Knockin' the Socks Out

Two pairs of socks, pre-blocking.

I've been knocking out quite a few knitting projects this past week and it feels good to finish up some of these works in progress. Don't know where all the mojo's coming from but I'm riding the wave of productivity.

My brother's Christmas socks are finished. I know it's early but the holidays always sneak up on me so I'll be especially grateful to have these done come December. I used Trekking XXL knit with JWR's size 1 needles because I wanted a really tight fabric. The ribbing is a nice, interesting, and simple pattern, Ridges and Ribs, found on Ravelry.


I wish the photos were better. It's a gray day today and the lighting in the house is not that great. The yarn is actually much darker than it appears -- a charcoal gray with flecks of bright purples and blues. It's nice stuff, manly-man yarn. The socks were really stiff when I knit them -- not a bad quality, really -- but softened up markedly once they were blocked. Hopefully they won't get saggy like the other socks I've knit for my bro, a design flaw I haven't figured out how to rectify quite yet.


And I finally finished the herringbone socks, too. After starting at several different points in my balls, I finally found a part of the yarn that didn't pool as badly as before. There are some slight differences in the color striping but only enough to be noticeable to the discerning eye. Again, blocking relaxed these nicely and evened out the fabric from the two-color knitting.



Here, a close-up of the herringbone and the checkered heel (toes are checkered as well).

And here, a sock landscape:

A Day of Blocking

I've been knitting like a fiend since last Sunday's SnB. Maybe because of all the baseball on tv. Or perhaps because the urgency of the chillier weather. Or, most likely, because I'm putting off other things I should be doing instead.

Today I'm blocking three projects: my brother's Christmas socks, my stranded herringbone socks (finished at last), and a winter hat for David.

I'll post before-and-after shots in the next few days. In the meantime, here are some pictures of the hat. It's the Botanic Hat pattern, an ingenious, fun, and fairly quick pattern to knit. It gets a little dicey at the crown, as most hats do when you're doing the final decreases and have only a few stitches on each needle. Look at this crazy jumble of dpns, stitch markers, and yarns:


And voila. Including a side that's ribbed, for her pleasure:


And a smooth side:


Best of all, I was able to use up more of my stash. The light gray is some lambswool I had left over from, appropriately enough, a sweater I knit for David a few years ago. The contrasting color is Bartlett. It has flecks of their other colorways in it, making it a fairly complex and interesting yarn with blips of blues and reds and teals. (Click on the photo to see it in better detail):


Now, to go fetch the Eucalan and get blocking!

SnB Knit Along

Starting with this upcoming SnB, a few of us will be knitting the "Colonnade Shawl". If you would like to join in, bring along your yarn and needles. The more the merrier! You can get the pattern here. I think this can be knit in a lighter weight yarn if you want. The result will just be smaller. As always, I will bring along my ball winder and umbrella swift for your ball winding pleasure!