Knitting

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?

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.

Socks

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This was an interesting yarn to work with – no repeats – just two complete socks in the ball. The break was identified by a length of white yarn separating the two socks – which I missed at first and thought it was where the second sock started! I got several inches into the second sock before I realized I hadn’t found the “beginning” of the second. I unravelled what I’d done and started the second sock to match the first.

I have another ball of that yarn in another colour. I’ll use it after I’ve finished the pair I’m working on at the moment. These were fun to work on since I had no idea how they were going to turn out. My colour placement was quite different than the image on the yarn wrapper. The yarn – Lang Twin Soxx.

Latest Socks

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Latest Socks

Finished this pair of socks last night – they’re a bit smaller than my standard sock. My massage therapist wears a size 7 shoe so while I made the legs with the same number of stitches as usual, I decreased from 64 to 60 stitches before the ankle and did fewer rows in the foot.

If you click on the image you’ll get an enlargement that lets you see the glitter.

Then a couple of days ago I got this image from a friend!

“Well Loved”

I have some leftover yarn from those socks but not enough I think to reknit the feet (and I imagine the heels are weakened as well).

These socks were made from an acrylic/polyester yarn because Heather can’t wear wool. So I checked Micheal’s online to see if they had any in stock – DISCONTINUED! And nothing similar available.

So I tried online to find this Loops & Threads yarn – I came across a single Etsy shop that seemed to have some. Since I couldn’t source a decent acrylic sock yarn anywhere else, I ordered two balls (the yarn was inexpensive; the shipping was out of sight). It’s what a good friend would do.

Red Socks

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This pair of socks turned out nicely, I thought. Great colours in the variegated yarn and the contrast is almost an exact match with the turquoise in the red yarn.

I’m happy with these socks.

Latest Socks

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Finished this pair of socks last night:

I liked the colour combination as soon as I had completed the first repeat on the first sock! The light turquoise contrast works beautifully to brighten the whole sock.

These have gone in my sock drawer!

Latest Socks (And Abortion)

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Van Gogh – Vase mit Sonnenblumen

I made these socks from a ball of Opal yarn using the colour pallet from the famous van Gogh painting “Vase kit Sonnenblumen.” I liked working with these colours. I happened to find a golden solid that blended almost perfectly with the yellow in the variegated yarn.

Into the giveaway stash.

I’ve started the next pair – this one Opal Rainforest 17-4 Ply Sock Yarn – a nice combination of greys/whites/yellow/turquoises. The repeating pattern is a bit shorter than the Van Gogh pattern above.

As I sit knitting I have the TV on to one of the US news channels but I’m going to have to turn it off! Even though everybody’s known the result of SCOTUS abortion decision since it was leaked a month ago, it’s angering. What’s so terrible about that decision is where it takes women – not only in the US, but we will feel that decision ripple through Canadian politics – particularly since several of the Conservative leadership candidates are promoting the same arguments as far-right Americans are.

Today I read an article in The New Yorker that shows just how far-reaching this decision is. “We’re Not Going Back to the Time Before Rove v. Wade. We’re Going Somewhere Far Worse“. We are entering an era not just of unsafe abortions but of the widespread criminalization of pregnancy. That’s the subtitle. It’s a lengthy read but here’s the gist:

“We won’t go back”—it’s an inadequate rallying cry, only prompted by events that belie its message. But it is true in at least one sense. The future that we now inhabit will not resemble the past before Roe, when women sought out illegal abortions and not infrequently found death. The principal danger now lies elsewhere, and arguably reaches further. We have entered an era not of unsafe abortion but of widespread state surveillance and criminalization—of pregnant women, certainly, but also of doctors and pharmacists and clinic staffers and volunteers and friends and family members, of anyone who comes into meaningful contact with a pregnancy that does not end in a healthy birth. Those who argue that this decision won’t actually change things much—an instinct you’ll find on both sides of the political divide—are blind to the ways in which state-level anti-abortion crusades have already turned pregnancy into punishment, and the ways in which the situation is poised to become much worse.

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/07/04/we-are-not-going-back-to-the-time-before-roe-we-are-going-somewhere-worse?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=onsite-share&utm_brand=the-new-yorker&utm_social-type=earned

—

Everybody’s tired. I’m tired. But we’re all going to have to summon the energy to become involved in various political activities if we’re to retain a modicum of civil society and push back against the dystopian reality of “The Handmaid’s Tale”!

June 25/22 – the next day:

Here’s what Margaret Atwood has to say abut it all: Enforced childbirth is Slavery! Read it.

This image sums it up: “Let Us Pray!“

The SCOTUS decision is so amazingly ignorant: “Why is right-wing Christianity the only religion afforded legal and political accommodation in America?“

Sparkle Socks

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Sparkle Socks

I finished this pair of socks on June 1. I just didn’t get around to posting the photo. You get a hint of the sparkle in the photo but if you click on the image, the sparkle becomes more obvious.

I no longer have the label so I can’t tell you what yarn I used for them. I think it might have been Opal, although I can’t find any sparkle yarns in their collection. I’ve had the ball in my stash for a while so it may be they no longer make one like this.

The Knitting Goes On

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Latest Socks

I haven’t done a lot of sewing in the last weeks but I’m still knitting in the evening. Finished these socks two nights ago. I chose the yarn because I thought the contrasts were interesting. The pattern change kept me knitting – with some yarns it’s boring – but in this case it was “I’ll just knit another few rows…”.

These socks will go into the stash – I do have plenty of blue and green socks in my drawer that I don’t need to add these to my collection.

The new pair I started is going to be predominantly yellow – I haven’t knit any yellow socks in a while.