Magenta/Gray socks

Last time –

magenta/gray socks
2/14/17

Now:

magenta/gray socks
Done!
2/28/17

And they’re done!  yay!  I’m so excited.  Here they are pictured but have not yet been blocked.  I can’t help but wear them first.  Anyone else like that?  Just as a reminder, these were knitted with #1’s and I decreased every round.  I’ve since tweaked my personal sock preference and will continue to tweak until I find the perfect fit.

Purple/Gray Socks

Purple/gray socks
2/14/17

Purple/gray socks
2/28/17

Now that the magenta socks are done, I’m working primarily on the purple socks.  Sock #1 – I’m working on the foot.  Sock #2 – I’m working on the heel flap.  I’m using #2 needles, a shorter heel flap and I’m decreasing every other round instead of every round.  So far, I like how these are looking better than the magenta socks.  I hope they fit better as well.  The magenta socks were a bit on the tight end but I believe that once I block them and use them a bit, they’ll loosen up.

Snowberry socks

Snowberry socks
2/7/17

Snowberry socks
2/28/17

These are for the girl and we are both loving the yarn!  They remind me of birthday cake ice cream from Baskin Robbins.  These are my purse knitting since it’s in the simple stages at the moment.  I’ve been carrying them in my purse and they are officially my “purse knitting”.  I love how far I’ve gotten on them.  The bulk of the work was done in the past week.

Kimono Sweater

My first sweater
Kimono
2/14/2017

My first sweater
Kimono
2/28/2017

That’s about 15″ high now and I need to knit it until it is about 27″.  I’ve got a long way to go especially since I’m doing about 5″ every 2 weeks.  This is a long term project but as long as I keep working on it each week I’m happy.

~Happy Knitting

~Melanie

Magenta/Gray socks

Last week –

magenta/gray socks
2/7/17

now:

magenta/gray socks
2/14/17

I am loving the sock knitting right now.  I know last week my hands, wrists, arms, and elbows were hurting so I took a short break.  I still knit every day I just didn’t knit as much as I was knitting.  Even so, I am progressing nicely in all my projects.  For the magenta/gray socks I was able to get the decrease done and now I’m back to easy knitting until the toe.  For this project my decrease was done on every row.  I think it is too abrupt and on my purple socks I am decreasing every other round.  It takes a little more managing as I have to write down which row I’m on and what I’m doing but so far I’m loving it.

Purple/Gray Socks

Purple/gray socks
2/7/17

Purple/gray socks
2/14/17

As you can see, I started the decrease on the left sock and the right sock only has a few more rows before I start the heel flap.

Snowberry socks

Snowberry socks
2/7/17

I progressed a little bit by putting a bit more rows on the left sock but it doesn’t look much different than this picture so I didn’t bother taking a new picture.  However I did want to say that the little progress was in no means my fault.  I bought another #2 hiya hiya sharps 9-inch circulars.  I love these for sock knitting and I only have 1 right now.  The sock on the right is on them.  So I bought another one to put the sock on the left.  I like knitting socks concurrently because it helps prevent the second sock syndrome (which is when you finish 1 sock but never the 2nd one because of boredom or just because).  Anyway, I got the set I ordered and started using it.  Within a couple of days I was not happy.  There was something wrong and the yarn kept snagging on the join between the cable and the needle.  I was not pleased.  I contacted the shop I purchased it from and I already sent it back to be returned but that’s another $$ in S&H that I had to spend.  Obviously they recommended sending it regular mail for 46 cents but I wanted to be able to track it.  That’s one reason I should buy my needles at the LYS.  Unfortunately my LYS didn’t have 9 inch circulars the last time I was there and I didn’t want to wait for their next shipment.  I think next time I’ll be more patient.

Regia Socks

Kayla’s Regia sock
2/7/17

Kayla’s Regia sock
2/14/17

I frogged the first sock from the last picture and with my hiya hiya order came #2 hiya hiya sharps on a 32 inch circular.  I now have 16″ and 24″ which are two needles I’m not sure I’ll be using again.  But we’ll see.  The 32 inch circular works well putting two socks on the needles.  It feels slower than doing one at a time concurrently as there is a lot of yarn managing.  But, I am enjoying the process so far.  We’ll see if it continues.  I’m not entirely sure how I’ll be doing the heel and other stuff on 1 cable at the same time but we’ll see.  I think I may have to take them off and do them on separate needles concurrently.  If that is the case, I’ll need to either get more #2 9 inch circs, or use the 16 and 24 inch circs.  We’ll see. 🙂

Kimono Sweater

last week –

My first sweater
Kimono
2/7/2017

My first sweater
Kimono
2/14/2017

It’s about 10 inches now.  I’m enjoying this.  The color is grayed out above but you can see how much I’ve done from last week.

~Happy Knitting

~Melanie

Magenta/Gray socks

Last week –

magenta/gray socks
1/31/17

Now –

magenta/gray socks
2/7/17

I am progressing pretty nicely on my socks.  I’ve got the heel flap and I turned the heel on sock #2.  Now I just need to do the decrease.  Since that will take a little effort I will work on the foot part of sock #1.  I like how it is looking and I like knitting it.  But I’m knitting so much that my hands, wrists, and elbows are starting to hurt.  So, I need to slow down on my knitting.  I’m hoping I don’t have to stop completely but can just do a bit at a time.  I find that sock knitting is really hard on my hands because I’m gripping the needles so tightly.  So I’m going to try knitting on other projects and see if that helps.

Kimono Sweater

last week –

My first sweater
Kimono
1/31/2017

Now –

My first sweater
Kimono
2/7/2017

I am supposed to do this stitch for about 5 inches but I am fine with it being at 4 inches.  I started the next part and I’m enjoying this project.

Here are updates on my other sock projects.  It’s been a few weeks since I last posted pictures and I’ve actually been working on them a bit at a time.

Purple/Gray Socks

Purple/gray socks
1/17/17

Purple/gray socks
2/7/17

I turned the heel for sock #1 and I’m working on the leg for sock #2.  Right now sock #2 is my easy knitting that I pull out just to work a bit on each day.  It doesn’t require much thought.

Snowberry socks
1/17/17

Snowberry socks
2/7/17

I really like this yarn.  It’s so soft and I love knitting on it.  The problem is I only have 1 hiya hiya sharp #2 9inch circulars and the sock on the right is using it.  The sock on the left is using hiya hiya sharp #2 -24inch circs.  It’s not fun knitting on these.  I ordered another 9 inch circ and as soon as it gets here I’ll be replacing the needles on the left.

And I started another sock project.  This one is actually for the girl but I started it so she could just knit and purl to her heart’s content and not worry about getting it started.

Kayla’s Regia sock
2/7/17

This is using Regia’s self striping yarn and Kayla and I are loving it.  This is on hiya hiya sharp #2 – 16 inch circs.  Of all the needles I’ve tried, I love hiya hiya sharps #2 on the 9 inch circulars.  I do want to try magic loop at some point so I think I will be able to use the 16 inch and the 24 inch at some point.  I did order myself 32 inch circs also.  I’m not sure if I will like it as I did fingerless mitts on magic loop and I didn’t enjoy knitting those.  But that was a couple of years ago so I’ll try it again and see how it goes.

~Happy Knitting

~Melanie

Pink/blue socks …

Last week –

1/24/17

Pink/Blue Socks
My Second Pair
1/31/17

All the ends are weaved in and I’m wearing them now! woot!  I love them.  These are technically my second pair of socks.  The first were these:

My First Socks
11/2/2016

I gave them to my mother when she came to visit me last November.  They were practice socks.  The yarn was just some yarn I had lying around.  It’s much bigger than sock yarn and I used  #7 DPNs.  They were bamboo DPNs and I can’t remember the company.  Probably Clover as I didn’t want to spend money on this at that time in case I wouldn’t take to it and just used whatever I had on hand.  Now that I’ve finished my second pair and working on my 3rd, 4th, and 5th at the same time, I’m loving the sock knitting.  I’m just doing plain vanilla socks as taught by Lucy Neatby in her Craftsy class, My First Socks.  I’m learning how to modify the socks so that they fit me best.  Those first purple socks were too big.  The second pink/blue socks I just finished are still a little too big.

Magenta/Gray socks

Last week –

magenta/gray socks
1/24/17

magenta/gray socks
1/31/17

I have about 1.5 inches left on the second sock before I start turning the heel.  I’m a slow sock knitter.  I would love to knit a pair of socks a month.  I hope I get there someday.  But I’m happy to be where I am right now as those first socks took me forever!  I believe 6+  months. I wasn’t really keeping track back then and I didn’t knit as much as I do now so it really isn’t a good comparison.  However I am faster and I hope that I get better as I go along.  I did discover this past week that the yarn I have been using is not Malabrigo.  lol.  I have a few skeins of Malabrigo and this colorway matches closely with one of the Malabrigo skeins I have.  But it is not.  Rather the yarn I’m using here is Crock-O-Dye sock yarn color #224.

My first sweater
Kimono
1/31/2017

And I started on my first sweater.  I’m still at the very early stages and I can only knit a couple of rows a day.  I do not have a lot of time so I just do a bit when I can.  My local yarn shop has knit night tonight and every Tuesday. I’m hoping to attend and work on this project each week.

~Happy Knitting

~Melanie