My Heart Beets 4U Socks

As I mentioned earlier, I finished these socks a few days ago, but got completely caught up in the next pair and neglected to blog about them.

The yarn I used is the last Rockin' Sock Club shipment, called Firecracker -- a bunch of lovely reds and purples which reminded a lot of people of a harvest of beets, which is one of the reasons that this pattern was called "My Heart Beets 4U."


The other reason, of course, is because there is a big garter stitch beet on the heel of the sock, which then spirals up into faux cables like beet greens sticking out the top of it. So cute!

It was this beet on the heel which cinched for me which sock I wanted to knit from the July shipment. While the other pattern was also lovely (and I'll probably knit it another day with another yarn) the beets were calling to me. (Yeah, I really love beets.)


The rest of the sock was the same simple faux cable, composed of yarnovers and decreases set up in such a way that the stitches seemed to twist like knitted cables, but rather than making the fabric tighter because of crossed stitches, it left it stretchier because of the yarnovers. Because of this, I once again chose to knit a medium foot, although I did the heel flap a bit longer (the length specified for the Large size) which gave me a little more wiggle room in the instep.

They fit very well and are completely gaudy and unreasonable. And they make me crave some of grandma's borscht.

An Impractical Love Affair

I will admit it: I love variegated yarns. There's something about seeing a skein of yarn blending together a symphony of disparate colours that just makes me reach for my wallet. I love to just look at it, sitting in the basket on my wall, like a work of art, or to take it down and stroke its softness, to wonder at the way the colours meld together and complement each other.


Of course, yarn isn't meant only for looking at; it's also meant for knitting (or crocheting or weaving or whatever your thing is.) The thing is: sometimes once you wind that skein into a ball and start knitting with it, you might begin to think that it's lost its charm. The yarn may start to stripe in some weird way, or to pool colours into big blobs, and you might look at it and wrinkle your nose at the way it's distracting from the stitch patterns. I mean, face it -- sometimes variegated yarns don't make the nicest end products.

With that in mind (and because of my self-imposed yarn diet) I've been plugging away, this year, at using up all of the variegated yarns I bought back when I was so enamored of them. I decided that perhaps semi-solids are more my thing, since they show off fancy patterns more, and don't look so (dare I say) gaudy when you wear the end product.

What I inadvertently discovered is that I really love variegated yarns. I realized that the joy of knitting a pair of socks is only partly that you get to wear them and show them off when they're done. There is also so much joy and pleasure in the quiet hours and hours (and hours) of meditatively knitting them, of seeing one colour parade after another along my needles, of making each little loop and watching how the change from magenta to coral makes this fantastic fade of rosy pink for just a moment in the middle. To see each of the colours I love slide past my finger and onto the needles never ceases to amaze me.

Some people wonder why sock knitters don't buy the $1 sport socks at department stores. Why would I want to deny myself hours and hours of pleasure, soaking in the saturated myriad of colours in a skein of sock yarn, not to mention the satisfaction and comfort of wearing custom-sized socks that I made myself, just to save a few bucks? Besides, what you might spend on going to see a film that will entertain you for a couple of hours, I will gladly spend on a skein of variegated sock yarn, that I get to enjoy for days or weeks as I knit it, and for months or years as I wear the gaudy stripey colour-blobby socks, afterward.

Monkey See, Monkey Do

Back when I knit my Clapotis, I mentioned that there were ten thousand on Ravelry (and over 15,000 by now.) Well, Monkey by Cookie A is one of the patterns that is like a Clapotis for sock knitters. There are over 12,000 pairs on Ravelry, man. Somehow, although I have been knitting socks for years, I just never got around to making them, and didn't really get what the big deal was.


Yesterday I started a pair and got part way through the heel flap before I made myself go to bed. I get it. Something about the pattern is very addictive, and it is quite simple: just YOs and decreases in a very pleasing pattern. I had it memorized after the second repeat. I could make a million of these, I think.

If I wasn't hobbling back into the rat race today, I would probably finish the first and start the second. Alas, working and moving house will probably slow my knitting and blogging for the next week or so, but never fear. I shall return.

Two Steps Forward, One Step Back

I finished the first Skew sock, and while it was certainly weird, I have to admit that I love the final product! The heel turn is a very strange thing, and until a row or two after it, it's hard to believe that it will really be a heel -- I tried it on as soon as I felt like the rows above it were stable enough for that. As others have said, it's a bit of a squeeze to get your heel through that bias strip of knitting, but once you do... what a lovely hug all around your foot. Very very cozy sock.


In the meantime, I turned the heel and finished the gusset on the first Slip Jig sock, only to realize that it's too big in the foot. I've ripped back to the heel flap, where I'm going to try a combination of shortening that and decreasing a few stitches around. Then we'll see how it goes with the altered gusset. I have to admit that a little bit of frogging isn't as unpleasant when you end up with such a pretty pile of yarn to re-knit.

The Honeybee Cardigan

Finally finished, and so lovely -- the lace really opened up with blocking (as is to be expected) and the weight of the Socks That Rock mediumweight makes it hang beautifully. The ribby nature of the lace makes it a bit clingy in all the right places, which is helped along by the inch of negative ease I knit it with. The yarn is also so round and bouncy that it gives great stitch definition. I think you've probably seen enough gratuitous closeups in previous posts, though, so I won't indulge myself with more of them.


I started this one in October and worked at it in fits and spurts, mostly at our group knit nights, so I'm sure it could have been done much faster, had I tried. Sometimes a slow project with no deadline can be so relaxing, though. (Case in point: the insane Ingalls hexagon quilt that I have puttered away on for a year or two and probably still will for several more.) The pattern itself was pretty straightforward, save when I got to the sleeve/body decreases, where I had to improvise the decreases amongst the ever-changing stitch counts of the lace. It went pretty well, and I don't think would be very noticeable if I didn't mention it. The only other change I made was to make the sleeves a bit shorter than recommended. I like them this length, and would even go another half inch shorter if I knew then what I know now (i.e. that they would lengthen a bit more in blocking.)

In any case, I have finished it and this leaves me with no big projects on the needles, and a world of possible options from my queue. *Rubs hands together* Where shall we go, next?

Buttons for the Bees

Since I am nearly at the finish line on the Honeybee Cardigan -- only the buttonbands and i-cord collar are left to knit -- I took a little trip to the fabric store yesterday to pick out some buttons. They are white, and a little bit shiny, and have flowers on them for the enjoyment of all the honeybees in the lace. I am pretty happy with them, but how they will look on the finished project remains to be seen.
I tried the cardigan on, after finishing the shoulder seams, and I think this one is going to be a winner, once it's finished and blocked. A few more days and I will post some photos, so we can all bask in the glory.

The Way it is Progressing

Just in case you were worried that the Honeybee Cardigan was in hibernation...


It's been slowly ticking along -- not because it is overly complicated or difficult, but because I've been distracting myself with starting and/or finishing up several other projects along the way. When I sit down with this one, I prefer to do a whole repeat of the lace (six looong rows) all at once; that whole repeat takes a couple of hours, so you can imagine that I don't sit down with this one as often as some of the other projects I've had going on.

I am well into the yoke part of the pattern, and although it's my first time knitting a set-in sleeve all in one piece with the body (rather than knitting them all as separate pieces and sewing them together at the end) I am finding it fairly straightforward. I'm even looking forward to trying this sort of thing with some other projects I have queued up for the future.

Miles and miles of lace. Mmm... I can't wait until it's blocked.

Spoiler Alert

I have, of course, cast on a new pair of socks. These ones are the final pair from the Blue Moon 2009 Rockin' Sock Club. The colourway is nice and black, with some barely-there colour variegation in purples and greens and yellow. The design has lace and ribbing, although I realize you can't really see it well in that colour.


I realized that last time I flashed you my sweet new stitch markers, I didn't let you know that they are from Sunneshine on etsy -- she does not only great stitch markers, but also row counters, for those of us who do complicated lace and cables and want an easy way to remember what row we're on. I highly recommend them (and her.)

In other news, I have gotten a few lace repeats done on the Honeybee Cardigan, but have only been working on it at the pub (where one patron this week initially suggested we must be knitting because we're trying to get off drugs, and then followed up with "are youse mental?" Fortunately he had a lovely Irish brogue and bought us beers to apologize for his impertinence, which ultimately only led to us being unable to execute our complicated knitting.)

I have also made a bit of progress on the endless body of the black yoke sweater. It is, despite all appearances, coming along.

I've started thinking seriously about finishing the Lizard Ridge blankie, since it's been lingering far too long, and it would be nice to complete it before starting another big project, since Rose-Kim Knits has put the idea in my head of joining Ravelry's 10 shawls in 2010 group... Although I need ten more shawls like I need a hole in the head.

Mostly I'm just happy that I'm not stressing out over finishing a bunch of holiday gift projects, like so many other bloggers out there. So much nicer to put my feet up and relax and work on more projects for selfish little me.

Tidelines Socks

Well, I made you wait a while to see these. I finished them before I made my Venus, but she outshone them, and I just had to blog about her before I showed off the socks. Today, however, the Tidelines can shine.


This is a very easy and pretty pattern from Anne Hanson, who makes loads of gorgeous patterns, both socks and otherwise. You should check out her shop (unless you don't want to spend any money, and then you shouldn't.) It's a totally simple six-row repeat, which makes this lovely lacy three-dimensional design. I knew it would look fantastic in the variegated purples of this Socks that Rock lightweight. Her pattern suggests STR mediumweight, for the record, but I prefer the lighter, and found that it worked perfectly.


I actually made the medium size of this sock, which is pretty unheard of, since my feet are both long and wide. Well, technically, I started and ended on the medium, but elected to make a longer heel flap (i.e. the large size) and did gusset decreases to get back to the medium size for the foot and toe. If I did it again, I would probably start on the large for the leg and then go down to the medium for the foot. The leg is snug enough that it stretches the pattern a bit more, leaving the scallops a bit flat for my liking.

To sum up: very cute, lovely lacy socks that make one more dent in my sock yarn stash.

A Study in Circles

Clue 2, Chart D: done.

Squishy coppery yarn for Secret Baby Project.

Fuel for above.