Once Upon a Sock – November 2018

It’s, terrifyingly, the first of November! Aaaaahhhhhhh! But that does mean that it is Once Upon a Sock time. Hooray!

If you blog about socks (knitted or crocheted, completed or WiP), you should come join our link up, which is hosted by Paula over at Spin a Yarn – we’d be very glad to have you.

I am still mid-packing for our house move. We got the keys last week (which I still can’t believe, tbh) and we’ll be fully moved in by mid-November but despite all that, I am making steady progress on the current socks. They’re toe up, Two at a Time in Uneek Sock Yarn, which is designed to create close to identical socks. I’ve done the heels on mine (fish lip kiss) and they are pretty consistent – one is probably 3/4 of a row ahead of the other and I suspect that is gauge related and you can only really tell if you’re looking really closely/actively knitting it.

The yarn is a bit splitty and I am using very sharp needles, so that is more of an issue for me but, they are cheery and the simple round and round knitting is a lifesaver for turning my brain off in the evenings.

I am thinking that the next pair might be Katharine of Fibre and Sustenance’s Parkamoor socks. I haven’t decided which yarn yet but I best make that decision asap before the yarn boxes are out of my reach!

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FO: Byatt Shawl

My Byatt has been completed since July but has been unsung on the blog since. Partially because it’s a tricky one to photo – the wingspan on mine is at least 2m (which made blocking fun) and also because it has been mostly living around my neck as we settle into the unsettled temperatures of Autumn in the UK.

But no longer! I have taken some photos and it is getting its FO post before it goes back round my neck in the arctic wasteland that is my office right now.

Knitted in an entire skein of lovely squishy Stranded Dyeworks Merino Nylon (formerly Oasis) as the MC (plus a smidgen of Debonnaire Shimmer Sock, kindly donated as an emergency yarn transplant by knitting friend J, as I played and lost yarn chicken/stuffed up the increases at some point) and Truly Hooked Sparkly Sock for the CC. The Stranded Dyework’s was purchased at a pop at YAK on LYS Day 2017 and the Truly Hooked was a Yarndale 2017 purchase. Both would be purchased again.

I’ve knitted a lot of Karie’s shawls and I always enjoy them – they’ve always got something that keeps me hooked into the knitting and the shaping on this one is a nice change from the usual triangle. I even didn’t mind the garter stitch.

This was also my Good Intention’s Quarter 3 project, over in the KnitBritish Ravelry group. I shall post more about my Good Intentions Projects at a later date but I do believe it will be running again, which is great news. I definitely have to knit from stash next year, what with shortly to be possessing a mortgage. *shocked face emoji*

Once Upon a Sock – October

Sneaking in slightly belatedly with Once Upon a Sock because the first Thursday snuck up and then past me. Such are the joys of being two weeks into the new Academic Year I guess.

You should join us though, there is a link round up that is hosted by Paula at Spin a Yarn and we are always happy to see new people!

I have completed socks! So this is a FO post for the Rose City Rollers I was working on last month. They sped off the needles ( helped by being a trainer sock!) and I would definitely recommend the pattern to anyone who was thinking about trying socks for the first time because you get to reach all the new to you bits in a sock (heel/gusset/toe) very quickly, without too much distraction. Plus, it’s got good photos and instructions.

I did a Eye of Partridge Heel Flap and a slip-stitch toe – originally I started with a eye of Partridge stitch on the toe but got myself confused so went back to doing a normal slip-stitch toe (Winwick Mum has a good tutorial for that)

They are so cheerful – I love the WYS Rum Paradise and the Truly Hooked Sparkle fitted in nicely. It was good to have a use for some leftover yarn and I still have enough to put in the repair bag for any future darns. Although I am hoping that the slip-stitch toe will help delay the damage my pokey toes can do.

I have also started a new pair of socks, using the Uneek Sock Yarn I picked up from Tribe Yarns on the Yarn Crawl. They’re just non-pattern toe up socks, probably with a fish kiss heel and I’m doing them two at a time. It seemed the best idea for something that I can only work on in snatches at the moment as we have exchanged on our house (aaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!!) so must pack, pack and pack some more, so having these simple socks on the needles is great for when I collapse on the five inches of sofa I can reach (The problem with packing up a tiny flat is that there is not a lot of floor space for the boxes.).

They’re a bit further on than the above and so far, as promised, the stripes are indeed matching up!

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FO: A bounty of blankets

You know how I mentioned that I had two large blanket WiPs? Well, I currently have no large blanket WiPs!

Behold! One completed Pick ‘n’ Mix blanket, by Lucy Croft, which was a year long CAL with Simply Crochet and had been sitting, half joined up in a bag for *mumblemumble*. That one is single bed sized and made up of 12 squares in two different colourways. I used Stylecraft Special Aran and really enjoyed working through the squares as they came out.

The other is the Hydrangea blanket by Lucy at Attic24 but using the Stylecraft Special DK colour pack for the Moorland blanket. This was a request from my mother and it has come out slightly smaller than double bed sized. I basically picked the colours at random but tried not to repeat any very close to the previous stripe. Also one that got fitfully worked on but the combination of not wanting to pack it up in a WiP state and seeing my mother earlier this month meant it became my At Home project. And then once I finished that, I had to apply the same moving logic to the Pick ‘n’ Mix and suddenly they were both pretty much done.

I have also finished my Keith Moon sweater (oh the icord, the endless, endless icord) but it is still blocking at the moment. Endlessly blocking.

But now that I have finished all the big pre-packing WiPs, I have to start the packing, I guess!

Once Upon a Sock – September

It’s Once Upon A Sock time and I am bountiful with socks. 😉

First up – my pair of completed Helical Beeeees, which are going to my mother this weekend. I have (had?) a better photo so I will swap that out later but there they are, in their fraternal, black and yellow stripey-ness. I really enjoyed the helical stripes (yay, new technique), and the ease of after-thought heels, I just didn’t love the fit of that particular spiral decrease heel, so I will likely try after-thought again but with a different heel type.

As soon as I finished those, I cast on for a new pair of socks and they are, as I thought about in the last OUaS, a pair of ankle socks, using up some WYS Rum Paradise and the remains of the Truly Hooked Sparkle from my Byatt shawl (which still needs a proper completed item post!). I’m using the Rose City Rollers pattern and I’m doing the heel and toe in the Truly Hooked Sparkle. I’m already one sock down and mid-way through the heel flap on the second sock now.

My only problem so far is that I am doing eye of partridge on the heel flap and if I put it down, it takes me ages to work out what row I should be on. Oops! But it makes such a nice heel flap that I can’t resist it.

I am also reminded how much I like Rum Paradise – it’s so cheerful!

Other sock plans for the future involve Kat’s lovely Swirl socks, which I look forward to raiding my leftover yarn stash for and also experimenting with a new to me sock yarn called Uneek, which I picked up at Tribe during last weekend’s GLYC. I do like the idea of a pair of TAAT stripy socks! Thinking toe up and fish kiss heel.

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Come join us on the first Thursday of the month to talk about socks. Paula at Spin a Yarn hosts the link up and it would be lovely to have you, whether you’ve got a completed sock or one that has been on the needles since the 20th century. 😉