First Manly Sock Completed

In just one week, I knit a whole sock! Considering that the last two pairs I made took 5 months and almost a year, this is great progress!

Really, though, knitting is all about momentum: if you put that project down for too long,  it probably will stay a WIP for a looooong time. (Maybe I should say "I"...some knitters are made of stronger stuff than I and can have tons of projects going at once and finish then all in a reasonable amount if time.)

Anyhoodle, tip for everyone: make sure to double check foot size of the person you are making socks for! I had to tear out the toe and add an inch to the foot because I was making the sock to fit my feet. And they aren't meant for me.

Two Scarves and Some Socks

Yesterday I finally finished a pair of socks I've been working on for about 5 months and wove in the ends to a scarf that I spent just 2 days on.

First, here are my July Mystery Socks.  It was a great, easy pattern and I love how the heel was done!  They are toe-up with a short-row heel, but also have a gusset.  It really cuts down on the awkward holes from a straight short-row heel.  As you can see from the WIP Post for these socks, I have been working on these for months!  I got distracted by making gifts for people and put them aside.  This week, though, I finally finished!

 

 Here is a close-up of the pattern.  The repeat for the main pattern is only 4 rows, so I was able to memorize it and didn't have to keep looking at the chart (yay!).  I decided to make them short socks because I live in California, and wool socks are almost always a little warm anyways!

 

Here is my 2-day scarf!  I used some handspun that I made during the summer and knit it up in garter stitch on size 15's.  Here is a post about the Mermaid Handspun.

The whole scarf.  As I had intended, the yarn knit up in long stripes of color.  Each of the colors was hand-dyed by me, so this scarf is truly handmade from start to finish.

 

Right now, I am working on a new LARGE project... The Beekeeper's Quilt!

Ruby Socks -- WIP

Here's a picture of sock #1 from the pattern July Mystery Socks by Rebecca Hatcher.

I spent a ton of time sifting through the patterns on Ravelry to find a sock I wanted to knit.  I wanted it to be one color, with a simple design element.  Many socks had too much going on or were too complicated to knit.  See, I like to be able to knit without looking at a chart every row--especially for socks!  The main pattern has 2 cables running up the top of the foot, which I love.  The 4 row repeat meant that I didn't need the chart after a few rows.

Right now I am about 2 repeats into the second sock.  Gotta keep knitting past that Second Sock Syndrome! 

Rainbow Striped Socks

Let's be real: rainbows are awesome.  When I found out that Knit Picks had started making a rainbow colorway for Felici, I instantly ordered some.  It's taken a while for me to use the yarn because it is just so perfect.  Any knitter, sewer, spinner, or other crafter knows the type: something that is just so awesome that you don't want to use it.  You just want to take it out every once in awhile and pet it, then put it back where it belongs.

I finally used this yarn last November, when I started these socks.  Usually, I am a monogamous knitter.  If I start another project, the first probably won't get finished.  These are an exception!

I started them around Thanksgiving of last year and knit on them off and on through December.  Christmas presents took priority, so I stopped for a couple weeks to finish them.  I even took these socks on the Most-Terrifying-Plane-Ride-of-My-Life, but didn't knit because I was busy holding on to the armrest like it would save me in the event of falling out of the sky. 

When doing a Stash Reorganization a couple weeks ago, I found the half-finished first sock and started knitting on it again.  Yesterday, the final stitch was knit, and final end woven in.

The pattern is Skew, which is free from Knitty (here's the Ravelry link).  I knit the pattern once before with a beautiful hand-painted yarn.  This time around, I wanted to do stripes of some sort.  If you've seen the beautiful Noro scarves, you know that a striped yarn looks fantastic when paired with a solid.
 

I wrote about these socks on their Ravelry page, which you can see here.  Ravelry is great for keeping track of progress, especially if you happen to put a project down for a long time. 

Above, you can see that they are almost perfectly identical.  Yay!  I commend the knitters who can make not-quite-identical socks, but I simply can't muster the will-power!  Each time I knit a pair of something, I make sure to start at the exact same spot in the yarn and compare throughout.  

Here's a picture of the first sock being blocked.  Blocking really gets these socks into the correct shape.  I had two problems with this pattern, however:

1. A little too tight across the heel/ankle.  This isn't noticeable once they are on, but getting into and removing them is a major task.  I'm really hoping they stretch out a little with wear.
2. On both socks, I had the incorrect number of stitches after the heel was formed, when it came to the mini gusset.  I know it wasn't an issue with the pattern because there was a difference in stitches between the two socks.  I need to work on keeping track of what row I'm on, apparently!

 Today I started my next pair of socks, and am hoping that it will take less than 10 months to complete this time around!