Year of projects- In which there are socks!

How annoying is this!

When I finished my first sock I weighed it and picked a ball of the same weight to make the second. It was exactly the same weight which was not ideal as it didn't leave any extra to cover gauge variations or differences in the yarn. And I ran out with about four rounds of the toe to do.

This is not really a problem, I still have over two and a half kilos of this yarn left so I joined another ball in and finished the sock.

Ta da!

Two socks, and I even modelled them as requested.

Now I can pick my next project for this yarn, I am thinking about the cardigan next so I am going to have some skeining and dyeing to share.

Year of projects- In which I have two warm legs and one chilly foot

My year of projects plan is to work through 2kg of Aran undyed yarn that I was gifted. I am working on this between other projects, so at the minute it is not getting huge amounts of attention as I have been focissing on my A-Z sock challenge.

This means that my Sunday posts often don't show a lot of progress; so this weekend I made my second kilt hose sock top of my knitting list so I would have something to show you. I have made it all the way down the leg and am about to start the heel flap.

Maybe by next week I will have a pair of socks and can start picking my next project.

Year of project- In which I started the second sock

The second kilt hose sock is under way, but as you can see I have not made a great deal of progress on it so far. I have been busy with my A-Z challenge and one a day project. Plus I have started some slippers and frogged them twice so far so these have not had much of a look in, hopefully I will get more done this week as the weather is heading in the boots and woolly socks direction.

On the first cuff I had a nightmare getting the lace portion set up. It is an incredibly simple bit of lace, but for some reason it just didn't want to work out, fortunately this time round it was much simpler, no idea why.

I have weighed the finished sock and the ball of yarn I am using, it will be a close thing, but there should be just the right amount, hopefully I will not have changed my gauge at all. 

Year of projects- In which there is one sock

My Year of Projects yarn has not really been getting much attention this week, but I took my boot sock to knit night and managed to finish the first one. It is nice and cosy, I put it on in the cafe, so all the non knitters there probably think I am extremely odd.

A not terribly good close up photo of the lace panel at the top.

I will get the second sock started this week, so hopefully I will have a lovely cosy pair for the cold weather.

Year of projects- In which I have a sock leg and am posting late

There has been some progress on my knee high socks. I am working the calf shaping and so far it is going well. It works up fairly quickly because of the thick yarn and large needles (relatively speaking, in the world of socks 3.75mm are large!)

Shown with the decorative cuff folded over the funtional ribbing this time.

I have tried these on and have to admit they are not hugely flattering (remember shire horse not thoroughbred legs). However, they are for wearing in welly boots so no one will see them.

My YOP choices seem to be turning into process projects, where I want to make a pattern (Hemlock ring) or type of project (knee high socks) and I am not overly interested in what comes out at the end. I will try to choose my next project more carefully so that I love the process and the finished object.

Year of projects- In which there has been a subsititution and some socks

I have chosen a pattern that was not on my original list, but since my personal challenge is to knit through the 2kg of aran yarn that I was gifted that is within my own rules for the challenge. I had planned to make the Irish Boot socks, I thought they were knee high wellington boot socks but it turns out they are ankle length socks. I subbed in Toirneach Kilt Hose instead as I want to make some knee highs, but am too lazy to make them in 4 ply sock yarn.

They are going well, I have done a little more than in the picture, I am part way down the k5p1 rib section that makes up the leg, but it was not really interesting enough to warrant another photo.

The decorative cuff folds down over the top of the k1p1 ribbing that holds the sock up. To make this work you have to work the ribbing then turn the work inside out, I added a wrap around the last stitch of the round before making the turn to help close the gap that appears.

I am using the sizing from the pattern, but will reduce the length of the leg after doing the calf decreases. I have chubby legs that it seems are not far off the measurements for a fully grown adult male (think shire horse rather than thoroughbred, actually think shetland pony, I am short too!), ah well, never mind.

I secretly suspect these will not be flattering, but they are for wearing inside wellies so no one will actually see them.

In other YOP news I am a little concerned about my Hemlock ring blanket, I tried to lay it flat this week and it is seriously lumpy, I can't see how I will ever block it flat. I am toying with the idea of blocking it first as I would hate to dye it and then find it can't be blocked out and has to be frogged. I had a little look on other Ravelry projects for it (I LOVE Ravelry!) and generally a lot of scruchy things were blocked to be beautiful, but one knitter did frog hers, so it could still go either way.