HO: Victorian Mauve Sock

My Victorian Mauve Vanilla Sock has had it’s glamour shot courtesy of my patio fence that badly needs refinished.

I have tried this on and the fit is excellent. This yarn is really superb and I already have the foot of the second sock already started. I can definitely say that these socks will be a favorite in my winter rotation.

Happy Knitting!!

One Night To Celebrate

I finally installed the heel on my Celebrate the Night sock that I finished on my last plane travel. Turned out pretty snazzy and I even managed to luck out and have the heel fall in-between two color stripes!

For the record, these are Jellybean’s feet. This boy is growing like a weed on Miracle Gro and his feet are quickly catching up to mine. The socks are just a hair too long and not skinny enough for him. But give him another year and I bet we have the same size feet.

Now I just need to get the second sock finished up. I have the second tube done but I need some focus and good light in order to pick up stitches for the afterthought heel. My eyes are inching closer to 40 and black yarn isn’t my friend anymore!

Happy Friday and Happy Knitting!!

One Goth Kitty Sock

This week I only have a HO, half finished object. The heel is fully installed in my Goth Kitty Vanilla Socks and I even wove in all my ends.

It just so happened to work out that the heel fell in the middle of a stripe. Which I’m not mad at. It meant I could pull my remaining yarn out to a color that would be from a different part of the sequence. I only needed two stripes to get my heel complete.

Now I just need to get the next toe on the needles for my purse knitting! Happy Knitting!!

HO Friday: Double Vanilla Socks

Happy Friday all! Today I have a HO instead of FO, lol

This sock really flies along and I managed to complete the leg on my first Double Vanilla Sock. I had just maybe a yard or two left from the first half of the skein.

Now….this is the sock I ripped back and reknit with four extra stitches because it was very skinny. And the finished sock fits but it has no negative ease. What this means is that I could have probably done with only adding two stitches instead of four. It bothers me but not enough to rip back and redo again.

These socks will be just purposely be for tooling around the house like slippers. My next step needs to be is the get the toe of the second sock on the needles ASAP to avoid SSS (second sock syndrome).

Happy Knitting!!

A Half Finished Rainbow

Thanks to slow and steady progress I have my first finished Retro Rainbow vanilla socks made from MustStash self striping yarn.

I finished the afterthought heel. I have a pretty deep instep so I modify the afterthought heel to fit. If anyone is interested the recipe I use is on this Ravelry page. This go around wasn’t my neatest pick up and some of the stitches are stretched pretty hard. I may have to do some rearranging or reinforcing after I block these socks.

I avoided second sock syndrome my immediately casting on the second one. I knit about three or four stripes on the winery date with my husband. So I have a good start on the second sock.

Half Of An Antagonist Sock

Welcome to Friday everyone! May it be as happy and peaceful as possible during this time period as possible. I am excited this Friday because I have a HO (half finished object)!! I finished the first Antagonist Sock.

I am really pleased with this project so far. I didn’t have a super concrete plan in mind so I just kind of worked the leg until I was bored and then I started the ribbing. Turns out I made a “just a little bit higher than shorties” sock. It is not low rise at all but fits nicely at the base of my ankle. The fabric feels good on my foot and the whole sock fits nicely. I am definitely moving on to getting sock number two on my needles. The little speckles and pops of color are really making my soul happy.

In these photos you might notice a new tool. I was completely surprised by the husband with a present for no reason surprise. He found some metal sock blockers on the interwebs and got them for me. They are PERFECT my large lady sized feet. He definitely earned some husband points on this one. I really like a great knitting tool!

Happy Knitting!!

A Half Finished Shortie

I chaperoned Jellybean on a play date this past week. It’s in the high 80s to low 90s (Fahrenheit) here in Kansas, so with the aid of a breeze we got some wiggles out at a local park. I of course brought my knitting….my Cheery Vanilla Socks were ready to cast off!

I snuck in the afterthought toe this past week during some epic and long drawn out conference call planning meetings.  And after the heel was done I decided these were going to be shortie socks as my sock drawer is a little thin on those kind of socks. (And I just kind of wanted to be done…full disclosure.)

Above is the awkward leg contortion selfie photo of my half finished object. I thought about getting the kids to help but they were eating Fun Dip and sharing secrets under a shady tree. I decided not to interrupt them but mostly I didn’t want my sock to be sticky (#momtruth). Past Rachelle had decided to help Future Rachelle by casting on the second toe at the same time I cast on the first toe. So I’m off to the races up the foot of sock number two.

I really like Past Rachelle sometimes! Happy Knitting!!

Soft Serve Sock Snake Shorties

I’m halfway through my Soft Serve Sock Snake Shorties. The first pair for my sister is done!

I made the choice to rip both the tubes back a bit and re-knit the toes back down with the self-striping yarn. I then used some Acorn Willow merino nylon sock yarn I got at Woolfest 2019 for speckled heels and cuffs. I think this random mini looks really fantastic with these pastel stripes.

I used Cheree of KirbyWirby’s tutorial for a true cut in afterthought heel. I did a pretty good job of preventing a hole at the corner and matching the gauge of the sock tube. My notes on the number of rounds and decreases that work for me are on my Ravelry project page.

I’ll gift these to my sister when I see her in July. And next up I have two tiny tubes left that I am going to try and eek out a second set of shorties for myself!

Happy knitting!!

HO Friday: Gonna Need Sunglasses Socks

The good news is that audit season is over. The bad new is that my web-ex meetings have increased again. I decided to make my Gonna Need Sunglasses Socks my conference call knitting this week to see what I could accomplish. Turns out I could finish the leg of sock number one!

I very clearly saw that as I was working up the leg that I was closing in on finishing my second repeat of the color sequence. So I made the arbitrary decision to finish the ribbing in the second neon yellow section. Then my sock would be exactly two full color repeats.

I worked a 68 stitch sock and for my leg I add 8 stitches evenly up the leg to account for my volleyball player calves. This is still A LOT of negative ease and I might could so with 10 or 12 stitches and still have a comfortable socks. But when it comes to to this type of knitting stuff I subscribe to the horseshoes and hand grenades method…..close enough.

Now the one thing I’m questioning is the heel. Normally the heel turn decreases land at the bottom of my heel. But I knit the foot just a hair too long while on Easter travels so this time they land at the back of the ball of my foot. It doesn’t bother me so much to fix it. I am sure I will knit the second sock to match and just watch and see how well this heel wears versus my other ones. I mean, this is regia, so it normally wears like iron so this all could be for not. Time will tell!!

Happy Knitting!

A Helping Hippo HO

My first Helping Hippo Vanilla sock is done!

The hubby and I got some rare baby sitting coverage over the holidays and managed to sneak out to a movie. We got to see Bumblebee. Not a franchise I am super invested in but I found the film delightful. I liked the strong female lead. And the icing on the cake was I managed to work my last set of increases and the cuff ribbing in the dark. I only dropped a stitch once.

 

 

I added a total of 8 stitches to the leg total as I went up. I just worked them kind of willy nilly but as evenly as I could eyeball. It does help the fit but as you can see I still have a TON of negative ease in my leg. I mean the sock fits but it’s stretched pretty darn tight. Now I like negative ease so that my socks don’t fall down but this might be borderline.

I’m happy enough with the sock to make the second one match. But I may have to amend my vanilla sock recipe at least in the leg to reflect my post baby #2 calves. Maybe on my next pair?

For now it’s NYE and almost everyone in our house has a cold. So I think we are going to have soup for dinner and have a countdown at 7 pm and just go the heck to bed. Happy New Year to you all!!