Tuesday, December 30, 2008


This is my Slytherin Pride sock, photo taken this afternoon. I've found that listening to audio books helps me to get on with it! There's just one more snake to knit before I do the heel, and I will post another pic when that's done.

Monday, December 29, 2008

I'm Done




I finished my adult socks a couple of days before Christmas, but have been really bad about posting anything lately. I adopted a dog in early December and I've been focusing on getting her on some sort of schedule as well as finishing up with school for the semester. It was crazy for awhile, but working on the socks certainly helped to keep me sane. I'll be handing them over to my friend tomorrow, but I suspect it will be awhile before I can make her son's matching socks. I have a toddler coat that is entirely made of seed stitch that I'm desperately trying to finish while I'm off from work this week. I may post a picture of that if I'm successful because I've been working on that thing
f-o-r-e-v-e-r.

Autumn

It has been a while since I have posted on the progress of my socks.

First, I would like to blame LavA for sending me a box full of books. Besides random sparkly items tossed about the room nothing distracts me more than a book I have not read. So, I have not knitted on my socks since12/23/08 at 2:30pm until late Sunday afternoon maybe 3ish.

Tuesday was picking up the stitches for the two different patterns which proved to be rather difficult for me since I had a mind altering headache and in a clear and audible whine from me, my LYS owner grabbed my knitting from me and picked them up for me. Thanks Kelly.

I completed 8 rows of the patterns, then came home took a power nap and went to my part-time job.
Wednesday no knitting done worked from 4am until 6pm then went out for eats. Came home to find a box waiting for me.
Thursday, no knitting due to reading, Friday, no knitting due to reading, Saturday, no knitting due to reading. And there was plenty of tea drinking done as well. YUM!!!!!!!

Sunday, stopped reading and started knitting at 3:00pm. I am now in the middle of the second repeat of the main pattern and it looks rather splendid. The only part I am not keen on is making 5 stitches from one stitch. I feel all thumbs.

I am off to finish the second repeat and perhaps start the third, a small goal for me this week is to have a heal and/or half a foot in it by Sunday.

Friday, December 26, 2008

Checking In

Well I am almost done with the leg of the first sock. I am doing Zombie socks for my sister, which need to be done by her birthday on February 1st. I am really hoping that I get them done soon because I am trying to make everyone in my family socks for their birthday's and then the next pair needs to be done my March 22.

Finished!

I finished knitting the 2nd orange sock. I still need to Kitchener the toe stitches and weaving in the cast on tail.

I cast off the Men Who Knit Scarf Swap scarf tonight. It is looking quite yummy and I am coveting it. Fortunately my swap partner is a great guy, so I'm sending it to someone I know will love it. I need to get a couple of extras to include with it. I'm thinking some sponge candy, which is a Western New York thing and really good. I may also add a skein of my hand-painted sock yarn.

I still have the 2nd cotton sock to work on. Which has been mostly ignored. The zig-zag sock I started will definitely be frogged. The pattern needs a solid yarn to show it off.

Pictures will be posted once both have been completely finished.

Sunday, December 21, 2008

check check

monday check in... am at the toe decreases... hoping to finish the sock tonight, and then I can remake the baby sock, and pull out an old WIP, froot loop, to continue on this sock along.

update: 8:00pm... Finished!!

Smooshy Charade finished!

Saturday, December 20, 2008

*sigh*

I'm making these socks for my dad, and here's where we are.


It's a good yarn, and shiny, but first, there won't be enough of it, so I'm having to bring in a substitute yarn for heels and toes. This:



If I don't die of boredom before then. the 2/2 rib is killing me. I've two inches left before heels...

Friday, December 19, 2008

Sock Questions: Help!

Hey guys... I kind of need help here. I've never made an actual sock before (unless you count the miniature one), so I have lots of questions about basic sock making techniques...

First of all, which way is the best way to cast on for socks? I have a book and it explains the long tail continental cast on and the Old Norweigan cast on. Would either of these be good? Or is there another one that would work better (or at least as well) and be a little easier?

Secondly, are there any good tutorials (preferably videos, as I can't follow written directions and have a hard time following pictures) for working the heel and then reattatching that to the foot? I don't know what that's called, but it's after you work the short rows and then you're picking up stitches.

Thirdly, does anyone have any good tips for reading knitting patterns? I really want to knit a pair of socks, but all the patterns I've found just confuse me and I'm still not sure how to read them (this is why I make up my own patterns as often as I can).

Fourth of all, how do you guys count rows for socks that have lots of rounds of the same color?

Fifth, are there any good sock patterns for an absolute beginner? I really wanted to knit myself a pair of nice socks, but I was wondering if anyone had suggestions for patterns. Preferably with more explanation than not.

If any of you who have made socks before could provide any insight, that would be helpful. I won't be starting these until after I finish my Christmas knitting... so yeah. Thanks!

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

daily updates

at the gusset

i also believe that i can get the remaining sock done by Dec 24!! it will be a nice christmas present to myself.

One down...

I finished the first sock but now I have to get the second one done by christmas. I have my fingers crossed...or well not crossed but busily working to get the second one started. The Tyrolean socks will be done by christmas...positive thinking.

I started the interlocking leaves socks but haven't made much progress on them. I also need to finish up my sugarplum shrug but I'm really far on that so I'm not too worried.

Good luck to everyone on their socks! I believe in you all!

Monday, December 15, 2008

Elladora is going to kill me

Elladora's gonna kill me.  I've been *encouraging* her all week to knit on her socks for the KAL, and in the meantime I've been completely ignoring my own in favor of other projects. I finished the 2 swap things I was supposed to, but I still have like 10 hats, a scarf, a bag, and wristwarmers to finish for Chanukah which starts Sunday.

Ella, I will try to turn the heel tonight.

Sunday, December 14, 2008

Weekend Update....

Got about 5" inches of the leg ribbing on the Orange sock. Did a few rounds on the blue cotton sock. did not touch the zig-zag sock.

I finished the Stripped Scarf, it looks purty. Also did 2 cable repeats on the Ribbed Cable Muffler.

Friday, December 12, 2008

daily progress check in

... 3/4 of an inch. I couldn't bring myself to knit the full inch last night.

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Pics of the W.I.P.s

I got out the camera to take some pictures of what I am working on and hope to finish as past of this KAL. These orange socks are made of my own hand-painted sock yarn. I use powdered drink mixes and I love this color combination. The orange is Clover Valley Orange Drink that I got at the Dollar General Store. It gives a great Orange Crush/Tang shade of orange. The purple is grape Mix-ade from Aldi, which came out a muted wine color. The stripping comes out to just about a round per color, so the colors switch almost every round. You can see a narrow spiral of orange that wraps around the leg of the sock.

The pattern is the Basic Sock Pattern from the Knitter's Handy Book of Patterns by Ann Budd. I love that book and it is one of my favorite sock patterns. As you can see, the first sock is completed and I have started the 2nd sock.

Next up is a pair of cotton socks made from Regia Cotton Sock Yarn. I received it as part of my first HSKS kit. This is based on the After Bertha spiral tube sock pattern from Socks, Socks, Socks! But rather than doing a tube sock, I am making a regular top-down sock using the spiral pattern on the leg instead of ribbing on the leg and spiral on the foot. The first sock is complete and the 2nd is started. This has been sitting in the project pile for a while, so I would like to make some progress on it.

The last pair of socks is a zig zag pattern that I am making up on my own. The ribbing moves back and forth along the leg of the sock. The self stripping sock yarn doesn't show that off well. I think it would show better on a solid sock yarn. I may only do 4 or 5 inches of the zig zag ribbing and then switch to stockinette for the rest of the sock. Fortunately I don't find knitting self-stripping yarn in stockinette stitch boring. I guess I am dim enough to find that fascinating...LOL!

This last project isn't a sock, but it is a swap project that I am working on with a deadline of January 20th. The Men Who Knit website hosts an annual Scarf Exchange and after hearing how much fun was had last year I decided to jump on board this year. Of course all the guys are very competitive, so no one wants to be out-done.

The pattern is the Muffler from Men In Knits by Tara Jon Manning. It is a ribbed cable pattern, which I love doing. The yarn is a yummy alpaca/wool mix and the picture do not do it justice. It is a deep wine purple with flecks of deep colors in it. It is very soft. The first skein gave me about 22" of scarf and I have 3 skeins, so it should end up about 5.5" when finished.

It's kind of funny, because this is a first swap for a lot of these guys and they are stumped as to what to include. But the old swapping pros had been free with advice.
And in case you think this is all I'm working on... I'm trying to finish my 2nd Ribbed Stripped Scarf. I'm dong an Indie Artist Market on Sunday and I'd like to have both to have on my table on Sunday. Hoping we get lots of holiday gift shoppers looking for something hand-made to give for the holidays.

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

on to the leg!

With Lav's urging, I have finished the ribbing, but in all honesty I didn't have much more to go to finish the ribbing, like 3 or 4 rounds, so I think I'm going to try at least half an inch to one inch on the leg part in the evening today.

If you can not tell, I am breaking up my socks in parts, my sock leg sans cuff is about 6.5" so 1 inch a day will take me about 6.5 days to get to the sock heel!! and at this rate, I just might have a pair of socks to wear by Christmas!!

*i added sock in the description because it seemed silly to think that my actual physical leg is 6.5".

Knitting Madness

I am ready to start my heel so, if all goes well I should be able to start Autumn on Sunday.

I do not think that I will take them with me over the weekend for down-time knitting though. They do appear to be socks that I need to focus on.

Monday, December 8, 2008

Sock W.I.P.s

Right now I have 3 pair of socks in progress. First is a Spiral Rib Cotton Sock with sock yarn that I received in HSKS4, my first swap. The second is a basic pair of socks made with my own hand-painted yarn. Both of these have 1 sock completed and the second sock has been cast on and started. I wold like to finish both of these as I have many other socks I would like to knit.

I also have a 3rd pair of socks, which is a zig-zag rib design. I've got a couple of inches done on the first sock. If I can make some progress on this as well it will be good. I'll post some pics this week showing what I have so far.

ETA: I'm also in the Men Who Knit Scarf Exchange. I'm making the Muffler from Men In Knits in a very yummy Alpaca/Wool blend. I'm almost half-way on that.

My master Plan

Greetings Ladies and Gentlemen,

Here is the sock that I want to finish by the end of the KAL.

These are the socks that I have to finish before I can start the KAL. I started the second one and it is a lovely shade of Violette for Violent Black.











I made a pair of these before in Cascade Heritage Deep Green that Lav DD
gave to me as a birthday/Roak/I suckered you into doing my madness gift.



TTFN

Hello Fellow KAL'ers!

I'm Rowena Bladvak, a Ravenclaw Third Year. I'll be knitting a pair of Charade socks, like Ella. Only mine are starting from scratch. These are a Christmas present for my best friend, Fleur Sweeting. They're imbibed with hidden meaning! First, the yarn is hand-dyed by Cosmic Fibers, in her "Ice Truck Killer" colorway, from her Dexter series of yarns. This is Fleur's and my favorite show, and Fleur's favorite color of all the colors in the Dexter series of yarns. Secondly, the pattern is very apropos, because (for those of you not familiar with the show) Dexter is a serial killer working in the Miami Police Homicide Dept., so his entire life is keeping up a giant Charade. I think it fits perfectly, and Fleur is going to get *quite* the kick out of it. I'm very excited to be knitting these socks for her, and can't wait to cast on. As a matter of fact, I'm off to do that very thing right now! Happy knitting!

I'll be knitting...

I just did a recount on how many gifts I need to finish for Chanukah, and I think my original goal to knit a pair of socks from my STR Dreidel is going to be severely modified.  I have 10-15 hats, a pair of wristwarmers, and a special bag to knit for Chanukah gifts, and only 17 days to complete them.

The new plan:
Finish my Burning Pyres socks from Minee Kwikspells sock club - preferably before Lily of Flitwick but I'm realistic here.  I'm up to the heel flap of the first sock, so I have plenty left to do for this Sock Along.


IMG_0248

I'd still like to finish my Chanukah socks for this Sock Along, so my 2nd goal is to finish them by the start of HSKS7.  Heh, we'll see how that goes :)

Yikes Christmas socks!


These socks are for my sister Caitie. I already made a pair in red for my other sister Becky. So as you can probably imagine I have third and not even fourth sock syndrome. So I am going to need encouragement to get through these babies. I have two other pairs of socks to knit on top of these AND I'm trying to finish my Sugarplum Shrug so I can wear it over the holidays. There is also the cross stitch christmas stocking that needs to be finished.....ooops. Yeah count me in for this KAL.

Good luck to everyone finishing their gifts. I love what some of you are working on....hmmm...more projects to add. LOL!
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Sunday, December 7, 2008

my charade

matching charade
here is the sock I'm trying to match, next to it, you can see that i've cast on, and is at the hardest part of the sock... the ribbing.

Finally finishing



I'm hoping that this sock along will be get me to finally finish a pair of socks I started last spring. I had finished the first one and realized it was way too big for my foot. However, it fit my best friend perfectly and I had planned to complete it, make a matching mini pair for her son Owen (who is quickly becoming my knitting muse) and be done for Christmas. Alas that is not going to happen, but I think I can finish these suckers up by end of Jan.

Specs:
Yarn: Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks that Rock Lightweight, Cockamamie
Needles: US 1
Pattern: It's a combination of Beginner's Socks, Magic Loop Version by Liat Gat and the pattern chart from Nutkin by Beth LaPensee

Saturday, December 6, 2008

help with the sock choice

Hey fellow Sock-Along-ers! I'm super excited to join in the holiday sock-knitting, as I haven't knit socks in almost 2 years! (gasp!)

Please check out my non-committal post and cast your vote for which socks you think I should knit. They're all great choices, so you'll see why I'm having a hard time choosing. Thanks! and I can't wait to cast on!

~Olive Bumblebirch

Friday, December 5, 2008

yay, sock-along

I have one pair of socks in progress for me; it's my own pattern which really means I just make it up as I go along:



But what I really need to do is a pair for my dad for Christmas. I'm deciding between a wild trekking yarn:
caribbean

and a more somber fortissima socka (ah, the one on the right):
fortissima

I suspect safe and somber is the way to go...

Greetings from the Snake Pit! ^_^

Greetings from the Snake Pit! For those few Hufflepuffs who don't know me yet (haha), I'm Argentia. I've never made a full sized sock before, but I'll be making small socks for stocking stuffers and random gifts this year.

I'm thinking of doing mini-socks in different colors with duplicate stitch embroidery on them and perhaps even venturing into a pair of House Socks (probably Slytherin colors, as I already have the yarn) for myself once I get my gift knitting done.

One idea that you could use for Chanukah socks is to knit socks in blue and apply a duplicate stitch of the different Hebrew symbols around the cuff in silver. I'm not exactly sure how that would work, but if you could chart it out, I don't think it would be that difficult.

Random fact, but did you Hufflepuffs know that a cete is a group of badgers? I just thought I would share that with you and I thought it was appropriate and rather fitting. ^_^

~Argentia S. Pascal

Thursday, December 4, 2008

greetings and casting on

Hi!

I am pulling out my old WIP socks. first the matching (or try to matching) pair of Charade out of Smooshy Dream in Color. When I get that done, I shall pull out my other WIP, the froot loop that I started a long long time ago...

I think joining the Sock KAL is pretty clear... I want to finish some socks in my WIP pile. These socks are for me, but my mom wears the same size shoes as me, so Maybe I'll give her a pair.

I don't have a deadline to finish these socks... just anxious to want to wear the Charades, I really like the first sock that i finally finished, so I want to knit the other pair.

I don't have any suggestions for holiday socks..sorry.

I have some socks that rocks in my stash... maybe i'll dive in and knit a sock pattern from the sock club this year.

Welcome!

Since our last Hufflepuff KAL was such a success, we decided to have another.  As before, Hufflepuff KALs are open to all of Hogwarts - we are the inclusive house after all!  If you'd like to join us, PM me (Lava) on Ravelry with your
  • blog url
  • email address
  • Potter name
  • House, and 
  • year at Hogwarts.

Two months ago, Clidonia Acromantula and I snuck away from Hogwarts to visit another magical village called Rhinebeck.  It was there that Liddie introduced me to a magical yarn called Socks That Rock.  We each bought some holiday-themed sock yarn - the Dreidel colorway for me of course, and Christmas Balls for Liddie.  When Thanksgiving rolled around and neither of us had started her socks yet, we realized that the only way we'd ever finish in time was a KAL.  And so the HHSA was born!

Why are you joining the Sock Along?  Who are you making them for, and is there a deadline invoolved?  What pattern are you using - or are you still looking for one?  Most importantly, do you have any suggestions for a Chanukah-themed sock pattern?  They are really hard to find :(