The Rainbow Connection

December 30, 2013 By

Dudes! It is has been a LONG time since I posted a finished pair of socks on this here blog. A LONG TIME. That is all about to change. BEHOLD! The 15 Colour Rainbow Self-Striping Socks:

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These socks are fantastic, if I don’t say so myself. And such a new new experience for me! I’ve knit a lot of socks in my knitting life – not as many as some – but a respectable amount to be sure. Always top down – except for one time I did that short row gusset toe up sock that I don’t even know where it is now and maybe never made a mate? I’ve always admired those that knit toe up stripey socks but really – not for me. WELL THAT HAS ALL CHANGED! The Fish Lips Kiss Heel is magic. MAGIC I tell you!  Look how pretty!

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No wraps. No gusset. No picking up stitches. Nothing but a beautiful well-fitting heel. It really is a dream! I had one little glitch – on the last part of the heel I got a ladder between the two circulars I was using, but I found a helpful tip in the Sock Therapist‘s ravelry forum. Basically you just move the ladder along by taking up the slack in the other stitches on the row. After a few they get tighter and tighter. Worked like a charm. She does say to pull REALLY tight in that last part where I got the ladder – I guess I didn’t pull tight enough. I’m sure with practice I will get it all ironed out. Still, I really love the heel. It’s FAST. And neat. Her technique reminds me a little bit of my beloved Socktopus’ shadow wrap short rows.

My favorite thing ever about this sock is the yarn

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, of course. SO MANY STRIPES! In case you missed the last post, it’s Fab Funky Fibres 15 Colour Rainbow Yarn. It made the plain stockinette go so quickly and I’m a little ashamed at how my OCD/perfectionist brain tried really hard to make those stripes match up. And oh how they match!

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To get the stripes to match, I wound the ball, then split it in half using my scale. After I had two balls, I chose the one I would start with – in this case a bit of red leading into the pink. Then I took the second ball and unwound it until I came to the same starting point. I cut the yarn when I had them even.

I used Judy’s Magic Cast On to start the socks and cast on 24 stitches – 12 on each circular. I like my toes a bit square because well, my toes are kind of square. I increased every other row until I hit the toe mark on my Fish Lips Kiss Heel template. It falls right at the top of my pinky toe. I ended up with 68 stitches – more than my normal 64 stitches – but this yarn is thinner than my usual Socks That Rock and I’ve found after many gauge swatches that I do knit a bit tight.

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I knit and knit and knit. I went back and forth between both socks so that I could be sure the stripes were still lining up. I got pretty high up my leg and did some increases when I hit my calf. I have no idea how many stitches I increased. Maybe about 12? I ended with about twelve rows of 2×2 ribbing and then did a stretchy cast off. I know I knit the right length because I have an almost perfect 15 colour repeat left, minus some rows of pink. If I wanted the socks to match, this was the only way to do it.

20131230_113242_1Ravelry Link

These socks make me really happy! And now I want to knit all the toe up socks in all the stripey yarns!! What’s your favorite stripey yarn? I’ve got some Yarntini coming to me soon, some Knitterly Things, some Moonrover. I’m out of the stripey yarn loop so tell me what you love!

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Thanks for reading!

L, C

Filed Under: Fish Lips Kiss Heel, Socks

Old dog? Here are some new tricks!

December 15, 2013 By

UPDATE!!! The fabulous Jessie of Yarntini has added a prize! There will now be TWO winners! See the end of post for contest details! YAY!! And also a sock update. The Fish Lips Kiss Heel ROCKS!

I found my mojo! It’s back! And I’m going to tell you all about it, but it might take awhile as I ramble on and give you lots of links to explore. If you’re the impatient sort, skip to the bottom of the post for a colorful contest! YES! I’ve been wanting to have a contest for so long. I used to do them all the time, remember? Well this one’s a good one. So settle in and enjoy!

As I mentioned in my last post, I was in that post-awesome-project state where even the best potential patterns seem like too much work. I think I was just exhausted from all the work that went into Oshima and needed a little break. But I was also yearning for that can’t put it down excitement and nothing was giving me that spark.

But I found it! And how I found it is kind of an adventure.

By far my favorite social media tool is Instagram. Maybe it’s the photographer in me but I just love posting to IG and also following along on IG. On a daily basis I am bombarded with inspiration from new and old friends. For instance, if it wasn’t for Cauchy sharing all her incredible spinning pictures, I wouldn’t have become infatuated with Lacey at Moonrover. Her fiber and yarns are incredible. They both have me wanting to spin again!

Another HUGE enabler on IG is Susan Anderson! I’m embarrassed to tell you how much money I’ve spent because of Susan’s IG thread. Seriously. Ann and I are always blaming her for our purchases. (“I bought a cross stitch sampler. THANKS Susan Anderson!”) Not too long ago Susan posted about her fabulous stripey socks – 15 Stripe Rainbow Sock Yarn from Fab Funky Fibres! I was like WHAT? Rainbow? Stripes? I AM THERE!

Yeah. So I ordered the yarn. Self-striping sock yarn. Firstly, when’s the last time I knit a sock? (I can actually tell you it was the winter before my second baby was born. I was on a tear of knitting five socks at a time and I finished those five socks then started the mates to those five then left them. They are still on the needles. My baby will be four in June. You do the math.) Secondly, I haven’t knit with a sock yarn other than my beloved STR lightweight in? Forever , maybe? There was an early early Regia Cotton Stripe that I knit my first pair with and a few Koigu pairs, but other than that – all STR all the time!

Stripey sock yarn. What am I going to do with that? Order more! I might have fallen down at Knitterly Things (Twinkle Lights! YES!) and Yarntini (Super-Duper Boogaloo! Under the Sea! Fruitastic!)

Even with all this new yarn coming in, I still didn’t have the sock knitting mojo. The yarn is all gorgeous, to be sure, but also outside my comfort zone. If you haven’t noticed by now, I’m a creature of habit. I like the familiarity of a yarn I love and a pattern I love and a method I love. (Hello Monkey Socks! Jaywalkers! Willow Cowls!)

And then I was clicking around some blogs thanks to my favorite Bloglovin’ email I get everyday, and I stumbled upon the Yarn Harlot’s recent post where she answered some questions about knitting socks. She said she mainly knits socks top down (like me) but when the yarn is self-striping or really special or both, she knits them toe up so that she can use all the yarn. My brain went DING DING DING! THIS! I have only attempted one other toe up sock a million years ago and I did NOT enjoy it, but then again, sock architecture has changed drastically in the last five years. Right? I told myself, I AM GOING TO KNIT A SELF STRIPING TOE UP SOCK. And I got (inexplicably – remember creature of habit) really really excited.

I got even more excited when I started clicking around, following short row heel links and stumbled upon the Fish Lips Kiss Heel. The Sock Therapist had me at NO WRAPS! (This was the main problem with my first toe up heel. I couldn’t get the short row heel to work in a way I liked.) For ONE DOLLAR, I downloaded the tutorial for the heel. Next thing I knew I was asking a good friend to trace my foot.

And then I was watching videos on Judy’s Magic Cast On.

Then, in the ultimate of craziness, I was measuring out sock yarn and matching up colors and starting two socks with matchy matchy stripes!

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I’ve now knit through all fifteen colors in my Fab Funky Fifteen Colour socks and according to my foot template, I’m ready to start the heel!

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I’m so excited. I might knit the other sock up to the same point, or I might just go for it. I have to read through the directions again and watch some videos. But YAY! A new sock and a new way of knitting them! If this heel works the way everyone raves that it does, it could change my whole way of knitting socks. And I’m really excited about breaking out of my old habits and learning something new. I always tell my kids that one of the things I love about knitting is learning how to do new things! And it’s true!

HERE’S A SOCK UPDATE: The Fish Lips Kiss Heel is GREAT! No wraps! No holes! No picking up a million stitches for the gusset!! AND IT FITS LIKE A DREAM!

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In the meantime, want to knit your own pair of Fab Funky’s Fifteen Colour Rainbow Socks? Because I have an extra skein to give away. And a box of Color Cards from my own collection. Everyone needs some color on these dark winter days and I’m so happy to share!

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And, Jessie of Yarntini has added a skein of her fantastic self-striping yarn in the Boogaloo colorway!!

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I will be adding another box of Color Collection cards to her skein! TWO WINNERS!!! YAY!

To win, leave a comment telling me your favorite sock yarn, your favorite sock pattern, your favorite Instagram feed or your favorite knit blog! Please leave only ONE comment per person. I will pick a random number and choose a winner. You have until Wednesday, December 18th at 11:59 EST to leave a comment. I will announce the winner on Thursday. Good luck and thanks for reading! I can’t wait to see what inspires you!

L, C

PS – if you want to follow me on Instagram, a link to my feed is in the sidebar.

 

Filed Under: Contest, Fish Lips Kiss Heel, Socks, Uncategorized

A Prince of A Monkey

February 5, 2008 By

Even with all the excitement during the big game on Sunday, I managed to finish my Purple Rain monkey socks. I love them. ‘Natch.

For all of you who’ve been living under a rock, through no fault of your own I’m sure, I’ll give you the particulars. The pattern is Monkey by the genius that is Cookie A. All the credit for the Picot Edge mod should go to Margene because she’s the one who did it first. Wizard Woman Tina dyed the yarn – STR. Purple Rain colorway. Don’t ask me if it’s available. If it’s not on the website, it probably means the colorway’s not in the rotation at this time. Don’t hate me because I have a large stash of the stuff.

I am definitely NOT sick of this pattern yet. In fact, yesterday I cast on for a new pair, but I’m not loving the harmony between the colorway and the sock. I may go a completely different direction in colorways on the next pair. I have to go through my stash again and make some decisions.

Thanks for all the kind comments on Oblique – and on my belly! This pregnancy thing is so weird. All of a sudden, sort of like, you’re this completely different person. Not just mentally and emotionally – but PHYSICALLY! What happened to me? I don’t remember what it felt like to NOT be pregnant.

The drilling today is driving me nuts. BONKERS. C-A-R-A-Z-Y! So I think I’m going to eat some breakfast (or MORE breakfast) and take a walk in the fog wearing my new cozy sweater and new socks. My polling place is pretty close by so I think I can make it there and back without too many breaks. If you live in a primary state, I could care less who you vote for – that’s your personal business and just like I don’t think anyone should tell you who you should (or shouldn’t) marry or which god you should worship – I don’t think anyone should tell you how to vote. You should vote the way YOU believe is right for you and your family. But you should definitely VOTE.

That’s my public service message for the day. Have a good one!

Filed Under: Monkey Socks, Socks

Monkey Feet

January 25, 2008 By

Hey! Check it out! It’s a SOCK!

I finished my first purple monkey last night (STR Lightweight Purple Rain.) I honestly forgot how much I absolutely adore those tiny little sock stitches. They look so perfect. I’m so glad I’ve remembered!

So here’s the deal on why I haven’t worn any monkeys until recently (although now I haven’t taken them off.) I started knitting monkeys in May. The last pair I finished was in August and I started the first purple sock in August. I don’t think I need to tell you that May through August equals NO WOOL SOCKS. I’m a barefoot girl in general, but I do like to wear my handknit socks. I usually wear them all winter. But I also wear these shoes most of the winter. They have a very warm fleece lining which is perfect for bare feet. (I actually really like going out in the cold with bare feet and these shoes. It’s a little bit decadent and wrong.)

Also, this winter hadn’t been so cold until recently and I’M PREGNANT. Which means I’m 80 million degrees most of the time. And nothing makes you hotter faster than wool on your feet. Trust me.

There’s also a little secret weird thing I do with my socks. I don’t weave in the ends until I’m ready to wear them. I finish the sock, I photograph it for the blog, and then I stick it in my sock drawer. When I’m ready to wear them I take them out and weave in the ends. So strange. The real truth is that anytime I reached for a sock this winter I remembered I hadn’t woven in the ends and went for a Jaywalker instead. Sad but true. Now you know the whole story.

I can’t wait to cast on for the second sock and I’m already planning what I’m going to knit next! Jaywalkers and Monkeys are PERFECT for my beloved STR Variegated yarn – anyone have any other pattern they’ve had particular success with in terms of variegated yarns? I’d love to hear about it!

I’ve also finished the collar on Oblique.

Which means all I have left is some quicky ribbing on the sleeves and seams. I hope to have it finished by the weekend. This thing is HUGE. But I still love it.

I’ve got some yarn coming to me for a very special project that I’m chomping at the bit to start. Hopefully I’ll have it for next week! And I’ve got another project that I hope to get on the needles this weekend. At least cast on. If only I didn’t have all this cleaning to do. Or taxes. Or other work stuff I’d be KNITTING KNITTING KNITTING!

I’m also planning on a major fiber sale. Time to make room for baby. Stay tuned!
Have a great weekend!
L, C

Filed Under: Monkey Socks, Oblique, Socks

Dream Baby Dream

January 22, 2008 By

Last night I had an awful dream – I was injecting myself with something and I knew that injecting myself with this “stuff” was going to kill me, but I did it anyway.

Yeah. Not so much fun to wake up to a suicide dream. Although, I realize, that it has nothing to do with suicide and everything to do with being pregnant. I’m thinking that the injections symbolized the fertility drugs I had to take to get pregnant and the dying wasn’t so much a physical death but a METAphysical death. You know – like the death of my current identity being morphed into my NEW identity as a mother? Just my armchair psychology for the day, but it was spooky nonetheless. Took me awhile to fall back to sleep again.

I’ve pretty much escaped the crazy dreams of pregnancy. I have one every now and then but most of the time I’m pregnant in my “regular” dreams and I’m always telling people I can’t do this or that because DUH I’m pregnant. Tellingly I wasn’t pregnant in last night’s dream. Georgie, my poor sweet, has been shouldering the bulk of the nightmares this pregnancy. I think because I manage to work out my anxieties while I’m awake rather than asleep.

The identity dream fits well with all the work we’ve been doing around the house. Sunday we needed two cars to schlep the FIFTEEN bags we had filled to the Salvation Army. FIFTEEN and yet our house is still filled with crap and looks a mess. Georgie started moving things out of the room that will eventually be the baby’s which means I have to now SHARE the spaces I’ve called my own for the last ten years. Not too much resentment here. I walk into my closet and there’s all of his STUFF.

It’s okay. I’ll get used to it. And it’s not like we’re all freaked out that the room won’t be ready for the baby, per se. I mean, the furniture and stuff won’t be delivered until AFTER the baby’s born – it’s that we have 16 years of accumulated CRAP that needs to be weeded through and thrown out and the baby is just an excuse. I keep telling myself that this is a great exercise because hopefully sometime in the next year we will be moving and there won’t be as much to throw out when we do!

It is a daunting task though. Yesterday I actually got down on my hands and knees and vacuumed the base boards next to my bed and underneath my night stand. DISGUSTING. I told my sister and she said WOW – you really are nesting. Guess it’s true.

I also did some knitting!


Friday – when we had no heat or hot water – it turns out a transformer blew in our building. So in order to fix it they had to turn off all of our electricity. They did this at 2PM. I thought GREAT! I’ll get out my Creative (like an IPOD only BETTER) and listen to some podcasts and finish Oblique’s sleeves! Only the Creative was dead. So I knit to the tune of jackhammers (they had electricity, of course) until the sun went down. Then G came home and rescued me from the cold and the dark. Sometime while we were out, the lights went back on – as well as the heat and hot water.

I did manage to finish the sleeves. And I did the button bands on the body AND I seamed the raglans. All I need to do now is the collar, finish seaming and decide what to do with the bottom of the sleeves. I sort of draped it on my shoulders and this thing is HUGE! I think, it will get a bit smaller once it’s all seamed up, but still – it’s like a blanket coat! Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing at all. I hope to have it finished by the end of the week. There’s a chance I’m going to run out of yarn, but I have an angel helping me out. Margene has the yarn in her stash and she’s going to send me a skein. Although, I think, now, I might be okay. Fingers crossed!

I knit something else yesterday too!

Believe it or not, I wore my first pair of monkeys Sunday night! We had a party to go to and I wanted some fancy socks in case I took my shoes off and I pulled a pair of monkeys out of my sock drawer. I have never worn ANY of the monkey socks I knit! NONE! I mentioned that I’ve been thinking about socks a lot lately and wearing them was so fantastic that I took out the Purple Rain STR Monkey that I started a million years ago – actually it was back in August. Last I knit these I was on the heel flap. Yesterday I managed to finish the flap, turn the heel and knit the gusset! All night long I kept telling Georgie how good it felt to be knitting SOCKS! This was all punctuated by the fact that I went through my “pedestrian” sock drawer over the weekend and got rid of EVERYTHING. I told G – once you’ve gone handknit – you never go back.

Thank you all for all your encouragement and support about my last post. I’m much calmer now (although we do have childbirth class tonight) and I’m handling my fears pretty well. I’ve been reading some stuff – stuff that pisses me off and makes me feel VERY judged and stuff that assuages my fears and lets me know that whatever I want is truly fine. It seems to me that the baby will be coming out of my body – in some way shape or form and that’s NATURAL. Nothing about this pregnancy started out conventional – so who’s to say the end will be that way as well? I’m open. Truly open. And I think that can only be a good thing for my body as well as my mind. I have some very solid ideas about how I want things to go – and that really has more to do with how I want to be treated (with respect and honesty and intelligence) than the actual EVENTS that take place. I trust my husband implicitly that he will help me to have the best birth I can have. So thank you for your confidence in me. It means a lot.

Off to get rid of more stuff! It’s so FREEING!
L, C

Filed Under: Baby? OH BABY!, Monkey Socks, Oblique, Socks

Socktoberfest!

October 3, 2007 By

Before we get to knitting, let’s get a little business out of the way – shall we?

Bruce. I’ve listened to the new album, and how shall I put this with all the love and respect and adoration in my heart – I’m very UNDERwhelmed. I’ve been reading my favorite fan site for months now and these people seem to love it – they make me look like a casual fan – but I’m not sure I get it. The “wall of sound” did nothing but give me a headache. There are some good ones on here, no doubt, but I’m reserving my final judgment until I hear them live. And no, we don’t have tickets yet. But I have faith in my man.

Baby. Let’s start with the things that are improving: I don’t have to eat every thirty seconds. In fact, I can go an hour or two sometimes THREE without food passing my lips and I don’t get sick. I call that progress. I’m also (most nights) sleeping better and I have more energy during the day. Like I don’t have to all of a sudden crawl into bed because if I don’t I’m going to die. I’ve been getting up at my regular time in the morning (about 7:30 ish) and at around 8 I have to crawl into bed or I’m going to die, but during the day I’m pretty okay. My appetite has branched out as well. I can eat more foods and every day I get a little bit more adventurous. (Pizza for dinner last night! YAY!)

Okay – the bad news. I’m still puking every single fucking morning! I wake up. Eat my breakfast. Puke. Then eat another (different!) breakfast. Fun times. Although that’s it. I’m pretty much okay the rest of the day. I mean, I get bouts of nausea every now and then, but definitely not all day. The other bad news – headaches. I pretty much get a headache every day now. I’ve read this is very common and my sister got a lot of headaches when she was pregnant. Yes I’m drinking enough. Yes I’m eating enough. Ditto sleeping, peeing, and whatever else you’re going to tell me to do. I’m thinking it’s a combination of eye strain (I have an eye doctor appt today), allergies, and just regular old pregnancy fun times. As Kay told someone at Spin Out – if there’s a symptom, I’ve got it.

Whew! Now onto the SOCKS!

Here is a spectacularly craptacular picture of (almost) all the socks I’ve knit!

Turns out, including the 2 sockapalooza pairs I’ve knit, I’ve only completed 21 pairs! Doesn’t that seem too few? I don’t know – I was thinking I’d knit at least 30. But I counted a bunch of times and 21 seems to be the magic number. We’ve got two pairs of finished knee highs, ten pairs of jaywalkers, five pairs of monkeys, and two pairs of stockinettes. I’ve also knit seven single socks. And off the top of my head I have about six socks in various states of being knit. Hmmm.

Here’s the first pair and the last pair I knit:

The first pair were plain stockinette knit with Regia Cotton Surf. The last pair were STR monkeys.

Believe it or not, I also started a new sock!

It’s a nice mod on garter rib that I found over at Ravelry. I’m calling the socks Chawne’s Rib because Chawne‘s the one who came up with it! So far so good!

I think I figured out my problem with knitting these days. In my mind and my heart I WANT to be knitting. I see patterns and want to make them immediately. I miss the old days of knitting for hours on end like you wouldn’t believe. The problem is I have a limited amount of time to get things done during the day – and I have to get those things done or I won’t have clients anymore. By the time I’m done my work, the time I would normally spend knitting the night away, I’m so exhausted that after a round or two I can’t take it anymore. And I’ve had A LOT of eye strain, so that doesn’t help any. Add in the headaches and voila – NO KNITTING! It’s so sad. Knitting was my main source of relaxation and it really sucks that it’s such a struggle for me. I’m hoping that the puke to knit ratio will improve everyday and I’ll at least be able to finish a sock. Although I’d really love to be knitting a sweater. For me.

Thanks for reading! Have a great day!
L, C

Filed Under: Life, Socks

License To Ill

September 24, 2007 By

My bloglines subscriptions are dropping like a big belly in the ninth month! I mean, sure, pregnancy’s all wonderful and everything and a miracle blah blah blah, but let’s face it: I wouldn’t want to hear about someone puking everyday, so why should you? (Still happening by the way.)

So let’s talk about something else. Let’s talk about *GASP* KNITTING! YAY! Whenever I get anxious, as pregnant women are wont to do – you know, will I ever stop puking? OH MY GOD, what have we done!!!!!!!?!, the baby comes out WHERE?! – I think about what I used to do to calm myself. I used to knit. Oh how I miss it! But also, not so much. It’s really really weird.

I managed to buy yarn – on clearance at WEBS – for the Mommy Snug. I even swatched for it on two different needle sizes and I fully intend to knit it for myself. I think it’s going to be fantastic. But it’s not going to be done for Rhinebeck, maybe not even CAST ON for Rhinebeck, but I want something new. I want to be knitting towards a goal, you know? I want something – ANYTHING – to spur me on.

Enter Sundara and her fabulous yarn!

After I went through all the fabuloso yarn Sundara sent for Spin Out prizes, there were a couple of colors I just HAD to have. The Orchid colorway you see in the photo was one of them. I pass by it a million times a day and it calls out to me – it’s practically screaming at this point – KNIT ME KNIT ME! So I’m thinking I’ll start a pair of socks. For Rhinebeck. And Soctoberfest, which starts super soon. I think I haven’t missed a sock-filled October yet, so why start now? And with a sock I can see progress pretty quickly, without having to knit that much. I can ease myself back in.

I need your help though. I can’t figure out what pattern to knit. I want something plain-ish – not too busy – to show off the beautiful subtle coloring. And while I love the LOOK of a rib, I hate to rib in socks more than anything. Really. I don’t mind purling – like in the monkey sock – it’s the back and forth I hate. Got any ideas for me? I really appreciate it! Thanks!

Business: Tomorrow, a HUGE post of Spin Out prizes. HUGE. It’s going to take me all day to photograph them! And all of you who have asked about the Spin Out location and whether or not you need to bring chairs – I’d say YES – you need to bring chairs. I’m planning Wednesday to scope out the sight and I will report back Thursday with all the particulars of the event, but until then – you’re going to need somewhere to sit if you’re bringing your wheel – and don’t forget – you can always knit or spindle!

Have a great day! I’m sure gonna try!
L, C

Filed Under: Life, Socks

ChickaMonkey

July 25, 2007 By

Geez! I’m just posting later and later these days. I’m sorry. I would’ve posted earlier today but we had an Internet blip – you know the kind. Where you call your provider and they hang up on you because EVERYONE is calling to bitch them out. All is well though and I’m just so glad because I have a finished pair of socks to show you!

New monkeys! Yup, that’s right, monkey socks. Bored yet? I’m not! I love these socks! They might just be my favorite pair of Monkeys!

The yarn is Lightweight Socks That Rock in the Chickabiddy colorway. Tina told me that this yarn will be available in the Fall on the website – so if you like it, wait for it! I LOVE IT! It’s the perfect combination of pinks and browns and yellows and oranges and reds. PERFECT! And the picot, well, the picot is ALWAYS perfect. I knit these on two 2.5mm Addi Turbo circulars (US #1s.)

I was asked the other day my secret to getting my STR socks to rock so well – meaning – no obvious pooling. The secret is the number of stitches on the needles, needle size, pattern and I suspect a bit of kismet as well.

The best way to illustrate this is with a picture of a knee high I knit last year using ONE SKEIN of lightweight STR.

Click on it for a bigger version to open in a separate window. See that knee high – I used ONE SKEIN throughout. Never changed yarn ever – but look how it changes? And I never changed needles either – Addi Turbo US 1 – 2.5 mm – circular needles. The only thing that changed was the stitch count. I started off with (I think) 88 stitches, increased up to over 100 then decreased down all the way to 64 stitches, which is my personal sock stitch number. (You know – the pattern that you figure out after you’ve made a bunch of socks that you stick with – favorite toe, favorite heel, stitch count.) There’s pooling around the gusset because I added stitches, but then look at the pretty stripes on the foot – that’s the magic number 64.

Now that’s to say it’s MY magic number. I don’t know what your magic number is. Maybe, honestly, you don’t have one with Socks That Rock. I’ve never knit socks with Mediumweight STR (or Heavyweight STR for that matter) so I can ONLY speak to Lightweight STR. This is MY preferred sock yarn. It works for me. Once you add a pattern into the mix, it might change everything. Different patterns use different amounts of yarn and they may mess with your magic. If you love the pattern and the yarn doesn’t work, try a new yarn. If you love the yarn and the pattern’s not working, try a new pattern.

One other thing I’ve learned – with Monkeys at least – they look so much better with a REALLY variegated yarn. Lots of color changes. The STR I’ve used so far have had a least four different color changes. Anything less and they’re going to look really stripey. Unless you use a solid or semi-solid – that should look great too.

There are a MILLION sock yarns out there – new ones everyday from what I can see on the net. Find your yarn – your number – your passion. It’s out there. Just look for it!

Filed Under: Monkey Socks, Socks

The Princess and The Picot

June 5, 2007 By

If you can stand it, so can I!


Finishing a pair of socks is like your birthday, all eight nights of Hannukah, Christmas morning, a gift from the tooth fairy, a visit from the Easter Bunny, fresh baked cookies, a good hair day, getting into your skinny jeans, making out in the car, and a Springsteen concert all wrapped up in a fantastic box with a shiny bow on top!! Okay. Maybe not as good as making out in the car or a Springsteen concert, but you get the idea. I love my new mini-monkeys!

I love that they are a bit tight (like my beloved Jaywalkers) so they stay up – no slouching here! And I love the colors and the STR and the undulations of the monkey pattern. I love that my friend Tina dyed the yarn and my friend Cookie designed the pattern and my friend Margene knit the modification. There’s just LOVE ALL AROUND!

Most of all, I love that when it’s finally chilly again I will have a drawer full of monkeys to choose from and you can bet your bottom dollar that my mini-monkeys with the picot edge will be the first pair I grab. There’s nothing like a picot to bring out my inner princess!


Monkey Socks
Pattern: Free on Knitty
Yarn: STR Lightweight in Watermelon Tourmaline
Modifications: I cast on with a picot edge and knit four repeats for the cuff. I did my preferred heel and toe. I used US#1 Addis for the entire sock.
Princess Rubber Ducky: My sister purchased them here. Knock yourselves out. There’s like a duck for everything.

Filed Under: Monkey Socks, Socks

Mini Monkeys!

May 31, 2007 By

Oh my god!! Can I just tell you how much I LOVE my mini monkeys?!? THEY ARE THE CUTEST SOCKS EVER! And, if I didn’t believe it before, I’m here to bear witness that a picot edge makes EVERYTHING in the world sunshine and unicorns and rainbows. It’s like a big hot fudge sundae with whipped cream and rainbow jimmies and TWO cherries on top for your feet!

Here is my mini monkey formula: knit 5 rounds, yo k2tog – repeat for entire round, knit five rounds, knit together stitch and cast on edge to create picots next round, knit one round, start monkey pattern. I then did FOUR repeats for the cuff, which gave me about a 3.5″ – 4″ cuff, then do the heel and foot as directed by the pattern. All done on Size 1 Addis. I DEFY you to tell me these aren’t the cutest socks EVER!

I made them with vintage STR from my stash – the lighter pinky color is Watermelon Tourmaline, which is still available on the Blue Moon website, and the green blue colorway is Seastone, which Tina told me is now discontinued. Both socks are from the old put up – 325yds. I’m not sure how much I’ll have left over, but it won’t be much. There’s a possibility that I could do another repeat on the leg, but I think I’m sticking with this formula. I don’t have to worry about running out of yarn AND I don’t want them any higher on my leg. This length is PERFECT. The best part is that the monkey pattern really has little to no give so they stand straight up. No slouching here. I LOVE THEM!

Last night I cast on for the second Watermelon Tourmaline sock. I just wish it wasn’t a million degrees outside. I might just have to crank up the air and sock it around all day.

I received a couple concerned emails yesterday regarding my self-proclaimed craziness. Thank you so much for caring, but I didn’t mean to say that I was crazy (well, no more so than usual) but that IT was crazy. Meaning life. And all the stuff I have to do. I’ve got a lot of work which is GOOD, but I’m feeling the pull of the deadline, so I opted not to kill myself by staying up late to finish the socks and thus have a legitimate post for yesterday. I hope today makes up for that fact. Thanks for reading!

Filed Under: Monkey Socks, Socks
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