for amber waves of grain

by Elizabeth*-


It's beautiful yarn -- when the sun strikes it just right, my brain immediately leaps to "O beautiful, for spacious skies, for amber waves of grain. . ." It's a lace pattern I really enjoy, and will use again. But -- the yarn and the pattern are not a good match. I will continue, because I think they'll look good when done (predicting a finish after, not by, September 30), but in future will remember that Socks That Rock medium weight is much happier with a simple rib.

There's a chance, as well, that I may be suffering from sock fatigue. In the last two weeks alone, I've finished one hat (colors are deeper and richer in person; will try another photo later when it's cloudy):


cast on another (no picture yet), started a feather-and-fan scarf in sock yarn:



designed and test knit the next 10-inch block for a monthly series I'm publishing on the Stash Knitdown group on Ravelry (secret until October 1), made a pair of mittens, started another, and almost finished my hat for Knitters' Day Out (a good thing, since KDO is imminent).

Oh, and prepared a class on 3 styles of garter stitch afghan blocks for Knitter's Day Out.

So, yes, I've been knitting, but the socks are not speaking to me. . . I feel so guilty all of a sudden that I think I'll run downstairs and give them some attention.

* I added my name, because if you're reading in a blog reader, the author name shows; if you're not, there's no way to tell whether Pat or I is the one who's speaking. So, blogreader people, you will now know twice! But at least other readers won't have to guess. (I wouldn't want anyone to think Pat was quite so unfocused as the writer in this post!)

September Socks

Look at this pretty yarn!!

I'm really looking forward to knitting with this soft yarn.  We're knitting lace in September...which I don't really enjoy but with this yarn it should a pleasure.

July's Socks

I finally finished my A4A socks for July.  They were easy and I have no excuse for not finishing them sooner.  I've completely missed August knitting, I'll try to make up for that this fall.

Does the Adirondack chair look welcoming?  If so come by sometime and sit and knit with me!

I did finish a corkscrew tassel hat for Knitters Day Out.  They ask that everyone donate a hat to keep kids warm.

I also finished a garter stitch scarf made in company colors for a co-worker.

Rocky Road

Is it really September already? The topic for September is lace -- not my favorite, so I've found a stitch pattern that's kind of tailored. At least as lace goes. You will see it soon. Although it's a color I never wear and rarely respond to, I fell hopelessly in love with this skein of Socks that Rock. Worn on my feet it shouldn't be too bad:


The rich, deep golds just feel like September.

Yarn posed for its portrait in the amazing boulder field at Hickory Run State Park in Pennsylvania:

This picture shows just a small piece of the whole thing.

I scare myself

Both pairs are finished -- ends woven in and everything!! The red socks were finished 2 weeks ago; the blue socks were finished this morning at 10 a.m. I had 14 hours left! That's early.

Glamour shots and yarn details after their bath, but here's the proof:

quick update

I am rounding the heel on sock #2 of the red pair. . . next picture should show them finished!

--Elizabeth

a sock of a different color

August is our first Wild Card month. That means, except for the ground-level requirement to knit a pair of socks, there are no specific guidelines. I knew what I wanted to make -- but I could only find one of the two skeins of yarn that pair required. In the course of my wild search, however, I unearthed these:


The blue, green, and white sock (much prettier in person; I'll get a better picture) was put aside in fall 2008 to make room for Christmas. It was and still is one of my favorites -- it's pure Maine winter. The brick red sock (color on that one is exactly right) -- well, this is embarrassing, but I don't even remember this sock! I think it was sometime in 2009.

For my wild card "pair," I will finish blue sock #1 (red sock #1 was finished last night) and knit the second sock of each pair. That actually requires a little more than a pair's worth of knitting, but August has a bit of sitting-around time built in, so I am optimistic.

And, in the interest of making life difficult, two nights ago I cast on a new pair of mittens.

August 1

The first day of the month clearly has good energy for me!! I finished my fifth pair for the current afghans for Afghans campaign on Sunday, August 1:


This pair was also made holding two strands of sock yarn together -- as friends and relatives know, I have way too much sock yarn, and this uses it up faster. It also makes a soft, cushy sock. Both yarns were green/blue mixes; the darker one is a vintage Opal (ca 1999); the lighter one is a Meilenweit tweed.

I don't need to ask for a bending of the rules this time, because I finished a qualifying pair in July, but these are still headed out to California today to get into a box for the long ride to Afghanistan.

August's assignment is "wild card." I'll post mine later -- the sun is wrong for pictures right now.

--Elizabeth

Socks in July

Elizabeth, I have to confess that I haven't done ANY knitting at all in the month of July.  OK, I may have done some half-hearted knitting on a garter stitch scarf but other than that nada...I will make an effort to get two pairs of socks done beginning to end in August.  I promise.

I could make some lame excuses but let's face it, I was in England.  I had the time of my life.  It's just lovely there and I didn't see anyone knitting...I didn't have time to knit, it was a steady pace of tour, pub, sleep, tour, pub, sleep, repeat...

one more for A4A

I mailed a fourth pair today for afghans for Afghans' current campaign to collect socks for women. It's a wonderful feeling to do something for a woman over there -- life there is hard!! In addition to all the restrictions imposed by just being female, there's the constant worry over your kids -- worry about things such as whether they'll live to grow up. Can't imagine!! I have been so lucky.

Here's a pair of socks that will provide at least a small measure of comfort this winter:


The stripes make them more interesting, it's true, but what they're really saying is "There wasn't enough of this lovely brown yarn to make an adult-sized pair of socks."

Soccer weekend ahead, so there's some chance I'll finish the blue pair that's currently missing the whole second sock.

July for A4A

Pat and I both knit for Afghans for Afghans every time a campaign comes along. (If you want to see what other people are knitting, take a look over here.) When we started this year-long sock blogging project, we threw a few wild card months into the schedule, and also agreed that if there was a chance to knit socks for A4A, that would trump previous plans for the month. Ann Rubin does an amazing job of working out the logistics of getting things to Afghanistan, despite the challenges of war, corruption, expense, and who knows what else. . . and she doesn't always have a whole lot of lead time. A sudden chance arose to send socks for women this month, so that's what we're knitting.

I've been on vacation, spending a lot of time in the passenger seat while we drove hundreds of miles -- not to mention a weekend at a folk festival, which is prime time for knitting as long as it doesn't rain too hard. I finished these three pairs:


Technically, only the lighter blue pair, with the light stripes, qualifies, because it was started in July. The darker blue pair was started in June, finished July 1, and the multicolored pair on the left was started in June and finished July 2.

All are worsted weight, knit on 40 stitches. The two solid blue pairs with stripes are made of Bartlett yarn; the pair on the left (my favorite) is made from 2 strands of Kroy sock yarn held together. Kroy is a little heavier than most sock yarns I use (166 yards, about 152 meters, per 50 g) and it made a wonderful, squishy, bouncy fabric. I used one self-striping yarn held with one tweedy yarn in similar colors; it did very interesting things! I'm already looking for the next pair of sock yarns to try; meanwhile I've cast on for another Bartlett pair. These go so fast, and time is short; I hope to get two more pairs out to A4A in time for this collection.

I believe this is the earliest in the month I've ever completed our assignment.

The three pairs in the picture, plus Pat's blue socks from June, go in the mail today.

solstice socks

Here they are!! They sure look to me like the summer solstice:

I loved working with both of these yarns. In fact, I used only a bit of the yellow, and I'm already deciding what pattern to use the rest for; the richest, most jubilant yellow I've seen (dyed by The Periwinkle Sheep). The orange, from Sunshine Yarns, is 100% wool. I was worried about how well the heels would hold up, so I knit the heel flap using a smaller needle, then continued heel stitch under the heel, for the entire extent of the gusset. I will report back; it was 102 degrees earlier this week (metric folks, that's 39) so I will not be wearing wool socks for a bit! The picture above shows them in their post-blocking loveliness -- it's amazing how a nice bath and gentle stretch evens out the crooked stitches.

The picture below shows them, pre-blocking, on the shore of the lake where they were finished. This picture is a little closer to the true color.

As I said before, this pair was done on time; I sent a cell phone picture to Pat if anyone wishes to check. But we were computer-free for nearly two weeks, so it was not possible to post. Much as I love to spend time on email and blogs, I highly recommend going without for a short time! Very restful.

--Elizabeth

solstice socks update

Picture tomorrow or Thursday, but we're just back from a computer-free vacation and I wanted to check in. I did finish the solstice socks on time, and sent Pat a picture via cell phone as proof they were done. Tomorrow to wash, block, and do the photo shoot. . .right now it's 2 a.m. and I still feel like I'm in the car.

June Socks

It's such a shock to realize that June is coming to a close...I don't know what I've done with this month.  Our June socks were suppose to say "Summer" and mine do, in a round about way.  I knit this pair of socks for A4A as I just don't wear socks in the summer...summer to me means sandals and easy living.  These are knit from Norwegian sport weight yarn, they were fast and easy...just like my summer!

At first I photographed these socks flat, on sock blockers, laying on an old stump but they seemed pretty lifeless to me.

So I pulled out my tripod and shoot them on my feet, while I sat on the steps...I am not a sock model!

but I got more confident as the shoot went on and now I feel that if any of you need a sock model...give me a shout, I'll work for yarn!

Good day, sunshine

Both yarns I'm using are semisolids. In places, the orange is quite light. In places, the yellow becomes almost orange. When those places coincide, the edges of the sun motif become blurred. I was going to say this makes the motifs more subtle than I'd like, but somehow "subtle" does not seem appropriate for this particular color combination!



I've decided to go with these two yarns anyway, because I love both of them.

I'm already looking forward to making another pair, in blue, using the moon motif. And then I'm going to use that incredibly vibrant yellow and make an extraordinary pair of yellow socks.

Did you ever have to finally decide?

For June, I am making Karin Maag-Tanchak's solstice socks, as I mentioned earlier. I wanted to use her own beautiful yellow for the suns around the top, but I'm wondering if I'll be able to. Somewhere I have a skein of deep tangerine yarn that would provide the perfect foil, but it's not going to come out until I'm halfway through the second sock. I did see a skein that's perfect in a local shop -- but since I have three other choices here in my hands, I bravely resisted. Here are my choices:

The orange at the top is too red, and I wanted a more solid color. The two orange skeins at the left are too pale. That choice was easy.

Here is the chosen orange next to Karin's yellow. I'm not sure the contrast will be adequate to show off the motif.


And here is the orange with the paler yellow, which would definitely provide enough contrast:



Clearly, some swatching is in order. Tonight's plan is to wind the orange and both yellows and knit two small samples. That will settle the question. It's one week into June and defintely time to get started. I'd like to get back into the habit of finishing the socks of the month a few days early rather than one day late.

the purple socks in all their splendor

The camera finally reemerged. I have no idea where it's been, or what it does when it goes on these adventures. . .


yarn: Dream in Color Smooshy, Visual Purple
pattern: Brainylady's basic cabled socks

This photo clearly is intended as documentation only; I will try to get a better composition at some point, because this one is rumpled and off center and not very satisfying. The socks, however, were very satisfying indeed. I'll make this pattern again. The next pair will be red; the yarn is wound and waiting. Vacation knitting, perhaps?

May SOM Finished

You all may not know this about me but I'd much rather take photos than try to write something in a blog...it's hard for me to come up with stuff to say and creating a witty title, well that boat has sailed.

Anyhow, here are my May socks in all their splendor, made of Fleece Artist Sea Wool (70% Merino, 30% Seacell) in colorway Sorbetto.  I knit these socks toe-up, using my standard sock recipe.  The cable up the sides is the same one Elizabeth used, after I saw her socks I just wanted to do it, it's so cute...nice and round with just enough chunky-ness not to over power a pair of socks. 

I must admit, with my favorite model away in far flung lands, I had to use some ingenuity in my photography.  I set my camera on the tripod which was down very low; at feet level so to speak (so low I had to remove the center column which I'd never done before), I then set my reflector against a stone frog that volunteered to help (surprising as stone frogs can be quiet recalcitrant), I used the timer release (set on 10 seconds, which was just barely enough time), then I would push the button, run over to the rock wall and sit down and then slip off my crocs and compose my feet.  You would have laughed watching me struggle, feet modeling is not as easy as it looks!

Here comes the sun

The topic for June is summer. I have wanted to make these solstice socks, by Karin Maag-Tanchak, since the first time I saw them, way back before Ravelry (yes, my child, there was a time before Ravelry) when Karin posted the link on either KnitU or the knitlist. Of course, I'll be tweaking things a little. . . because it's the summer solstice, I'm using orange as my main color. And I'm making both socks the same, using just the sun pattern at the top. I'm still debating which of several oranges (how the heck did I come to have a choice of oranges?) to use, but the yellow for the suns is Karin's own handdyed yarn (Periwinkle Sheep is her company name). With so much stockinette, and summer travel season soon to commence, I know these will be done on time.

Note: I've put out an APB on the camera, but for now, text only.

--E.

the one-day rule

I seem to have fallen prey to the same syndrome that dogged me in college -- please, Professor, may I have a 1-day extension? Second sock is one toe from being finished. I call that close enough, and it is still officially the May sock! Picture tomorrow,* and intro to my June yarn and pattern. (The theme for June is "summer" -- plenty of room for interpretation!)

*if, that is, the camera consents to reveal itself. . .

E.