Forget Me Not Socks, the Pair

Forget Me Not Socks, the Pair
Originally uploaded by sunasak

Here at last is a photo of the socks I finished on Tuesday. I forgot to upload the photo yesterday, but it IS a good one--the colors are really accurate.

These socks, Forget Me Not from a pattern I linked to on July 31, are really comfy and soft. Panda Cotton really feels "dry" to the touch and has a very matte sheen. They just look and feel like they will be cool summer socks! I'll test that over the weekend! They also look good with capri-length pants, which is not true of regular-length socks IMHO. And pastels were a nice break from my trend of more saturated colors. All in all, even though the edge is a bit loose, I liked these socks. I like the second sock better than the first, because I tightened up my knitting and the holes came out looking better. Also the pooling was more interesting with the slightly tighter gauge.

Next?

So, with all the socks I knitted from late June until the beginning of August, you'd think I'd be zooming off on my next one.

Nope. I have this beautiful Sea Wool sock yarn in the amazing colorway Hercules (pictured in the sock yarn post on the top). I cast on for the socks on the yarn label, like I mentioned in my last post, and got 3 repeats into the pattern on Wednesday. Well, ICK. My crappy knitting style, or the fates, or something, caused there to be a gap between the K2tog and the SSK. No matter how tightly I yanked those stitches, the gap was there. It didn't help, probably, that the gap was strategically placed to fall between needles (however, I was magic looping, and even gapped where there was no needle break). WAH. I'll try the pattern some other time, because I do like it.

Then I said OK, I will try the eyelet lace free Wendy pattern on the Loopy Ewe site. I made a really nice toe with a wonderful Turkish cast-on and marveled at the things the yarn was doing. Then I did 3 repeats of THAT pattern. Well, it looked like crap. You could not see the eyelets and the knit accent stitches were big and stretched out. The yarn and the pattern did not like each other. So I frogged that, but kept the pretty toe.

I said, OK I will make something up, as we were driving to Artz Rib House in Austin to eat barbecue and listen to the fabulous Chris Gage and Michael Austin (plug for friends). I tried a slip stitch pattern that resembled linen stitch. Well, yes, it looked good. But, duh, the slip stitch part was shorter than the bottom of the foot part. Nope, couldn't do that one unless it was only on the leg, and it would take up a lot of yarn. Frogged that.

Came home in a foul knitting mood. I knew what I wanted. It was something with a uniform texture that would mottle the colors even more than they already are, to make it look "tweedy." Then, lo and behold. I spied the package that had come in the mail from Loopy Ewe land. It contained a pattern for a very simple sock featuring a nifty texture pattern based on doing something interesting with a slip one, knit 1, PSSO (not an SSK). AHA! I tried THAT one, and yay!!! It looks really cool. Even Lee said so ("That part of the sock looks different. It's cool.").

So, on the fourth try, the Sea Wool socks are at last chugging along.

Bonus, Mail Call

Though I have made all these socks in the past 5 weeks or so (like, 5 pairs!) I now have more sock yarn. I am having a HARD time resisting the work of fiber artists. And today's mail contained two more sock yarns--one is that Smooshy Dream in Color yarn in "Pale Fire," which is pink with tinges of mauve/light purple in it. The other merino blend sock yarn in really subtle and lovely shades of violet and is called New Jersey in Superwash Me by JK . Oh I am bad. But, but, I did manage to buy nothing in the latest release of stuff at that addictive site!! And I even got to it before it was totally picked over!

OK, so...I also got two sock patterns, that simple one I mentioned earlier and a complex Cookie A model. AND those cute wooden sheep sock blockers everyone else seems to have. They will make sock photo time a little easier, and are just so CUTE. I think I' will keep recent socks on them, and put them on display.

Forget Me Not Socks in Progress, Vogue Knitting

Forget Me Not Socks in Progress 2
Originally uploaded by sunasak

Now you can see the current project, and exactly how far I am with it at this very moment! The very pale pastels don't photograph terribly well, but you can get the idea. I like the pattern and these will be good summer socks, but I do have some issues with my knitting.

The very lovely pattern calls for size 0 needles in Panda Cotton, and that is what I am using. I know perfectly well that I need to use smaller needles than called for most of the time, but was too lazy to go get the 00 needles. Plus, I was a bit worried that the splittiness of Panda Cotton would be hard to manage on teeny-tiny needles. So, the leg is a bit loose, and the eyelets aren't terribly pretty. The stretchiness of the yarn also affects the eyelets, I think (Panda Cotton has elastic in it, as well as cotton and bamboo). So, if I use this yarn in another project, I will go down a needle size or two.

I love, love the way this yarn feels. It is sort of "dry" to the touch--kind of like a cotton ball. It just feels like it will be cool when you are wearing it.

I also really enjoy the picot hem edge. In this elastic-y yarn it feels very sophisticated and classy, whatever that means.

Vogue 25th

Hey, cool, the 25th anniversary Vogue Knitting came to my house yesterday. It has the usual "interesting" Vogue patterns (which means mostly things I would never be able to wear or afford to buy the yarn for), but there are a lot of very interesting articles and super interviews. I'd recommend buying this magazine just to read the interviews with the "old guard" knitters and the "new guard" knitters. The new ones have some really good thoughts on the Internet and knitting, and the role of the local yarn shop.

And I just got tickled at the perspective of Alice Starmore in the "old fogeys" section. It's so nice to read about someone being so resolutely traditional. (Though I still wish I could buy her books from the past decade that I don't have, like the Aran book--grateful for the ones I DO have.)

They are selling patterns for some of the past items pictured in the interesting ad section at the start of the magazine (featuring different manufacturers and silver knitted garments). Hee hee, I have pretty much ALL the issues, so I don't have to buy any, if there's any I need. For once, being a packrat is good. I think I am only missing a few issues from when subscriptions ran out at the same time funds did. The relaunch of VK happened right when my 80s craze for knitting launched itself, and at that time I bought a LOT of magazines.

Peer Pressure

Sigh, people have been posting about "Panda Cotton" so much on the Sock knitting email list that I guess I will have to order some, just to see what it's like. Aha! No I don't. Apparently, one ball was hiding in the basket o' Fixation and its ilk at my LYS, so I will pick that up on Saturday, and save some bucks. I had passed it by before, thinking it didn't look so great, but after people keep raving about how it knits up, well, I want to see! Beryl (coworker) says she liked knitting with it, too.

There, I have succumbed to peer pressure. What a weenie. I'm almost done with the leg of Monkey Sock #2, so I will get to start another one soon (oh yeah, should work on something else, too).

Maybe tomorrow I will post photos of my new sock yarns, as a nod to many people's traditions of posting yarn p0rn on Fridays.