Year of the sock December- this feels like cheating

I know I planned this myself, so I can make up any rules I like, but it still feels rather like cheating to count these. It has been a busy month, and socks have taken a back burner in favour of Christmas hats. I have finished a pair of socks this month, but I started them in November, and I started a pair at the weekend, but since they include cables and lace they will take a little longer to finish than the three days left in 2010.
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Of course I could whip through a pair of plain socks (if I don't want to eat or do anything else for the next 3 days!), but I want to branch out into different patterns, so I am counting these and calling the year done.
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Tiny dolly sized socks, using leftover Regia 6 ply and working my usual sock pattern (based on the free Regia one) over 32sts. They only took about an hour each, maybe less.
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Half of these were made this month, the others were done through the year. They are made using various scraps leftover from sock yarn projects and the pattern from Tiny Sock Ornament by Everwhelming Liz.
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So there it is, the end of my year of socks. I had no idea a self imposed sock club was a thing when I started. It was good fun and I have some plans for another next year maybe (thesis permitting).
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On a festive and non sock related note I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas (if you celebrate, or holiday generally if not). Many knitting related pressies came my way, so they may pop up in posts through the next months.

Year of the sock November- More Christmas socks

I realised this morning that I forgot to post my November sock of the month while it was still November, oops!
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Technically that is not quite true, these appeared as a finished object a few weeks back:
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But they have friends! :
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That's right, thanks to the wonders of 6ply speedy knitting I managed to get two pairs done, which is convenient as that is one pair for each parent. The blue stripes are for my Mum, the brown and grey for my Dad. I added grey heels and toes as I thought there was not going to be enough yarn, there would have been so it was a lot of unnecessary ends to sew in, but at least they look a little snazzy (as snazzy as grey and brown can get anyway!).
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The pattern for both is Thuja by Bobby Ziegler. I love this pattern, it is so fast and more interesting than a standard rib sock. They were both made in Regia 6 ply for speed and durability- past Christmas socks have worn to holes in about 4 wears so a yarn with a 10 year guarantee sounded good to me.

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I am not sure where I am going to fit socks in this month, still a lot of presents to see to. Wonder if I can make a pair in the 5 days left after Christmas is done with :D

FO Friday- Mmmmm, sockitty

These will make another appearance later in the month as my sock of the month for November. I have to say that they are single handedly (footedly?) responsible for renewing my sock addiction. They are part of my Mum's Christmas present, and were going to be normal k3 p1 rib socks, but I decided to go a little more adventurous (just a tiny bit, nothing too fancy or they would not be worn) and do a seed stitch rib.

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The pattern is a combination of Thuja by Bobby Ziegler and the free one that comes with Regia sock yarn. I used Regia 6 ply (for its 10 year hard wearing guarantee) and worked on 3mm needles as I like a slightly denser sock fabric. They worked up so fast it was like magic!

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The combination of bigger needles, a stitch pattern with anything interesting and some coloured yarn was great, I am most definitely back into making socks.

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One ball made exactly one sock, with less than a gram left over. Which was excellent, except the second ball started in a different place so I had to go into the third ball and have quite a bit of leftovers.
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The seed stitch rib shows up much better in real life, but you can just about see it in this photo (also hands are not great for modelling socks when trying to take a photo):

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Year of the sock October- Christmas socks

Another last minute posting to get my year of the sock online before the end of the month. These are the first of the Christmas socks, I got an email the other day with the title "it's too early to think about Christmas", I just laughed and carried on knitting.

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A few weeks ago I posted a picture of the things needed for working on these socks, it was not a new pattern but a new method. The chocolate was very important and actually listed in the pattern.

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The knitting in action, but why are there two balls?

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Ta da! Two at a time socks on dpns. This is a very cool method where the second sock is knitted inside the first, you alternate between the socks with each stitch. I followed the instructions from Knitty and used Regia 6 ply. These were worked on 2.5mm needles as the double knitting method is meant to make the gauge looser, I'm not sure it did. I did a mixture of one yarn in each hand and dropping the yarn between stitches.
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Unfortunately the switching between yarns made my hand and elbow ache, so I got about 2/3 of the way down the leg and switched to normal knitting, enough to say that I can do it. I stuck with the 2.5mm needles which give a dense sock, should be nice and hard wearing but took a little over three balls to finish one pair of man sized socks (approx UK size 10). Had to do a quick order to get an enough to finish them up, fortunately the shop still had the same dye lot.
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Finished socks, they will be stowed all ready for wrapping when it gets closer to Christmas.
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Year of the sock October

I left this a little late to get started, but it is now under way. Here are all the supplies, if you are first to guess what I am up to I might even share the chocolate with you.

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Adventures in colourwork- part two

The continental knitting and colourwork trial runs have been working up to this, the sock of the month for September- Rubber ducky socks!

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The duck pattern is taken from the pattern Rubber duck socks by Renate Nilsen. I added a blue stitch to form an eye in the centre of the head and am working top down rather than bottom up.

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Inside:

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The colourwork is very slow going, each row of ducks took much more than an hour but I think I am getting the hang of it now.

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I have checked the fit and it will go over my foot, some of the floats on the back could do with being a little looser though so I need to work on that. I added an extra 8 stitches to the sock circumference as the first try was rather tight and a struggle to fit, this is equivalent to one extra duck.

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The heel and toe will be yellow and the foot plain blue.

Year of the sock, August- The indestructasock

The Christmas socks for my Dad last year were quite unsuccessful-

Pair one was too short, 50 rows from heel flap rather than the needed 50 rows after gusset decreases- these were snapped up by my sister who has smaller feet.

Pair two was hastily made as a replacement, this time with long enough feet. Unfortunately after only four wears they had worn holes through the heels.

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Attempt three has been made this month as the sock of the month for August; another very plain ribbed boot type sock. This time using Regia 6 ply in the required dark green. This comes with a 10 year wear guarantee on the label so fingers and toes crossed these will stand up to wear.

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These are being delivered next weekend and will be given a couple of months trial, if they are successful I will be getting some more of the yarn for this year's Christmas socks.

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Next month's socks will be something a little brighter and more exciting.