Tag Archives: socks

Engineering Christmas Knee Highs

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Christmas is approaching and I have a sock snake waiting for me in my stash. I had the Hippo For Christmas color from lolodidit yarns just chilling in my stash. I thought this snake would be a good way to earn points for the Pigskin Party KAL and get a pair of knee highs into my sock drawer.

This is one half of my sock snake tube. I’ve got live stitches on end. My next step is to rip back and re-knit a toe on the end with the live stitches. I know that my generous calves will NOT fit into the other end of the tube. This means also ripping back the other side and knitting in some increases and/or ribbing. I just haven’t done the measuring or math to figure out how far that means.

But I think I would benefit from adding the afterthought heel in-between finishing the toe and starting the ribbing. I feel like I will better know to to engineer the sock to make the best fitting knee high.

Happy Knitting!!

Cast On: The Knit Sky Socks

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I have cast-on-itis and it’s running full bore. In addition to casting on a sweater for PB and redoing my DK Ripple Bralet I have also cast on some more vanilla socks for my purse project. Because I couldn’t be bothered to get my swift out, I chose some KnitCircus sock gradient cakes that were already wound. They are 25 grams each so to make full socks I also grabbed some Cascade heritage in solid purple for heels toes and cuffs.

I managed to get the solid purple toe cast on and have now attached the gradient. I chose to work from the outside of the cake so that the purple end of the gradient would line up nicely with the solid purple. I just thought that starting with the blue would be jarring.

This is my own recipe for a toe up sock worked over 68 stitches on a US1 needle. I am pretty invested in this project as it’s really satisfying to watch the gradient work up and change. And these will for sure be for my sock drawer so I’m relishing the project.

Happy Knitting!!

FINALLY, Retro Rainbow Vanilla Socks

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I have a finishing thing, and it’s not even Friday! My Retro Rainbow Vanilla Socks are finished, ends woven in, (not blocked) and photographed!

Pattern: 72 Stitch Toe Up Vanilla Socks (my own pattern)

Yarn: Muststash Yarn & Fiber Perfect Must Match in the Retro Rainbow colorway

Needles: US 0s

I used roughly 70 grams or 308 yards of yarn to make these two socks. They run a nice way up my calf. The negative ease is quite robust across the top of the foot but is fairly decent overall. I didn’t end up with a perfectly matching pair of socks. This was NOT a fault of the wonderfully dyed yarn. My gauge was slightly different on the second sock log and second heel. And therefore I ended up with fraternal twins instead of identical twins.

But for sure I’m going to have a really nice cozy and bright pair of socks for the coming winter. These are my first socks from this dyer so I’m excite to see how they wear. And yes, I will need to wash them but I just couldn’t be bothered to block them

My sock needles feel empty and cold so I need to figure out what to put on them next! Happy Knitting!!

The Last Heel

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Thanks to some socially distanced travels to the grandparents this weekend for Jellybean’s 6th birthday…I have almost finished socks!! My Retro Rainbow Socks are almost complete and basking in the early Kansas fall season.

The first sock is still complete and the second one is a complete tube with a finished cuff. I have a sneaking suspicion that my socks will end up being fraternal rather than identical. Most certainly due to my gauge and no fault of the dyer. This pandemic and remote school has played all kinds of hell with my tension.

Fingers crossed I have a finished pair of socks this week! Happy Knitting!!

School Line Knitting

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I am now officially a school pickup and drop off Kindergarten mom. Thanks to the weirdness that is 2020 the husband and I now have to plan school drop and school pickup into our work day. And with temperature/mask checks….the car line can be long.

I’m going to leave the politics and drama out of this and I’m not soliciting any advice or input. My family made the hybrid learning choice for Jellybean because that is what we need as a family. It will be CrAzY stressful and I have already forgotten to pick up Jellybean after school (it was day two of in person #momfail).

So I’m choosing to use this roughly 30 to 40 minutes a day to knit in line and have chats with Jellybean about superheros and the best snack foods. For as long as this lasts I hope to get some bonding time with Jellybean and maybe crank out some more socks.

PS. My Big Bang Theory project bag makes me super happy.

Happy Knitting!!

To Knee High or Not To Knee High

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When I was tossing my stash I found a sock blank that I had had cranked for me. The yarn is lolodidit in her Hippo for Christmas colorway. I got wondering if I could make some knee high socks out of the gloriously long tube. I am pretty sure based on the length of the tube I could end up with decently long socks. I think my next step will be to measure this tube and do a little math. I don’t have any true knee socks in my drawer but I’m not sure this tube will fit over my robust volleyball player calves. Math will definitely be key here…

I have some coordinating contrast yarn in grey from Cascade. I could split the tube in half and pull back a little bit to re-knit and add toes in the main color. I could also rip back the ends and re-knit ribbed cuffs in the main color I could also knit the cuffs in contrast color. That would lead me to use the remaining contrast color to cut in heels.

It is important to note that I still need to finish my Retro Rainbow vanilla socks to free up my size 0 sock needles to even start this project. But one problem at a time…

Happy Knitting!!

A Half Finished Rainbow

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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.

Date Knitting

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The COVID situation isn’t really getting any better in my region of Kansas so my family and I are really limited in what we feel safe doing. And that has led us all to feel a little cooped up and grumpy. But I was able to find a great babysitter inside our “bubble” and I convinced the hubby to drive me out to my favorite local winery, Prairie Fire Winery, for our first outside the house date in 6 months.

The owners are extremely careful with sanitation and social distancing so I feel safe there. And on weekends they have live music outdoors. We grabbed our masks, my knitting and had some wine in the shade while we listened to a couple of very talented local musicians. I tasted some very yummy Traminette and a semi dry Vignoles varietal.

There was something very soothing about watching the prairie grass wave in the wind and knit round and round on my Retro Rainbow vanilla sock. Also, the hubby got pooped on by a bird….twice…I couldn’t stop laughing. May have lost some wife points over that one, oh well!

Happy Knitting!!

A Retro Rainbow Heel

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I’ve been plugging away at my Retro Rainbow socks as my go-to “waiting” project. I finally got a tube tall enough that I decided to thread in some needles for my afterthought heel.

I’m going to use yarn from the inside of the cake to make the heel. I want to see how much yarn I have left the cuff after that point. I want to make good sized socks. But I’m not going to lie…I also want this beautiful MustStash yarn in my memories blanket. So it’s all about yarn management over here!

Happy Knitting

P.S. This is the Retro Rainbow colorway on MustStash standard sock 😉

Retro Rainbow Progress

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Sock knitting really hasn’t been my jam lately, but my purse knitting is still a pair of socks. My Retro Rainbow Socks are a few stripes longer now.

I’m knitting these as sock tubes and I will cut in afterthought heels. The yarn is some de-stashed MustStash yarn in Stacie’ Retro Rainbow colorway. I’m working 72 stitches on US 0 needles.

I’m not going many places anymore so I don’t seem to pick these up as often. We largely go to work and then stay home otherwise so I am putting a lot more work on my larger projects. Good thing yarn and knitting doesn’t go bad!

Happy Knitting!!