Finished this pair of men’s socks last evening. They’re for my brother-in-law – he’s adventurous when it comes to socks so I thought this colourful pair (with a hint of glitter) would work for him!
Another pair is already underway…
Knitting
Purple/Turquoise Socks
Because I like a longish leg on my socks, I generally knit 80-85 rows after the cuff. When I’m using 100 gm. balls there’s no problem having enough patterned yarn for the foot. But, with a 50 gm. ball it’s a different story. A pair of socks takes 100 gm. of yarn (often with enough left over for a pair of legs). A 50 gm. ball, plus another 50 gm. ball of a contrasting solid gives me a pair of socks, but it takes some fiddling to extend the pattern yarn well into the foot.
First of all, I unwind the ball, find the centre, cut, then roll up 2 smaller balls. That way I know precisely how much I have to play with for one sock. With this pair I didn’t get as far into the instep as I wanted so I extended the pattern yarn by alternating rows with the contrasting solid. I had no patterned yarn left when these socks were done!
I still prefer working with 50 gm. balls of patterned yarn when I can get them ( they’re getting harder and harder to come by) because a finished pair costs considerably less than the larger balls (even counting the second set of legs I get from them).
New Socks
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.
Holiday Scarf for Hillary
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!
Using Leftovers
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!
These Socks are for Me!
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.
Like New!
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.
Blue Socks from Leftovers
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.
Finally, A New Pair Of Socks
I started this pair of socks just before I left for Bali – finally finished them! They are destined for the give away pile.
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.
jmn 