Socks finished - and made from sock yarn too!

For some reason I have gone off knitting recently. I am just too tired at the days end to knit so have kind of got a bit lazy. 

I finally got my lovely socks finished though and here they are:

 

Well its take me absolutely ages to knit these. They are made using the yarn I bought when we visited Krakowback in the spring. I found there is actually about 20g left over from each ball - you divide the 100g ball into two - see my previous post - so the next pair need to be a bit longer to make full use of the yarn. 

 I have yet to work out just how much longer I will need to knt though to use the yarn better. I hate to waste an expensive yarn - though will probably find I can make some randomly striped socks with the left overs from a few balls in the future when I run out of proper sock yarn.

This is yet again the Winwick Mum basic 4ply sock pattern though despite my third pair I still need to keep looking everything up. I have already started my next pair though. This time (with the latest pair)  I am deliberately trying to tighten my tension which is actually not an easy thing to do because I think maybe the pair I have just finished are a little loose tension-wise, meaning they will probably wear our quicker.. I do not want to go down a needle size Last time I tried that the knitting came out too tight so I think my needle size (2.5mm) is correct but my tension is a bit loose I think. Or at least if I want them to last they would be better a bit thicker I think. And yes I really want them to last as long as possible. Attempting to regulate your tension is actualy quite difficult. Still I wil see how t goes. I suspect it is going to slow down my knitting and as you can see I am really not a fast knitter anyway. I started these socks back in April and its mid-July now! Still by winter hopefully I should finish another pair.

I have yet to master the toe shaping I think.

 

 Its a bit square though at least both have the exact same toe line which I cannot say about my last pair - the mosaic socks. They were a bit uneven and thats the pair I played around with different needle sizes. They worked out surprisingly Ok in the end but really I think they are a bit above my current skill level. Still I do intend to make a second pair of them. 

And you should push your own skill level boundaries shouldn't you!

I am also rubbish at grafting the toes. Not sure how well it will show on these photos but my grafting is definitely uneven.

That is something I could do with an actual lesson in I think. I might have to search Youtube for a video of how to do this properly. Its time I learned this now because this is my fourth pair of socks so time to start to make them perfect. The initial high of just making socks is wearing off. I need to get better at making them now.
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They are not uncomfortable which is the main thing but they do have a ( visual) ridge and they should look more constant or less sewn I think.

Still not so very long ago - less than a year - I had never even attempted to knit socks so I am still quite pleased to make these. But the grafting problems needs sorting. Mind you you do need an aim else things get very boring and I do want to progress with this. 

I find it hard right now to believe that last winter I always had both a jumper and a pair of socks on the go at once so at least two knitting projects. Right now I find it hard to even knit a round of a sock. Still maybe its the nice weather. Or maybe the workload has just grown because I am so tired by the end of the working day. Hopefully I will get back to knittig again soon because I find its very good for keeping my hands mobile. Other people stop knitting when they get arthritus but I find despite sometimes its a bit painful I have far more mobility when I knit. Its something I aim to try to continue with anyway.

Have a great week and see you soon,

Bracken