One Sock to Rule Them All

If I had my way, I'd knit socks all day and half the night every single day of my life from now on. 

However, since I have to do other things, like shop for food if I want to eat, do laundry if I want to wear clean clothes or potentially step out my front door, and face it, I have to take my newly knit socks somewhere so someone will see them and think I'm the brightest thing since sunshine.

My latest sock knitting is the Jewel Fair Isle Socks by Tina Whitmore - again.  If you read my last post, you well know all about the first pair (#5 for the year) which were a fail because I ran out of yarn and I wasn't thrilled with the second sock.  At a minimum, they lacked the fraternal twin kind of matchy-ness that I can deal with, and I wanted that sock pattern knit up and in my sock drawer!

Ultimately, I found some Cascade Heritage Sock in black, and some Black Trillium Fibres Merilon Sock in the Jack Dempsey colorway and went to work:

While I was knitting up this pair of socks, I had that feeling come over me.  That feeling that says these are the ones I will wear - the keepers.  With every row and every pattern repeat I fell more in love with them:

This pattern is written top down, but I knit them toe up with a fore-thought heel using waste yarn (compared to an after-thought heel where you snip a stitch).  Toe up socks are not necessarily my thing, this is fourth or fifth time I've made them in my life.  

My main issue is that I have rather large calves and Jeny's Surprisingly Stretchy Bind Off is still snug on me.  So I did what most people do and found another bind off on YouTube that works for women with mountain climbing legs.  Very Pink Knits has a simple stretchy bind off that works for me and there's puh-lenty of room on my cuffs.  Thank goodness!  So now these socks really are perfect.

This pair makes sock pair #6 of 12 for the year of twelves.  If I finish early, I can start on my Buttonside Sweater which I hope to wear to Rhinebeck this year.

The Mitten Garland Advent Calendar mittens are coming along.  I made mitten #2:

And mitten #3 which I'm not happy with since the "3" doesn't look like a three at all:

I will keep going with the mittens, all of them are different sizes even though I'm using the same size needles, US #0.   I don't care, they all have their own little personalities, regardless of size, and they're a great palate cleanser for me.  They're all made with Knit Picks Palette yarn.  I don't know when I'll start mitten #4, hopefully soon.

Finally, I'm spinning braid #5 which is Frabjous Fibers merino in the chocolate cherries colorway:

The package said it was 8 ounces, but I weighed it and it's only 6 ounces.  I generally don't get along with merino, it fights back on the wheel and it takes me 30 minutes of spinning to get my stride.  Oy!

With half the braid spun up today, I have only 2 days to finish this yarn in order to enter it into the monthly tally for the 2017 Biggest Loser Stash Reduction Challenge.  That means I have to finish spinning the other half of the braid, ply it, wash it and weigh it by Friday.  Guess what I'll be doing all day tomorrow?

So now I'm off to find my next sock pattern.  I'm taking suggestions if you know of any patterns that require 2 colors, and thank you in advance.

Thank you for stopping by and happy knitting!

Sharon