fo : petty harbor socks

I had in my mind an expectation to write something really profound about this sock project. But the turmoil outside my apartment brought the stress of creating the perfect blog post into perspective. What I have in front of me is so much simpler than many others during this time. I have to recognize every second in this silence is something worth celebrating. This extra space I have makes it possible to ease the burden for others where I can.

pattern : Petty Harbour Socks by Rayna Curtis
yarn : Knit Picks Hawthorne Fingering Kettle Dye in Conifer
needle : US1 (2.25mm)
size : 11”

I’m not too worried anymore about revealing the recipient, since I’m confident that he doesn’t read my blog (great for documenting gifts in progress!). This pair of socks is the next of my 2019 Christmas gift plan— an earthy but interesting pair of socks for my younger brother. I hope he likes it. I’m also glad that like me, he’s a bit of an introvert, so he’s not someone I’ve been the most worried about during this pandemic. A small luxury of having a sibling who’s a lot like you.

Not much more to say about these socks. They’re lovely, working on them was both exciting (they’re very plushy), and calming. It brought me peace to work on these while sending texts to family and friends to check on them over the last few months. I hope the recipients of my knitting feel peace when they feel and wear what I’ve made them, reminded that their loved ones are real, very much tangible, and missing them.

I hope a similar effect of stillness, even if brief, is brought to you too, dear reader, when we catch up on this blog.
Be slow, be kind, be safe.

wip, fo : petty harbor + a belated 2019 christmas sock

2019 definitely was a year of inflated expectations.
I began with a roadmap for personal creative goals, a development plan for my day job, as well as a Ravelry project queue packed with deadlines for Christmas. My big plan was to make every single person in my immediate circle (and then some) feel absolutely special during the holidays, and I knew that starting in advance was doing to be the way to do it. There were 5 projects in my Ravelry queue with Christmas deadlines. Nearly all of them made with fingering weight yarn, and every one of them socks.

The racing pistol went off January 1st. I finished my first pair of socks for Nick in just over two months. It’s adorable. A lovely and meaningful pair of socks made with yarn bought on our 6th month trip to Solvang. I stashed that away before weaving the ends in, intending to pull that out around the holidays.

Still feeling motivated, I got started on my second gift pair, Petty Harbour socks, using Rayna Curtis’s wonderfully clear pattern and (so far), just one of the two skeins of Knit Picks Hawthorne bought in 2018.
I reached the halfway point, got preoccupied with a staff cut at my job at the time, and put knitting on the back burner to focus on freelancing and finding the next full-time position that would have me. Did I say back burner? I meant I ignored knitting all together. The big Christmas 2019 plan was put away. And none of us could have known that was gonna be the last pre-COVID-era Christmas ever…many regrets.

Here in Los Angeles, the Stay at Home order was called in the 19th of March. I think it was just a few days before that I realized we’ll need to hunker down, so I unearthed my old knitting projects and took inventory.

Oh right, Operation: Christmas 2019. That. Better late than never I guess. Nick formally received that Christmas gift this spring. He loves them. They mostly fit perfectly too (and no I’m not planning to fix them). Sorted.

As for the Petty Harbor socks, I’ll just continue where I left off. The stitch pattern is going as well with the Conifer colorway as I thought when I casted on around that time last year. I feel confident that the recipient would appreciate the subdued but special texture and warmth.

Thankfully I was brought on a new full time role in mid April, meaning I won’t need to spend as much time in the near future figuring out what will follow today’s contract gig. I should be able devote some time to knitting gifts for loved ones. During these days of self isolation, it’s the only unique offering of closeness I have for those I love. I’ll take what I can get.

fo : zimtschnecke socks

I finished this project in 2018, but am still so in love with it that I have to give it the attention it deserves. This was my second go at Campbell’s pattern. I adored it the first time, but was frustrated with the yarn I used. This sock pattern deserved another chance.

pattern : Show-off Stranded Socks by Anne Campbell
yarn : Schoppel-Wolle Zauberball® Crazy in Zimtschnecke
needle : US1 / 2.25mm
size : 10”

Show-off Stranded Socks is available for free on Ravelry. The slipped stitchwork makes variegated yarn blend well without looking garish. A fantastic choice for skeins that look great as skeins but…not reliably great when knit up.

My favorite part of the pattern would have to be the gusset stitches, by far. Campbell offers several options for patterns here, like garter, stockinette or reverse stockinette. I went with the seed stitch, which for its tedium gets a lovely result. Besides, it’s just a gusset. I didn’t mind the alternating K1P1 at all.

The yarn for this was much more comfortable to use than the thread-core Regia Hand-Dye Effect. It’s a SchoppelWolle Crazy Zauberball that I purchased at the Nifty Knitter in Issaquah, WA. It’s loosely spun for a plushy feel, without suffering much on the durability front. And those colors!!!

High from a freshly bound-off FO, I bought a second skein of the Zimschnecke to make a gift pair. With this stranded sock pattern again? Maybe not. I’d like to watch the yarn do its own thing with a simpler vanilla or rib pattern instead. But we’ll see.

fo : slide socks

Slide was a treat to knit. The non-identical but symmetrical pattern was knit using dpns, which offered a nice change of pace from my usual TAAT magic loop method. The easy flow from section to section in Cookie A’s pattern kept second sock syndrome at bay.

pattern : Slide by Cookie A
yarn : Zen Yarn Garden Serenity 20 in an OOAK colorway
needle : US 1 [2.25mm]

size : M, 10”

These long lines were what drew me in. I was curious about what made Cookie A such a popular knitwear designer, especially for socks. The pattern was concise, with a clear and lovely layout. As a very visual person, layout is most of a pattern PDF’s value.

Little things like the inclusion of special stitch descriptions in the pattern were much appreciated for moments where I needed to remember how the hell to pull off a m1pR. Thanks to cookie’s conscientious design, I suffered no confusion or discomfort…except of course for that time that my needle just snapped in half and i had to move projects…but that’s not her fault!

I enjoyed using the zen garden yarn, it’s an impossibly soft wool nylon blend. The subtle variegation of this yarn challenged this sock’s long lines but without bossing them around too much. It felt like an even push-pull of visual busy-ness.

If only this wasn’t so plushy and soft! I would wear these around much more often if I wasn’t so sure that these would just felt after just a dozen wears and washes.