sock porn for knitting voyeurs.

Tuesday, October 10, 2006

answering the age old question...

...can i get a pair of socks from one ball of yarn?

vanilla1
Plain Vanilla Footie Socks
Started: October 8, 2006
Finished: October 9, 2006
one ball of RYC Cashcotton, shade 906 (chintz)
50 gm/197 yd
US 1.5 (2.5mm dpns),4 -- 8 sts inch
64 st width, for 9.5" long foot

These are part of my mom's "slew of anklets" holdiay gift I'm planning. I "had" to see if I could coax a pair of footie anklets from one ball of the cashcotton, and I was able to (happily). Like I said before, she likes the footie socks so I'm thinking I'm going to try and knit as many pairs of them as I can between now and the winter holiday.

I was planning on using a variety of yarn, but I've got to say I really, really enjoyed working with the cashcotton... its so soft and feels decadent to knit with (angora & cashmere). Since I knit the socks at a tighter gauge than recommended (ball band says US 3's and 7 sts/inch, I used US 1.5's and 8 sts/inch) the fabric doesn't feel as luxe as the hand of the yarn itself, but I think that's a good thing for these socks.

vanilla2

This is the second time I've knit with cotton for socks-- my first evah real pair of socks was knit from 2 skeins of Rowan Calmer... I had no sock yarn in the stash (!!!!) and I had to start them *right away.* It was nice, I have no idea how they held up (given away) but this yarn is definitely a favorite for me and this type of sock now whereas I'd rather use Calmer for something else. (I want a daughter to knit a perfectly tiny sweater for in cashcotton, though! The lys didn't have boyish shades, or I'd do the same for my son... oh and the fact he's hating any handknits from me that aren't socks, too...)

I say, "this type of sock" because my mom doesn't get around a lot, so these won't see much hard shoe/walking wear... they'll likely be worn in slippers or alone indoors. I don't know if I'd like to knit these for myself for shoe wear, *but* they are so soft on the foot and they are also very warm-- a good thing on my hardwood floors. I'll think about knocking myself out a pair or seven once January rolls around.

vanilla3

I knit them toe up (using PGR's Simple Socks, Plain & Fancy toe & heel). I ended up with 64 sts, at 8 sts/inch for a 9" wide foot. I was aiming for a bit of a stretch since the cotton won't have the sproing back that wool does and also because even though I don't anticipate the socks gettting hard wear, I don't want them wearing thru because I knit them at too loose of a gauge. Mom's foot is 9.5" long, so I knit a 9.25" foot (from toe to folded heel), then 5 rounds even. I then knit 3 rounds of k2p2, and used a "regular" bindoff in pattern with a larger needle instead of my now-standard "faux kitchener cuff bindoff" for toe up socks. Mom complains of slippy anklets all.the.time (uh, so why wear them??) so I wanted a pair that actually *wouldn't* be stretchy and slip off easily-- since they're so low, I wasn't worried at all about having the bindoff be tight. I have to only work a little bit to get them over the heel, so they shouldn't slip off the foot at all and are still relatively easy to get on. (Plus, this bindoff uses less yarn!)

vanilla4

I took these photos outside to try and capture the halo of the yarn, yum. They could only be better if they'd been chocolate dipped. I'm definitely going to pick more colors of this yarn up for more footies. I don't think I could get a pair (with the same specs) out of Koigu, but maybe regia silk-- another yarn I was considering for the footie anklets that my LYS carries. (ps! thanks for the kind words about the class thing, i'm not going to teach but i am flattered they thought to ask and flattered yall think i'd not sputter and die on the attempt.)

I powered on thru these, taking 2 days of nothing else. Partly it was the race against the yarn, wondering if it'd run out. Partly it was me sleepless and excited at night with empty hands and a warm heart (left me sleepwalking the next day!) I think though its the holiday project thing-- both Erica and anne have written things about holiday gift giving that really touched me and echoed the urge I feel... the more gifts I complete, the more I want to tackle and start new things. I haven't worried (yet) about not finishing things, it almost feels like a given I will. Perhaps this holiday knitting is the cure to unfinished objects, at least for me.

Speaking of, the Noro Silk Garden capelet is on its repeat section...

cape
New Vintage Capelet progress

I decided to stagger decreases every 6 rows instead of every 8, to make sure the length is on the short side I like. I hope the silk garden softens in the wash... when I picked it up again after finishing the angora/cashmere/cotton footies, it felt like sandpaper! :) I actually want to finish this soon as I have new project yarn winging its way to me and I know I'll want to dig in when it arrives :)

...about winging yarn, my internet archetype random.org would like me to send the koigu to megan, and I'll happily oblige. Thanks all for coming out of the woodwork, yall surprised the heck out of me with so many comments :)



taking a cue from dave re: bloglines freedbacking... yo quiero bloglines, really. i have over 400 blogs there in the sidebar and you help me connect with people and the news all over, all the time. for that, thanks. i am a little disappointed lately however with the new update-- namely, i hate hate HATE that i can no longer easily find posts i have marked "keep new" ... it used to be bold and i could scroll thru and find them but now! near to impossible with so many feeds. i also am disappointed at the lack of blogger images within your reader. i KNOW blogger is the one blocking external images, i KNOW that they prolly are doing it so i migrate on over to google's blog reader (all in bed and the little one said... i get it.) i don't want to switch though, i love you b1. can you somehow build a bridge and find some way to display blogger images, instead of just telling me "its them, not me"? we're an image-heavy community and even though i don't use their image hosting for my blog posts, lots of my friends do and i miss miss MISS seeing their pics and it may drive me away from you. thanks for listening, send my love to your mom.

14 comments:

lexa said...

Love the footies! My Ma would probably like those. I like sock-socks better. Maybe make myself some of these for next summer, though. Great way to use up small lots of yarn.

I haven't succumbed to bloglines yet or any other thing like that. I read the blogs daily on my sidebar, plus I flick through the different KAL lists and ringsurf. I did switch to Flickr finally, though!

Anonymous said...

Comfy looking socks for the ma! Yippee!

I actually don't have any problems with your pictures showing up in Bloglines, but I do with other blogs. Not sure what the problem is, and it drives me a little batty.

Alyson said...

You know, I set up a Bloglines account, added about four blogs to it, and promptly abandoned it. Something about blog-stalking is actually pleasant for me, oddly enough. I think it's the joy of clicking one of my sidebar links and seeing a different heading on that blog - I didn't get the same "Oooh! New stuff!" feeling from seeing a blog title in bold on Bloglines. Yawn.

I do, however, frequently check Bloglines to see how many subscriptions my blog has. Because I firmly believe that life is a giant popularity contest.

(I love those footies!!! I'm eyeing my skein of DK cashcotton and wondering if I can make it work.....)

Dave said...

Great footies, and greater freedbacking. You got style, girl!

P.S. My mom says hi, and the cookies on their way :-)

Unknown said...

Love the footies; they look excellent and are mighty tempting. Thanks for answering that age old question; your sacrifice is appreciated...LOL.

Excellent show on the freedbacking -I think we all have a love/hate relationship with Blogger/bloglines and all things related.

Anonymous said...

Great ankle socks for your mom! Gotta try that cashcotton...sounds divine. :-)

Karen said...

The anklets look great and comfy. And the capelet is coming along nicely too. I've never felt Noro Silk, it looks so pretty and soft.

Anonymous said...

Beautiful socks and I enjoyed the closeups of all that fabulous yarn.

Anonymous said...

The footies look great! I'm inspired to try a pair or two for my mom. Although I've owed her a pair of simple black socks for about the last 200 years.

Dang! 400 blogs! I feel flattered to get visits from you with that kind of reading load!

Anonymous said...

Those little socks are so cute!! Adorable.
And I completely agree with your freedbacking . . .I'm not crazy about the update for the same reasons!

Jennifer said...

The footies look so comfy!

hillary said...

Those footies are too cute and they look really comfy too.

I use bloglines and I find that there seems to be no ryme or reason to the way stuff shows up. It's very frustrating.

Stacey said...

Great quick little footies! I made anklets for my first few pairs, and I miss how fast they go!
I've heard that the SG softens up quite a bit after a dunk.

Ahh bloglines...what can I say?

FairyGodKnitter said...

Yes, Silk Garden does a beautiful thing in the wash, it gets soft and fuzzy. I like to make socks with it for my camping boys and around the house when the snow flies. Maybe you will have enough to make Mom some anklets with what I sent you.

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