Halfway there

There is it. My first ever Cookie A sock. I still need to weave in the ends (I wish there was a end-weaving-in fairy who just did that for me) but it's off the needles and the second one is started. This is much nicer yarn that what I used for my first two pairs of socks. I couldn't resist trying on the sock even before I had it off the needles and it was amazing. I love how it fits and I love the feel of the yarn.

There have been a few things of note with this sock. First off, I did end up frogging the sock after the last post. I wasn't happy with it because I was over thinking the increase row. It was special.

Next, the needle holding the instep stitches broke. I nearly cried. I was about halfway through the heel flap and didn't want to have to frog it to get back to these rows to fix them. Thankfully I didn't have to do that. Instead, I put the fallen stitches onto an extra needle. Next, I worked each stitch individually back up. I was worried about this as there are decreases in the pattern section. Of course, it figures that it would break on one of those instead of anywhere else. Luckily, it's a really simple pattern of 8 rows, so as long as I knew which row I was in (which was easy with how the pattern is worked), I knew what to do with each stitch. It took about 20 minutes but I was able to fix it. I learned from the sock club forum to put those stitches that aren't being worked onto a circular needle. That way I can't break another needle. I will definitely be doing that for this second sock.

On the plus side, I love how Cookie instructs the heel. Since it's the same for each size, instead of counting stitches, so tells you to work until the gap when turning the heel. This is how I've done it in the past though the patterns always had counting (p4, p2tog, p1 turn, k5, k2tog, k1, turn, etc.) and I would get hung up on the counting and worry that I was doing something wrong. Some part of me felt really good to see Cookie write out what I had discovered, almost like I had an "in" on how "real" sock knitters think. It's silly but it did feel nice. The heel was the easiest to turn that I've done. Maybe it's because it's the 5th heel I've done. Maybe it's the yarn. I'm not certain. What I do know is that I really enjoyed and didn't fret at all about it. On both previous pairs of socks, I've fretted that things wouldn't turn out right because I was picking up extra stitches to close any gap along the slipped stitches edges. This pattern had me making a stitch on each side instead. Genius!

So now I've started the second sock. I'm almost done with the first repeat of the pattern. It's much easier now that I've gotten use to the pattern. It's amazing how easy it is. When I started the first sock, I felt flustered and tense because I didn't want to mess it up. Now that I have a beautiful, finished sock, I feel much more relaxed. This project is definitely giving me confidence in my knitting skills. I think I'll be making this sock again in the future. It's been such a joy.

Cookie A Sock Club

This past Christmas, my mom signed both of us up for the Cookie A 2013 Sock Club. Mom did this after I had made 2 pairs of socks but those socks were addictive.

After finishing the derby socks, I'm finally starting on one of the patterns from the first shipment. The yarn is beautiful and soft, though a bit stubborn at times (that could also be me knitting too tight) and the pattern is fun. If only I could get it to work properly.

I've already cast-on and frogged* multiple times. It turns out that when you miss part of the stitch pattern, it really screws things up. I'm not sure what I did wrong the first time, but the second time I definitely left out a couple of stitches which messed everything up. So now that they've been cast-on for a third time, I've made some progress....but.....

They just don't look as nice as the ones people are posting on the forum. This is most likely because a lot of them have knitted more than 2 pairs of really simple socks. I also think I've screwed up the increase. I'm trying to decide if I frog it and start over or just adjust my stitch the next time I come to the increase and hope for the best.

*This term is completely new to me and I love it! It refers to having to rip out knitting. To quote the person on the forum who explained it to me, you rip-it and rip-it and rip-it. Yes, my husband shook his head and told me to try harder when I shared that with him.

Finished!

 

They are finished! Last night, I finished the second sock and wove in the ends, which is something I usually take forever to get around to doing. It's not exactly the most interesting part of knitting.

I'm very happy with how they've turned out. When I started the second one, I had to unwind the skein a bit so that that I could start with the same color. If you look closely, you see that they mostly match.

 

I'm going to ignore it and be happy with it.

 Here's a close-up of where things started to go "wrong". As I was knitting the last orange band, I realized that the skein I had purchased had a break in it and they simply tied on the next bit of yarn with no regards to the color scheme. Thankfully I'd taken that bit at the beginning off which was the right color. However, you can clearly see that there wasn't enough of the orange to match the stripe on the first one so they end differently. I've decided to not worry about it and let it be. I could probably have used the leftovers from the first sock to make it work out "right" but I kind of like how they don't match completely. Fits me perfectly.

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.

 

Socks: The beginning

For whatever bizarre reason, I seem to be incapable of knitting during the summer months. Of course, it could be that this past summer was filled with getting married, moving and home remodeling on top of the "normal" craziness of work. Now that there is definitely a nip in the air, I have this urge to start knitting again. Maybe it helps keep my hands warm or it's simply an ingrained memory of the frantic amount of knitting that started as cold weather season came about and mom had orders to fill.

I've successfully made mittens, gloves and scarfs. I've attempted to make arm warmers that have so far turned out to be too big or too small. This is when I learned all about gauge and why it is Important. I debated making yet another set of arm warmers but couldn't find a pattern that I really liked and don't yet trust my own abilities. So, when I pulled out the sock yarn that I had intended to use as arm warmers, I decided it was past time for me to learn how to knit socks. 

The yarn came with a handy pattern on the inside of the label. So far, I've only had to restart.....several times. At first I decided to be clever and use the internet for a pattern but they weren't helpful for the supplies (and gauge) I had. My husband happens to own a set of 4 size 2 double pointed needles, which is the size I decided I am going to work in as my double pointed needles that I can find are much larger. At first I attempted to find a pattern that would work with the yarn and the needles I had but I eventually gave in and am using the pattern on the yarn. It just so happens that the needles allow for the right gauge size for the sock. This trying different patterns has meant quite a bit of restarting.

The other main reason I've had to restart is because of the needles. I don't have caps for them and they are metal. The stitches have kept slipping off! I'm hoping that by gingerly carrying them with me, that they will decide to stay on the needles so I don't have to restart. 

Another issue I'm having is the yarn. I've had this yarn for...too many years. Four years? Something like that. Good intentions and all that. I had some wool moths a while back and while it appears that this yarn is okay, I'm paranoid as I keep finding little breaks in it. Of course, it's 4-ply, light-weight yarn which probably has just as much to do with it. 

These socks will certainly have character. I simply have to finish both of them first. Right now, I should focus on getting past the cuff of the first one.