sigh.
i’m telling you, managing all these knits, with their knit opinions and their knit diva complexes WILL be the death of me . . .
seems that with the morning glories shawl getting all the attention since yesterday, there is a developing unrest on the sock front, and rumor has it that a stampede may ensue unless i get it together and show off some foot covering. NOW.
okay, okay. i know when my ticket is up. i know when to smooth ruffled feathers. or gussets.
first, an FO that was also off the needles saturday, but which i held back for today.
i rarely make an effort to make striped socks match, preferring to let the yarn “be” what it is, which is usually a “married” pair rather than identical twins.
but in the case of austermann step, with its wide striping, i really do prefer the socks to match. fortunately in this instance, it didn’t result in any yarn wastage—it just happened that when i started the second sock, i was in almost exactly the right spot to have matching stripes.
after fretting about whether i would have enough yarn for the pair, i did end up with about 20 yards left over. certainly one skein would not be enough to make a man’s pair.
and, for those that kindly emailed to say that with a second skein i could make a man’s pair AND a ladies pair—well, not exactly. according to the yarn use in these socks, i would need a third skein for that, and sorry—no way.
but i am happy to make ladies socks from this yarn if i get the chance again. it is a nice, soft, smooth yarn with great recovery and a good feel on the foot.
i had a little time during work hours saturday to get the gusset on these pink ragg socks done.
so i’m barreling down the foot now, and should be done very soon. i’ll be happy to get these off the needles; while i love the colorway and can use a heavier pair of sox for deep winter, this romney yarn is a bit prickly and i feel like i am fighting it. the little fibers wrap around the needles a bit like mohair and are impeding my usually-fast knitting speed. i’ll be glad and satisfied when they are done.
and then there is the one you have been waiting for, yea—dreaming about, i bet. and so, without further ado, i give you
scummy, with its halo of radioactive yellow (BTW, david cannot take his eyes off them; he’s in love, and the color is SO very “him”). nearly done with this first sock, though i see a bit of ripping in my near future. today i got about halfway down the foot and noticed that the sock looked WAY too narrow for david’s foot. YIKES! how the heck did that happen? when i checked the foot against the top of the cuff, sure enough, the cuff is a good inch bigger around. crap!
i showed it to david, and we decided that if i rip back to the gusset, increase four stitches, and maybe go up .25mm in needle size, it will be fine, since the widest part of his foot is in front, and his heel is not all that extra-wide.
but how did this happen?? handspun. the yarn must vary in thickness somewhat from the beginning of the ball to the middle—that’s all i can think of! i’ve noticed in other items that even a fairly minute difference in yarn diameter makes a big difference in the sock circumference (you get a lot of practice with these issues when you knit with handspun).
so, i get to go back three inches (undoing everything i knit today in class), and reknit, but at least i don’t have to take that heel out. because you could just shoot me now if i had to do that.
i’m having the same issue with this handspun as with the pink ragg sock—the wool is a bit prickly and catches on the tip of the needle constantly, or wraps itself around everything. picking up each stitch is a chore. of course, anything for tree scum . . .
and lastly, not to take anything away from the other foot soldiers i just mentioned, but i think i am totally in love—with another yarn.
that woolen rabbit yarn i showed you the other day? totally awesome.
this is the merino and nylon sock yarn, and it’s perfect for the guy’s socks. i love the deep, rich color, the beautifully-behaved stitches it makes, the smooth, luxuriously dense feel of the fabric. sigh.
i gave you the link, because i just checked and kim doesn’t have any more of it posted right now (hehehe). i’m hoping that she will reserve several skeins of the next batch for me (coming later next week she says!). in the meantime there are some of her gorgeous rovings up for sale as well as the merino/tencel yarn.
m’kay—OH! and don’t forget to try some handcreme while you’re there; it’s fab.
so, back to the sock; this is another manLace Series project. you can’t see that part right now because the sock is flipped over to the back side and i’m going to surprise you another day with it.
26 thoughts on “and now for something more pedestrian”
Sorry you have to rip back on your sock– I feel your pain :/
The woolen rabbit yarn is beautiful! There are so many tempting yarns!
Excellent pun in the title! Wonderful socks all around. Clearly, the tree scum socks are changing their gauge as a ploy for ALL your attention.
Yes, handspun can be finicky, can it not? But Soooo worth the effort, at least in my opinion. Great socks – all of em!
Scummy’s revenge! Thanks for the headsup, as I would never have anticipated a difference in sock width, knitting with handspun. The colorway in the Woolen Rabbit sock has me green with envy (but NOT tree scum green!). 🙂
The woolen rabbit yarn is beautiful! My knitting friend, Elsie, loves the Austerman Step yarn, but I am allergic to aloe unfortunately.
I think scummy deserves a nicer name, as it is making such a lovely sock. I found this lichen Letharia vulpina which seemed to have that radioactive yellow glow. Just a thought!
http://www.lichen.com/bigpix/Lvulpina.html
Sockage-wonderous stuff isn’t it?! That newest yarn looks simply like yarn perfection, I sigh too.
Well, now we know that the tree scum plays second fiddle to NO sock. If you even think of putting it on the back burner, you’ll regret it.
That new sock yarn looks so nice. The colors are dark, but they don’t run together into “one dark color”. I like it when it feels just right on the needles. There are some yarns that, when knit up on the correct needles, feel like each stitch is padded by a cushion of air. I love that feeling.
Oh, and holy mirror images, Batman! Good job on the Austermann step.
The funniest thing about this comment is that someone else did the same thing on a similar colorway, so I left that same comment. So unoriginal!
LOVE the woolen rabbit yarn…..very manly:)
The striped socks are almost too pretty for a man to wear. And the colors from the woolen rabbit have me salivating on my keyboard… yummy!
I can see why he likes it so much. I think I fell in love with that color IN SPITE of you calling it tree fungus! It looks great. I’m very picky about matching stripes and I can totally get behind your identical twin pair!! They look good. Off to check out that Woolen Rabbit…
hee hee hee …. a stampede ….. scummy with its halo of radioactive yellow …. ha ha ha … *snort*
Love your Step socks. I have the same colorway almost done, but unlike you am finding there is a lot of yardage. I am working on 64 sts, size 1US needles, short row heel. I worked them toe-up, doing a 2-2 rib all the way up. I have done 4 full repeats of the stripe pattern and there will be one full repeat left. The socks are taller than my usual b/c I wanted more of the turquoise part.
I’ve just started reading your blog; I enjoy your view on the world of knitting.
Yeah, the scum socks really are a cool color. So untraditional, I think. And the pattern even makes them look like tree/ocean scum. I love ’em. And the rabbit stuff is way cool, too. Oh, and uh, you’re so ‘generous’ with your link!!! ha!
Why oh why did you have to give that link? Now I’m burning with “I-have-to-have” yarn fever, and I’m am bound by strict oaths of honour (and sanity?) not to by any… (yet!)… *sigh*
Well, while I’m waiting for my ban to be lifted, I can admire your foot coverings (sorry, of course I meant The Scum!). 😉
Whew! Can’t have too many socks.
I hate ripping heels – it really feels like a setback if I have to go that far. Glad you found a solution! The scummy socks are such a great color….very different!!!!
I’m with David, I LOVE the color of your Scummy socks! Very rich! What a bummer though to have to pull it back so far. It will be so worth it in the end though…they are great!
I’m wearing my Austermann Step socks in that exact colorway 🙂 Mine had to match, too.
That’s pretty sweet that the Step socks match! I’ve tried that before with no luck…
And I wouldn’t mind at all if those Tree Scum socks accidentally made their way into a Priority Mail box to NM…there might be yarn in it for you *wink* *Wink* Although David might hunt me down!
Great socks! I love them all! The Woolen Rabbit yarn is lovely, and I can’t wait to see what kind of manLace sock you’ve got there.
I’ve started my first pair of socks a little while ago (actually, I’m still in the swatching stage, not quite sure I’ve got the right needle size), and they’re SO not flying off my needles like your socks! Fortunately, they haven’t got an ounce of diva attitude (yet!)…
Your socks are beautiful. The tree scum one would go perfectly with my pond scum vest.
absolutely loving the yarn from Kim at Woolen Rabbit. Divine !
Ahhhh sorry you have to rip back the sock. Seems like they have gotten together and want to give you trouble. At least the newest member hasn’t been corrupted by their ways yet.
Could it be the stitch pattern pulling in a little more than expected? That would be my first guess.
Woo-hoo, radioactive tree scum sock is looking goooooood.
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