Oval Socks, or How I Swatched Until I Found a Sock Pattern I Wanted

 So once upon a time I found a stash of HiKoo DK (skacel) in the Herrschners' sale bin.  It was a nice, bouncy, sturdy merino/nylon yarn perfect for thicker socks.  And I enjoy using this yarn for socks!  I'm sad that it's no longer easily available to me.  It's a little splitty, but the stitch definition is excellent and they wear like a boss.  So yes, I would reccomend this yarn for experienced knitters who can navigate around some splitting issues.

I originally had five skeins of blue and made a pair of socks last year for Christmas gifting.  I also had three skeins of pink and three skeins of coffee.  And my rules for this yarn were to use it with patterns that highlighted the nice stitch definition.  Also, my family hates lace socks "because they are cold" so that make me focus on knit through the back loop and cable designs.  Or a combo of knit through the back loop with cables.

Originally I was going to use these two skeins for the pattern "Socke 1" which is a 8 stitch cable man's sock.  I was going to size it down to a woman's sock based on my gauge swatch.  And then I did the gause swatch and... well...

I knit a LOT looser than the designer.  So I'm on a good needle size for the yarn and coming up with a sock that would fit an elephant.  Noooope!  New sock pattern!

I went with Twisted Ovals, and then immediately changed the slip stitch + knit cable pattern into a no slip stitch K1TBL cable pattern.  Because that's what I wanted to knit.

Here's the first one, knit toe up, short row heel.  It uses the entire skein, just knit the ribbing until you run out of yarn.  I like how my modifications turned out!

Gideon's Court Sox, 10 months of Second Sock Syndrome

  I call these Gideon's Court Sox.

Why?

The socks are a present for Christy, who is my longtime Changeling friend, one of my best online friends for decades.  I love making socks for Christy, she is absolutely knitworthy.

Her character in the current Changeling game is Gideon, a Danaan Sidhe Knight.  A stately nobleman in the court of New Orleans.  His colors are black and silver.

I wanted to pick a sock that fit the character and would be appreciated by the player.  Something silver (I already had the perfect yarn!), something intricate and yet stately.

I picked Fledermaus by Cahoua Coffee.

I'm pretty adept at 1X1 cable crosses and KTBL.  I can cable without a cable needle and the way I knit (wrong) allows me to adjust the tension on the cables for a result I like.  So I thought "no probblem!"

HAH.

Ok, so this pattern DOES get a rest row on every even round.  

But this pattern IS NOT one I can memorize.  I am chained to the chart and the chart is focus intensive.

The sock contruction is straightforward - top down, heel flap and traditional gusset.  It's really the focus intensive chart that gets me every time.

I started these on September 24th 2022.  Finished the first sock for a HPKCHC quidditch match in November... and then immediately stuffed the yarn and the first sock in a project bag and left it sit there for months.

But 2023 is my year of erasing as many WIPs as possible.  So these socks are back on the needles.  Between work and family life is pretty stressful right now so these socks are NOT RELAXING.  But we're pushing through one row at a time.

They are, however, very, very pretty...

Looks like a noble sock, right?  Look at that lovely cable geometry!

Now - no diss on the pattern.  For as complicated as the chart is, the pattern is prefectly well written.  I'm not swearing at a poorly written pattern.  I'm swearing at my ability to read a very complicated chart.  Even with the nice little highlighter row thing that Knit Companion had, I still mis cross cables and have to go back and fix things.

I just turned the heel last night and I'm hoping that having only one side of cables and one side of flat will make this all go faster!

Ten Year Check In?

  What is this?

A blog post after ten - ok eleven - years?

Why yes.

I guess I'm feeling journalley lately.

Did I take an eleven year hiatus from knitting?  Oh hell no.  I have knit over 600 projects in the last decade, and each year I knit and crochet the equalivalent milage of the isle of Manhattan.

I just took a break from blogging about it.

But lately I've been feeling like Ravelry forum posts are passing things and it would be good to get my thoughts about yarn and my relationship to the craft back down on digital paper.

So here we go...