Hurray

 

Socks

 

My computer is fixed and at home–hurray!

As mentioned last time I finished a pair of socks for myself.  Nancy Bush’s Child’s First Sock in Shell Pattern from her Knitting Vintage Socks book.  The yarn is Juliespins MCN 355 in Erin’s Summer Blues.  I had knit these exact same socks in same yarn and color way back in Jan of 2010  The socks were lost to the ages–either given away or a hole developing although I don’t recall discarding them so most likely given away–and I missed them terribly every time I went through my projects on Ravelry.  I was able to acquire a hank of the coveted color way a while ago through a stash sale and am pleased as punch I once again own these socks.

Something I hadn’t noticed the first time I knit them, that I recall, is how pleasant the wrong side of pattern is.  Although I doubt I would ever wear them inside out I believe my weaving in of ends is nice enough to do so and if you decide to pick up this pattern  you might want to take care in finishing.  Here is a washed out picture of the sock pattern both right and wrong side:

Child’s First Socks Inside and Outside of Shell pattern

My mother and I had a nice visit.  I hadn’t seen her in almost 2 years since my sisters are all over the place.  My youngest sister lives in the UK near the Scottish border and has 3 children.  My mom has traveled there for each birth since my sis was in medical school then interning and taking care of children while on rotation is impossible as I am sure you can imagine.  My youngest sister is significantly younger than I.  I recall getting off the bus when in high school to pick her up from sitters and watch her while my mom worked on her college degree.  I believe Anna is 16 years younger than I am although that depends on which month of the year you are looking at… it is what is stuck in my head.  Just like my husband is 10 years older than I … one week out of every year 🙂

In the photo above you can see that the next pair of socks actually look pretty with the last and I am only halfway done with the pair.  I hesitated to knit this yarn for the longest thinking why did I buy it?  So ugly.  Well the marl is knitting up gloriously:

Marled socks

I believe my husband will like these since he wears quite a bit of tan and black pants.  One of his dress shoes are Cordovan and I think this will look particularly good with them.  When I finish these I will still be 2 pairs behind in my goal for him.  I will need two as well to make goal but Tyler is ahead of the game with 3 out of 4 pairs gifted.

I cast on the second sock last night and have finished the 30 rows of rib so am onto the relatively quick stocking stitch.

I am following the numbers from Nancy Bush’s Classic Sock in her Folk Socks book.  My poor copy is falling apart. I purchased it over 20 years ago so I may break down and pick up the new ‘updated’ version.

Nancy Bush is a Sock Knitting Treasure.

yarny days and knitterly evenings

Elka

 


YOP#6 Week 18

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Last week I knit a pair of socks for my husband.  Unfortunately I misread how long the foot is to be, I keep such notes on Ravelry, and did 7″ from back of heel instead of 7″ from end of heel shaping.  Socks are now for Tyler who has scored 3 pairs of socks since YOP goals were assembled.  This pair, and the last pair, are to be Christmas gifts.

This August we went to MidAmericon in Kansas City and I purchased Tyler a piece of artwork from art show.  It was a relatively expensive gift and he was told to not expect anything for Christmas so the socks are all the unwrapping he will be doing this year.

So the yarn is an oldie from my stash.  There was a time, say 11  yrs ago or so, when I purchased several hanks of Mountain Colors Bearfoot sock yarn and I am down to 3 hanks after this one called Moose Creek. For some reason it always looked like a brownish plum color but honestly it is a brown and my eyes were just drawn to the flashes of plum or burgundy in it.  Here is the hank wound up into a yarn cocoon:

Mountain Colors Bearfoot Moose Creek yarn cocoon.

Mountain Colors Bearfoot Moose Creek yarn cocoon.

 

See the plum and reddish tints?

Here is the finished sock, overexposed and unwashed.  You can see how the colors pooled but it isn’t nearly as obvious in the actual sock:

Finished sock

Finished sock

 

One nice thing about Bearfoot sock yarn is the mohair content which makes it super warm and cushy.  Usually whenever I wash a pair I reach inside and take out yarn pills.  Sometimes I let them gather for a while and it is extra padding on sole of foot.  For some reason it just pills inside the foot.  I have knit textured socks and the texture is basically lost after several washes.  But these have made my warmest and longest lasting socks.  I have  pair going back 8 years.  My Mad Color Weave socks.  I also have a couple of pairs even older than that but I don’t have them saved anywhere handy picture wise. Most were Michelle’s Basic Sock pattern.

Another awesome thing about this sock yarn is that it is slightly heavier than fingering weight.  I think it is the mohair again.  The yarn feels dense and plush and fills in any place that would normally have a gap such as the gusset area.  Here is a close up of heel and gusset to once again show color of socks {not overexposed}:

Sock heel and gusset

Feel free to click to embiggen 🙂

The pattern is A Classic Sock from Nancy Bush’s Folk Socks book.  I purchased my copy when Zoe was a baby so about 21 yrs ago and it is falling apart at this point.

In a few days Wovember starts.  I have been anticipating Wovember for weeks.  I have cast on Strokkur and am hoping I don’t have the same tension woes that caused me to rip and reknit this sweater 3 times so far.  I have switched from my Trusty Grays {aka Aero needles} to bamboo ones hoping that will help.  I am also planning on measuring every 20 rows or so which is annoying but should end up with a finally FO.  It is expected to be in the mid-80’s on Tuesday, not the least bit Wovemberish at all, but such is St. Louis weather.  Winters here tend to be relatively warm and drizzly instead of snowy.  It makes me sad but home is where the heart is and I do heart my family.

yarny days and knitterly evenings

~Elka

 

Tea–YOP#6 Week 11 post

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It seems as if the only times I post is for YOP.  Mainly because I have been good about staying on track with my highly mutable list. Woo hoo

I finally finished the My Cup of Tea Socks.  I guess I shouldn’t say finally but it basically took me a week to sit down and graft together the last toe so yeah not too inspired to finish.  The yarn was purchased on Etsy from Hedgehog fibres in 2009 so deep stash being used up here.  I am going to end up giving them to Tyler and here he is modeling the socks:

My Cup of Tea socks

My Cup of Tea socks

 

The yarn was darker and glossier pre-knitting and washing.  The water was pretty green when I dunked them in for the washing and I suspect it will continue to bleed for a while.  Tyler has been asking for them while I was knitting them but I told him he was out of luck.  I am a sneaky Christmas gift knitter that way o.0.

Anywho they were laid out to dry Friday night and I started winding yarn for some tamalicious fun.  Hey I have news!

So before we went on vacation last month I was looking for some papers I had on my desk and the desk basically gave up the ghost when I moved it to check to see if they had fallen off the back or side.  It was one of those inexpensive particle board desks from Target I believe about 15 yrs ago for the kids and has been moved multiple times.  Anyway it kinda collapsed and instead of having the beloved one reassemble it I threw it out in a fit.  Which means I am concentrating on the yarn piles that were on my desk.  Which takes us back to my first YOP post and a list check up so to speak.

I originally listed several piles or bags of yarn to tackle along with general project goals since the yarn piles were too numerous for me to get through.  The first list of yarn piles started with my desk yarns and it makes sense that I now focus on these items since the desk is no more.  They were:

On the Desk:

  • kypria
  • hedgehog fibres fingering in merino, bamboo & silk @350 meters per Etsy listing = My Cup of Tea Socks
  • the yarn for Angharad
  • Lamoramere-gift from Angela on my birthday eep 12 yrs ago.
  • yarn for 2 tams <missing a few colors here or there. Purchasing piecemeal due to job hours being cut. (purchased 7.15.16)
  • 400 yds of cashmere-gift from Stitching girl Toni years and years ago
  • and sock yarn remnants. Some of these remnants are practically full balls for example the orange Eidos I used for stripes on my gentleman’s railway socks

Project wise we had (I edited my wording to make it easier to track):

1)Socks:

  • Husband 4 pairs 3 pairs
  • Tyler 3 pairs 2 pairs
  • Myself 3 pairs

2)Sweater for me.

3)Something Lace

4)Purchase Reef Yarns

& “My Tams. Please I need the preciousness.”

 

AHA this digression is going somewhere.  My friend Lorraine, aka Sheriff of Knittingham, aka Twisted Traditions designed a lovely tam I admired called The West Wind, based upon a painting of the same name by Tom Thomson. She is a fabulous designer if you are unfamiliar with her work.  Anyway I had all the colors but 2 called for in the tam and, as you can see above,  it was one of my on both the desk piles and the project list.  I started winding the yarn Friday after washing the socks and they are lovely:

The West Wind yarns

The West Wind yarns

This is another stash buster project for me, despite having to pick up a couple of balls, because I had the yellow, dark green, dark blue, burgundy, and pink in my stash.  In fact they had been in my stash so long that they were in hank form. J & S yarns switched to ball form in 2002 per their blog.  It is also a fairly simple project with only 7 colors.  Compare that to the Midnight Tam which calls for 11 shades and  you can imagine how much easier it is to work.  Also it starts off with a XO pattern which is easier to work than something pictorial such as the Neeps Heid.

And if that were not enough I almost felt like crying when I started knitting it.  The pure joy of working fair isle is so overwhelmingly happy making I cannot even begin to describe it.  I suspect I will have a FO soon unless I put off weaving in the ends forever {It took about a  year for me to sit down and weave in the ends for Neeps}

 

yarny days and knitterly evenings to all

Elka

Hunter Hammersen

Hunter Hammersen has been on my radar for a while.  I first noticed her due to her then free sock patterns Slant and Popped. Note they are no longer free but Hunter has gone from a one size pattern to multi-sizing and gauging which understandably requires more work. Then, my green love, had me drooling over Propitiate and if you peek into the comments section I was begging for the pattern to be written up.  It was and has since been taken offline.    Back then I used to download all the patterns onto my computer and print them out, remove the download so as to not clog up my computer, and begone.  Or even not do anything at all since the pattern was free and I figured I could just open it up whenever. Since then I have learned to save everything into my Ravelry library.  I never did buy her Silk Road Socks book, being unemployed at the time with 3 children, but I have purchased her self published Knitters Curiosity Cabinet Vol 3.  I think it was just about this time of year and I discovered the joy of having an electronic version of a pattern to work on while on the road.  I signed up for her newsletter, I believe, after purchasing her book.  I really tend not to subscribe to feeds or newsletters or anything else because I am bad about reading my emails and great about shopping 🙂  I mention this because Hunter frequently offers a discount code for patterns through her newsletter and this week she is offering a free pattern to subscribers!

Welter Pattern is a cowl worked in worsted weight yarn and looks like it would be good for gift giving.  I think this is a nice way for those who are not familiar with Hunter’s work to get a feel for her patterns.  So consider this my PSA of the week 🙂 Her blog/website is Violently Domestic which is easy enough to remember.  If you are a sock knitter I think her work is worth looking into although she has branched out and offers smaller shawls and fingerless mitt type of things… basically nothing too yarn or time consuming that would be perfect for wrapping up and giving to others….last year I gifted a secret pal some fingerless mitts and they were very fun to knit.

yarny days and knitterly evenings.

Elka