Both Green Socks Finished

These are interesting - shows me I have to practice the short row heel. I'm not completely satisfied with them, but now I can go back to working on the shawl.

The colours I wasn't happy with until my husband made a comment on the contrast between the two colours; one being so bright & the other so very dark. He liked the socks.

That was one of the key factors when I chose these two yarns. I was originally going to make striped from toe to the cuff, then changed my mind & decided to dial it back a little. Last night, when I was tired, I was completely dissatisfied with the colour, but now I don't find it quite so bad.

Think I will wear them to work tomorrow. On Your Toes sock yarn. wool & nylon. 2.50mm Addi circs along with my new spring steel short dpns.

Also pictured is my new knitting sheath. It was purchased from 'Agres on Etsy' along with some spring steel dpns in 9", 12" & 16" for knitting a couple of gansey sweaters. Right now it still feels clumsy when I use the knitting sheath, except every so often I get the motions right. It is supposed to take the stress from my wrist & use the strength in my upper arm muscles.

Happy New Year to all!

I finished up 2009 by knitting up a pair of socks done in Briggs & Little Durasport, a blend of 80% wool & 20% nylon. The colour is a most beautiful shade of a dark green & an ivory colour for contrasting toes, heels, & some stripes.

I started these socks with the intention of doing them the Queen Kahuna way (Crazy Toes & Heels fame) then changed to a pattern from 'Folk Socks' by Nancy Bush then to inspiration from 'Simple Socks' by Priscilla A. Gibson-Roberts.

This means I did them toe up with the cast on by Mary Ann Beattie (aka Queen Kahuna), did the increases (incorrectly) then as I was knitting up the foot I was side tracked by 'Simple Socks' (which I was reading while I was knitting) before I did the heel.

'Simple Socks' is a book I got in 2009, I think, and since it was still early in my sock knitting learning curve when I got it, I put it away to concentrate on 'Crazy Toes & Heels' by Mary Ann Beattie.

Anyway, the idea of trying a short row heel interested me & I thought I would give it a try on these. So I did & the first one wasn't so great, so I tried again on the second sock (because I do 2 at a time) & it really pleased me. So then I went back to the first sock, took out the heel & did it over. This time it was good. I like this method - even if just for a change, but I wanted to learn something new.

I don't like doing things the same way all of the time - I need variety in everything. I started with Knit Picks circulars in 2.25mm & when I got to the heel I did one on circs & the other with dpn's.

As I was knitting, I was also reading the socknitter's list where someone introduced me to the 'Fibronacci sequence'. This is a method of planning pleasing stripes. Since I had planned on putting a stripe of ivory near the top of the cuff, I decided to include Fibonacci sequence stripes.

I'm going to wear them today!!!

My Socks Finished

Just finished these last night after returning from work. Just a little bit here & there; not at all in a hurry to finish these because I just love the colour, so it was a pleasure to work with. These were started near the beginning of the year & worked on more or less on my work breaks.

Apart from telling you that it is a mixture of wool & nylon I can't tell you any more about the yarn. My mistake by not making any notes about it before.