FO: Turing and the Apple socks

Name: Turing and the Apple socks

Pattern: (name, author, source) Turing and the Apple, by Moi, available soon.

Yarn: (name, fibre, weight, colour) Wooly Wonka Fibers Bamboo/Superwash Wool, 30% bamboo, 60% superwash wool, 10% nylon, sock weight, Macintosh colour.

Needles: (size, material, style) Set of 5 2.5 mm double pointed needles in bamboo

Construction: (toe/heel/ribbing/cast off or cast on) Top down, rib with garter stitch details, German Heel, grafted toe.

Number of stitches: (in foot/in leg) 64/64 for woman’s medium-ish

Knitting style: (toe, foot/leg, heel, ribbing) Combination for rib and heel flap, English for rest of sock.

Notes: So it didn’t win the Summer of Socks Design contest; I still love the design.

Pattern available to buy here.

 

Edgy

I’m progressing nicely on the Wren cardigan.

Progress so far on the back.

However, the curling edges are still bothering me.

I have two strategies for the fronts; double crochet or a couple of rows of 1/1 rib.

Here’s the test piece I did on the left front:

It stops the edges from curling, but is it in keeping with the overall design? Would four rows of 1/1 rib work better?

I’m also having difficulty with the lower edges, as previously mentioned, and one suggestion (via Flickr) was to tack the ribbing up and have a hem.

I like this idea, but I also like the look of the 1/1 ribbing. Hmmmm…

I’ll either try and block it out (any suggestions for doing so to cotton/silk yarn?) or just live with the curling on the lower edge.

Tropicana:

I’m also pondering how to start my mum’s Tropicana socks (pattern at Magknits, and this is the yarn I’m using).

Aesthetically, I want to use a four-round garter stitch cuff because this would “wave” with the stitch pattern. But I know that this isn’t likely to hold the sock up, so I’m pretty certain it’s going to have to be a 2/2 rib. I can’t use elastic in the cuff because my mum’s legs can swell quite a lot and I don’t want her feet dropping off because I made her socks too tight!

Boudica:

Progress on the first sock:

The photo shows that I’m now 1 inch away from starting the gusset increases. The light is atrocious here at the moment because we’re currently experiencing monsoon-like rain storms and funnily enough the camera wanted to use the flash!

Random thought for the day: Do men think that the toilet is self-cleaning?

Just asking.

The Summer of Socks

Like the Summer of Love, but keeps your feet warmer in the winter!

I signed up in some vain attempt to keep myself motivated to knit during the northern hemispheric summer. The irony about knitting during the summer is that it’s easier for me to knit because my joints are warm and loose, but my hands don’t half get sweaty!

So, here are the socks I plan to knit this summer (all two pairs):

Mum’s socks.

I got one of those full-bag-sale thingys from Elann a while back and out of the three colours on offer, my mum chose this colourway of Sock it Too Me Puzzle:

The pattern I’m going to use will be a (slightly) modified version of the “Tropicana” socks from the June 2006 edition of Magknits.

The pattern writer has you cast on 55 stitches. Now, anyone who’s read this blog will know that it’s not going to cut it with regards to my mum’s feet. They may cut the blood off though! I’m going to err on the side of loose and go with 77 stitches (it’s an 11 stitch pattern repeat).

Boudica:

I’m also nominating the (already in progress) Boudica socks.

The pattern is by Miriam Fulton (Mim Knits) and is available from Anne at Wooly Wonka Fibers.

It’s taken me a while to get this far because I have to concentrate on the cables – there are no rest rows! It’s definitely a podcast/radio-only knit. Yesterday it was a cricket-on-the-radio knit (I can’t afford/wont get for reasons of principal Sky TV) so I got another 8 rows done.

I think you can see how it takes me 6 weeks to make a fairly simple pair of socks, and a lot longer for more complex ones.