I finished my red Mandy’s Heart Socks! Yay! I will do my best to have a real photo shoot this coming weekend. I’m really hoping to publish the pattern on 14 Feb just like the sweater.
I do LOVE this yarn, Tosh Sock, and the color, Tart. I’ll have to get my hands on a sweater quantity at some point.
This is how much knitting I got done during the EasyJet flight delay Monday, flying from Berlin to Amsterdam. Not bad, right!
This is the second sock of my Mandy’s Heart Sock design. I’m almost finished! Writing up the pattern is almost finished too. The charts are done, the text directions are done. I just have to lay in out in a nice format and do a photo shoot. Taking photos of socks is so much easier than photographing sweaters. I hope to have this pattern ready to launch into the world on the same day that I launch the sweater pattern – 14 February.
I’m up to the heel turn on my first Mandy’s Heart sock. It’s just flying off the needles! It probably helps that I’ve knit this stitch pattern so much now that I could do it in my sleep.
I made the gusset increases in the ribby pattern.
I think these are going to be really lovely and fit nicely too. More WIP photos to come soon!
On the home front, we took down Christmas decorations and put the tree back outside. It was time. The tree was starting to look a little bit dry (we hadn’t given it any water since bringing it inside). The poor thing thought it was summer and has started to put out pine cones. Having said that, it probably would have been the same even if we hadn’t brought it inside for 3 weeks. It’s been so unseasonably warm here that my roses are all putting out buds and the birds are acting like they’ll be making nests soon. It’s not good. We’ll probably get a blast of cold in February, all the new growth will die, and plants and animals will not grow well in the spring and summer. At this rate I’ll have to quit knitting worsted weight sweaters altogether and stick to lace.
I hope you all had a safe and fun New Year’s Eve last night. We had dinner at home with an amazing bottle of wine from the winery we visited in June. Later in the evening we walked (in the RAIN) to a friend’s house and had bubbly, oliebollen and watched what fireworks we could see through the rain. The weather won’t stop people from setting off their hundreds and thousands of euros worth of fireworks. Thanks, all you fireworks fans, for spending your money and letting us enjoy it with you!
Now that it’s January 1, I can cast on a couple of new projects. Yay! First up is the sock, in the photo above. It’s my own design and will match my Mandy’s Heart Sweater. The yarn is Madelinetosh Tosh Sock in color Tart. This is, hands down, the most beautiful and amazing yarn color I’ve ever seen. It’s about impossible to photograph. I managed to get this photo, after trying different locations and camera settings, but it still doesn’t capture the depth and glow of the yarn. It’s like I’m knitting rubies.
These socks are part of The Yarniacs “self indulgent KAL” that started today and ends mid-March. The Yarniacs (two women in Santa Cruz California) put out a podcast, have a web site, and a Ravelry group. I became a regular listener to the podcast immediately. I like their format and I like their totally genuine and friendly manner. I’m planning to write a blog post about knitting podcasts in the next few days so I won’t go on about it here. You should definitely give them a listen.
The socks are serving double duty as the pattern will be written up and released about the same time that the matching sweater pattern will be released (mid-Feb). I’ll keep showing you photos as I knit them so you won’t be able to resist their loveliness. Ha!
I’ve also cast on a present for a special person. I’m not showing any photos of that yet, and might not at all before the present is given. But just so you know, I’ve cast on two new projects and I’m super excited about them. Starting new projects is almost as much fun as finishing them.
Yesterday while riding in the train from Rotterdam to Haarlem I finished the second of my Mermaid socks. Aren’t they fun!
Sorry for the indoor crappy photos, but it’s just so dark outside these days that there’s no point trying to take better photos in the daylight.
Honestly I don’t have giant legs. The above photo is just from a weird angle. I was trying to get a good photo of the heel. These are garter stitch short row heels. They are super easy and fast to make and look and feel great. Very squishy on your feet and I think they will wear very well.
The pattern is by Lucy Neatby. The yarn is Regia “Random Stripe” designed by Kaffe Fassett. Top down, knit the top cuff first, then pick up stitches around the cuff and knit down.
I was thinking yesterday about how incredibly satisfying it is to finish knitting projects. I get just as much satisfaction and happy feelings about finishing a pair of socks as I would from finishing a DIY project in my house, or finishing a really big project at work or making a good time on a 10k race. But working on and finishing a knitting project is also FUN along the way. You just can’t beat it. It must be some kind of brain high. I wish someone would study knitters’ brains and explain to us why we like it so much. I’m sure there’s a scientific explanation. In the mean time, I’ll just enjoy wearing my new socks.
Here’s a photo of my first Mermaid Sock, designed by Lucy Neatby. It’s an interesting construction, which is what drew me to it and why I decided to make these socks.
You knit the garter stitch top band first, then pick up stitches along one edge of that band and knit down the leg. The heel is a garter stitch short row heel which I had never made before. The toe is cleverly designed to decrease gradually in pattern.
As you can see, it fits perfectly. I made the 66 stitch size and used 2.0mm needles for the garter sections and 2.25mm for the rest. Now I need to get busy and make the second one. I usually don’t have “second sock syndrome” so I expect to get the second one finished in good time. I really recommend these socks if you are looking for a fun, quick and interesting knit. Thanks Lucy!
By the way, it’s just now 4:30pm here in Haarlem and it’s already dusk. DUSK! Car headlights are required. Streetlights coming on any second now. Ugh! The dark days are falling fast and hard!
I started these socks on the 1st of June and just finished them today. That’s a long time to make a pair of socks! But I’m sure you are just as sick and tired of hearing me complain about my shoulder as I am sick and tired of having this pain in my shoulder, so I won’t go on about it. It’s enough to say that my knitting has crawled to almost nothing compared to what I was doing earlier this year.
Here are the stats for the socks:
Pattern: Helen Socks by verybusymonkey (only available on Ravelry as far as I can see)
Yarn: Cascade Heritage Sock, (75% wool, 25% nylon, superwash) purchased from Harlequin Yarns (Utrecht)
Needles: 2.25mm, 2 circulars
They knit up really fast and made for a perfect traveling project. The pattern stitch is quickly memorized so there’s seldom the need to look up instructions.
These socks were part of the Sock Knitters Anonymous June challenge for “under appreciated patterns”. The pattern you chose had to have no more than 15 projects assigned to it on Ravelry as of 1 June. Even today these socks have only 13 projects on Ravelry. What a shame! They are great socks! Go on, you know you want to make a pair…..
Christine left her suggestion on the contest blog post and I think it’s a lovely name for this sock pattern. Butterfly Circus sounds so cheerful and fanciful. Can you just see butterflies making their own circus? I can.
Thank you so much Christine for your name! I’m ordering these lovely stitch markers from Crimson Orchid which will be shipped to you.
I’m finishing up the pattern layout today, complete with the new name, and will get it up on Ravelry before the end of the weekend. I’ll email a copy to everyone who left a comment and a name suggestion.
Thanks everyone for participating. It’s so much fun to hear all these ideas and to open up to the world. I’ll have to do this again….
Edit: Here’s the pattern on Ravelry.
I’ve written up the sock pattern, but my sock has no name! Help me find a name for this sock!
You can read more about the sock on an earlier blog post here. Or see my project page on Ravelry here.
I’ve decided to have a contest to get your help in naming this sock. Here are the rules:
Ready? Got some good ideas for a name? Comment below and let the contest begin!
I was putting some knitted things into the washer this morning and discovered holes in my socks! These are the first hand knit socks that I’ve ever worn holes in. Really. These socks are 14 months old. I have older socks that are 100% wool. These are wool with some nylon. The yarn was inexpensive stuff I bought somewhere along the line and dyed myself. The sock pattern is Skew from knitty.com.
What is the lesson here?
Whether or not sock yarn contains nylon or other made-made material has no bearing on how well the socks will wear. I have socks that are 100% wool that are wearing much better than these. If the yarn is tightly spun and is somewhere in the range of 380 yards per 100g, then the content of the yarn is not so important if you ask me.
Some people think that Noro Silk Garden Sock wears out quickly and isn’t suitable for socks. I’ve made one pair of socks with this yarn and they are wearing like steel. I love them.
Maybe the tightness of the knit also plays a part in how long a sock will last. The socks above were knit using 2.5mm needles because I was afraid they’d be too small otherwise. I could have knit them on 2.25mm needles and they would have fit even better and might possibly have lasted longer. Tight yarn and a tight knit is what you need for hard wearing socks. And that’s the moral of this story.