Christmas Socks

Well, here is another pair down and only four more to go. I used the Shifting Rib design from the Sock Cocktail pattern from Knit Picks. I made it with a gusset heel and finished it off with a picot cuff. They look so cute.

I am having so much fun working on the different socks for Christmas. It is teaching me so much about sock construction. I just hope that they all fit. 

I like the yarn for these so much that I am going to try to make a pair of fingerless gloves or gauntlets out of the leftover yarn. 

Hats

Hats are cool things. They help keep you warm by traping the warmth normally lost through your head. I recently made a hat for a friend with cancer. I fell in love with the hat and have started another one only for me in 'girly' colors. I also plan to make on for a friend of mine for Christmas. (he recently cut his hair so short he is practically bald so he is a bit cold right now.) I learned making the one for my friend that the cuff was a bit long in my guage so I downsized the needle and I am going to work less rows for the brim. What happened to the  hat for my friend with cancer you say? I shrank it till it fit. That is the wonderful thing about working with wool. It shrinks. Of course that is also the worst thing about working with wool. Oh well my friend now has a warm hat to keep him warm and I have a new pattern to add to the favorites pile. I think that is a good trade off.

Christmas Socks

Finished another pair of Socks for Christmas. I started out using the Berry Season pattern from 2-at-a-Time Socks by Melissa Morgan-Oakes. However, about half way up the foot I realized that the pattern on the front was much shorter than the back stockinette. So I switched to the Twilight pattern from the same book. I used the short row heel and a twisted rib cuff. The yarn is Felici from Knit Picks in Cochineal. I used the leftover yarn from the sweater I made for my neice. These are made for the daughter of a friend one of my 'adopted' nieces. She is a girly girl so the pattern and the color are just right for her.

Frog and learn and knit again

As I said in the second post, I am making a pair of socks out of Felici from Knit Picks. I was using the Berry Season pattern from 2 at a time by Melissa Morgan-Oakes. However, as I knitted the pattern gauge was shorter than the plain stockinette stitches of the sole. So I had to frog and redo the sock with another pattern. I used another pattern from the same book, Twilight. The socks are coming along well. I am going to use the short row heel instead of a gusset heel.

I learned that sometimes socks do not always turn out the way you think they will. Sometimes they take on a life of their own. I set out this year to make socks for my family and adopted 'family'. When I started out I had certain ideas about how the socks would turn out. Boy, was I wrong. As I knitted sock after sock, I started to understand sock construction better, and I also started to use parts of one sock pattern that I had learned in another sock that was completely different. It has been a stretching experience. I have learned more about knitting and have loved every minute of it. I have now added sock knitting to my knitting 'arsenal'. Next up colorwork and lace.