sweetgeorgia

Getting Ready for Fall Knitting

This is the kind of knitting that makes me absolutely, positively blissed out. Simple top-down socks in the most basic pattern ever, knit in plain old stockinette on 2.25 mm circular needles. I’ve been knitting this in one of our new yarns for fall, the BFL Sock. It’s a blend of superwash bluefaced leicester and nylon in a 3-ply sock yarn… pretty much what I consider ideal in sock yarns. Sturdy, wooly, warm, elastic… and takes dye oh so vibrantly.

I do love these Dutch heels too, as a reinforced heel stitch. Right now on the needles, I’m knitting a toe-up sock with a real heel flap… very new for me, since I’ve always knit short-row heels and then been disappointed when they wear through. If these socks are a success, I might permanently switch to toe-up & heel flap sock knitting!

While knitting these, I realized how much I love the fine gauge of this sock fabric… it’s about 8.5 sts per inch (nearly 9). If I had swatched ahead of time, I might have considered adding more stitches to my sock (which I’ll probably do next time). After washing and wearing these socks a few times, I really love how the yarn blooms and fills in. I’ve stashed a few skeins of this at home so that I can knit simple socks all winter.

And speaking of socks, have you seen the new Sockupied? I haven’t downloaded/purchased it yet. I hear knitters are sad it won’t work on the iPad or iPhone. Has anyone read it? What do you think?

Angel at my feet

Somehow, I managed to finish a pair of socks this week. Now that I’ve finished them, I also notice that somehow, I managed to goof one of the heels.

Anyway.

I have finished socks!! Here are the finished Jaywalkers in “Angel”…

####The best thing about turning 30… Contest

So, with this post I have the rare completed object… and the FIRST EVER sweetgeorgia blog contest! That’s right. That’s like two for one. Lucky you.

In the spirit of my upcoming birthday, I’m hosting a little contest and the prize will be either 2 skeins of superwash sock yarn or a braid of BFL fibre — your choice! You choose the colourway and I’ll dye it for you. All you need to do is leave me a comment starting with “The best thing about turning 30 is…”. The contest will close at midnight on Wednesday, July 19th (i.e. 11:59:59 PM) and we’ll randomly draw the winner.

Happy thoughts, people. Send happy thoughts. =)

The Odd Couple

I finished a pair of socks this weekend — not a matching pair, however. These are the first socks of the two pairs that I’m knitting — one for the DH and one (pink!) for me. These are your plain vanilla, super simple cuff down socks:

I finished the toe shaping on my red/pink sock while watching that Star Wars movie — I mean really, I had to spend that time being somewhat productive!

The single sock

How lovely that my 100th post should be about my very first knit sock! I cast on for this early last week after months of hoarding sock yarn and multiple sizes of DPNs, pouring over hundreds of sock patterns, bugging several sock-knitting bloggers and joining a few sock knitalongs. And here it is, the most basic of basic: Basic Sock in Regia Jacquard

Although basic, I did learn:

• Tubular Cast-on: I followed the simple steps in the Nancie Wiseman book, “Knitter’s Guide to Finishing Techniques”. It’s a fabulous, stretchy cast-on that I’m sure I will use more often in the future. Note to self: cast-on with a thicker (worsted-weight) contrasting yarn so that the cast-on stitches are a little looser and easier to work with.
• To knit small circumference items with a single circular: I have no idea if what I’m doing is actually the “Magic Loop” technique but my work looked like the cover of the Magic Loop booklet… in any case, I ordered a copy of the booklet so I can check this out.
• The anatomy of a sock: I feel so much more comfortable with the idea of changing up techniques or stitches for various parts of the sock now that I know where everything is supposed to be.

Here are more gratuitous photos of THE sock:

These really could be the most comfortable sock(s) I’ve ever worn. I started immediately on the second sock and am looking forward to wearing these next weekend! On the next pair of socks, I want to try knitting both socks on one circular at one time…

Thank you to [Jennifer](http://www.twocatsandagirl.com/), [Brenda](http://brenda.typepad.com/close_to_my_heart/) and [Annie](http://knittygritty.spatterdash.org/) for pointing me in the right direction and indulging my new sock obsession!