Sometimes projects flow seamlessly from start to finish, and sometimes they start over.  Sometimes when that happens, it’s very frustrating, but sometimes starting over is a good thing.

I made a tragic error on the lace in the Marigold Socks when I moved from the foot rounds to the leg rounds.  I lost my place horribly and kept getting inadvertant yarn-over increases.  So I did the only thing that I could do, given the complete mess I’d made of it…

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Before I got sock yarn for my birthday, I had already signed up for a sock club (SSSSYC) based on the fact that I would get one skein of wonderful, rainbow striped yarn. The yarn arrived this week. I was going to wait and knit up the yarn from the Pride and Prejudice book/sock club instead, but I’ve both had a migraine and been waiting for a back issue of Interweave Knits to arrive so I could knit my pair of wine and roses mitts.

I’m tired of waiting to knit with this yarn, so I present: the socks I’ve been waiting all summer for:

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I am currently enjoying the arrival of new yarns monthly from two different sock clubs. One is Anna at Knitting up a Storm’s “Reading the Classics” Sock Club which has featured yarns inspired by The Great Gatsby, Dracula, and (next month) Pride and Prejudice. The other is Brooke at The Painted Tiger’s Super Striped Summer Sock Yarn Club (or SSSSYC for short), which has had patriotic stripes, a variegated yarn inspired by a super cute knitting chicken motif fabric (which was a surprise that made me laugh so hard I almost choked on my tea), and August will feature some version of her signature rainbows (as recently Harloted).

The thing is there are dangers in sock clubs and no one tells you about them.

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I wasn’t expecting anything except company on my upcoming birthday, but this showed up today.

Yarn from Knitting up a Storm’s June sock club!

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I frogged the start of the Juliet sweater I was making. The yarn was just too pale piggy pink for the sweater and I want to do it as a pullover instead of a cardigan. That being the case, there’s nothing to show for that effort but some circular needles I need to put away.

The Koi socks are still sleeping. They haven’t changed since the last last photo, so there’s nothing to see here. I’ll be getting back to them, but I felt inspired to do some crocheting.

Unfortunately, it’s going to be a surprise, so it’s secret crocheting. I can’t show that here, either. All in all, I’ve been busy. I’ve just got nothing to show for it.

I wanted to show a sock with the heel turned today, but I still have half an inch to go on the heel flap before I can decrease. The monotony of the heel stitch pattern, while pretty and allegedly reinforced, is getting to me.

It just doesn’t feel like I’m making the same amount of progress I did while I was knitting in the round. It like it’s in some sort of sock stasis, refusing to grow. I just don’t have the patience at the moment for knitting and knitting teeny tiny stitches without any signs of progress, so I’m putting the sock to bed early.

Tonight, it sleeps in it’s bag, perchance to dream.

Maybe sock knitting faeries will come and make it grow. For myself, I’m going to go give myself a false sense of accomplishment with a bit of the animated ultraviolence. With any luck, my WoW Warlock will get a new hat out of it.

I’ve had a migraine today. I spent most of the day laying down in a dark room taking medication and icing my head and back to little effect. I don’t feel like complaining about it, though.

I feel like talking about knitting with toothpicks, instead.

In Progress

Pattern: Handpainted Highlights Socks
Source: 101 One Skein Wonders
Size: Medium (My feet are, by US sizing, a size 8 and D width.)
Yarn: Koi Pond - Superwash Merino & Nylon Sock Yarn, 420y/100g, by Brenda Brooke at the Painted Tiger. Sorry, Brooke. I’m blaming the migraine for that one.
Needle size: US 1, 2.25 mm (Okay, it’s not quite knitting with a toothpick, but it’s close.)
Pattern Modifications: None so far.

Someday, when this grows up, it will be a sock
Knitting with toothpicks, um, size 1 needles, isn’t any worse than any other knitting. It feels a bit odd at first to use needles so small, but like everything else, a little practice is all it takes to get used to it.

The pattern’s mindlessly easy, once you get onto it. It seems like it would make the most of about any hand painted yarn used to knit it. I think it’s turning out especially pretty and I’m rather proud of myself for picking a good pattern for the yarn on the first try.

Pattern: Broken Rib Socks
Source: 101 Designer One Skein Wonders
Size: Medium (My feet are, by US sizing, a size 8 and D width.)
Yarn: Aquarium Sereknity Hand Painted Worsted Superwash Merino, 4oz., a tiny bit more than one skein, due to pattern modifications.
Needle size: US 5, 3.75 mm (Next time I think I’d slip down to US 4 dpns, as the yarn is nice and elastic and my feets are not quite so big as I think they are.)
Pattern Modifications: I knit the leg of the sock to 6.5 inches long instead of the six inches the pattern calls for trying to accommodate how much the length would shrink up when I put them on my thick ankles. If I’d knit to the pattern length, I would have been able to get both socks out of one skein of the yarn.

I just finished the second sock so now I have an I now have have an honest to goodness pair of socks. They’re currently soaking in warm, soapy water laced with a cup of vinegar, part “blocking,” part trying to gently rinse out any excess blue dye (see Sock Knittah! and Why Buying From Individual Artisans is beautiful for details. The early rinse didn’t seem to have any signs of the blue dye bleeding out so at this point it looks like all they needed was a good post knitting rinse to wash away the excess dye, just as hoped, so all’s well in the world of sockie goodness.

I tried them on when I got them finished and snapped a few pictures for your sock viewing enjoyment.

Fraternal Twins at the Piano

Looking Down at my Feets

Relaxing with the Cuffs Down: How I’ll probably wear these socks.

At this point, I’m highly satisfied with how these came. The yarn is nice and mooshy, which will make these a comfortable pair of house socks, which is exactly what I wanted. I’m sure there are more socks in the future, despite the insanity of knitting socks, because I really like these socks.

Artisans, like Heather from Sereknity.com, care about their work. The Big Box companies, not so much.

I got an email from Heather today after reading about my problem with the blue crocking a bit while I’m working Aquarium Broken Rib Socks, which are being knitted from the lovely tree froggy hand-painted yarn she created. She sent me the nicest letter complimenting my sock (really, she’s done all the work, I’m just letting the yarn speak for itself), and sounded absolutely beside herself.

I think Heather’s right that the color’s fully set and I’m just getting some transfer from a bit of residual dye on the blue sections. That blue’s so vibrant. It really makes the whole color scheme pop. I can imagine it’s really difficult to work with in the dying process, but the end product is completely worth it.

She suggested I try vinegar in the blocking bath. At the moment, I’m just past the “regular ribbing” part of sock two, just ready to start into the broken rib part of the leg, so I expect to finish sock two this weekend. When sock two is done, I’ll try a bit of vinegar in the blocking bath.

Pattern: Broken Rib Socks
Source: 101 Designer One Skein Wonders
Yarn: Aquarium Sereknity Hand Painted Worsted Superwash Merino, 4oz.

I now have have a sock, singular. That’s the first step on the way to a pair, though, unless you knit two at once.
I’ve finished the first sock and cast on the second in my second attempt to knit my first pair of socks.

I fell in love with the yarn when I saw it on Etsy. The colors are very pleasingly tree froggy. Unfortunately, it’s been a bit of a bugger to find a sock pattern that works with it.

The first pattern I tried was Hiker Socks from the first One Skein Wonders book. That ended in a frogging before the first sock was done because it looked like someone vomited a well chewed tree frog all over my sock. It was so bad, I couldn’t bear to take a picture to document the level of pure unadulterated “f’ug.”

I think Hiker Socks would do better with a self striping yarn, which this hand painted yarn beauty isn’t.

The real modem toad models the sock.

This pattern looks significantly better and really lets the yarn shine. Admittedly some people may not go for the way the blue pools and spirals around the leg, but I’m grooving on it.

A Closer View

The greens and oranges almost look like they want to stripe, but I think if they did, then the blues would pool in a stripe I wouldn’t care to have.

Modem Toad shows off the start of the second sock.

One thing I have noticed working with this particular yarn is that the blue is rubbing off on me. I think when I block the socks I’ll have to try to throwing in some salt to mordant it a bit better. I hope when I’m blocking that the blue doesn’t foul the other colors when I soak them before blocking. I’m hoping that if I’m careful and gentle I’ll minimize any potential bleeding.

My other news is I’ve got a new point and shoot I’m trying to figure out. I’m still trying to figure out all the nifty things it can do, but it looks like it’s going to let me take more and better pictures, so this blog won’t be quite as visually boring.

Well, at least that’s the theory. It’s still not the Rosie One’s nifty sweetness of a camera, but for the price I paid for mine (thanks again, Mom) I’m sure as heck not complaining by a long shot. I went from 2 to 5 megapixels, which is a huge upgrade. The color fidelity is pretty darned awesome.