Pattern: Broadripple by Rob Matyska
Yarn: Cascade Fixation (98.3% cotton, 1.7% elastic), shade #9780, 2 x 50g balls
Needles: 3.25mm Addi bamboo dpns

I am in love with this yarn. It’s been sat in my stash for almost a year and it’s shameful that I didn’t use it before. Yes, the stretchiness takes a moment to get used to, but once you have, it knits like a dream – and knits up fast!

And of course the pattern is lovely. Like a stretchy Jaywalker! The socks are so comfy and I don’t know what to do. I had considered giving them to my sister, but I do love them so much. I suppose it depends how selfish I am feeling. And whether she has now actually worn the ones I knit her for Christmas…

I have another pair of socks (!) OTN already, but will cover those in another post as they have a bit of a story to them. And to avoid becoming a sock bore, I am also going to cast on something that isn’t a sock. Don’t faint, anyone. Honestly, if you’ve seen my sock yarn stash, you will know that I could easily knit a pair of socks a fortnight for the rest of the year before I saw the bottom of the basket. Knitting lots and lots of socks is a good thing!

On a final sock-related note, I now have my Sockapalooza pal’s details. It’s very exciting, and I think I can have a lot of fun with their socks from the information they’ve given me. At the moment, though, I’m just doing a bit of research into patterns and yarns and will report back on those soon. Yes, it means buying more sock yarn. Oh dear…

What could this be?

Is it…?

I think it could be!

Pattern: Gothic Lace Socks, designed by me and available very soon!
Yarn: Angel Sock Yarn (75% Wool, 25% Polyamide) in Red, shade #2185

This is the… *counts on fingers* …third version of this pattern that I’ve knitted! It’s very close to the original, with just some adjustments to the cuff and heel flap sizing. I love the star toe. It’s great if you have Kitchener angst, because it decreases down to just 6 stitches which are then threaded with yarn and pulled closed, like the top of a hat. And it goes so well with the “gothic arches” of the lace pattern and gives a little bit of excitement at the end of knitting a plain foot.

The first Broadripple sock is almost complete, too. I am on a roll!

Inspiration is a funny thing. I have been dabbling with the beginnings of several projects for a while. I had a couple of large garments in mind, neither of which got further than swatching and in fact, nothing was really whispering “knit me!” in my ear.

And then on the Angel Yarns forum, I came across the Broadripple sock pattern.

“Hang on a minute,” thinks I. “I have Cascade Fixation in my stash. I could knit these!”

So I did!

And for fans of the legs, a shot of one leg looking wistfully out the window…

It’s a simple pattern, though not so simple that it’s boring, and Cascade Fixation is very interesting to knit with. It knits up with a nubbly, towelling texture and by gum it’s streeeeeeeeeeeeeetchy!

It feels good to be inspired. I hope it lasts.

Just one of over 800 knitters, eagerly flexing their dpns and fine-tuning their stalking skills, ready for Sockapalooza 4!

Pattern: Basic Regia freebie, modified with shorter foot and my new favourite heel
Yarn: Twister 4ply sock yarn (75% wool, 25% nylon), colour #620

And now I am officially the best mother in the world. A pair of socks each for the small people! But although I love knitting socks, I think it’s time to start thinking about larger projects now. Time to dig out a few patterns and make a decision!

Pattern: Basic Regia freebie, with modified heel and shorter foot
Yarn: Trekking XXL, shade #166, ½ of a 100g ball

Why did I think that knitting tiny socks would be less stressful? I’m already being “gently persuaded” to start a pair for a smaller person!

Thank you all for the lovely comments about my Cairi socks. They were really enjoyable to design and knit. I think it was just one of those occasions where the combination of a gorgeous yarn, a cute stitch pattern and a rare flash of inspiration come together perfectly. (According to my site stats, the pattern has been downloaded over 1,000 times. This might be bad news for even my new and improved bandwidth..!)

And so my sock kick continues! Click on the link to read about it.

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Because who needs flowers and chocolates when you can have handknitted socks?

Pattern: Cairi’s Sweetheart, my own, available HERE
Yarn: Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sock, “Valentine” colourway, two skeins. There was a lot of yarn left over! If you did one less pattern repeat on each leg, or have small feets, you could easily get away with using one skein.

When Cairi gave me two skeins of lovely Lorna’s Laces yarn for Christmas in a colourway called Valentine, it was crying out to be made into splendidly clichéd socks!

I haven’t managed to learn toe-up socks as yet, so I needed to find a pattern that could be knit “upside down”. Enter the Harmony Guides! I do whinge repeatedly about their lack of charts and tiny swatch photos, but they had the perfect pattern: “Inverted Hearts”. The original pattern had stocking stitch hearts with reverse-stocking stitch diamonds inbetween. I changed this to all stocking stitch and therefore all knit – no point doing purl stitches when you don’t have to! – and had “fun” rearranging the pattern to work in the round.

The rest of the sock is a very basic top-down sock. The heel is my new favourite one from last year and the toe is the bog standard wide toe that I’ve been doing for the past two years.

My feet feel loved at last!

So, here is the sad tale of my holey socks.

I knit my first ever pair of socks back in February 2005. I had never tried knitting with dpns, so bought a kit from Angel Yarns and after a few false starts, produced my first ever pair.  When they were finished, they looked like this:

I can still remember the wonder as the yarn magically changed as I knit and my amazement as I turned the heel and my knitting was sock shaped! 

And so began my sock knitting addiction hobby. I had grand dreams of knitting myself one pair for every day of the week. No longer would my feet be made to wear “5 pairs for £2″ socks from George at Asda…

But it didn’t work out like that. I knitted socks for everyone except me. I started several socks, which were frogged because they got put aside for other projects, and then I lost interest in them. Socks for other people? No problem. Even if they took a month, they’d be done. Socks for me? Frogged quicker than you could say “double pointed needles”, or left to gather dust, like the never-ending Jaywalkers.

But oh, how I loved my single solitary pair of knitted socks. My feet were warm and snug and comfy and wearing them was bliss. Because they were the only pair I had, they got washed and worn again rather too often, which leads me to the current sad state of affairs.

My socks have holes. Not just one small one, but several, and holes inside the holes. Before long, there will be more hole than sole.

And I have reached an important decision. I NEED NEW SOCKS NOW!

My feet have never been so snug!

 

These socks are my Christmas/Happy New Year present from the lovely Badger.  They’re knit with Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran and are soft and cosy and splendid.  And also only my second ever pair of handknit socks!  Thanks ever so, Miss Badger! 

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The Patterns page is now up, though it’s a bit empty at the moment.  Ooops – I need to add a link in the sidebar.  And now I also have a contact form on my homepage thanks to Gethro the Clever.  This website is almost to shiny and clever and smart for a poor gypsy!

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