I finally finished the sixth pair of socks last evening. Done. Completed.
A friend asked to make 6 pairs of socks for her daughter and granddaughter for Christmas sometime in June (July, August, September, October, November, December – 6 months) – enough time to make 6 pairs of socks.
But the “job” felt like it was taking over my life. This wasn’t relaxed knitting. I felt compelled to knit at least 20 rows every evening, if I was to meet this deadline. I have knit a pair of socks in 2 weeks, but that was because the TV program I was watching was particularly interesting, or my knitting stamina was better at that particular time. While relaxed knitting it probably takes me closer to 3 weeks, maybe even 4 – although I knit most evenings, some evenings I might not.
Even though I actually had enough time, I felt the pressure. It was a relief, last evening, to finish the toe on the final sock!
Now I can return to the socks I put aside when I started these 6 pairs.
I finished this pair a couple of nights ago (4th of October, I think). I immediately started the final, 6th, pair. That means I should be finished all six pairs of Christmas socks for my friend’s order by the end of October.
It will be a relief.
Although I usually knit for a couple of hours almost every evening, knitting on these socks has been working under pressure and has made it harder than usual. I have often felt I can’t put them down, I need to knit a few more rows, I have to keep going…
I’ve enjoyed the yarns. Because these socks are a tad smaller than my usual women’s size 7 1/2-8 socks they’ve gone a bit faster. But that hasn’t mattered. I’ve felt the pressure, nevertheless.
I’m looking forward to getting back to knitting when I feel like it, and not knitting when I don’t!
Well these socks turned out well. The peach solid blended nicely with the peach in the variegated yearn and the other colours are bright and serve as accents for the main colour. And believe it or not, there was exactly enough of the peach solid to finish the second toe. I was prepared to add some mauve, orange and yellow to the toe if I had to. That meant I would have to undo the toe in the first sock so I could match what I did with the second sock. But none of that was necessary – there was enough peach solid to do the job.
Leftovers for next pair of socks
There’s enough yarn left in the ball to make a pair of legs, for sure. I’ve added a mauve solid for cuffs, heels and toes. I have a second variegated yarn that I’m going to interleave with the peach variegated which will give me more than enough for a full pair of socks. The socks I want to make are a slightly smaller size for a friend who wears a size six shoe. Plenty of yarn here.
To prep for the socks, my next step is to divide both variegated yarns exactly in half so I know how much I have for one sock (and be assured there will be the same amount available for the second sock)! Now, to divide the yarn and get going!
I’m working away at my yarn stash – these yarns are turning out interesting socks. I like how the golden pair has dark accents. The long repeat on the blue sock creates an interesting colour flow.
The blue sock was a surprise! I knit the contrasting cuff from a 4-ply yarn in my stash – that’s all I ever use. However, I’d bought the blue yarn at Woolworks in Mahone Bay not realizing it (and the three other balls I had picked up) were a 6-ply! When I started knitting the leg the yarn felt funny…heavy in my hand, uncomfortable. I’d probably knit close to 20 rows before I thought to look at the label – only to discover I was working with 6-ply yarn. I had three choices: unravel what I’d done and substitute a different 4-ply, change my needles to a larger size (needing to unravel what I’d done and work with a different number of stitches), or keep knitting the socks. I decided to keep knitting.
As it is, the cuff, heel and toe are knit from 4-ply; the rest of the sock is 6-ply. I’m confident that whoever gets these socks won’t ever notice the difference. What surprised me was how different the heavier yarn felt in my hands. I didn’t like it. And of course, using the smaller 2.5mm needles I’ve used to knit at least 100 pair of socks made the sock more dense than if I’d knit using 3.0mm needles. The problem with the larger needles is having to use fewer stitches if I wanted the socks to turn out the same size – the number of rows would also be different – everything was an unknown. I kept working with my 2.5mm needles.
I knit almost every evening for relaxation – the sock production is a by-product but not my primary motivation. I find my mind slows down when I’m knitting in front of the TV. My attention isn’t on the screen entirely and at the end of the evening I’ve another 20-30 rows completed – I’m not wasting my time but I’m also not rushing to finish the socks – I’m just relaxing!
I returned the other three balls of 6-ply yarn even though they each had a lovely colour scheme. I exchanged them for 4-ply balls. I didn’t like the colours as they appeared in the ball but I’m discovering they’re knitting into interesting socks! I’ve one sock completed, the second half done – a pattern I didn’t expect emerged. It was challenging finding a starting place to match the first sock but I succeeded in the end. I will end up with a pair of matched socks from this new ball of yarn.
A couple of weeks ago I went to put on this pair of grey socks only to discover a hole in the toe of one. No big deal, I thought, I’ll just darn it. I didn’t like how the darning turned out (I used Swiss darning) so I cut off the toe. Then I decided to check the heels – they were pretty weakened as well. I cut off the foot.
The thing about salvaging legs is that at least half the job is done – it’s just a matter of knitting new heels, foot and toe. I picked up the stitches at the open end of the leg and got to work. I was about half way through reknitting the foot of the second sock when I realized I probably would have ended up with a more interesting sock had I done the foot in navy blue to pick up the accent colour in the leg – but grey socks these are.
Finished last night and back in the drawer.
It’s rare for my socks to end up with holes because I have so many pair and each gets worn just a few times a year. Obviously this grey pair was worn more than the others.
I finished this pair last evening after having done absolutely NO knitting for six days. I came down with a norovirus a week ago – vomiting, diarrhea – which lasted four days and then I was too lethargic to do anything but binge watch a TV series on Britbox – Waking The Dead. I finally picked up the sock again (the second sock just needed a toe), finished it, then put stitches on for a new pair.
That’s how it goes – no empty needles in my apartment. Otherwise, how would I rationalize evenings watching TV? I can knit through just about any genre, except tennis! I can’t keep track of the shots and miss the best rallies if I don’t keep my eyes on the screen. I was delighted Sinner defeated Djokovic in the Autralian Open semi-final and then went on to win the tournament Sunday. It’ll be very interesting tennis over the next few years with Sinner and Alcaraz competing – they’re both such young, yet wonderful athletes. Great variety to their games (not just slugging it out from the baseline – no fun watching that). I’m looking forward to the unfolding tennis season this year – lots of great matches to come.
Back to the socks, I realized after the first sock I was probably going to put this pair in my sock drawer. Now that they’re finished, that’s where they’re going. I was even going to put them on this morning but didn’t because they’d have been too loose inside my boots. In the end I haven’t gone out in the storm, I worked on the current quilt (more on that in the next post).
Responding to my reinforced / visible mended sweater Donna DeCourcy wrote:
“I think your darning is wonderful and you really have created a unique item with more life for the garment. My comment is this: I think your friend has a good idea with adding a little more darning at the shoulder, only because it will draw the eye upward rather than linger in the middle. I had an art teacher once who taught us to be conscious of where the eye travels through an art object and my eyes stayed on the darning you already have. That is it! That is my 2 cents, for what it is worth.”
I wasn’t going to anything further but Donna’s argument made sense to me – instead of keeping the eye at my thickened middle, I should add further reinforcement closer to my shoulder to draw the eye toward my face, which I did last night.
Further Embellishing on Right Shoulder
With the sweater on, it’s obvious I still need to do more! I need more darning closer to the center – a couple of small patches like the ones just at bust level yet attached in some way to the work I did last night.
I can see this project may have no end! Once that’s done, I’m sure I’ll decide I want some darning on the back as well!
You certainly can see the wear pattern on the sweater – worse on the back of the right sleeve and right front. A bit more concentrated just below the boob on the left front.
Yesterday, I wore it to show a friend; she suggested a bit more darning on one side closer to the shoulder. But I think I’m leaving this where it is, for now.
A One-of-a-kind Garment!
Other wear spots aren’t jumping out at me with the white turtleneck shirt beneath. The knitting in the sweater isn’t looking obviously threadbare anywhere else.
I think this job has been a success. I averted holes, save the garment from the garbage bin, and have myself a new interesting wearable sweater.
I have a peachy/red sweater in my closet – I’ve owned it for at least 40 years – bought it at Mills Brothers when 100% wool sweaters were the norm. I have worn it a lot as the wear patterns attest. There are no holes – yet – but I haven’t had it on recently because my white turtlenecks highlight the worn spots.
I’m not sure what prompted me, but yesterday I looked at the sweater, thought about putting it in the garbage, but instead went through my yarn stash and found a ball of variegated sock yarn in shades of peach/red and decided to try repairing the sweater, instead. I thought about darning the worn sections but in the end decided Swiss darning was more appropriate.
Wear on the left frontRepair started on right sleeveBoth sleeves reinforcedBeginning of repair on right front
When I placed a piece of white paper inside the sweater the wear spots jumped out! There’s actually a LOT of reinforcing needed. Because I don’t actually have holes that need fixing, I am able to “duplicate” stitch my way through the thin sections, reinforcing the stitches in the sweater. It’s a slow process with lots of yarn ends needing to be woven into the back of each reinforced section.
At the moment, I have both sleeves “done” (I may do more). I’ve started on the right front – rather than one very large patch, I’m planning to create several smaller sections – I can always join them up if I need to.
I’m not sure what the repair is going to look like when I’m done or whether I might actually wear the sweater when I’m finished! I just need to get back to my darning and see what happens.
On November 19, a friend and I did the annual Eastern Shore Annual Seaside Christmas trail – starting with a visit to Harbour Breezes Day Lilies where I picked up some delicious home made cranberry/orange compote. We visited a bunch of craft shops but our best stop was Jeddore Variety just before you get to Jeddore (from Halifax). One of my friends in the building who lived in Jeddore for many years raves about the store; she always comes back from shopping there with lots of goodies.
I made some amazing finds there – my best buy was sock yarn for $13.99! I bought two balls, including this one. Should have bought more! Lots of interesting gadgets and arts and crafts supplies. Prices were unbelievably low for quality goods! Definitely worth a trip of its own.
I liked how this pair turned out. A good colour combination, too.
On to the next pair – probably the same pattern in greys and rose shades. Should be satisfying to make. Maybe I’ll even keep them – the colours fit with my wardrobe.
jmn 