The Unexpected Minecraft Socks

When I received this yarn I just thought it was a pretty blue.  Being blue, it was no surprise it ended up being slated to knit a pair of socks for my Little Bear before anyone else got a stab at it.  I'd looked at how the yarn knit up in general on Ravelry, and it seemed like a pretty basic self-striping kind of deal.  I figured it would work out just fine.

It took me a while to figure out what I would knit, but I decided on doing a smaller version of my Dunharrow Socks.  I love the pattern, and I think it's seriously not getting the attention it deserves.  It's perfect for my needs, simple enough to modify, yet complex enough to keep me occupied.  I'm not a vanilla sock kind of girl, though I may find that I need to be when I go back to school.  The best feature for me is how adaptable it is.  I can easily make it into socks for the whole family with just a bit of guess work instead of a lot of effort.  It also serves my obsessive need to have the socks match in length to the very row, since I can easily count the pattern repeats.  These have quickly become my favorite socks, but I digress...

When I started working the pattern up, I wasn't far beyond the ribbing before I noticed something, the dark splotches in the fabric had come out to make a perfect association in my mind.  It looked like a pixilated blue.  Just to be sure, I asked the rest of the family what they thought of when they saw the socks.  For an accurate study (to satisfy my scientific mind), I asked each one independently what they thought of the sock.  Each one of them, even Little Bear (at only 3) said the same thing.  "It looks like Minecraft."

After that they were named "The Minecraft Socks".  Little Bear was super excited that they were for him, but I had a growing problem.  Everyone now wants a pair of Minecraft socks!  I may just have to get creative on future pairs.  The yarn is discontinued, and I'm not sure I'm going to be able to work out buying up every last ball for sale on Ravelry.  It's a wonderful idea, and I really do love the yarn.  I'm just trying to be realistic.  Helping people destash right now just isn't in my budget, and I'm not sure how long that yarn will continue to sit around.

As I got to the heel on the pattern the great debate began again.  Did I want to spend the time and energy crafting the same kind of heel as I had last time?  That would undoubtedly involve some level of math, and I'm not sure it's really worth the effort to spend that much time on a special heel turn for a sock that a three year old will wear for a year, maybe two, before his feet are too large for them.  If the fit wasn't right I'd have to rework it a few times, and I really wasn't feeling that kind of effort.  Instead I just went with a simple short row heel, which was probably for the best anyway.  Simple is better, and it just looked so pretty!  Surprisingly I was able to throw on a short row heel from memory!  I really impressed myself there!

From that point on it was the race into the toe.  As much as I want to knit these socks for a Christmas present for Little Bear (and the surprise was kind of defeated anyway by letting him see me knitting it), I needed to be sure they would fit.  What was the point in putting together a fancy sock if I knit the toe too long or too short.  I didn't expect his little foot to be anywhere near as long as it was, so the toe was a much longer slog than I thought.  What is it with kids and their fast growing feet?  I honestly can't keep up with them!  I really miss Little Bear having his tiny baby toes, in part because I could whip out a bunch of socks for him like they were nothing!

I've got to admit, I'm getting better about the dreaded second sock syndrome.  As soon as I finish the first sock, I start up the second sock right away.  That way the sock is taking up my needles, which means they can't be used for anything else.  I've learned this about myself.  If I'm allowed to slack off and not get the other sock started right away, I'll leave it for pretty much eternity.  When I come back I won't remember any of the notes I've made along the way.  If I'm wise (which generally I'm not), I'll make notations on my Ravelry project page.  Generally I'm not.  Of course, that trend is changing as I've got all the changes listed for my Minecraft Socks right there on the page.  I'm learning!

The second sock knit up like a dream!  I found myself thinking, Oh, wow!  Another pattern repeat down already?  How did that happen so fast?  It seemed like they were finished and done before I realized it.  Given how busy and chaotic my week has been, I was surprised I'd managed to get it done so fast, especially with realizing my Little Bear's feet aren't as little as I'd thought them to be!  I had a lot of errands to run this week.

Now that they're done (and I mean really done, ends woven and everything), I'm having one of those moments of not knowing what to knit next.  I have plenty of socks to knit.  I need to make a plain yellow hat before Halloween (we've got a minion in the house!)  I've got a lot waiting to be knit up, but I'm finding I really just want to sit down and knit another pair of these truly awesome socks.  They've become meditative, in a way.  They're stretchy, so I don't have to worry about getting the gauge just right.  I can just sit there, knitting away.

At the same time, I'm kind of proud of myself.  I have another item down to be tucked into the box of goodies for Christmas.  That's one more thing I can check off my list.  If I keep up at this rate, I'll have plenty of gifts for my family come Christmas.  It may not be as much as I'd like (my mom and my sister probably aren't getting knitted gifts this year, though that may change).  I started a bit late in the year.  My stash was too small to be ready for holiday knitting.  Still, it's a start, and next year I can start sooner (especially for the people who won't have changing sizes!)  I'm pretty proud of myself for even doing as much as I have this year.  Progress has definitely been made!

Little Gloves and Christmas Coming

I know, it's not even Halloween and I'm talking Christmas.  Well, to be fair, I'm not a huge fan of Halloween.  It's a lot of money to spend just for one night, and it's a more overwhelming night for me.  Spooky and scary isn't really my thing.  Besides, for crafting, there's not enough time to start on Christmas gifts after Halloween is over.  It ends up with stressed out knitting and a rapid struggle to get finished in time for Christmas.  For me, this starts with big plans to make handmade gifts for everyone, and ends with me finishing the stitching on a doll, deciding it's just not worth it to wrap the package before Christmas morning because that will mean not sleeping at all.  This is why I've stopped doing handmade gifts.

This year I don't have a lot of money for gifts, but I do have a small stash of yarn.  My kids need socks, so I want to knit some for them.  The kids haven't had any socks I've made for them in quite some time, so it's definitely time to knit up some more.  If I start working now, I should have a pair for each of them in plenty of time for Christmas.  But the most wonderful thing about sock yarn is it always leaves scraps.  Unless I were to do toe up and measure them out, there's no way I would finish off a whole ball of sock yarn.  Because of this, I've got scraps to do other cool things with.

Little Bear laid claim to my last sock yarn, from the pink socks I just finished.  He wanted me to make him socks, which would have probably been perfect a year or two ago, but now I think his feet are probably too big for making socks with my scraps.  Instead I decided to go for another project I'd made for him before, which was always fantastically successful.  I can whip them out in no time.  They're almost perfect take along knitting, but they really just knit up too quickly to be good for travel.  I knocked out a whole glove in the short bits of time I was knitting at this weekend's game day.  They're small, cute, and incredibly easy to make.

I did modify the original pattern quite a bit to make his little gloves.  I increased the number of stitches in the hand and the gusset since I'm using a smaller yarn than called for (sock not DK) and smaller needles (one size smaller) because that's what I have on hand.  I suppose I did have size 3 needles on hand, and I could have doubled the yarn to give it a thicker weight, but I decided it was a nicer finish to have them smaller and tighter.  It just more suits the knitting I like, and the tighter fabric will just be so much warmer for my kids as the winter rolls in.  It makes for a nicer product in the end, or at least that's my opinion.

I finished the first gloves while sitting in the parking lot of Walmart, waiting for someone to run in and pick some stuff up for the weekend's game day.  I hadn't expected to finish them before I'd arrived, nor did I expect to have much time to knit, but they worked up so quickly that they were finished before we even arrived.  I'd forgotten how quickly simple little projects like this can whip up.  I'm really happy with the way they turned out.  The real challenge was keeping them away from Little Bear, who wanted to wear them as soon as they were off the needles!

I was glad I'd packed additional yarn for the trip.  I knew I was going to finish these quickly enough, but I hadn't anticipated needing to cast something on as soon as I got in the door.  I'd thrown in some green yarn I'd used to make some fingerless gloves for Frog Buckets a year ago.  He'd loved those gloves, but they've since went the way of his other pairs, undoubtedly eaten by the void.  He always seems to find them at some later point, sometimes together, sometimes not.  Over the summer he found one glove of an earlier pair and insisted on wearing just that glove to his summer care for months.  Now that he's in school he's been begging me to make more gloves for him to wear.  He wants to show them off to all of his Kindergarten friends.  This meant he was next up on the list, since I wanted to make sure his got done.

His were yet larger, and they look far more simple because of the plain green coloring.  They're not as fancy looking, and they're a little bit lighter, since the sock yarn I'd made them out of is a little less heavy.  I cast the first one on at game day, and had expected to maybe clear the ribbing.  I ended up just watching everyone game, so I was able to knock out the first full glove during the event.  I even threw in the bind off.  This reminded me why I really need something a little more lengthy, like socks.  I wasn't thrilled with the idea of casting on twice at one event.  Next time I'll definitely plan better and leave the gloves for television knitting at home!

The second glove was cast on after we got home.  The kids were exhausted and dropped off to bed, but I stayed up to start on the other glove.  It was done early this morning, after feeling like somehow it must have been magically knit on during the night.  There was no way it was as close to finished as it was!  I'm still astounded at how quick and easy these gloves work up.

The only down side is I'm not used to knitting for my kids enough that any of this can be a surprise.  I want to check it to make sure the fit is good.  Nothing would disappoint them on Christmas morning like gloves that were too small, or socks that they couldn't wear yet.  This means the kids are going to know what their presents are ahead of time.  They're even going to have tried them before Christmas.  That's the down side to this process, but the up side is I know they love them!

Next year I think I'm going to plan on doing things differently.  I'm hoping I can have multiple projects going at once, so I can knit the kids projects after they go to bed or when they're not home and I can do the projects for other people when they're around.  After a year of getting better in the swing of fitting, I should have enough confidence to knit them a few things without having to worry about trying them on.  I can be the good gift knitter then.  For the time being, they're just going to have to deal with knowing what they're getting, and knowing it's going to be something they'll truly love!

Thinking Pink?

I was knitting on my latest socks, all in their happy pink, when I made a crazy observation, I wear more pink than I think I do!  I hadn't even thought about this.  Looking at the socks I've made in my life, there's a huge representation of pink.  It was pretty shocking.

The first socks I ever knit were kind of a teal and blue worsted weight yarn.  They were crazy thick, but I was proud of myself.  This was maybe my eighth knitting project ever?  Thinking about it, this sock was not well thought out.  It was worsted weight wool, which later got felted.  It was thick, heavy, and warm, much to warm for living in Texas at the time.  My then husband was deployed to Iraq and I was feeling homesick in the dead of summer.  I kept telling myself I would need warm stuff for winter, having never done a Texas winter before.  I'd tried to justify it by saying I would be home for Christmas.  It just wasn't a well planned project.  I think I may have worn them twice.  I don't have a picture of them, and sometimes I'm glad for that.  I'm not sure I knew what I was thinking at that point.

I didn't knit socks again for quite some time.  It was almost two years later when I got the bug.  I found a pattern for illusion knit socks of the Cheshire Cat.  I loved those socks.  They were gray and white, and my first real sock knitting, short row heel and everything.  Somehow I lost them in my last big move, which breaks my heart.  I still have no idea what happened to them.

Again, it took about a year, maybe closer to two before I knit another pair of socks for myself.  Most of what I'd been doing was for other people or large, complex patterns.  It wasn't until I got Sock Innovation that I decided to try my hand at another pair of socks for me.  It was all of my third pair of socks and the only ones I still have, in pink and purple.  It was a beautiful handpainted yarn, and though it's specifically not a superwash, the socks have been through the washer more times than I can count, yet somehow they still look beautiful.  I've since learned not to buy yarns I can't wash, but I think I might still do it anyway.  This was what led me to realize I have a thing for pink socks.  I'm wearing them today and realized the socks I'm knitting now are, yet again, a blend of pink and purple.

It was perhaps three years before I made another pair of socks, some lovely green ones with evergreen trees as a border.  I really love them, and still wear them all the time.  They're such a pretty color!  I keep telling myself I need to knit more blues, greens, grays, have socks in all sorts of colors.

This year I feel like I'm spoiling myself.  I've already made one pair of socks for myself this year and I'm working on another pair.  I don't exactly have yarn to make more right now, but that can be changed.  However, what colors were the two pairs of socks I knit this year?  My black rose socks are black and pink, and, of course, you know the others are pink and purple.  I'm starting to think I have an addiction to pink, which is especially funny because I proclaimed how much I hated pink for years!  Pink was far too girly for me, and I was not a girly person.  Clearly things have changed.

So what does that mean?  I currently have four pairs of hand knit socks in my size, one green, and four in shades of pink.  I think I have a problem, or maybe it's an addiction.  Maybe I just like pink socks?  I'm not entirely sure what the deal is.  All I know is I've got to do more socks, because I need them.  Four pairs of hand knit socks does not even get me through a week!  Between all the feet to knit socks for in this house, I've got a lot of sock knitting in my future!

Happy Pink Socks!

Yes, I'm knitting socks again.  These socks are made of an unknown yarn in a lovely happy pink and purple coloring.  By the color splash, they have to be some kind of handpainted yarn, which is good by me because I love it.  I bought this yarn somewhere around a year ago, and I've been hanging on to it.  I kept telling myself I hadn't found the right project yet.  I suppose I've learned my lesson on storing my yarn.  I lost the tag, and I have no idea what shop I even bought it in!

Of course, this photo does it absolutely no justice!  It's a beautiful yarn, but it looks so much less beautiful.  I love natural sunlight for photos, but when it comes to yarn, sometimes it just shines too much and the colors come out far more neon than they actually are.  That being said the yarn is definitely bright and happy.  I've been wanting to knit happy lately, so I got what I wanted.  Of course, this makes absolutely no sense against the beautiful fall colors of the season.  It would be far better suited to spring, but when you're poor, you work with what you've got.  Right now, I don't have a lot of options.

After much searching, I finally found the pattern I wanted to use.  It's called Dunharrow Socks.  There aren't many projects listed for it in Ravelry, which is really the way I most like to go with these things.  I prefer to stick to projects that haven't been knit by everyone, but sometimes they're not made popular for a reason.  In a way, I think this is one of them, though the idea of the sock truly is lovely.

I cast on to knit, and as I sat there, computer on my lap as I attempted to figure out where the pattern was going before I got there, my Little Bear came up and started burying me with toys.  Apparently I needed a train track.  That would help me.  He cheerily added trains to that track.  Next thing you know I had a space shuttle landing there.  I guess these are essential tools for knitting.  It's too bad I didn't know this sooner!  I would have started including them long ago!  I guess this is what my three year old thinks of what I do.  At least he's trying to help and not destroying everything I make!

The first cast on got me thinking.  That leg was going to be insanely wide.  With a stretchy ribbing, that sock could be huge.  Plus, all of the colors were pooling, so one side had this beautiful striping, but the other was boring and dark.  I really didn't want to rip it all out and start over, but I couldn't stand the pooling.  I decided it had to go.  Since I found the socks so loose, I decided to cast on with eight fewer stitches.  I suppose I could have taken it even smaller if I wanted to, but I didn't want to get excessive.  It turns out that it's about the perfect amount.  I probably could have still hacked off eight more, but I like them the way they are now, so this is what I'm sticking with.  I figured it was a slight modification for fit.  Modifications are a good thing, right?

I'm still not fully comfortable with this whole modification thing.  I don't necessarily think a pattern needs to be knit out of the yarn it calls for, nor do I think changing things up is a problem.  I've been known to throw a short row heel on just about anything to avoid knitting a flap, but I've never really gone so far as to remove stitches and make things narrower.  This was new and intimidating territory.

In an effort to lighten the mood (read, get myself to loosen up a bit!) I decided it was time to do something a little fun.  I kept threatening Little Bear that if he didn't take care of his baby, I would put that baby to work!  He thought I was kidding, but I've been saying it for days.  I just got a wild thought to do it already and get over it!  I sat the baby down, threw my knitting in it's hands (which was much harder than it looks) and snapped a picture.  Little Bear thinks it's funny that I have a picture of his baby, slaving away to make Mama some socks.

Once the fun was over, it was time to start a serious discussion about the heel.  If you're following along (and I assume if you are, you may have just read the last post and that's it) you know I hate knitting heel flaps.  Picking up stitches is something I despise.  I will avoid a traditional heel flap at all costs.  Instead, I opt for other choices.  This often means doing math, or at the very least I have to make some adjustments.  I decided to go back to my standard fall back, now that I no longer have my other precious books.  I pulled out New Pathways for Sock Knitters: Book One, and away I went.  I opted to place the gussets on the side and keep the pattern going through the heel.  I only added ten stitches this time, so hopefully this will make for a better fit.  I've opted to use the reinforced heel, which means being a bit fiddly and trying to get one extra stitch slipped in there somehow.  I'll figure it out, I'm sure!

Since it was such a lovely day out, my knitting time got to be enjoyed in the fresh air today too.  I packed up the kids and went to the park.  I was sitting there enjoying the surprisingly warm air, when I noticed something funny about my knitting.  I was coordinated today!  My knitting matched my shoes!  How often does that ever happen?  I couldn't help but laugh.  Only I would be so coordinated to match the socks I was knitting to my shoes.

I'm about ready for the heel turn now.  I've learned my lesson about knitting when tired, so I'm not going to tackle these heels right away.  One day sitting on the needles isn't going to hurt anyone.  It might make me a little sad, because I can't wait to them, but my knitting will survive.

At the end of it all, I'm finding I really like this pattern more than I thought I would.  It may not look at it, but it's basic ribbing.  The ribbed portions are just adjusted one stitch to the side every other row, giving it this really funky textured look.  The pattern was so easy to memorize that I'd picked it up within a couple of rows.  I was afraid I'd find it boring, but I'm really enjoying it.  The colors are a wonderful blend for it too.  I'm thinking this may have to be my go-to pattern for sock knitting in the future.  It's simple enough to modify for the kids.  It's complex enough that they won't complain about yet another pair of plain vanilla socks.  Everybody wins with this pattern!

Hello Again! I've Made Socks!

Okay, it's time to reboot this blog!  I've got all my old knitting and crafting stuff on here, so it's worth picking up where I left off, right?  It only makes sense.

I've really missed blogging about my knitting.  Since I last posted I've made my own pattern, knit plenty of fingerless gloves, thrown together a few hats, and even knit a couple of pairs of socks.  I've taken big old gaps off of knitting too, which only makes sense.  I'm not so much a summer knitter.  It's about that time of the year when I get back into the swing of things.

So, what's on my needles?  Well, I just finished a pair of really awesome socks.  Unfortunately, I'm not in love with them.  The heel is too loose, so I'm looking into options to snug it up.  I'm probably going to rip the whole thing apart to the heel and redo that whole section.  It's better that than have a pair of socks I'm not happy with.  Sometimes I think the work is just worth it.  After all, socks are a lot of work!

As for the yarn, I absolutely adore it.  Unfortunately, it's still too scratchy for me.  I'm going to have to wear them with a pair of silk sock liners or something, because I can tolerate that kind of thing with a barrier.  It just bothers me that I'm not able to wear lovely socks like that.  I love them.  I want to wear them.  I just need to do some work on them first.  We'll see how it goes!

The pattern is a modified version of Black Rose.  I don't like knitting heel flaps, so I blended in a little bit from Cat Bordhi's New Pathways for Sock Knitters: Book One.  I took the idea of the heel gusset she used instead of a heel flap.  Unfortunately, I was dead tired when I did the math, so I ended up with a heel gusset that was far too large.  I went based on the number of stitches picked up for the heel flap in the pattern, not by the number of stitches the pattern was around.  This means my heels are baggy.  That's thankfully not the hardest fix in the world.  And, worst case scenario, I rip the whole thing out and knit them again!  I'm really not going to cry about knitting them again.  It was a lovely pattern and I loved working with it.

Overall, I found the pattern for the socks to be decently well written.  I attempted the gloves, but I had problems with the pattern, then ran out of yarn.  Her instructions were confusing, and the whole thing was far too wide for my think wrists.  It was surprising to see that her size small wasn't much smaller than the smallest size of the socks!  I wouldn't recommend her glove pattern, but I definitely love the socks.

Now my daughter wants me to knit her a pair of them too.  Who can blame her?  They're absolutely lovely.  Maybe if I knit these up again from scratch I'll make them for her.  As I said, the yarn was a bit scratchy for me.  I prefer something that's a little less rough textured, if I were to have my preferences.  We'll see how it works up in the end.  It's a lovely yarn, so I'm not sure I'd ever have the heart to part with it!

Loving the Short Row Heel, Sock Frenzy, and Cool Weather

Ah, fall!  It's the time of cool weather, falling leaves, and Halloween!  I've been kind of slacking through the summer on actually finishing projects for the fall weather, which is probably going to come back to bite me on the butt.  On top of that, some other life situations got in the way of me accomplishing my knitting goals.  I've got a lot of work to do!  There's still Christmas knitting to be done!  I'm never going to finish it all on time!

With two shawls left to be blocked, it's gotten me thinking about other projects I really need to get done for fall.  This past Saturday, for example, it would have been nice to have a shawl to throw over my shoulders just for a little added warmth.  It's starting to get cool in the evenings and sometimes that little extra can help.  Of course, there are several other things I can do in order to get ready for the cool season.  The biggest one is finishing my socks.

I know just one pair of socks isn't going to make a huge difference in the warmth of my feet for the winter weather.  I can only wear one pair of socks for so long before they need to be washed again.  It's going to be even harder with socks that need to be hand washed and laid out to dry.  I've already got one pair of superwash that I made, and I love them.  Now I have the socks I've been struggling to get through.  Second sock syndrome stinks!  However, I can't cast on any more socks until I get these ones off the needles.  I guess that's one advantage of only having one set of needles in the size I need!

As a result, I've been struggling through my Vilai socks.  The second time through the pattern had become a familiar, though slightly annoying slog.  I've kind of gotten bored with it, admittedly.  I wanted to take a break and work on something new and refreshing.  I did that for a while with a shawl that I didn't get very far on, though I adore the pattern.  I just didn't have the time to work on it, much for the same reasons I haven't been able to knit my socks.  It's been hard to carve out time during the day and I kind of wish I had a vanilla sock to throw together pretty easily so all I'd have to do is measure and be done with it.  Then I could easily take it with me for knitting on the go, like at the co-op, appointments or events.  It would be something I could pull out, do a little work on, and toss aside, at least until I got to the heel and toe.  Those would require a bit more focus, but I'd at least be able to whip those up pretty quickly at home.

However, the saving grace for these socks is the short row heel.  It's made the heel turn something so easy and relaxing.  The hardest thing about it is counting, and even that's not much of a challenge.  It gives me a nice break from the whole slog of the pattern, something mostly mindless and zen.  I'm loving the way it's working out.  I love my short row heels!

Now I just need to cruise through the sock to the finish.  I'm sure if I make an effort, it won't be long now.  The foot and toe of the last sock seemed to go together pretty quickly (thankfully, I have small feet!) so I'm expecting this one will seem much the same.

Of course, with this weather we're having, I'm going to have to finish them and quick!  My feet are cold already and it's the first real cold evening of the year!  It's going to be a long, cold winter if I keep procrastinating!

Another Shawl, Wouldn't You Know It?

So, I've kind of had it on the socks.  They weren't as evil and challenging as I assumed, once I got the pattern down, so I'm starting to find them too easy.  As a result, what did I do?  I decided to move on and do something else with my time, at least for a little while.  The sock is kind of something I just pick up every day to struggle through it, even though I'm really kind of ready to stop working on it all together.

Just a couple of days ago I cast on another project.  This one is a shawl.  I got the yarn and the pattern a while back from a swap partner.  It was beautiful, and there was enough there to make a shawl for both my daughter and I.  Actually, I think there's enough there that I could probably make several shawls with it if I knit them to the size of the original shawlette.  The pattern is the Percy Shawl.  While I love it, it's got it's own evil measure.

See, as much as I've knit lace before, I've never really knit lace with lace weight yarn.  The Knit Picks kits I've gotten to this point are all worked with two strands of yarn held together, which makes it pretty much the same as sock yarn.  It's not on nearly such fine needles either.  That means it's going to be all around easier to work with.  I know some people have problems using two bits of yarn at once, and I have to admit, it did take me some time to get used to, but the truth is, it's really not all that bad.  Working with this super fine yarn, though, that's it's own challenge all together.  Not only are the needles tiny, which means each row is very tiny and fine, but I'm working with incredibly fine yarn.  I have a feeling this shawl is going to take a lot more hours of work than the other two.  I was hoping to get my daughter's done by Christmas, but now I'm not sure that's even realistic.  I'm just at the beginning and I feel like the rows are starting to take forever.

I can honestly say this is really my first big lace project.  I've never had a lace project quite like this before.  Though my internet is pretty unreliable, I'm going to try and get some pictures up of the progress and all of that. If there's one thing I can say about lace knitting, it's that the time it takes means there's plenty of opportunities for photos.  I think this is really going to be it for me, the point at which I either love or hate lace knitting.