Socks: June 2006 Archives
At long last, 2 years after they were started, the Mermaid Socks are finally finished. I still am not sure why I stalled out after the first sock. The pattern is quite easy to work and it's kind of fun to watch the ribs swirl around under your fingers while you knit. The narrowness of these socks is deceptive -- the ribbing stretches a good deal to accomodate my size 8 feet.
I did the simplest version of the Mermaid Socks from Lucy Neatby's Cool Socks, Warm Feet (the link is to her website instead of Amazon because Amazon only seems to be selling outrageously priced used copies). I chose the simple wavy cuff instead of the more elaborate garter stitch cuff. The pattern is easy to follow (but you do have to pay attention to the toe shaping instructions) and would lend itself to almost any self-striping sock yarn. In this case, I am using Regia Mini Ringel 5047 which is just a carnival of bright color. These socks will definitely be brightening up my sock drawer.
This was the bad picture I was able to snap of the socks while I was wearing them -- it was literally the last picture I took before my battery died on my camera. Not the greatest picture, but I think it at least shows how the ribbing widens out -- and, how almost by accident, these socks turned out almost identical instead of fraternal. If I'd been really clever, I would have modified the pattern for the second sock so that the ribbing slanted in the opposite direction. Perhaps, someday, if I make another pair.
This is my first finished pair for me during the Family Sock Challenge. Now I have to figure out what pair of socks I am going to tackle next.
Et Voila! Finished Opal Rainforest Tiger socks. This is just a modification of my "standard sock" pattern to create some extra calf shaping. Other than that, it has a standard Dutch heel and 4-pt decrease toe. The "special detail" in this sock is that whenever two black stitches overlapped, I purled the stitch instead of knit it, giving the sock a raised texture on the outside when a black stripe is formed. Because of all the shaping, this resulted in some stripes on the calves that I think do look very tiger stripe-ish. No attempt was made to make these socks identical, and, honestly, I'm not sure that there's a real obvious repeat region in this yarn.
These socks are my fifth pair of finished socks for my Family Sock Challenge (John got 2 pairs, my sister-in-law got a pair and my dad got a pair). How about that? Only two more pairs left to go. But I'll be finishing those Mermaid socks for myself before tackling any new pairs.
Happy Father's Day to everyone out there who is a great dad or has a great dad (like I do!). We're heading off to Ann Arbor to spend the weekend with my folks. I wish a good weekend to everyone else out there, too!
I see all this delightful lace knitting going on when I read other people's blogs. I feel like I should be inspired to knit lace. After all, lace is lightweight and compatible with summer knitting needs (as long as one is not knitting with Kidsilk Haze). But right now, there's no lace on my WIP list, and I've decided that it's time to keep marching the number of unfinished projects down a little bit. One of those truly long lingering projects has been my Mermaid socks (design by Lucy Neatby in Cool Socks, Warm Feet). I started the first sock at the time that I went to the 2004 MS&W. I decided to start the second sock at this years MS&W. Because I wasn't paying attention, I made a mistake in the transition between the cuff and the body of the sock. So, annoyed with myself, I stuffed the sock back into it's project bag (what would I do with out Ziplocs eh?) and didn't pull it back out until Saturday when I headed out to the Worldwide Knit in Public Day festivities (want to see some of what was going on there? Check out Bonne Marie's excellent coverage as well as Lynette's photos from the day. I forgot to bring my camera...)
I did make an attempt to get them to be identical, but, if you've ever worked with this particular brand of Regia yarn, you know, like I don, that it's relatively challenging. So I settled for "mostly identical". I've never been all that hung up on the need for identical socks, so the slight difference won't bother me all that much -- especially with the riot of color that is going on in the sock.
I'd forgotten how easy this pattern is for the neat effect it gives you. Almost mindless, except that I can't do a k2tog without looking at my knitting.
Since I'm very close to finishing my mom's socks (just the toe decreases remain now) these socks will likely make the jouney with me to Ann Arbor this weekend along with my cross stitch dragon and my wheel. This is one of two pairs of socks I get to make for myself as part of my Family Sock Challenge (I'm allowed to finish the two pairs that are lingering in my WIP list). Once I finish Mom's socks, I'll be 2/3 of the way through, so I think I can give myself a little sock reward.
P.S. To My Fellow Sock Challengers: I'm sorry I missed our update over the weekend, I was distracted by a bunch of things. This weekend I'll be in Ann Arbor, so no update this coming weekend, either. I promise that we'll have another update the following weekend. After that I should both be in town for a while and have my head better together, so the postings should get more regular.
This weekend I participated in the Chicago branch of the World Wide Knit In Public Day. Bonne Marie, Julie and I all headed down town to Millenium Park to show off our colors. While I like to knit in public, I find that I can't take on much that's very complicated. Thus, socks are almost always my knit in public travelling companions.
I'm still working hard to achieve my goal of socks for everyone in my immediate family this year. After getting kind of stalled out on my Mom's Tiger socks for a while, I got back to them in earnest last week and over the weekend. Yesterday I got that heel flap taken care of and today I finished the gusset decreases. One nice thing about mom: she doesn't have very long feet, so by getting this far I am definitely over halfway done with the second sock. I think that means I have a good chance of gifting mom with the socks this weekend when I see her.
These socks are definitely fraternal. Maybe there's a repeat in this sock yarn, but because of the changing diameter of the calf of the sock and the general feeling of randomness, I decided that these socks would be best off as fraternal. After all, no two tigers are exactly alike, so I figure it can work for socks, too.
These socks have also been a good source of stress relief for me this weekend. Or at least another place to focus my brain instead of worrying about something that I have almost no control over. Working on them helps me refocus on my mom, a wise woman who has reminded me many times in my life that no matter how difficult somethings may become, that the sun will always rise again tomorrow.
