Socks

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?

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.

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!

Making Progress

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Blue Socks Added To Stash

Finished this pair of socks on Friday and began a new pair that I think I might keep. The stash keeps growing – I will definitely have plenty of socks to share for Christmas. Last week I contacted the gal who wanted 4 pairs of socks from me two weeks before last Christmas – I told her this was the time to place her order. She said no socks this year. Do I really believe her? When she asked last year I just squeezed her order through – I had to take one pair, remove the toes, lengthen the foot by an inch, reknit the toes – she was lucky I had enough time to do that. I’ve already put aside a couple of pairs with someone’s name on them. I’ll just keep knitting as usual.

The Christmas Show Challenge

I finally made a decision regarding the 6″x6″ blocks – to use the textured raw silk for the background, to fuse batik circles of various sizes to the background to simulate “modern flowers”. I cut out ten 10″ blocks from the raw silk I have on hand, backed it with sewer’s dream to stabilize it, marked 6″ squares in the middle (using a heat erasable pen). Next, I added fusible web to a pile of batik scraps and cut out a lot of circles. I have started arranging and fusing circles to the raw silk.

Six Blocks Laid Out (but not yet fused)

Because all ten blocks will be shown next to one another, I’ve worked to vary placement, even cropping some of the flowers so the appearance of the blocks is different. I have to edge stitch the cropped edge so there are no raw edges at the edge of a piece.

I’ve completed one of the blocks

First finished 6″ Block

The slight wobble at the bottom of the block will be eased out when I mount the fabric over the stretched canvas.

Looks like each block will take me between 2 and 3 hours to embellish. It doesn’t look like a humungous amount of stitching but it takes more time than you think to edge stitch each bit of batik, then to add stems and leaves, and signature. The stems are free motion. The leaves are decorative stitches each requiring careful placement. The flower centres are embroideries which want precise positioning and often involve thread changes. It all takes time.

I’ve got another block sitting on my machine waiting to worked on tomorrow.

Socks and Heirloom Top

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Latest Socks
Heirloom Shirt

I also finished the latest pair of socks (added to the give-away stash) and the pull-on shirt I made using the heirloom panel I created a couple of weeks ago. I’ve since added five small mother of pearl buttons to the centre of the heirloom embroidery to draw attention to the stitching. It’s a light, loose hot summer day shirt. The only problem – the fabric I used for the heirloom panel is a slightly yellower colour than the rest of the shirt. Nobody will notice it. And I’m hoping a washing or two with oxyclean will whiten so the panel will blend with the rest of the shirt!