2010 - Sock Projects

Since learning to knit socks at the beginning of the year, I've made 8 pairs of socks this year. I'll be making more in the years to come as my mum sure appreciates them and I am liking the warmth of them as well in the cold weather we are currently experiencing here in Portugal.

Ovelha Negra Socks No. 3

Pair no. 3 of the Ovelha Negra Socks. I've almost reached the point that I don't even need to look at the pattern anymore, I guess I'll get there in another couple of pairs.

Yarn used:

Regia 4ply Kaffe Fassett Easter

3mm needles

Ovelha Negra Socks No. 2

Here are my second set of socks using the pattern I got from the sock workshop I did at Ovelha Negra last month.

Yarn used:

Regia 6ply Mosaik Color - Papagei

3mm needles

Sock Workshop at Ovelha Negra

As mentioned in my previous post I went to a workshop at my LNS - Ovelha Negra to learn how to knit a sock properly. Well Xana, our teacher, had gone to a lot of trouble to prepare the workshop. She'd made little books with the pattern we would be knitting during the workshop (the paper in the background); she'd cut all the sheep shaped yarn holder out of pretty tough cardboard and wound all the yarn on it (don't you just love the green colour, will need to ask if there is any more of this yarn available); then out of MDF type wood she cut out a foot/leg shape and added a coat of varnish so that we can use it to dry our socks on for them to retain their shape (not in the photos); she also made the goody bag (photo below) from scratch including the embroidery on the front and Ovelha Negra donated the contents.

So I arrived at about 14.45, only 15 minutes before we were supposed to start and as I walk in, the lights go out, luckily it wasn't too dark a day, but we ended up getting candles and lighthing them as the afternoon wore on.

Well the goodies in the bag were two balls of Regia 6-ply sock yarn, colour shade Nordic, a set of 5 Addi DPNs in wood (lovely and soft, fantastic to work with) and of course a pattern for a medium sized woman's foot. I promised myself not to start it yet as I still have so much stuff to finish, but I just couldn't help myself, and so now it's been delegated to lunchtime knitting, in other words it only comes out at lunch time at the office. Having only started it yesterday, I've already managed to reach the part of the heel flap on the first sock, that's how quickly the yarn knits up, and the needles really help a lot also.

The sock we knitted in the workshop won't actually fit my foot as I was running out of yarn and we were all running out of light (the lights eventually came on around 19.00 when we were just about to leave). It's a cute little sock though, and I'll probably hang it up somewhere around the house as a reminder of the workshop. Xana was a great teacher, and trust me seeing as the instructions are all in Portuguese I really needed her help as I don't read patterns in any language other than English. Ovelha Negra also deserves a big thank you for hosting this workshop and giving us this lovely yarn and needles to make our first pair of socks. I learned a lot, loads of neat little tricks and from now on I won't be afraid of knitting socks, and I'll get them to look like socks and not deformed things like my first attempt.

Toe-Up Socks

This is the first ever toe-up sock pattern I tried (freebie from internet - http://wendyjohnson.net/blog - generic toe-up pattern). I knit the first up in an afternoon and the matching pair in two evenings. I made them from some wool I'd bought in a flea market/yard sale years ago in Holland (I believe it was at a old people's home in Leiden), and it was a whole box full of this yarn in several colours. Each "ball" is approximately 100g and it was enough for me to make 1 pair of socks and still have some left over. I used Pony size 3mm Bamboo needles which were lovely to use. My mum was the lucky recipient of these socks as she had a hysterectomy at the beginning of March and was stuck at the hospital for 4 days. She didn't use them in the hospital though because she didn't want to get them dirty, however, she's been using them ever since she's been home, and now of course I need to make a lot more. I offered to make some for my gran, but she said she had so many socks still to be used at home that it really wasn't worth it. My aunt, however, didn't have any such problems in saying that yes she definitely wants a pair also. However much I loved knitting these though, I really wanted to try knitting a sock that didn't come out looking deformed like my Kuogi sock, and so I decided to go to a workshop at a LNS (but more on that in another post). Well I'll be at the farm again this weekend and I'll be bringing some more of this yarn home with me to start on knitting some more socks.

Sock Knitting

I really should be focusing on finishing my cross stitch project no. 128 (shown in my previous post), but when browsing the web yesterday I came across a simple sock pattern on Andrea Wong's blog (www.andreawongknits.com then follow the link to the blog at the bottom of the page). Seeing as I've been meaning to try knitting socks for some time now, I decides that this was as good a time as any. While in Australia I bought Patons Big Baby 4ply yarn (60% acrylic, 40% nylon 100g/420m) in this variegated color (picture above) which according to the label is Color 3910 dye lot 763786. It's really thin yarn and even though the label says to use 3.25mm needles I don't have any double pointed needles in that size, so I decided to go for 2mm needles instead. I'm still on the ribbing, but I've decided to only do 3 inches of ribbing as I prefer short socks, but if these work out fine, I might just make another pair where the leg part is longer all the way up to my knees. Anyway, the photo below shows the ribbing at about 1.75 inches which is where I got to yesterday. During my lunch hours I managed to add another inch or so of knitting in between beeing interrupted every now and then. So tonight I'm going to finish the ribbing part and carry on with the pattern. Will show updates shortly.