Progress

It's now Wednesday evening and I've impressed myself with my knitting progress!

Second sock

I've not had more time to knit. I've actually had less as my husband has been out of town and his kids have been with me the last couple of days (custody with step-kids can be fun; I'm only a part time parent! It's also annoying as they sometimes come home with odd ideas in their heads) so there's been little time to knit. Monday night I did end up watching a movie and used that time to knit. That helped me get some done on it. I think one of the biggest things is that I've started to master knitting while walking. It's about a 10 minute walk from my parking spot to my office and now that it's warmed up enough (apparently I can knit when it's around 20 degrees Fahrenheit), I've been knitting as I walk. The pattern is simple enough that I don't have to think too hard about it and it gives me time to do it in.

When Disney's Beauty and the Beast came out, I was determined to be able to walk and read at the same time. I still do that to this day, mostly successfully. At least I don't break out in song. It's probably the lack of sheep and a fountain that cause that.

Recently I've been reading about knitting. Reading knitting patterns and how to knit and the history of knitting. As I checked out the first knitting book from the library, I sighed to myself and thought that I'd become my mother. This is something my inner teenage-self is probably raging about but I tend to ignore that voice these days. Turns out knitting is really interesting. And it turns out that back in the day, women would often knit while walking. There's an old photo in one of the books I'm reading that shows some women knitting as they walk back from getting peat moss. They aren't walking in the photo, but are standing still but the point is that they would knit while the walked so they didn't waste time. So now I knit and walk at the same time because it's cool. And time saving. Now if only the car would drive me to work on it's own, I could knit then.

Something that is even more exciting than sock knitting and my amazing progress happened this morning. My youngest step-daughter, while watching me knit, asked if I could teach her how to knit! She's been watching me knit for months (I knit when we watch movies and really any free moment I can otherwise I'll never knit ALL OF THE THINGS) and I think she's finally braved up to asking. Her sister crochets and weaves on a small loom (no pedals, so I'm not really sure what to call it; a lap loom maybe) and we did a family weaving activity at the Art Institute so the youngest now has her own loom. But it all requires attention and I've never used the sort of loom she's using (I've only used a full loom to make a ridiculously ugly scarf; I was about 13 at the time and still have the scarf. It's cool.) so I can't give her pointers but I am getting rather clever at this whole knitting thing and we certainly have enough of a yarn stash (note to self: going to yarn swaps is very dangerous for me; one day I'll take home less than I brought but that may be a while) to have something easy to begin with. Now to just figure out how to get her hooked on it when I know I had no interest at that age to do it.

Derby socks

While I've received a shipment of yarn from the Cookie A sock club, I've not yet touched it. Why would I not touch this amazing yarn?

This photo doesn't do justice to the amazing color.

This is why:

Even though I knew the yarn had been shipped, I didn't know when it would arrive. To keep myself from going too crazy after being frustrated with a hat I was working on, I decided to make something out of a book my husband got me for Christmas. After flipping through the book, I decided I wanted to make the socks. This shouldn't come as a surprise as I've been on a sock knitting kick though I'm not sure I can call two completed pairs a kick yet. I thankfully had bought some fun yarn before Christmas that I hadn't quite decided what to make with it.

I finished the first sock on Friday evening. I was worried that it wouldn't turn out right. While I was knitting it, I couldn't see the pattern so I wasn't sure that I was doing it right. Thankfully the pattern was visible and correct once it was put on.

It took a while to get it started. I used the magic loop method and things were simply awkward. It's not the first time I've used the method but I still find it awkward with the loops on each side. Everything likes to try to twist around on the needles. Even when knitting on double pointed needles, the first inch or so is awkward. There's a bit of a gap in the cuff on each side but it seems to go away with the pattern. It's a nice pattern and had a good rhythm to it. I was worried I'd get bored knitting an over the knee sock. Thankfully I didn't.

Saturday I started the second sock and have already started the main pattern. At this point, only 7 more times through the 6 rounds and I'll be over half way down with it! My goal is to have it finished by Saturday morning. I'm tempted to crochet a row of red on the top so that the top and bottom edges match which would be a bit odd for me. I'm not known for matching things.

Socks and socks and more socks!

I meant to write about my first pair of socks as I was knitting them. I turned the first heel, which I admit was kind of scary for me. I blame it all on Molly, one of the first 3 American Girl dolls. In one of the stories, the girls in her class have decided to make socks for the war effort. Molly and her friends have decided that they don't want to do that so they come up with a different plan. As this plan was unsuccessful, they go to spy on the other girls who are having a knitting party. Molly then notices that they are at the "hard" part of the sock where you turn the heel. For whatever reason, this stayed with me over the years and I've been terrified of knitting socks even before I was knitting because it sounded so awkward and horrible.

Turns out that it's a good thing I got bored and decided to make socks with my sock yarn. I love turning heels. I think it make be my favorite part of the sock making because it's changing the direction of the knitting which is so cool.

Turns out that making the heel isn't that hard. My brain tried to over think the gusset but thanks to youtube, I was able to stop doing that. For whatever reason, I was trying really hard to make it hard for myself and confused myself in the process.

After I got through the heel, it was a quick process to finish the first one. I loved how the stripes managed to line up in the gusset, almost like it was planned that way! (Yes, I realize that it probably was planned that way as the sock pattern I used came with the yarn.)

I started on the second one and had no issues until I got to the toe. Instead of actually measuring the foot on the second sock, I just guessed based off the stripes when I needed to decrease. I should know better but it was going to require more effort at the time to go find my measuring tape and the stripes were already there. Turns out that I created more work for myself as I had to frog part of the sock so that I could get the foot to be the correct length.

I prevailed though and made a pair of socks!

 

And what does one do after they have made one pair of socks?

They make another pair of course! So I set out on my second pair of socks using some yarn mom gave me from a sock knitting kit. It promised to have enough yarn to make a pair of socks. It didn't tell me what pair of socks there was enough yarn for, though I'm suspecting it was for a pair of ankle socks. As this was mystery, unlabeled yarn, I couldn't just pop out to the local yarn shop and buy some more. Instead, thanks to my ingenious husband, I came up with a new solution.

 

Multi-colored socks!

The weight isn't quite the same and I'm sure the fiber isn't either. I did learn how to do a jog-less color change for these socks though and I'm quite proud how that came out. I was originally going to make inverse socks where one had the blue leg and a purple foot and the other had a purple leg and a blue foot. Despite the fact that I am always wearing things in this mis-matched sort of manner, I really wanted these socks to match. I have no idea why. I also wanted to tie in the colors a bit. I would have loved to have figured out a way to bring a line of blue down the side of each foot but I still don't know enough about sock making to be able to do that.

So now that those are finished, I'm already working on my next pair of socks and I'm part of a sock club. I'm not allowed to start sock club socks until I finish my derby socks so that I don't have a million unfinished projects (and therefore don't have to wonder where all my needles have gone to) but it will hopefully be in the next week or so that I can cast on my next set of socks.