The Rainbow Connection

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.

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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

Old dog? Here are some new tricks!

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

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