socks

Adventures with Doug.

Posted on December 29, 2015 by bekswhoknits

Agggges ago (this post has been sitting in the draft pile for a while now) I took myself to visit the country. A specific part of the country where two friends currently call home.

It was Midnite Moose’s birthday and so I had to personally deliver a pair of socks that I had made for her.

They’re made with Knit Picks Felici which I admit that I LURVE knitting with. Compared with Moda Vera’s sock yarn which was my previous go-to (non-indie dyed) sock yarn it is an absolute delight. The self striping colour ways are lovely and the merino/nylon blend is so soft and squishy.

The pattern is ampersand and I used a fish lips kiss heel as I didn’t have specific feet measurements.
I only used 50gms of Felici and played a bit of yarn chicken towards the end. I really wasn’t sure that I’d make it but I did.
They were delivered along with a punny card written on the back of a Cider carton box. I was totally unprepared and had to borrow some wrapping paper from my lovely hostess Amanda.

My lovely hostess also has a fantastic book collection which I put to good use. Yes I went for a 4 day trip to the country and I read a lot of books. I finished Morris Gleitzman’s series Once, Then, After, Now which was thoroughly interesting and a story I’d never heard before. I preferred the stories set in WW2 to the one in present day but they were all a good read and I may have cried a tear or 4. Fortunately this fluff ball was around to cuddle. Here is actually a do in amongst all that fluff.

This entire trip wouldn’t have been possible without the loan of my Dear Ol’ Dad’s car Doug.
I feel obliged to point out that I nicknamed my Dad’s car. He is not the type to name a car.
Doug has cruise control, an ipod cable, and felt a lot more stable and safe than my ’97 Mazda. Doug is a baby car compared to my old car.
I was slightly nervous while parking it as the last time I injured a car was the day after I got a new one and I underestimated just how long it was. There was some over cautious parking and there was absolutely NO chance of me driving Doug over the speed limit for fear of a speeding ticket turning up at my Parents house.
It was a constant fear running through my head of getting pulled over and having to explain I was a 30 year old borrowing their parents car. I don’t why that would be a bad thing? But nevertheless it was something I wanted to avoid. Fortunately I did. Doug was returned in one piece with more fuel than when I borrowed him and just slightly dirtier.
We had a grand old time together and now I *almost* want a new car, just so I can open the car boot with a button.

Overall it was just nice to escape the city for a while and get away from work demands. I didn’t check my work emails for an entire week! Mostly because there was no phone reception but a little bit of that is willpower and not having my work phone charged :S

Thanks for having me.

Finished object 10 – soft squishy socks

Posted on June 26, 2015 by bekswhoknits

Just a vanilla pair of socks with a fish lips kiss heel. Easy football knitting or while waiting for your turn to present when you’ve heard the other 2 lectures before. Although in hindsight I would have liked the chance to ask the GM if he didn’t mind me knitting, but he came in late and it would have disrupted my lecture.

I digress. That’s been what this week has been like. Awful and unable to focus on anything. Ooooh!!!!! Squirrell!!!!!!!!!

Back to the ordinary socks, the yarn is so smooshy and dyed beautifully it makes them extraordinary and lush.

It was given to me in a ravelry group swap box and it is so beautiful. I’ve lost the label (I can’t find anything this week!!!) but I do know that it was a merino/nylon/cashmere blend. Swoon.

These are the first socks off my Hiya-hiya 2.75s. What a delight to knit with.

The variegated yarn makes them look good inside out as well. I like slightly oddway socks so I shall be wearing one sock inside out whenever I wear them methinks.

I’m a but disappointed in my ribbing though. In hindsight I should have gone down a needle size because after one wear all the ribbing stretch is gone. Or maybe it’s because I did the ribbing with the knit stitches through the back loop. I might try blocking them.

Still, they are a squishy, smooshy, warm pair of socks, just in time for some cold (for Australia) weather.

I know my Canadian and Wisconsin are rolling their eyes as hard as I do when someone mentions a “30 degree heatwave” (30 degrees is my normal. A week of 40+ is a heatwave!) but I digress.

A pair of socks off the needles and I still have 60grams to make something else pretty from that yarn.

Tina-cat also seems to like them!!!

#6KCBWDAY3 – experimental photography or knitting photos with song lyrics

Posted on May 16, 2015May 16, 2015 by bekswhoknits

we'll find our own way home somehow — Editors – Papillon

if i could paint the sky all the stars would shine upon in red — Phantogram – Black Out Days

there is a strength in enduring — CHVRCHES – Dead Air

i wont be no runaway cos i wont run — The National – Runaway

twist and turning like a catherine wheel — Blood Red Shoes – In Time To Voices

our secrets sleep in winter clothes — Neutral Milk Hotel – In The Aeroplane Over The Sea

*this is a post for the 6th annual knitting & crochet blog week hosted by ekimimi makes. To see other posts on this topic search #6KCBWDAY3

Finished object number 7 – sucky socks which turned into unsucky socks

Posted on April 15, 2015April 15, 2015 by bekswhoknits

I hated knitting these socks.

Sure the yarn was squishy, the colours were pretty and the pattern was simple enough.

But the yarn was low twist so it kept a splitting, the colours pooled badly, and I stuffed up the pattern really early on in the sock and didn’t want to go back and change it.

So they’d been languishing on the needles for a while as I worked on other projects.

Then the needle I was using for Olivia broke (4th needle that has broken on that project!), the stitch pattern on the shawl I had on the needles wasn’t working for me, I didn’t feel like crochet and I didn’t want to start a new project.

I had already turned the heel (fish lips kiss style) so I picked them up again. Told myself that I would knit until the end of the football game and then bind off. By the end of the game they weren’t really long enough when I tried them on my foot but I was so sick of the bloody things I just wanted them finished and was not at all prepared to spend any time doing the usual ribbing required of a sock.

So on a whim I figured an I-cord bind off would add some extra length, plus give them a bit of extra stretch and stability around the ankle.

(The socks have been strategically photographed to not show off my giant pattern fail!)

I freakin LOVE these socks now!!!!

The fit perfectly under low topped converse which I practically live in.

I don’t mind the mistakes because they’re under a shoe, and the icord bind off makes the yarn colours look great.

I am definitely going to use this bind off for socks more often now. Plus no time consuming ribbing.

So much yarn so little time

Posted on February 19, 2015 by bekswhoknits

I feel like I’m trying to knit everything all at once!!!

I have my Sunshine Shawl making good progress after watching Australia beat England and India beat Pakistan over the weekend.

Then I am so close to finishing my crickety cricket scarf it’s just beckoning for me to finish it, even if that means staying up all night (which I am vehemently resisting but a girl is only so strong!)
I’m definitely on the home stretch.

Then there are my spirally socks. I’ve just turned the heel which means that these are also nearly finished. I’ve already planned the next project for my sock needles.

Then this shawl has gone missing and I’m systematically turning the house upside down looking for it.

And then there’s also this yarn that I dyed and just can’t stop petting.

More about that later…. When I have time!!!!

There’s still Dragon Age 2 that I’m trying to finish, and Mass Effect 3 which I’m really starting to get hooked on, plus the desire to play Dragon Age Inquisition which I have played until the final quest but there is still so much I need to do!
And so many feelings!!!!

Plus you know a full time job, plotting for birthday presents & surprise mail, and some big ideas for my blog.

I need a nap just thinking about it.

FO3 – It nearly all went aSKEW

Posted on February 10, 2015February 11, 2015 by bekswhoknits

I absolutely love this pattern.
And I really love these socks.
I zipped through these in almost record time too. Mostly because the construction was so interesting I just couldn’t wait to see how it all came together. This is one pattern where I identified as a process and a product knitter.

Sometimes’s I’ll slog through the process in order to get to the finished product.
Others I’ll enjoy the process but be underwhelmed by the product. Very rarely will I be both at once!

I really had to trust the pattern as there were so many elements I couldn’t get my head around how it would turn into a sock.
It was almost recreating the feeling that I had when I made my first ever pair of socks, you keep knitting and blindly following directions with the hope that you’ll get a sock at the end.

I knitting the toe and the body of the foot two at a time (on my beloved Addi Turbos). Then turning the heel had to be done on seperate needles.
Each sock was then worked separately until the ribbing, which I put back onto one long circular needle so that the ribbing was exactly the same length.

The only modification I made was after 3 failed attempts at kitchener stitch, I substituted a three needle bind off to graft the heel. No one (except me and now the rest of the internet) will ever notice.

The yarn is from ladybug fiber and has been in my stash for AGES! I tried making it into a shawl and that got frogged. I then tried it into a shawl, but it was really just waiting for me to listen to it’s desire to become a pair of socks.

Ladybug Fiber has a self striping sock yarn club which is the best way to get your hands on some unique yarn for yourself.

You’ll notice that the heels have felted a bit in the pictures. These socks demanded to be worn straight away and so they didn’t get photographed until they spent a day in hi-top converse!

FO 3 – mystery yarn socks

Posted on March 18, 2014March 18, 2014 by bekswhoknits

The first pair of socks for 2014 are off the needles.

They’re made with mystery yarn that I forgot to catalogue on ravelry, didn’t keep the ball band, and couldn’t understand the language it was written in.

But I liked the colours and figured it was probably a fingering weight.

As my beloved 2.5mm addis currently make my fingers all tingly when I use them (thanks old lady bones) so instead I found a pattern that used 3.5mm needles.
Which doesn’t sound like a lot but that 1mm makes a big difference on my tingly fingers.
I’ve got three pairs on the needles at the moment, 2 on bigger needles again (3.75 & 4.5mm) which also are helping the old lady bone situation and one on 2.5mm which are in hibernation due to the finger tingles.

The pattern is ampersand- upside down, and predictably was knit toe up & two at a time. Let’s not get too crazy here.

I substituted in a fish lips kiss heel which looks pretty good and is really comfortable to wear.

There is still enough yarn left over for at least one other pair of socks. Or maybe something else. Lets see what the mystery yarn tells me to do.

Thanks to Moo for modelling but they are a bit too big for his tiny cow footsies.

my weekend in numbers – FO 25

Posted on November 18, 2013 by bekswhoknits

12 – the number of sleeps remaining in our apartment.

2 – the number of invisible zips I sewed
1 – pair of shorts I successfully shortened
1 – curtain I was meant to sew up but that is lost somewhere in the abyss that it the spare room.
4 – the amount of times I couldn’t find where I left the scissors
5 – how many pairs of scissors I put away after I had finished.

48 – the number of stitches to cast on with DK weight yarn on
3.25 – mm needles for a pair of socks
3 – days it took these socks from start to finish
8 – the number of times I oohed and ahhed at the way the hand dyed yarn was knitting up
20billion – the actual number of times I marveled at my hand dyed yarn.

5 – the number of fat quarters I bought at Spotlight
0 – how many balls of yarn I didn’t buy because none of it took my fancy

2 – the number of friends who have birthdays in the next 2 weeks
2 – the number of presents I have finished for said birthdays

16* – the number of Bobs Burger episodes I watched on the weekend
7* – the number of Leverage episodes I watched
6* – the number of Parks & Recreation episodes watched.

3 – the number of bands I saw on Friday night
1 – the number of songs that I knew well enough to sing along to.

4 – the number of tacos I ate last night
0 – the number of tacos I made for myself

3 – the number of mosquito bites that I can’t stop scratching.

*I don’t know exactly how many episodes I watched. These numbers are estimated guesses.

FO#24 – Elementary Watson socks

Posted on November 15, 2013November 15, 2013 by bekswhoknits

I have been killing it at being an adult this week. My giant to-do list is getting shorter, our new house is now insured, our apartment is one step closer to being rented out, and in a surprise twist almost all of my Christmas shopping is done.

Mums pressie has been done for ages, the family over east just needs wrapping, and a pair of socks for Dad came off the needles this week.

Although technically they are a birthday present. There are 3 December birthdays in my family which I tend to include as part of Christmas shopping.

The pattern is elementary Watson. It’s cables like this that make me wish I was attracted to solid sock yarn.
The pattern does get lost in the self striping, but it’s still there.

I particularly liked the fleegel heel. I think I’ll be using that again in the near future.
And as usual these are toe up, two at a time, magic looped on my trusty 2.5mm Addi Turbos.

This is sock number 7 this year! I have to get shuffle on if I’m going to make 12. Methinks slightly larger needles for the next pair.

FO #20 – not my finest pair of socks

Posted on August 6, 2013August 5, 2013 by bekswhoknits

But they’re finished.

Originally planned for my dad, I got my maths wrong and they ended up too big.

But they fit my boyfriends feet which is something.

He’s usually quite obliging about being a foot model. But on Sunday my football team beat his football team. So he wasn’t quite as obliging.

My feet are quite a lot smaller than his.

So I’ve finished them. I resented them by the end. I didn’t like the heel I used and I started the ribbing way too early. But they’re finished and that’s the main thing.
Now I can cast on a pair for my dad. And I might follow a proper pattern this time.