meat along with certain fruits and vegetables now. I won't lie, I am mourning the loss of cheese, butter, and grains in my diet. (We just bought fancy cheese! Drat.) But if this works, I'll finally feel better.

While this has been going on, I've done my best to keep on knitting, designing, and being generally creative. I've had quite a few days of being exhausted, so progress has been slow. Never the less, I do have a little knitting to show off. I've been working on some shop samples. A baby giraffe hat and the cow variant of the baby giraffe hat.

After the second hat is complete, I'll put together the ears and horns

With all the doctor visits, I've snuck in a round or two of my Geographer socks. I was almost at the toe, but I noticed that there were two consecutive rounds that were rather loose. I don't want these socks to wear out prematurely, so I went ahead and ripped back a little to fix the problem.

Now that the Pucker socks are done, I feel I can use the white to mend my Sheep May Safely Graze socks. It turns out that the white I eventually chose, Rosy Green Wool Cheeky Merino Joy, is really too weak for the heels. Heels are my wear point and after wearing the socks three different times, I have had to mend the heels two different times. I'm planning to rip out the heel (and maybe the toes for good measure) and replace it with some Baa! La Jolla in the La Perla color. I think the Rosy Green Wool will last just fine for the rest of the sock. I'm looking forward to being able to put my sheep socks back into regular rotation.

Sheep May Finally Safely Graze

What's this? Miracle of miracles, the Sheep May Safely Graze Socks are finally all knit up. And they fit!!! The white Cheeky Merino Joy matched perfectly with my handspun. The handspun is the sock roving blend by Greenwood Fiberworks in the Enchanted color way for those who may wonder.

I'm really happy with how they turned out. All the ripping paid off and I'm certain that they are going to be a favorite pair just as soon as we hit sock weather again.

As for the pictures, Connor and I went out for an evening hike and I thought I'd bring along the camera and the socks to see if we could find a good place for pictures. At the top of the hill is a bench, which was the only place where I could put the socks on and not immediately get them dirty.

Not pictured: The swarm of bugs that immediately landed on us as soon as we stopped moving

We waited for everyone to leave so we could take the pictures. It's always a little hard to do sock pictures in public if I'm the model. I feel weird and people always stare. I mean, I would too if someone was taking socks pictures. But probably because I'd want to know what pattern they had knit.

Onopordum May Safely Graze

The Onoprodum socks have been completed! I am so pleased. I talked and talked about making them. So much, in fact, that when I started them, no one at my knit group needed to ask what the pattern was. 

I had agonized (and probably driven everybody nuts) over the color choice. In the end, I'm satisfied. All the yarn came out of my stash. And I think having a dark and light purple with a dark and light green worked really well.

Thanks for taking the pictures, Connor

Meanwhile, I also managed to finish one Sheep May Safely Graze sock. It's a miracle. Four whites and several rippings had severely tested my patients. I've started the second one and am into the second row of sheep. Hopefully the second sock goes without a hitch.

Concrete And Tulips And Misbehaving Socks

New yarn has arrived! I've been wanting a skein of Caterpillar Green Yarns' Concrete and Tulips color way for some time, but kept putting it off. When I saw that they only seemed to be accepting preorders and that preorders only seem to show up monthly, I jumped. And I am happy I did. I think I'll have to knit these socks toe-up, which I haven't done in a while. But in the case of this yarn, every last bit needs to be used up.

Meanwhile, my Sheep May Safely Graze sock has still been giving me troubles. I finally I have the right white for the job, but I spent this week knitting all the way to the foot only to find that I needed to decrease the gusset more than I thought. (The foot will have 56 stitches when I am done. I guess my handspun is more of a sport weight.) After ripping and reaching the foot again, I realized that the ankle was too baggy for my slim ankles. So I ripped back even further and took a repeat out of the fence. I am on the heel again. Will this sock ever get knit up?!? 

While all this sock drama has gone on, the Onoprodum sock has saved my sanity. I knit up the rest of the foot and just have the toe of the second sock left. Hurrah! Of course my US size 0 needles are taken up by the other two socks, so I have put Onopordum on hold for the moment. I'm just happy that the hardest part of this sock was choosing the colors.

The Monkey sock is also at the heel flap. I am not in a real rush to finish it since it is my car knitting project. It is behaving itself for the time being.

Four Whites To Rule Them All

I'm on my fourth cuff for this silly sock. I had bought Baah! La Jolla in La Perla, sight unseen, thinking it would be thicker. The thought was based on the purple skein of La Jolla that I'm using in my Onoprodum socks, which is thicker. This skein was the same thickness as the Koigu. Baah!!! So last night I bought a skein of Rosy Green Wool's Cheeky Merino Joy. It is a sport weight yarn. I probably should have just gotten a sport weight yarn the begin with when I started having the trouble. 

Clockwise from the top left corner is: Cheeky Merino Joy, La Jolla, Tosh Sock, and Koigu

The good news is that because the Sheep May Safely Graze socks have been giving me so much trouble, I've stayed focused on the Onopordum socks. I have turned the heel and started the gusset on the second sock. They are looking great, they are fitting great, and I am not running out of yarn. I am happy.

My car knitting at the moment is a Monkey Sock. I know I might have a rough time matching stripes. I'm going to try anyways. It's a fun pattern and I like how it looks in the Sugarbush color way from White Birch Fiber Arts .

I hope I'm not alone in this, but who has bough multiple skeins for a project in order to get just the right one? Can anyone beat four different skeins?

White, White, Sheep!

So.... I've ordered different white yarn for my Sheep May Safety Graze socks. I eventually decided that I liked the Koigu better than the Madelinetosh. The camera doesn't seem to like to pick up how orange the Tosh is, but if it looked like it did in this picture, I would have gone with the Tosh instead. However, like Alicia very cleverly pointed out, the Koigu is a little thin against my handspun. I wasn't so clever as to heed her kind advice, so I knit a whole leg of a sock before ordering some Baah! La Jolla in La Perla in the great hopes that it will be the white I want in a slightly heavier fingering weight.

That's right. I've now bought 3 different whites for this 1 project.

Part of me wonders if I'm being too picky, but I have good reasons to buy different yarn.
1. It took forever to spin the Enchanted and I will wear the socks for much longer than the 4 days I spent on knitting it.
2. I just don't like how clearly the handspun shows through the white when I put on the sock.
3. I can get the sock on, but it is just a touch too tight.

I've decided that all the knitting wasn't a waste because helped me to decide how I might want to spin my next Greenwood Fiberworks project: Cider House. With the Enchanted, I spun a 3-ply where two of the plies were the full length of the roving while the third ply was separated further to give the yarn a subtle fractal look. I liked how I spun it, but I want to spin a 3-ply that is not spun as a fractal this time around.

Meanwhile, because I still only have one project on the needles and it is the rather complicated Onopordum, I cast on a new sock out of White Birch Fiber Arts in the Sugarbush color way. Of course I'm undecided on what pattern to do. I'm between doing a pair of Monkey socks or Groovy Socks. The cuff will work for both. I think it will be easier to have the two socks match in stripes with Groovy Socks since it is a 2 round repeat, but really, I want to knit Monkeys.

Still Torn

I'm still torn over which white to use with my handspun. I've even gone as far as knitting up a bit of a cuff in each white. On top is Tosh Sock in Filtered Light and on bottom is Koigu in 0000. I'm worried the Filtered Light is too orange. Of course the flip side is that the Koigu might be too plain. Anyone have an opinion now that there are swatches to compare with the handspun?

I'd love to get going on this sock. Decisions, decisions. Until then, the only thing on my needles is Onopordum, which is terrible car knitting. I suppose this pattern isn't great care knitting either, but the idea is to knit the leg in one go, which would make the rest of the sock great car knitting.

Meanwhile I managed to weave in all the ends and block my Drogue. It's a beast of a shawl. I had to fold it in half to block it because I didn't have enough blocking boards.

Just to give some perspective as to how long it is, here is Scooter helping out. 

Which White Is Right

Much knitting has been occurring as of late. Drogue is practically knitting itself. I was making the Captain size, but have come to realize that I will run out of the main color a few rows short of the edging, so I will probably do the Boatswain edging instead.

Onopordum is making great strides too. Although like every other sock I have ever knitted, I had a rip a little out. I'm doing the color work portions on US size 1 needles and the plain bits on US size 0 needles. Guess who forgot to switch to the smaller needles when knitting the heel.

I'm looking into what my next project will be and honestly, I still desire color work socks. I've decided on Sheep May Safely Graze with my handspun Enchanted. The question is, which white do I go with? On the left side is plain white Koigu, which has a slightly cooler tone. On the right is a skein of Tosh Sock in the Filtered Light color way that is a warmer cream with speckles. Since I don't have enough handspun, I'm planning to do the cuff, her, and toe out of the white.

Is Filtered Light too busy for the already busy handspun? Or is the plain white too plain for such large areas of knitting. And before someone suggests to use both, I'd rather use one or the other. Opinions would be greatly appreciated.