Imagine my delight, as a confirmed sock-aholic, to learn that – wheeeeee- and – ! – there is going to be a SOCK SUMMIT in Portand Oregon in August of 2009!
Sigh, I won’t be able to be there, but I would certainly love to be.
There are a ton of fabulous classes, taught by amazing and wonderful teachers.
Here’s the link for all the information about the Sock Summit
One of the things that I am looking forward to seeing
is the Sock Museum
The Sock Museum is going to be an online
virtual museum showing the history of socks.
People are knitting historical socks to donate …read more

Lots of people love knitting socks, then are afraid to wear them, in case they wear a hole in their special sockie.
If you’re ’saving’ your socks and not wearing them because of  ‘hole-aphobia’, then fear no more!
I have worked out a way of darning socks that is based on using a pinboard loom.
It’s quick and easy and quite fun……
Here’s the tutorial:
The clock ran out on me, so I wasn’t able to show this last little bit… stitching the starting and finishing loops to the sock:
Weave in the ends, and Voila! a quick and easy way to darn your socks.
So, wear …read more

Have you ever had a day that wasn’t really all that different from any other day,
and yet….
somehow….
it filled you with delight….. just to be alive?
A few years ago, I was working away in my studio, and was in a state of pure enjoyment,
as ideas were flowing and projects were just chugging along and everything felt
wonderful!
I grabbed my sketchbook and made some quick drawings of how I felt about the lusciousness of a day of happy work and feeling blessed.  Then, I made a doll-
that was the first of many, many variations on the drawings. The photo to the right is …read more

One of the members of the Tatta-tat-tatters tatting group on Ravelry mentioned that she tatted edgings onto her daughter’s socks.
I was immediately inspired!
I have sewn lace edging to socks, but never tatted it on.
Last fall, when I was teaching workshops in Portland at the Knit and crochet conference, the goodie bag had sock yarn in it. So, I started these socks, and have picked away at them on and off all winter.
I finally finished them the other day, so now….
I get to have fun with them!
I am doing a super simple tatted flower edging on them, and I am really …read more

On one on my email lists, people have been chatting about how they sort, store and organize their crochet hooks.
Here are a few pics of how I store mine, as well as a nifty new gadget that I really like for carting my hooks around with projects:
For quite a few years now, I have been using this plastic pencil box to carry crochet hooks and needlework tools in my purse.  It’s not lovely, but it’s efficient!

Recently, my best friend gave me a set of dpn tubes for my sock knitting, and they are great.
The folks (nancys knit knacks) who make …read more

Recently, I posted about weaving small squares for mending the holes in our hand made socks.
Sadly, people have not been able to track down the Weavette folks to find the looms that I had been talking about.
I received some rather cranky notes about this. oops.
Happily, there are other craftspeople who have moved forward and are making people very pleased with little looms in the style of the beloved old Weave its.
I’ve posted about the Arbor Looms, and have just gone and looked at some more possibilities.
Hazel Rose has a set of 2 little looms that …read more

My best friend just gave me the neatest little gadget.
‘DP Wip Tubes’.
‘whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?’
They’re a simple and oh so  clever gadget for adding happiness to sock knitter’s lives.
They are interlocking notched tubes that you slip over your dp needles. They  keep your sock from accidentally womitting it’s stitches.  Bliss.
Here’s a link for them: Here it is:
nancys knit knacks
I am delighted with mine, as I take my sock knitting with me wherever I go.  Someone is very clever!
Thumgbs and dp’s up on this one!

No, they don’t have long curly locks on them, and yes, we know that ‘real’ hobbits don’t wear socks….
these socks are a painterly homage to the 50th anniversary cover of the Hobbit
Hobbit Socks 

Oh man!
I can’t believe how long it took me to knit this pair of socks!
I am calling them ‘the forever socks’

That’s how long it took to knit them.
Just plain ole, ‘let your yarn make your pattern’ socks for my darlin’. Because I loves him.
  And, everybody knows that handknitted socks beat the bejabbers off store bought ones, so of course, you want your beloved to wear sockies that you made for him with your own little paws, right?
Well….. life sometimes gets in the way of getting sockies done.  People who can ACTUALLY count their unfinished projects astonish me. I …read more

Oh wow…. I was so delighted to have my copy of
Vogue Knitting’s Ultimate Sock book arrive today.
It’s a totally smashing book, and I am pleased to have one of my designs in it.
I was, however, disappointed that they changed a couple of things: I designed the cuffs to be spoolknitted, not knitted as Icord.
And, I called them, ‘Shakespeare’s Socks: Tubey or Not Tubey’. They obviously didn’t like the bad pun. Some bad puns are fun, and tubey socks are wonderfully fun and fast….
The book truly is a wonder- it has a lifetime’s …read more