Summer of Socks 2013

It seems that for the past 6 or more months that most everything I've knitted has been shop samples for Fiber Charmer, or I've been too tired to knit.

I've spent plenty of time in April and May sitting in waiting rooms and lobbies of hospitals and doctor's offices, and I pulled out a pair of socks that I'd started in May 2009.  Yes, 2009.  Four years ago.  I knit toe up because I love it, and all I'd done was the toe and a wee bit of the pattern.

 

 

 

At the time I was still learning how to knit and read lace, and I lost my place, put the socks down, and went on to the next project.  Now, four years later, I looked at them and could tell immediately where I was in the pattern.  Not only that, but the pattern is super easy, and I memorized it and got both socks finished up.  I think I picked them up around May 5 and finished the second one up last night, May 26.

 

(The picture is only of one, but they both look alike.  I counted rounds to make sure they actually matched in length this time.)

 

 

While I was refreshing the pattern in my mind, I leafed through the book, Socks from the Toe Up by Wendy Johnson, and thought that there wasn't a pair of socks in there that I didn't want to make.

 

Long before I started dyeing my own yarns, I bought yarn.  I still buy yarns, mostly from other indie dyers because unlike the commercial yarns, hand dyed yarns have variations that will never be exactly alike from skein to skein.  When I see one I love, I buy it.  I have lots of stash, and knitting my way through Socks from the Toe Up will reduce my stash, give me a bunch of new socks to wear and slake my desire to knit on teeny tiny needles items just for me.

 

Next in the book is Lacy Ribs Socks.  I'm knitting that in Fiber Charmer's May 2013 TriDye installment, Go Ahead, Make Me Sing.  The colorway is based on a photo of a giant clam, and being a fan of Alf, The Animated Series, the name is an homage to Clams Never Sang for My Father.  Here's the yarn.

 

 

So far all I have is a few rows on the toe, and I'm officially on my Summer of Socks 2013 journey.

 

This year SOS13 is going to be a more relaxed affair.  No contests, no prizes, just a go at your own pace knitalong.  My goal is to knit the next three patterns in Wendy's book, Lacy Rib Socks, Diagonal Lace Socks in Dream in Color's Strange Harvest (it's what she used in the book, and I actually have a skein), and Butterfly Socks, probably in Fannie's Fingering Weight Plums & Pinks - a mostly solid pink with splashes of purple.

 

Stay tuned for pictures!  Have a wonderful Memorial Day.  Stay safe and take a few minutes to think about the real reason for this holiday.  It's not the cookouts and beer, but the men and women who have served for our country.