Yarn Along

How was your knitting week? I hope you got a little more time with your needles than I did this week. I kept up with a few rows each morning on the socks and made it to the toe decreases by Saturday. I went ahead and finished them on Sunday since they were so close- 2 at a time on separate DPN sets is my new favorite sock method. In fact, I'm ready to go ahead and cast on another pair but holding off til I finish my cardigan.

I wish I could say that the Shapely Boyfriend Cardigan is finished, but with this being my first week back to work for the school year, knitting time is being caught in little bits. I was getting time in with the socks in the morning over coffee, but after finishing those on Sunday I switched to knitting on the cardigan sleeve for a few minutes each morning. It hasn't added up to much yet, but maybe Saturday I can sit with the sleeve for the afternoon while the baby naps? We'll see. I might need to nap too at that point.


I started reading Gone Girl after several recommendations, but I'm having a hard time meshing with the writing style even though the story is interesting so far. I'm going to give it another couple of chapters, but if we're still not getting along at that point I'll go back to Ender's Game.

FO: Grey and Coral Socks

Project: Grey and Coral Socks 

Pattern: Vanilla socks, so a generic pattern customized to my somewhat oddly shaped foot. My favorite vanilla pattern is Stephanie Pearl-McPhee's, so that's the one I reference if I need anything, but otherwise I have this pattern memorized for my particular sizing issues.

Yarn: Regia Galaxy, colorway 1550

Needles: US size 1 DPNs

For: Myself. I will admit that I only knit socks with selfish ambition. I'll knit sweaters and cardigans and all sorts of things for other people, but socks are only knit if they will be going on my own two feet.



Cast On to Cast Off: May 28- September 8, 2013- Not too bad for socks knit by me. I haven't dubbed my past socks "annual" socks for nothing.

Notes: 64 stitches around and started with only a 1/2 inch of 2x2 ribbing at the top this time. Otherwise I knit them in my usual way.


Things I Learned:  Past socks have taken me upwards of 9-12 months to finish- partly because sock knitting tends to be my "in my purse in case I can get a round in here and there" knitting and not a main project at any one time and secondly because of Second Sock Syndrome (SSS). Now, I have never let a pair of socks completely sit without EVER finishing the 2nd sock, but I have totally been the knitter who finishes sock #1 and then doesn't cast on sock #2 until six months later (and by then has forgotten some of the details and the second sock turned out slightly different from sock #1). 

So I tried a little experiment this time around. I bought a second set of US1 DPNs and cast on both socks and then did each section of each sock in a row. So, ribbing on sock #1, then ribbing on sock #2, leg on sock #1 then leg on sock #2, etc. I wondered if that would help me mentally conquer SSS and skip that "I'm done but really only half way" deflated feeling after sock #1 is finished.

It totally worked for me, you guys. As I hit the toe decreases it made both toes go super fast because I knew that grafting the 32 total stitches on both sock really meant the ACTUAL end of the project, not just one sock.


Overall: Totally going with two at a time (on separate sets of DPNs) as my sock method from now on. Maybe I'll actually knit a third pair this year! (first pair of 2013 here.)