Garter Waves sock

So way back when I first got into knitting I bought The Sock Knitter's Workshop by Ewa Jostes and Stephanie van der Linden. Loved the pictures and the incredibly detailed step-by-step instructions. I liked everything about the book except that I couldn't manage the dpns,  the ribbing took forever and I gave up in frustration. The book collected dust on my book shelf, but with all the lovely new yarn I have (still not done winding it all into balls, I think I need to look into getting a ball winder and yarn swift) I decided to try out one of the patterns. I chose the Garter Wave sock. 

When I'm about to knit a pattern, I copy it into a notebook so I can keep the original pattern nice and clean, as I like to make notes and keep track of stitch counts etc. I copied the Garter Wave sock and part of the pattern stuck out to me, but I figured I must have been reading it wrong. I cast on, did the 6 rows of garter stitch and bam! Problem. Row 1: yo, k3, k3tog psso, k3, yo, k1. Huh? How can I psso when there are no slipped stitches? I did a search for pattern errata, because I do not trust my skill in guessing or substituting the stitches that should replace the k3tog psso...apparently the book was translated from German, and some of it didn't translate well. Ravelry had some forum posts about the issue and some people suggested just doing the K3tog, but someone else suggested doing a S2KP (slip 2 stitches, k1, pass slipped stitches over) which I think will look nicer and be easier on the needles than a K3tog.


And yes, I'm still working on the plain sock made with the Heritage Silk Paints yarn-I'm just going to refer to them as my Celtic socks since that is the name of the colourway. I'm about half way through decreasing the gusset round.

Celtic sock on my pretty cheep project bag.

And a picture of the start of the Garter Waves sock (which I'm knitting on my new karbonz) plus a bonus picture of my winding-the-yarn set up (which is a kitchen chair)

the yarn porn post!

So pretty! Not shown: karbonz dpns in 2.25mm and 2.5mm and one set of dreamz dpns in 2.25mm.

I'm not going to post pictures of all the individual yarns, because some just did not look good/accurate. I'm not a photographer and not interested in setting up the perfect shot, I use my old point and click or my phone and hope for the best. But I will share the couple of individual shots that turned out okay.


Dream in Color Smooshy in Sundown Orchid

Heritage 150 paints in Cornsilk (more yellow and less cream than I expected)

 Valley Yarns Huntington in Mustard

Malabrigo sock in Aguas

Pediboo Frog in Bright Pink

Madelinetosh Tosh Sock in Opaline (the picture does not do this justice)

SweetGeorgia Tough Love Sock in Storm Chaser

 Ty-Dy Dots Sock in Cream (I love the idea of polka dot yarn ad don't like intarsia, so obviously I had to try this)

All this brand new yarn and I haven't even really knit much this week. I had cast on the heritage silk paints that I picked up at Wabi Sabi in Ottawa, but I left it in my bag and only knit when I was out. It was a bit of a rough week, culminating in having to take Libby (cat) to the vet on the suspicions that she has a UTI. I did knit in the waiting room, finished the leg of the sock and I'm at the heel flap now.
 Libby is on antibiotics every 8hrs, and morphine every 12hrs.

FO-eyelet ribbed socks and non-knitting random stuff.

Okay, so I made these out of Araucania Ranco Multi, in some unidentified colourway that screams "Spring" to me. Like a field of wildflowers, those teeny ones.

I woke up super early on Sunday; we had left the window open and some people were having an argument, loudly, on the street (urban living ftw) at 5am. I could not go back to sleep after that. So I was up, watched some downloaded shows with headphones on so as not to wake up anyone else and finished sock #2. We had M's cousin's wedding that afternoon, so I hurriedly cast on for another sock, just in case we had some downtime in between wedding and reception, and so I could knit in the car. Neither of those things ended up happening. Way later, at the reception,  M told me to just go ahead and knit-I think he saw how vry vry bored I was (he doesn't dance, and I didn't know anybody so I wasn't going to go dance by myself- especially not to music I don't like) but I had had most of a bottle of wine, and combined with the red wine headache and the overly loud music with horrible dj sound effects headache; there was no way I could knit little tiny stitches. Also, I didn't want to offend anyone at the table, though I personally find all the surfing and texting people were doing was  more offensive than knitting. Not that I actually find it all that offensive, it is an evolving landscape, what is consider rude is ever changing. One on one, if my dinner companion spent most of the time on their phone,  I would be insulted. In a big group I really don't think it's so bad. I just think that knitting is definitely more conversation friendly than staring at a smart phone. And it's definitely more of a conversation starter.

I have some weird body dysmorphia. I have this thing where I think I look fucking hot until I see a picture of myself and realize I look fucking horrible. And  my day, my week is ruined. Then, I spend all my time in this weird spiral of "Do I really look this bad, do I look this bad all the time? why am I so hideous?"  Magnified by how hot and sexy M looked, seeing myself stand next to him in a picture his aunt took, I look like Jabba the hut with him as  my slave Leia :( 

no fo

No finished object for this update, thanks in part to a lovely little sinus infection. I don't feel sick sick, just really worn out, with some sinus pain and headaches and lots of drainage. blah. Just didn't get much knitting done. Instead, I set aside some of my tax monies, got a visa gift card (to keep spending under control and not have to worry about my card getting hacked) and spent hours shopping instead of knitting;  pouring over favourite yarn websites making out shopping carts, and price checking to get the most bang out of my bucks.  I ended up ordering from Webs-they have the biggest selection,  a lot of sale yarns, discontinued colours that are heavily discounted and if you spend a certain amount, you get 20% off each hank!

I will definitely have a yarn porn post when my order arrives. I ordered all sock yarns: Araucania Nuble (closeout sale)  Heritage 150 paints (closeout sale) and one hank of regular heritage because why not? , 3 balls of Huntington (why so cheap? even for being in 50g balls it's cheap) Dream in Color Smooshy (why so expensive?) Knit one crochet too Ty-Dy dots (closeout sale) Tosh sock ( I love all the Tosh) Charlemont (on sale!) SweetGeorgia Tough Love sock and finally, a hank of Frog Tree Pediboo that was ridiculously discounted because it's a ridiculously bright pink. All those sales and discontinues colours PLUS the 20% off makes for good spending.

My chiaogoos are warped already so I also ordered some Karbonz dpns, (2.25mm and 2.5 mm) and one set of dreamz dpns in 2.25mm. Also, a needle gauge and a Blue Sky Alpacas Pretty Cheep project bag.
That should keep me busy for a couple of months :) I definitely won't need to buy anymore yarn for a looong time.
In theory HAHAHA!

1 down, 1 to go.

I finished an eyelet ribbed sock. 1 down, 1 to go. I love, love, love it. This sock makes me happy. I think it's absolutely gorgeous. made with Araucania Ranco Multi which I had stashed for years. It makes me think of spring, or maybe of field of those tiny wild flowers.  I can't get over how pretty this sock is, and only a little bit of pooling! I'm pretty sure I don't like pooling.

As a newbie to sock knitting and sock yarn, I'd like to try a little bit of everything and see what works for me. I've already noticed a strong preference for solid colour yarns. Though that's not really a surprise, as most of the other yarns I've knit with have been solid colours. The only real amount of variegated yarn has been cotton stuff that I used for all the dishclothes I've knitted. That is, until I discovered solid cotton yarn from Knitpicks. I also tend to not wear much in the way of patterned items of clothing. Polka-dots are pretty fantastic though.
.   I love subtle shifts in shade in yarns like Madtosh and Malabrigo, their sock yarns look really lovely and I can't wait to knit with some! But I am intrigued by some of the amazing colour combos in Dream in Color Smooshy (which supposedly is dyed so as to avoid pooling) and SweetGeorgia Tough Love Sock.

I've learned that size us 2 (2.75mm) make socks that are a shade too big for my liking, where us 1.5 (2.5mm) with a cast-on stitch count of 58-64 seem to make socks that fit very well on my huge feet. I think my next pair of socks will be done on us 1(2.25mm) dpns-if they end up too small for me, at least they're bound to fit someone I know.

Tax refund soon!  And I already have a saved shopping cart full of goodies at Webs :) Including some new dpns, I really dislike my chintzy bamboo dpns, especially compared to my Chiaogoo dpns. I like the Knitters Pride Dreamz, so I'm going to order those in  2.25mm and 2.00mm. They're really inexpensive, and I've not had a problem with any of my Dreamz. I may throw in a set of Karbonz too-just to try. I like than they're made of carbon fiber and have metal tips, they seem like they would be sturdier than birch and bamboo.

Non-sock knitting shtuff; I'm coming down with a cold. Boo-urns. I knew it was coming, M has been sick since the beginning of the week, and B missed a couple of days of school this week. Right now, I feel like something nasty is percolating in the back of my throat. There also is a low grade headache right behind my eyes (I cannot knit with a headache, which means  casting on for sock numero dos will have to wait. *sad face*).

M and I have a wedding next weekend. Weddings are boring. I don't know if I can bring knitting though, will people think that's rude? Is church knitting verboten? I'm not baptised, and I don't practice any religion and the only time I've been in churches in my adult life have been for funerals, weddings and one baptismal/christening (I cannot tell the difference between the two). What about reception knitting? I won't know too many people there and I only dance when I'm drunk (I'm NOT getting drunk at this wedding), so if I discreetly knit some socks is that rude?

I really <3 this yarn.

FO!

I finished my second Wise Hilda's Basic Ribbed Sock yesterday.

These socks fit  well,  very comfy and they seem to stay up fairly well. I don't  like the pooling all that much. The pattern was great though, really easy! Would probably be perfect on the 2.5mm needles. And I'm definitely going to make them again.

After I finished those socks, I looked through the sock patterns I've collected, looking for something a shade more interesting than WHBRS, I found a pattern called Eyelet Ribbed Sock. I'm using my 2.5mm (us 1.5) chiaogoo dpns and they're really nice! Better than my cheap bamboos. I'm knitting with my stashed Araucania Ranco Multi color 347. Gorgeous. I wish I could take a picture that does this yarn justice. I would just like hanks of this yarn strewn about my house.

I'm playing around with the pattern a little bit, the original pattern calls for a short row heel, but I'm going to do a heel flap. I've done short rows before, but it's been awhile and I like doing the heel flap/turning the heel. I might do the eye of partridge heel with this sock, since it looks so nice and these will be a snazzier sock.

Meanwhile I have a couple of new additions to my wish list:  Knitter's Pride Karbonz Double Pointed Needles 6" in sizes us1 (2.25mm) and us1.5 (2.5mm). Lorna's Laces Shepherd Socks in ZOMBIE BBQ (c'mon, who doesn't need a yarn called zombie bbq?) MadelineTosh Tosh Sock (in Cousteau and Esoteric) Valley Yarns Franklin Hand Dyed by the Kangaroo Dyer (in Grue, Mascara and Midnight).