Once Upon a Sock, September 2018

It’s really September, isn’t it?  (True story: I originally titled this post “Once Upon A Sock, August 2018).

Anyway, hello again!  It’s that time, the time of the month where we talk about socks.

And friends, I’m pretty excited — I actually have a finished pair of socks to show you!

Here they are, my finished Waiting for Henry socks!

I’ve posted about these a fair few months, but I’m going to tell you about them again.  The pattern is by Tabitha Gandee.  I spied them on Instagram before the pattern was even released, and it was just one of those patterns that I knew I had to knit.

For the main color, I used the beautiful Once Upon a Corgi yarn in the Marie Cutie base (75% superwash corriedale, 25% nylon) in the colorway My Sun and Stars.  Tammy from Gracey’s Goodies really kindly got me this yarn and sent it to me for the Sock Yarn Stash Swap that Kat from Felinity Knits organized earlier this year.  And, unbelievably, these socks took less than 50 grams, so I have over a half skein left over!  Which is great, as I loved knitting with this yarn … the colors are so sweet and cheerful and the superwash Corriedale is scrummy and soft!

For the contrast colors, I used some Julie Asselin Leizu fingering (the golden orange) and some very deep stash Sunshine Yarn mini skeins for the little sage green crosses and tan heels.  To be honest, I’m not sure how the heel is going to wear … it feels awfully soft and a little flimsy post blocking! But if it gets a hole, I’ll just knit another … oh the joy of an afterthought heel!

These were a bit of an impulse cast on, but they did tick a box for my sock goals for 2018 … I wanted to try out some more colorwork socks.  And while I love the way these look, I’m still a bit on the fence about colorwork and socks for me personally, to be honest. I love that socks give you a chance to play with color on a small scale, and I constantly see new pairs I want to cast on (check out, for example, Kat’s stunning new Swirls pattern — so much LOVE!)  But I do find that I’m a bit less likely to reach for my stranded socks for daily wear … I’m not sure why that is.  Maybe they feel too special?  Perhaps a new pair of shoes, that can show them off a bit, would help me better integrate them into my wardrobe (something a bit like this?) No sense in knitting beautiful socks that don’t get worn, right?

And I’ve also got some other socks on the needles:

I’ve been knitting up a new version of the socks I made for Mr. N for our wedding, and writing the pattern to go along with them! I’ve nearly got the pattern ready for test knitting. I’ll be putting a call out over on Instagram, probably this weekend or early next week, with all the details! For now, I’m loving seeing how those little round cables knit up in the Blacker Mohair Blends 4-ply I’m using — it gives them a gentle fuzziness.  I’m really excited to be working on my first knitting pattern, and it be one that’s so meaningful to me too!

A group of us talk socks the first Thursday of every month — feel free to jump in anytime that takes your fancy!  The link up will be over on Paula’s site Spin a Yarn later today, and I’ll update this when I’m able … but I’m flying to the US today, so I wanted to go ahead and get this up!