Truth and Lies

My May socks are done, done last week, actually, and it makes me feel pretty heroic that this little plan of mine is coming together so well.  I’ve been so busy lately that I’m surprised anything is working out, but I had a bunch of travel time and voila! The Self-Imposed Sock Club – May installment.  (This, of course, is not a finished sock.  I just love this picture a lot.)

Here are finished socks.  The pattern’s Saxe Point

The yarn’s one of the amazing schemes dreamed up by Catherine at Gauge Dye Works.  (I have spoken at length for my weakness for both this person and her yarn, and this remains unchanged. She’s lovely.) The colourway was called French Beach, though it looks like it’s sold out – but it has been for ages. Things come, things go- though I wish this one would come back. It’s possible to make these socks without that yarn so I guess it’s not really tragic, just not the world as I would have it. (Catherine if you are listening I want the Saxe Point one back more if I get to choose but any of them would be good and I don’t want to seem picky ok cool.)  I knit these as written except for two things – first, I prefer to knit my socks top down, so I reversed the pattern, and mine match, because while Andrea Rangel is very nice and obviously clever, I can’t handle her wild mismatching scene. While I have grown as a person and can now tolerate mismatching socks (for other people mostly) I still love the deep satisfaction of matching socks up to the very stitch. Mine do.

I had leftovers this time, so like last time, the bunny (still genderless, still nameless, preferred pronouns, Megan has informed me are them and they) has another outfit.

I pulled out the colours I needed from the self-striping leftovers. There were more ends to weave in, but it was pretty damned satisfying.

The sweater? I can give you an update.  You know that voice you hear when there’s something wrong with your knitting, and you can feel it? It starts to tell you that something’s not right, and then we all keep knitting for another few days (or a week) while we try to ignore the voice, even though we all know the voice is right. The voice is almost always right.  Usually the voice I hear whispers about the size of things, and this time was no exception. For a few days (okay a week) the voice has told me the sweater is too small, though my washed swatch said it would be okay. “LIES” the voice screamed. “Keep the faith” the swatch told me.

This morning I couldn’t stand it anymore and washed and blocked the sweater in progress, and compared it to a sweater I like for fit, and guess what?

Plot twist, it’s completely fine. This time the voice was a skanky liar, and the swatch was telling the truth.  I tell you, I could live to be a hundred and knitting will never make total sense to me.

I’ll finish it when it’s  dry.

67 thoughts on “Truth and Lies

  1. OMG!! Cant believe I might be the first to comment??

    Love love love the socks but the bunny gear, out of the park!! Yay for them.

    Cheers
    Lush x

  2. PS: I feel your pain re the lying swatch. I spent 7 hours yesterday ripping apart an almost finished, quilted and all quilt only to discover I could have done a quarter of the work & managed the fix. *$%£@

    All crafts lie to us. Its a terrible secret. Then they mock.

    Bastards!!

    L :}

    • But we do it because we ENJOY IT SO MUCH and find it all RELAXING, right??!? (No wonder all of our partners have questions, huh?!)

      • An old roommate once walked past me while I was swearing on the couch at my knitting or crochet, can’t recall which, and she said, “You really enjoy that, don’t you?” I recall something like, “I just &^*%($#-ing LOVE IT,” come out of my mouth.

        I sound like Auntie Fee when I’m yarning, but I really do like it.

  3. I agree! Bunny clothes are super cute. Quick question, you said you changed two things. One was knitting top down. Did I miss the second thing? Need to know since these are next up in my queue and I also like top down socks. Help me Obi-wan Stephanie!

    • If you click on the link to the pattern in Ravelry, you will see that the originals were knit fraternally (not identically). Stephanie adjusted enough that the stripes match, the originals are slightly off in their striping.

      I tend to be like Stephanie – if I were knitting these socks I would want them as exactly matching as I could possibly make them. Just how my brain works, other folks worry less about that. Both ways are beautiful. Your call when you make them.

      Chris S in Canada

      ha ha – click on the magnifying glass – all the better to see the details with

      • In general I don’t care all that much if socks match perfectly, but I still remember a time when a pair matched right down to the number of rows in the toes. Still makes me smug to think about. (Not that I care, really!)

  4. Hilarious how our word choice can so deeply affect how we feel about a subject, not just reveal it!! Instead of “skanky liar” (which does have the benefit of being wonderfully dramatic) what about “Experienced Voice of Reason seeking an early-in-the-process confirmation that we were not digging yet another deep hole with our own knitting needles”? And I cracked up at “wild mismatching scene” when her socks are offset from each other by 2 stripes out of 10, making them fraternal instead of identical twins…I guess it really is about What’s Important To You, What Brings You Satisfaction, and What Would Make You Nuts, right??! =)

    (Has the bunny got any sleepwear yet? Camping duds? Lifejacket for canoeing???)

  5. The socks are great. I have yarn to make the tan/grey/pink pair. I will also do top down, and matchy matchy! Random is fine if it looks random, but not if it looks like you just made a mistake!

  6. Wow. That (not so) wildly colored sweater is fantastic! It’ll be sure to cause an early spring in Toronto next year! The socks also look good, despite your compulsion for matchy-matchy. Finally, I’m getting jealous of that bunny — it has a nicer wardrobe than I do!

  7. Yippee! So unexpected but I do keep watch, even when I think maybe there will not be a new post but lo!and!behold! a post. The socks and the sweater both look nice and like I would like to knit something similar.

    Love the yarn and patterns. I love the bunny and the clothes regardless of gender.

  8. That sweater looks gorgeous! Also, I must say that although the socks are very, very nice…the bunny clothes from their leftover yarn are fantastic. Thanks, as always, for your delightful words, wisdom, and lovely photos.

  9. I’m glad to know the sweater size is completely fine – because it is completely beautiful.
    Will there be button choices? I’d vote for raspberry – but I figure that might be toooo far out of your comfort zone.

  10. I too find that matching my socks down to (nearly) the last stitch to be very satisfying, peacock-proud way. However, my friends scoff and call me a show-off. Let them be jealous! we’ll just enjoy it.

  11. I have this yarn and sock pattern in my queue, still in the skein so far. I’m totally going to knit them top down and will match the stripes. I’m counting on the fact that super small feet will mean I have plenty of yarn to play with so I may even pick the colour to start the stripes on!

    • Agreed. It definitely deserves an award! I find that each of my swatches fibs to some degree.

      Definitely love that sweater! (And Them’s sweater is awfully cute, too.)

  12. I’m kind of in a knitting funk. Maybe its the weather, but I’m thinking I feel that way about a lot of things this year. MEH. Anyone else feel that way too? How does one get un-funked?
    LOVE the sweater…not colors I would have thought to put together, but pretty awesome now that I can see it. Knit on!

    • I’m in a knitting funk, too. Can’t work on, let alone finish, anything. I keep casting on more socks despite the ones I already have on the needles. I started a sweater KAL and have lost my mojo. Nothing appeals. Back to my other love… genealogy.

  13. When I contacted gauge dye works I was informed there won’t be any more Saxe Point. I was hugely disappointed.

    I never did finish my January socks. So I guess I’ve failed the sock challenge right at the start, but my health took a downwards spiral (started in October but I didn’t know what was going on back then) and now just thinking of my January socks makes me feel ill. I started May socks, but I’m not keeping up to the challenge of knitting a pair a month.

    • How about a bi-monthly sock club? Finish the pair you start within 2 months. Then when you start the next pair give yourself another two months. Win – win!

  14. I’ve got the Saxe Point kit that came in the original club, but I haven’t knit it up yet. Thanks for the striping alert. It would drive me crazy to not have my socks match. And you’re far more evolved than I am, because I still can’t stand seeing others wear mismatched socks, hand-knit or otherwise. Yes, the kids these days are killing me with the mismatched sock trend.

  15. I tried a self-imposed sock club this year too, January and February went well, March and April are both on the needles…Oh, is it May already?
    That sweater you like for fit—is it your Little Wave?
    Because I looked at your Ravelry project page…

  16. I pine for those socks. I hope the lovely Gauge Dye Works owner is listening and makes more of that colorway.

    And Eliot has one lucky bunny. I am thinking bunny will need stories to go with those darling clothes and the adventures they will, no doubt, go on.

    How about branching out into children’s books, Steph?!

    • This is a totally brilliant idea! Bunny learns to ski, Bunny learns to sail, Bunny plants a garden, etc.

  17. Congrats on the sweater being to your fit, now could you tell us what you prefer in terms of ease concerning sweater size? I still have not quite learned this idea, though I discovered years ago, that a friend like almost a 4″ ease to her sweater size. Where I thought one would knit up according to size listed.

    Always an inspiration, that’s you!!

    • Your friend likes a loose, comfy sweater. My youngest daughter likes them body-hugging, so her sweaters may have an inch or two of negative ease. Two inches of ease used to be sort of the norm, but it’s nice when the pattern hints on how its sized. (It’s not like women assume there’s such a thing as universal sizing, anyway.)

  18. All gorgeous, but the bunny clothes are just too pretty– what a lucky bunny!

    And congrats on the sweater fitting to your liking!

    (Any news on the Habu front? I joke– I joke– don’t kill me!)

  19. The older I get, the more jaundiced. I mean, if we can’t trust that voice we ignore to be giving us bad news, what can we trust?

  20. I have been thinking of you fondly, Stephanie, as I knit a pair of self-striping socks. I can live with a bit of mis-matching (okay, a lot of mis-matching). However, this particular pair were knit from two 50 grams ball of yarn that supposedly were same color and same dye lot. However, one had stripes that were orange, blue, yellow, blue,…and the other had stripes that were orange, blue, yellow, blue, yellow, blue…

    I knit from the toe up…and I used up almost the totality of both balls (I did end with blue at the top of each and the foot of one is a smidge smaller because the other was a smidge longer than I intended). However, I could picture you madly pulling out that extra yellow, blue stripe…and having all those extra ends to weave in.

    • That sounds like a pair of socks I knit a couple of months ago also from 2 50g balls. I had decided from the outset that I would be knitting fraternal socks so I was less bothered by the total impossibility of making a matching pair from the yarn which should have a been a beautiful gradient. There were colours missing and on one sock the colour sequence reversed completely from the heel down the foot! They will probably be a pair that I wear hidden in boots!

  21. I love your genderless bunny! Let the bunny be who they want to be! (Or who Elliot wants them to be at that moment!)

    I’m glad the sweater is working out! I think it will look fabulous on you!!

  22. Lol on the plot twist. . And the tiny clothing? I now find myself wanting to make little outfits for toys I haven’t yet created. Do you have any best tips or favourite patterns or preferred websites? I’m sure you make it up as you go but I just wondered if there was a guide for the rest of us

  23. All my knitting ever says to me is…”please finish me”. I have a self-imposed ancient, totally and utterly old sock yarn stash down sitting in a basket next to my desk. I work on them when I have little else to do, which right now is seldom. So, they travel with me to church, to the doctor’s office and anywhere else I know I will not want to read the stupid magazines sitting on the nondescript tables in the waiting room. I do want to do a pair Very Long Sock by Knit Soho with that two-color pattern on the top like you have on yours. But, my old sock yarn stash down has to be done first.

  24. Love love love those socks and that lucky bunny’s sweater and pants!

    Had a bit of that nagging voice myself just now. Kept going. I’d somehow added a stitch at one edge on my baby afghan while working the ends of two skeins in. Wait… I ripped that side stitch down to where it had morphed into two and worked it back up–and now I have to re-weave the skein ends in but I also had those loops off the side that were previously part of the extra stitches. I’ve mostly got that part done now.

    I escaped by coming to see if you’d posted. Thank you for rescuing me when I needed you!

  25. I can’t help but think that my ‘there’s just a vague family resemblance’ pairs of socks would drive you mad. Though back in the day before I could knit them, I would intentionally wear mismatched, brightly coloured socks, under head to toe black gear.

  26. GAH! Have you seen the overalls pattern for this bunny?! It includes a pattern for a tiny bunny to fit in the pocket!!!

  27. Okay, brace yourself! I have been known to knit a pair of socks from both ends of a ball of yarn, so the order of the stripes is *reversed* on the second sock. Shocking, no? I figure if you can’t make them match (I like looong socks, so I can’t afford to waste any yarn), why not make them REALLY not match? As we used to say in computer programming classes: it’s a feature, not a bug!

    • This. This has kept me sane(ish) and my family alive through many projects, knitting, baking, coding, you name it.

  28. I feel your earlier discomfort – I had a nagging feeling while knitting my most recent sweater that it was not going to fit a 12-year-old like I’d thought. Did I stop and try it on? Yes! Did I immediately realize that it was WAY too big? Yes! Did I stop knitting? …No. After finishing the body and a sleeve, I now have a half-finished sweater for an elephant. It’s bene languishing on a shelf for the past two months. I’ve been having a really hard time convincing myself to frog it. Perhaps I should just hold on to it and frog it to release frustration on a bad day. 😉

  29. That photo is beautiful, but…it’s not a good idea to put your feet on the dashboard of a car while it’s moving. If anything happened, you could be seriously injured by the airbag! Just your daily public service announcement.

  30. That sweater is gorgeous! I was holding my breath as the story about size neared it’s conclusion. That’s because you and Clara Parkes have finally convinced me to:
    1. Do a swatch
    2. Bind off the swatch
    3. Wash and dry the swatch.
    Now, my conversion to swatching is tenuous so that story had to come out well or I might be about to back-slide….
    Thank you for holding the line.

    • I just did a KAL with Patty Lyons for her Roselle Tee and she recommends NO garter edge stitches and no binding off, just a long tail through the stitches. And to make sure the swatch is at least 6” x 6” (or even larger). Measure BEFORE you wash it and after. Then you know your in-progress gauge to convert to what it will be when finished. I have always thought this, but she’s the first person I’ve ever heard this from.

  31. That skanky voice! Usually so reliable! That was a huge twist! Made me gasp out loud! Love the socks, and bunny’s outfit and.. the sweater!

  32. So glad to know I’m not the only one who spends an inordinate amount of time making my socks match! I’m not doing a sock of the month club, but have taken inspiration from your “long range planning box”, and trying to finish a Christmas present per month.

  33. Beautiful socks. They do match perfectly. I like them that way, too. My voice is always right about knitting. I just had to pull back a whole sleeve on fingering weight yarn after plowing forward and not listening to it. That bunny outfit is so sweet.

  34. You’ve knit a LOT of things over the years that I’ve loved, but this bunny might be my favorite ever. They sure are lucky to have such a wonderful wardrobe. I might be a mite jealous. Or maybe I might just need to make myself a knit toy to dress. I haven’t decided yet.

  35. (Reassuring to note from the configuration of the dashboard that you were the passenger (not the driver) when this super-fun pic–where the outside scenery perfectly matches the sock stripe colours!!–was taken…)

  36. I am also a member of the identical not fraternal sock club. My son has HUGE feet, and on colourways (initially I had balls but thought that might be open to misinterpretation) with long pattern repeats, I have been known to knit top down so the bits sticking out of the top of his shoes match 100%.

    I have been told that I need to be more spontaneous. I will book a 30 minute slot labelled “spontaneity” into my schedule eventually, just to shut them up.

    LOVE the socks and the rabbit outfits. Makes me wish I had a little one to knit toys for, then I remember how much I hate sewing in all the ends and fiddly bits, then I remember how happy the finished products make me. Life is full of such dilemmas.

  37. There’s a baby girl due in September in Hawai’i who may just have to get a Christmas bunny instead of a Christmas sweater like her boy cousins in cold places usually get. (I’m skipping a year because last year’s sweaters ALL came out too big except the newborn one for a February arrival).

    So this enquiring mind needs to know what the bunny pattern is. Babygirl’s blanket is more than half done, and summer’s a great time to knit tiny things, so . . .

  38. DI Amy Winter has a lot going for her: Young, Competent and a rising star in the police force. Apart from being the daughter of a highly respected police officer father, she is also leading the investigation on several crucial cases. Still grieving after the demise of her father, Amy receives a letter from a prison inmate and her whole world comes crashing down. Amy is not the daughter of a police offi A Gripping Relentless Thriller DI Amy Winter has a lot going for her: Young, Competent and a rising star in the police force. Apart from being the daughter of a highly respected police officer father, she is also leading the investigation on several crucial cases. Still grieving after the demise of her father, Amy receives a letter from a prison inmate and her whole world comes crashing down. Amy is not the daughter of a police officer but the daughter of a notorious serial-killer couple. Responsible for a string of heinous murders of young girls, her father is now dead and her mother is now incarcerated. Now, she wants to make a deal with Amy—but only if Amy plays along with her twisted game. Amy must confront her own dark past. Amidst the drama, Amy faces a race against time to solve a high stakes kidnapping case. Can Amy overcome all the odds in the most challenging case of her career?

  39. This swatch thing for your sweater tells me that among the many factors involving gauge (grr) is that your eye judgment is also affected by color changes, and surface texture. For instance a seed stitch section of fabric might look smaller than a stockinette section with the same measurements – or a pale blue swatch might look wider than a navy. Just another reason to look at knitting as a crap shoot. (Sigh) By the way that current picture of Elliot in his camping hat is beyond cute! Chloe

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