A neglected blog, some socks, and other random bits

I appear to be guilty of blog neglect. I have been ever so gently, and probably unintentionally, reminded of this by a wonderful friend that I think of often and communicate with far too rarely. She tells me that she is one of my six readers. (The "six" thing, that's just a guess. It's probably only four.)

So, what the heck have I been up to for the last month?

We've had an offer on the extra house so Buster and I have been busy negotiating that and crossing our fingers that nothing goes wrong. It's all very good news and we're through the most nail-biting bits, but I'll refrain from too much excitement until the deal is closed.

There are little buds on the trees here and an occasional small pile of un-melted snow on the roadside. Yes, it is springtime in Michigan and I've started riding my bicycle outside from time to time. It's still a little on the chilly side and the roads close into town (used for shorter spring rides) are full of nasty potholes and cars that have forgotten, over the long Michigan winter, how to comfortably dodge bicycles. So long as it's over 50 degrees and dry, outdoor riding is still better than in, but the really fun cycling is yet to come.

On the knitting front, I've been working on various little things.

I finished this pair of socks for myself:

Yes, I'm aware that there's only one sock in that picture. There is a second sock, I promise.

I also made a thin little beanie cap for myself for wearing under my bicycle helmet. I don't have a picture of the finished product. It is finished but, as yet, untested.



And I finished my first pair of soldier socks a while back.


These Jolly Green Socks are on their way to Afghanistan (or maybe Iraq, I'm not quite sure) for some lucky soldier with male size 9-10 feet. If I hear from the soldier that gets these I'll be sure to share.

After these socks passed inspection I ordered more yarn to start on more soldier socks. This time Kim (the Socks for Soldiers Sarge) was out of olive drab Regia stretch sock yarn so she sent me camouflage Regia sock yarn instead. It's surprisingly pretty. I have to keep reminding myself that this yarn is not my own and that, having bought it at a discount through SFS, I'm not allowed to use it for personal projects (I might have to find some of this stuff through a retail source -- it's pretty!!).

It actually reminds me of the variegated yarn I used for the hat in my previous post. I'm not entirely sure this sort of camo works in the dessert. It's a bit too lush with all the greens and blues I'd think. But apparently this will pass muster for regulation socks and since they'll be inside combat boots and under pant legs I suppose it doesn't really matter.

I've got about 3 pair worth of camo yarn here and I'm told we mostly need to be making male size 9-10 socks since most of the deployed soldier feet fit that category. So those legs are the beginnings of another size 9-10 pair. I think I'll make the next pair for a female soldier. A woman might be more likely to appreciate the pretty colors in this camo patterned yarn.

I'm currently searching for another knitting project. I might make myself a cardigan (though I've promised myself I'd do that AFTER I lost a certian amount of weight and I'm not to that goal yet so I probably should wait), or I might make a second attempt at a lace project, or maybe...



(Don't think about Pink Elephants!)

How to Knit Wacky Ankle socks

I finished my wacky ankle socks and I just know you couldn't wait to see them.


All bright and cheerful with their carnival colors and mismatched ankles!


Actually, this was a bit of an experiment. I've been seeking a good sock pattern to use for cycling socks and I think this one will do quite nicely.

If you don't really care about how to knit socks, the rest will likely bore you to tears. Personally, I find sock construction, in it's zillions of variations, quite fascinating. I also do math for fun. I'm weird.

To make my toes up socks I start with a provisional cast-on over the cable of my second circular needle like in this video (the provisional cast on I use is the second of the four she demonstrates):



Then I knit a short row toe similar to the toe in Wendy's generic toe up sock pattern. Both the cast on and the short row toe take some practice. There's a short row toe tutorial on Knitty using a crochet provisional cast on. I don't like the crochet chain cast on, but I found the rest of the tutorial useful.

For the record, I like my socks to be 60 stitches around (on size 1's) so I cast on 30 stitches (plus the 30 on the second needle which hangs out of the way, or sometimes frustratingly in the way, while you make the toe). I knit back one complete row, turn and start my short rows by purling 29, wrap the 30th stitch and turn, knit back to the second to last stitch, wrap the last stitch and turn, etc until there are 14 unwrapped stitches in the middle and 8 wrapped stitches on either end.

Wendy's instructions, both in her pattern and on Knitty start the short rows with a knit row. I found that when I started with a purl row, I ended up picking up the last wrapped stitch on a knit row and could continue strait away in the round. Doing it Wendy's way had me finishing with a purl row, then having to knit back to start the round and for me that left too big of a gap when I moved to the second needle to work in the round and I ended up with little holes on either side of the toe. Perhaps I'm not following Wendy's instructions quit correctly. Not sure. Anyhow, I get holes Wendy's way. You might not.

Once the toes are both finished I arrange them on two circs and start knitting in the round. I did a 2x2 rib on the top of these sock and stockinette stitch on the bottom.

My ginormous feet are 10 inches long (really, I might be the only girl on the planet that dreads shoe shopping) so I start me heel work at 7 inches using the heel from Wendy's toe up socks with a difference. Instead of working gussets on the sides of the heel, this pattern puts the increases under the heel. It ends up looking like a little wedge under your foot. I was a bit skeptical about putting anything other than stockinette stitch under my foot until I tried this. The increases are quite flat and you will not be able to feel them.

Side view:

bottom view:



Then I work back and forth on the heel needle turning the heels with short rows and continuing with the heel flaps as described in the pattern. Once you've figured out the short rows for the toes, the short row heel turn is a piece of cake. I work up the heel flap sucking up stitches on either side as I go. Once all the stitches are worked in and I'm down to just the flap, I still have a few more stitches on the heel needle than the instep needles so I start working in the round again and swallow up those extra stitches as I go.

For these socks I knit 1 1/2 inches of 2x2 rib for the ankle, adding in the mismatched yarn as needed, then bound off in pattern with a number 3 needle.

And there you have it, toes up ankle socks suitable for cycling!