FO: Fish Lips Kiss Heel Sock

Last month, news reached me of an unfortunate Amtrak accident near Philadelphia.  

"Gosh, I hope I didn't know anyone on the train", everyone thinks.

Knowing lots of people who work in Sales and travel the East Coast corridor almost constantly didn't help my chances and I did end up knowing someone who was gravely injured on that train.  

Third hand news of a long-term ICU stay, surgeries, concussions and broken bones reached me but ultimately a long and painful recovery was in store.  It gave me nightmares for a week.  

Once I was assured that he wouldn't be an amputee (a very real possibility) I set to work on a pair of socks.  Dapper, simple, comforting warm socks.   

This might sound new-agey, but when you are knitting something specifically for someone in mind, you are thinking of them subconsciously or consciously with every stitch, and whatever you thoughts are towards that person gets woven into the fabric of your garment, much like a protective amulet or magical armor to keep that person safe and well.  

Big man feet, loads of stitches, loads of healing thoughts.  

Once modeled by a for-hire foot model, I packed them up sent them off with well wishes and healing universal vibes to my friend, who I am certain is in need of a bright day here and there.  I told him "wear them with Birks, you'll be a star!" knowing that it will make his blue blood curdle.

New technique:  the Fish Lips Kiss Heel, a nice way to avoid gusset shaping and keep your stripes consistent on your self-striping yarn, and not having a heel flap to pick up stitches- Thanks, Sox Therapist!  I think it worked- they seem to fit and the unique short rows made for a flawless gap-free heel.  I'm making another pair right now to fit them to the next recipient better as this pair required a little guesswork as far as foot size goes.

Yarn is Online Supersock 4-ply "walking color".  I think it looks quite dapper, Birks or no.

fo: Plain jane socks

I've changed gears and started making socks again.  I love the usefulness of jumpers, but I have much sock yarn in my stash that needs to be turned into socks, and those socks make for wonderful gifts.  Maybe someone particularity cold-hearted might turn down a pair, but what ice queen wouldn't want a pair of these?

Quick, plain jane socks.  The yarn is Online Supersock 4-ply City Color.  This yarn is fantastic- it's affordable and the 75% superwash 25% nylon blend is just the easy-care hard-wearing for non-knitters who can't be arsed with handwashing their precious.

The colors are fun.  I didn't bother trying to line them up, giving them a charmingly mismatched quality.

Pattern is my basic toe-up two at a time sock with the Fleegle heel, and a couple inches of ribbing at the top.

Best part, they took me all of 8 days to make.  I'm not a speedy knitter, but that's really fast as far as sock knitting goes.  For me, anyway.

FO: Snow Queen socks

Hey!  I made a pair of socks.  Actually, I made them a while ago, but I gifted them had to keep it quiet until then.  

Last summer, my dear aunt who lives in the balmy climes of North Carolina declared, "why haven't I gotten a pair of socks yet??"  

I had no response to that, except I thought there wasn't enough of a winter down south to need wool socks.  Apparently, I'm very disillusioned about regional climates, as they do occasionally get cold and snow, but also 70 degree days in January.  True, her three sisters and both her parents had gotten socks from me, but they all live in places where winter means a range of weather-related discomforts.   I didn't mean to snub, I just plead ignorance. 

I made sure she got her socks. 

The pattern is called Snow Queen,  I wanted to do something mostly plain to show off the gorgeous Regia Ombre stripe yarn (the color is called "Frost").  I'm not a huge fan of pastels, but these were just such a calming, perfectly harmonious color combination, I fell in love.

I knitted these mostly on the trail.  They bring back fond memories of warm sun and wildflowers and blue skies.

Here's to warm toes, no matter where you live.

FO: Fell Walkers

It's been a while since I've posted a crafty project.  It's summer (still?), I just don't feel like it.  

I did finish a pair of socks that I started on the trail though.

I went for a stash-dive and picked out a nice ball of Opal Shafpate and cast on for the Reverso socks from the most recent Knitty.

I cast on during the train ride to Carlisle and I was pleasantly surprised to see that they were fell-colored!  What a serendipitous choice for a hiking take-along.   

Not my hairy arm, btw.... 

Or my hairy legs....

I am usually hesitant to try out new techniques when it comes to sock construction.  I'm a bit lazy that way.  I don't like to think too hard when I'm making a pair of socks, as I knit them on the go and dislike fiddly things.  These were worth it though, and an idea that I had been contemplating for a while: how to make a pair of socks that can be worn with the smooth knit-side fabric on the soles without having to do a ridiculous amount of purling.  

Easy: make them inside out!

You start at the cuff in mistake rib pattern.  Instead of gusset increases, you do Cat Borhdi's ceder construction, which puts the increases at the heel instead.  Once you start the heel turn, you flip the socks inside out, and continue in the mistake rib.

So now you have a pair of socks that there is no right or wrong side out!

The only awkward moment was grafting the toe and weaving the ends in, as I tried my best to hide it.  They are cozy, warm stretchy socks that would easily fit a variety of foot sizes, so great for gifting.  They also didn't take too long at all as far as socks go.

The yarn is 75% superwash, 25% nylon, so they should wear well for years.  If not, it's going to be a mess for me to try and patch these up, as I generally count on the repair work to not be seen on the inside.

Now I'm somewhat obsessed with self-striping sock yarn.  For years, I favored intricate cable and lace patterns on my sock, which pairs well with the hand-painted variegated yarn I love so much.  Intricate patterns tend to get lost when you have yarn that stripes heavily, so doing plain socks or some texture works better.

I love them so much, I cast on another pair of stripe socks as soon as I was done.  The bug has bitten once again.  

FO: Sunday Swing Socks

I've gotten into the habit of knitting exclusively for gifts lately.  Years and years of knitting has saturated my wardrobe with knitwear.  I can't possibly fit another pair of socks in my sock draw, even if I tried, and I have to make a real effort to make sure that every pullover and cardigan in my collection gets used every season.  I'd like to think I've been gifting all this stuff for years out of the kindness of my own heart.  True, lots of times, I make things specifically with certain friends and family in mind.  International postage is quite high though, and lately, whomever happens to be in my sights the moment something is blocked ends up with fresh new socks to wear.

I really love these socks.  

I made the foot plain, as it's so much easier to shove your foot in a pair of shoes with them on when there isn't a bulky cable pattern or nubs of lace to indent into your skin.  The cuffs, I used the pattern from the Sunday Swing Socks, a free pattern on Knitty.  It's a simple, flowing lace pattern that worked nicely with the self-striping yarn.

The one bad thing about gifting all these socks is that I don't know what kind of wear and tear the yarn may or may not hold up to.  This yarn doesn't seem to be too worrisome: it's Regia Blitz Color, a really solid superwash wool and nylon blend that gave me no concerns as I was knitting them.  It seems like the uncomplicated stuff that you can throw in the washer without coming up with baby booties at the end of the cycle, and they will hopefully last for years.

 Oh!  I do have close up the heel join though, it's a bit of an obvious gap.

Great pattern, lovely yarn.  This is why I keep on knitting well after I'm plenty warm.

FO: Broadripple Socks

I have not given up hope that one day, I will have knit everything I have in my stash. I'm still forcing myself to pick projects based on the yarn, and in somewhat alphabetical order. Just because.

I dug out a couple skeins of Knit Picks Felici that has been hiding out in my stash for eons now. 5 years maybe? It's been a while. The colorway is "Schooner", but it's been discontinued. Anyway, they were the next sock yarn on my list and I had the urge to make socks. The yarn has a good amount of nylon in it, so they make good, hard-wearing socks. I still wear a pair of socks I made from them back in 2008, and they have held up just fine. Also, it's good sock yarn for gift socks as they are superwash, and your aunt who just does't give a shit about her deliciates will still have a pair of socks at the end of the day.



I really like self-striping yarn. I think I was fooled into thinking some handpainted yarns were self-striping, but the stripes would pool and do weird things and it was impossible to find a pattern that didn't get lost in all that clown barf. No more loud multi-colored handpaints for me, thank you.

I choose the Broadripple Sock pattern from the Knitty Summer 2003 issue.



I made these toe-up, two at a time. That's my preferred method since it allows me to use up every last yard of yarn. The socks I made toe-up tend to be much taller than the anxiety-inducing cuff-down pairs.



The pattern was really simple- just one row of lace to memorize, and a modified feather-and-fan pattern at that. I added 4 extra stitches to the pattern just to give them a little more ease. The pattern is written for a thicker DK weight yarn, and I was using fingering weight, so a few extra stitches didn't hurt.



I love the stripes. LOVE. I got them to more or less line up. They were really quick to knit as well- the pattern had good flow to it, and the stripes allowed me to gauge my progress in a way that made me want to knit more on them. I could get 3 stripes worth done per commute.

These will be gifted to a fairly irresponsible laundress with cold feet.