Handspun Socks

Falkland Top - Orchid
Originally uploaded by Project Pictures

My November Sock Knitters Anonymous entry started way back this summer with an impulse purchase of Falkland wool so pretty I couldn't resist the colors. Falkland wool is from a location (the Falkland islands) rather than a particular breed, so there can be a lot of variation. This batch is sturdy, but still soft. According to The Falkland Islands Government web page, "Sheep breeds are predominantly Polwarth and Corriedale."

I enjoyed spinning this wool up into what I thought would be fingering weight yarn, skeined and finished it, and put it on a safe shelf to admire until I could find a project for it. Of course, my inexperience was showing a bit. The yarn is not one consistent weight. A good portion of it is sport weight (or possibly heavier) and some is very fine fingering.

It still knits up nicely!

I only had around 300 yards, and I was concerned about having enough for socks. So I found some coordinating yarn for the toes and heels. It took a couple of tries. I think I started these socks four or five times trying to find the right gauge for the irregular weight of yarn and finding the right stitch-count for my feet. But it did pay off.

I knit "Classy Slip-Up Socks" by Betsy Lee McCarthy from "Knit Socks!". This was actually the first book of sock-patterns I purchased, and it's still a solid resource. I do like to sub in parts from Cat Bordhi's books, and of course I couldn't just leave the pattern alone. Rather than knit top-down with an uncertain amount of yarn, I switched the pattern to toe-up. I subbed in Cat Bordhi's reinforced heel, and also knit both the toe and the heel in a coordinating yarn. I also pulled my favorite trick and wrapped the to-be-slipped stitches twice when working the previous row. My sock is stretchy and comfortable!

The wool seemed a bit rough to touch and when working it, but after just one wearing the bottom has fulled up nicely into a very soft fabric. The colors striped in a surprisingly similar fashion considering I had spun the roving up without a plan or a clue.

For my first handspun socks, these are a complete win!!

Starflower Socks

Starflower Socks
Originally uploaded by Project Pictures

One of the little things I did in back in October was knit my sister-in-law (HI!!) a pair of socks! Of course, since I know she visits here from time to time, posting said socks was not a brilliant idea if I wanted to keep the surprise. So, of course, I didn't.

Now that I'm catching up a bit on my posts, I can!

These lovely socks are Starflower Socks, a pattern written by Jeannie Cartmel. I knit these with a side-gusset, and a Cat Bordhi reinforced heel and I'm told they fit great! It helped that when my sister visited this summer, I measured her feet. Muahahaha. Tricky me! I was also able to enter them in the Sock Knitters Anonymous October challenge under the designer category (Jeannie Cartmel). She has some seriously cute socks!

One thing to consider when knitting these socks is the stretch. Slipped stitches in general draw in the fabric you are making because you are pulling one stitch across multiple rows of knitting. The stitches around it do give up some of themselves to allow the slipped stitch to stretch, but the more you pull it across the fabric, the less elasticity it will have. I highly recommend making the stitch-to-be-slipped longer when pulling it across more than just one row (in this case you pull it up two rows AND over two stitches and that's a pretty long distance for one little stitch!).

For me, this means when I knit the stitch I will slip in the next row, I wrap it twice around the needle. When I get to it next, I drop the extra wrap. Since the stitch is now twice as long as its neighbors, it pulls easily and doesn't stress the fabric too much.

If you ever knit something with slipped stitches, I hope that helps!

SKA September 2009 - Nancy Bush Mystery Socks

SKA September 2009 - Nancy Bush Mystery Socks
Originally uploaded by Project Pictures

I'm a bit behind. These socks have been done for a couple of weeks but I've been diligently getting all the fiber blog posts up for the Phat Fiber box. It has been fun detailing each sample in the series.

September kicked off the Sock Knitters Anonymous "Sockdown" season. This group on Ravelry is dedicated to stretching sock knitters to their limits, challenging each month with a different theme.

Our first challenge is the only one of the year to focus on a color, rather than a knitting skill. The requirements were to either a) knit a sock in yellow (solid or semi-solid only) or b) knit a sock designed by Wendy Johnson. Option C was the "Mystery Sock", and it falls under the first heading and was required to be knit in yellow.

I bought String Theory's yellow sock yarn called "Caper". I didn't have any pure yellow in my stash. Of course you can always knit any sock any way you want... but there are prizes involved and that tiny, little competitive urge that I have from time to time started nagging. I just couldn't participate in the group and NOT knit a project that qualified for the prize drawing. I don't expect to win anything (except a beautiful pair of socks).

Nancy Bush did this Mystery design and it's lovely. The final name is "Fox Faces". With a little imagination you can see them peering at you in the picture.

The challenge for me is to knit a Mystery Sock with complete faith in the designer. I followed every instruction that I could, and in a couple of places figured out much later I'd done it a little bit wrong. But that's okay, too. I learned an Estonian cast on (very pretty) and what Nancy Bush calls a "vikkel braid", which really just means a sideways braid. The back of the calf is knit in ribbing, but not all the way to the ankle. I don't like that, but I'm rolling with the pattern here.

The heels I did end up needing to change and probably could have done more to them. I knit the heel flap about twice as long and thus doubled the gusset as well. I probably needed to do more, but I'm not ripping out to do these again. The Dutch heel is very pretty and easy to make. I might use it again in another sock. It fits well, but I do need it to be a lot deeper to accommodate my high instep.

I slipped up and didn't switch to stockinette two inches before the toes, but I don't think it hurts to have the lace all the way down. That was entirely a "woops" moment and not me tinkering with the aesthetics of the pattern. I simply didn't pull it out to consult while I was knitting and tried to do things from memory.

The yarn has a touch of cashmere in it and the yellow is really lovely. It is so nice to do something like this on faith and have it come out so well. I may even do the mystery sock in November!