tiger eye lace socks

My third and final pair of tôt le matin socks for 2020. With these I decided to try a more open lace pattern. When rotated 180 it’s supposed to look like the eyes of tigers, but I think from this direction it looks a bit more like church steeples. I really fought with this pair of socks, and it went into time-out a few times. I kept trying to knit these while doing other things, and would end up with a different number of stitches. Part of that is the lace pattern itself-on the cuff there are large open holes made from multiple side-by-side yarnovers, which change the stitch count each row. On the foot I modified the lace pattern to have smaller holes there, so there were only two yarnovers next to each other on the foot.

On the whole I’m happy with how they turned out, though I’m not sure I’d use this pattern again. I think I’d need to come up with something more interesting for the sides of the sock, as to me they look a bit odd and boring from a side on view. I really wanted to try a larger lace pattern though, and I plan to use some more wider lace patterns on future socks. There are so many cool lace patterns out there, it seems a shame to limit myself to ones with 20 stitches or fewer!

blue tweedy socks

Another variation on a theme, with another skein set of tôt le matin yarn. I decided to try a subtle lace/yarn over between the cables, and I think it worked. I thought they might be more obvious, but I’m happy with how they turned out.

For this pair I only used the 20g contrasting skein on the ribbing and toe, not the heel, which allowed me to do 20 rows of ribbing before starting the pattern. That’s more ribbing than I think many patterns call for. This pattern also has some stretch in it, with the two purl stitches between cables and the lace detail. I think that stretchiness helps with the sock’s fit, though it can make the socks look awfully long and narrow when they aren’t on a foot!

Trellis Shell lace socks

These socks were a super quick knit-very rewarding and fun. I opened one of my knitting stitch pattern books, flipped through the lace section, and got my mum to help me decide which pattern to try. This one was called ‘trellis shell’, and I think it worked quite well for these socks. The lace cuffs were hard to put down, once I started knitting them! They just flew off the needles.

The yarn is from Elevate Fibers, and was really nice to work with. The color wouldn’t come out right in any of these pictures, but it’s a fairly bright pink. with some subtle variation.

Last socks of 2019

My last pair of socks from 2019 were these lace socks, and I didn’t quite have them done in time for gifting! Only one sock was wrapped up, with the second one on the needles. I finished the second sock the next day, but we ended up having to ship it. I remembered when making these socks how much I enjoy making lace socks. It’s a relatively simple lace pattern, but I think they look so elegant when done.

In 2019 I made:

• 72 pairs of socks

• 1 tea cozy

• 6 hats (2 adult, 4 preemie)

• 9 shawls

• 1 sweater

and I spun yarn for at least 3 pairs of socks.

I'm back!

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Things have been a bit hectic with me (to put it mildly) for the past few months, but are beginning to calm down now, thankfully. First there was a flurry of holiday knitting that was eating up every last second of my time (except for when we stopped to build a snowman! He was taller than I am!), and since then it’s been a combination of work, travel, and job interviews (!!!) that have kept me super busy. I’ve hardly finished any items since Jan 1!

So, I’m going to start with posts about the holiday knitting projects, and this post will feature lace bee socks. They were a commission for a friend who loves bees, and she picked out the pattern and the yarn-both were fun to work with, though the pattern was toe up, which is not my favorite. The sock fits fine on my foot model, but it pulls at the heel when on my foot. This is why I really like a long heel flap on my feet…

The socks feature a bee on the tip of the toe (garter butt, lace wings and antenna, and stockinette head), with a honeycomb lace pattern up the top of the foot and cuff.

The yarn is from Forbbiden Fiber co, on their ‘pride’ sock base. It’s very subtly sparkly (particularly in this grey color), which I love. I think the subtle sparkles are very nice. I made some modifications to the pattern, in particular how the increases are done going up the leg, but overall I think it was a good pattern as was. It’s Bee Socks by Vint Hill Knits.

anklet socks test knit

I did this test knit of some anklet socks-my mum wrote the pattern, and thus naturally asked me to proof it for her. She wrote the pattern for a fine fingering weight border Leister yarn from Seven Sister’s farm, but I’m knitting these in Knitpicks, because that’s what I had on hand.

The heel is a modified fish lips kiss, and even with the modifications I had to yank on it a bit to get it to come up this high. That’s in part because the sock is too small for my model (probably around a size 9 or 10 in women’s? While the socks are around a size 6), but it’s also just the nature of this heel style, that it doesn’t consist of enough fabric to cover that larger heel region. Still, for little short anklets like these it works great!