FO: Vanilla Bean Striped Socks

Pattern: Vanilla Bean Striped Socks by Emily O'Grady (again)

Yarn: Shelridge Farms 80/20 Fingering (white) plus sock yarn leftovers: Alley Cat Sock (Anne Boleyn green, Tea Time beige), Cascade Heritage Sock (Snow tea-dyed to beige), Foot Loose (Brown), Studio June Twisted (Coffee and Cream), YvieKnits Sock (Emerald Isles green), Sydney Sock (Blue-Green), SuperCash Sock (Texgal Blue), Tough Love Sock (Deep Cove Green), Djinni Sock (Green), Zarzuela MCN (Blue), Shelridge Farms 80/20 Fingering Handpaints (Green)

Needles: 2.00 mm

Modifications: Worked toe up, increasing to 68 sts with afterthought heel, with eight rounds per colour joined with Russian Joins.

Comments: Yup, still another pair of scrappy striped socks, this time in cooler shades of blue, green and brown. As before I striped in generous amounts of white yarn just to tie all the stripes together. As it worked out, the afterthought heel landed in one of the darker shades of splitty yarn which was a bit unfortunate. I really ought to plan these things a little better!

Year of Projects 5: Week 12

KNIT. SOCK. LOVE. : BFF • Clandestine • Cusp • German Stockings • Gothic Spire • Hedera • In and Out • Lissajous • Marilinda • Mona • Monkey • Pointelle • Rhombus • Sake • Stalagmite • Stricken • Thelonious • Twisted Flower • Wedge

COOKIE A SOCK CLUB: June #1 • June #2 • August #1 • August #2 • October #1 • October #2 • December #1 • December #2

VANILLA SOCKS FOR CHARITY: July • August • September • October • November • December • January • February • March • April • May • June

Ahhh, Rhombus sock are finally done. Did you realize that these had been on my needles since May? Geez! That must be some kind of a record. Well never mind that, these socks are worth the wait!

The pattern is not terribly stretchy so I purposely knit the leg as written without adding any repeats but now that the socks are done, I'm not entirely happy with shorty legs. If I were to knit them again I'd make the ribbed cuff at least twice as deep.

It's quite an involved pattern. The six stitch cables are hard work and by the end of the sock I was pretty adept at interpreting every different type of M1 stitch from the chart without reference to stitch legends.

The yarn is Basic Sock from Red Sock Blue Sock. I didn't love the knitting of it - it's not very smooth and not soft and somewhat splitty- but I definitely like the feel of it on my feet. It's also a very nice weight. Not so thin as to yield flimsy knitted fabric. Not so thick as to yield bulky socks. Perfect, in fact, to knit socks on size 0 (2mm) needles. I really like this purple colour but I find the dye job a bit streaky with some almost undyed blotches. Hmmm. I wonder if a nice soak won't be the cure for what ails these socks? Remind me to update my opinion on this yarn next week!

Although fall doesn't officially arrive until midweek, Mother Nature has jumped the gun around here. It was down to single digits last night. Almost noon now and the temperature has only climbed to 15°. It's sunny though, and perfect sock-wearing weather. It's possible these Rhombus socks might stay put on my feet until bedtime!

Year of Projects 5: Week 11

KNIT. SOCK. LOVE. : BFF • Clandestine • Cusp • German Stockings • Gothic Spire • Hedera • In and Out • Lissajous • Marilinda • Mona • Monkey • Pointelle • Rhombus • Sake • Stalagmite • Stricken • Thelonious • Twisted Flower • Wedge

COOKIE A SOCK CLUB: June #1 • June #2 • August #1 • August #2 • October #1 • October #2 • December #1 • December #2

VANILLA SOCKS FOR CHARITY: July • August • September • October • November • December • January • February • March • April • May • June

There's been some progress on my second Rhombus sock but things were just too busy at work and at home to spend much time with it. It's definitely going faster than sock one, but I still need to pay attention to the chart and I just haven't had a chance. Instead I've done a few other things.

A couple of weeks ago a fellow Raveler gifted me with some of her handspun - 67 grams (approximately 100 yards) of thick/thin worsted weight yarn. After a quick search of the pattern database I decided a pair of children's mittens was my best choice to use every inch of her gorgeous yarn. I made a pair of Children's Basic Mitts by Elizabeth Durand in the largest size. Instead of a rounded top I switched to decreases at each side for more of a wedge shape with a grafted top - just like a sock toe. The sizing worked out perfectly; I finished with scant inches of yarn left over!

In my mindless and interrupted knitting time I worked away at my September vanilla socks - using scraps and Russian joins, roughly following the Vanilla Bean Striped Socks pattern working toe up with an afterthought heel. This morning I finished the second sock tube, so just the heels are left to do.  The Warm Hands Network has a shipment planned for September 30th, so I'm motivated to finish these up quickly to send them off in time.

And finally I did cast on for In and Out Socks in Smith and Ewe fingering. I'm not very far along yet, but I've seen enough to know that the yarn will work with the pattern. It looks impossibly small but it's very stretchy, so I guess I'll carry on for a bit to see how it works out.

This time last week we were sweltering in 34° C weather and heat warnings. Fast forward a week - the high today was 14° C. That's a pretty crazy swing in temperatures! The weather's supposed to swing back to summer again towards the middle of the week - but in the meantime it's sock knitting weather! No wonder there's lots getting done around here lately!

Year of Projects 5: Week 10

KNIT. SOCK. LOVE. : BFF • Clandestine • Cusp • German Stockings • Gothic Spire • Hedera • In and Out • Lissajous • Marilinda • Mona • Monkey • Pointelle • Rhombus • Sake • Stalagmite • Stricken • Thelonious • Twisted Flower • Wedge

COOKIE A SOCK CLUB: June #1 • June #2 • August #1 • August #2 • October #1 • October #2 • December #1 • December #2

VANILLA SOCKS FOR CHARITY: July • August • September • October • November • December • January • February • March • April • May • June

Now that I'm caught up on all the other knitting fronts, it's finally time to get back to Rhombus. Sock one was cast on at the beginning of May (!) and has been languishing on the needles ever since. Time to get 'em done.

The pattern includes every kind of lifted increase imaginable - M1L, M1R, M1L-Purl and M1R-Purl. To get through the first couple of repeats on the leg I typed out a little cheat sheet for myself; that really helped. Then all of a sudden as I approached the heel I realized that I could look at the chart symbol and know how to work the stitch without referring to cheat sheet. BREAKTHROUGH! Now the knitting speeds along. Sock one is done, and I'm halfway down the leg of sock two. I expect the pair will be finished by the end of the week, or mostly finished anyway.

After taking the photo I was struck by how similar the pattern is to Esther by Stephanie van der Linden. I made those in the spring of 2010, except that in Esther the increases are all made with YOs resulting in a lacier sock. Comparing them side-by-side I prefer the Rhombus sock with its lifted increases, although the fabric is less stretchy so you wouldn't want to make the leg much longer.

While knitting sock two of Rhombus I've been flipping through Knit. Sock. Love. to decide what to cast on next. The forerunner right now is In and Out. I have a softly variegated purplish-pink yarn that might work for this. I hope it does work because this yarn/pattern combination would be perfect for a pair that's been promised to my sister's friend.

a head start

While selecting the yarn scraps for these socks, and while casting on and working the toe I thought I was starting a pair of scrappy striped socks for Gavin... but soon enough he made it clear that these were not the socks he was envisioning. In his imagination the blue scrappy socks were ONLY blue - no white, no beige, no brown, no green. 

*sigh* Looks like these will be my September Vanilla Socks for Charity instead.

Year of Projects 5: Week 9

KNIT. SOCK. LOVE. : BFF • Clandestine • Cusp • German Stockings • Gothic Spire • Hedera • In and Out • Lissajous • Marilinda • Mona • Monkey • Pointelle • Rhombus • Sake • Stalagmite • Stricken • Thelonious • Twisted Flower • Wedge

COOKIE A SOCK CLUB: June #1 • June #2 • August #1 • August #2 • October #1 • October #2 • December #1 • December #2

VANILLA SOCKS FOR CHARITY: July • August • September • October • November • December • January • February • March • April • May • June

This week's good news is that both my July and August Vanilla Socks for Charity are done - and each got their own post earlier this week. Which leaves us the second pattern from the August shipment of the Cookie A sock club to discuss...

... Darjeeling Socks. Well, I knew when I saw the pattern photos that the fit of these socks would be a challenge - they look ill-fitting, stretched in spots and baggy in others, even in those photos. The designer comments:

"The pattern on these socks biases a great deal and causes the sock to pull in horizontally, making for a tight fit. Try on for fit after each repeat. Use a larger size needle on the leg and transition to smaller needles on the foot if needed. The largest size is intentionally shorter for yarn usage and fit."

I tried going up a size but the large was ridiculously baggy. So I tried going up a needle size or two, but the stitching was loose and flimsy looking. So finally I decided to go with stretchy yarn - CoBaSi - with the hope that would help. I swatched with this a couple of different ways and found that working the YOs tbl (which I prefer to close up the holes) actually helped to reduce the puffiness in the leaf pattern and helped to reduce the biasing. Additionally I worked the ribbed cuff at the larger size and made it longer with the goal of reducing the stretch and distortion of the ribbing. I also decided to add stitches with lifted increases as the pattern approaches the section that pulls tight, and then decrease those added stitches back out as the pattern relaxes. And finally I decided to work the first half of the repeat twice rather than mirroring it around the leg hoping to mitigate the biasing still further.

As a result I have a finished pair of socks that I can put on and, with some pulling, twisting and tugging, I can make them look nice in a photo or two but the fit problems remain insurmountable. Despite adding 12 stitches to each round through the tightest sections of the pattern, the socks still bind at the end of each leaf and the beginning of the next. And no matter what I do the middle of the leaves still bulge out. Even with a bigger, deeper cuff, the ribbing is still pulled and distorted at the beginning of the pattern.

The good news? This yarn is awesome! I had heard good things about CoBaSi on Ravelry but until recently I wasn't able to find it locally. And when I saw it in person, I had my doubts; in the skein it's not soft and looks splitty. But it knits up surprisingly nicely, the stitch definition is awesome and the knitted fabric feels great. Add to that its relatively cheap price and I'll definitely be buying more of this. And you guessed it, I'll be frogging these socks to recover the yarn, because I've no use for a poorly fitting pair of socks. Time to move on!

FO: August Ribbed Socks

Pattern: a very simple K4P2 ribbed sock with a slipped stitch heel flap

Yarn: 80/20 Merino from The Black Lamb

Comments: This was exactly the kind of mindless knitting I was in the mood for - cast on and start ribbing! And the ribbing pattern works really well with this very busy yarn colourway. The finished socks are almost metallic-looking. The foot is a little small for me, but the yarn yardage wasn't huge so there was little choice but to shorten them. No matter - there's a foot to fit every sock, right? And these are for charity.

One thing I did with these socks is work a set of decreases at the start of the heel flap and the start of the toe section, by working the P2s as P2togs. It's a nice way to even out the transition between the ribbing and flatter knitted fabric without any little bulges or puffs.

Don't be surprised if this same pattern repeats again later in this year. I've been looking through my yarn scraps and re-imagining the pattern knit in solid colour blocks.