FO – Retro Rib Socks

Whew!  I’m not sure why this pair took me so long to finish, but finish I finally did.  These were started waaayyyy back on April 4.  All done and they will have to go into a drawer to wait until next fall to wear.  The toasty wool/mohair blend means they are far too warm to wear now.I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I like this fiber blend in Mountain Colors Bearfoot yarn.  It is a joy to work with.

I ran into a few knots in this skein.  None were big huge knots – just a knot in one of the plies – but they were enough to make me cut the yarn and start over.  A little irritating but worth it in the end.

I modified the pattern slightly to center the pattern on the foot better – details here.

This pattern is in Favorite Socks.  I just realized that I may have knit more socks from this book than any other:

• Retro Rib Socks
• Uptown Boot Socks – twice
• Merino Lace Socks
• Padded Footlets – twice
• Mock Wave Cable Socks
• Undulating Rib Socks - twice

What’s next on the home needles?  Not sure yet.  Stay tuned.

In faster than out

I’ve been making good progress on my current socks, but somehow the yarn keeps coming into my house faster than it’s turning into socks.  Motivated by an impending visit to a little girl who loves pink, I wanted to order the new Felici colorway called “positively pink.”  And then several other colorways came along with it:

Positively pink will be fast knitting, I think – probably just a simple ribbed cuff edge and the rest stockinette.  Round and round and round…

I finished the first Retro Rib sock in Bearfoot.  This isn’t a great photo, but it’s proof that it’s done (and look! spring plants!): I’m about 2/3 down the leg of sock #2 now.

And since I finished the possum socks, I needed another office knitting project.  There was only one left in my personal sock club basket, the Diagonal Rib Socks (free pattern!).  I’ve had 5 hours of webinar and 5 hours of workshop this week so far.  That doesn’t equal 10 hours of knitting, but it equals a fair amount.  So now I have this:This sock alternates the same type of diagonal rib stitch I used in Night Gulls with a 7-stitch panel of 1x1 rib.  Easy breezy.

Positively Pink will be another good office/travel knitting project, but I need to line up some more patterns for subsequent office knitting.

And that’s it for now!

Chokeberry Chugs Along…

Here’s the current sock-at-home project, Retro Rib Socks in Mountain Colors Bearfoot, colorway “Montana Chokecherry.”

This is a wonderful rib pattern, but I’ve found it’s not a great candidate for knitting at work.  I need to watch the stitch pattern instructions a little too closely.

So far I’ve only made one modification: I positioned the heel flap differently than the pattern calls for in order to center it more pleasingly.  Instead of knitting 15 stitches, turning, and beginning the heel flap as the instructions direct, I merely shifted 2 purled stitches from the heel needle to the instep needle before beginning the heel flap.  This way, the instep needle both starts and ends with 2 purl stitches, which will both center the pattern on the top of the foot and show it off nicely.  I may be wrong, but I’m pretty sure the way the pattern is written, this won’t happen (even though both the pattern and I have the flap worked over 30 stitches and the instep over 34).

I love this base yarn (60% wool, 25% mohair, 15% nylon).  If I see some at the Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival in a colorway I love, I could easily buy some more.

Speaking of the Festival, it’s here in less than a week!  I’ll be going down on Friday for an all-day class on spindle spinning with Maggie Casey.  I’m excited.  Unfortunately, I didn’t get into any of the other classes I tried for.  I guess I didn’t have a great position in the lottery.  So no class with Judith MacKenzie McCuin…  but I’ll definitely be at her lecture on Saturday at noon, which is entitled “How the West is Woolen: the History of the Pendleton Blankets.” 

Sadly, Kristina is up to her ears in grad school homework (it is the end of the semester, after all) so she won’t be joining us this year.  But Kris and I will be there as usual.  I still smile when I think of the first year all 3 of us went together, which was 2008.  It was Kris’s first time.  Here’s a shot I got just after she made her very first MDSW purchase at the Tess’ Designer Yarns booth:

She was hooked!  Kris, did you ever knit that yarn you’re holding in this photo?

Beginnings…

It’s spring in a very big way here, which is simultaneously delightful and a bit alarming (if you have pollen issues like I do).  This morning’s newspaper said that tree pollen is the worst it’s been in at least 6 years here on the East Coast.  My neti pot is my friend…

In the spirit of spring, I have 2 new socks to share.  I started these Retro Rib socks recently, thinking they were office socks.  But the pattern requires a bit more attention, so they became my home knitting project.  Of course, you never know when a home knitting project might turn into office knitting by the time you get to sock #2!  The yarn is Mountain Colors Bearfoot in a Loopy Ewe Club exclusive colorway called Montana Chokecherry – it’s gorgeous.  Autumnal (so I’m out of season) but gorgeous nonetheless.  I love this yarn, a wool/mohair blend.  I’ve knit one other pair from it, but they are a little big on me.  I knit them very early in my sock days and I think I used a size 2 (gasp!) needle.  I know better now…

Once Retro Rib came home, I started another office sock.  This one is a pattern from the Jan/Feb 2010 issue of Piecework called Contemporary Brewster Socks.  They are based on a 17th century stocking in the collection of the Pilgrim Society in Plymouth, Massachusetts.  Kinda cool.  They are mostly stockinette with a spiraling purl stitch.  The yarn is Cherry Tree Hill Possum Sock, which is an 80/20 blend of merino and New Zealand possum (really).  The possum gives it a fuzzy halo.  The color is called Slate and it’s pretty gray.  I’m not sure why my springtime knitting looks so fall/wintry, but there you have it.Both of these projects came out of my personal sock club basket.

I’ve been thinking ahead to some of the stranded colorwork socks in my queue that aren’t yet in the basket because I don’t have appropriate yarn.  I think I will use the Simply Socks Yarn Company solid sock yarn.  I saw it at Sock Summit and it’s quite nice.  But the real bonus is how many colors it comes in: 65.  I splurged and bought the color cards so I can plan.  These look more springy, yes? I also got another set of Addi Turbo Lace needles in size 2.0 (I really like the ones I have but often have 2 pairs of socks on that size at the same time) and a set in 2.25 mm.  I’ve been having more and more trouble with my Knit Picks circular needles and decided to invest in more Addis.  The tip on the Addi lace needle isn’t as pointy as the Knit Picks needle, but it’s pointier than the regular Addi Turbos (which are blunt and also have inflexible cables).

And because it’s so beautiful here, the boys and I took our bikes to the local park to try out the paved fitness trail, a nice safe loop to ride with kids.  My Skylark did great.  The bike shop got her in riding order, and now I just need to take steel wool to the rust to shine her up.  I spent some time today on that project but will need to do some more. Have a great weekend!