Tag Archives: socks

FO Friday: Soft Serve Sock Snake Socks

Posted on by
5

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

Posted on by
5

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!!

Second Set Of Shorties

Posted on by
5

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

Posted on by
10

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

Posted on by
4

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

Posted on by
3

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!!

Socks On Vacation

Posted on by
6

I lost my every loving mind and decided it was a good idea to load up my small children, husband and mother and take a weekend vacation. Jellybean had one wish….to sleep in a hotel. So we planned a simple weekend where my mom could attend a quilt show and the rest of us could play at Science City in Union Station in Kansas City and then we would all have a nice stay in a hotel.

Y’all, it was chaos and no one got any sleep in an unfamiliar place. But all reports say that everyone had a good time. PB up and finally decided to fully commit to walking! We had two adjoining rooms with the second having a balcony. After a FULL day running around Saturday I snuck out on to the patio with Dad’s 2019 Christmas Socks and put on a few rounds after the kids went to sleep.

The Kansas humidity made the wool a little sticky in my hands. But you can’t argue with the sunset view!

Happy Knitting!!

Speckled Heels

Posted on by
3

I finished both toes on my Soft Serve Sock Snake Socks and cut in the first heel. I’m pretty pleased with my contrasting mini choice. It’s speckled but yet blends nicely with the stripe colors of the Felici

I have a BIG long tube where two 50 gram skeins of this Felici yarn were cranked together. I chose to put a toe at either end. And then I measured from the toe the appropriate length and cut in a true afterthought heel. I have a “recipe” I use to make the afterthought heel a little larger than the often used Knit One Round then Decrease Next Round method. My notes are in Ravelry project page for those interested. But my recipe allows room for my sister and I’s large heel and high instep.

I’m starting the second heel now. And I have a TON of sock tube in the middle. Once both heels are installed I may do some creative measuring to see if I make two pairs of shorties from one snake with utilizing more coordinating mini skeins.

Happy Knitting!!

Cast On: Soft Serve Sock Snake Socks

Posted on by
2

My sister has a June birthday and for the past couple of years I have made an effort to make her hand knit socks. She’s very knit-worthy as she lives in Colorado where it’s cold and she takes very good care of woolly items. But this year life with two kids just didn’t get me to a place where I could knit for other people. I really just wanted to take my time and knit for me as a self care theme.

But I talked previously about getting some sock snakes cranked by the dyer of MintRain yarns. So I cut off the first Felici snake in the Soft Serve color and pulled a mini from my scrap blanket stash and went to town. I was excited to see how this would work and if I liked it.

For the toes I decided instead of using the contrasting mini, I just pulled back the sock snake a couple of stripes and then re-knit down decreasing for a toe. I personally like hte idea of less ends woven in near my toe region. I’m not super fussy about the feel of it but I like the idea of continuous yarn being stronger in a high wear area of the sock.

I obviously did not get these done in time for her birthday but I hope to have the pair done before she visits in July. Fingers crossed!

FO Friday: Gonna Need Sunglasses Socks

Posted on by
4

Ready for those sunglasses? Because here comes my finished Gonna Need Sunglasses Socks!

Pattern: My own 68 stitch toe up vanilla sock recipe

Yarn: Schachenmayr Regia Flourmania color in 7188

Needles: US 1.5s

Mods: None

I’m just so beyond thrilled with how well the two socks match. I don’t get hung up on them matching mind you as I like my socks to fit not match. But it is a nice happy occurrence when the do. A keen eye will notice that the cuffs are slightly different. I got a little excited to have a FO and started the ribbing earlier in the green on the second sock. I have tried both socks on and love to report they fit quite nicely. The foots may be one or two rows too long but not near enough to bother me or prevent me from wearing them. I’m a mom of two littles and thus I have become a lot less particular about my items as long as they are done and don’t look shabby.

I am now for sure going to turn my attention to my Dad’s Christmas present socks and get some decent progress on those done. But after that….I may have to turn my attention to my sock tubes that I recently procured and knock out some more FOs! I’m becoming quite the FO addict lately!

Happy Knitting!!