Tag Archives: socks

Even Medical Professionals Craft

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The germs continue in this house. I guess that’s what we get for having two kids in daycare plus working in germy offices during cold and flu season.  I took my knitting with me to visit an urgent care clinic. And guess what? My physician was a crafter!

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She spotted my knitting and correctly identified it as socks (my second Helping Hippo Socks)! Turns out she crochets and we swapped crafting stories as she did my exam. Turns out we are all just fighting an upper respiratory virus and it just has to run its course with fluids and rest. But oy vey….so much coughing in my house right now!

Happy Knitting and stay well my friends!

A Helping Hippo HO

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My first Helping Hippo Vanilla sock is done!

The hubby and I got some rare baby sitting coverage over the holidays and managed to sneak out to a movie. We got to see Bumblebee. Not a franchise I am super invested in but I found the film delightful. I liked the strong female lead. And the icing on the cake was I managed to work my last set of increases and the cuff ribbing in the dark. I only dropped a stitch once.

 

 

I added a total of 8 stitches to the leg total as I went up. I just worked them kind of willy nilly but as evenly as I could eyeball. It does help the fit but as you can see I still have a TON of negative ease in my leg. I mean the sock fits but it’s stretched pretty darn tight. Now I like negative ease so that my socks don’t fall down but this might be borderline.

I’m happy enough with the sock to make the second one match. But I may have to amend my vanilla sock recipe at least in the leg to reflect my post baby #2 calves. Maybe on my next pair?

For now it’s NYE and almost everyone in our house has a cold. So I think we are going to have soup for dinner and have a countdown at 7 pm and just go the heck to bed. Happy New Year to you all!!

Twinning Heels

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My purse knitting has been fruitful! My Helping Hippos Vanilla socks both have heels now! These have seen many a waiting room and lots of windshield time.

Pssst….don’t worry the sock feet are the same number of rows. I just managed to snap a picture from some weird angle that makes one look bigger than the other. I guess perspective is a b*tch, lol.

Now I just need to cruise up the legs and finish the cuffs. I gotta love me some auto pilot stockinette in the round. It is my happy place lately.

Happy Knitting!!

Speedy Speckles

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I need to catch you up on my Helping Hippos Vanilla sock progress! Thanks to some conference calls at work (PB is now full time daycare so I’m not juggling her at work anymore) and some road hours to visit the grandparents my socks have seen some decent progress!

The first sock I started now has a completed toe up gusset heel and is ready to zoom up the leg. The second sock has gained 3 inches of foot. You can seen my progress keeper and corresponding progress.

This three inches is the equivalent of both my children napping in the car for two hours on the way to the grandparents. So you know…basically finding a unicorn or the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow!

I’m very pleased with the first sock as the speckles really distributed themselves nicely both through the foot and throughout the gusset heel. With speckled yarn you really can never tell how it’s going to end up. But this batch appears to make a fairly uniform fabric and I’m pleased.

Happy Knitting!!

Washing Day

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In the never ending laundry pit that is my basement, I finally wore enough hand knit socks/cowls/shawls to warrant a washing day. I gently soaked and washed my hand knits in some wool wash and hung them out to dry.

My genius hack this year….wire hanging frames with clips for my socks! I’m able to hang my drippy woolens in safe area of the laundry dungeon and have them nicely clipped or draped to dry really quickly. I’ve had these hangers for years as I got them for my long gone craft fair display days. Why didn’t I think of this sooner? It takes up sooooo much less space than my clothes line method!

As you can tell I’m not terribly fussy about blocking my hand knit socks after washing. Do I care they don’t look as nice? Yes. But do I have the hours in the day or energy to address this….no. See yesterday’s post, lol.

Happy Knitting!!

WIP Wednesday: Helping Hippos Vanilla Socks

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Thanks to some recent car travel time and my children not being COMPLETELY insane. I managed to work a fair bit on my Helping Hippo Vanilla socks!

The sock on the right is the first one and it’s ready for the gusset heel. I didn’t have my heel notes handy and I didn’t have a stitch marker either but I still had quite a ways to go on our drive. So I put those aside and started the sock on the left. I mean…I can’t not knit while in the car right?

I’m really pleased with the speckles and finding it hard to put them down!

Happy Knitting!!

Cast On: Helping Hippos Vanilla Socks

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My sock needles have been telling me that they feel very cold lately. Other than the backup pair of socks in my desk that haven’t seen the light of day in ages….I don’t have any socks on the go. This is very abnormal for me.

So I decided to pull some special yarn from my stash. It’s a Lolodidit hippo colorway….Helping Hippos (that she made for hurricane relief). It’s a ton of many many colored speckles and the perfect antidote to the grey of winter coming. I split the hank into two equal 50 gram skeins to make a pair of socks.

These are my own sock recipe of a toe-up 68 stitch vanilla sock with a gusset heel. I am knitting these on US 1.5 nine inch circular needles. I managed to get the first toe started!

Happy Knitting!!

Cast On: Cheery Vanilla Socks

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After finishing my Big Bang Vanilla Socks I felt the pull of having an empty sock project hole in my knitting life. I finally snagged some elusive knitting time at work during a conference call that coincided with PB taking a nap.

I cast on both toes of my Knit Picks Felici in the Cheer colorway. When I went back to work after maternity leave I had this project all kitted up and stored safely in my desk. I’m doing another toe up vanilla sock but this time over 72 stitches because I like to use US 0 needles on Felici yarn. It’s a bit thin than I like for size 1 needles. And I did my best to make the two socks match as best I can. My plan is just to crank out some tubes and do afterthought heels later.

It just felt good to get needles in my hand and have some soothing knitting while Iistened to coworkers “discuss” their opinions on our ongoing project, lol. Now as a working mom of two I have to grab my knitting time where ever I can….even if it’s 5 minutes.

Happy Knitting!!

FO Friday: Big Bang Vanilla Socks

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My bathroom knitting proved fruitful, my Big Bang Vanilla Socks are finished!! I finished the last afterthought heel….this time with no knots, yay!

img_4847Pattern: My own vanilla socks over 68 stitches with afterthought heel

Yarn: Turtlepurl Turtle Toes in Rock, Paper, Lizard Spock

Needles: US 1s

I used 77 grams or 355 yards of the self-striping Turtlepurl yarn and about 5 grams or 23 yards of Serenity sock solid red.  Even with as tall as I made these socks, I still have the striping yarn left. Maybe I could make some easy leg warmers for PB to match mommy??

I’m really happy with the yarn. It knit up beautifully and the colors really grew on me. The fit is fantastic in the foot and in the heel. But my post pregnancy legs are still….well they are what they are. And the cuffs are a tid bit tight. I will have to see how they wear and if they are uncomfortable or fall down. But it’s still 90+ degrees in Kansas so it will be fall before I find out.

I would totally buy this yarn again. This dyer is amazing and the fabric is scrumptious on my feet. My only conundrum is what easy peasy vanilla project I should start next for my “knitting after the baby goes to sleep” project….

Happy Knitting!!

A Whole New Knitting Level

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Warning: This post contains some ridiculous #momlife truth and sneaking knitting tricks….

One of my Big Bang Vanilla socks has a heel….despite a dastardly knot in the heel yarn. I put my big girl pants on and decided to cut the yarn and take out the knot and just have a couple more ends to weave in. I couldn’t bear the thought of feeling a knot or join on the heel of my sock. And it worked and I have a lovely contrasting heel complete!

Some of you are thinking….what about the mom truth and the sneaky knitting? Well as you might surmise from the photo backdrop….I knit the last of this heel in my master bathroom while PB slept. Yep….I legit sat on the lid of the toilet listening to a podcast and carving out some knitting time. The bathroom was close enough PB won’t cry from being left alone and it has light to see what I’m doing without waking up PB. It wasn’t super comfortable or my finest knitting moment…..but it was the self care time I needed and I have one finished sock! I am pretty sure this takes my knitting (and mothering) to a whole new level. But what mom hasn’t hidden from her kids in the bathroom a time or two??

I did have a sort of bummer. No….those aren’t the new Flexi-Flip needles. They are horribly bent cheap aluminum needles from Joanns. This project went to work with me a few times and was in my backpack a time or two. Not real sure how they got bent but I’m guessing someone either stepped on them or sat on them. I’m not heartbroken as they are under $10 at Joanns and I have several sets of size 1 DPN needles anyway. I can just use the two remaining good needles from sock #1 and get this bad boy finished up. Fingers crossed…

Happy Knitting!!