twistedloops

It’s another project from the backlog!

I started this pair of socks back in March, when I needed a new project because I was taking a cross-country plane flight.  I took that flight to get to Oregon for a job interview.  I got that job, and finished this pair of socks on the drive from Illinois to Oregon (I wove in the ends in a hotel in Coeur d’Alene, ID).    So, I guess you could call these my “new job socks”, or maybe my “cross-country socks”, or perhaps just my “I must be totally crazy to pick up and move socks”.

Pattern: Gentleman’s Half Hose in Ringwood Pattern
Designer: Nancy Bush
Source: Knitting Vintage Socks
Yarn: Zitron Trekking (XXL)
Quantity: 1 skein (459 yards/100g)
Color: 69
Needles: KnitPicks 2.0mm 32″

Started: March 13, 2008
Completed: April 14, 2008

Pattern modifications:

• Cast on 72 stitches
• Knit 2.25 inches of ribbing
• Knit leg to 9 inches before starting heel

Yarn overview:

This was the first time I’d used Trekking XXL.  It was thinner than most of the sock yarns I usually knit with, similar in weight to Opal or Lorna’s Laces.  After quite a few wearings of this pair of socks, the yarn is still holding up well.  There’s some slight fuzzing on the bottom of the socks and in the heel, but it seems to be holding up well.  Overall, I think that it’s a great deal for it’s yardage to price ratio.

This is the start of catching up on my backlog of finished projects.

Jim is behind this pair of socks, both the pattern and the yarn. One night, while I was searching for something new to knit, Jim told me to ”go get that book I got you”.  He was referring to Nancy Bush’s Knitting Vintage Socks.  I went and got the book off the shelf and handed it to him.  He then asked me for two numbers.  I gave him two which he added together, flipped open the book to the page, and landed on Evening Stockings for a Young Lady.

Now, I wasn’t really looking to make that pair of socks, so I protested a little bit.  I tried all sorts of logic…”I don’t want to make them knee length”…”I don’t have enough yarn in one color to make them”…”It’s going to be winter soon, and I don’t want lacey socks”… Jim caved, and two numbers later, we landed on the page for Gentleman’s Fancy Sock.  Since I’d already knit that pair, Jim agreed to try one more time.  This time, he had me give him three numbers.  He added the first two together, and subtracted the third from the total.  Again we ended up on the page for the Evening Stockings for a Young Lady.  Even I agreed that perhaps the fates were directing me to knit the socks.

Next, he called for me to knit them in a “girly” yarn.  Now, if you know me, you’ll know that girly is not a word that would describe yarn I would usually buy.  We flipped to my stash page in Ravelry, and Jim picked out my Socks that Rock in Rhodonite, which he bought for me for our anniversary last year.  As you can see below, with its pink and purpleness, it definitely qualifies as girly.

I cast on for the pair that night, and worked on them exclusively for a few weeks.  In the end, I’m not sure why this pair of socks took me so long to knit.  The pattern was easy to memorize.  Each time I worked on them, I felt as if I made significant progress.  I think it may have been one of those cases where I just wasn’t doing much knitting.

The socks seem to have lost a bit of the overall pale pink girly quality that I felt that the yarn had in the skein.  In the finished socks, I actually think that the fuchsia and purple colors dominate the socks.  The color does dominate the pattern, as often happens with handdyed yarn and lace patterns, but I’m pleased with the final outcome.

Pattern: Evening Stockings for a Young Lady
Designer: Nancy Bush
Source: Knitting Vintage Socks
Yarn: Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks that Rock Lightweight
Quantity: 1 (360 yards/128g)
Color: Rhodonite
Needles: KnitPicks 32″ 2.25mm

Started: September 29, 2008
Completed: October 23, 2008

Pattern modifications:

• Skipped most of the shaped calf section by starting with 66 stitches
• Knit 14 rows 2×1 ribbing, followed by 7 rows of the 3×1 ribbing
• Knit 2 pattern repeats, then decreased 1 stitch at the center back every 4 rows until 60 stitches remained
• Knit 14 total repeats of lace on the leg
• Worked the foot over 57 stitches to ensure a snug fit
• Added 2 more plain rows and 1 more K2Tog row to the end of the toe to lengthen the sock

Things around here have been crazy for the last month, and I think it will only continue.  Most days I barely feel as if there is time to knit, let alone blog about it.

I’ve currently got Nancy Bush’s Gentleman’s Half Hose in Ringwood Pattern [Ravelry Link] from Knitting Vintage Socks on the needles.  I’m using the Trekking XXL in color 69.  The yarn has such an interesting color quality.  While working on it indoors, it’s a fairly boring brown/green tonal striped sock, just like in the photo below.  However, when I was knitting in the sunlight on a plane recently, I couldn’t believe it was the same yarn.  The colors were so vivid – especially a beautiful purple.

I’ve shortened the ribbing and cast on fewer stitches in order to fit the pattern to my sizing, and so far it’s going well.  I’m through the gussest on the first sock, and a few inches remain until I start the toe.  The pattern is simple to memorize, but a little more interesting than just 2×2 ribbing or stockinette.  I hope to finish sock one this weekend and start on sock two soon.

I’ve finished the Little Child’s Socks.  Overall, I’m pleased with this sock pattern, and made very few modifications to it.  Most of the modifications that I did make were due to my fear of running out of yarn.  The pattern called for two skeins of Lorna’s Laces Shepard Sock which is 430 yards of yarn.  My Cherry Tree Hill had only 360 yards.  I was hoping that the pattern didn’t use the entire yardage from the Lorna’s, so I tried anyway.  I managed to finish the socks with this yardage, but I only have a tiny bit of yarn left over.  If I wore a bigger shoe size, I might have been out of luck.

I’ve got one main complaint with the fit of the socks.  I really wish that I’d started the decreases along the seam stitch sooner.  The sock is baggy through the lower calf area.  If I had it to do over, I probably would have started the decreases along with the pattern stitches, not wait until having knit twenty rows of the patterning.

I am still amazed at just how bright these socks are.  The colorway was named Golden, but it’s a much more vibrant yellow-orange than anything else. 

Pattern: Little Child’s Socks
Designer: Nancy Bush
Source: Knitting Vintage Socks
Yarn: Cherry Tree Hill Supersock
Quantity: 1 skeins (360 yards)
Color: Golden
Needles: KnitPicks US0 (2.0 mm) 32″

Started: January 18, 2008
Completed: February 5, 2008

Pattern modifications:

• I only knit six of the eight detail rows between the ribbing.  On the first sock it was a mistake that I didn’t notice until I had already turned the heel.  As the saying goes, make the error once and it’s a mistake, the second time it becomes a design feature.
• I decreased the number of rows of ribbing both above and below the pattern section of the cuff.
• I added an additional four rows of the pattern just above the heel.  I just felt the sock needed to be a little longer.
• I added an additional set of decrease rounds at the toe to lengthen the sock.

Yarn review

I suspect this yarn may have been one of the potluck or seconds. There are a lot of strange, dark color streaks that make the sock look dirty. The streaks are the most noticeable on the stockinette portions of the sock, and it doesn’t show all that well in the photos. However, if you look closely at the pictures and see some odd dark horizontal bands, that’s the discoloration.  It’s really odd, because I didn’t notice when the yarn was still in the skein.

The yarn was pleasant to work with, but I didn’t find the process of knitting with it much different from most sock yarns, like Lorna’s or Opal.  I was really surprised at how it became very soft and developed the tiniest of halos after a trip through the wash.  It’s soft enough now to make me consider stashing some more of this sock yarn.  It will be interesting to see how it continues to hold up to wear and washing.

I did find another yarn in the stash that is appropriate for knitting the Little Child’s Sock.  It’s some Cherry Tree Hill Supersock Merino in Golden (a yellow-orange) that I picked up during a destashing this past summer.  As you can see in the photo, it does appear to have been knit and unraveled before the destashing.  My concern now is that there are dark spots in the yarn as I knit with it.  I can’t tell if this is just a side-effect of the dye process or if the yarn is dirty.  I’m really hoping that it’s just dye.  The whole experience with this destashed yarn is a little less than pleasant.

Since the yardage on the Supersock Yarn is significantly shorter than the pattern calls for, I’m eliminating some of the pattern rounds.  I’ve got about eight rounds left on the second sock and then they’ll be done.  Somehow, even with that few rounds left (and they’re toe rounds – so short!), I just can bring myself to finish them.  I don’t know what’s wrong with me.

Instead, on the first of February, I cast on for the William Street Socks [Ravelry Link] from Interweave Knits.  I decided that I needed a quick project, and since the socks are knit in a DK weight yarn, this should fit the bill.  I had the yarn called for by this pattern, but only two balls.  The pattern calls for three, but states if you make a smaller shoe size (I will) and do not do the larger ankle increases/size, that it should be ok with just the two.  Since it is a toe up sock pattern, I’ll just knit until I run out of yarn.  The project is going well so far.  While I’ve switched most of my cable knitting projects to cabling without a cable needle, I may dig one back out for this project.  The 10-stitch cable crossings are a bit awkward, and take a little longer than I’d expect.  I’m hoping they’ll be faster with the cable needle.

In other project news, I’ve put the yarn for the Orenburg lace shawl back into the stash.  I just didn’t have the patience for it right now.

I’m hoping to have some project photos soon.  My photo-shooting area has been a disaster because we painted the living and dining rooms.  We’ve been moving furniture, books, and other items all over the house.  It’s amazing how much stuff can be stored in one room, especially when said room has floor to ceiling bookshelves.