SM5 - Eisregen

Round Five of Sock Madness brought me to my knees. It used more stitches and yards than any of the other rounds. It was just filled with bobbles - I was not a fan.

They were also far too big for me. Far too big. Since I started a day or so late, and a few of the speedy teams had finishers already, I knew this going in, and decided to knit it for my mom. I used the yarn I had bought for her - Knit Picks Stroll in Wine Tasting - and knit them on size 2 needles. When she visited in April, I tried them on, and they fit comfortably.

So I had her Christmas Gift! I wrapped them up and set them aside in my "gifts" bin for the end of the year.

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Amethyst Diamond Socks

I don't have very many pictures of these, but my brother, one of the guys in my life who is obsessed with hand-knit socks, will be getting these for Christmas. He picked out the pattern and the colors - he needed professional looking socks, and he liked the argyle effect in the original pattern (the Border Socks), but the blue and brown were not colors he would wear, so we went with his favorite color - a bright purple - and black. I love them, and I hope he does too!

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Disco Dance Socks

These are another pair of Christmas socks for the hubs - since we celebrate Christmas twice, once with each family, I love to have something for him to open at both celebrations!

I used a discontinued crazy neon self-"striping" yarn, which I love, and it's using Susan B. Anderson's Smooth Operator Socks pattern, which uses an afterthought heel. I used a contrasting heel, toe, and cuff, from the remnants of some yarn I used for another pair of his socks (upcoming).

He actually hasn't seen these yet (although he's seen the yarn). I tried one on him, but made him close his eyes. I hope they're a good surprise!

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Farmer Saffron Socks

Last year, I bought some "Firefly: Serenity Class" yarn in Bounce and Stomp from Nerd Girl Yarns for a pair of Firefly Weave socks for my brother! Well, I also bought a second skein at the same time, for my husband, and I finally got around the making them!

I used the Farmer McDonald socks from Socktopus, which was a pattern well-worth purchasing! I turned it into a toe-up sock, and didn't carry the pattern on to the back because it wouldn't fit over the Mister's heel.

I absolutely love the way the pooling turned out! It was completely un-intentional, but I'm so in love! It's completely different from the other pair!

These will be given to him for Christmas, since he doesn't actually know I finished them!

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Portland Plaid Socks

These socks were a quick knit near the middle of June - Portland Plaid socks. The yarn was thicker and sturdy, and I thought they made the perfect summer socks.

These were a free de-stash yarn as well!

I made them in time for my trip back east, and even got to wear them at the Portland Airport Carpet!












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SM4 - Sweet Nuttins

And Round Four is here! I absolutely love love love these socks! These were my fastest knit in the whole competition, and the pattern was so well written and so beautiful!

This was also deep stash - some leftover yarn from Becca's Shawl.

I knit this in a bigger needle size, because initially I was trying to make them to fit my mom, but they definitely weren't big enough. However, they're a little loose on me. I'm thinking about frogging the toe and increasing the length to give them as a gift for someone else in my family, but I haven't decided. I also haven't worn them, just in case!

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PS: Round Five will be on hold until December, since it's a gift!

Ben's Birthday Moss Socks

Between rounds three and four of Sock Madness, I somehow had the urge to...knit more socks.

Well, I guess that's a little misleading. I had already knit these socks for my brother, and I had knit them with exactly the same construction of the Firefly socks I had knit him, and then I got a call, literally the night they were blocking, saying he had a few fit problems with those socks.

Don't get me wrong - I'm really glad he called. I would much rather knit him socks that he'll wear, especially since he likes them so much, but the timing was...non-ideal.

Well, during Round Two, I had gone to my Uncle's party, and while there, I tried the socks on his feet for heel alignment. I had already knit toe-up, and the problem area had been the heel, so I tried (for the first time) a toe-up heel flap. I frogged the cuffs, finished the two heels, and then headed home.

In April I got the bug to finish them. They were, after all, supposed to be a March birthday gift. So knitting back the Ramen Yarn, I finished them up and sent them off!

And the best part is? This was deep-stash yarn!

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SM3 - Waimakiriri

Round Three of Sock Madness was tough for me. Really tough. It almost knocked me out. The pattern required a tiny cable to be created for the toe. It then asked you to pick up stitches around, and then continue the cable up the sides of the foot as you knit, and then around the heel and up the leg.

I used Tipsy Sheep yarn in the White Russian colorway, and I can barely get them over my heels! But they do get over the heel, and I did finish them, and I did make it to Round Four!

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SM2 - Rose and Thorn Socks

Round Two of Sock Madness was the first competition round. So, after completing the Qualifying Round, and giving some background to the organizers, participants are sorted into "teams" of about 50 people. In theory, all the members of your team should knit at roughly the same speed, factoring in life situations as well as actual knitting time.

Then the pattern for round two drops. As with all the other patterns, you must knit the socks to be a minimum of 9" long, and follow various minimums in the pattern. However, on this one, only the first 40 people on your team make it to round three. You also have a minimum of two weeks to complete the pair, meaning even if there are five spots left on your team, the cutoff is two weeks.

Spoiler alert: I made it to Round Three!
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SM 1 - Slip Stripe Spiral

This year, I participated in something called "Sock Madness." This is a competitive knitting event, very loosely based off of March Madness - there are seven elimination rounds, and participants are sorted into teams or leagues. All of the patterns for the socks are sent to the participants by email, and as soon as the pattern "drops," it is a flurry of knitting to be earn a spot to advance.

The first round is a qualifying round - you simply have to knit a pair of socks in two weeks. The socks were called "Slip Stripe Spiral," and relied predominately on slip-stitches and two contrasting skeins of yarn. I completed them using Black Cascade Heritage yarn, as well as my Black Squirrel Yarn, from the Kickstarter for the Black Squirrel Fabric and Yarn Shop.

In general, I'm pleased with how they came out, though I rarely get to wear them, since it's almost always too hot for socks here.

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Oktoberfest Socken

This beautiful pair of socks was one that I had tried to complete before my Christmas trip. Since the weather ended up being uncharacteristically warm (hence to the ATV sledding) while we were there, it wasn't a big deal that they weren't finished. However, as soon as we got home, I worked to get them off the needles as quickly as I could.

These are my Oktoberfest Socken, made with a free Ravelry pattern, and they are my first cabled socks. Even though they are a little big, I'm very happy with the results. I absolutely love the yarn, and since I got it for free at a yarn swap, I'm considering this a steal!

Pickle Harbor Socks

Like the Dragon Egg Dice Bag with my family, this was another gift that I finished up simply so the Mister would have something to open on Christmas with his family.

He picked out this yarn himself quite a while ago, but when I went to order, they were out of stock. Later, when making another KnitPicks purchase (for my Sophie's Universe CAL), I discovered that Pickle Juice was back, and so I snagged a couple for his socks.

The majority of these socks were knit in August. In fact, I entirely finished them while driving from Boston to North Carolina on his family vacation.

And then I discovered something quite upsetting.

They were top-down socks. And the cast-on didn't go over his heel.

I wasn't about to rip this all out on the plane, so I set them aside and forgot about them.

Then, while brainstorming little things I could have the hubby open, I stumbled across these. I quickly ripped out the cast on, picked up all the stitches, and bound off with a yarn-over bind off.

I will tell you, the stitches were half a stitch off, since I was going in the other direction, but it didn't make a huge difference.

This was also my first double-forked short-row heel, and it was a great success. It gave the mister all the extra room he needed for his weird foot shape, and it certainly caused less strain on me!

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Mom's Foot Cozies

My Mother-in-law also gets cold feet, and so, continuing with the Christmas theme, I knit her a little pair of Foot cozies! They look a little weird when off the feet, but once on, they fit quite nicely.

After selling the cabin in the Adirondacks, they bought a house on the Cape, and I'm told these go with her Cape-Robe. So yay!

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Firefly Weave Socks

My brother also got socks for Christmas. Are you sensing a theme here?

The difference, of course, is that Ben specifically requested socks, and he specifically requested this yarn, Serenity Firefly Class in Bounce and Stomp from Nerd Girl Yarns. I held off on finishing the socks until I arrived for Christmas to make sure they fit. This was my first time using the fish lips heel, and although I ended up double-forking the heel to compensate for the pull across the patterned top, it actually worked out very well! I also decided to pattern the front only, instead of all the way around once I reached the cuff, and I made the cuff significantly shorter than the fish lips heel would have called for.

Pattern Notes:

Cast on 20 with Jenny's Magic Cast On.

Knit 1 row.

row 2: m1r, knit to end, m1l on each needle

row 3: knit

repeat 2&3 until 64 stitches total

11.5 pattern repeats (12 long rows)

fish lips heel, double forked (1/3 back = five dk stitches on each side)

continue up leg, pattern only on front, until 19.5 repeats (20 long rows)

15 rows of 2x2 ribs

bind off with yo bind off

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Dad's "Slippers"

I already told you about the slippers I made my mom for Christmas, but now I get to tell you about the ones I tried to make my Dad! You can see that the cables in these are inverse from the ones on my Mom's. Well, they also fit much more like socks, which is good, because he's much more of a sock person anyway, and he likes short socks (but not that short). I pulled out the cast on and the ribbing at the top, and then worked in the opposite direction in a 1x1 ribbing for about 15 rows to make them a little taller and fit better. He loves them, too! I'd say so far this Christmas was a success! 

PS: These pictures are all from before I changed the ribbing.

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Kindling Bells Socks

Using some yarn that I purchased in my initial Cold Sheep failure, I whipped up some ankle socks as the temperatures dropped in October. These are nice enough to be worn under dress shoes, and warmer than those thin liners. I used the Knit Picks Fancy Feet book, focusing on the bell pattern, and I absolutely love the fit! The heel was a lifesaver, and I'll definitely be implementing it on other ankle socks.
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Reverse the Curse Sox!

My brother is an avid Red Sox fan.  We were 7 and 13 when the Sox finally Reversed the Curse, beating out the Yankees for the pennant and going on to win the series (against the Cardinals) for the first time in 86 years.  We traded the Babe to the Yankees early in his career, and once there, he became an alcoholic with a failing marriage.  It was the curse of the Bambino (so the story goes), and we finally broke it in 2004.  What a year.

He couldn't have escaped, really.  There was no chance for him.

And so, as he runs off to college in chilly Michigan, I figured I would present him with some hand knit, warm, wool, reverse-Red-Sox socks.

(Note: I had this yarn already as part of a sock kit my parents got me for my birthday from Canada.  Hence to color reversal.)

This was a multi-layered project.  I first chose to use an afterthought heel in order to size them upon arrival.  I did a toe-up basic sock construction with corrugated ribbing for the cuff.  All I had to do was add a co-ordinating red heel.

And then he saw them.

He loved them, and thought they were soft and perfect.

Except the corrugated ribbing was way too tight and they ended up being much longer than I had intended.

I took them back with me to fix them up, and order more red yarn.  At which point I discovered they didn't do that color anymore.  Whoops.

Well, I figured that since I had to rip the ribbing out anyway and make the sock shorter, I would just make the ribbing the natural color and make the heel red.  I finished one up for him to try when we went back for the summer.

It was close, but not perfect, so I adjusted and copied.  The end results are in, and personally I think they look closer to the Red Sox logo than the originals!

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