More New Socks For Me

Last week I talked about a photo shoot for two pairs of socks.  This is the second pair.



This is the Through the Loops Mystery Sock for this year. A two color sock is so hard to plan for just because there are so many great possibilities for color combinations. I love choosing colors and seeing how they mix. In the end I settled with a pair of colors that was far less risky than many others. The dark blue id Malabrigo in Shery and the minty green is Spud & Chloe in Glow Worm. It wasn't terribly risky but I like it.



Knowing that this pattern would involve 2 colors I was a little apprehensive, hoping that there wouldn't be extensive color work or - even worse - intarsia. But a funny thing happened while I was working on these socks. I found myself wishing that the second color was involved just a little bit more. Wow!



In the end I'm really happy with thee socks. The fussy cast on and the stripey toes are fun and add a little spark to the design. Now I have a year to finish the 2012 socks and perhaps a few more pairs before the next mystery sock next year.

First Things First

It should come as no surprise that today, the day after I told you all about our little sock photo shoot, I'm sharing a pair of recently completed socks.

These are the Through the Loops Mystery Socks from 2013. I really love doing the mystery socks, I just have a problem finishing them. I start off strong but somewhere along the way life happens and suddenly I'm behind. And once I'm behind and there's no feeling of urgency it's way too easy to put a project down in for a minute.... that stretches into a year or so.

So when I saw the information posted for this years mystery sock I felt like I really ought to finish one of the previous mystery socks first. In the interest of full disclosure I should admit that the 2012 mystery socks are still languishing too. But at least I got these done and I did so before I started the new one. 

As with so many things, now that I'm finished with these socks I find myself wondering what took me so long. I really love them. The pattern in the front and in the back are lovely.

There's another reason why I wish that I'd finished these a year ago and not put them in time out.  My tension when I started them and when I finished them is not the same. It's not your imagination or a trick of photography - one sock is a bit shorter than the other.

Fortunately I have daughters who will take hand knit socks any way they can get them. 

Knitting it All at Once

Part of getting back to blogging is getting back to the subject of the blog - actual knitting content. I have a long list of works in progress and stuff I promised to make and I'm making great progress on all of it so far. Now, it's rather difficult to knit and blog at the same time so there's work to be done on balancing it all but knitting and finishing stuff is a start.

One of the things that I have nearly finished is this little sweater. It's seamed and blocked and now I've got to install that zipper. It's going to be a first for me but I've loved the idea of a zipper for this sweater so I really hope that it comes out ok.  More on this when it's done.



Being so close to finishing the sweater allowed me to cast on for a pair of fingerless gloves that Stinkette has wanted for ages. It's stranded knitting which really isn't my favorite. I never seem to get the floats right. But my girl is so excited to see these growing on my needles that I can't help but push forward. I've completed 2 more repeats since I took this picture.



And then there's this.  It's the Through The Loops Mystery Sock for 2014 that I started yesterday. I really love the picot edge and the colors of the yarn as well but that's where it ends.  The gorgeous green yarn that I got for the main color is a single ply and I don't know if it'll stand up to use as socks. I should've noticed this when I bought it but I was blinded by the pretty.  I've always been a sucker for a nice green.



The other problem is the needles. I felt the need to make a switch from my usual KP Options so I got Karbonz for this project and the joins are just awful. I don't know if it's just the set I have or the needle size. Something is not good at all.

Changes are coming for this project but I'm not she what they are yet.

On Socks

I didn't do a year end wrap up for 2011 but if I had you'd have seen hats, hats, and more hats. That seems to be all I made. No socks at all. After years where I made 10 pairs or more I had an anomaly - a year without socks. The horror!

Let's not dwell on it too much. It happened. It won't happen again. This year I plan to knit socks for me, my girls (all 3 of them), and anyone else. When I heard that Kirsten Kapur was delaying the Through the Loops Mystery Sock until January it seemed like a great way to return to socks.

I started strong but then a certain Girl Scout trip and other stuff got in the way and I stalled. I'm not sure when I'll get back to these but I will do it this year without fail. And when I do I'll likely give them away because I'm not sure that they'll fit me.

Apparently my sock knitting skills are rusty.

Finished Mystery Socks

It's taken me so long to post the pictures of these finished socks that there isn't a whole lot of mystery about them any more. For the record, I did finish them on time. In fact I wove in the last ends with one day to spare.



The yarn I used for these was Pagewood Farm St Elias in Plum. It's a little thinner than I'd prefer but I did like it. I do think that a yarn with a little less varigation might have been a better choice but it works.



I was a little ambivalent about these socks as I knit them. I didn't love the little boxes and I wasn't sure about the tiny trowels either. I don't think I'm alone in that but because I do like Kirsten Kapur's other designs I took the giant leap of faith and kept knitting. I'm so glad I did because I like the end result. The tiny trowels remind me of streamers undulating back and forth down the sock and the little boxes are a nice counterpoint to them.



I'm already on to 2 other pairs of socks and nearly finished with the first sock of each pair. If I finish both pairs by the end of the year then I would have a total of 14 pairs of sock for the year. Not the 18-20 that I'd hoped for but pretty respectable. Maybe I can squeeze another pair or 2 out.

Happy Sock Day!

Today is a very good day! The sun is shining, the leaves are bright yellows and reds, my family is happy, and I am officially one year older.

Another good thing is my sock mojo which is flowing freely once again. Late last week I finished a pair of socks for Stinkette so I moved on to the TTL Mystery socks and finished clue #4.



Then because Stinkette wore her newly completed socks for 48 hours straight (ewwww) before we noticed and forced her to put them in the laundry, I started a new pair for her. These are dead-simple commuting socks in Creatively Dyed Calypso in a color called Giant.



Finally, last night I started a little something for me. I stuck to my plan and started a pair of Pointelle socks from Knit.Sock.Love. using a delicious skein of Spirit Trail Sunna. Are you shocked that they're not blue - or purple - or green? This color is called Harvest Moon and it is totally outside my usual palette but it's fabulous and I think it'll be awesome for these socks.



You could say that these are a little gift to myself. All the glow of candles on a cake without the calories.

In Between

One week ago today I predicted that the 2 pairs of socks that were on my needles at that moment would be completed soon. Normally that would be the kiss of death and the socks would take another month to complete but this time I was spot on. Last Sunday evening, as the sun set on another great weekend, I finished the second pair of socks. No official pictures yet but the ends are woven in and these are foot-ready.



I thought my needles were empty and I was worrying over whether to start something new or not since the first clue for the TTL Mystery sock will be released this Friday. Quite the dilemma! But as I was searching for good yarns for the mystery sock I found a pair of socks that I started in August 2007 and pushed aside in favor of other things.

These are YarnSmiths Sockezze that I bought at Mosaic in Blacksburg, VA in July 2007. Looking at these I remember everything about the start of this project. I found this lonely ball of yarn and immediately thought of socks for Stinkette and decided to knit them 2 at a time to get every last little bit out of the skein. But I hate knitting socks 2 at a time on the same needle. Hate! I keep thinking that I want to separate these but I really have to knit them simultaneously to make sure that they stay even. Oh, the angst!

Now I have an even bigger worry. When I started these I was apparently not paying close attention and Ravelry was very new. Now I am a fairly experienced knitter and I have the luxury of looking up yarns on Ravelry to see what other people have to say. Now I know that there is likely not enough for a pair of socks. But it looks like there could be.

So on I knit, 2 at a time, hoping that I can squeak these out.



On a more positive note, I think that I found 2 good possiblities for the TTL mystery Socks. On the top is Pagewood Farm St Elias in plum. It's got a soft variegation that ought to work well with the pattern and the yardage is good. I specifically chose it because it is not blue or green. I feel like I ought to knit with other colors occasionally.

On the bottom is a yarn cake in my comfortable blue-green colors with a little more color change involved. I can't say for certain what it is but I think that it's Dragonfly Fibers Dragon Sock. The yardage on this one is fine too.



What do you think?