What I made, by Sharon

Today being the last day of soctober, I finished my last pair of socks for the month. I made a variation of Purl Soho's Sporty Striped Socklets which is basically a top down, heel flap and gusett simple shortie sock. I striped it more than the pattern said, which turned out to be a good move, since since I ended up with less than a gram of the main colour left over. I do have enough of the pink for a blanket square.I have sadly fallen behind on the sock blanket square knitting (only doing two this month so far) so I will get caught  up tonight and then move on to non-sock projects. In fact, my next project is on 6mm needles! But more about that next week.

It's been a good week, so far. After my " knit four things in a week " craziness last week I started a pair of Rachel Coopey socks on Sunday night. It's been a while since I knit lace socks, and I'm loving it. I did manage not to knit at lunch time for a couple of days, but blew it today! I'm particularity loving knitting in my own hand-dyed yarn again.  In reading, I started and finished R.H. Herron's Stolen Things . Check out that front cover, isn't it marvelous?  The book itself is great. Fast paced and thrilling and a tiny bit silly while still raising very serious issues. I highly recommend. And then I read another e-Arc, courtesy of NetGalley, We have Always Been Here , another great cover : It's the memoir of Samra Habib, a gay, Moslem, immigrant to Canada, and the first half was really good, but the last part has descended into identity politics and lectures about representation. It's fine, but kind of tedious. And tha...

I really struggle to come up with interesting titles posts about socks - because lets face it - their generally pretty standard. These are Arkin by Rachael Coopey. As usual from rachael, as good design, with a bit of interest, in this case reversing cables that run assymetrically down the socks. The main points of interest: I'm loving the HiyaHiya sharps in 2mm. They make such a nice fabric, but the other day i grabbed the project off the couch while on my way out the door, scratched myself and bled all over the place. I had to cast the first one on twice, because on the 2mm needles the top edge was a bit tight. For the second I used the crotchet cast on method, and it gives quite a nice edge. This is the oldest (non laceweight) yarn in my stash. I bought it when I went to sock summit in 2009, dyed it with food colouring and then last year overdyed it. It feels good to clear out the bottom of the stash pile. So I guess I did have something to say about these!

  I have largely been knitting the endless edging on the Village Sweater wrap, but I did cast on a pair of sneaker liners in Rachel Coopey's Mixalot pattern, because sometimes it's just not appropriate to stare at a chart. I've been knitting with my beloved Signature  2.5mm sock needles. A couple of Fridays ago I lost one. Or rather dropped it on the floor at my parents, and they didn't find it until they vacuumed. It prompted me to do something I'd been thinking for a while: go down a needle size for socks. Maybe I've become a looser knitter, or maybe I'm choosing to knit with finer yarn, but my last few pairs of socks have been a bit loose on me, and have lacked that nice, tightly knitted feeling. i bought Karbonz in 2.25mm. I like the Karbonz almost as much as the Signatures, and they are a third of the price. The only thing is, the Karbonz only come in a 6inch, and I love the shorter Signatures. We'll see how it goes. In the meantime I'...

unusually enough, its been three pairs of socks in a row! I found Rachel Coopey's Mixalot socks, and thought they would make perfect sneaker liners. They are basically designed for left over sock yarn, and we all know I'm trying to use that up! I'm waiting for a delivery of Buchaille for Leon's winter set. Since it is rather late in the season to start knitting that, I want to be able to get it on my needles as soon as the yarn arrives, so I wanted to knit something quick. Because last week was busy, and some other reasons, it took me a week to knit these little beauties. Now I'm just finishing things off, and hoping that package comes in the post tomorrow.

In October 2014  I hatched a plan to knit every pattern from Rachael Coopey's completed "What would Granny Weatherwax Knit" club, while listening to Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels, on which the club was based. In October 2016 I finished the last sock from the club. This is what all 12 pairs look like together: It worked out really well. I knitted 6 pairs for Leon and 6 pairs for me, all from stash yarn.   Some of them are not as fresh as others, having been worn hard for 2 years, while others are pretty new. It was such a fun project and I love each and every sock. So, what now? I'm still going to listen to Discworld when I knit socks, a novel every couple of months paired so well with socks every couple of months. I'm undecided whether I am going to go on another sock mission, or be more free and unstructured. I am eyeing Cookie A's Sock Innovation . It's one of the first sock books I ever bought, I Iove every sock in it and I'v...

I really don't know why these socks gave me so much grief . I knit the first one up to the toe, and then ripped back a repeat, because I thought it was going to be too long. I then knit the toe, which turned out to be enormous  leaving the whole sock too long. I knit the second sock one whole repeat shorter, and started decreasing every row half way through the toe, leading to a shorter sock, a shorter toe and a sock that fits perfectly: I then ripped back the first sock  and knit it to match the second, and here it is, the final pair of "What would Granny Weatherwax Knit" club socks, Conina:

but it is different , I promise. I am reading the same book ( City of Blades ) but, because I have been carrying the paperback around with me all week, it's looking a bit battered. The book itself is good, and it's not a difficult read, it's just that last week I was right at the beginning, and this week I am heading towards the rather exciting end. I'm knitting with the same yarn as last week, but this week I am knitting Conina   socks, from Rachel Coopey's 'What would Granny Weatherwax Knit" club. Loving them, despite my s truggles following the directions. To go with it I'm listening to the next Discworld book The Last Continent ,   which is ok, but seems to have become a little lost in the middle. I'm sure it will find its way again. And that's me for another week. Do pop over to Ginny's b log. Hopefully you will be able to see what she and the rest of the yarn along have been up to, but I know she's been having computer iss...

As I suspected from the beginning , the yarn was rather too busy for these magnificently patterned socks. Despite this, I am very happy with them. They fit perfectly, and are super comfortable. the pattern is cleaver, mirrored and running down the outside edge of each sock. I did have to wrestle with the feeling that they were taking forever to knit, but that is a consequence of choosing to knit complicated socks. I don't know why I am always in such a rush to finish things. Anyway, those are thoughts to ponder another time, for now I'm going to put on my new socks and be joyful.  

I finished my ninth pair of socks from Rachel Coopey's Discworld sock club this week. These are for Leon, and they are called Ook . Named after the Librarian at the Unseen University, the yarn was a perfect match for a sock named for an orangutan. Knit in Cascade Heritage , they were delightful. Portable , fun, easy to memorise, a fabulous yarn and pattern match.    I only have one observation, and its about me as a knitter. For the first sock  (on the right above, on the left below) I picked up the stitches, and they were not very nice. They are structurally sound, but a bit wonky and not nice looking. For the second sock I picked up the stitches and twisted them at the same time, and look how much nicer they are. A neat row of perfect stitches.    And now a final picture of the back of these lovely socks:  

Draco Nobilis  is the eight pair of socks I've knit from the Rachel  Coopey " When Granny Weatherwax Knits Socks " club. In the Discworld, 8 is a magic number, and these were pretty magical to knit. Going down a needle siz e made a huge difference, and the fabric feels really nice, as well as the socks fitting me better than the rest of the socks I've knit from this club. I love the colour of the yarn, as well as the fact that it is tourist yarn , but, because of the mulitcoloured nature of it I was worried about the pattern getting lost. Looking at the finished socks, I think the pattern breaks up the pooling nicely. Going with my aim of taking from the bottom of the pile I used a yarn bought in 2011. Well seasons, it can now fly out into the world as Draconis Nobilis - glorious dragon socks. 

  I finished my Weatherwax socks yesterday.  I like them, although they haven't photographed particularly well. They fit, but they could be tighter. Since this seems to be an ongoing theme, it seems like it's time to go down a needle size when I'm kitting socks on two needles. So, the lace isn't quite as obvious as it could be. The other reason is that I am a lazy photographer and Juniper wasn't being a very good photographer's assistant.  I deliberately modified the pattern so they were the same length. I accidentally  modified it so the pattern repeats more on the left foot than the right. I'm claiming it as an homage to the original asymmetrical patter.  

I was happily knitting away on my Weatherwax socks when I read the heel instruction for the second sock. These socks are mirrored so I read the instructions carefully. the I scratched my head and read them again. The I shuddered and said "NOPE". As written, and on purpose the left sock is seven rounds longer than the right sock. Why? Why would I do that? Why would anyone do that?  

I said previously that I had been wanting to knit orange socks since 2013. The odd thing is that what motivated me to make orange socks that I bought orange shoes. Now, matching orange with orange is a terrible fashion idea, as illustrated here:   It’s how I do food matching as well – oh a rich chocolate cake, lets put an oatmeal stout with that. Coffee mouse goes with Baileys, obviously. So, not a sophisticated approach to matching anything. Even though I’m doubtful about wearing the orange socks with the orange shoes, I love them. The colour is so lovely and the pattern is really attractive. Well, they  are when they areon. The socks have a weird shape when they are off, probably because of the massive amount of ribbing at the top.   Put them on though and the lace gets stretched out, the ribbing hugs my calves and they are perfection. Not only that, they were such a fun knit. Easy to memorise lace is my absolute favourite thing...

It still being sOctober, I decided to cast on my next pair of Discworld socks, The Colour of Magic. Now, the colour of magic is Octarine , described as the eighth colour on the Discworld, only visible to wizards and cats. For some reason I've always imagined it as the colour after orange. For this pair of socks I decided to knit it with some Jitterbug that I bought in Bendigo 2012. I can't believe I left this yarn in a box for so long. It's incredibly pretty, and a lot softer than I remember Jitterbug being. It has all my favourite pastel colours and is so pretty. So is the sock, although it's not a great knit it drinking / in public (am I giving too much away if I say that the majority of my knitting seems to be done in the pub, and I knit a lot? ;) I think the pattern stands up to the variegated yarn, and I just can't stop looking at the prettiness of it. Magic indeed.

Today I finished my first pair of socks from my Discworld Sock Project  and I am very satisfied with them. They are toe up, which is not my preferred method of knittng socks, but Rachel Coopey designs a heel flap and gusset that is very easy and sensible. That said, I found it a tad tricky to work out where to start the increases, and I think they just are a smidge too big in the heel. The pattern is great, though fairly tricky to photograph. I didn't realise, until I was actually knitting these, that the pattern on the foot repeats on the back leg. It's challenging enough to be interesting, without being mindblowingly hard. All in all, a sock that bodes well for the remaining twelve pairs i'm going to knit for the Discworld Sock Project. 

I started the Discworld sock project with the Sapient Pearwood Socks. I'm not using any specific logic to choose which socks I knit next - probably one for Leon, one for me (or rather TWO for Leon, two for me). I'm using Knitch yarn that I bought in New Zealand    I love, love, love the colour and thought it was perfect for the project. Named after one of my favourite Discworld characters, The Luggage.  An explanation of sapient pearwood, and The Luggage, taken from the Discworld Wiki:   The Luggage  ...is a large chest made of sapient pearwood (a magical, intelligent plant which is nearly extinct, impervious to magic, and only grows in a few places outside the  Agatean Empire , generally on sites of very old magic). It can produce hundreds of little legs protruding from its underside and can move very fast if the need arises. It has been described as "half suitcase, half homicidal maniac" ( Sourcery  paperback p22). While I don't plan t...

 sOctober is the funnest month of the year for me. I feel like I haven't knit socks for ages (actually it's just since the beginning of August). This sOctober I'm making a plan that will last the whole year. I've been eyeing Rachel Coopey's socks for quite some time, and, while pocking through her patterns I discovered that she had done a Discworld themed sock club a couple of years back. That's right, twelve pairs of socks based around Discworld themes and characters! If you've been reading my Yarnalong posts you will know that I am gradually listening to the books, and you know how much I love a theme. So - 12 pairs of socks in twelve months, knit a long with the audiobooks. (Although not rigidly so, it's hard to coordinate finishing a project and a book at the same time, and I'm a monogamous knitter and reader.) I'm so excited. As soon as I have my current projects finished - which should be by the end of the weekend, I'm casting on the f...