Opal socks finally completed

Yikes, these Opal socks went on forever. Granted, they were my "to-go" project, that mainly sat underneath the passenger front seat and got a few rounds worked on while waiting at appointments and such, so it was never a high priority sock. Although nearing the end of the school year, I simply could not focus on anything other simple stockinette socks. I did a lot of wrong things on these socks, but in the end, I think they're ok. They pretty much comforted me through the semester and gave me relief from the stress of class and what ifs. When I couldn't concentrate on my research, it was easy to knit a few rows of stockinette, always so soothing to this tired mind. At one point, I thought I should turn the heel, as I usually knit socks with a 5 1/2 to 6 inch cuff, but not much longer than that. Instead, after the 6 inch mark, I kept knitting and knitting b/c I needed the stockinette. Turning the heel isn't terribly difficult and I've done a million times before, but once I knit the heel flap, turned the heel and then picked up stitches, I'd have to pay attention to my decreases for awhile, whereas if I kept knitting, I didn't have to think about it.

I finally turned the heel and went on finished the first sock while in Boston. I proudly showed my finished socks (one each of Horcrux and the Opal socks) to Julia, while having brunch in Boston. She happened to ask me if my feet were tiny, then I realized that I decreased for the toe about two-three inches too soon and the foot while snug, did fit, but not very comfortably.

I duly cast on for the second sock and knitted happily away and then lost one of my needles while in Boston. Cyn kindly lent a pair of her dpns and I continued on knitting away. At one point back in Denver, I decided I didn't want the metal needles anymore and I picked up a pair of wooden dpns and switched to them. Except what I didn't realize was the needles I'd used to knit the socks initially were US size 1s (2.25 mm) and the needles I switched to were US 1.5s (2.5 mm). I noticed the sock fabric was a bit looser than I normally like and wondered what the cause could be and then realized the needle size was different. All of this long story to say, I finally finished them and went back and fixed the first toe, so now I can wear that sock too.

Whew, here they are:



Pattern: Basic stockinette socks, no pattern
Yarn: Opal sock yarn (about 5 years in the stash)
Started: January '07
Completed: July 3, 2007
Modifications: every one in the book

Vacation Knitting

While I was on vacation, it wasn't all hanging out with the Neph and acquiring yarn. There was some knitting happening too, just not as much as I expected, but that's ok too. It was my vacation.

First up is the almost finished Ballet Camisole. In the picture, you see that it is awaiting a 3 needle bindoff. However, that has occurred and it's been shipped off to my favorite crocheter to give it a single crochet edge around the neckline and armholes. This was a fun knit and I learned short rows, bonus! The pattern didn't call for it, but Lise on Ravelry told me the only thing she would change would be to add short rows and thus I decided it was time for me to get over it and add them to this project.

After much searching online for various tutorials, it wasn't as hard as I thought! Yay!



Second, the Cafe Curtain socks are coming along, but they are not quite as fun to knit as other patterns. It is a beautiful pattern, but either I'm not into it as much as say Monkey or Thuja or I don't know. I like it and think that I want to finish it, but with the Summer of Socksalready started, this sock will be put down for awhile, to focus on new socks. Not that my goal for SOS is any huge number, but I'm not too motivated by this one right now.



Lastly, DFS looks even bigger than this right now. I'm on the last repeat of the shawl. I'm following the scarf pattern as I have 500 yds and the shawl version calls for 750 yards. I've decided to add one repeat to the pattern to see where I am yardage-wise. Right now, it looks good to add one additional repeat, but I haven't decided if I will go beyond that. I know another person that recently made this said the edging used up a lot of yarn and I really would rather not repeat running out of yarn on a shawl (Seraphim anyone?).



The Opal socks are still being knit on, but I'm a bit disappointed with them right now. It turns out I knitted the second sock on the wrong size needles, so the fabric is a bit looser than I prefer. I thought of ripping it out, but I do have one finished sock. However, I did a lot of wrong things on this pair of socks and I'd like for them to just be finished. I made the cuff much longer than I usually like, so now it's so long, calf shaping should have been added. Basically it's either rip and redo or finish what I've got. I'm with option B at this point, simply because while these socks are not perfect, they can be used as work socks. Because I always get cold and in the summer/spring, early fall, wearing either mules, clogs or open-toed shoes, my feet get cold. Nothing like wool socks to keep those toesies warm! Plodding along, I will get these finished, just because I'm sick of them. And then I can cast on for my Sockapalooza pal's sock. I really do need to get started on them.

That's all for now.

Feel the (sock) love

Hi, my name is Wanda and I'm a sock-knitting addict.

Lately there's a lot of talk of sock-knitting in the blogosphere. All of you know how much I love knitting socks. Then there was the Represent event with the Harlot. I love seeing the pic of everyone's sock at the meetup in Central Park. I was all verklempt at the sight of those socks. Today, reading Carole's post, it really gave me a giggle.



I also got to thinking how some people left comments that I have yet to reply back to (sorry about that people, I have good intentions, but so little time these days) and one that I wanted to comment on was from Norma, who wrote (ed. by me)
"Portable, schmortable" about the
fact that people always say that is the reason they love knitting
socks. "What is more portable about socks than, say,
mittens, a hat, a scarf, or a sweater sleeve?"

What I wanted to answer to that is, other projects may have the same amount of portability as socks, although it depends on your project. In my case, this winter, I've done some top-down raglan sweaters that a sweater sleeve did not lend itself to portability. Hats are always portable to me, mittens and scarves are of course, portable as well. However, some of those items (hats, mittens and usually scarves) are seasonal, whereas I can always knit socks year-round. Even if I won't wear wool socks in the summer, I can always knit them and they don't get too heavy and I'm not turned off by knitting them. I never want to pick up a scarf in the summer (especially since I live w/o a/c in the summer). Also, socks are a like a sweet, small gift. As Kim said in a comment, I never tire of the simple act of turning a heel and I never get bored with socks like I do with scarves. I agree. While I do like scarves, the knitting of them does get tedious.

The sock you see above is the second of the Regia Banner socks. The pair is complete, but at the time of the picture, the second sock was waiting for the toe to be kitchnered for almost two weeks. I finally did it this weekend and M2 is already wearing them and has done so for 2 days. Which does my heart good, especially since I was trying to figure out a way to keep them for myself! I am so evil and perhaps not so generous of heart, but oh well. M2 is growing so much (he is 13 yo after all) and his feet have been growing hugely, in my mind. I was almost hoping they were too small and then I could keep them, but no such luck.

Another thing I've been doing is listening to podcasts. One that I am fully caught up on (which is scary since I've only started listening in the past 2 months) is the Lime & Violet podcast. Holy crap, are they funny! And they have a section where they talk about yarn porn. These two ladies primarily knit socks,so they are always talking about a new purveyor of sock yarn.



Besides the sock knitting love that I've already professed to, back in August, I talked of crossing a line. Now, I'm much less likely to buy a skein of the self-striping yarns, although sock yarns like Austermann Step, Trekking and Opal still feel the yarn love, but for the variegated colors. Now I'm all about the handpainted yarn that are sold by so many independents, it's insane. But what is really pushing me over the edge is Cookie's sock patterns. Holy cow, those socks are gorgeous.

After all of my handpainted sock love, this girl has picked up a few (gasp!) solid-colored sock yarns, which is so unusual for me. But seriously, I need to knit a few of these sock patterns.

The last sock pictured, is my "to-go" sock knitting that I keep in the car for those moments of waiting. I've done the heel and am now working on the foot. It's some old school Opal purchased at least 4 years ago. It has lots of colors, but the predominant ones are purple, mustard, brown and cream. At first I wasn't sure if I liked it, but now I'm really diggin' it.

Do you think you might be a sock-knitting addict when you want to wind up all of the handpainted skeins of sock yarn just to see how they look all mixed up in the center pull skein?

Sorry for the long tome, please also remember the blog contest! You can leave a comment to enter for any of the projects, except sock yarn. For sock yarn, please send me an email or leave a comment stating why you think you should win sock yarn. All other entries will be entered into the giveaway with use of a random number generator. I've also decided to close the contest a little earlier. I want to get the prizes out ASAP, but wanted to let the Easter holiday pass. The contest will now end Tuesday, April 10 at 12 midnight MST. Sorry for that, but I want to get them out and on Tuesday I have a big assignment due, after that I will want to clear out the prize yarn and send it on its way.