Like a Rolling Stone

My brother and I worked out a great deal for birthday gifts this year. For my birthday, he went to his local yarn store and chose a skein of Blue Moon Socks that Rock in a colorway he liked (Moss Agate). For his birthday, I knit the yarn into some woolly waffley socks to keep his feet warm this winter. These socks are already well-travelled: they went to Boston with me and most of the first sock was knit at 30,000 ft elevation, both east- and west-bound.

Moss Agate has green, gold, plum and a bit of brown. The garter/waffle rib pattern created even stripes with very little pooling. I made the sock legs longer than usual (for warmth) but then found I would run out of yarn, so I added toes in a complementary color from yarn in my stash. My brother loves them - and they fit!



project name: John's Birthday Socks
pattern: garter rib (modified)
designer: Charlene Schurch, Sensational Knitted Socks
main yarn: BMFA Socks that Rock (lightweight) color Moss Agate
toe yarn: Claudia Hand Paint Fingering color Honey
needles: 2.25 mm (US 1)
size: men's size 10, cast on 72 stitches
my gauge: 7 st/inch
Ravelry project link
project notes: I modified the garter rib pattern by knitting two plain rows between each rib row, which gives the fabric a waffle look.

Autumn Socks

These are the Spring Forward socks, and I understand now why the pattern is so popular. The lace is easy to memorize and execute, and the fit is perfect. The only change I made was to add a round toe.



project name: High C Socks
pattern: Spring Forward
designer: Linda Welch of Colorplay Fibers
yarn: Hazel Knits artisan sock High ocTANG
needles: 2.0 mm US #0
size: cast on 66 stitches
my gauge: 7.5 st/inch
ravelry project link

A Perfect Day

Beat sock, despite its tough name, is a lovely soft smooth wool. The color is named "Woods and Frozen Lake," but it made me think of sandy beaches, blue sky and little fluffy clouds, maybe because it's summer now. The Garter Rib pattern is stretchy and comfortable. These socks are for me, and they fit, hooray!

project name: Perfect Day Socks
pattern: Garter Rib from Sensational Knitted Socks
designer: Charlene Schurch
yarn: Perfect Day Yarns Beat Sock "Woods and Frozen Lake"
needles: 2.0 mm bamboo dpn
size: 64 st cast on
my gauge: 8 stitches and 12 rows per inch
ravelry project link
notes: the only change I made was to use my best loved toe: the round one.

Wicked Sharp

I cast on two socks in the last two days:



These are a challenge for me. The socks are knit at microgauge (10 st/inch), are toe-up, and I'm knitting them on two wicked sharp Addi circs. The yarn is behaving nicely and I have not drawn blood so far. The Mystery Sock pattern is being doled out in four weekly installments, so you don't know what the finished sock will look like until it's almost done.

project name: Blue Meanie Socks
pattern: Ravelry Sock Knitters Anonymous July Mystery Socks
designer: Rebecca Hatcher (Archiknist)
yarn: Woolly Boully Meanie Sock, "something blue"
needles: 1.75 mm Addi Turbo Lace 24" circs
my gauge: 10 st/inch
ravelry project link
project notes: my only mod so far is to use a Turkish Cast On from Fluffy Knitter Deb's wonderfully clear instructions.

These are my knitting-on-the-bus socks, to balance the complexities of the Blue Meanies:



project name: Perfect Day Socks
pattern: Garter Rib from Sensational Knitted Socks
designer: Charlene Schurch
yarn: Perfect Day Yarns Beat Sock "Woods and Frozen Lake"
needles: 2.0 mm bamboo dpn
my gauge: haven't measured yet :o)
ravelry project link

Forward & Back

Only one FO for May, but it's a lovely one, and (for a change) these socks fit me perfectly.



Pattern: Forward & Back socks (Ravelry link)
Designer: Ruth Greenwald, The Yarnarian.
Yarn: Hazel Knits Artisan Sock in Cami Chic
Needles: 2.0 mm (US 0) 6" aluminum Inox DPN
Gauge: 7.5 st/inch and 11 rows/inch in stocking stitch
Pattern notes: 56 stitch cast on; substituted a round toe
Ravelry project link

The photo above was taken outdoors in natural light. The following one was taken indoors on a cloudy day, and shows the beautiful flow of colors on the heel and sole of the socks.

Birthday Socks

Oak Ribbed Socks by Nancy Bush from Knitting Vintage Socks, knit for gnr's birthday and finished four days early, even though I've been distracted lately by lacy socks and baby boots and chasing around town hunting down exclusive yarn (Wendee, I'm looking at you).

Stats:

Regia Stretch (70% wool, 30% poly) Color 111, most of 2 skeins
2.25 mm bamboo DPN
15 st / 24 rows per 5 cm (2 inches)
Ravelry project link

Notes:

Knit exactly per the pattern except that I omitted the heel "seam" stitch. The ribbing lets the socks stretch to fit size US 10 men's feet. I love the Regia wool blend as a workhorse practical yarn that can take hard wear and lots of laundering.

Next: something possibly less practical, but definitely more beautiful.

Embossed Leaves Cast-On (and On)

The Embossed Leaves socks pattern (Ravelry link) by Mona Schmidt is published both in Interweave Knits Winter 2005 issue, and in the book Favorite Socks.

In both sources, the pattern calls for a 1x1 rib cast on. I cast on as prescribed, but the edge did not look, to my eye, like the photo in the pattern. It was not very stretchy and had a pointy look, instead of the softly rounded edge in the photo. Research on the Ravelry boards led me to a tutorial on Mona's blog (see links in her sidebar) demonstrating the cast on she intended the socks to have: the tubular cast on from Montse Stanley's Knitters Handbook (p. 78).

I also found an excellent video of this technique, with additional explanation, on Ysolda's site. The photo above is my 2nd start on the sock, with tubular cast on, looking at least closer to what it should be. So this project has begun in my usual fashion: read a bit, knit a bit, read a bit, frog a bit, and repeat.

Very Small Sock

This very small sock is barely 10 cm. from top to toe. It was knitted for the Wee Tiny Sock Swap, organized by Emily of Yarn Miracle. For scale, I photographed it on top of a cedar sock blocker.

The wool is Hazel Knits Artisan Sock Daphne, with Natural stripes. I based the pattern on the one on Emily's site, but instead of a ribbed cuff, I made a picot one, and instead of Dutch heel, I did half-handkerchief. I will be mailing this off to East Lansing tomorrow, to my Sock Swap Pal.

Small Socks

These Hazel Knits Lacy Baby Socks are adorable and a very easy knit. The lace pattern is simple to memorize. They came out a bit small because I misread the pattern and used 2.0 mm needles when I should have used SIZE 2 (oops). The yarn is Hazel Knits Artisan Sock, in Beachglass. The color is pale green with slight blue cast and is semisolid, giving a lovely faded effect. The coins (for scale) in the photo above are 20 pence, 20 Euro cents, and 25 US cents.

Beach Baby

Very tiny socks in progress. These are Hazel Knit's shop pattern Lacy Baby Socks (Ravel it), using her Artisan Sock merino/nylon. The color is Beachglass, a wonderful frosty pale green. 2.0 mm DPNs. The lace repeat is 8 stitches and very easy to memorize. There are several babies in progress at my boathouse, so I'm stocking up on the dinky cute stuff.

Irresistible Temptation

The Wendy Knits Temptation socks (ravel it) are done:



Yarn is Hazel Knits Artisan Sock in Greenlake. I love the way the colors don't stripe or pool, but instead drift around the sock.

I adjusted the pattern to a 58 stitch cast-on due to my larger gauge.

Ravelry project link.

Temptation heel flap + gusset

The most architecturally interesting feature of Wendy's Temptation pattern (Ravelry link) is that she knits the heel flap and the gusset at one go, in the round, with no picking up of stitches. Sweet & simple.

Photo above shows the side view with the heel flap completed.

Reengineered Picot Edge

A folded picot edge makes a visually interesting but not too frilly cuff edge for a simple sock. I had seen two methods described for finishing this edge. One is to use a provisional cast-on. Here is Melinda's photo-rich post on the provisional method.

The other method is to cast on normally, then when the garment is complete, fold the fabric inwards at the picot edge and stitch the cast-on edge to the inside. The argument for stitching is that it is less bulky, since you can catch only some of the edge stitches (where the K2TOG method means every stitch is caught). Here is Wendy's post about this approach. She's doing hers toe-up (knitting the facing last) but it's the same difference.

I thought I'd try the lazy way best of both methods, and you can see the result above. I did a long tail cast-on, knitted the picot setup rows, then folded up the picot to the inside of my sock, and K2TOG with every other cast-on stitch. The end result is that every other stitch of the cast on edge is tacked to the inside of the sock, but without having to get out your darning needle. So efficient.

In the photo above, the foreground shows the right side of the completed picot, and the background shows the inside. I thought I might have unvented this third method, but today I saw a post on Claudia's blog that specs this approach out in detail (via Grumperina). Claudia says to pick up both sides of the cast-on stitch; I only picked up one, so I will try her method on the second sock to compare.

Swatching Temptation, with Math

I knit a test run with Greenlake. I love the way the fabric turned out; flexible, with a good soft hand. My gauge is not the same as Wendy's, but since Temptation is simple stockinette and is written in her usual beautifully orderly way, I can reengineer the pattern to fit my gauge.

I'm not worrying about row gauge for these socks; they are for me, so I can try them on as I go. Wendy's pattern is for a stitch gauge of 8 per inch. My gauge with the Hazel Knits yarn and 2.75 mm needles (US 2)is 28 stitches per 10 cm (4 inches), or 7 stitches per inch.

To adjust Wendy's pattern to suit my gauge, I need to calculate the difference between her stitch gauge and mine, and use that ratio to recalculate the number of stitches to cast on. The formula is:

(my gauge / pattern gauge) * pattern cast-on

I chose the smaller pattern size, which calls for casting on 66 stitches. My 7 st/in divided by Wendy's 8 st/in yields 0.875. 66 stitches multiplied by 0.875 is 57.75, which I will round up to 58. So, I'll be casting on (66 - 58) = 8 fewer stitches, and I'll need to reduce the stitch count in the heel and toe parts of the pattern as well. I will document those as I come to them, but for now I can cast on for real, knit the leg, and find out how good my math is.

About to cast on Temptation

Pattern: Temptation Top-Down Socks
Designer: Wendy Johnson
Yarn: Hazel Knits artisan sock
Color: Greenlake
Purpose: Ravelry Sock Knitters Anonymous group Sockdown for February