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Giveaway – Socks With Hand Painted Yarns

July 20, 2009 by Terrye

ssSo is there anyone out there who hasn’t heard of the Sock Summit?? Is there anyone besides me who isn’t going?

Why aren’t I going? I’m a professed addicted sock knitter. Well, for one thing, I’m also a farmer. I also live in Michigan. You do the math. Even if the money were there, the critters demand to be fed twice a day. So, no sock summit for me, at least not this year.

So, I loved all of the horror stories about your socks, sure made me feel better about my “less than perfect” socks. Here’s my horror story: I knit a pair of socks out of Flat Foot Yarn by Conjoined Creations. Hated the colorway, loved the socks when they were done, however, I experimented. The first sock I used a pattern that I came  across, nothing special, just liked it, it was a toe up so what the heck. It came out ok, really, it looked good. Next sock, I found another toe up pattern (which has now become my default standard pattern) and knitted according to that. It fit. It was gorgeous, not just nice, but awesome. So where’s the horror in that? These 2 socks do not match. At all. I’m not talking color, or splotchiness, I’m talking about that sock 1 fit until I tried on sock 2. The the first sock became something more of the “green giant” variety. It was huge, and long and it fit fine until I tried on the other. So, there, now the whole world knows!

Tell me your horror stories, it might get you a book!

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Comments

  1. Annette says

    July 20, 2009 at 8:25 am

    My horror is doing top down socks and running out of yarn……. happened once. Now I do toe up !!

  2. Linda says

    July 20, 2009 at 8:56 am

    I’ve only knit a couple of pairs so far – and all has gone ok. Keep my fingers crossed it’s good knitting and not just good luck!

  3. BeckyS says

    July 20, 2009 at 10:09 am

    I knit up a gorgeous pair of socks in a gorgeous pattern and a gorgeous yarn. Toe-up, on dpns. My standard method. These were county fair material, they turned out so nice. I’m all set to do the cuff ribbing on the second sock. I grab the first to confirm the number of rows of ribbing to do and find not one, not two, not three, but FOUR dropped stitches! I now have to pick out the already woven in ends and cast off and rip back over two inches of lace pattern to fix the first sock. And the second is still on the needles…

  4. Turtle says

    July 20, 2009 at 10:53 am

    My horror story? Aside from the sock whose foot was too small for the length…toe up socks are kicking my butt!! I love knitting cuff down, and maybe thats just cause i learned that way first but… i have had a lvoely tow up on the needles for over a year now! Not only that but they have sat on the end table in the living room staring, mocking me. I need to get over it and pick them back up. Of course now i more than likely need to frog them as i may not be able to find where i left off….le sigh!

  5. Meghan says

    July 20, 2009 at 1:09 pm

    I’m pretty bummed, but I’m also not going to Sock Summit. It’d be amazing, and I’m determined to go some year, but this year, I decided that I’d rather make my mortgage payment.

    Sock catastrophes. I’m not much for patterns, and more than once I’ve cast on, increased, knit the sock, cast off, cast on for the second sock, increased, knit the sock, cast off…and then realized that one sock has extra (generally just two or four, but once *twelve*) stitches. I do it on autopilot and didn’t even notice until I tried them on.

    Also, the first time I tried to do two socks at a time on a long circular needle, I managed to cross the yarn between socks, not just once but several times. It had to be ripped back almost to the toes. I was so frustrated I could’ve cried.

  6. Jeanne says

    July 22, 2009 at 12:42 pm

    The one big disappointment I’ve had is that I belong to a sock club – a really popular one – and got some really interesting yarn that was a superwash/silk blend (note: all the yarn in my 3 years of membership in this club has been 100% superwash and has proven to be machine washable). I knit the socks, really liked them, wore them once then put them in a mesh bag and washed them in my front loader on gentle… got them out and they had felted.

    I sent an email to the club and they pointed to the verbose notes that are enclosed with the pattern about dyeing the yarn… I never read that stuff, I just looked at the yarn label before winding – no special instructions there, then started knitting. Bummer.

    The yarn WAS beautiful and so were the socks, but I’d never make socks I couldn’t wash easily – I could have easily used a scarf out of that yarn.

  7. Kenoshia says

    July 25, 2009 at 11:15 am

    I am not going to Sock Summit either, sadly. Maybe when I am old enough to go out on my own…

    So, my sock horror story includes the Pomatomus socks that I am working on now. I am doing them from the top-down (as always), and I had many problems with the cuff. It is knit with 10 rows, and about everytime I got to the 5th row, I dropped a few stitches. I was not that experienced in picking up dropped stitches, so ended up ripping back at least 4 times! I finally got the hang of it, and then knit all the way to the heel flap. Once there, I tried the sock on and the length was ANNOYING! Therefore, I ripped the whole thing, and redid it with only one pattern repeat. This is the first pattern with which I had to rip back so much!

Have you read?

Knit a Sweet Striped Vest for Kids

I’m trying to include more knits for kids in my posts because I know a lot of people do a lot of their knitting for the little ones in their lives. 

This child’s striped vest from Lion Brand Yarn is not only cute and great for kids who might find a full sweater too hot, it’s also an easy project if you’ve never knit a garment before. 

Lion Brand rates it as level 2 easy/beginner +, probably just because there’s a little shaping and seaming invovled, but it’s nothing you can’t handle. 

The pattern comes in three sizes that are meant to be for ages 6, 8 and 10. The finished chest measurement is 30, 31.5 or 33 inches, which is 76, 80 and 84 cm respectively. This makes the vest a little roomy and makes it easy to slip on over a T-shirt or other top. 

It’s worked in two pieces from the bottom up, with the neckband and armhole bands worked in the round after the body pieces are sewn together. One benefit of knitting stripes on a project like this is that it’s easier to make sure your pieces are the same length because you can just count the stripes (it’s also a little easier to seam because you’re always lining up the stripes). 

If you’re knitting the smallest size, you only need one skein each of the two colors you choose, and for the larger sizes you will only need two, making this project a pretty good value. The suggested yarn is Color Theory, a worsted weight acrylic yarn that comes in 18 relatively muted colors. Of course you can use any worsted weight yarn you like. Keep it acrylic for easy washing or use wool to make this a warmer garment for kids who live in cooler climates. 

You can grab the pattern for free from the Lion Brand website, or get a kit that includes the yarn you need (and needles if you don’t have them already). I think this would be a great basic to knit a kid for back to school in their school colors, or make it holiday with red and green, or whatever colors the child likes. 

[Photo: Lion Brand Yarn]

 

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