Tag Archives: self striping

FO Friday: Soft Serve Sock Snake Socks

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It’s full on summer here in Kansas so seems like a perfect time to get my Soft Serve Sock Snake socks completely off my needles!

I managed to get two pair of ankle socks out of two 50 gram skeins of Knit Picks Felici (with the help of some contrasting heel/toe/cuff yarn) in the soft serve color way. The snake tubes were cranked over 72 stitches. The top  pair is for my sister’s birthday and they fully coordinating. I had to get a little more creative and go sort of franken-sock with the second pair.

My leftover tubes weren’t equal so I had to use scraps to extend the toe of one sock. And then I didn’t have enough speckled contrast yarn to do more than the cuffs. So I pulled out some Cascade Heritage sock yarn to do the toes and heels. I think this makes them superbly unique and a great addition to my sock drawer.

With the socks tubes I finished two pairs of socks in like two weeks with only half-monogamously working on them. You certainly can’t beat that!

Happy knitting!!

A Heel For Dad

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I made really good progress on Dad’s socks while on vacation. I finished a good chunk of the leg and weighed my skein. I was already dangerously close to using 50% of the skein and I hadn’t put in the afterthought heel yet!

So in an effort to stave off knitting disaster I split the skein in half by weight and looked at my remaining ball for sock number one. It was tiny! So I broke the yarn and inserted the heel. I managed to finish the heel but I wasn’t going to have enough yarn to do a decently tall cuff.

I did a quick Ravely search of my stash and found a single skein of Berroco Vintage DK in my stash that would be about right. It was plain black and coordinately decently with this stripe colors. And it has a relatively close fiber content so the washing instructions would be the same. I am still periodically holding this sock up against previously knit socks that I know fit my dad. And this sock matches the measurements but it still looks to my eye to be crazy big.

Dad will be here for a visit in a few days. I might break down and have him try this first sock on to see if it fits before I start the second sock. I risk having to re-knit the first sock but that is better than wasting a whole skein of perfectly good sock yarn that won’t get worn!

Happy Knitting!!

Self Care And Socks

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My four year old Jellybean is testing my limits with all he’s got. Bedtime has turned into a huge ordeal. I know this is part of his growing up and learning to question the world and push boundaries. But ooof, it’s exhausting and consumes almost all my patience. So last night after a 55 minute bedtime battle I settled in for some self care.

I poured myself a low carb beer, turned on the Wet Coast Wools podcast and worked on the toe of my Soft Serve Sock Snake socks. As far as self care goes I feel like this was the better option than the large bowl of ice cream I really wanted. Though my sock toe might be a little wonkier than if I had skipped the beer, lol.

Happy Knitting and take care of yourself!

Happy Anniversary to Me

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As of June 30th, the husband and I have been married 12 years. We’ve added two dogs and two kiddos over those many years and boy are we exhausted! I’ve said this before (with all due respect and love) that my  husband is a terrible gift picker outer. So these days I keep a google doc where I link to things I would like to have. He then only has to click and purchase from a list of things hes certain I want. It has served us both well.

This year he picked out some wonderful things from Tuft. He chose a sock soap, bath bar and some hand balm. I think the sock soap is just natural scent, the body bar is honey scented and the hand balm is definitely blueberry lemonade. They are all heavenly and this is my first Tuft experience and I’m not disappointed so far!

And he managed to throw in some yarn from String Theory Colorworks. This is Stark Effect on their Inertia base (80/20 blend of merino and nylon). It’s crazy rainbow bright and should make some brilliant socks.

P.S. Don’t worry I didn’t forget the hubby. He is getting his car professionally detailed to rid it of kid crumbs, dog hair and about 7 years of Kansas mud and dust!

Happy knitting!!

Second Set Of Shorties

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The first set of shorties are off my needles and I’m starting to work on my pair. These are pair number two in my Soft Serve Sock Snake Socks.

I had to do some finagling with my scraps for these tubes. I went ahead and added the speckled yarn for contrasting cuffs. But those cuffs completed used up that mini skein with nothing left for heels or toes. Also, the tubes were not the same length by a noticeable amount. So I dug out the leftover scraps from the first pair and added until they were the same length. You can see the strip sequence is off for the sock on the right.

Now my dilemma is what yarn to use for the toes and heels? I pulled a couple options from my stash but I’m not completely sold on either. I might need to do a deeper stash dive after the kiddos go to bed. I don’t need these perfect but some degree of coordination would keep my brain happy.

Happy Knitting!!

Knitting At The Farmers Market

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Wednesday is Farmers Market day in downtown Topeka. It is a small but mighty affair every week. My favorite is the fresh baked bread you can find. But that kind of negates the health benefits of walking, lol. But I digress!

Today’s yarn on the go is brought to you by my Cheery Vanilla socks and their project bag that is much more suited for walking. This time I opted for a zippered sock bag with a fixed wrist strap. It still flopped around while I walked but none of the pesky twisting. I walked roughly 35 minutes and completed two stripes.

Now I also managed to snag a fresh tomato for BLT sandwiches. Because bacon is awesome, obviously.

Happy Knitting!!

Yarn On The Go

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I have been trying to put more “go” in my life and get off my tush and walk. I work in the heart of downtown Topeka and therefore have access to lots of cool places to to walk. Today my Dad’s Christmas Socks and I took a walk to the Capital building.

The project bag that these socks live in is NOT acceptable for walk knitting. It kept twirling and twisting up the yarn so that I would have to stop and unspin my bag. The bag (not pictured) is a drawstring bag by 19 Stitches. And it’s a wonderful bag for holding a project, don’t get me wrong. It’s just not great for walking.

As for the sock, I’m almost to the place where I need to weigh the yarn ball to see if I am close to 50%. I need to make sure I leave enough yarn for a cuff and a heel on sock number one and enough yarn for a complete sock number two. But i’m struggling to remember to do this in the evening after the end of what have been very long days lately.

Happy Knitting!

Soft Serve Sock Snake Shorties

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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!!

Sunshine and Knitting

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Spring might have finally sprung around here and I hope it’s not an April fools joke! I managed to squeeze in some Vitamin D and knitting while Jellybean hunted down storm troopers in the backyard.

My dad’s socks are still growing little by little. I love an easy stockinette project to just have to grab and go. And it’s nice to be able to set it down and it doesn’t matter where I stop.

Now we just need some more green around here! Happy Knitting!!

Blowing The Dust Off

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I managed to make it to work one day this week and forgot half my brain at home. I had a lunch box with an empty Tupperware container and an apple and then no knitting in my purse. It was a very rough day. Sleep deprivation is real yo!

I managed to scrounge a can of soup from my desk drawer so as not to starve. And I also remembered way back in August I had tucked some knitting away in my desk for just such days as this.

I pulled out my Cheery Vanilla Socks and added two whole stripes during my weekly conference call on my big work project. Sometimes it is good to stash knitting around like a squirrel stashes nuts! I may need to add a car project…..

Happy Knitting!!