Category: Socks

Beekeeper Socks
Started: 18 Feb 2021
Finished: 3 March 2021
Pattern: “His Last Bow” by Lotta Groeger
Yarn: Haldecraft Yarns Andre in colorway, “None of your Beeswax” (80% SW Merino, 20% Nylon)
Needle: US 1.5 / 2.5 mm
Notes: You know that a beekeeper who is also a knitter is contractually obligated to knit these, right?  Read the fine print, it’s in there.  These are toe-up socks which is something I try to avoid since I find the cast on fussy and, really, I’m just way more comfortable with cuff down.  The little bee detail in some of the cells means they really do need to be knit toe-up, and they’re bees (!!!) so it was 100% worth forging ahead with a method that isn’t my favorite but produces a beautiful set of socks.  As is usual with toe-up socks, I can never seem to gauge where to start the heel, so the foot is just a tiny bit too long.  Then I got overzealous and knit the leg a bit too long, so it’s a little tight near the cuff.  In hindsight, I could’ve added a few extra stitches around to accommodate my calves, but by the time one was done, I wasn’t going back to fix it since it wasn’t too-too bad.  Can we appreciate though, the beauty of lining up the sock pattern and the yarn color and colorway name here?  I’m absolutely delighted with how these came out and obviously am going to bee wearing them a bunch!

Blue & Purple Speckle Socks
Started: ??
Finished: 26 Jul 2021
Yarn: Skein band missing, though I think it’s from Mountain Laurel Yarns
Needle: US 1.5 / 2.5 mm
Notes: I absolutely love the colors of this yarn.  I think I had originally bought it to make a hat, but it makes a mighty fine pair of pretty socks.

Dutch Vacation Socks
Started: Sep 2021
Finished: Oct 2021
Yarn: Malabrigo Sock yarn in colorway, “Indiecita”
Needle: US 1.5 / 2.5 mm
Notes: Started these on the plain on the way home from a brief vacation to the Netherlands while the husband was actually home, before he left for the UK for 2 years (that’s a whole ‘nother story) and while there was a lull in Coronavirus cases.  Yep, pandemic vacation socks.

Plain Old Socks
Started: Oct 2021
Finished: 23 Oct 2021
Yarn: Dream in Color Smooshy in colorway “Good Luck Jade”
Needle: US 1.5 / 2.5 mm
Notes: This is one of those yarns that looked really heavy variegated in the skein but actually knit up in a pretty even set of color values (light/dark) and probably could’ve handled a simple pattern pretty well.

Purple Storm Socks
Started: 29 Oct 2021
Finished: 4 Nov 2021
Yarn: Wullenstudio Superwash Sock in colorway “Wooly Bully”
Needle: US 1.5 / 2.5 mm
Notes: I picked up this yarn at the Maryland Sheep and Wool festival in 2009, so it’s definitely on the older end of the stash spectrum.  I really dug the purple and grey together and they pooled up every so slightly around the leg in wide stripes.

That wraps up the plain old socks catch-up!  There’s one more that I need to post, but it deserves its own post since it’s actually a really neat design.  There are other knits to post too that aren’t socks, so I’ll be busy getting caught up for the rest of the year probably!

Continuing on with the sock knitting catch-up posts, but at least we’re into 2021 now!  This is some peak winter pandemic knitting, just basic plain stockinette socks, but honestly it was all my brain had space for at the time.

Fall-ish Socks
Started: 25 Dec 2020
Finished: 2 Jan 2021
Yarn: Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks that Rock Lightweight, Mill Ends
Needle: US 1.5 / 2.5 mm
Notes: Mill Ends are the not-quite-perfect runs of sock yarn that are still plenty good, but not perfect.  Ravelry says I picked this up at the Rhinebeck Sheep and Wool festival in 2009, so wow was it due to be used finally.  This yarn is an absolute delight – it’s SO squishy and comfortable to wear even if a little thicker than most sock yarns, and what a pretty colorway.

Day at the Beach Socks
Started: 2 Jan 2021
Finished: 11 Jan 2021
Yarn: Spindle City Yarns Handpainted Sock in colorway, “Day at the Beach”
Needle: US 1.5 / 2.5 mm
Notes: It’s my best friends, blue and brown again!  Ravelry says I bought this in 2008, so this was one of my first few sock yarn purchases ever.  Pretty wild how a few skeins of sock yarn became bins of yarn, enough to keep me warm for an eternity.  This project marks my transfer from keeping records on Ravelry to keeping records in a notebook because of Ravelry’s site redesign and refusal to add basic code for accommodating those who found the new site intolerable or harmful to use.  I even noted on the project page, “Last FO on Ravelry.  Going to notebook logging or posting on the blog.  BYE RAVELRY.”  Part of the reason I got back to blogging was to keep better track of Finished Objects, so, here we are.

Stormy Night Socks
Started: 6 Jan 2021
Finished: 11 Jan 2021
Yarn: June Pryce Fiber Arts Plum Panda sock in colorway “Stormy Night”
Needle: US 1.5 / 2.5 mm
Notes: Oooh aren’t these pretty?!  The yarn was picked up at the Pennsylvania Fall Fiber Arts Festival in 2015 so it didn’t wait too long to become socks.  My notes on this say that I left the leg longer than I usually do to preserve the color transition.  I even alternated and used the other end of the ball for the heel since the yarn was supposed to transition all the way back to the dark green again.

Bacon Socks
Started: 14 Jan 2021
Finished: 23 Jan 2021
Yarn: Holiday Yarns Flock Sock in colorway “Bacon”
Needle: US 1.5 / 2.5 mm
Notes: Plain old sock!  The yarn was acquired at Rhinebeck in 2010, and how can you possibly resist a colorway called “bacon” which pools up like streaky bacon?!  I mean it really is pretty great.

Another round of sock posts!  Probably at least 2 more to go after this until I’m done.  Still working through this long backlog of plain vanilla socks, but I wear handknit socks constantly, and especially with boots, the unpatterend ones are more comfortable.

Galapagos Socks
Started: 22 Aug 2020
Finished: 6 Sep 2020
Yarn: Dragonfly Fibers Djinni Sock in colorway “Galapagos”
Needle: US 1.5 / 2.5 mm
Notes: If I remember correctly, the yarn was a gift?  We had been to the Galapagos Islands years ago and it was a once in a lifetime kind of trip.  So yeah, obviously a colorway named Galapagos was a thing that had to happen.

Blue Stripe Socks
Started: 8 Sep 2020
Finished: 13 Sep 2020
Yarn: Austermann Hand Painted in colorway “Esiblume”
Needle: US 1.5 / 2.5 mm
Notes: This one pooled up really weirdly for me!  My standard sock is 64 stitches and I think maybe at 72 stitches, I would’ve gotten the stripe pattern shown in product photos.  I *think* I bought this one on a trip to the Netherlands, but can’t be entirely sure since it was after I’d started to abandon Ravelry.  It’s not a particularly soft yarn, but it’s one of those solid, workhorse sock yarns that probably won’t need darning for years and years.

Harvest Socks
Started: 14 Sep 2020
Finished: 25 Sep 2020
Yarn: Farmhouse Yarns Fannie’s Fingering Weight in colorway, “Harvest”
Needle: US 1.5 / 2.5 mm
Notes: Another yarn from 2010, these buttery hues worked up really pretty into an evenly variegated yarn without really any pooling.  This is outside of my blue and brown comfort range but I can’t help but admire how beautifully the colors work together in the final knitted product.

Caribeno Socks
Started: 23 Nov 2020
Finished: 30 Nov 2020
Yarn: Malabrigo Yarn Sock in colorway, “Caribeno”
Needle: US 1.5 / 2.5 mm
Notes: Annnd back to blue!  The yarn was a gift from a friend who knows exactly what colors I like and oh, what gorgeous blues.  Malabrigo is so dang squishy and soft too, these are just fantastic.

This year will mark my 14th year as a knitter.  Hard to believe it started one summer with a friend teaching me the basics and then letting me fly.  Socks are my go-to comfort knitting because I don’t really have to think about them yet they still keep my hands busy, and I can crank out a pair in one long day or, on average, about a week’s worth of evening knitting in front of the TV.  Now that I’ve given up on Ravelry because of their horrible redesign and subsequent hostile response to people saying it was causing them actual, physical harm, refusing to make even basic accessibility accommodations, I’m going to focus on posting these on my blog here instead of on Ravelry.  So, here we are!  This also gives me a little more room to talk about the knitting, any modifications, and so on.  I’ll post 4 of these at a time until I’m caught up and then hopefully, keep up with posting new stuff here as I knit.  The majority of these will be older projects, and I fell into knitting plain old vanilla socks (using my basic sock pattern) to try and use up some heavily variegated or pooling sock yarn that wasn’t really all that well suited to something with a pattern.  Anyway, on to the socks!

NYC Socks
Started: 25 Apr 2020
Finished: 3 May 2020
Yarn: Dragonfly Fibers Dragon Sock in colorway “City That Never Sleeps”
Needle: US 1.5 / 2.5 mm
Notes: This colorway was a TON of fun to knit.  The black is VERY black, so the colored bits really stand out against the dark.

Nell Socks
Started: 11 May 2020
Finished: June 2020
Yarn: Miss Babs Yummy 2 ply in colorway “Nell”
Needle: US 1.5 / 2.5 mm
Notes: I apparently bought this yarn back in 2010 and then it sat in my stash for .. a decade.  It’s definitely a set of colors that’s right up my alley between the blue and brown and oh gosh they knit together so pretty.

Juniper Socks
Started: ??
Finished: 13 Aug 2020
Yarn: Enchanted Knoll Farm Superwash Sock in colorway “Juniper”
Needle: US 1.5 / 2.5 mm
Notes: It appears that this dyer is no longer dyeing yarn, but it’s yet another entry in my blue-and-brown personal colorway, though this one is a little more turquoise and tan.  Gosh I really loved this set of colors and still do, but this and the yarn above were both bought in 2010, so I definitely had a real thing for those colors!

Dusk Socks
Started: 13 Aug 2020
Finished: 22 Aug 2020
Yarn: Ella Rae Lace Merino in colorway “Dusk”
Needle: US 1.5 / 2.5 mm
Notes: Still sort of blues-and-browns-ish, but definitely aptly named with the muted tones of greens and blues.  Not sure when I got this, but I was pretty great about keeping up with the stash on Ravelry until the last 5 years or so, so it was probably a much newer acquisition that I never added into their database.  Really dig those colors, and Ella Rae’s lace merino is definitely a solid sock yarn.

Next four are coming soon!  Still trying to get a blog post up once a week, so a lot of these are scheduled out in advance, but it’s great to be back at the blogging thing.