Sock Snakes

I was enabled once again by social media. Many moons ago I saw a post from an Indie Dyer called Mint Rain Yarns. I’ve knit her yarn and loved it. But she also has listed in her Etsy shop a listing for machine knit socks and sock tubes. This idea had been kicking around in my brain for months and I finally bit the bullet. I sent 300 grams of light fingering weight yarn to her from my stash with the plan to make them into tubes that I could add heels, toes and cuffs for some quick socks.

My sister is not a “stuff” kind of person and is hard to shop for. But living in Colorado she does appreciate hand knits to keep her warm. My trouble is that given that I have two tiny human to keep alive and a paycheck I’d like to keep….my knitting time is small. And I’m constantly torn between knitting for myself and knitting for recipients. So I see this as a win win. I get the tubes knit and ready to go and I can still crank out a hand knit pair of socks without chewing up days or weeks of knitting time.

I sent her some Knit Pics Felici in the Dark Side colorway. Each 50 gram skein was cranked on its own with waste yarn in between. And this tube and all the other tubes are 72 stitches which is the stitch count I like my light fingering yarn worked up at. (Time will tell if the fit works out in the end…fingers crossed!)

Next up was more Felici in the Soft Serve colorway. Again in a 72 stitch count.

And finally I had some lolodidit yarn in the Hippo for Christmas colorway. This tube will probably be for me and likely the first up to be turned into socks.

I plan to experiment with these tubes to see what I can make out of them to maximize the yarn. I secretly hope I can get two pairs out of each colorway. Knowing that the second pair may very well be shorties. All in all, this Etsy vendor was prompt and her tubes came back to me in excellent shape and tension. If this works out as well as I hope…I may be ordering more snakes in the future!

Happy Knitting!!

Neon Finish Line

I had some Grandparent babysitting time here recently and that let me power through the leg of my Gonna Need Sunglasses Vanilla Socks. I think I’m ready to start the cuff ribbing!

I’m super happy to see that the color progressions are lining up so well between sock number and sock number two. Though no matter what I try on my camera these puppies just GLOW in photos. My mom commented that they looked like really big socks. And I retorted….well I have really big feet!

I think another inch or so of ribbing and I will be done with another pair of socks for my drawer! I can’t hardly wait. And then I really should be a good kid and go back and put some effort into my Dad’s 2019 Christmas socks. They have been kind of languishing lately, whoops!

Happy Knitting

Neon In The Wild

It’s that time of year again to drag my happy behind to the doctor and get all the things checked. These appointments are never fun but necessary for good proactive health care. And I have knitting which makes all the waiting bearable. I took my Gonna Need Sunglasses vanilla socks out into the wild!

I managed to turn the heel on the second sock while waiting in all the rooms! And I may have turned a few heads while people took a second to absorb the blinding neon sock in my hands.

I’m pretty happy with sock number two and the color changes are lining up decently well with sock number one. Now I just have a leg to finish and I’ll have another pair of socks to add my drawer for winter!

Happy Knitting!!

The Next Neon Heel

I’ve come down with some sniffles thanks to PB and her need to lick my face and try to put her fingers in my mouth. Such is the life of a mother as obsessive hand washing will only get you so far. All that being said, I haven’t had much brain space for anything but garter stitch or stockinette in the round because my head is full of goo. So my Gonna Need Sunglasses Vanilla Socks have seen some action on my lunch hour.

I just kind of eyeballed it by holding the two socks up and said “yeah that looks about right to start knitting the second heel!”. Surely what can go wrong with that kind of attention to detail!

I have been really pleased with how well I have managed to keep the two socks matching so far! I have a feeling my heel turn won’t be spot on based on how fast the color is disappearing. Now….time for more hot tea and tylenol….mom’s don’t get a day off.

Happy Knitting!!

More Work Knitting

I had some MAJOR organizing and note taking to catch up on after making it through audit season. I love my job but this year has been really challenging due to the fact we had a change of management DURING audit season. Not to mention we have three open positions and a lot people are working double duties.

I try to look at the bright side….my Gonna Need Vanilla Socks are making decent progress on my lunch breaks. Sock number one is already done. And I’m past halfway through the foot on sock number two.

And I love when I can mash up my love of organization and love of knitting. Not to mention knitting has taken the edge off some really stressful days lately!

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 Day-Glow Heel

My Easter weekend travails was a really good kick in the pants to keep my Gonna Need Sunglasses Vanilla Socks going. Weeks ago I had cast on the toe and left this sock languish in my bedside table.  And this no-thinking knitting was perfect for a busy and egg filled holiday weekend.

The heel turn is complete and I now have an inch (or more-ish) of leg completed. I have a bugger of time photographing this knit because it’s SO bright. I’m hoping that this sock will turn into movie knitting and the hubby will take me to Avengers Endgame. But time and babysitter availability will tell.

Jellybean LOVES that this project is living in my BB-8 project bag. He can’t understand why I don’t name these “BB-8 Socks”. He is a nerd and comes by it naturally through his dad. But Jellybean does approve of the colors and asked if he could have the leftovers to play with. I’ll convert this child to fiber arts yet!

Happy Knitting!!

Knitting Instead of Sleeping

Today is the final episode in my Easter knitting saga. After knitting in the car and then knitting on the deck I managed to squeeze a few more minutes here and there in between hunting eggs and I wanted to show you my final weekend progress. I am working the heel turn! Though this progress might have been at the expense of some sleep on my part. I definitely didn’t stay up past my bedtime trying to squeeze in a few more stitches.

img_0077

Everyone who spied my sock over the weekend remarked “my that’s bright” and I responded “yes, I know and I love it!”. At this point I have worked through the all the colors in the colors in the progression and have started over. Now I just need to zoom up the leg and viola! I’ll have a sock!

Happy Knitting!!

 

Knitting Al Fresco

So today’s knitting photo is also courtesy of Easter weekend. My parents have a gorgeous deck on the front of their house. It overlooks a football field (named after my father) and thicket of trees that are just waking up for spring!

I managed to knit a good three inches of foot during our car trip to my parents. And the brisk Kansas breeze and some fresh air really did my soul good while the grandparents chased the babies. The only bummer is that I found a tick crawling on me as they are THICK this year. Ah….country living!

Happy Knitting!!

Knit While They Sleep

Easter time usually means travel time for us. We packed up the human babies and the fur babies and headed for the grandparents. My dad was making prime rib so I was highly motivated!

It was almost perfect kismet that that PB fell asleep and Jellybean was content his movie and I got to knit! I pulled out my Gonna Need Sunglasses Vanilla socks and started going merrily round and round.

You have to knit while they sleep!!