Progress Update on my sock-a-month-for-a-year goal...

I started with these in January....















Here's where I experimented with nylon reinforcement thread, which really worked out well given how my son insists on dancing around the house while wearing these.

Then after that, it's kind of a blur, but these came next








There's another pair I sneaked in during the month of March, but I can't find the picture right now.... SO....that brings me to a grand total of 7 and it's only the end of May, so I'm feeling like I'm in good shape for making my goal. How's everybody else doing????


Yours in too much sock yarn (but luckily they always wear out, so can one every really have too much of the stuff?)
Claire

I'm halfway there!

Well, actually MORE than halfway because I had started the ribbing for the second sock on another set of needles. I'm Sooooo glad I did that because now I'm facing only a couple inches of wrist breaking ribbing instead of 8...

I decided to try the Pointed Toe as I think it might be a better fit for my person's long toes. So here it is- a modified pointed toe, adapted from the very wonderful Knitting Vintage Socks by Nancy Bush. It's worked over slightly more rows than the Basic Sock toe, otherwise known as the classic French toe. Also, it does not call for the Kitchener, so if you don't especially like grafting you might want to have a go at this technique!

Well it's back to ribbing for me.

Yours in knitting,
Claire

The Worst Thing About Socks...

For me at least, the worst thing about socks isn't that after all the work of knitting one you've still got another one to do. It's the thought of all that bloody ribbing.

I decided on a whim two days ago, to knit someone a pair of socks by next Saturday. Yup, 30,000 stitches in 10 days. I knit EVERYWHERE!!
In PTA meetings, in the car waiting for the kids dance classes to end, sitting in the exam chair at the eye doctors, begging to not have my eyes dialated because I'll lose an hour of knitting time... I even had the sock in the car yesterday morning when I drove the girls to school- prompting my daughter to roll her eyes and wonder aloud what I possibly thought I'd get done on it in the 5 minutes it takes to get there and back. But, it was a snowy, icy mess outside and I knew if I ended up in a ditch I'd be really really calm because I could get another inch out of the way while I waited for a tow truck!

However....the wrist strain is starting to kick in. 11,000 stitches of 2x2 ribbing. The Only Time I Regret Being a THROWER and NOT the time to convert to picking.

I had originally thought to start the ribbing on both socks so when I finished the first I wouldn't be so overwhelmed confronting that other 8 inches of cuff. BUT, my wrist pain makes it so going.

So at this point, I've got about 2 inches of that second cuff and I'm focusing instead on the pleasant ease and monotony of the stockinette foot, enjoying the BEST part of knitting socks- thinking with much love and affection of the person they're intended for!

Wish me speed,
Yours in knitting,
Claire

Online Supersocke 100 sock yarn

As I embark on this mission to knit 12 pairs of socks in 12 months, it occurs to me that it might be useful to review the yarns as I go. There, now it seems a more productive and less frivolous use of my time, although is a handknit pair of socks considered a frivolity or more a lovely way of life!



I asked my nine year-old, who's modeling the February socks, if handknit socks are better or is it just that he loves them because I made them for him. He replied, "well, yes, there's that, but it's just no ordinary sock."

I think I'll ponder that awhile. In the meantime, here's the review...

Online Supersocke 100 Highland Color
100gr/420m
75% superwash wool, 25% polyamid
made in Italy

One skein knit up a pair of child's (shoe size 2) socks with plenty of yarn to spare. You can easily knit a pair of women's or men's regular socks out of just one skein.

I used a set of US 1 1/2 (2.5mm) double points. However I am a very loose knitter and I would imagine most people would use a US 2.

The yarn is smooth and even in its thickness. It doesn't have much of a twist, and is rather loosely plied, although I didn't have any problem with the yarn splitting. There is a certain scratchiness to the material which made it less of a pleasure to work with than Cherry Tree Hill or Lorna's Lace. My son, who always watches my progress eagerly and wass quick to pull them on the minute they were finished, found them cozy but way too itchy to wear until they were washed. I ran them through a warm water machine cycle then let them air dry and they softened up enough for him to wear them to school with no problems at all. They blocked well and seem to be holding their shape nicely. I'm seeing very little pilling.

Supersocke 100 comes in a variety of colorways and I absolutely love the striping pattern. There is a definite repeat to the stripe, so that it's easy to make a matching pair. I have to tell you however, that mid-way down the cuff of the second sock, there was a break in the yarn which had been tied to a different section of the pattern. While the two pieces were close in color, they were different enough to cause the pair to be slightly mismatched. Despite this, I will happily use this yarn again.

Yours in knitting,
Claire

Socks

In the spirit of Shirani's Year of the Sock, I've decided to knit a pair of socks a month...I normally wouldn't put this kind of pressure on myself, but it just dawned on me today (about 30 seconds before I set my goal) that it's only mid January and I'm all ready half way through my second pair - thinking of it that way makes it seems a little more reasonable.

So here's sock number two - technically February's sock- done in a really cool striped Online yarn.

Yours in yarn,
Claire

I've run out of sock needles...

Not that I don't own plenty of size 0 double points...it's just that they're all holding unfinished projects...

All beautiful yarns that I had great plans for. It's been so long though, that when I dug through my sock stash this morning, I couldn't for the life of me identify the yarn, or remember who each sock was intended for. Except for that whitish Lorna's Lace (i think) in the middle...that one is the second of a pair I used in a class and had promised to my daughter who wears a lot of that color. And last week I jumped right into that second sock only to realize to my horror that I had misplaced the first...

So, I am ready to start her a new pair, out of that gorgeous new Noro sock yarn (up there on the right) only what to do for needles....

Yours in mountains of sock yarn,
Claire

So much yarn; so little time....

I am plagued right now with project-guilt...all together too many pending projects when all I really want to do is work on Lizard Ridge... (As a total aside here - I could have easily typed "alot of projects on the needles" but as my sister called to point out to me last night: "alot" just isn't a word... Susan doesn't very often take the time to read this blog, but she was so mortified by my error, that she searched on "alot" and was horrified to find 4 instances of it in my writing...As I pointed out to her, there are just as many occurrences of "a lot" as I do, in fact, know it's two words. I type fast, however, and tend to rely on Blogger's spell check which, it turns out, does NOT recognize the error of "alot". My sister did go on to say that maybe I rely a little tooooo heavily on this phrase, spelled correctly or not, and so, in deference to her, I wrote instead, "all together too many." And there you have it Susan!)

Anyhow...

Shirani and I were just agreeing today that Lizard Ridge really is our favorite thing to knit on these days. The yarn is wonderful, the blocks are manageably small, the pattern is simple, yet the short rows keep it interesting...just an all around satisfying project!!

The guilt though...there's that Sock It 2 Me class project...


meeting tonight so I REALLY need to be farther along on that...

Then there's the Lace Triangle Shawl that I'm knitting along with my students. It's a Christmas gift, but more importantly, how's it going to look when my class is leaving me in the dust?

And then of course - George's Mitered Blanket...if it weren't for all those bloody tails I might be nearly done with it. The class is around the corner (can you believe November is almost upon us????? WHERE HAS THE TIME GONE?


I cannot be alone in this kind of project guilt, can I??

So tonight, I am really really really planning on getting those miters out the back of the linen closet...I'm just going to do a couple more short rows first!

Yours in knitting,
Claire

Tofuties Boot Camp at Cultured Purl!!

Shirani wanted me to let you know that it's Boot Camp this week at the yarn shop. Wednesday, August 22nd, through Saturday, August 25th, Cultured Purl is hosting a sock trunk show.

Stop by the shop and try out samples of Tofuties great sock yarn. Be sure to bring your favorite sock needles with you so you can knit up some swatches. Anyone purchasing the new yarn will also be entered into a raffle for a cool new sock tote.

So stop on by!!

Yours in knitting,
Claire

Toe up lace socks!

Take a look at these beautiful socks designed by Chris J!! Since discovering the technique of knitting socks from the toe up, Chris has been experimenting with adapting vintage lace patterns into gorgeous socks like these, and if we're lucky she'll be teaching us how to do it this fall! Keep an eye on Shirani's email newsletter or inquire this summer at the store for dates on Chris's class!

Yours in knitting,
Claire

The Ankle Socks are finally finished!!!!!

These socks have been in progress for so long that I can't for the life of me remember what the yarn is. Shirani might remember... it's a very nice, muted stripey thing in various shades of red and green and my daughter loved the yarn so much that what was originally intended to be a pair of socks for me became, almost as soon as I had cast on, a pair of (blessedly) quick ankle socks for her. I hate those never ended ribbed legs! (I realize as I write this that the quickie ankle socks concept seems to be in direct contradiction to my opening sentence...however the actual knitting time was really quite brief!)

They would have been done yesterday, but I ended up having an epiphany that downloading this way-cool palm project management software would be a great way for me to better organize and stay on top of all my knitting projects. It of course took 2 hours to install on my Treo and another 4 hours to load all my knitting projects into it. And it did cross my mind that, compared to the 30 minutes of knitting I actually had left on the ankle socks, this way-cool have to do right away software tangent was maybe a bit ridiculous. But it is WAY-WAY-WAY-COOL how, with only the touch of a button, I can get a neat list of all my projects On The Needle, vs say another view of What I Must Get Down For My Classes ASAP. (I'm thinking I may have lost most of my readers' enthusiasm at this point, and maybe only fellow palm-lover Chris J is still with me here... so back to the sock....)

It's got a star toe. Thank you Nancy Bush for that great book on vintage socks!! And for those of you with teenage daughters, ankle socks seem to be the only knitted garb they'll wear these days...which makes only having to do an inch of ribbing all the nicer.

I can't however bask in the glow of a freshly completed knitting project because there's SO MUCH FREAKIN SOCK YARN IN MY STASH SCREAMING my name that I can't think straight. I have to cast on either the Lorna's Lace, the Jitterbug, or the Cherry Tree Hill...so I'm off to find my new Lantern Moon Sox Stix...

Happy Memorial Day,

ps (Did you know the original date of Memorial Day, May 30th, was chosen because it was the only spring day on which a civil war battle had not been fought?)

Yours in knitting,
Claire

Check out what's new at the Cultured Purl!!!!!!

It's Cherry Tree Hill sock yarn and Wow is it GORGEOUS!!!! Rich, vibrant colorways, beautifully soft merino wool with an interesting little twist that I think is going to knit up to one very pretty sock. It arrived at Cultured Purl 2 days ago and before it had even been tagged, 10 skeins had been sold!! So hurry on in and take a look.

And for all the lace knitters out there...check out the beautiful Addi Turbo Lace circular needles...

It's pretty common knowledge that I am a DIEHARD wooden needle lover...but I am working on a design for a new triangular lace shawl and decided to give these a try. Skacel has come up with a needle that is geared toward the needs of lace knitters: very sharp tips for getting into tricky stitches on fine yarns; soft, dark toned cord that makes tiny stitches really visible; hollow, coated brass tips which let the stitches fly along at a quick pace without being too slippery to control; and finally, and BEST OF ALL, the
smoothest, tapered join that you could ever hope to find which really cuts down on the drag and snag that so often happens when working lace on hundreds of stitches... Can you tell I love them??? So...I wouldn't say I'm a convert, because wood will always be my first love, but for lace knitting, ADDI LACE TURBOs ARE THE WAY TO GO.

And finally, Sue just got a delivery of Blocking Wires: sets of very thin, long, flexible, metal wires that are designed to make blocking lace, among other things, simpler. You slide the wires through the edge stitches and then pin the wires down with a couple of T-pins. For example, they would have come in REALLY HANDY when I was blocking my Lace Sampler Shawl with 102 T-Pins...Definitely worth a serious look.

Well I am heading back to the lace design board...hope to see you soon at the Cultured Purl.

Yours in knitting,
Claire

Lorna Has Landed

That's the call I got from Sue today: Lorna's Lace sock yarn HAS ARRIVED at Cultured Purl. And because I already have enough sock yarn stashed to keep my family in knitted socks for the next decade, I naturally did the sensible thing and RAN RIGHT OVER AND BOUGHT A BUNCH OF THE STUFF!!!!

And there was a line ahead of me.

It is a beautiful, buttery, lusciously soft yarn, done in some of the loveliest colorways I've seen. 3 skeins should get you 2 pair of socks.

Hurry on over and take a look!!

Yours in knitting,

Claire

Eye of Partridge

When I ran into Linda at the yarn shop yesterday, she showed me some of her recently knit socks done up in Socks that Rock Yarn. (Linda actually knits with the yarn she buys as opposed to those of us who just hoard it...)

anyway...she had THE coolest looking heel, the Eye of Partridge. She got it from the Harlot's Knitting Rules book, however I googled it and found about 100,000 hits. Essentially, it is just like the heel stitch (where you slip every other stitch on the knit side) except that every other knit row is offset one stitch. There is a very nice picture and chart here The end result is a sort of an all over basketweave look versus the vertical columns of the heel stitch.

What I really want to do is drop all my other projects and start on a pair of socks featuring this heel...but I am going to do the responsible thing and finish something already started (and maybe clean up the laundry room.)

Give it a try and let me know what you think!

Yours in knitting,
Claire

A nicely elastic cast-on for SOCKS...

If you've stopped by Cultured Purl lately (any given day in the mornings) then you've likely seen me fiendishly working on socks because, well, that's what I do now: fiendishly knit socks....I wonder sometimes when I pause to tend to the blister on my index finger, constantly rubbed raw in my effort to obtain the correct tension on my size 0 needles [I can't find any 00 in the wood I like, hence the near death grip I need to use to get 28 sts/4] or when I need to forage for more Ibuprofen to relieve the sort of tennis-elbow-like pain I've developed from rushing through the 30,000 sts it takes to make a pair of man's socks. OhmyGod where was I going with this sentence... Oh yes, I've been wondering when something moves from a hobby to an addiction and then finally on to an obsession. I am going to say instead that I have been "exploring a new interest" in hand knitted socks...

Rather than admit to an obsession, I will say that, as a knitting instructor, it's important that I completely understand every aspect of the craft so that knitters do, in fact, learn something when they take one of my classes.(Yes, a rather lofty goal, given the centuries of knitting knowledge out there, but it's good to aim high!!) Anyway, that line of thinking is what makes me feel less guilty when asked (by seemingly every member of my family of late) WHY I am carrying my knitting bag with me EVERYWHERE. There are times, such as driving in the dark to wait outside in the dark for 2 minutes or less for my daughter's dance class to let out, for example, when I know there is no conceivable way I will get so much as a row done, but it's somehow soothing just to have the sock-in-progress nearby....(alright, I'll admit this is sounding a bit obsessive-like...) That line of thinking also helps when those other nagging responsibilities, like laundry, dinner, laundry, errands, and laundry, cross my mind. Pursuing expertise in turning a perfect heel somehow seems more important. That line of thinking (finally she gets to the point at hand...) is what has led me to discover what sock-knitters of old have praised for eons before me: the German Twisted Cast-On.

Similar to the popular Long Tail Cast-On, and also apparently known as the Old Norwegian Cast-On, the German Twisted Cast-On is quick, extremely elastic, and very attractive as the beginning to a ribbed cuff-down sock.

If you know the Long-Tail method, you're more than half way there as the techniques are very similar. The difference is that, instead of beginning the stitch by bringing the needle through the loop on the thumb, from front to back, the needle is brought down under and behind BOTH strands of the thumb loop and then forward through the loop from BACK TO FRONT. For an excellent tutorial, CLICK HERE This cast-on method creates a prettier, more elastic edge than the regular long-tail, making it a very good option for socks. Check out the tutorial, and give it a try!

Yours in knitting
Claire

Sock it 2 me

That is the name Sue came up with for the sock class I'll be teaching in a couple of weeks for those who have graduated Laura's basic sock class and are interested in trying some different techniques. Laura herself will also be teaching a special sock class with a fancy leg stitch for those who'd like to move beyond the basics.

and so...for the last week or two I've been busy experimenting with different heels and toes. Those of you who followed along with my husband's birthday sock saga may be reading this with a not-so-small amount of incredulity. But yes, I have in fact developed a sort of love affair with knitted socks...even to the point where I find working on toothpicks kind of comforting...

There are just SO MANY OPTIONS...about a gazillion ways to cast on, pattern the leg, turn the heel, form the toe. And the yarn choices are frankly STAGGERING. I admit that I have been stashing hoards of the stuff: self-striping skeins of sock yarn, each beautiful in its own way!

And here is my favorite so far:





This uses the Channel Island Cast-On (from the British Isles) which makes an interesting and perfectly pretty edge for single rib. And here I use a Dutch heel which makes a rounder heel than the more common French method.

And this is the Star Toe:


It makes a very nice round, seamless toe with a pretty star-like design that is impossible to see in this picture...

So stop by the shop and sign up for one of the new sock classes!! And if you've never tried a sock before, then hurry and get into Laura's basic sock class (they fill up fast!!) you won't believe how addicting knitted socks can be!

Yours in self-striping sock yarn,
Claire