"If at first you don't succeed, try, try again" - Finally, January KAL Treasure Socks finished!

 

These took me absolutely ages to get right, but I am really, really happy with them. I started them in January, had a massive problem with sock one, which led to me totally starting again. 

But they are finished!

Its too hot to wear them today, but I will have plenty of time as the year progresses because: I live in England and its cold and rainy most of the year!

I had to undo and re-knit sock one and I suppose I could have just managed with one ill fitting sock and one good one, but I am so happy I re-did it and made both socks as close to perfect as I am able to.

Its taken me patience and a long time to complete these but really I still think they are worth my effort. 

And I really like them. 

Also they are mirror images which they are meant to be according to the pattern, but which had I stuck with my cocked up first sock, they would not be. 

I ended up making them quite a bit longer than the pattern as well ( two pattern repeats longer on each leg)  because I prefer slightly longer socks.

All in all though, I am so happy to be able to finally show you these and to say I made them right, and took the time and effort to perfect them.

So my Winter Haven 2024 KAL socks were eventually finished in May!

Never mind. I love them!

Have a great week

Bracken

Socks problems!

Looking at this photo don't my socks look impressive?

Well so I thought too but all is not well with them.

Here I could just do a blog post and not tell anyone what I have done, but whats the point of that? Its not about bragging about "Oh look at this, I made this etc etc" Its about sharing the truth with all the ups and downs that come along with like minded people who understand the frustrations as well as the joys of crafting, even when some do not do the same crafts, most people get this kind of problem.

I lost my 2.5mm needles when I started to knit these. Well no, I began with a straight cast on on 3mm then did the ribbing (mostly) using a Addi Sock Wonder circular. I do not get on with these really. Maybe because my hands always cramp and hurt because I have chronic arthritis but I thought I would try them out, hence paying out loads for both a 3mm and a 2.5mm. Anyway I own them so decided to attempt to knit with them. They are very good if you want to carry knitting around with you - much better than double points for that, but I am slow knitting with them and prefer the double pointed needles, despite every now and then I end up dropping my knitting off one end or the other. 

 

Part way down the ribbing I swapped to 2.5mm double pointed needles. All was well. Then one evening I miss-placed two of my needles. Still have not found the things. So I looked through my stash of needles, many of which belonged to my Great Great Aunts, so very old imperial things. I do not use them usually just keep them because they are "heirlooms" from my familly/ancesters. I used my needle gauge to check the size etc (- its obviously wrong!)

 

And then I got along with knitting my sock on what are very old, going rusty, needles. The rusty bit is why I decided stuff it and bought two new sets from Love Knitting because it turns out Drops Budget range sell for £1.70 so two sets is sensible bearing in mind I cannot find two of the damned things anywhere. So now I have 10 double points in 2.5mm so that should sort me out for a while.

 

I carry on knitting with my ancient needles whilst waiting for the new ones to arrive - the last generation to use these died in the early 60s! 

 

Try on sock. Its a bit tight but I assumed I had pulled the fairisle a bit too much and it does fit so carry on. New needles arrive and I swap over to them. Lovely by the way. Drops budget range, I definitely recommend. Nicest needles I have had in yonks. Aluminium so will only suit you if you prefer metal needles. I do.

 

As I knit I realise the foot part of my sock is much more stretchy than the top. I come to the conclusion my needle gauge I used to check the needles is out and I actually must have knitted with what equates to 2.25mm. According to Love Knitting thats an old size 13 and there is not actually an imperial equivalent to a 2.5mm. See here if you need the chart. I never realised there was no imperial needle to match a 2.5mm till now so this is all a learning curve.

Well I reckon I can live with a slightly tighter sock top so continue anyway. I can get it on and even wear a thinner pair underneath which is important to me because I have Raynauds Syndrome so will need two pairs a lot in the UK. 

 

I start sock two.

Disaster!

 

If you look at the photo here you can see my problem:

 I have 8 rows of diamond patterns ( or 4 if you count actual repeats rather than patterns etc)  to get to the heel, but on sock two to get the same size I only need 6 rows of diamonds (or 3 total repeats). You can also see relatively clearly the tension is totally different on the two socks. The right sock is much much tighter knit with far smaller stitches. I realised for sure what was wrong about 10pm (22:00) last night. 

 

Though the above really demonstrates how changing a needle size changes stitch size and shows very well how to alter your tension to fit a pattern should you want to. I unfortunately checked the tension at the start before I lost my needles!

 

So all is not well here. I am not going to knit sock two with my imperial 2.25mm ( 13s) but instead opt for a more comfy sock and undo and reknit sock one. 

On the upside I should finish sock two faster than sock one - unless I make it a bit longer, which I might do actually, but thats not following the pattern. But then the KAL finished weeks ago now so it really does not matter because I am far behind everyone else anyway. I love this pattern though, must admit. Its a bit tricky but thats a good thing. 

 

And in the end its not about being in a race to make socks as fast as other people do. I know one person doing the Kal completed 3 pairs in the time it took most people to complete just one pair. Well me - I will be taking considerably longer! 

 

But the aim is to complete a nice wearable comfy pair of socks and make them well so thats what I intend to do so yes sock one has to be undone. And knitted again on the right sized needles. 

Once you accept a problem it actually becomes easy to rectify it. 

I have been considering un-doing these from the top, but I know thats difficult. For some reason the stitches twist on the ribbing so unless I cut off the ribbing and just undo the body of the top of the sock, it will not work and I might just as well just undo the entire sock and start it again I think. And make it right - I have yet to decide which way I am going here I must admit but experience tells me you have problems if you undo it from the cast on edge.

 

And of course here I also learn a very valuable lesson. Besides having the patience to wait just 2 days to get some more needles its really not a good idea even if you have a modern needle gauge to check by, to use unmarked, very old needles. Its just a waste of time and effort. I should have waited for the post to arrive with my lovely new needles. 

 

On the upside I now know not all imperial needles have a metric equivalent and I never realised that until now. It might come in useful with some of the very old imperial patterns I own should I decide to knit them.

Well have a great week and if nothing else I hope you might take this blog post and see how other people ( in this case me!) have such silly disasters and maybe it might make someone smile knowing they are not alone in stupid behaviour and should carry on knitting/ crochetting or whatever else because you can get there in the end and its all about learning. That has to be good, to keep on learning. And I will finish these socks I promise.

Take care and thanks for reading about my problems with knitting socks,

Have a great week

Bracken

Treasure socks progress

 

As you can probably see I am almost up to the heel. I have I think one or maybe two repeats to do first if I go for the length I usually go for. Its a good length so probably best to stick with it. I reckon this evening assuming I manage to knit I will get to the heel and maybe if I do well actually start the heel itself.

I have found these surprisingly fast to knit - so far anyway. I am still on sock one but really I think often a slightly more difficult pattern, or maybe rather a pattern that does require some thought and concentration, meaning you do not get bored, is often faster to knit than a basic pattern.

With socks mostly I have to concentrate anyway so I tend to find them an easier knit than a basic jumper which is just boring.

I actually started a basic jumper around this time last year and still have not finished the back of it. Its something I should go back to. Its sat in a bag next to my usual seat in the lounge for nearly a year now and not grown a single row. I have made several other items during the past year, but not finished the jumper. It always gets bumped down my list of to-dos.

 

Anyway the Treasure socks are growing nicely and I am liking how they are looking.

Take care and thanks for visiting my blog,

Bracken

Update on my Treasure Socks

I can't honestly say these are fast for me to knit. No they are not. But then I do take my time when it comes to knitting anything, but mainly socks, due to the tiny needles used for 4ply yarns. 

I started these last week they are a mix of West Yorkshire spinners signature 4ply in colour Silent night with contrast colour being an alpaca mix which is Drops nord. Hopefully they will wear OK.

I am liking how they look so far.

I am already planning another colourway in this pattern because I am knitting this in reverse to how the pattern shows and how most people will probably knit these. I thought it would be good this way though I looking at the sock so far I am happy. The pattern is straight forward if you like fair Isle ( I do) and I only had to unpick one round so far when I was first sussing out how the pattern works. I will not finish in time for the Winter Haven KAL which ends today I think, but that's OK because I knew I was going to start these late so it was to be expected. I generally run over with this KAL anyway due to being such a slow knitter.

But still I think this is going to make a nice warm pair of socks once finished.

Thanks for popping by my blog,

See you soon,

Bracken 

My new socks for 2024

 

 

This is the West Yorkshire Spinners Christmas yarn from a couple of years ago but was for sale this Christmas so you can probably still buy this now. Its "Fairy Lights" and is glittery.

Just at New Year I had only begun my second sock

 

 and was desperate ( seriously I was/am) to join this years Winwick Mum Knit Along 2024 otherwise known as the Winter Haven KAL 2024. 

This year there is a new pattern called Treasure Socks and its a colourwork pattern so hopefully that will suit my usual liking for fairisle types of knitting. nyway I got these finished ;last night - almost anyway. I have yet to sew up the little gap you get when you cast on with straight needes - you can just about see the gap here. 

I will sew it up soon though because I want to wear these. After all they took me most of 6 months to knit!

I started these back in the summer because I wanted them for Christmas but then I decided to knit several baby items and I also started a jumper for me - that is still unfinished but I will go back to tht later. For now though I need these so managed to knit sock two in just a couple of weeks. The tension is slightly tighter ( though also more even) than sock one but hopefully that will mean I am in sock mode for the Winter Haven KAL and will be able to get going now with that and if possible make a second pair of socks for this winter. 

They were really meant to be Mosaic Pattern socks ( Also a Winwick Mum Pattern that I attempted previously), but the cherry red is not the best contrast with the Fairy Lights so I abandoned that and ripped them right back to the ribbing which meant reknitting the leg of the first sock. Possibly thats why its taken so long really cos I wanted to do a different pattern and then it did not work and it put me off for a while. But in the end these work and will be really nice to wear. They have the heel in WYS cherry too.

I started the Treasure socks very late last night and so far have only a couple of rows of ribbing done. This colourway is also Christmas glitter yarn and is Silent Night which is dark shades of blue and kind of random rather than the WYS stripes from what I can see online. I am though going to do the Silent Night as the main colour and do cream as the contrast so its going to mean my sock is the negative of the ones on the pattern. I do not have a  WYS yarn in cream but do have some drops Alpaca/wool/nylon which is sold as sock yarn so thats what I am going to use. So here is the start of my Winter Haven KAL 2024.

And I am only just over one week behind everyone else so not the end of the world and I will ultimately end up with two pairs of new socks!

Thanks for popping by my blog. I will show you how these progress as I go along. I am now knitting seriously every evening whilst listening to Audible which is my preferred way to relax and something I have not done for quite a while which is maybe why my knitting stopped. 

Have a great week, 

Bracken