The Ugly
Let's start with these socks ...
Remember them? Well, they just got uglier.
I'm not even sure why I haven't unravelled them and made something else but they are warm and I had already made one sock. (And it's only my choice of colours that makes them ugly as you will see if you check out the pattern.)
That was before I cast on for the second and decided that a scrap sock should at least look pretty. So I made a pretty sock (the 'good') and I unravelled the top of the ugly sock because I needed some more of the teal yarn.
But I still had a tube with a toe and a heel and decided to finish it with another yarn I had left over.
The Bad
I'm actually in love with these socks. I love the Fair Isle on the sole from the self-patterning yarn, I love that they are resoleable if they ever develop a hole (my modification), I love the pattern, and I love that DIL#1 loves them.
Which should make them 'good', right?
Except that they didn't start out as 'good'.
A week before DIL#1's birthday I asked her what her shoe size was (yes, I know, I left it rather late to even be thinking about knitting socks as a gift). She told me she wears her husband's socks. So I knitted a sock to the same size as those I had previously knitted to fit his feet, not realising that she meant that he was able to fit into her commercial socks. There's a vast difference in the 'give-and-take' between commercial socks and hand knitted socks, which we discovered when she tried them on.
Fortunately, the second sock wasn't finished and it was simply a matter of unravelling to before the heel and making the foot shorter. The first sock was a different story. I removed the toe and as many rounds as needed to make the sock the correct length, and then re-knit the toe. But picking up slipped stitches when all the 'slips' are going one direction (up) and you're going to be knitting the opposite direction (down) is not easy and I'm not in love with the finished result. (Yet even I can't tell which is which from the photos.)
Next time I'll check shoe sizes. (And I suspect there will be a 'next time' after observing DIL#3 flapping around in Son#3's oversized socks this weekend. I'm thinking there might be enough of that self-patterning yarn to do at least another two pairs and an upcoming holiday will provide ample knitting-in-the-car time.)
Apart from that, they belong in the 'good' category. So I'm going to place them there.
The Good
These are the scrap socks that I decided should be pretty. I ran out of the teal yarn and couldn't find anyone in New Zealand who had any in stock. So I added the green cuff. I also knit the sole of the second sock last in case I ran out of yarn and had to substitute another yarn where it couldn't be seen (hence the difference in soles where one is a slipped stitch pattern and the other is simple stocking stitch - and I had a tiny bit of yarn left over).
I love these. I've worn them so much that I'm surprised they haven't developed holes. The pattern, while it looks complicated, was easy and one I will probably use again. (This link is to the mosaic pattern and not a sock pattern but it's easy to substitute it into any basic 64-stitch sock pattern.)
And, lastly, this free pattern on Ravelry. Another complicated looking pattern, but the main colour is always only two rounds of stocking stitch and the contrast colour is knit and slipped stitches that stay the same for two rounds, and once you've knitted a few rounds, it's almost intuitive.
Let's start with these socks ...
Remember them? Well, they just got uglier.
I'm not even sure why I haven't unravelled them and made something else but they are warm and I had already made one sock. (And it's only my choice of colours that makes them ugly as you will see if you check out the pattern.)
That was before I cast on for the second and decided that a scrap sock should at least look pretty. So I made a pretty sock (the 'good') and I unravelled the top of the ugly sock because I needed some more of the teal yarn.
But I still had a tube with a toe and a heel and decided to finish it with another yarn I had left over.
Which I did. But I'm dragging my feet on finishing the second sock (pun intended) despite promising myself to finish them before I start another project (yeah, right).The Bad
I'm actually in love with these socks. I love the Fair Isle on the sole from the self-patterning yarn, I love that they are resoleable if they ever develop a hole (my modification), I love the pattern, and I love that DIL#1 loves them.
Which should make them 'good', right?
Except that they didn't start out as 'good'.
A week before DIL#1's birthday I asked her what her shoe size was (yes, I know, I left it rather late to even be thinking about knitting socks as a gift). She told me she wears her husband's socks. So I knitted a sock to the same size as those I had previously knitted to fit his feet, not realising that she meant that he was able to fit into her commercial socks. There's a vast difference in the 'give-and-take' between commercial socks and hand knitted socks, which we discovered when she tried them on.
Fortunately, the second sock wasn't finished and it was simply a matter of unravelling to before the heel and making the foot shorter. The first sock was a different story. I removed the toe and as many rounds as needed to make the sock the correct length, and then re-knit the toe. But picking up slipped stitches when all the 'slips' are going one direction (up) and you're going to be knitting the opposite direction (down) is not easy and I'm not in love with the finished result. (Yet even I can't tell which is which from the photos.)
Next time I'll check shoe sizes. (And I suspect there will be a 'next time' after observing DIL#3 flapping around in Son#3's oversized socks this weekend. I'm thinking there might be enough of that self-patterning yarn to do at least another two pairs and an upcoming holiday will provide ample knitting-in-the-car time.)
Apart from that, they belong in the 'good' category. So I'm going to place them there.
The Good
These are the scrap socks that I decided should be pretty. I ran out of the teal yarn and couldn't find anyone in New Zealand who had any in stock. So I added the green cuff. I also knit the sole of the second sock last in case I ran out of yarn and had to substitute another yarn where it couldn't be seen (hence the difference in soles where one is a slipped stitch pattern and the other is simple stocking stitch - and I had a tiny bit of yarn left over).
I love these. I've worn them so much that I'm surprised they haven't developed holes. The pattern, while it looks complicated, was easy and one I will probably use again. (This link is to the mosaic pattern and not a sock pattern but it's easy to substitute it into any basic 64-stitch sock pattern.)
And, lastly, this free pattern on Ravelry. Another complicated looking pattern, but the main colour is always only two rounds of stocking stitch and the contrast colour is knit and slipped stitches that stay the same for two rounds, and once you've knitted a few rounds, it's almost intuitive.
(Yes, I appear to be on a blue and green craze for my socks.)
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