Or, what the ER can do to your knitting.

These little socks out of Step yarn that I was knitting for my grandson went with me to the emergency room when Dan fell off the ladder and then to the orthopedic offices and through surgery waiting rooms. So, needless to say, it was some mindless knitting. So I finally focused on it one day and thought, what in the world did I do?!!!  AWK! Forgot to continue the rib down on the foot. So I got these little socks that look like balloons. BLAH!  The thought of ripping out the heels made me hold my head. But all is not lost. Sooooo…I dropped the stitches back and reworked them as purl stitches. Working the two socks at once on Addi Turbos is great and it did not take long to rework them and I am much happier not ripping out. Here they are finished on his feet, 5 seconds before, “thanks Grandma” and they are ripped off his feet as he heads to play somewhere else. That kind of ripping is acceptable, almost. Oh yeah, fraternal socks don’t bother me at all.

Fixation yarn

I thought it was time I made some socks from the Fixation and made this sport pair with a rolled down cuff, one for mom and one for the baby. And of course using the Magic Loop method. So, after working through the socks, thought that others might like this pattern, especially with warmer weather coming. We made up the kit with Fixation yarn and pattern, called Sporty Pair, available in the shop. Check it out! 

Have you ever wondered what else you could do with that mountain of stash besides socks? Sarah came up with this one.

I was working for Mom on the website checking out patterns and making sure they come up correctly, when this pattern for the scarf appeared. I thought, ” Oh, this would be a fun one to try (never having done shapes before, am I nuts!) and it would also show off some yarn colors nicely. So Mom supplied me with the pattern and the yarn. It’s a Regia 4 ply sock yarn called Avenue Color (coming soon to the website) and the Regia solid color white. The pattern is a Cabin Fever pattern called, Calling All Angles. Here’s how it progressed. There was an Oopsie with one of the middle blocks where the TV got more attention than the knitting which meant all the cast on stitches went on one side which meant a mess and another hour of backtracking and starting over. ARGHHH!

See what you think of it.

Cast on with the solid color and use those all important stitch markers!

 

Add a little color and things look a bit different.

 

 

 

 

 One block completed!

 

Two blocks.

And now three blocks. After the initial blocks you work smaller blocks around the neck and then complete the scarf with the larger blocks

 

 And now the finished product!

Knitting Two Socks at One Time

You have gotten into the rhythm of knitting two socks at one time working across ½ of 1st sock, ½ of 2nd sock, turning work, working across other ½ of 2nd sock, last ½ of 1st sock.

Now, what to do about the heel??? Your stitches are divided, all the instep stitches are on one side and the all the heel stitches are on the other. And just like when you are knitting a single sock, you will ignore the instep stitches until you have completed the heel flap.

Work back and forth on the first sock to complete the heel flap and heel turn and pickup gusset stitches on one side before moving on to the other sock.

After completing the heel flap and picking up one side of the gusset stitches on the first sock, move to the 2nd sock and work the heel flap, heel turn and pick up gusset stitches on one side. Turn your work. Knit across the instep stitches of sock 2 and then sock 1. Turn your work again and pick up and knit the stitches for the other side of the gusset on the heel needle for sock 1. Knit across stitches on heel needle. Do the same for sock 2, picking up the gusset stitches and knitting across heel.

There will be a lot of stitches on the heel side but only for a short while. Work your heel as you would a single sock. After picking up all the gusset stitches, knit one round plain (heel and instep stitches) and then begin your gusset decreases as usual – you will do your gusset decreases on the heel needle (K2tog on one side, SSK on the other) until there are the same number of stitches as on the instep needle.

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Have you tried the new Addi Turbo Lace Needles. Not being a lace knitter, I didn’t think I would have any interest in using them. But AHA! Had the opportunity to try them when knitting the Swirl Shawl with Melody yarn and found that I like the long points. Wonder how they would work for sock knitting…well they’re great for that too. That extra pointy tip is really good for the fingering weight yarn used in socks also. Picking up stitches along the gusset, not a snap, but a little easier.

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 For SoXperience this year, one of the classes was an original sock pattern from Edie Eckman. She incorporated a crochet motif into the pattern, beginning our socks as usual and then adding the motif (which we completed in the morning class) as we went along.

Not being a skilled crocheter, I cheated and had my flower motifs made for me! (isn’t that just awful? But I really would still be working on that thing now as we speak!) It worked up rather quickly and it was exciting to fit this squarish lacey flower thingy into my sock. I’m excited to see what the results will be, once I’m done.

To give you the details. . .the yarn is Claudia’s Handpaints – Blue Ridge Blue, and the solid is a coordinating color from Claudia. Another fun tidbit from SoXperience – mom tries to feature local businesses and people – Claudia is from Harrisonburg – just over the mountain from the farm – I’ve used her yarn before and it’s wonderful to work with!
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