{"id":13532,"date":"2014-09-02T22:49:53","date_gmt":"2014-09-02T20:49:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.breigh.com\/wordpress\/?p=13532"},"modified":"2014-09-02T22:52:01","modified_gmt":"2014-09-02T20:52:01","slug":"101-list-update-more-socks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.canadutch.nl\/blog\/archives\/13532","title":{"rendered":"101 List Update – More Socks!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Remember back in 2012 when I completed my goal to learn to knit socks<\/a>? \u00a0Well, I have a confession to make. At that time I learned to knit SOCK… singular. \u00a0Yup, I immediately got a case of single sock syndrome (where you finish the first sock but never get around to finishing the second. It’s an illness among sock knitters).<\/p>\n

I feel like I only half completed that goal at the time. \u00a0I did a tutorial with some rather crappy yarn I had sitting around and made an enormous sock. \u00a0I didn’t make a pair<\/em> of socks, or even a sock I could wear around, just one, big, useless sock. \u00a0Granted, I learned the basics of knitting socks and I made one but I couldn’t consider the goal complete – until now!<\/p>\n

\"Lana<\/a><\/p>\n

Last year I decided that enough was enough, I was going to learn to knit socks come hell or high water. \u00a0I had this lovely yarn sitting around for probably about 3 years and it was about time I did something with it. \u00a0 I still loved the colors as much as I did the year I bought it. \u00a0I found an online tutorial\u00a0to learn to make socks using double pointed needles and decided to just give it a go, and it went amazingly well!<\/p>\n

\"Lana<\/p>\n

I have thick calves and seriously small feet, so I worried a bit about the sizing, but it seemed to be working out when I was part way through. \u00a0 I was sort of worried that I’d stop short and that the socks wouldn’t be long enough in the foot, giving me that annoying feeling of pressing on the tip of my toes, so I went on a tiny bit longer than I should in the end.<\/p>\n

\"Lana<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Lana<\/a><\/p>\n

It’s hard to tell from the photo but they were just a smidge too big. \u00a0 It’s ok, though, because my friend Penny came by and eagerly snatched them up. \u00a0She loves nice warm socks in the winter!<\/p>\n

Another thing I learned during that project was to think about the color changes in the yarn. \u00a0I knitted one sock after the other, just continuing with the same ball, and the colors ended up being the opposite way around. \u00a0Not an issue if you are into that kind of thing but it\u00a0irked me\u00a0just a wee bit, so I made a mental note to be more careful next time and figure out the color patterns before I start knitting.<\/p>\n

(Please ignore all the different photo formats, some were from Instagram and I can’t be bothered to crop the border and all that nonsense)<\/p>\n

Tutorial: Silver’s Sock Class<\/a>\u00a0(one sock on double pointed needles)<\/strong>
\n Yarn used: Lana Grossa Meilenweit 100 Magico (color 6603)<\/strong>
\n My project on Ravelry<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

This project is what kicked off my love of knitting socks. \u00a0I think partially because I learned that I actually\u00a0can knit socks properly<\/em>, which is something I wasn’t really sure I could ever do, but also because it’s just FUN! \u00a0They are nice quick projects (by comparison to some others I’ve done lately) and you see a lot of progress over a short period of time. \u00a0Plus, they are seriously comfortable to wear. \u00a0I’ve knit other socks since\u00a0and I agree with a lot of other sock knitters when they say handknit socks are where it’s at! \u00a0They are so cushy and warm… and more satisfying when you know you made them yourself.<\/p>\n

\n

The next thing I wanted to try was color work in socks. \u00a0I was pretty confident with the double pointed needles and I wanted a bit more of a challenge. \u00a0Christmas was coming and I thought\u00a0I’d order the supplies to\u00a0make myself some Christmas socks. \u00a0Of course, Christmas was over by the time I actually started them (in January) but the winter \/ Christmas feeling was still upon me.<\/p>\n

\"Drops<\/a><\/p>\n

I LOVED doing color work! \u00a0Even now that I type this I’m wondering why I haven’t done more since then, because I just enjoyed it so much! \u00a0The one problem I came across was getting the colors to line up properly when knitting in the round,\u00a0that<\/em> was tricky. \u00a0I never really thought about it before but when you knit in the round your knitting is like a spiral. You knit, come around to where you started and then start knitting over the top of where you began. \u00a0This is extremely noticeable when you are doing color work like this and more difficult to fix than if you were just doing solid stripes. \u00a0I learned (by trying for a very, very long time) that it’s impossible to get it absolutely perfect, but you can get it perfect\u00a0enough<\/em>.<\/p>\n

I used the method shown here in the video by my knitting guru, Staci, from Verypink.com<\/a>. \u00a0 I kid you not, there are not many questions you could have about knitting that you won’t the answers to on her videos.<\/p>\n

Anyway, this is the video where I learned how to correct the jog in my color work:<\/p>\n[youtube id=”jrVP129BnRg” width=”600″ height=”350″]\n

Once I got that issue sorted it was pretty much smooth sailing and I really loved the rest of the project. I think they came out really great!<\/p>\n

\"Drops<\/a><\/p>\n

You can find the pattern for these socks here<\/a>\u00a0(it’s sock #3)<\/strong>
\n Yarn used: Drops Karisma Superwash (colors: 48 – Red, 01 – White, 44 – Gray)<\/strong>
\n My project on Ravelry<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

After doing these two pairs of socks, I realized that second sock syndrome was threatening to take over every time. \u00a0I’d knit the first sock, ooh and aah over it and then have to push myself to start and finish the second one. \u00a0 I also was constantly measuring to make sure that they were the same lengths, because I would forget to keep track of exactly how many rows I did.<\/p>\n

\"VeryPink<\/a><\/p>\n

I decided to change my tactic! \u00a0I’d been planning to do one of Staci’s tutorials<\/a> for knitting two socks at a time using the magic loop method. \u00a0This way you work on the two socks at once, row for row, so when you are done you already have two socks! \u00a0It seemed really complicated at first glance I had trouble getting my head around how it all worked, but once I dug into the tutorial and watched her videos all the pieces fell into place.<\/p>\n

\"stacisocks2\"<\/p>\n

This time I learned my lesson in regards to the color striping. \u00a0I’m sure there’s probably a trick to sorting out a ball of yarn so that you easily get two matching balls, but my method involved winding, re-winding, writing down the color patterns while re-winding yet again, and then re-winding a few more times. \u00a0 Ok, so it wasn’t the most efficient strategy but it worked out in the end. I got the stripes just about as exact as possible, I think!<\/p>\n

\"VeryPink<\/a><\/p>\n

Ah, it just makes you feel good, doesn’t it? \u00a0Like it really soothes that little obsessive part of you that really wants things to match up! \u00a0At this point I was as pleased as punch with myself. \u00a0I was pretty much the queen of socks right then. \u00a0I was also loving the dirtywords out of that yarn!<\/p>\n

They knit up perfectly. \u00a0The tutorial was fantastic, the fit was great and they are pretty much my favorite socks in the world to this day. \u00a0If you follow me on Instagram<\/a> you’ll sometimes see them make an appearance in the background of WIP photos.<\/p>\n

\"Verypink<\/a><\/p>\n

Tutorial:\u00a0VeryPink Learn to Knit 2 socks at a time, Magic Loop<\/a><\/strong>
\n Yarn used: Scheepjes Invicta Colour (color 958)<\/strong>
\n My project on Ravelry<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

My latest sock project was a big one, literally!<\/p>\n

If you ever want to truly learn how enormous your husband’s feet are? \u00a0Knit him socks! \u00a0Oh my word. \u00a0These socks were pretty straightforward (also following the tutorial from Staci doing two socks at once with magic loop) but it felt like it was neverrrrrrr goinnnnnng to ennnnnnnnnd. \u00a0Seriously, I have knitted sweaters that felt like they took less time.<\/p>\n

\"Xander<\/a><\/p>\n

I truly felt like the knitting was never going to end. \u00a0Around and around…<\/p>\n

and around…<\/p>\n

and around a gazillion more times. \u00a0Forever. \u00a0Until you die.<\/p>\n

I was pretty\u00a0worried I was going to run out of yarn before I finished the socks, and I would have if I hadn’t had the foresight to make the leg a little shorter!<\/p>\n

\"Xander<\/a><\/p>\n

I kept trying them on him as I was knitting, each time sure that I was nearing the toe… but NOPE, still miles to go. \u00a0It doesn’t really show it in the photos. \u00a0Even looking at them myself I am wondering if I am losing my mind and it wasn’t as bad as I thought, but the trauma is still fresh. \u00a0It definitely happened and those are some freakishly large socks. \u00a0 He likes them, though, so that’s all that matters! \u00a0Or rather, he WILL like them once winter comes, because spring was almost here by the time I finished them and by that time he found them too warm. \u00a0I’m counting on him loving them this winter.<\/p>\n

He better love them. \u00a0That’s all I have to say about that.<\/p>\n

Tutorial:\u00a0VeryPink Learn to Knit 2 socks at a time, Magic Loop<\/a><\/strong>
\n Yarn used: Lana Grossa Meilenweit Neon Stripes (Color 2702)<\/strong>
\n My project on Ravelry<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

So what\u00a0socks are\u00a0up next? \u00a0I think it will be these fun\u00a0Stitch Surfer Socks<\/a>!<\/p>\n

\"Stitch<\/a><\/p>\n

I am not sure when I will get around to doing them but I like the idea of using two different sock yarns to create a wacky\u00a0side by side pattern. \u00a0I just need to figure out what combination I want to use and when I’ll have the time to do it. \u00a0I actually bought yarn for this project in the fall but when I look at the yarns I’m not 100% sure that the patterned yarn will be enough of a contrast against the solid, so I may choose something else.<\/p>\n

\"Breidag<\/a><\/p>\n

If you look at the above photo that I took after returning home from Breidag<\/a>\u00a0in the fall, the two yarns on the left are what I had planned. \u00a0It’s Cascade Heritage Sock yarn in color 5626 (the solid) and Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sock in color 209 – Beverly. \u00a0 When holding them side by side it looks like they’ll be perfect, but I forgot that the colors don’t knit in as large chunks as they are in the skein. \u00a0The colors are a lot more subtle when knitted up and I keep going back and forth on whether I think it’s going to work.<\/p>\n

Here’s what it looks like on the Ravelry projects page (I LOVE Ravelry, it’s so great for things like this)<\/p>\n

\"Lorna's<\/a><\/p>\n

I have to admit, if I’m honest I’m not loving how it looks knitted up but maybe it will surprise me.\u00a0I don’t know. \u00a0Regardless, I don’t think it’s suitable for the stitch surfer. \u00a0Bummer.<\/p>\n

But hey, it gives me an excuse to buy new yarn! \u00a0I’ll report back, eventually… it’s about 10th in line of things I want to make, so I have plenty of time to figure it out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Remember back in 2012 when I completed my goal to learn to knit socks? \u00a0Well, I have a confession to make. At that time I learned to knit SOCK… singular. \u00a0Yup, I immediately got a case of single sock syndrome (where you finish the first sock but never get around to finishing the second. It’s …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13537,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[884,71,55,820,82,821,801,626],"class_list":["post-13532","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-crafty-creations","tag-bucket-list","tag-christmas","tag-crafts","tag-drops","tag-knitting","tag-lana-grossa","tag-scheepjes","tag-socks"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.canadutch.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13532","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.canadutch.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.canadutch.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadutch.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadutch.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13532"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadutch.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13532\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13560,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadutch.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13532\/revisions\/13560"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadutch.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13537"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.canadutch.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadutch.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13532"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadutch.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}