summer! (not just socks)

Oof, it's been quite a while...Summer is here! I am so very very happy (even if it is raining atm) School is out, and the public pools are open. I've set up my lounge chair and umbrella on the deck so I have a great spot for reading or knitting and I've started doing yoga outside again.  I can tune out B's noisy playing while I do yoga on the deck, but a few houses down, we have a neighbor who uses his backyard as a workshop and the incessant noise of power tools is not as easy to tune out. Happy baby pose (ananda balasana) is not so happy with a band saw going, ah well, urban living...

I haven't been knitting at such a frantic pace lately, the end of school meant a lot of baking, and some volunteering, which helped to curb the obsession, it's nice to think about things other than socks! Like reading! I've been reading a lot, though nothing new; I've been re-reading a lot of memoirs. Mostly addiction, mental illness and rock star memoirs (sometimes it' a combo of all three). I did recently start reading a biography of Kurt Cobain, Heavier than Heaven. It's not great. I loved Nevermind, and Incesticide and In Utero were pretty good albums, but I wasn't obsessed with Cobain and Nirvana like many of my peers. As an aside, Foo Fighters are a way better band than Nirvana ever was.

But back to KNITTING! Finished both Garter Waves socks and they are yummy! So pretty, fit awesomely. Smooshy really is smooshy! Surprisingly, the pooling doesn't bother me, it's fairly minimal and less obvious in person.

Taking pictures of socks can be difficult, by no means am I a photographer, I use either a basic point and click cam or my Samsung Galaxy (which generally takes pretty good pictures) I tried a bunch of times, using both cameras, different lighting , to the best of my ability (except outside, maybe I should have tried outside :/)  and the actual pattern isn't very visible. Which is too bad, because they really look lovely in person.

I'm still working on my plain Heritage Paints Celtic sock, but it's kind of boring. I've designated that sock as my "travel" sock, but I haven't been traveling! I've barely even used public transportation lately!
So, boring sock is boring, but I've started the Vanilla Latte sock using SweetGeorgia Tough Love Sock in Stormchaser .This yarn is absolutely gorgeous, feels good in my hands. I was aiming to get some Tough Love Sock in a solid colour because I prefer solids, but I could not help myself, in the hank the Stormchaser colourway just grabbed me and even though I know there will be pooling I don't care. I love the colours, and I love how they look next to each other.  I hope this is a stretchy yarn, I'm making this sock on 2.25mm...only .25mm difference from the 2.5mm needles that I've used for the last two (and one half) pairs of socks but I figure since the pattern is a K6, P2 ribbing throughout, it should be more elastic than a plain knit?

Vanilla Latte has been designated the Pushing Daisies sock. The show started in 2007, and while we did have cable at that time, I didn't particularly watch a lot of television, unless it was Animal Planet or TLC, so I missed it. It was brought up on a Ravelry thread about favourite tv shows that showed  knitting/crocheting and someone mentioned Pushing Daisies, so I IMDB'd it. The premise sounded interesting, I downloaded a few episodes and was hooked. It's quirky and Burton-esque(lite). It's only two seasons however :(

 I will most likely also start another sock within a few days because the Vanilla Latte sock is also pretty plain and I need something with YO's and SSK's to really keep me interested. So much startitis, but there's so many lovely yarns to use and so many socks to knit!

Little triumphs

I'm feeling very pleased with myself. I had put Garter Waves in timeout, not sure if I should continue or frog. Instead of doing either of those things, I opted to tink back and try again. I tinked all the way to the beginning of the heel flap and instead of knitting the heel flap first , I knit three repeats of the pattern first and THEN started the heel flap.
I don't know why I just didn't do that in the first place.
Part of the problem is that I was knitting on 3 needles instead of 4, and doing an entirely different heel from the short row heel in the pattern. Originally, I did the heel flap from another pattern that also called for 60 stitches, and the heel flap was to be 27sts, which leaves 33 sts for the instep/pattern. the pattern is made up of repeats of 10sts. All fairly simple if you actually think about it-which I clearly did not.

So this time I looked through patterns until I found a sock that had a 60st cast on and used 30sts for the heel flap, because no way was I going to wing it again and  tink this bloody sock for a 3rd time.

 (I'm just going to mention again that I'm knitting this sock with Dream in Color Smooshy and it's held up really well despite my tantrummy  ripping back of quite a few inches of work. Twice. So yes, great yarn! And beautiful colour)

Okay, so pattern works, did the heel flap (a new one, but I don't know the name for it, I'll include it at the end of my post and maybe someone can let me know what it's called) picked up the stitches and now am doing the gusset decreases while keeping the instep in pattern. It's irritating to know that I wasted so much time on one sock and it's not even finished.  But it's all learning right? I won't make this mistake in any of my future socks (HAHAHAHAHA-yeh sure).





This was the only upside to B being home from school yesterday. He had a gastro and was throwing up pretty much from the time he woke up, poor kid. Around 2pm, he actually napped (that's how you know he's sick-napping) and that's when I worked out my Garter Waves issues. I also chose my next two sock projects! One is a pattern by Crystal Palace yarns called  Silky Drops socks, the other is called Birdwalk that I found on Ravelry (by Allison Gray) I also want to knit the Vanilla Latte socks at some point...I <3 socks.


Heel Flap
row 1: K3 *Sl1, K1* K3
row 2: K3 *purl* K3
row 3: K3 *K1, Sl1* K3
row 4: K3 *purl* K3

Timeout

I'm putting my Garter Waves sock in timeout. I'm vexed. I had finished the leg and initially decided to knit the gusset and foot in stockinette, because I wasn't going to do the short row heel, and wasn't sure where to start the pattern on the instep. So, I'm nearly finished the gusset decreases when I decide that the sock looks wrong. Tink it back to the beginning of the gusset-start over, this time keeping the instep in pattern as best I can.

Well, in this case, my best is not vry good. meh. Now I'm not sure if I want to just frog the whole damn sock, restart from just before heel and just do the damn short row heel and follow the pattern as is written, or continue as I'm going and hope no one can tell it's not even close to good. So, timeout it is.

This is an important lesson for me-stick to the pattern!  I'm still relatively new to socks, I should not get all cocky. Especially because I don't like dealing with the math that can be involved with winging it.

So, while Garter Waves sock is in timeout, I may start another new sock. I will carefully look over patterns, make sure I like all the parts of it's particular construction, choose a yarn and cast on and there will be none of this frustration and annoyance. I can easily spend just as much time looking for the right pattern as I do knitting it.

In other sock news, I finished the first celtic sock.

Just a plain, simple sock that fits nicely and is made from some pretty yarn (cascade heritage silk paints)