It has been since I last bought yarn!

Monday, July 9, 2007

The Summer of Socks


Yup! More socks!! It kind of dawned on me the other day that I've been "hardcore" with the sock knitting lately. It's probably because socks are light and travel well, and right now, in the heat of summer, they seem to be the best little project for me. I suppose I'll go with it for now, and just enjoy the steady stream of "quick finish" projects... before the perpetual wave of baby blankets come crashing down on me. (It's only a matter of time...)

It seems the more socks I make, the faster I'm able to churn them out, the most recent socks the best examples of the lightening speed pace.

Lightening Quick Knit Sock #1:


Pattern: Monkey Socks (By the infamous Cookie A)
Yarn: Regia Stretch Color #87 (I actually bought this at WEBS... but they don't seem to have it in stock anymore!)
Needle Size: US #2
Sock Model: Those are the feet of my lovely sister, who is also the proud, (hopefully), new owner

This is an addicting, easy little pattern that looks so good when you're done. The stitch pattern is awesome because it looks way more complex than it actually was. I was nervous starting these, as my last forray into knitting socks designed by Cookie didn't turn out so well. (They are so ugly {my bad knitting, not the designer's pattern} I pretend they didn't happen, so will not enlighten you with details.) But, my fears were quickly put to ease, as this turned out exactly like the picture told me it should. I would note for those who are interested in doing this pattern for themselves that you want to use a fairly subtle varigation so that you don't lose the pattern definition.

I knit these babies very quickly, one in some spare time during our move and the other over two days on our very long car trip back to Canada (that consisted of four days of driving). I'm hoping that the flying fingers and speed knitting I did will help work off the copious amounts of bad/fatty/fried food I was forced to eat thanks to the American Interstate system, that apparently doesn't believe that it's users would like a healthy dining option now and again.

Lightening Quick Knit Sock #2:


Pattern: Mine/Cookie's (I used the stitch pattern from the Monkey socks above, but came up with the anklet pattern from my own little head.)
Yarn: Koigu and Clauadia's Hand Painted left over from the Candy Necklace Socks
Needles: US Size #2

I suppose, technically these aren't complete socks... but close enough. These are little pedicure ankle socks I came up with for my mom, who is notorious for ruining the paint job on her pedicure, moments after it's been applied. I'd been wanting to use the left over Koigu (*slobber*) and other yarn from my Candy Necklace Socks, and this seemed like the perfect amount of yarn to make the pedicure sock anklets. I literally have 2 inches left of the Claudia's Hand Painted and very little of the Koigu (solid pink). No one can accuse me of not using every last inch of my leftovers!

I knit these puppies really fast- the pair of them in two days (8 hours each) 0f car tripping. I think even the husband was shocked to see how quickly I churned these out.

With those done, I turn to the temporary stash, (I've been in Calgary for two days and I already miss the rest of my stash), and am finally getting around to my Lorna's Laces I bought over Christmas. I'm doing the Spiral Eyelet Socks, and already have made progress from this picture that I took!


I have a feeling those might be done as soon as the end of this week- they too are also a very quick knit! I'm also turning my eyes to a more complicated sock pattern for some very fun looking pink varigated Koigu... if anyone wants to make suggestions for a pattern, I'd be greatful!
The next little picture is a little bragging I'm doing on behalf of my mother-in-law, who is "SB" or "sadly blogless". While I've been knitting socks like a fiend, she's become addicted to hats. The woman has been a machine churning out hats for newborns and has a huge stack of them ready to donate to the hospital. Behold the cute little hats in all their glory!


Some of us knit socks... some of us knit hats... all of us stay warm. Stay tuned as the Summer of Socks continues!

3 comments:

Mr.commentator said...

Very interesting blog, bravo! i've never seen anyone make anything that great with kniting,... i've seen ugly sweaters,... socks i wouldn't mind. i'm just a random blog jumper showing some interest in a random blog. so adios,... but seriously they actually look viably comfortable.

eusebius said...

Wow, great work. So productive! I am loving the Monkey socks ... I have some STR in "Fairground" colourway that might really suit that pattern, yum!

Leigh said...

Neat! I'm using the spiral socks pattern as well - love it so far! Good luck, and everything looks lovely.