Advent Progress

This photo is a few days old but I wanted to show off this gorgeous advent yarn. I think this is day 5? I have also increased both sets of socks from my standard 68 stitches to 72 stiches as my gauge has tightened a bit this year.

The pair on the left is the 2023 KirbyWirby advent skein that is Friends themed. Each day comes with a quote from a character that lines up with the shade. I find them exceptionally fun and its nice to have a chuckle every evening.

The pair on the right is the 2023 Coxy Knitter advent skein. This one has slightly thicker stripes even though I am using the same stitch count and the same size needles. I am betting these will be taller socks. The back to back greens did get my old eyes. I knit these at night and it can be hard to see when the new color starts. But I LOVE the project they are making.

Happy Knitting!!

Prepping For Advent

Advent season is almost upon on us and it’s time to prep. After several years of trying different advents I have found that the 24 stripe sock skeins work best for me. I LOVE the mini skein advents but I struggle to use them and I have still have two full sets sitting in my stash.

This is KirbyWirby’s 2023 advent self striping sock. She chose a Friends theme this year and each stripe comes with a coordinating quote from a Friends character. I also opted to buy the coordinating mini for toes and heels.

I am working toe up vanilla socks with an afterthought heel. I got two heels knit up and on my 9 inch circulars. Now come December 1st, I am ready to work the first stripe. The dyer was super organized and marked where my skeins started in the sequence. I am starting on Day 11 instead of Day 1. No matter to me as I will still work all 24 stripes.

I wound up the yarn into two balls so I can work both socks. The smaller ball has two full repeats in it. The larger one must have an extra repeat? We will see when we get there!

P.S……I have two sock advents this year! Whoops 🙂

Swimming Sock

The kids are taking the necessary life skills lessons of water safety and swimming. I even managed to schedule both kids in the same pool at the same time. This means four nights a week I have 40 minutes of alone time.

My mojo has been sparse but I have been doing a little work on my purse project socks. Imm7 stripes in to the foot. I will have the full rainbow to knit on autopilot before I have to pay attention. Best kind of stockinette ever!

Happy Knitting!!

Rose Apothecary Tube

I finally decided to end my first tube on my GFOA socks.

I did decide to stop in the blues. I thought I would save the greys and purple for the heels. But when I wound up the little nubbin it looks scarily small. I might need to find a contract skein for the heels in these socks.

I am going start and work on the second tube before I go with heels. I should have a good idea what I’m working with yarn-wise at that point. Plus I my brain is on scramble here lately and I don’t have the brain cells to make any more decisions, lol.

Happy Knitting!!

Pride Sock

My current purse knitting is accidently on brand with Pride and the month of June. I got a lot of comments on it this past weekend at PB’s gymnastics practice. I am really cruising through the second send of rainbow stripes!

I am calling these my 2023 GFOA socks as I started them at a conference but the name may have to change. They are my comfort knitting of late as my life got very stressful very suddenly. I am finding peace is watching the rainbow materialize.

The tube is getting very very long. To keep them wearable I don’t think I can do the full second rainbow repeat as they will be too tall and too tight on my calves. I am adding decreases to account for width and I’m just playing it by ear as I visually see the sock.

Meanwhile Jellybean and I are off to some Juneteenth celebrations and festivities! Happy Knitting!!

Let’s Go Home Knitting

My brain is full and I’m ready to head home tomorrow from my work conference. My travel socks didn’t get as much work as I had hoped at the conference. A lot of the days I chose not to carry my backpack and just a small clutch so I could move around the conference better. Which means less knitting but a healthier back and less foot pain.

I have seven hours of travel tomorrow so my goal is to double this progress and at least get through the full rainbow. Do you think I can make it?

Happy Knitting!!

A New Travel Sock

I have a quick work conference this week so of course none of my current knitting would work. I DEFINITELY needed to cast on something new!

I pulled some vintage KirbyWirby sock yarn from my stash. This one is her Rose Apothecary Remix color. I hand wound this into a big ball and I had a wee little toe for my flight halfway across the country.

I strategically got an aisle seat so I could knit comfortably on the first flight leg, but was not so lucky on leg number two. So I read my book for the last two hours. I am reading the latest Janet Evanovich Stephanie Plum book. Yeah, I know they are all the same but I find that comforting!

Now I’m off to learn a whole bunch! Happy Knitting!!

FO Friday: UniZebraCorn Vanilla Socks

I win at deadline knitting! Even though it was a self imposed one, lol. My UniZebraCorn socks are COMPLETE!

Pattern: My own toe vanilla sock recipe with 68 stitches (Rav link)

Yarn: KirbyWirby Old Faithful Sock in the Uniexbracorn colorway

Needles: US 1s

I ended up using roughly 324 yards of yarn which is roughly 72 grams of the 100 gram skein. So I have a nice little ball leftover for my memory blanket and other scrappy project.

The fit worked out well and my “recipe” for the afterthought heel still fits. I add extra plain rows at the beginning of the heel before starting the decrease rows. I progressive use less plain rows between decrease rows until I work down to a traditional every other row.

I have these washed and sitting in my sock drawer for the next cold snap! Happy Knitting!!

Very Close To Full Zebra

These socks have me singing “haaaalfway there, ooooh whoaaaa!” because I have one heel fully installed on my UniZebraCorn socks.

My second tube has the heel cut made and the needles are just waiting for me. It’s not my bedtime routine with the kids tonight so I have a chance of plugging in throwing some re-runs on the TV and power through the last heel by tomorrow.

Wish me luck!

Two Zebra Tubes

My UniZebraCorn socks are now done in tube form!

I didn’t go super crazy and count my rows on sock number one to make sock tube number two. I just kinda held them next to each other until they looked the right length. They will still make perfectly warm socks.

I do need to dig up one of 100 tape measure rolling around in this house. The kiddos seem to trot them off in every direction. But I will measure these tubes and cut my afterthought heels in at 7 inches from the toe cast on. Fingers crossed I can make these to FO status this week!

Happy Knitting!!