Yes, More Socks

One thing about not knitting socks is that I still had sock yarn in my stash. And some of this yarn will look best knitted into socks. The yarn used in my latest finished project being such an example. The yarn was purchased early in 2016 when I didn’t know my sock knitting was going to fade to nothing.

This particular yarn is from a UK company and I had seen it in many podcasts so I had it sent to my sister so I could pick it up on a visit. And then it sat in my stash for over four years! (We won’t mention yarn that has been in my stash longer than that!) The yarn is from West Yorkshire Spinners in the Kingfisher colourway and it really needed to be socks. So as it appears that I am knitting socks again and as October’s challenge was self-striping yarn I cast on. Actually it took me a while to choose a pattern. I thought I would work one of those fancy patterns where the stripes end up all over the place but decided simple was best and chose Solar.

I used contrasting yarn for the heels and toes, a left over given to me for my blanket. This saves the stripes being messed up by the heels but I am liking it as a feature and should do it more often. Also with this particular pattern I only used half the main yarn so there is enough for another pair when I eventually run out of sock yarn!

 

 

Another Finished Item

I have been slow in posting finished items, mainly as I had to take photos. Here is a cardigan I finished in September.

I purchased the yarn, Zen Yarn Garden Superfine DK, at Stitches SoCal last year specifically to knit this pattern – Comfort Fade - as they had a knitted sample at their booth which I was able to try on. It was a surprising purchase for me as I am not a fan of fades patterns but I loved the colours and I still love them knitted into my own garment. The yarn is 100% merino and is incredibly soft.

I started this on 27 January and did not finish it until the end of September but I was not working on it for all of that time. I had two very distinct breaks. Firstly, after a few days I decided it would make more sense to finish my Girl Friday and see how that fit before continuing. The sample I had tried on was too big for me and very baggy around the armholes. The other big break in knitting was after I had picked up the stitches for the collar. I knew I was going to make changes but was putting off doing it. So that was another couple of months of no knitting.

The changes I made to the collar were to work the colours in reverse order from the pattern, instead of ABCD, I worked DCBA. Also, having seen two Comfort Fades in real life, I did not like the big collar at the back of the neck and this was the reason for my procrastination, what changes did I want? In the end I started the short rows at the third section, only worked two sets, but worked the same total number of straight rows.

The other change I made was to work the bottom edging in garter stitch and not rib. This is the only place on the garment where rib appears and it looked odd to me. Also I didn’t like the way the band pulled down from the rib.

 

All The Hats

I completed a hat for charity earlier this month – Helix Stashbuster – 

 

and now all my hats are packed up ready to be sent off. This year I made seven hats but one did not turn out to be adult size. I have to either find a children’s charity that takes handmade hats or I may frog it.

 

These are the six hats that will be going to Operation Gratitude. The green hats were made with a new skein of yarn otherwise all the rest were made from leftovers. The Helix hat was perfect for that and I was able to use small amounts of yarn in that. For that hat I used two main colours, a variegated and a plain and then the third colour was any small amounts of yarn.

 

 

 

 

Why Am I Knitting Socks?

Good question! When I started to knit socks (for myself) on a regular basis I was living in Canada where winter shoes – and therefore, socks – were worn for many months. And, of course, you are starting from nothing and gradually building up a supply. Also it is easy to buy a skein of yarn for socks because you know 100 gram skein of fingering yarn is plenty for a pair of socks – no angst of buying enough to knit a garment.

When I stopped knitting socks it wasn’t a conscious decision, oh, I’m not going to knit socks anymore, they just didn’t get knit and it was surprising to find out that I hadn’t knit any socks for two years, and just one pair in 2019. Which brings us to now and my second completed pair of socks for this year. The first completed pair this year used leftovers; this pair uses yarn from a completed project.

I used the yarn that I frogged from this project. Although I liked it knitted into a Hitchhiker it was just not big enough and never got worn. I tried to turn it into socks earlier this year during a mystery KAL but the yarn and pattern didn’t work well together. I am much happier with my second choice. The pattern is PB & W  and I chose it as part of Sock Knitters Anonymous challenge for September. They were completely finished on 30 September, so, of course, a new pair was cast on on 1 October because, apparently, I am knitting socks again!

 

 

WIPing Time of Year

The annual finish your WIPs KAL started on 23 September and, as usual, I have a number of projects to finish. I have ten projects in progress (plus mitred squares) which is too many but the funny thing is that that is the number I had this time last year. So maybe ten is my lucky number? Three of my current projects were on the needles this time last year, although one is very close to being finished. One is the crochet project which was intended as a long term project, the third one is my Palm Springs project which should have been finished by now, except our trip earlier this year was cancelled. We do have a trip to Palm Springs coming up and the project will be worked on then.

This leaves seven projects that have been around for less than a year. Although the oldest one of those was started at the end of November. It is a complicated lace shawl designed for Advent last year. I really would like to get it finished by the end of the year which is just possible if I can knit 1 or 2 rows each day. I started a cardigan in March and that has been set to one side. It is not a well written pattern and I will pick it up again when I have finished this batch of WIPs. This leaves eight projects to finish in just over three months. The good news is that I have already finished two of them and, as mentioned, one is nearly finished. And another is a hat which is at the decreases, so another project not far from being finished. Four projects remaining. Two of these are the aforementioned Palm Springs shawl and complicated lace. The other two are a simple shawl which has become my go to project when supervising children and the squares I knit when the virus first really hit. I just need to make a decision as to what to do with them. I know I want them to become a blanket and that I want it to be bigger than just the squares so do I sew the squares together and then add borders or do I border each square and then sew them together. I had thought about a hybrid – sewing the squares together in rows  and then adding borders between each row and a final border around the whole thing. Actually writing it out clarifies my thoughts because what I think the problem is is that I do not have yarn in stash in a colour I want to use. Hmm, looks like I might have to buy yarn.

Of course, finishing any WIP depends on me not starting any new projects and I have already started a pair of socks on 1 October and there is a Christmas gift I want to make and a small advent project. But I have decided not to cast on any new projects with sale yarn until the new year.

In summary: - 10 projects. 2 are longer term; 2 already finished; 2 close to being finished; 3 likely to finish by the end of year; 1 that could be finished if I make a decision. Can I finish 8 projects in just under 14 weeks?