Aaaand we’re back to socks!!! You may have noticed that I’ve been a bit quiet of late, but that’s because I finished my socks and I couldn’t seem to write about anything else. The thing is that, my fearless co-knitters and I decided to make Once Upon A Sock a monthly sock check in rather than getting tangled in weekly sock posts.
This brilliant idea came just in time for me. I was feeling a bit guilty that I’d started my Nice Ribbed Socks on September 8th and hadn’t made much progress after finishing that first sock. It wasn’t that I was headed into the dreaded Second Sock Syndrome, I just got distracted. When I missed the big reveal of Once Upon A Sock last month, I decided I’d had enough. I was not going to let November creep up on me and catch me with an unfinished pair of socks. Especially not after determining that this gorgeous pair of socks was headed into UFO territory, which I found out to be seriously dangerous where socks and improvisation are concerned.
Here’s were the socks were when last I wrote
A few days later, I dropped everything I knew the jig was up. If I was going to finish them, I had to go to 2 Project Monogamish Mode, meaning that I could still work on the Mood Scarf, but that the socks needed all my attention. Given how crazy things have been it was more than enough to be getting on with but I can proudly say that I finished my socks on October 21st!
At first glance, these socks don’t look like they suffered from the big gap between them and you’re right, they didn’t. They’re lovely and so absolutely comfortable that as soon as I wove in the ends at the toes, I put them on and couldn’t seem to take them off until the next morning. And that’s saying something because as far as I’m concerned, once they go in the wash, the project is done and there is no changing it.
Where the time warp between socks got me is the toes, which are completely different (and possibly the tension is off a bit but more on that later). Glenna C’s Nice Ribbed Sock pattern is beautifully written and makes a wonderful sock but I had to change the toes because as I found out first time I knit these, following the pattern to the letter didn’t give me the comfiest of toes on my socks. Granted, this could be my inexperience – this is only my second pair of socks, but I thought I’d work the toe decreases so that I had a bit more room in the toes. So instead of working the pattern so that I ended up with five sts on Needles 1 and 3 and ten sts on Needle 2 and then Kitchenering the toe together, I increased the final number of stitches…. and didn’t write it down.
Yeah. That happened. >_<
How the pattern works, is that Needles 1 and 3 get combined into Needle B and become the bottom of the toe, which is then Kitchenered to Needle 2. Easy peasey right? Well yes, unless you’re me and you decide that you want the seam of your sock at the tipp of your toes rather than just behind them, so I knit two more rows on Needle B and then knit another round before I Kitchenered. I felt really bold doing this, so it stuck in my mind, and the number of stitches seriously didn’t. For the second sock, I Kitchenered 20sts together and I have some seriously comfy toes. The first sock fits really well but it’s less roomy, so I know I did less stitches. I didn’t go back because I have no idea if I Kitchenered 15sts or 18sts for the first sock and since I wasn’t sure how swollen my right foot was after PT. It could just be that my tension is off?
This lack of empirical accountability bugged me, so I got out the kitchen scale and weight each sock. Each sock was exactly 39 grams. So I felt okay about leaving well enough alone. -For now. The nice thing about socks you knit for yourself, is that you know where all the bodies are hidden 😉 I can still undo both toes and then knit them back to back so that they’re identical and while that’s tempting, I don’t feel it’s a must.
While I was at it, I weighed what was left of that sock skein so that I could update Ravelry and I ended up with 23 grams of this mystery sock yarn.
To the left is a skein of the same mystery yarn in a different colorway in it’s full 100 gram glory. I was kind of sad to discover that these two skeins were different. I’m not entirely sure what I can do with these 23 grams of sock yarn. If I knew the brand, I’d get more in this colorway hands down, and just make more socks. If I knew the fiber composition, I’d work it into another project, such as a sweater or a cami but that has to be the biggest mystery of all. What I’m sure I don’t want is for it to languish away in the Yarn Bin waiting for me to have enough scraps to put a Sock Yarn Blanket together.
I think it’s time to give some thought to the kind of yarn I’ll be getting for socks. Part of me wants to go on a project-by-project basis, but there’s a part of me that still wants to stash and that part of me also wants to make sure I always get the same material for socks, for this exact reason…
What do y’all think? Do you have a favorite sock yarn?
Project(s) in Progress 
Those look awesome! I’ve been on silent mode too because of being away for a week as well as the not knitting part. Unfortunately, I didn’t have a sock post this month because I did not knit on socks at all. I’m hoping to have something to write about for December though 🙂 Have you thought about possibly making fingerless gloves with your leftovers? I did a search on Ravelry and there are tons of patterns that use small amounts of yarn. As far as favorite sock yarns, there are too many to count! You can check out my stash on Ravelry and sort by sock yarns to see what I’ve bought. I haven’t worked with one as of yet that I haven’t liked 🙂
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Yay!It’s so goof to hear from you 😀
The wonderful thing about socks, is that they’re there for you whenever you’re ready, at least if these socks are anything to go by!
I thought about fingerless gloves but I’m not sure that I have enough of this yarn… That’s the problem with being a newbie, I’ve yet to develop an instinct for that sort of thing.
I’ll most definitely head over to Ravelry to check out your sock yarn options! I think I’m going to gear up to do a Yarn Off in January. I’ll pick three different kinds of fibers and knit the same sock and hopefully that will give me a better idea of what works best.
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Paula, you’re a genius! I went on Raverly, did some math and got a pretty good guesstimate of how much 23g of sock yarn is. I’ve got about 105 yards to work with and there’s actually a pattern for finger-less gloves that calls for 100-200 yards that I’ve had saved forever. Now I can wear women’s suffrage colors on my hands and feet! I didn’t know that my sock stripes were so significant until a few days ago 🙂
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Woo hoo! Don’t you just love Ravelry? That is an awesome idea. I’ve actually made shorter fingerless gloves that only used up a quarter of a skein so I knew there had to be something out there. Good idea on doing that little test too with the sock yarns. I have found that Knit Picks Felici is not as stretchy as a Paton’s Kroy Stretch Sock, so it may also depend on the pattern you choose as far as the stretchiness goes. It’s all a learning process and one that I can’t wait to get back to.
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Yes! It had never occurred to me to think of it as anything beyond and organization tool until you said otherwise. It’s such a brilliant call – I’m doing this from now on 😀
I was thinking about doing my yarn test with the same pattern but different fibers so that I could then move on to experimenting with different kinds of heels. Like you said, its all about experimenting to see what works. I’m taking a bit of a break from socks myself. Mostly because otherwise, I’d never get back into my sweater. Once that’s well under way and I am less in need of that level of knitting therapy/self-soothing, then, it’s back to that wild, unpredictable world of socks!
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