Thursday, November 23, 2017

Happy Thanksgiving!

 

 
  • I am thankful for Sheep and rabbits and alpaca and flax and cotton and all the fibers which make yarn. <3
  • I am thankful for knitting needles and crochet hooks.
  • I am thankful for instructions and patterns which help me make beautiful things.
  • I am thankful for the ability to knit or crochet things and help others with their projects.
  • I am thankful for knitters who help me when I am stuck with a project.
  • I am thankful for all of my knitterly friends and those who crochet.
  • I am thankful for muggles ( people without the magic powers of knitting or crocheting). They have other powers I admire :)
  • I am thankful for each one of YOU.

Enjoy your day, your meal, your family and your knitting as I will.

Thursday, November 9, 2017

Do I need intervention?

" Hi, I am Doris, and I am presently working on my twenty-eighth pair of socks."



 

I started these during the S&W Festival when I had a quiet sit down

 

Seriously, I just recently thought about just how many pairs of socks I have knitted (mostly) for my husband alone.  The other day I had ten pairs drying on my clothes dryer (I wash them in the machine on the hand- wash cycle and then line-dry them) and he still had enough pairs to last him another week at least.
Please note that all captions under the pictures are links to my ravelry posts with detailed information such as yarn and pattern used .

Have I turned into a sockaholic?

Honestly, I don't even count knitting socks as a new project.  When I say "I will not start anything new until I have finished such and such project", it is a given that I do have a pair of socks on my needles.  Let's face it they are small enough to transport easily and pull out anywhere anytime to knit a few rows or even just a couple of stitches or turn a heel. They are also easy enough (depending on stitch pattern) to work on while chatting or watching TV.

I didn't start that way.  

When I got back into knitting around 2005, my friend Mary Pat gave me some pretty sock yarn and two sock knitting patterns.  I dismissed the patterns, because I thought the yarn was far too pretty to wear on your feet and made shawls out of the sock yarn.

Shawl 1

Shawl 2
Another friend, Marie-France, kept telling me how much fun sock knitting is, but I po-poohed the idea.

And then it happened.

The  year was 2011 when I saw this really pretty self patterning sock yarn while on vacation on the Outer Banks.  The yarn even came with a free pattern written by the shop owner, Jeanne, and was marked "easy". Christmas was not far off and one of my sons, Richard, was into snowboarding.  So, why not knit a nice pair of warm socks for him?!
And so it started.

My first pair of socks

Of course I could not make just one pair for one son, I had to make a pair for my husband, Tony

Tony's first socks

and for our eldest son, Gerry

Gerry's socks

and for our youngest son, Matthew.

Matthew's socks


And THEN a friend gifted me a ball of German sock yarn "Zauberball".  And it would have been meaningless for anyone else to receive socks made out of that, so I made a pair for myself and whenever I wear them I do think of Erica 😍.

Socks for me
That should probably have been enough:  One pair of handknitted socks for each member of the family; five pairs total.

BUT what do you do when one of the recipients swears that the socks you knitted are the only socks which ever fitted.
So, I HAD to knit my husband a few more pairs of socks.

Socks 2 for Tony

Socks 3 for Tony

And then another fatal incident, finding the perfect pattern.

One seemingly ordinary day my friend Bobbi told me about this new well fitting heel-construction and of course I had to try it.
And promptly fell in love.....
So, since then, I am only knitting two-socks-at-a-time toe-up and use the FLK heel construction.

socks 4 for Tony with first FLK Heel

Socks 2 for me
More socks for Tony
Tony's birthday socks 2015
Didn't use the FLK for these
Smaller version of the "Elementary Watson" socks for me incorporating the FLK Heel
Knitted these when giving a sock knitting class in Rhinebeck
Lacy socks for me in my favorite color
First pair of Cotton Socks for Tony; Summer 2016
Perfect fit every time: more cotton socks
I could not resist the color Cotton Socks for me
...this time Liverpool Red Socks (Cotton)

Always knitting...





More Cotton Socks for Summer :)
More Cotton Socks, playing with color
I had to try some Hedgehog Fiber for myself
Birthday 2017; in all the socks I made so far other than the cottons this yarn seems to hold up the best (no pilling)
His and hers Anniversary Socks; July 1st, 2017
Color "Kingfisher" WYS British Birds Series for my fisherman
And these Cotton Socks are presently on my needles, but not for much longer

So there, I admit it, I am a sockaholic, but I have no regrets, so don't stop me.

I dare you to give it a try yourself and see where it takes YOU.  

Perhaps take a sock knitting class next time I offer it (most likely in January/ February).

Disclaimer:   The timeline is not 100% correct, but it makes for a good story ;)