Posts Tagged "Socks"

I do not need any more sock yarn! I do not need any more sock yarn! Please Vince . . don’t be reading this post!   The last week or so, my mail lady has been my best friend!  I can’t wait to see her.  That’s all going to change though.  Two more packages and I’m done.  Really .. no more sock yarn.  I mean it this time.

It’s all the fault of those folks over at The Loopy Ewe.  There are yarns that people just rave about and I’ve never even heard of . . and surely haven’t seen or touched.  Everyone knows that the webpage is updated some time on Monday so half the knitters in the world camp out on The Loopy Ewe’s website all day Monday.  I never get anything done on Monday any more.  When I am lucky enough to get some of this can’tlivewithoutyarn, I never even know what color I’m getting . . I’m just sticking it in my shopping cart as quickly as I can and hoping for the best.  Sounds like I really do need a 12 step program, huh?

First, it was the Wollmeise Sock Yarn.  Getting that yarn is harder than getting a 12 point buck!  As soon as it shows up on the website, it’s gone!  If you’re lucky enough to get a few skeins in your cart, you’d better be real quick about checking out because it isn’t yours til you’ve paid for it and if there’s one skein left and someone pays before you do . . it’s going to their house . . not yours!  I got a few more skeins of Wollmeise Sock Yarn so I was happy.  I don’t need any more.  No . . really!  I don’t!

Then I heard that the Wollmeise Twin was heavenly for socks.  After several tries to get that from The Loopy Ewe, I heard that Claudia in Germany (the dyer) updates her web page on Friday mornings at 1 a.m. my time.  I managed to get some Twin straight from Germany!  Goofy me .. I left the invoice on the table and it was all in Euros. Vince looked at it and gasped and said . . doesn’t it take something like two dollars to make one Euro??  Hmmm . . not sure about that!  Let’s talk about something else!

Then there’s the String Theory yarn!  They have one called Blue Stocking and one called Caper.  Caper has 10% cashmere so it makes it a lovely sock yarn.  I’d never heard of it til those evil, evil ladies at The Loopy Ewe put it on their website.

Surely that was the end of the can’tlivewithout yarn!  Oh, no!  There’s Bugga! And it has 20% cashmere!  My feet will love me . . if ever I get socks made with it.  When it showed up last time on The Loopy Ewe’s site, so many of us were trying to get it that we crashed the server.  It’s all named after bugs and it’s as hard to get, if not harder, than the much desired Wollmeise.  In this picture:  Barrens Tiger Beetle, Tarantula Hawk, Sooty Dancer, Black Witch Moth and Death’s Head Hawk Moth.

Good . . I have all the can’tlivewithout yarn there is.  I can stop stalking The Loopy Ewe’s website and maybe I can paint new letters on my F5 key because I’ve worn them off.

What?  Not yet?  Monday I heard . . actually read on Ravelry . . that the update that night would include Numma-Numma.  What the heck is that?  Well, I managed to stalk the website long enough that I got some of that ordered. And then I heard that Sanguine Gryphon would have more Bugga in their Tuesday morning update.  I managed to get a special color called Love Bug and a very hard to find Northern Purple Gold Beetle.

Why can’t I be as disciplined with sock yarn as I am with quilting fabric lately?  It’s the hunt . . it’s knowing that if I don’t grab it now, I may never have another chance to get it . . ever!  I’m done .. really!

The yarn I mentioned a day or so ago that I didn’t like . . it isn’t so bad.  I used a larger needle (size 3) than what I had used when I knitted another skein of this yarn and it worked out much better.  It’s a pretty thick sock and will be great for wearing with boots.  I’ll get the mate finished probably tomorrow.

There’s actually lot of yardage on these skeins and from the 3 skeins of this yarn, all different colored, I’ll be able to make a pair of scrappy socks . . can’t have too many ugly socks for wearing with the boots, right?

I’ve given up already.  I do not like toe up patterns.  I do not like this yarn.  I’ve already made one pair of socks using it and I thought bad words while making it but I used size 1 needles.  They don’t feel as scratchy on my feet as they do to my hands when I’m knitting.  The yarn is 75% wool/25% nylon but I think it’s the same wool they use for Brillo pads!  I know . . Brillo pads are not made of real wool . . are they?

I’ve switched back to my plain jane Classic Socks for the Family pattern that I love.  I’m using size 3 needles.  If I think bad words, I will not say them and I will hurry up and finish and be done with these.  And then . . I’ll just have one more skein of this yarn to use and if I’m lucky, it’s lost!

No, I’m not going out in the dark by myself!  In my yarn buying frenzy, I bought some ugly yarn.  I’m sure someone loves this yarn but I’m not that someone.  Not only do I find it big and scratchy for sock yarn but this is one ugly color.  What was I thinking?

It’s as boring in real life as it is in the picture.  It’s kinda pukey yellow to a washed out gray to a muddy mucky brown.  A far cry from the brights I usually buy . . what was I thinking? 

Anyway, while playing around on Ravelry today, I found a pattern that uses bigger needles (size 3) and is a toe up pattern, which I also am not crazy about.

So, on a Monday night, why not try a pattern I probably won’t like on a yarn I know I don’t like?  I suppose if I gift these socks to anyone, they’ll know they’re not my best friend!  Really . . I’m thinking I need some bulkier socks for my black rubber boots so . . here I go . . I’m going to cast on as soon as I publish this post.  The worst that can happen is I’ll throw the whole mess in the trash and forget that I ever bought it!

These socks were supposed to be part of my Socktoberfest but I lost them.  I don’t even know when or where I found them because I was just sitting knitting the other night and I thought . . these socks were lost and now they’re found!

This yarn is Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sock Yarn.  It’s 80% Superwash Merino/20% nylon.  I like knitting with it but for some reason, this yarn seems to take forever to knit up.  I use a size 1 needle, which I use for a lot of my socks so don’t ask me why I always feel like I’m never going to finish socks when using Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sock Yarn.  But, I guess I just proved myself wrong because . . I did finish them! 

Recipe Today At Lime Green Kitchen:

Italian Sausage & Spinach Soup – A spicy Italian style soup. Make extra and freeze it before adding the tortellini. Once the soup is thawed and heated, add the tortellini and continue simmering just til the tortellini is hot.

It’s been a bit over three years since I learned to knit socks.  Using 4 double pointed needles (DPN’s) was how I learned.  Friends kept telling me about the Magic Loop method where you knit one sock at a time using round needles.  I bought the book, I tried it.  The partially completed sock has been sitting on the needles for a year or more.  Last week, a blog reader told me about a book and knitting two socks at one time on long round needles.  I bought the book while in Lake Charles but had to order the needles.  Not knowing what size to get, I ordered three different sizes.  Got the book out over the weekend and I tried everything but standing on my head.  I could not figure it out.  In the end, I did figure it out, after starting over about a dozen times.  I couldn’t keep my yarn from getting all tangled up.  I think it had something to do with Speck sitting on my lap and jumping up and down and getting tangled up in the yarn.

I’ve gone back to my DPN’s but I may try the two socks at one time method again.  Sure  would be nice to get two socks finished and not have all those first socks made and then having to force myself to make the second one.

Just to prove to you that I do have willpower or self control . . I started knitting these socks while in the hotel on my way to mom’s.  I hated the yarn.  I’ve never disliked any yarn before.  I didn’t like this at all!  It’s thick, it’s rough . . I just didn’t like it.  I thought to myself . . I’ll knit a little bit longer and maybe I’ll like it better.  I didn’t like it any better so I just made some short socks . . just to get finished.  But at least I made myself finish them.  I knew if I put them down, I’d never go back to them.

It isn’t like I’m ever going to run out of yarn but when I got home a package of sock yarn had arrived.

See the Schaefer Anne and Schaefer Heather tags?  That is dream yarn!  Love that stuff!  Currently I’m knitting the green/pinkish one that you see in the front right.  That’s Fleece Artist Hand Maiden/Casbah and it feels really good too.  I’m as addicted to sock yarn as I am to fabric.  But, isn’t that yarn gorgeous?