Finding the Yellow Brick Road

I started this socks at the beginning of September, back in 2018. They've been on my needles and in my project tracker ever since. Now and then I'd pick them up and struggle through another few rounds and remember how tedious they were, then I'd shove them back into their projects bag.

As of last night, they are DONE! And they fit, which is an extra bonus. (There's no reason they shouldn't have fit, but with as much trouble as these gave me I didn't have high hopes.)

The problem wasn't with the pattern, which is clear and well written enough. It wasn't with the techniques (although that decreasing five stitches into one at the base of each cable was fiddly and hard until something finally clicked for me halfway through the second sock and it made sense.) It might have been the yarn which, although it was a perfect colorway for this project, wasn't the highest quality stuff.

Most of it was my state of mind. I couldn't tell you exactly what made me avoid these socks.  Somewhere things went from pleasantly fiddly to downright hard.

I can't tell you how glad I am to have these finally done! There's another pair on my needles that have been just as obnoxious, but these were the more intimidating ones.

The Worst Pair of Socks Ever

I cast on for this pair of socks FIVE MONTHS AGO and I've been working on them fairly steadily the entire time. A normal pair of stockinette socks takes me two weeks or so if I do most of the  knitting at night while we watch television. 

What went so wrong with these? 

Part of it was my own schedule. I was doing more stitching than knitting in the  evenings. I also spent a lot of evenings actively avoiding these socks because the yarn, a skein of Mary Maxim Tropical Breeze in the Toes in the Sand colorway, was absolutely awful. Craft Warehouse had it on clearance a few years back and I picked up three skeins because cheap sock yarn is one of my weaknesses.

The first skein knit up into what I think of as the Hawaii Socks without much drama. The yarn tended to shred it I wasn't careful, but slowing down and watching my stitches just a bit took care of that problem.

This skein had loosely spun stretches and completely unspun stretches and stretches that were spun so tightly I might as well have been knitting with embroidery floss. Cutting the yarn would have messed up the gradient colors which are the only redeeming feature of this stuff.

You can see how uneven my stitches are....

A more reasonable knitter would have frogged the project and thrown away the yarn, but I'd spent money on it and time on the project and even though I have no moral problem with quitting something as not important as a pair of socks, I insisted on plowing through to the bitter end.

They may or may not fit. I don't know or care. What's important is that they are DONE and now I can move onto the other two pairs of socks that are antagonizing me.

Slow Blue Lace Socks

It took me almost two months to slog my way through this pair of socks, despite the fact that I was actively knitting on them. I'd understand if I'd shoved them into a project bag while I was working on something else, but I was actually trying - and failing - to get these done.

I can't explain how or why they were such a hassle. I had good needles. I've knit probably a dozen pairs in this same super easy lace pattern. I've used this brand of yarn before and even though I don't like the placement of those dark stripes, that ugly detail shouldn't have messed with the physical act of knitting them.

I made mistakes. I dropped stitches. My hands got tired more quickly than they should have (a problem that I didn't have once I switched to that garter stitch shawl I posted last week.)

I think I'll tuck these into a drawer until I forget how much I dislike them. 

Borealis Socks

My sock blockers are hiding from me today and that might not be a bad thing. I didn't care for this combination of stripes while the socks were on the needles but on my feet it's much less obvious. 

The yarn is Deborah Norville Serenity Sock in the Borealis colorway. 

They kept my hands busy and  now they'll keep my toes warm.

Montavilla Socks

They don't look the same color at all in this picture, but they're from the same skein of yarn. I'm pretty sure it's just contrast against the color of the porch boards or a trick of the light. 

Yarn: Knitpicks Hawthorne, Montavilla 

These have been on my needles for weeks. I know I had them on the coast trip back in March. Or maybe I just had the skein of yarn with me. At any rate, they're done now and I love the colors and I'm glad I added that simple bit of lace.

So I remember what I did...

Round 1 -- knit three, purl two
Round 2 -- knit two together, yarn over, knit one
Round 3 -- knit three, purl two
Round 4 -- knit one, yarn over, slip slip knit

It's not unique to me, but I couldn't find it when I needed it and couldn't remember it when it was time to start the pattern across the instep. The socks themselves are 64 stitches on dpns, increased to 65 stitches to make the lace pattern work.

Red Chili Socks

Yarn: Drops Fabel, Red Chili

I started knitting these with Valentine's Day in mind and wound up finishing them a lot later than that, but the nice thing about knitting for myself is that there's no deadline. And I've got pretty red socks that will keep my toes warm...and a fair amount of leftover yarn to incorporate into a future pair! 

Slow Smocked Socks

I don't know why I'm knitting so slowly these days. Smock Madness is going much more quickly than Finding the Yellow Brick Road, but it didn't seem like I could possibly get them done in two weeks even under the best circumstances. This past week hasn't been the best circumstances.

I'd forgotten about the Sock Madness cheerleaders. As long as I can get the first sock done (properly) by the deadline, I'll keep receiving the patterns and can keep knitting along. I just won't be in the official competition.

Half a foot an a toe in four days. That should be easy.... Any other time it would be easy....

Smock Madness

I don't know if there's any chance that I'll finish these before the deadline, but I'm going to keep knitting and see what happens. 

Pattern: Smock Madness

Yarn: Drops Fabel 

I hadn't done smocked knitting before. It's reasonably easy and looks pretty once it's stretched. Just hanging from the needles, it didn't pucker nearly enough to get the right effect. 

Sock Madness is Starting Soon

I was going to take a picture of my new red socks in the snow, but by the time I got motivated enough and bundled up enough to venture outside it had mostly melted. I hear there's going to be more snow tonight.  

The pair is in Drops Fabel's Red Chili colorway and, with Valentine's Day just around the corner, I thought the yarn would be a festive choice. They're just something to pick up and work on when I can't count.

I swear -- my sons were working in unison last night to ruin the newest lace shawl. I had a couple of stitches wrong at the end of a pattern repeat,  but they were next to a diagonal panel of garter stitch. As long as I figured it out over the next couple of rows it would be mostly hidden. We were all watching a movie together and every time I got near those stitches, someone would start a fresh conversation. I'd put the knitting down for a few minutes, then ask them to let me get through the row before I picked it back up -- and as soon as I got to the spot that was giving me trouble, someone else would have an exciting thought to share. (Did you know that you can send your mystery spider to the state department of agriculture to be identified? Did you ever want to know what your big scary mystery spider was?  I didn't and I don't.)

Sock Madness starts in March and I'm all signed up. Nervous about it, especially considering how much I'm struggling with those Oz socks, but I'm signed up.

Dark Water Socks

This is what happens when I buy sock yarn because it's on sale and looks good in the skein. It's pretty, but there's no way I could have predicted those triple blue stripes. And there's no picture of socks knit up in this colorway on Ravelry or anyplace else I could find...not that I actually bothered to look before I started knitting. 

Yarn: Premiere Serenity Sock Yarn, Dark Water 

They were meant to keep my fingers busy and they'll  definitely keep my toes warm. I'm just glad I knit them in plain ribbing and didn't have some sort of plan for how they'd look once they were done! 

The Last Pair for 2018

This colorway didn't have a catchy name.  I think it's "blue and turquoise mix" or something like that, but it made a very pretty pair of socks. 

This project was just a little bit jinxed. I had the stitches fall off of a needle in my purse. A week or so later I snapped a needle in half. Last night, I completely lost a different needle. I'd been working on them since late November, which is a lot longer than a pair of socks that I'm actively knitting should take. 

After all of that, I'm definitely glad to have these done. I'll be happy to wear them, but they weren't a lot of fun to knit. 

Salt and Pepper Socks

Look -- another pair of socks! Now that the weather has started getting colder, I'm really appreciating the fact that I've knit myself more warm wool socks than any reasonable human being needs. 

Yarn: Drops Fabel, Salt and Pepper 

I really like this yarn. They're the same shades of black white and grey as another pair I knit at the beginning of the year, but the pattern is a lot more random. 

The First Frankensocks

I don't understand how this pair can possibly have taken as long as it did (I was definitely in a knitting black hole for days and days) but here they are -- 

These are made from the leftovers from three other pairs. They're a little more coordinated than I thought I was going for, but they're a respectable pair of socks.

Violas Socks

Why didn't I knit this yarn up into socks sooner?! 

Yarn: Deborah Norville Serenity Sock Weight, Violas 

It's Deborah Norville Serenity Sock Weight, which I bought dirt cheap at a Joann's sale years ago and thought I'd knit up on road trip. If I'd known how gorgeous it was going to be when it was knit up, I wouldn't have waited.

Too bad the local stores don't have this in more colors -- Ravelry lists more than thirty options.

Tension and Decisions

Maybe I'm not the kind of knitter who can do Frankensocks? It wasn't working with the three colors I showed you last time...or I don't think it was working. I'm definitely overthinking the whole process! 

There wasn't enough of the mostly brown yarn to make more than a single decent stripe or a couple of narrow stripes in each sock. I know I've probably got other yarn scraps that will work, but I want to knit not hunt for yarns that might not exist.

Then I remembered that someone (apologies for not remembering who it was) had made gorgeous pairs by alternating rows from two skeins of self-striping sock yarns. Instead of doing what she did, I'm alternating stripes of four or five rows...which isn't giving me those gorgeous Frankensocks I coveted, but it is making a perfectly acceptable pair of socks. As long as I've got the tension right where I'm changing yarns.

Is this process supposed to be so stressful? Maybe I should just go chop up fabric into one inch squares and sew them together. That doesn't make me nearly this nervous.

Purple Socks and Green Socks

I've got two pairs of socks in progress, a pair that I have to focus on and a pair I can knit with my eyes closed.

The green is kind of ugly, but well suited for Wizard of Oz inspired socks. And the purple is so pretty I'm afraid that I'm going to regret not using it for something lacey or cabled or otherwise fancy.

There will always be more gorgeous sock yarn to play with, even if I somehow manage to knit up all that I already have. Please remind me of that.

Frankensocks?

I  thought I'd use the leftover sock yarn from this pair, along with the solid brown that was left over from the last pair and might have originally been left over from my Owlie socks to make a third (or fourth) pair. 

There was definitely enough for anklets... except I don't love wearing anklets so now I'm pulling other leftovers to see what might coordinate into a pair of Frankensocks. 

I think I'm worried too much about making the colors coordinate. But it's a fine line between "That could work" and "That's totally and completely an inappropriate yarn choice!"

Bamboo and Ewe Socks

This is one of those rare occasions that I didn't lose the ball band before I was done knitting and I actually know exactly what yarn I used. It's Sensations Bamboo & Ewe Pattern, one of those skeins I picked up when the boys were toddlers and I thought I was going to knit socks for them.

Now it's a finished pair for....some adult in my life. Maybe one of the boys if they ever start to be more responsible with their footwear. It all depends on who wears them first.

These Socks Aren't Scary

I'm knitting up sock yarn from the depths of my stash and the only slightly stressful thing about it is waiting to see whether I can get all of the heels and toes from one partial skein of the brown yarn. If I can, there's another project I'll use the rest for. If I can't, I'll just use the second partial skein and the other project won't have brown heels and toes. It's quite possibly the least nerve-wracking thing in my life right now.

Signups for the Super Sock Scarefest (why can I never get that name right?) are open over on Ravelry and if you enjoy sock knitting and horror movies, this is the knit along for you.  It's a competition, but unlike Sock Madness it's super low key. You get points for being among the first five or ten to finish each pattern, or finishing at all before the year's knitting is over. And you don't have to knit every pair (or any of them) Last year was my third year participating and I finished two pairs. I meant to knit a third, but couldn't get through Suspiria or the socks inspired by them.

Personally, I only knit the socks based on movies I've enjoyed (or want to watch.) Or the ones that have neat patterns. Did I mention that this isn't an aggressive competition?

Wanna see all of my scary socks to date? I think the first of them was Le Manoir du Diable, which I found on Ravelry and what led me to the Scarefest in the first place.

Le Manoir du Diable, The Fly, Jack or Not, Charlie McGee, Faces in the Wallpaper, Convoluted Clues,  The Wicker Socks

Striped Socks that Aren't for Boys

Look, more new socks! This was one of those single skeins I bought when it still seemed like a good idea to knit cute socks for toddler sized feet. When there were toddler sized feet in the house...

I tossed the ballband before copying down the information but the colorway didn't have a neat name, just something about multi stripes. (Edited to add -- it's Sensations Soles & More, TP/GRN/BLU) The heels and toes are Drops Fabel, left over from Convoluted Clues.

I like the way the stripes wrap fall around the short row heels. It's always a gamble to see how that's going to work out, but these are close to perfect.

These could totally be socks for my younger two sons, but I've seen how they take care of their socks.