Pair 10 - Herringbone Rib

I've been in a prolific knitting period recently, not sure why.  Having a knee injury which restricts my running to 3 tiny 5 mile runs a week instead of at least one run being of 10+ miles may be a factor, there's certainly no increase in available time, maybe a small amount since my courses finished in April.

The patterns knitted recently have been rather quick growing or easy to remember like this one.

Several false starts with the lovely Odyssey yarn from Flamboyance. The colour is called Dazzle Ships and it certainly does!

I tried and failed with another Socktopus pattern - De Stijil which would have looed cool, but it was a mess, even after following the pattern to the letter.  So the yarn was rewound and I tried Cookie A's Hedera with it.  The pattern worked, but it was getting lost in the myriad of colour, so it was turned back into a ball of wool.  I finally found this pattern and it worked perfectly, complementing the yarn and being an easy pattern of 2 rows to remember.

So I am now 10% of the way to my target of 100 socks.  It's quite a milestone and a lot of socks already. 

I do like sock knitting, it's quick, portable and I like the organic nature of the yarns and never quite knowing how it's going to end up.

These socks have 2 different stripe patterns, from a single continuous skein which is weird, but also rather interesting.

Of course being more productive with knitting socks means I make space in my yarn bag for some more.......

Pair 9 - Owlies

Fetch Sockathon 3.

Started this pair on 8 May after a few false starts with yarns that the pattern got lost in the beige/natural colours seemed to suit the pattern very well.

Used black beads to compliment the yarn.

As the socks progressed, one round of owlies appeared to be ninjas with little black masks on them, which looked very cute and from then on the socks were referred to as ninja owlies.

When I started the 2nd sock, the yarn was in a slightly different place and I didn't quite get the full ninjas like the first sock.  There are a few hiding in different places in the 2nd sock though.

Happy with these, I learned a new technique of single cables without a cable needle which was much quicker and less fiddly. 

As this was the 3rd cable pair on the bounce, I'm feeling a little cabled out and after Herringbone Ribs are completed- they were started alongside owlies I will be switching to a lace based pattern for some variety.

LMG likes these socks and asked if I could knit a purple pair for her, so yarn was purchased and when I get some silver beads to go with it and a fine crochet needle I will get to work on them, I expect them to be number 12-13 of this project! 

Pair 8 - Sunshine

Today I finished the next pair from Sock Innovations.
This pair was knitted for my mother as I haven't knitted her a pair of socks for ages.  She was given free rein to rummage through both of my stash sacks and could choose whatever yarn took her fancy.  She settled on a yarn I've had for yonks, one me and LMG (Little Miss Girlie) dyed a couple of summers ago (at least) using Kool Aid.

We had great fun dying yarn, filling old Fruit Shoot bottles with the different colours and just going wild to create a funky colour mix.  With this one though, we did stick to one colour, but it is clear that we had some areas that took more dye than others. 

The effect reminds me of a cherry ice cream I saw once on holiday  and really suited the pattern selected.

This time the pattern really shows up well against the yarn, I am strangely drawn to the loud and colourful yarns, which often lose the patterns I want to knit. 

I did enjoy knitting these, although since I started them, with a brief pause to knit a couple of baby coats, it hasn't stopped raining, so hoping the weather will pick up now they are finished.

I am looking for a pattern called Persistent Rain (or similar) in the hope it is sunny picnic weather when I knit them.

Had enough spare yarn to knit a hexipuff for my Beekeepers quilt and a square to add to the pile that will become another sock yarn throw.

Pair 7 - Sockathon 2

March 2012 meant the start of the next Fetch Sockathon.  A pattern called Circles had been chosen.  This involved slip stitches to make the circles and required a self striping yarn. I was completing other projects, so I started this one a little late, but we allow 2 months for each one, so I had plenty of time to complete them.

In my other bag of sock yarns which is home to the Opal/Regia ones, I found a yarn in pretty stripes, but no ball band. 

The pattern was easy enough to work, but the yarn doesn't work well with it and I find these socks rather ugly.  They serve a purpose though and are very wearable. 

The actual pattern is only on the leg part, the foot is all stocking stitch, so the yarn became more pretty as the sock progressed.

Start Date: 10 March 2012
Completed 3 April 2012

Pair 6 - Eunice

Back to Sock Innovation for the next pair.

This pair was a bit more complicated, my first foray into cables and it involved 2 cable needles, fortunately they were only needed for 2 rows in a 20 row repeat.

The yarn was one that had been in my stash since May 2011- LY Peppermint.  This was a fledgling alpaca yarn and incredibly soft to work with.
Because it was so fluffy, you didn't get as much in a skein for the 100g as with the others.  It was a bit touch and go as to whether these socks were going to get a Chole's Meadow toe or not.  However, I knitted quickly and they were completed with enough yarn left over for a square and 3 hexipuffs!

This pair was on the needles at the same time as Pair 5 and 7, but these didn't travel as well as Pair 5, so remained at home to become an evening project.

Start Date: 12 February 2012
Completed: 30 March 2012

Pair 5 - Fetch Sockathon 1

On the Fetch Everyone running community website, a thread was set up for those runners/cyclists/athletes who also liked to knit and do crafts.  The thread quickly became a vibrant one and we came up withthe idea between us of doing a Knit-A-Long (KAL) as sock knitting was favoured and gave scope for beginners, we called it sockathon and had 2 months to knit the same pattern in the yarns of our choosing.

The pattern was an old faithful one of mine, well suited ot self patterning yarn- a K2 P2 rib pattern, that requires little thought and was ideal for the group.

My pair were knitted in Laughing Yaffle Festival Yarn.  This yarn striped in a pretty spiral, with a bit of pooling around the heel and gusset decreases.

This pair became my travelling knitting as the pattern was simple, and I took it every week to my NEBOSH certificate course, which I was attending on a day release basis. 
In a course that was predominately male, I caused much amusement as I sat knitting in the lunch break. 

Start Date: 1 January 2012
Completed 17 February 2012

Pair 4 - Angee

  This pair was the easiest so far, no complicated jogs in the pattern and no cables.
The yarn used was a gorgeous yellow and red mix called Mango Tango.  The thick, spiral stripe works well with the pattern, although the photo doesn't show it as well.

These socks took a while to complete as I got sidetracked with Christmas stuff and also knitting baby coats for a couple of the girls at work.

Start Date: 29 August 2011
Completed : 18 December 2011