WIP Wednesday...........Mock Cable Socks.

Hello there, my friends, I hope you all had a good weekend. I can't believe it's Wednesday already !!! I've had a busy week so not much time for knitting. On Monday, I spent the day cleaning and de-cluttering my conservatory. 

Our daughter had the T.V for her new house, so I decided to move the furniture around and have this room as a quiet, relaxing room, though I do still have the radio in there. Yesterday, after spending the day with my mom, dad, sister, nieces and nephew, I had half an hour in my conservatory working on my Mock Cable Socks by Wendy D Johnson, before I started the dinner. It's so nice to look out into the garden and hear nothing but the birds singing.

I bought this beautiful chocolate brown yarn in the sale at the Natural Dye Studio, it is the Stardust Sock base in the colour Paracombe. I decided to knit the toe in a cream 4ply, just to make it a bit different. I have called these my Coffee & Cream socks.

These are the socks on, you can see the cable better here, this is why I love to knit socks, toe up, you can try them on as you knit them, to get the perfect fit. I've nearly finished the first sock, I'm deciding whether to do the rib in cream to match the toe. They seem to be taking me a lot longer to knit than other pairs, I don't know if it's the pattern, knitting on two circulars ( I normally use DPN's) or the type of heel as you have to create the gusset, then turn the heel and then do the heel flap.

I'm hoping to finish them before the end of the month as my goal is to knit a pair of socks a month. The other project I've been working on the last two weeks is my Makai Shawl by Mel Ski. This as been great travel knitting, the pattern is very intuitive so I don't need to look at the pattern, now. The last couple of weekends we've been travelling about so I've been able to work on this quite a bit.

My daughter has just moved into her new house, so we travelled up to see it and spend the day with her. It's a lovely house, she use to house share with five people at Uni which was just chaotic but Jodie and her best friend have moved out and got this house. They seem so much happier and says it feels like home, rather than just somewhere to sleep.

So with all the time spent in the car, I'm half way through the second part of the pattern called Waves Frolicking. I love how it's turning out, it's my first mystery pattern though it's strange not knowing how it's going to turn out, I do like the anticipation and second guessing what the next part will be. My guess for the third and final part is a frilly edge which would look like the waves washing up on the shoreline. I am probably completely wrong, you'll have to tune in next week to find out!!!!! What a cliffhanger, lol.

 

I love the stitch definition on this shawl pattern, if you want to check out what everyone else is working on this week, head over to Tami's blog.

Enjoy the rest of the week.

xxxxDebxxx

Socks from the Toe Up.........Dead Simple Lace Socks..

I've only ever knit a couple pair of socks before, a pair of Vanilla (plain) socks and the Crenate socks which were started from the cuff. I really struggled on the heels and I'm not great at Kitchener stitch. I persevered though and eventually finished them.

I've seen some gorgeous sock patterns but have always put off starting another pair until  I saw this book Socks from the Toe Up by Wendy D Johnson. I'd read that people find that they are easier to knit as the toes are knit in one so no Kitchener and the heels are worked in short-rows so no picking up stitches on the heel flap.

I've got quite a few skeins of sock yarn that I received when I was in a monthly yarn club, there isn't one pattern that I don't like in this book so my plan is to knit every one starting from the beginning and working my way through, I think they get more complicated as you get further through the book.

This yarn is a Blue Face Leicester called Dazzle 4ply from The Natural Dye Studio,  one advantage of doing toe up is if you are worried about running out of yarn, you can just keep knitting the leg until you get the desired length or you run out of yarn.

I split the one skein into two even balls, using my ball winder, firstly I wound the whole skein into one ball then weighed it and divided the weight by two. I then started winding a second ball from the first ball until I got equal weights.

There are three basic Vanilla socks at the start of the book so you can practise the three different heel and toe techniques that is shown in the technique section, before you start on the more complicated patterns.

I jumped straight in though and went to the first patterned socks in the book which are called Dead Simple Lace Socks, this pattern uses short-row heel and toe and didn't look to complicated to understand. I've got to say though, the written instructions are very easy to understand and very well written, which helped.

Another advantage with toe ups, is you can try them on at any time so you get the best fit for your foot, this is definitely a easier way for me to knit socks and I really enjoyed working on them. This pattern is very easy and after the first row, knew the chart pattern so I could work on these while watching T.V. or socialising at a craft group. I found I really had to concentrate with the cuff down socks but I will try them again if I see a pattern I like.

Here are my finished socks all blocked and ready to wear.

I'm not sure whether you can see on this photo but I love how the heel and toe have striped then the rest of the sock has just a variegated look.

Thank you for stopping by, I really appreciate it and all your lovely comments, make my day. Enjoy the rest of the week.
xxxxDebxxxx