FinallyFinallyFinally! These socks took forever, but I guess when you only work on them once in a while, that’s what’ll happen! At the beginning of June, I picked these up to take to knitting, because, well, they were portable and I didn’t have to think about it. Something clicked while I was working on them, and suddenly, all I wanted to do was finish them already. So I did. I powered out a leg and heel and other leg in no time flat.

These are for Brandt, who loves them, and when the weather turns will wear them alot, guaranteed. I’m modeling them in the above photos, but you get the idea.

I used my basic sock recipe, toe up, short row heel, 3×1 rib throughout. I love the magic of ribbing, but boy did I ever regret it when I got to the leg. In the end I loved knitting them anyway, and will do it again.
I knit them in my Vesper Sock Yarn, in the Hellfire colorway. I stole a skein from the first dyelot ever, I loved this colorway so much. Ravel the details here.

Also! Sign-ups have been up for The Vesper Sock Yarn Summer Club. There are still a handful of spots left, and they will be available until the end of next week, when I ship the July club out.

Filed by Julia at 11:12 am under FO!,Socks!
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Taking the advice of my ever-wise friend Claudia, after I finished the first sock, I immediately cast on for sock number 2. I almost always knit socks toe up, sometimes I find a sock pattern I like, and decide to mix it up. Honestly, sometimes I look exclusively to knit something with a completely different construction. Like, my Monkeys, I knit those top down. I’m currently thinking about starting the Through the Loops mystery socks, before they’re not a mystery anymore. Once these are finished, I’m going to start a pair with my Rocktober yarn. Oh, and Brandt needs a third pair. After all, it is Socktober.

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Day 8: 6 more rows of ribbing to go!

Filed by Julia at 7:35 pm under Knitting,Socks!
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Day 6: Thinking about doing a Fiber Club, anyone interested in that?

Filed by Julia at 9:25 pm under General,Knitting,Socks!
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I love football in the fall. Especially on Sundays. I prefer the 1:00 games, when it’s all bright and crisp and sunny out, as opposed to all these late games the Steelers have been playing, but I’ll take what I can get. Funny, I was never all that into football until I lived in Pittsburgh, cause here, football isn’t a game, it’s a Religion.

I finished Brandt’s Gameday Socks a few weeks ago, before the first regular season game. I just didn’t get around to blogging them. Raveled Here.

I dyed the yarn for them, I had a couple of skeins of superwash merino from knitpicks hanging around from forever ago, and decided to put them to good use. I still have a ton of yarn left over, more than enough to make another pair of the same, which should come in handy when/if these ever wear out.

I knit them simultaneously, each on their own needle, US 1 (2.5mm), magic loop style. I knit the toe on one, then the other, then alternating increments of ten rows until they were done. I think I did these over two weeks. Just like his first socks, Brandt loves these too, but only wears them on Gamedays.

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Day 5: Stealth Knitting? Finished.

Filed by Julia at 9:20 pm under FO!,Knitting,Socks!
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……Last night while stranded in the middle of the road, on my way to knitting, while waiting for the tow truck to show up. (On rt 19 south, just past Scott Rd, between the two big churches, for my local readers.)

This is a busy road especially on a Friday night. I was all happily singing along to the radio, driving to every other Friday night’s knitting group, the one I had been looking forward to all week, btw, when suddenly, no warning, my car just stops. No time to even change lanes or pull into a parking lot. It felt like when your driving and run out of gas, but I had just filled up.

At first I thought it was the battery, because I drive the VW more in the summer,and the Jeep might not have had a good charge, but I’m taking it out more and more, to get it road ready, and it had just had an oil change 2 days ago and all, so I did think battery was unlikely. A nice man and his wife pulled up and asked if I needed help, and I told him it might just be the battery, so he pulled around, and I had my cables, but no go. It just choked.
Thanks jebus for Triple A. Even though my membership had expired, and I had to renew on the phone before they sent help, for the one or two times I need them a year, it is *so* worth it. Particularly when stuck in the middle of the road.
This whole thing happened between 7:25 last night and 8:45. I didn’t have to wait too long for the driver, and I had him tow me just a mile or two down the road to the dealer, where Brandt picked me up. It’s now having a full (expensive) tune up, and should be good to go for quite awhile. I hope.
It reminds me of one of the Yarn Harlots essays, about how knitting makes you patient, and I can wait all day somewhere, with my knitting in hand. Even Brandt said when he picked me up, at least you had your knitting. The man, he gets it.
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Day 4- Happy Birthday Pittsburgh! 250th Birthday celebrations all day, and a huge, huge fireworks display tonight. We’re going.

Filed by Julia at 7:55 pm under Knitting,Life as it's Happening,Socks!
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During the first phase of my Stealth Knitting, when the knitting was too much to take with me, or when my brain needed a break, I cast on these socks to knit. Simple socks, that let the yarn do all the work. I started these last Thursday, after stopping by the LYS that I was working at. These are to be a sample for that shop. The yarn is new, from K1Ctoo, it’s called Ty Dy Sock, and so far, it’s really lovely to knit with. One of those colors that patterns in a weird way, so you have to keep knitting it, because you can’t stand the suspense.
When I knit toe up, I tend to loose a little of the mojo after the heel, and get to the leg and it’s just knitting around and round and round til the end. For me, this is the only down side of toe up knitting. So I haven’t been as crazy about it since I short rowed the heel, but I still am loving knitting it.
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day 3, so far, so good.

Filed by Julia at 6:57 pm under General,Knitting,Socks!
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Hey look! More socks! I started these on Sunday, while in Michigan visiting the Fam. I decided to make them more interesting I would start both socks at the same time (but on separate needles) and sort of “race” them against each other. I knit one toe, then the other, then 10 rows on one, 10 on the other, and so on until I finish them. I was really hopeing to have these done lightning fast, and it was looking good, I knit practically all day Monday, and turned heels on Tuesday, and then, well hardwood floor took over my life.

Oh yes, the last 4 days of my life have been devoted to tearing up carpet, and pulling out 8o million staples, and a bunch of tack strips, not to mention cleaning like a women possessed. All in preparation for hardwood floor installation this weekend. My family came down from Michigan, and at 7 this morning, my dad, brother, and his buddy have been laying down flooring (we are nothing if not do-it-yourself-ers). It’s loud, my whole house is in utter chaos, my cats are terribly confused, and it will all be so totally worth it. Goodbye ugly shitty burber, hullo hardwood!

So, if you’re worried that you blinked, and missed Wednesday’s shop update, don’t worry, there wasn’t one. Likely it will be very slim for updates the next couple of weeks. The floors should be done by Monday, but I’ve got other home improvement plans in mind over the next little while.

And before I forget, the IS going to be a Fall sock club. I was so hoping to have sign ups ready by now, but, well, see above. I’m trying for tomorrow or Monday. This is how it will work, current members will have first sign ups, then depending on how many renew, I will have spots available for new members, and possibly open up more spots, as I think I can handle just a bit more than last time.

Filed by Julia at 8:34 am under Socks!
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You know what? It turns out knitting man size socks isn’t so bad. For size 11 man feet anyway. I think these took about two weeks, knitting on and off. I finished them on Sunday. I powered through the whole freaking leg. I bound of at about 11 that night, I think, things were kind of blurry at that point. Brandt loves them, he put them on walked round and declared them winners. And then asked if I could do Argyles. What did I start?!?

Some Specs:

Pattern: My own standard toe ups with short row heels. Love knitting socks this way.

Yarn: Knit Picks Essential, 2 skeins Grass, 1 Skein Pumpkin. I still have a bunch of yarn left over too, I only used 28g of the 50g skein of pumpkin!

Needles: Knit Picks Circulars, 32″ Size 1, 2.5mm. Used Magic Loop style.

Overall: Love. You can read more about the beginning of these here.
And Ravel them here.

Next up for socks, guess.

If you guessed manly Steelers socks, you’d be correct. I dyed up a couple of skeins last week, and should be able to eek out Game Day socks for the both of us out of these.

Filed by Julia at 8:29 pm under General,Knitting,Socks!
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One sock down! I think that was pretty good timing, I finished it on Wednesday, I think. Currently I’m halfway through the foot of the second sock. See the diff in size from my original sock to his? Crazy.

I decided to not rip out any of the first sock, and to knit him two brand new fresh socks. Fitting, I think. I’m still keeping the first sock as is, it is world traveled, after all.

Knitting socks for Man Size feet isn’t so bad. I think mostly because I like knitting socks for him, well, knitting anything, really, because he appreciates the time and effort and skill that go into these things, and wears them with pride. For instance. He was wearing the first one after I finished it, and we were watching TV, and he kept looking at the sock, and feeling the short row stitches of the heel. I asked if it was bothering him, if it was at all bulky, and he replies, “Oh no, I was just admiring the craftsmanship.” See? Worthy, I’m telling you.

Filed by Julia at 7:10 pm under Knitting,Socks!
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A long, long time ago, I cast on this sock. It flew across the Atlantic with me to Europe last summer, had it’s photo taken in Amsterdam, Barcelona, and Venice. When I got back to the states, all I had to do to finish was to knit the orange at the top of the cuff. Trouble was, I couldn’t find the orange yarn. Anywhere. I’m still convinced it got left somewhere on the trip.

Months later, I finally ordered a new ball, this is Knitpicks Essential sock yarn, btw, in Grass and Pumpkin.
But still, I don’t finish the sock, so it gets hibernated in the stash somewhere. Fast forward months and month later, like, 4 or 5 days ago, I go stash diving for yarn for this, and unearth The Sock. What the hell, I’m almost halfway to a new pair of socks, so I bring it out, find the orange ball, and take stock of what I’ve done, try it on, and It feels a bit big. Count stitches. 68st. 68st? 68st?!!?

Now really, I don’t ever need more than 56-60st for my foot, a women’s 7.5, so I concluded I must have been drunk when I worked that number out way, way, over a year ago. As I’m deciding whether or not to rip the whole stinking thing out and be done with it (in disgust), it occurs to me that this too big for me sock might be a perfect fit on someone else.
The second that thought occurs, I run over to Brandt, assault his foot, and yep, we have perfect width, with a little lengthening of the foot, we’ll have a perfect fit. So how about that, I’m halfway to having a pair of man socks, the first pair for him too, when we didn’t even know each other when I cast them on? Like Cinderella, uh, some kind of manly version though.

Filed by Julia at 1:30 pm under Knitting,Socks!
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