Sock It To Me Thursday II: The Monogram Sock

When I started Sock It To Me Thursday, I went with a silly, Batman/early superhero TV show inspired theme to keep myself motivated through what I thought would be a long frustrating endeavor of knitting my first pair of socks. Little did I know I’d get hooked, and much less, that I’d make it a thing.

For my first pair of socks I had the pleasure of knitting Glenna C’s Nice Ribbed Sock, a traditional flap heeled/gusset sock.

This time around I’m going to try to up my sock game with The Monogram Sock shown above (photo credit: IIIMOM on Ravelry).

This sock also has a heel flap but rather than turning the heel, I’m going to attempt a “short row heel,” which is a technique I’m weirdly intimidated by. Well, that stops now. I’m excited to make a different kind of sock, and that I’m attempting my first pattern with a chart to do the monogram – with a twist. Rather than monogram my rather long Spanish name, I’m going to do a Periodic Table Square for Maggienesium! I’m not sure whether that’s going to make things easier or harder but it’s going to be fun. I’ve been inspired by the picture above to make fraternal twin socks again with the most fabulous Merino Wool/Bamboo/Nylon blend below:

So you may be wondering: Maggs, what’s with the fraternal twin socks?

You mean other than it’s kind of fun to have matching but non-identical socks?

Well, part of it is the fact that the socks aren’t going to be the same. Not for my lack of trying but my tension might not be consistent from one sock to the other and rather than worry about it, I’m going to celebrate their differences by making them just that: different.

Also, I have to confess that my color choice was inspired by the piece of chocolate cake I bought today while I was out and about running all the errands. Before you think I’m procrastinating on my knitting, I want to say that the highlight of my errands was getting the last available skeins for the Serenity Sock Weight Yarn in Navy.

I’m told that there is more of this discontinued yarn in San Leandro but that store’s customer service is rather wretched, so the top this is for is going to be striped with white to stretch out this gorgeous yarn a bit. As you can see, I’ve treated myself to a gauge ruler and now I know that my DPN’s are US 3’s and that the three metal DPN’s I recently inherited are US 1’s. Now that this last haul has been neatly stored in the Project Bin, I’m off to knit my swatches.

Yeah, two of them. I checked out the fiber content of the flaxed colored yarn above and it turns out to have a different fiber ratio than the brown yarn. They are both labeled “super fine 1” but just to be sure things wont get weird, I’m knitting up some swatches. Right after I go check out how my co-knitters Hannah and Paula are doing/how badly they’re showing me up on this Sock Thursday 🙂

So how are your socks going?

Haven’t started but maybe you’re just a bit curious? Feel free to join the party! I’m always trying new techniques and have links to both the Nice Ribbed Sock and this pattern (The Monogram Sock) on my Free Patterns page and regardless of what sock you’re working on, link up your progress next Thursday. There is also a Live Knit in the works so stay tuned for that 🙂