Finished last evening. They’re for someone who wears a size 10 woman’s shoe so they’re longer in the foot than my usual socks.
I liked working with this Opal yarn – the pattern held my interest even through the second sock so the work seemed to go quickly. There’s enough yarn left (6 repeats) to do two sock legs so I have to come up with an idea for using a complementary yarn.
I’m having Christmas dinner with a long-time friend and I had nothing for her granddaughter. Last year and the year before I sewed gifts for Hillary (now going on twelve). But I didn’t get around to making anything this year.
I was tidying up my knitting basket beside the chair in my bedroom where I watch TV and knit and saw the ball of scarf yarn I bought two years ago to make a scarf for myself. I decided to use it for a simple scarf for Hillary.
So six hours later here is a warm scarf, long enough to be tied outside her jacket, should she wish it. And one more ball of yarn is out of my stash!
Recently I went through my basket of leftover yarn, pulled out what I thought might be usable then took the rest to Value Village. This pair of socks is the first I’ve tried using that leftover yarn. I didn’t have enough of the two yarns I chose to work with but I thought if I interspersed them – i.e. alternated rows – I might have enough to create a pair. So that’s what I did. But the trick is not to knit a “row” (knitting all four needles once) but to knit two interlocked spirals – two needles using one yarn, two needles of the other. Knit this way I didn’t end up having to cross over the yarn after each row; I end up with a smooth continuously knit sock.
As you can see one yarn had large blocks of colour shading from dark blue to medium blue and back to dark blue. The other was a variegated yarn with short coloured sections of dark blue, green, off white. To relieve the boredom of the dark colours I added the bright green near the ankle.
That technique resulted in an interesting pattern of alternating lighter and darker stripes. And it turned out I had just enough yarn to finish the socks. Yeah!
Last week I went through my sock drawer and removed half a dozen pair of socks (leaving me just 35 pairs of hand-knit socks)! I do this at least once a year and it’s always a difficult decision – which ones to give away, which to keep. I like all of them including the first pair I knit in 2003 (which I happen to be wearing today).
Because I have so many pairs, they don’t seem to wear out. So the culled socks are still in more than good enough condition to pass on to new owners (who are happy to get hand-me-downs). My neighbor Estella got three pairs the other day – that should bring her collection up to six or so (she passes on some of the socks I give her). Today at the pool I asked my friend Sumitra if she’s interested – of course, she answered. So I’ll get the remaining three pair to her.
And that pair I finished last night are now safely tucked in my sock drawer. (I still have two pair of socks in the stash awaiting a home – someone will get them – one may have my friend Susan from Alberta’s name on them; that means I need to knit another large pair for Andrea before the middle of January when she and Susan will be here to work on Scout Canada stuff!)
I already started a new pair last night – can’t leave those needles hanging around doing nothing.
Last Sunday I visited a friend and as I was leaving she handed my a shopping bag with six pairs of socks all needing new heels.
Now I should explain I’ve been knitting socks for her for over a decade and repairing them when she wears through the heels. I’ve got her to the point where she gives them to me for fixing before the holes are so big I can do nothing except cut off the whole foot and reknit a new one. (That’s still half the work of knitting a whole new pair!)
That was almost the situation with this pair. The holes were large enough that the sole further into the foot was weakened and all I could salvage were the toes. There the knitting was strong enough to reuse.
I did what I usually do when just replacing a heel – this time, however, I cut out more of the damaged sock. I knit a new heel, did the gusset, then added another five rows for good measure before grafting the toe back on.
Too bad I didn’t take a “before” picture.
Took me three evenings to repair this one pair of socks. This morning I shaved off the “pills” – they’re absolutely like new!
Just five more pairs to go.
This pair of socks went surprisingly quickly. In part because they’re for a gal who wears a size five shoe but also I seemed to find a bit more knitting time in the evening.
I’ve gone through the leftover yarn bag and pulled out balls large enough to be useful – there are several that will make a pair of legs – have to find complementary yarn to work with them.
In this pair a pale grey blended perfectly with the lighter dyed section of the variegated yarn.
I started this pair of socks just before I left for Bali – finally finished them! They are destined for the give away pile.
You’d never guess that two weeks ago these socks had holes in the heels the size of loonies ($1 CDN coin). I don’t do this for everybody – if I did I’d never get to knit new socks but it was a shame to throw these socks in the garbage with salvageable legs. The holes were too big to darn and the surrounding heel was weakened too much to just replace the heel so I cut off the feet at the blue line and reknit new feet! I figure I’ve saved myself half the work of a complete pair of socks!
Finally finished these socks last evening. Didn’t work on them while I was traveling although I had them with me. Into the give-away pile with the others. Could be I’m actually working on Christmas gifts!
Now to finish the re-knitting of the feet in Margaret’s yellow socks.
I had already begun this pair of socks, almost ready to turn the heel on the first sock when a friend asked me to knit a pair of socks for her husband – she’d pay me of course. As always, the problem is the cost of a pair of my socks – I simply won’t work for less than $1 an hour!
As I turned the heel I realized I could just make a longer foot and then I’d have socks for Edouard. They’ll go in the mail to him today. As a gift.
jmn 