You want socks?

I love knitting socks. I love the portability, I love that I don’t need a pattern, I love that you can knit them in the dark, or on the subway. I love sharp metal DPN’s. I love the seemingly endless supply of sock yarns. Self patterning, striping, heathered, varigated…. Oh yes.
I love socks enough that this is my current problem.

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I’m not even showing you the ugly ones. (Why are there ugly ones? Why would I be knitting something that I willingly admit is ugly? Let’s just say that I can get a little worked up about self-patterning yarns. Sometimes – I can lose my cool a little over a sassy little stripe and forget what really matters in the world. Like, brown, white, black and turquoise are not a “go”)
Why you ask, do I have so many darned socks? (let’s pretend you asked). Well my curious little friends, I watched three movies. Let’s walk it through. The large red thing in the photo is Fiber Trends felted clogs. This is a great pattern and I’d like to apologize to anyone who’s had to listen to me rave about being in “clog hell”. It’s just that I’ve knit a lot of them and I’ve kinda had it. Those can’t go to the movies because you need to see what you are doing.
I have to knit at the movies, so I cast on Joe’s socks.
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These are toe up socks with a really cool celtic cable up the leg that didn’t show up really well. They are my first toe-ups, I used this pattern, and added cables. (can we talk about doing the heel stitch in toe ups? You know, k1,sl1 across, purl wrong side etc. Is that possible? Would it make the heel less…well, pouch-like? Maybe mean that Joe could walk to the corner before they wore through? Not make my sock efforts a wasted, empty, meaningless time? )
These worked for the first movie. By the second movie I had made it to the cable, taking Joe’s socks out of the lineup. so I cast on these.
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These are socks for Megan. She bought the wool for me as a Christmas present. It was especially touching that she stuck a piece of paper on the label which read “socks for meg”. The child is subtle. These went to the second movie, and took a few trips on the subway. It is worth noting that this is the new Patons Kroy Socks “stripes”. It is also worth noting that despite having the same gauge on the label as the regular Kroy Socks it is actually thicker. It is worth noting this before you knit most of a sock and have to accept that the thing is huge. Last night I was at the turn for the heel (for the second time), and I need light to be able pick up the flap stitches. So I cast on these.
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Fleece artist sock yarn. Oh yeah. I’ve been saving this.
Three movies, three pairs of socks. You know, I thought that I had a lot of works in progress, I thought maybe I had a problem. Now that I break it down it all starts seeming pretty reasonable.
What is unreasonable is that it took 3 hours and 20 minutes for me to do this post. I did learn how to do links and pictures and I did take the pictures. I think I’m having a pretty steep Movable Type learning curve. I drank 4 cups of coffee while I did it though, so the upside is that I’ve got LOTS of energy for the rest of my day.

15 thoughts on “You want socks?

  1. Ooh, Fleece Artist wool. Don’t they just have fine fine colors?
    One of my major life goals is to visit them some day. You know, I just saw a house for summer rent on Cape Breton.
    Can I make this work?
    Er, Steph, if Meg is naughty (not that she would be or anything), may I have her socks? I love that joyful blue/green/yellow combo.
    She has good taste.

  2. Kathy, you are a woman after my own heart. My sister-in-law lives in Cape Breton, I’m going to suck up to get her to go score me some. I hear tell that the store has stuff that they don’t ship out. That could be an urban legend I guess. A trip to the maritimes is planned for this summer so maybe you can live vicariously through me. (How’s that for a switch!)
    I knew that you would be fond of Fleece Artist sock yarn. It reminds me of Koigu in colour and hand.

  3. BTW Kath, Megan is never naughty. She is a perfect child. (She is also standing right behind me)

  4. I am mostly always naughty but my mom just doesn’t know! By the way they are my socks please back off!

  5. Purple? Fleece Artist? Did I mention that your local fleece pimp ahem..supplier can be bribed with socks??
    Oh heck to be fair and most reasonable, I will accept blue and have been found to enjoy pinks and reds as well. Sorry no yellow or brown. In a pinch grey will do. Say those socks you made Joe look mighty fine..a bit large but ok so that was your practice pair.
    Now to find a reason to be bribed. Hmmmm? I am good. Everyone likes me and I deserve them. Would that do?
    By the way my therapist says I don’t handle rejection well.

  6. Yikes!, Megan. You’ll notice, please, that I said, “not that she ever would”.
    Okay, I give.
    Cape Breton in the summer…la, I’m jealous.
    I have heard the same legend, if it is one, about the magic stuff in the Fleece Artist store.
    But I heard it from a very reliable source, and I believe it.
    It could be, for me, like the Grail legend, long sought in dreams, only maybe ever pursued.
    When you go, Steph, and you see some marvels, you’ll call me, yes?

  7. Hee Hee. That’s a pretty classic move Kim, and yes, I have tried Judy Gibson’s socks. Welcome. You’re going to fit right in here.

  8. I live in halifax and the fleece artist is local to me:) One of the yarn shops in town now has a lot of the fleece artist yarns in her shop.

  9. I’ve been attempting to self-learn how to knit, and i got this supposedly “wicked easy” sock pattern at a flea market…I get how to knit, I get how to purl, but I cant for the LIFE of me do the ribbing(k1,p1)…my stitches get twisted in the yarn, I cant figure out yarn placement, and its really frustrating me because I’ve been crocheting for the past 2 years(maybe thats my problem?), so I feel like I should have no problem learning how to do this…any suggestions anyone?

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