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.

onceuponasockovalstripes

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. 😉

Once Upon a Sock – August 2018

It is OuaS time again, the Monthly link up of fellow sock makers! You should join us!

Still not an awful lot of knitting happening at the moment but I have finished one Helical Bee sock. I am…not loving this particular heel on me and the foot is a tiny bit too short, which is a pity. However, I have just been back up in Yorkshire and it fits my mother, who loves handknit socks, to a tee so I shall be donating them to her once I’ve knitted the second one. Which I plan to cast on for shortly, in the hopes that it will be slightly less hot and sticky soon.

I am still loving the helical stripes though, so they will definitely make a reappearance in future socks for sure!

I am very tempted to try see if I can squeeze a pair of ankle socks out of some leftover WYS’s Rum Paradise as inspired by Paula‘s post for this month as my next pair of socks!

I might wear the full size pair I do have to Brighton Pride on Saturday (I’m in the parade, walking with Girl Guiding UK in my guise as a Guide Leader.) but I may make the final decision on the day as the weather is meant to be 27 degrees C, which might be a bit much for wool socks and a very long walk!

Once upon a Sock – June 2018

Posts, much like buses again! It is Once Upon a Sock time again and you can find everyone else (and submit yourself!) at the Once Upon a Sock linkup, which is hosted once again by Paula at Spin a Yarn.

So here we are – still knitting away on my helical beeeees (Incidentally, fellow OUaSer, Kat has a brand new helical sock pattern available, if you want to take a spiralling trip!) although they are not as far as I had hoped to be, partially due to my needles being yanked out of them at Faro airport on my way home from my holiday (I was not best pleased, especially as Gatwick had been fine with me flying out with them) and thrown away. I managed to fix them on stitch holders when I got home and then had to replace my needles as I can only assume all my 2.25mm needles have gone into hiding as a result.

But, I have started the heel, as you can see there because I wanted to make sure I knit the foot long enough on the first one. Very exciting! Because I am using the active yarn, I am knitting the heel from the other end of the ball, so they are a little tricky to take out and about at the moment but I plan to concentrate on them as my at-home project until the heel is done and then I’ll know what measurements I need for no. 2 and they can come back out as my out and about project.

Now to go visit my fellow OUaSers!

Helical beeeeees and a sock FO!

So last summer, I went to Stockholm with friends and had a wonderful time. And one evening, while wandering the streets of the Old Town after dinner out, we stumbled across a Yarn shop. So of course, we immediately went back the following day and ogled their lovely yarn and I came home with two skeins of Stockholm Woolery Merino in yellow and black for some bee inspired socks. Several cast on attempts happened but never with any particular success – wasn’t happy with the stripes, wasn’t happy with the colour change and so on.

Fast forward to now and I have finally started my bee themed socks with the spur of the Year of Techniques book. They are helical stripes (which I have totally fallen for as a technique) with an afterthought heel. They’re meant to be my holiday project when I go away next week but I’m on holiday now, even if I haven’t left Brighton yet. 😉

I’ve put in the first afterthought waste yarn already, so hopefully I’ve placed it right so once I’ve done the length of the foot minus the toes x2, it will all fall into place.

Of course, if I have new socks on the needles, that must mean I have finished the last pair? One would hope so and in this case it is true! My 80s-tastic rainbow swirled Riverkats are off the needles and blocked! Whoop, whoop!

I’m really pleased with these – it might be a little too warm to wear them right now but they are made with yarn I bought while in Paris on our first wedding anniversary trip last year and are off the needles just before we go on our second wedding anniversary trip. Aside from the zig/zag issue on the first sock, the second sock went much quicker and I would definitely knit them again.

We’re going to a resort on the coast of Spain this time, so probably won’t find any yarn shops this trip but at least I’ll have one pair of socks to knit while I am there with my helical bees.

I’m also taking yarn to knit a Byatt shawl – one skein of Stranded Dyework’s Oasis I’m Spook (bought at a showcase at my local yarn store last LYS day) and one skein of Truly Hooked’s Sparkle Sock in Jade (Bought at Yarndale last year). I’ll use the Stranded Dyeworks as the Main Colour and the Sparkle for the Contrast. Quite looking forward to starting it.

Once Upon A Sock – May 2018

onceuponasockovalstripes

Behold! One completed sock and one almost completed sock! My Once Upon a Sock offering this month.

I am just at the end of the gusset decreases on sock number 2 and the zigs are zigging and the zags are zagging so I am optimistic about finishing them fairly soon (I have a long train journey and some at-home holiday time in the next couple days) which means that I can start digging out the yarn and needles for my actual holiday knits!

My plan is to take two new-to-me techniques from the Year of Techniques book and turn some previous holiday yarn purchases into some helical socks with after-thought heels and contrast cuff/heel/toes. I’m hoping to have a little play with the technique before I cast on the full sock as I want to make sure the colours work together as helical stripes.

I am also going to take some sock yarn along that will be turned into my Good Intentions Quarter 3 project, which is a Byatt Shawl.

So hopefully, by the time OUAS rolls round again, I will have several sock related things to show you!

The way we’re doing Once Upon a Sock is changing slightly due to numbers, so you can find us all (and join in yourself!) at the link up hosted by Paula @ Spin A Yarn.