Knitting

One Pair Restored Socks

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I completed the restoration of this pair of socks yesterday. The back of the heel – the heel flap – was intact (often there’s a lot of wear along that part of the heel but in this pair that wasn’t the case). The problem was with the bottom of the heel and the wear into the instep. Replacing just the heel wasn’t an option because I had nothing to graft onto in the instep. So I decided to redo just the bottom of the heel and to reinforce the weakened area of the instep so I could attach the heel to something solid.

Restored Socks

The restoration has turned out rather well. I had matching yarn so the reknitting of the heel bottom blends into the heel flap. I probably should have looked for scraps of yarn that blended with the instep a bit better but it’s under the foot and won’t show when the socks are being worn.

Worn heel bottom and instep

Here you can see the problem – the heel flap is solid (the sock in behind and below the needle) but the heel turning and the instep are both weakened and worn through. I could cut out the entire heel and reknit the instep but that’s more work than the restoration warrants so I’ll do what I did with the previous pair: I’ll reinforce the weakened spots in the instep by oversewing the existing instep stitches, then salvage the heel flap and reknit the heel turning. Otherwise these socks are in good shape; worth refurbishing and keeping in a sock drawer.

Blue/Green Socks

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Finished these socks last evening. They were soothing to work on – enough gradual changed in the unfolding pattern to keep them interesting.

Blue/Green Socks

I should really now return to a couple of sock repairs – there are still five pairs of socks in the repair basket wanting attention. Maybe I’ll work on one before returning to new yarn.

Green and Yellow Socks – Finished

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I have to say I haven’t really enjoyed knitting these socks. The yarn was lovely in the hand, but the colours weren’t ones I’d have chosen to work with. Furthermore, the skein had the darker green at one end and the strong yellow at the other, graduated from one to the other with more green than yellow.

Green & Yellow Socks

What I did was ball the skein, then separate the yarn into smaller balls of the various colours. What I didn’t account for was the fact that I should have halved each small ball and reserved the second set for the second sock. However, I didn’t do that so there was no way I was going to be able to make two socks that matched.

I kept swapping yarn at somewhat random intervals, sort of matching the colour flow from the first sock to the second.

The yarn before I started knitting – I began the cuff with the teal colour – shouldn’t have done that – it kind of blends but a green cuff would have worked out better.

Green & Yellow Yarn

I did have someone in mind while I was knitting them. Sometime in the next couple of days I’ll put them in the mail to her.

Ugly Yarn – Interesting Sock

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I started with this yarn – came in a skein which I balled and wondered whether I’d ever use it. I didn’t particularly like the colour combination and as a rule, these skein-dyed yarns don’t knit up into an interesting pattern.

Ugly Yarn

However, these are the socks that knit up – not bad at all!

Interesting Sock

Finished last evening. Now on to another pair.

I have another skein (which I’ve also balled) not variegated but green on one end, yellow on the other, graduated in between. Were I to knit it up I’d have one green sock and one shades of yellow. What I think I will do with that yarn is knit using both colours at the same time alternating rows to form a spiral. The socks will not match but at least they’ll look similar – we’ll see.

Yellow/Green Ombre Yarn With Turquoise Contrast

As for the Bamboo Quilt top – I’m plodding along slowly. I still have three/four blocks to make, then I have to find something for borders. I don’t think I have anything in my stash that will complement the inner panel so it’s off to the fabric store yet again.

And talking about new fabric – I came across this collection “Blushing Peonies” at Sew With Vision and couldn’t resist buying some. I already have an idea what to make with it.

Blushing Peonies by Moda

I’ve ordered yardage of two more grey fabrics from the collection from The Missouri Star Quilt Company – the greys I have on hand just didn’t blend well enough to work with the other fabrics.

So now to get on with finishing the Bamboo Quilt.

New Socks

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Finished these socks the other evening.

I used a yarn from New Zealand (Waikiki) that contains 10% possum, 15% alpaca – very nice yarn to work with – for the heels. I do hope it wears reasonably well – 20% nylon, it should. It would be a shame if it didn’t.

The socks went into the stash; I started the next pair.

Socks Done, Too.

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Finished this pair of socks late last evening.

Mauve Socks (Size Large-ish)

I have a few people who have larger feet than my usual socks will fit so from time to time I make a pair longer in the foot. For now, they’re in the stash waiting for just the right person to come along!

Socks from a Hand-Dyed Skein

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Finished this pair of socks last evening. Too bad I didn’t take a photo of the skein – the colours were luscious – and distinct. But unwind and ball the yarn and you get this kind of blurred mixture which is relatively boring when knit into socks. I tried choosing embedded colours for cuff, heels and toes but they don’t blend – they stick out.

Here’s what hand-dyed yarn can look like: you can get large swaths of colour

Hand-dyed Yarn – Sectional

or it can look like this

Variegated Hand-dyed Yarn

In either case, they knit up looking more or less like my socks.

While the colours are enticing, I find this yarn much less satisfying to use than commercial balls dyed to create an actual pattern. Socks with hand-dyed yarn always seem to take a lot longer because there are no pattern shifts to indicate the progress you’re making.

So back to another patterned ball of yarn….

Blue Socks

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Finished last evening. This pair has a longer foot than I usually make – 60 rows from gusset to toe-off rather than 50. My friend wears a women’s size 10 shoe (as compared to my size 8) so I made the foot longer.

Blue Socks

Hope it’s not too long! If it is, I’ll unmake the toe, remove 4-5 rows and reknit the toe.

Before / After

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I have a basket of socks beside my chair all in need of repair – the heels are worn (some worn through, hopefully the holes are still small enough that a heel replacement will do). The pair below, however, is a left over from the previous batch of repairs – put aside because they needed more than a heel replaced – the back of the leg was also worn through to the point that I knew I’d have to cut it off and reknit part of the leg – a rebuild, not a repair.

I decided to work on them after I’d calculated the time it would take to rebuild the socks – about 7-8 hours compared to  25 hours to knit a new pair.

Before / After

This is the before and after – the before sock has already been set up with stitches picked up on the leg and across the instep. Next steps are to cut close to the carrying thread, pick away the extra rows to get to the stitches on the thread, pick up stitches on the leg, extend the leg, create a heel, and then the difficult/tedious part – grafting back the foot. It’s worth saving the foot beyond the instep because it still has lots of body.

It took me about 4 hours yesterday to do the prep work and rebuild the sock on the right. It’s now a wearable sock for a couple of more seasons.

Grey/Yellow Socks

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Finished last evening. I probably worked on them for 10 days or so (same 25 hours it takes me – I just knit more each evening). I was given the yarn by one of the women in the Friday knitting group – she picked it out of a donations bin at her church, didn’t want to use it herself, but thought I might like working with it.

The yarn (an older Regia pattern) looked pretty dull, someone had knit and unravelled a portion of it, but I thought the yellow offered some possibilities, so I added in the yellow stripe at the top, alternated rows for the next 10 rows, then knit the remainder of the sock as the yarn worked out. Cuffs, heels, and toes all used a bluish grey which blended well with the greys in the yarn.

Grey/Yellow Socks

Not a bad looking sock. Turned out to have more life than I’d anticipated.