Shed Leaves: Sock Sized

You didn't think I'd really given up sock knitting, even when hurting, did you?  Sure, it slowed me down a little but you can't keep a frustrated woman from the needles.  I've also come to the not especially brilliant conclusion that I should only do one pair of socks on size 0 (2mm) needles at a time. I'd been wading through more than that and was definitely at the point of disparaging all sock knitting ever. Switching to a size 1 needle (2.25 mm) made an enormous difference.

As proof that they are done, I present to you three pairs off the needles.

Black No. 6  was the sixth pair I'd started in 2012. I think I'm officially out of Black Cascade Heritage yarn now.



This is not a particularly exciting picture but they aren't particularly exciting socks. Squishy, sure. But not festive.  They're in the gift basket.

The Tiny Teal Socks seemed never ending. These were on size 0 (2mm) needles, out of Berroco Sox. The yarn is not the softest, though I expect it to be really hard wearing. When I finished these I banished my size 0 dpns so effectively that I can't find them. I'm not kidding, I've managed to lose 2 sets of size 0 needles. I have no idea where they are and a casual flip of the apartment hasn't helped.  Someday I'll do something crazy like put needles away when I'm done. Apparently I haven't reached that point yet.



The Warm Water Socks, at least, made me happy. The yarn was so vibrant and seemed to fly off my needles.  Even knitting on size 1 needles (2.25 mm)



These are out of Baah! La Jolla yarn, which I recently discovered at Loopy. A word of precaution that this might be the most money I've spent on sock yarn. That being said, the yarn is vibrant and squishy and just what I needed to get out of the doldrums.

I tried something new with the Warm Water Socks, decreasing the gusset at the heel rather than on the sides of the foot. I don't like how it turned out. The Philosopher described them as high-heeled socks and it's pretty apt. The arch to the foot is too severe.  I think I want to try TurtleGirl76's model of double decreases on the bottom of the foot. With a single set of decreases I ended up with extra material at the heel and it's already felting after one wearing.

That is everything that is done at the moment. I've got three pair on the needles to show you on Thursday for Sock Show Thursday, assuming I can find my 1.5 (2.5mm) needles and continue to make progress on one pair....

If you're keeping count, I've finished seven pair of socks so far this year and I'll have these next three done pretty soon. That will put me to ten pairs, averaging one pair per month. I don't think I'll make the 18 pairs that I knit last year, but last year's socks were primarily out of sport weight yarn and this year has been much more about fingering weight.  I have another 10 skeins picked out that I'd like to knit up "next" as socks, so I should be covered well into next year.

Someday I'll start knitting worsted weight yarn again. Can you imagine how fast that will go?