Socktoberfest Sock Knitting Challenge

The Socktoberfest Crocodylia  KAL has officially ended.  You can see my single sock at the link ..yes, I know.. only single so far but I have extenuating circumstances excuses.  These were my bus ride knitting project and as I was finishing up the first sock, daylight savings time changed and dark yarn, dark needles are not conducive knitting for the bus ride when the lighting on most buses is this weird bluish light that is not very bright — if you happen to get a seat on the side of the bus that is truly lit.  And I was busy on a sweater at home – but the sweater is nearly complete and the second sock has been cast on so I can work on it at home.

But check out these lovely socks that were completed by those who were up to the challenge and succeeded beautifully!

Karen Petersen

Shirley Soellner

Priscilla Benson

June Canders-Cloutier

 

 

 

 

Thank you ladies for playing along with me (and surpassing me with completing your pair).  June said this was her first pair of knit socks ever – excellent!!

And now to the random number generator (I’ve numbered them 1 thru 4 in the order shown here) and the winner of a hank of Wollmeise sock yarn is:

Priscilla is the lucky winner.  I believe she was also the first person to email me a photo of her lovely red socks which show off the stitch pattern so well.   Priscilla please email me with your mailing address.

Congratulations to all you ladies who now have a cozy pair of socks to wear.

 

Second Pair of Striping Socks Finished

  Finished kitchnering the toe shut when I got home tonight so my second pair of socks is now finished and I can get both pairs off in the mail to Mom.  She’ll have warm toes soon.  But two pairs of socks in ten days is pretty darn speedy knitting for me. But the thicker yarn and larger needles helped speed that along compared to the yarn/needles I usually use.

This brings my yarn used tally up to 1886 yards so far this year.  You can see all the yarny projects finished so far this year by clicking the yarn stash button in the sidebar.  All small projects but I’ve got some big ones I hope to finish soon.

Now I can get back to my striping project for Loopy Academy, which is about half done, and the sweaters in various stages of completion, and my wiggle wrap.   I still have one more Loopy Academy project for this semester to do, a slip stitch project, but I’m undecided on yarn so haven’t ordered anything for it yet.  I’m planning on making  From Russia With Wool.  I’ve made several projects using this designer’s patterns and love each one of them.

 

Speedy Stripes

  Mom’s Striped Socks  were the speediest socks I’ve knit.  Too bad I don’t have more sport weight yarn for socks but then since I don’t wear socks that thick it wouldn’t do me any good anyway. 🙂  But boy were they a fast knit.  I was afraid I’d run out since I made the legs a bit longer than I usually do but no shortage of yarn.  Four days from cast on to finish.

And finish number two for 2015 and some yarn used to add to that stash knitting tally.

Speedy striped socks

It’s amazing how much faster sport weight yarn and a slightly larger needle can knit up socks in record time.  I started this one late yesterday afternoon and just have to stitch shut the toe and bury the ends.

These will be for Mom.  Don’t know if she’ll be able to wear them as regular socks since they are thicker than fingering weight but if know, she’ll have a new pair of bed slippers to keep her feet warm that are thicker than the ones she uses now.

The stripes remind me of Easter egg colors.  The yarn is Online Supersocke 6-fach in Vegas-Color.  Now to kitchner that toe shut and the cast on the second one.  And where did that yarn come from — yes it’s from the stash!  I need to go pull out a fingering weight hank or two in more sedate colors to make her a couple more pairs.  I started one pair, using the Nine to Five pattern which I’ve made several times and for some reason I grabbed the wrong size needles so they are smaller than I like and tho I usually knit somewhat loosely, the yarn I was using for those is really wool and I think it’s just the drag as it slides across itself that is making my knitting so tight.  I got about 4″ of the leg done and the next day my hands hurt like crazy.  Hate to waste what I already knit but those are getting ripped back for sure and I think that yarn will just be a pair of vanilla socks on larger needles.

I’m not sure if I even completed a pair of socks last year (I started several) so I think I’m way ahead in the sock department – or will be since I hope to have these done by the weekend.

Socktoberfest Challenge results

 

   Although my own Socktoberfest socks have not progressed much beyond this last photo I took of them due to  sweater knitting mania — there are others who succeeded in the Socktoberfest Challenge and completed their pair of socks.

Here they are.

The winner of the Socks that Rocks Rainbow Reindeer yarn is Katie!  I’ve sent you an email.   Katie said this is only the second pair of socks she’s made.  Congratulations Katie!  And thank you three for  playing along on this challenge.  The weather here has turned to wooly sock wearing weather so its time for me to take them out of summer storage and fill my drawer back up with them so they are at the ready.

Katie basket weave rib soc

Mary Rs Ice Cube socks

PeggyGs gravel grid socks

Another sock done

 Another Tesserae sock done – hot off the needles this evening.

 

I’ve got these three single socks – all made within the last few weeks/month or so.

  The question now is, can I get the mates to all three of these made  before the end of December.  I’ve got 18 pairs of socks made already so have surpassed my 12 in 2012 Challenge (and my feet are loving all those great socks now that the weather has turned colder the last week or so.   But time will tell  if I can get them all done.  How are you doing on your 12 in 2012 Challenge if you are playing along?   I already have my new sock challenge for myself figured out for next year — nope not 13 in 2013 — too easy. LOL  You’ll just have to see what the new year brings.

Off to a good start

Stashbusting — that’s not off to a good start.  I was at the quilt shop yesterday, as yesterday’s blog post indicates, and picked up some fabric for a project I want to make.  More stash enhancement — but hey – I just realized I did pin baste a quilt yesterday so 5.5 yards of fabric busted! Finally something to add to the busted side of the list and it amounts to more than the fabric I bought so they cancel each other out.   Better than just adding to the stash I guess.

Except for the gold in the sashing sections, this quilt all came from the stash.  The blocks were already made from the stash and waiting to be set into a project, the batik framing was from a jelly roll I had received as a birthday gift, and the brown in the sashing came from the stash too.

I’ve been in the sewing room for a couple hours already this morning and all the sashing pieces are made now for the leaf quilt.

So now to cut the rest of the pieces for the cornerstones, as soon as I find some breakfast!  There’s also that pile of washed fabric still waiting to be ironed and put away (yes prior stash enhancement). 🙂

I also finished off the first Candlepower sock last night. I love it.  It does fit me but a bit more snuggly than I prefer so these red ones will probably  go to my sister who reaps the rewards of my slightly small socks.  Which ultimately means I’ll probably set this pair aside to start on a pair that’s slightly bigger for me — or may be start on the Leaves sock pattern I bought — so many decisions!

Candlepower

No the lights have not gone out but the Candlepower sock pattern I told you I had started in the last blog post may now be in my top 5 or 6 favorite patterns to knit. I can’t get a real good picture of the detail inside (and of course sunset now is way before I ever get home at night) but here’s what they are looking like so far.

 I was a bit leery looking at the instructions with all the rows listed in the stitch pattern but after stitching about 7 or 8 rows of the leg pattern, I realized it’s easy to tell what comes next.  Plus every other row is simply knit the knits and purl the purls so it would be easy to back track if the row got off — which it hasn’t.  It’s easy to keep on track with the four needles holding stitches because each repeat is repeated once on each of the needles so you always know if you ended right at the end of each needle.    You’ll have to check out the pattern on Ravelry to see the great flame patterns that don’t really show up well in my photo — did I say I love thi pattern??   These may turn out a bit small from me (which will be sad because I love the red color)or maybe not – have to wait and see.  But if they do, they will go in my gift pile and I’ll definintely be making more of this pattern.

Belated On the Needles Report

I was just to lazy to get on the computer last night so here’s my On the Needles update.

First — thanks to all who joined in the Socktober Opal Challenge and hope you have at least one new pair of Opal socks to wear this winter!  It was fun to see all the different Opal yarns that were used and how they looked in the various patterns you chose.

As promised, there are two winners of a free ball of Opal yarn, one from the post on my blog where you needed to leave a comment and the other came from Judy’s post and you needed to link up a photo.  So…. drum roll please…..Judy D in WA and BethL in MD – you are the lucky winners.  I will be emailing you to get your mailing addresses.

 

   As for what’s on (or in this case off) the needles here, I have now completed my 18th pair of socks – 18 finishes this year so far!  These are the Gravel Grid sock pattern (find it on Ravelry) super easy pattern if you’re looking for one with a bit of texture rather than just plain vanill sock.  They are made with Three Irish Girls yarn (with a touch of cashmere – it feels sooooo good).

This is the pair where I made one toe too short so I ripped that back last night and they are now ready to be a Christmas gift.

Earlier this week I started on a plain vanilla sock in some self patterning yarn I had in the stash – Patons Kroy Socks Jacquards.  This is another yarn that I think is similar in wear and feel as Opal yarn — prior pairs I have made have been through the washer and dryer (tho I generally try to hang dry all socks but sometimes a pair slips through) and they just keep on going.  And if you’re looking for a hard working, inexpensive yarn, check your local craft shops. I’ve found this locally in chain stores like Michael’s.  What I don’t like about it – it’s put up in 50 gram/166 yard balls.  One ball is not enough to make one sock for me (remember I make large socks).  Hence the solid toe in the photo.  I used all but about 12″ of the ball of yarn and it got me just to where I need to decrease for the toe.  I managed to find some Jawoll at the quilt shop that was a good color to go with the sock so it all worked out.  The Jawoll yarn felt slightly thinner than the Patons but Jawoll always comes with a spool of reinforcing thread inside the yarn so did toes with those held together and it came out feeling the same weight.

    I’ve been eyeing up some new patterns on Ravelry and with all these self-patterning and self-striping yarns I’ve been using, I’m contemplating perhaps a solid color yarn but then there’s also the “single sock box” I’ve been ignoring.  Maybe I need to finish off the second sock for one of those pairs.

Socks progress

 I finally finished a sock – I started this pair when I was home sick and it’s been slow going.  Anyway – this one just needs the toe woven shut.  The second sock is the one that I decreased on the toe too quickly.  So I need to unweave the end and rip it back and fix that.  I should have just enough yarn left to do that which is lucky.  The pattern for this one was Gravel Grid Socks by Jessica Baird (you’ll find it on Ravelry).  My picture doesn’t really show the texture well.  It reminds me of that sort of thermal shirt waffley texture.  Super easy pattern stitch to memorize.

In the meantime, I needed a sock to work on during the bus ride this morning so I started another pair of plain vanilla socks out of a self patterning yarn.