February Classes - Socks & Beginners & Sweaters, Oh My!!

February is typically the coldest month of the year where I come from and a good time for making some cozy wool socks.  This month at Southern Made, is Sock Skills Saturdays.  This is a great way to pick up new skills needed for making socks.  Drop in at 2:30 for 30 minutes with sock yarn and needles and learn!

February 4 – How to make Socks that fit

February 11 – Making a standard heel flap type of heel

February 18 – starting the toe

February 25 – Kitchener stitch – grafting the toe closed

One beginner knitting session is being offered as well.  Saturday, February 4. 

Beginners can choose from three projects.  A baby hat, fingerless mittens and boot toppers And a 5 session sweater class, suitable for someone who can knit and purl is beginning the week of February 21st.

More class details on Facebook at Pogknits

Maeva socks

Since Friday, I've gotten the rest of the foot, the heel, the heel flap and a few round of the leg knit up on my Maeva sock.

I've broken the yarn and started at the toe of the second sock. The pattern calls for 400 yds of yarn, and I only have 360 yds. In the interests of having two socks the same length, I decided now was a good time to start the second sock. Once I bring this one to the same point as the first, I'll divide the remaining yarn in half and knit the leg as far as I can go. Hopefully far enough, as short woolen socks don't make very much sense to me.

I'm loving the way this pattern looks.



I found the heel flap instructions rather lacking. From looking at the photos I assumed that the heel flap is joined to the foot as it's knit. However, other than an ssk at the end of knit rows and a p2tog at the end of purl rows there is no indication that this is actually what you are doing. To make it work for me, I put half my heel flap sts on two different needles and included 16 instep sts with them. As I came to the end of a heel flap row, I ssk'd one of the heel flap sts with one of the instep sts, then turned my work and followed the chart to the end of the purl row where I p2tog'd a heel flap st and an instep st. This seems to have given me the same result as the patterns photos.

It could just be me. This is the first time I've made a sock with this type of construction. I know there are a lot out there, but I've never really looked at them. It could be that this process is widely known. Fortunately I was still able to make the sock work and it fits beautifully so far.

A Bit Oblivious

Apparently I've been out of the loop. Did you know Knitty put up two new issues before I'd even noticed?

Now that I'm up to date, I've got Maeva on the needles.



Loving the little cables and it goes quite quickly if you work the cables without a cable needle.

I had a short set back yesterday evening. I volunteer with the local figure skating club and last night was our registration night. None of us thought to bring thumbtacks to put our banner up. One of the girls said, "even if we had some toothpicks we could do this!" I sacrificed my bamboo dpns that I'm using for Maeva for the job - ripped them right out of my sock in progress. Once I was home again I picked up all my sts, only a few had dropped below the row I was working on and my bamboo dpns were no worse for wear! Just call me MacGyver!

Still Skewing

I'm making some progress on the Skew socks. They are still pretty cool. With the modifications that Ms. Holden suggests for the higher instep, they fit much better. Still a bit over half of the second sock to finish. Here they are modelled by B this morning!

The "Origami Moment"

I've gotten to the "Origami Moment" on my first Skew sock and it is quite cool. After the grafting to close the heel I tried on the sock and found that even with the 4 sts that I added, it was still quite tight over my instep. It fits nicely over the ball of my foot, so I'm glad I added those extra sts, but I'll need to head over to Lana Holden's blog to read the mods she's suggested for higher insteps. I don't have a particularly high instep, but I do certainly need a bit more fabric there. I'll be frogging this back a bit, once I know what I need to do.

Where have you been?

Well, what with the Olympics (sure feels good to be Canadian!) and with a little trip out west and with kids with busy schedules and a nasty chest cold, I've given few updates over the last few weeks. But I'm back to some semblance of a normal schedule now and have two socks to show for my absence!

First up: the Sleepy Hollow socks.



The Briggs & Little yarn might not have been the best choice for this pattern, but I love the rustic wooliness of it and while the pattern does not show as crisply as it might with another yarn, I still love how these socks are turning out. Just have to graft the toe on the first sock and then off to the second. I'm using my Crystal Palace 2.0mm bamboo dpns and got lots of knitting done on the plane. Only one person seemed to even notice that I was knitting and he couldn't seem to get the concept to work for him



Second on the current wip pile: Skew!



When I bought the Footloose yarn, I was definitely thinking Skew. I just didn't realize how addicting they would be. I'm almost at the "Inner Ankle" section of the first sock (I started yesterday) and am loving the cleverness of the pattern. It makes you feel like saying, "Why didn't I think of that?" I may take a while getting back to the second Sleepy Hollow sock since Skew is so much fun. Footloose is soft and smooshy. I find it a tiny bit prone to splitting, especially when doing the LLinc and RLinc's that are frequent in the Skew pattern. I'm a bit concerned that the softness may cause it to pill quickly, but so far, I am enjoying the way the yarn is colored and the way it feels. My feet can't wait to see how it feels as socks!

Scrubbing, Snowman and Socks

I've spent the whole morning cleaning B's room. It truly was in a state of chaos and I don't think she really knew where to begin anymore. She still sleeps on the top bunk in M's room, so her bed and floor were no longer identifiable. I tidied everything away, picked up three laundry basket-fuls of clothes from the floor (don't really know if it was clean or not), made her bed, rearranged her pillows and stuffies, put about 40 books onto the shelf, found about 50 hair elastics and 100 bobby pins, tossed rough copies of about a dozen homework assignments, tossed more Halloween candy wrappers than I could count, cleaned up three candies stuck to the floor in various spots, swept and mopped her floor! It looks great! Now I'm doing the loads of laundry. I noticed that her dresser and hangers were almost completely empty. I think now that she doesn't have to make a new path to the dresser and closet (since not only can you now see the floor, but it is also clean) to put away or take out clothes, there may be a better chance of her actually using them to store her clothes.
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Completely unrelated: I finished my snowman from this kit. I am so pleased with how he turned out!
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I had some ecru roving left over after I covered the "snow balls" so I spun up a 3 ply fingering weight yarn. I really liked the way this Romney roving spun up. I ended up with 10 yards that I figured should be enough for a little scarf. I cast on 4 sts and knit in seed stitch until I ran out of yarn. I dyed the scarf green and I think it makes him look even cuter!
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And the last "S": I finished my Socktober Mystery Sock KAL.
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Through the Loops designed these beautiful socks for the KAL. I'm just in time to get in on the prizes too, if I post my FO photos before midnight tonight on the Ravelry thread. These poor socks really stalled after the Rowan Felted Tweed Aran arrived at my home. Just in case you're wondering, only 9 more sleeps until I can show you that project!
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Mystery Sock KAL

Kristin Kapur of Through the Loops has provided another free Mystery Sock for Socktober! I've got one more pattern repeat to complete on Clue 2. I'm loving how this sock is turning out.

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The yarn is recycled from a pair of socks of surprising similarity. They were just too tight. So far this pair seems like they'll work beautifully.

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Oddish Socks

I finally finished the Oddish Socks. They've been in my purse for a long time. I worked on them whenever I had to wait somewhere for a bit. And now they are done.
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(modeled by M, whose 10yr old feet are almost as big as mine!)

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I love how they fit. I love the yarn. And just in time for cooler weather!
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Progress Socks

I thought maybe if I gave these a positive name, positive things would happen! Despite the fibery distractions of the last few days, I did manage to finish the first sock!

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I have yet to cast on for Number 2, but will soon. I love having a sock stashed where-ever waiting may occur for some mindless knitting. This one will likely stay on the coffee table, as I've got another sock in my purse.

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This one is using the yarn I recycled from my first ever pair of socks. I'm knitting contrasting heels and toes with a Odd-ish creations sample from my Phat Box. Love how this sample is knitting up.

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But progress for the sake of progress must be discouraged

I've finally made it past the heel on the Toe up Sock with Gussets. It's not you, Wendy, it's me. I ended up frogging and reknitting the silly thing three times! Rather exasperating, especially when the pattern is perfectly well written and easy to understand. The problem has been that I can't count. So lots of knitting on this sock, but until now - very little progress.

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So here it is, another evening an I should be able to start the second sock. Cross your fingers for me that the second heel does not follow the same path as the first!

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New Yarn!

For Mother's Day, the kids bought me yarn! the little dears! They chose SRK's On Your Toes Bamboo sock yarn (color ON260808) and Wisdom Yarn's New York sock yarn (color 222).

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I've already begun a pair of sock with the Wisdom. I'm trying Wendy's Fingeringweight Toe Up Slip-stitch heel sock.

.I believe B, my wool-hater, chose the Bamboo. Something tells me she'd like me to knit the Shetland Shorty from Knitty with my present!

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Parade of Socks (all the socks I've ever knit)

I do not have time to knit. I am too busy with the Figure Skating year end Ice Show: making costumes, helping with props, getting ready for the big night! Friday is the dress rehearsal with two shows this weekend. The other moms and I were talking last night at the arena that this is both the best and worst week of the season. It is going to be a great show!

And next week I go into high gear on another fun project: Academic Olympiad at the kids school. It will be fun family evening geared to "competing" in various academic events, with a Wii and Big Brain Academy as the door prize. Much work to be done yet, but I think two weeks should be enough. We're planning for May 11th.

But... I do have some sock to post about. Socks that have kept my feet warm all winter and will soon be going into hibernating with the winter clothes.

From the top:

• Socks of my own design with KnitPicks Essential in Burgundy - a bit too tight. They only get worn when they're the last ones in the drawer. Maybe I should frog them and use the yarn for something I'll love?
• Plain socks with afterthought heels both colors Patons Kroy "Norfolk Blue" and an evergreen/navy/light blue ragg that I've lost the ball band from. I loved the ragg yarn and wanted to use as much of it as I could. I split the ball in two, joined the happy yarn once I'd knit a navy toe and knit round and round and round and round until I ran out of yarn. Then I added a navy cuff and a navy afterthough heel (although it was really a planned thing) and repeated the process once more for a pair of socks I love.
• Mini cabled ribbed socks in a pattern of my own devising knit in Lana Grossa Meilenweit Bosco "3524". I love these socks so much. They fit perfect. I love the yarn too. It's the same yarn I designed Opie with.
• Plain toe up socks with a square heel from Wisdom Yarn's Marathon Socks - Los Angeles Color #241. Used Judy's Magic Cast-on - such a handy technique! Love these socks so much, they need to be darned on the balls of the foot. (Before I do that I need to wash the leftover yarn from making them since it's crusty from when the dog found the ball and played with it). They fit perfectly. Love the yarn too - nice and soft and squishy.
• Plain cuff down, flap heel socks with Sunshine Yarns "Cherry Blossom" colorway from a couple of years ago. Probably the softest socks in my collection. Beth's Kitty is using this yarn to knit socks for herself too.
• Spring Forward socks in Lana Grossa Meilenweit Marmi "7002". Great socks. Warm and comfy. The pattern was easy to remember and fun to knit.

This is all the handknit socks in my sock drawer right now. This doesn't include any that have sadly been darned so many times they had to be let go. Nor does it include the socks M has worn out, grown out of or are in his drawer (we're the only two here who like the handknit woolies on our toesies). Nor does it include the socks that I made for my sister's family of 5 a few years ago for Christmas. Or the 3 pairs for Mom and Dad. Mom has a pair of Hedera's in KnitPicks Essential "denim", a pair of Hibiscus for Hope in Patons Kroy "Muslin" and a pair of broken rib socks in Patons Kroy "Coal" that Dad let her have because he found them a bit too scratchy. (Note to self: make his next pair in KnitPicks Gloss)

My very first pair of socks were toe up Pine Tree socks in Patons Kroy "Flax". I had such fun learning to knit socks and loved that pair of socks until the ball of the foot was darned to death. I did frog the instep and cuff and still have the yarn left to make something else. I couldn't part with it.

See? I do knit socks!