good-natured ribbing

I found myself knitting a standard sock for Nigel instead of finishing my flat foot pair, and decided to put in an afterthought heel. I haven’t done one in a while, and wanted something I could do without a pattern. I’m using two colors of Regia “4-Fach Haltbar: 4 fädig.” I don’t see the equivalent English on the label, except some that states it’s “dimensionally stable” and “hard-wearing,” which is just what Nigel needs in a sock. I started with 68 stitches for the cuff, and increased to 72 for the rest of the sock. I think the heel turned out really well. Sometimes I have a gap in the corners, but avoided it this time.

I also got it into my head to knit a Forest Canopy Shawl for a friend. In a meeting at work last Monday I found myself staring at Beth’s Forest Canopy Shawl instead of paying attention, and decided it would be a great pattern for the Karabella Lace Merino Silk yarn I picked up at School Products in NYC a while ago. I think I was right.

I finished one sock while we were driving, and took pictures of it in Bellingham. You can see that the sock changes color at the heel. I knit until I reached the end of the first set of rectangles. There seems to be enough Flat Feet yarn to knit 3 socks my size. Or, maybe one pair my size and a pair of child size socks. There is plenty of yarn for a large pair of socks for sure.

I like the feel of this yarn a lot. It’s a little nubby from being machine-stitched, but when I get home I’ll block it and see how that changes the appearance.

Backing up a little bit, on Sunday, while we were visiting Portland, our hosts graciously took me to Abundant Yarn and Dyeworks, where I found more yarn I had never seen before!

Must be nice to live in the Pacific Northwest, with such great yarn to be had everywhere!

It was nice on the sock blocker, but once off, yech. The main problem was the yarn. It was too fine for the pattern, I think. The pattern looks nice in pictures I’ve seen of it, but on me the sock is slouchy, and puffs out over the heel.

I like the stockinette on the sole, though. I’m frogging this and will turn the yarn into a plain sock. This means that, once again, I have failed to complete a pair of toe-up socks.

A minor setback for me. I have 2 other pairs started, both simple enough to knit on the plane tomorrow as I fly across the country to Seattle.

Two days into summer, and the Summer of Socks, and some knitters have finished entire pairs of socks already. Boy, not me. But I have made progress. I decided to start with the pattern designed especially for participants, using some Schaefer Anne I’ve had in my stash for a while. First, I learned how to do a Turkish Cast-on (here’s one tutorial) which is what this toe-up sock pattern calls for. I’ve never finished a toe-up sock; started many, never finished. This may be a first.

Here’s the toe, held up by my very accommodating husband:

The instructions for this cast-on specify two circular needles. As soon as I could, though, I switched over to dpns. I’m just not comfortable with the circular needle method of sock knitting. Too many dangling ends. And here’s how far I’ve gotten:

Summer and the Summer of Socks both started yesterday. Coincidence? If you take a look, you’ll see a lot of sock frenzy going on. I am a slow starter–I began summer by finishing one pink sock, modeled here by its recipient.

This pair won’t count, but that’s okay because I’m not trying to knit the most socks this summer. Instead, I am in the group that is taking socks on vacation because, for the first time in a long while, we’re actually taking a vacation this year! In anticipation, I tried to find some socks from Knitting on the Road that fit with our vacation locations, but there are none from Arkansas or Washington State. So I am choosing to knit ones that I’ve wanted to do for a while. First, the New England socks.

Second, the two Hiiumaa Mismatched Mates.

Third, I really want to try the Francie sock pattern which I purchased recently, and think I’ll do it in green.

There has also been a sock pattern created just for the summer of socks that I may start with. So many choices, it’s almost paralyzing.