Having just finished my 2019 Advent socks, I have wound up the yarn for the 2020 version. The colors are very different in this particular year.
I still plan to do my basic 68 stitch vanilla toe up sock with an afterthought heel. I just need some knitting where I can autopilot. I will do the normal white toes and white heels. I haven’t decided how I will work the cuffs. I could mix it up and do the white?
This is where I left off last night all cuddled up in my PJs. I decided that right before bed was not the time to do a ton of counting and working tiny stitches. I have spent the past few nights listening to my Miss Marple audio book and trying to power through these sock stripes. And it worked! I finished all 24 advent stripes.
I have wound up the remainder of the advent skein to use for later. I am still considering sending the second halves of many of my advent skeins to be made into sock snakes. That way I can just knit in heels, toes and cuffs much faster. But for now, I need to work on heels so I can score some more KAL points!
I have my first cast on for the 2026 Pigskin Party KAL. These are some self striping socks from the Cozy Knitter. I am still working on the backlog of previous advent calendars. This newest pair is the 2019 colorway.
I used the contrast color (white) to cast on the toes and then after some school events and sitting at sports practices….I have several rows of color added! This is my “recipe” for my own toe up vanilla sock with an afterthought heel. It’s 68 stitches on US 1 needles. And I’ll work the afterthought heel with some added depth for my high instep.
Pattern: My own 68 stitch toe up vanilla sock “recipe”
Yarn: The Cozy Knitter 2018 Advent Stripe skein and The Cozy Knitter Bliss Sock white mini skein
Needles: US 1s
I used about 15 grams of the white contrast for the toes and heels. While I used exactly half of the advent skein. The Cozy Knitter sends hers with two full repeats of the 24 color design. So I can get two pairs of socks out of these skeins for my US 9 womens shoe size. I did mess up one sock slightly as the heel and toe are just slightly off alignment. But that doesn’t affect their wearability so I’m rocking it.
I do have the remainder of the skein to do something with. I think I will move on to the 2019 skein and save all the second halves. And then I will take all the seconds and send off to be cranked into sock snakes. Then I can batch create the second pair of each color.
I cut the heels in last week and got the live stitches on the needles. I have just been avoiding knitting the actual heels. I do a modified afterthought heel where I add extra plain rows when I start the heel and methodically work down to the alternating decrease row/plain row pattern. This creates a deeper heel that fits my specific foot better. The fabric doesn’t slip down into the foot portion nearly as badly.
Both of these are ready for Kitchener and I’m feeling the task avoidance….
I measured and cut in for where my heels need to go. It’s so hot here in Kansas that I plan to skip the wool and do some reading in the basement where the air doesn’t hurt my face. But I think another evening of swim lessons or indoor gymnastics and I will have finished heels. And therefore finished socks!
I will have half a skein of the self striping left. I am formulating an idea where I save the second halves of all my advent skeins and send them off to be machine knit into snakes….stay tuned….
I pulled my 2018 Cozy Knitter Advent socks from my work bag the other evening for a night meeting and the project bag was SOAKED.
Honestly it was both wet and stained a pink/orange color. I have NO idea what could have happened. It didn’t smell bad and I don’t remember putting any liquids inside my work back pack. It was bizarre
Luckily, the bag seems to have held the damage. I couldn’t inspect the socks in the moment and I kept knitting because they felt dry to the touch. But I pulled them out at home and I don’t sees any discoloration. I have since put them in a new bag and I am putting the project bag through the wash. And now I will always wonder how to solve this mystery….
This past Saturday Jellybean had an 8 am baseball game. While I was grateful for the cooler temps it was less than ideal to get up early on my day off. The things I do for being a mom. So I grabbed some energy and my 2018 Advent Socks and watched our team win and my son be MVP of the game.
I recently upgraded to a rocking camp chair and it makes all the difference in the world. I feel more comfortable for knitting ergonomics and I can rock out the anxiety of the close plays and my kid’s at bats.
I think I added at least two stripes per sock during this game. I need to count to determine how far I am into the 24 stripes I am for these socks. Socks make such an easy thing to travel with and drop quickly when a foul ball comes at me or PB.
I have been watching The Cozy Knitter make her advent socks and she does this cool feature of adding blips of the contrast yarn as she changes stripes. I have always meant to try it but then the holidays hit and I can only manage stockinette. After finishing a vanilla version, I am committing to trying this out!
I had to dig through my scraps to find some toe yarn. It’s a light grey from Red Door Fibers and should blend well with this mix of colors. I then used the scraps of the white contrast yarn from The Cozy Knitter to start my blips every 4th st.
This is my normal recipe for a 68 stitch toe up vanilla sock. I will do afterthought heels and this time inside a stripe to not mess up my colorwork. I am trying to work hard to make my floats stretchy and not pull them tight. It would be nice if these socks fits at the end!
So far I am happy with the look of these and I am learning a lot about managing the white yarn to avoid 1,000 ends on the inside. Should be interesting!!
The temperatures around here are slowly coming down. Enough for this momma to agree to a morning park adventure before it really gets crowded. COVID is flaring badly around here so I am balancing fun activities with safe activities. But this isn’t a COVID blog so I digress.
I packed my Bifrost along for the trip. I managed maybe two or three rows in between chasing kids across the massive park and pushing swings. But for a few minutes I was in the warm sun with soft yarn running between my fingers.