FO: Embossed Leaves

Last Friday being Daffodil Day took precedence over my usual FO Friday post. Here it is instead for you…

I mentioned in my February Round-up post that I had put a pair of socks back into circulation. Amazingly, this was the first time I’d ever shown these socks to you! I hadn’t even put them up on Ravelry, til now.

 They are “Embossed Leaves” from Favorite Socks, published by Interweave Press. I don’t remember when I knit them – that information is lost in the mists of time (which sounds more lyrical than “my brain”) but I think it was around this time of year in 2009. I did a lot of knitting that year that I never really blogged about – or maybe it was 2008! Details shme-tails!

I absolutely loved these socks: loved knitting them; loved wearing them. I knit them in 10 days – that much I *do* remember! I also remember that I left out the last repeat on the foot to make them the perfect length. The special thing about this patten is that the design of the star-toe, which finishes the final leaf shapes on the foot. A design-feature which prevented me from trying to reverse engineer them as toe-up socks. For once I was forced to stick to the pattern.

The yarn is  Bergère de France Cho’7 – an absolutely fabulous sock-yarn. This is gorgeously soft to the touch but wore like iron. I was highly taken-aback when I wore through one toe. This is the fault of the sticky-up-ness of my right big-toe, not the yarn.

So they languished for at least six months in a holey, unwear-able state. You may remember one of the promises I’ve made to myself this year is that I’ll put socks back into circulation by darning them. This was my first crack at it and I succeeded. Darning is a challenge for me, and something I put off forever. I used the deadline of the Sock-a-Month KAL to spur me to action. A bit cheaty from the point of view of the KAL but it worked as a motivator for me. I am re-united with my first love in socks.

FO: Better Mousetrap Socks

It took a while, but my April socks are finally done, albeit in the middle of May.

First time you saw these it was as a curl of 240-odd stitches on a too-small cable-needle.

Cast-on 1st Sock

Then I wondered if the effect I was getting, with the yarn choices I’d made, was right for the construction method of the project.

Mottled-effect: more Matrix than Mousetrap!

After much deliberation – and knitting one half of the sock – I opted to de-ply the yarn I had double-stranded and re-wind it so that I could make the second half in alternate stripes of variagated and solid.

DH declared it to be a Wampum Belt but, for me, this project was the sock-equivalent of the Baby Surprise Jacket – only you know that it’s a pair of socks. More importantly, you don’t know that it’s really going to fit until you sew it up. The project had a different surprise in store for me, however: I ran out of yarn 10 rows before the end.

Sock Surprise; now with added surprises!

I was quite daunted by the idea of grafting the 200-odd stitches on the seams – four times over! However, Debbie New describes a Super-simple grafting method that helped me get the job done without fear or stress.

Then, the final test: trying them on…

They fit; he likes them; I'm happy!

Decisions, Decisions

My Work Work-Plan Plan – in which I plan to have a plan and then work to work to my plan – is all working according to plan. (hee hee, I love to I wreck heads!) I’m two days into my strategy and I’m feeling all super-productive and happy. This super-focussed-feeling is spilling into my home-life too (so I’m only allowing myself 30mins to blog) and even has me feeling I should be super-focussed on what my knitting project priorities should be.

Note I say “should be” because, in reality, my inner-crafty-self is not listening to super-focussed-work-self. Super-focussed-self says I should be focussing on finishing those last few inches on DH’s GlenvarAgin Cardigan, so that I can get cracking on the sleeves – and finally give it too him after all these years. Inner-crafty-self says “Boring! Oooh look… shiny new techniques!” and promptly potters off in the direction of a crochet hook!

Better Mousetrap Socks by Debbie New from Unexpected Knits

One shiny new technique that grabbed my undivided crafting attention last week was Better Mousetrap Socks by Debbie New (above). Within two days of casting on, I had completed one half of my first sock. I was amazed – I don’t know if I’ve ever progressed a sock that quickly before.

Trust me, it's a sock!

One thing I’m not sure about is the way the colours are working. If you recall, I’m stranding a self-striping, faux-fair-isle yarn (Berroco Sox) with another solid sock yarn (Bergere de France CHO’7) for a bulky, quick knit. It’s giving the following effect, close-up:

So... whaddya think?

I’m not sure that I like it. I don’t think it does enough to express the construction of the sock. I think the overall sock will just look homogenously mottled.

I’m of a mind to unwind the second cake of yarn and re-wind it so that the Berroco Sox and the CHO’7 are each double-stranded separately and then complete the second half of each sock in stripes of each. Would that be completely crazy looking? Should I leave well-enough alone?

 I’d love if you could give me your opinions, dear Reader.