Wednesday, February 06, 2008

Socks, Socks, Sock, S....

I have 2 1/2 pairs of socks to post about today. Why 2 1/2? You'll see later on in the post!

The first pair was knit as a birthday present for a friend of mine, Kim, whose birthday was in early September. I wasn't able to get them done in time, though, because of several birthdays right in the same time period and because of the Italy Sweater (plus the trip to Italy). That wasn't the biggest deterrent, though, because Kim moved to Switzerland for grad school at the end of August! I was waiting until I could mail them with something else, or to give to her boyfriend to give to her, but neither of those things worked out, so I just put them in the mail a fews weeks ago ($11 shipping wasn't terrible and she got them about five days later).

Waving Lace Socks - 1 of 8

Pattern: Favorite Socks
Yarn: Cherry Tree Hill Supersock, Moody Blues, 1 skein
Needles: US 1.5
Project Timeline: 9/9/07 - 10/21/07

First, I absolutely love CTH Supersock. I love the short color repeats, I love the twist, I love the softness, I love the twist, and since I have a pair of socks of my own knit with this yarn, I love that it wears well, too. This is definitely on a list of my favorite sock yarns. The color, by the way, was chosen especially for Kim, because she loves blue.

Second, I loved the pattern. It was super easy to memorize, and looks great, particularly with this hand-dyed yarn that gives a mottled look. The pattern gives two options - a ribbed cuff or a decorated edge, and I went with the decorative edge, which I think fits with this sock perfectly. I will definitely be making these socks again, maybe in CTH for myself!

Kim says she loved them, and that while I said she could machine wash them, she'll probably handwash them because she's afraid they'll wear out!

Here's another picture, this time of both socks, and maybe you can see the decorative edge a bit better here:

Waving Lace Socks - 7 of 8

The second pair of socks was knit for me. I wound up four balls of sportweight yarn for my trip to Italy, but only got through two of them. For my trip to Chicago for the holidays, I decided I would use one of the leftovers (maybe I'll use the final leftover on my trip to Atlanta next month!) to make myself a quick pair of no-stress socks.

Cable Rib Socks - 2 of 2

Pattern: Favorite Socks
Yarn: Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks That Rock Heavyweight, Falcon's Eye, 1 skein
Needles: US 3
Project Timeline: 12/21/08 - 12/28/08

Note: I did not realize until I just put in the details that I was posting two FOs from the same book, Favorite Socks! Those are the first two pairs I've knit from the book, but so far so good, I guess!

Anyhow, this was another yarn that I really liked, though unfortunately STR Heavyweight is kinda pricey ($27.50/skein, I believe). The socks are nice and thick, though not too thick, and I like that unlike other STR colorways, this one knit up mottled (I like mottled, in case you couldn't tell). Also, sportweight sock yarn = fast!

There was nothing too special about the pattern (which I had to adjust for the sportweight yarn - I changed the number of stitches cast on and adjusted the placement of the cables, and I think maybe the number of stitches/rows for the cables, as well, but I don't completely remember off the top of my head), but it was easy to remember and execute. I did the cables without a cable needle, which was a little tricky here (it's sort of 2 x 1 x 2 with that middle stitch being a purl stitch) but since it was only 2 cables every 8 rows, not too bad.

You can see the cables open a bit more in this picture:

Cable Rib Socks - 1 of 2

The third pair of socks is not really a pair, it's just a single sock. I keep all of my projects organized in a spreadsheet on my computer (which I started pre-Ravelry, but contains a lot of the same information). And because I'm a bit of a geek, I assign them all numbers, with the first project I ever did (a scarf made out of fun fur) as #1 and my latest project (a pair of mittens) as #106. The Cable Rib Socks above were project #99, and I wanted #100 to be special, but I've also been trying to minimize WIPs, so I didn't want to cast on for anything big.

Enter Loopy's Red Sock. This was a mini kit that I got from The Loopy Ewe after my fifth order, I believe. It contained a small amount a CTH Supersock (which you know I love, after I raved about it a few paragraphs ago) and a pattern for a mini sock. I decided it would make a good decoration for my car, made the mini sock in one evening, and hung it from my review mirror!

Loopy's Red Sock

Pattern: The Loopy Ewe
Yarn: Cherry Tree Hill Supersock, Wild Cherry (I think), way less than 1 skein
Needles: US 1.5
Project Timeline: 12/28/07

I think it's really cute and special, and it makes my car recognizable to my friends. :-)

That pretty much wraps up the projects I finished in 2007. I have two more, and will hopefully get to them soon, but while I technically consider them to be FOs, they need a little bit more work (blocking for one, a button for another). Tomorrow (I hope!) I will start posting about projects completed in 2008!

As an indication that I have been knitting this year (even though this blog really hasn't helped show that lately), here's picture of one of my current projects, Roza's Socks from the Spring 2007 issue of Interweave Knits, knit in Dream in Color Smooshy (colorway is Petal Shower):

Roza's Socks in Progress

Yum! I started these last week, and have been focusing my attention on some other projects in the meantime, but these are great to have for when I'm bored or stuck in line. I knit on them while waiting to buy a parking permit last week and while waiting in line to vote yesterday!

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