Category Archives: socks

May 16

Oh sweet sock yarn

We all have our little coping strategies, and shopping therapy is by no means a rarity. I also like to indulge myself when I’m feeling stressed, and hand dyed sock yarn is my guiltiest of pleasures. I think it’s fair to say that the final stages of a PhD is a stressful period, which might be somewhat reflected in the quantity of new yarns that have been entering my life.

Just to speak in my defence; it helps. It sounds absolutely silly, and many non-knitters will not understand buying yarn that you surely won’t be able to use up in the near future, but this makes me SO excited. When a pretty new skein comes in I squish it, I sniff it, I admire it, I dream about its possibilities. It makes me so happy!

This modest yarn mountain (let’s call it a small hill) is what has been added to my stash in the last 2 months or so. I’m completely driven by bright colours and pastels at the moment. Most of these will be socks (duh), but some of them are reserved for shawls or will even be incorporated in garments.

I’m also happy that these yarns are a lovely representation of what European indie dyers have to offer. On the top left we have a skein from Spectrum Fibre based in the UK (the neon might look familiar as I made a pair of socks from the same dyer earlier this year). Top right is a skein by Craftfulness, a dyer located in the North of the Netherlands. The two stunning skeins in the middle are from Baerenwolle from Germany, which is a yarn I’ve been dying to try for ages but I kept missing the shop updates. Bottom left is a skein I picked up when visiting Sticks and Cups in Utrecht and it’s one of the shops own dyed sock yarn. The YELLOW skein on the bottom right is by Cosmic Strings, and if that sounds familiar it might be because I knit a fantastic pair of socks out of their yarn last Summer. And then the two lovely minty green skeins are by another Dutch dyer called Zazu yarns.

 

To somewhat justify all of this I have been knitting a lot lately too! I cast on a Your Victory Jumper and am already working on the back panel. I do sense that I am in a very lazy knitting mood, which means I’m kind of half-reading the pattern/half improvising my way through this. It’s the first time I’m knitting a vintage pattern, which is only written for size 34. Instead of making calculations etc. I’m just doing things that kind of look like it will fit me. It’s such an odd way of making a garment but it doesn’t seem to bother me at all right now. Even if it wouldn’t fit in the end I don’t think I’d be devastated. For now I’m simply enjoying the process.

In addition I am of course working on another pair of socks. Yellow and purple is a combination that has a special place in my heart, so the contrasting in this sock is magical to me. The yarn is actually a really deep purple, but somehow wants to portray itself a bit more blueish on camera, so you’ll have to trust me on this one. The pattern is Girl on Fire by Cookie A.

So that is what I am up to at the moment. Is there anyone else out there that uses sock yarn to cope with stress?

Apr 28

FO: Wheatly socks

Hurray, my weathly socks are done! Granted, they look more autumnal than spring-like, but to be fair that is exactly what the weather is doing as well. So ACTUALLY, they are super seasonal and this was obviously very intentional.

Pattern: Wheatly socks by Kerri Blumer
Yarn: Spun Right Round sock yarn in the Bug Jar colourway

Each of these socks were actually knit up super fast individually, for some reason there was just some massive gap between making them. But, if you are looking for a textured sock pattern that is interesting to make, while still having a super simple to memorise repeat, then these are definitely the socks for you. It would take me a couple of repeats to remember the pattern and then I’d basically go through the sock in no time.

This is already the third pair of socks I’ve made with Spun Right Round yarn (previous pairs include the super fabulous Prairie Spring and Vinnland socks) and it just never disappoints. There’s always a perfect balance between colours, and each skein I got almost literally spoke to me. This might make me sound mad, but these skeins knew exactly what sort of socks they wanted to become, and I was just following their command. The yarn is really soft, but I can tell you from my previous socks that they stand the test of time fantastically (both when it comes to colour and wear).

And now I am about to cast on some crazy colourful summer socks, because surely the weather will get inspired by that and follow suit!

Apr 17

Knitting here and there

Hello lovely people, I hope you are having a relaxing Easter holiday. For me Easter mainly means a long weekend, which I’ve been trying to use as relaxation time. I also figured it was a good opportunity to take stock of my knitting. For some reason I feel like it’s been ages since my last FO, when in fact it’s only been 1 month. One obvious reason though is how spread out my knitting currently is.

Last week, seemingly out of nowhere, I got bitten by the hexipuffs bug again. I started the Beekeeper’s quilt in 2014 (oh my..) and don’t have all that much to show for it, with only occasional bursts of hexipuff knitting. In the meantime I’ve hoarded up a semi impressive stash of left-over sock yarn and I was feeling the urge to start knitting scrap yarn socks. It didn’t feel quite fair though, knowing this quilt was hopelessly waiting to be finished. So in just a couple of days I managed to add 18 new hexipuffs to the collection.

This brings the total amount to a not so super impressive 54.. Which doesn’t sound all THAT bad, but put together it would barely fit my two cats comfortably (granted, they are a bit on the larger side..). So I’m still nowhere near finishing this project, but at least I already feel good that it’s not completely neglected anymore.

I’ve also been working on the Paint the Town scarf, which I think is now getting decently scarf sized. Plus, I finally decided on my third colour! Initially I was going for a lovely purple, but I don’t think it would really work with colour nr. 1 at all. So this greenish/turquoise is a much better fit (and happens to be one of my favourite colours). Still a couple of more cm’s of the white with yellow speckles to go though before I can start striping in the green.

Aaaand that’s not all! I’ve also finally started working on my Wheatly socks again. The first sock was finished super fast, but then had to be lonely for a while. Now sock number two is finally under construction. I’m ready to start the heel flap and this pair should be finished in no time.

How is your knitting going currently? Are you super focused or also a little all over the place?

Mar 18

You win some, you frog some

I finished a pair of vanilla socks in the loveliest blue-green tones (yarn by Nicole C Mendez). This was some perfect knitting for my current somewhat chaotic and stressed state. Since this winter seems to be never ending I’ll even still get a chance to wear them before spring arrives.

Very satisfying, and then there’s a project that’s pretty much the opposite. Last summer I started the Claire de Lune shawl. After working on it for a week or so the project got neglected. I finally decided to pick it up again, but the stitch count made NO sense whatsoever. I do think it’s a gorgeous pattern, but I’m not in the mood for figuring this out at all. So the project was ripped and I decided to go for the more straightforward Paint the Town pattern. Only I tried to use the momentum created by the frogging and basically jumped right into it. Yeah, never a good idea with super wrinkled yarn. So the project was ripped again, the yarn wound into a hank and I washed it. Let’s hope third time’s the charm, because I cast on again and am quite happily working on it right now. I think these three colours will be lovely in a simple stripey scarf.

Feb 28

Little things

Is it just me or does it feel like this year is flying by like crazy? My mind cannot comprehend that March is starting tomorrow. Is there a pause button somewhere?

I’ve been pretty overwhelmed with work lately, and the fact that it feels like the deadline for my PhD thesis is creeping closer is giving me a lot of stress. So even though I’m not necessarily getting a lot of knitting done, I am trying to find moments to knit some stitches. Just little moments where it does feel like time stops for just a bit, as I let myself be hypnotised by the rhythm of the needles.

But somehow I still let myself be stressed by the process as well. As much as I love things like instagram to follow what other knitters are getting up to, it’s also frustrating when it feels like sweaters are flying off needles left and right, and I’m just working on some plain stockinette socks. I started to feel like I had to make time to sit down and plan bigger projects. But the winding of all that yarn, the swatching, the planning, is all just a bit too much for me right now.

So I had a little chat with myself to remind me that if I’m forcing myself onto some knitting project, it completely bypasses the goal of why I’m a knitter in the first place. So for now I’ll happily continue with my simple sock projects, and if I find a day on which I have the energy to make bigger things again that would be great, but I’m not going to force myself to do so.

For those curious about the pics: the vanilla socks are being made with self striping sock yarn from Nicole C Mendez, the gray socks are in Spun Right Round sock yarn (bug jar) in the Wheathly pattern.