Knitting

KnitPicks & Hobbii Silly Socks

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Made With KnitPicks Yarn

A while back I placed an order with KnitPicks for three/four skeins of sock yarn (I can’t now remember how many I bought). This is the second pair finished (the other is in the sock stash). The repeat is the length of the leg (just about) – longer than most other sock yarns. You end up with an extended interesting pattern. I still am adding contrast for cuff/heel/toe. I prefer how adding a solid brings out the colours in the yarn.

I had finished these socks a couple of weeks ago, taken them to show at our Friday afternoon knitting group. One of the gals was working on some rather bland socks. I pulled up the Hobbii Yarn Website / Sock Yarns to show her some colourful alternatives. Found the “Silly Socks” yarn on sale! While we were sitting there I ordered four balls/skeins of the yarn.

Hobbii Yarn (Denmark)

I’m currently working on the second sock on the first of those balls/skeins and liking the resulting sock. The yarn is a great sock weight and soft although it’s the conventional superwash of 75% wool and 25% polyamide. It knits up well and feels nice in the hand. Another couple of evenings and the pair will be done.

I bought one skein of the rainbow yarn shown in the photo – they should be fun to knit up – although I’m not sure what solid I’ll add to it. Maybe I’ll even keep the resulting socks.

Still knitting every evening in front of the TV!

Finished A Couple Of Evenings Ago

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Lang SwissLakes Super Soxx Yarn

I finished this pair of socks a couple of evenings ago. I really liked the colours and the colour flow. I used a contrast yarn for cuff and heels but decided to carry on with the patterned yarn for the toe, introducing the contrast 1/4 of the way through in alternate rows. The teal and rusts make a nice combination.

Socks Finished Last Night

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KnitPix Yarn

Many months ago I bought several skeins of sock yarn from KnitPix – I ordered them because I found the original couple of skeins were a lovely soft merino/Polyester blend and great to work with. I chose to pick up the lime/yellow colour from the pattern for cuffs and toes, but decided to use a navy for the heels to keep the overall “navy” feel to the socks.

Someone will enjoy wearing them.

Sort Of Sedate Socks

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Man-Size Socks

I mostly knit socks to fit a women wearing a size 7-8 shoe (give or take a bit in the length). If I know someone has a small foot, I knit them with four fewer stitches and a few rows shorter in the foot. I don’t actually knit socks in “inches”; I knit them by counting rows so I know precisely how long each section of the sock actually is without the uncertainty of stretching it against a ruler.

This pair of socks is intended for a man wearing a size 9 1/2 shoe. So I added 6 rows to my usual foot length. With a bit of washing (even in cold water) which will shrink the socks a tiny bit they should fit nicely. Just waiting for an occasion to pass the socks along.

The socks aren’t “dull”, but they are sedate, I’d say. No bright colours. Just a wee bit jazzy.

Socks Again

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Colourful Socks

I knit these socks for my niece’s stepdaughter who’s studying biomedical engineering at university. She wears a size 9 shoe – people always think it odd when I ask their shoe size – but that’s how I know how long to make the foot of a sock. I checked my sock stash and I did have a couple of pairs of socks that would have fit her, but they were rather dull, more suitable for a man (men generally prefer sedate socks rather than bright ones – except for one of my brothers-in-law who has a collection of quite wild socks – two drawers worth, I understand, although I’ve never seen them except when he’s wearing a pair). So I looked through my sock yarn, chose what looked like a bright yarn and started knitting.

I finished the socks three days ago. Put them in the mail straight away. They should arrive by the middle of next week.

Waste Not, Want Not

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Socks – Restored

Patsy wondered whether I could fix holes in the feet of her socks. I’d have to see, I told her. Depends on the size and location of the holes. (These were socks she bought from me to give to her daughters, I thought, a couple of Christmases ago – looks like she kept a pair for herself! Well loved, I could see.)

Well, not only were there substantial holes in the ball of the foot, the heels were threadbare, as well. No point in trying to reknit the holes. Better to salvage the legs and reknit new feet.

I went to my leftover yarn stash to see whether I still had a ball of the original yarn tucked in there. No luck, didn’t find any. I did find another pattern that looked like it would complement the original pattern. I cut off the feet just at the start of the heel, and reknit new feet.

It takes 4-5 days to knit a length of leg – so 8-9 days, say, to knit a pair of legs. Half the job done. It’s worth my time and effort to salvage legs and knit new feet. She’ll get another couple of years wear from these like-new socks.

The match between the two socks isn’t absolutely perfect, but close enough that if I didn’t mention it, I’m not sure Patsy would even notice the discrepancy.

I’ll knock on her door with these later today!

Worked out pretty well, huh?

More Socks

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Blue Socks

Not much to say here. Just another pair of socks. These have a home already. My friend Patsy has a friend who is willing to buy a pair of hand-knit socks. She wears a size 7 shoe so I’ve made the foot on these a wee bit smaller than I would normally hoping they’ll fit without having to shorten them for her. I’ll send them via Patsy when I’ve finished adding new feet to a pair of well-worn socks of hers.

Legs Salvaged With New Heels

I cut off the worn feet, picked up stitches on the legs, knit new heels on each. Last night I knit the gusset on one of the socks then spliced in another variegated yarn – sort of close to this pattern. I don’t seem to have any leftover from this particular ball of yarn so I’m using whatever I have. There’s enough yarn in the ball to knit two feet but I’m not sure I can get the two feet to match. They’ll be inside her shoes so I’m not worried about any mismatch that happens.

The Repair

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Land’s End Sweater

I collect sweaters. I’ve been collecting for more than 50 years. I wear them, even when they’re no longer quite in style. I reluctantly discard them when they become too worn.

This Land’s End sweater I bought at least 40 years ago. A Fair Isle double knit that’s been done very cleverly with no more than two colours per row although the colour layout seems a lot more complex. This sweater was machine knit – the carrying of the yarn on the back is very even (except where my fingers or watch have got caught in the carry threads and pulled them). I’ve lovingly worn this sweater for a long time. I’ve reinforced the sleeve edges when they began to wear, otherwise it’s intact and warm.

Imagine my dismay the other day when I took off the sweater and discovered a LARGE hole in the left elbow! Why I hadn’t noticed the sleeve becoming threadbare I’ll never know but I missed it until a couple of stitches let go and what I had was a big hole.

I remembered I’d seen a video a couple of weeks back, which I saved to Pinterest, on how to repair a hole in a knit which I thought was ingenious.

Knitting Repair (Click Here)

Although my hole was a lot larger, I decided to try the technique on my sweater. I’m not a knitter for nothing – I have a large yarn stash of many colours of sock yarn. I chose a medium blue fingering to close the holes then top-stitched the stitches with yarns as close to the original colours as I could get – that gave me a final patch close in weight to a double knitting yarn.

The Repair!

I didn’t think to take a picture of the hole before I started. I didn’t take a picture of the initial repair using the medium blue yarn. I don’t have pictures of the repair in progress. I just have this image of the completed repair!

The hole was six rows by nine stitches in size. It started just at the top of the sheep’s back up to the navy stripe, from the sheep’s head on the left to the head of the one on the right – a BIG hole.

When I was finished with the repair itself, I reinforced the white sheep’s body since the yarn there was considerably weakened. Then I wove in all the loose ends on the back. My yarn colour choices aren’t perfect but they close enough that nobody will ever notice!

I have to say I was pleased with myself.

Finished At Last

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The yarn: Lang Twin Soxx. The 100g ball of 4-ply sock yarn is set up to make a single pair of socks. The trick is finding the length of white yarn somewhere in the middle (after you’ve finished the first sock) which marks the beginning of the second! I’ve missed it both times now. I got several rows past the cuff on the second sock before I realized my pattern wasn’t going to match up. I cut the yarn, kept pulling it out, until I found the white “marker” and started again.

The yarn definitely makes an interesting looking sock. Interesting to knit since the pattern keeps changing, no repeating, all the way to the toe.

I’d originally bought two balls of this yarn. I’ve knit both of them. Now to ball up some of the skeins I have in my yarn basket to get on with my 2023 batch of socks.

Bamboo/Acrylic Yarn Socks

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They look pretty – I like the colour combination and the pattern but I have to say I don’t enjoy working with this yarn (Perfect Pair Yarn by Loops & Threads). I purchased the yarn originally at Michael’s but the yarn has gone out of production and isn’t available there any longer. I managed to find a couple of balls online of which this is one. The yarn is somewhat stretchier and finer than the wool yarn I prefer to knit with. The only reason I made this pair of socks is the friend who loves them can’t wear wool! So another gift completed.