Sock Woes...

So, socks have become my walk around project, and since I don’t have a whole lot of down time I’ve been making a lot of socks. Every once in a while I’ll muse about my first SnB meeting where I watched Dixie knit with clover needles and Grace yarn, and thought to myself: There is NO WAY I’d be doing that. . . My, how times have changed.

Anyway, in this recent glut of sock knitting all has not been well. Let me counts the ways in which my sock knitting has gone awry.

Things Fall Apart

I call these the Frankenstein socks. These are from Sockotta...the remainder of a ball after Christine made a pair. It was my first toe up pair and I though it was going well until I tried to put them on.




The leg opening wouldn't stretch around my heel. Undaunted I undid my cast off, ripped back and put in a bit if ribbing and it worked out. I did not, however, have enough yarn for the second sock. After much debate with Nic about stripping and other colors I decided to just keep going and not add another color of yarn...and this is why I called them Frankenstein. There are more joins in that one leg than I have put in the last four pairs of socks I've made...seriously. Anyway, the joining didn't work out well for me because look at what happened when I washed them the first time.



I don't think it's actually a problem with the joins, but with the cast off. WTH? How can a cast off come lose like that? I haven't decided if I'll fix them or not.



Jitterbug

I ordered this Jitterbug all the way from the UK. I was super excited when it arrived...a base of orange and so many other colors in the hues I like too. It was marvelous. I waited until I finished that last wretched pair of Sockotta ones to use so that I could thoroughly enjoy the process. The yarn feels fabulous. The first woe with these is that they’re a little bit tight. I made a pair for a co-worker and they were a bit loose, so I decided to use a smaller needle, and these are a bit snug. Not uncomfortably so, but it’s noticeable. The main woe with these is that as I worked on the second sock it became wholly apparent that the dye job on the yarn had shifted...Can you see it?





One looks stripped** and the other not so much. Nic suggested sending a complaint to Colinette with a picture of the socks, but I don’t think that will work. What do you think?


Trekking XXL

I’ve been reading about this yarn for a while now. There was a big KAL, Mim has a free pattern for the yarn, and I saw it when I had a coupon & a hankering for sock yarn. I got this because I thought it was a nice color combination. As the socks progressed my thoughts changed a bit, and I made them a little too loose.






These may be the ugliest socks I’ve made to date. I think if the black hadn’t been thrown in the mix it wouldn’t have been so bad, but I’m not positive about that. Also, me = not such a fan of self stripping yarn. (**Please see above for complaint about stripping yarn.).



Both pairs are done, but not worn. I’m now working on a pair out of yarn Daniella gave me. The yarn is a dream to work with, but is a bit splitty; but I’ll get to that later. Grandma’s shawl is stalled. I don’t want to work on it when I’m not in a good place emotionally. I’m convinced that I weave my worries into my work and I don’t want that to happen with this piece...my grandma doesn't need to be wrapped in my worries, only my love. After tomorrow things might be better, but there are no guarantees…so the shawl is on hold until I feel better.

Happy knitting to all!