Photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

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 to it.

Fun warning:

The links to the Historical socks are already a big time gobbler,

so click on them only when you have time to schmooze!

As I was ambling through the Sock Summit site, especially in the Iconic Socks, I was dazzled by the diversity of sock designs and the creativity of the designers. Simply awesome!

And, I happened upon the free pattern for a totally wonderful sock:

The Pomatomus Sock at Knitty.com (hard to spell, but looks like a treat to knit)

The website is glorious, and the Sock Summit looks like a dream come true for those of us who love  socks and the making of them!

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If you’re ’saving’ your socks and not wearing them because of  ‘hole-aphobia’, then fear no more!

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

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:

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

Weave in the ends, and Voila! a quick and easy way to darn your socks.

So, wear your glorious socks and when they grow holey,  darn it all, stitch a badge of honor onto them and wear them with joy!

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and yet….

doll and photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

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 a pic of the first ‘joy’ doll…..

Those drawings have become the basis of a whole series of  joy based cloth dolls,

paper dolls, wooden dolls, spool knitters,crochet hooks and all manner of other things.

Ah, joy……

Which brings me to today’s pictures for the Faces of Joy pictures…..

Chrissy left a comment in one of the previous entries in the Face of Joy Challenge, leaving a link to her entry in the Challenge.

Chrissy’s face of joy is made in socks!  Fun!

Nancy sent me a pic of her husband looking quite bemused in a rather grumpy looking hat….. since she didn’t tell her hubby that his pic had been sent off to a blog…. I cropped to just the hat:

Nancy's hat copyright

and, then I turned the grumpy little mouth upside down to make it somewhat more joyful…..

Nancy's hat smiling

And Caroline has joined in with  her Face of Joy, which has taken wing!

Caroline's yellow bird (copyright)

There are an infinite number of ways of expressing the face of joy….. Thanks Chrissy, Nancy and Caroline for sharing your faces of Joy!

I look forward to seeing more faces of joy……

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I was immediately inspired!

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay (copyright)

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 pleased with it.

I had to start over 3 times, as the first time, I started off with a section of yarn that I really don’t like. It’s got orange and green all smooshed together and looks muddy. So, I frogged that and cut that section of yarn out.

Then, I started again, but realized that I had made the chained sections too long.

Ribbit ribbit ribbit….

Now, I am happy.  7 ds, turn, a ring of 3ds-[p-3ds] 7 times, 7 ds.

It really doesn’t get any easier. But, sometimes, it’s fun to just do ‘easy’.

One of my concerns was that I might make it hard to get my foot into the sock, which is why I have the fairly long chained sections to allow for expansion.

The yarn is Red Heart Heart & Sole with Aloe #3965 Razzle Dazzle.  I love the yarn. It’s a pleasure to work with.

As I worked with the edging, I decided that I still wasn’t happy….

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

so I have started over YET AGAIN>>>>>

This time I am pleased.

I have been cutting the yarn and separating the colors, so the flowery bits go on the shuttle to make the blossoms, and the greenie bits go on the ball to make the stems.

I have also put more space between each flower by skipping 2 purl stitches on the cuff and  joining between the 2 knitted stitches of the rib.

And…. Now I am happy with my springtime socks!

The pink in the pic is actually much redder and is more of a rosie color than the bubblegummy version of the photo.

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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 the dpn tubes also make another kind of dpn tube that is great for carrying crochet hooks:

It’s one of those incredibly simple ideas that make you go, oh yes! Clever, very clever!

At home, my hooks mostly live in clusters in various cups:

I found this painted wooden goblet at the second hand store and fell in love with it. It’s perfect for the hooks that I carve:

My steel hooks  live in a small vintage pewter cup:

Crochet hooks are so beautiful they deserve to be on display!

Image Source: Noreen Crone-Findlay 

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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 look great. They’re called Tiny Weavers. There’s a small square loom partnered with a little triangle. They look like they are beautifully made.

I think that people will appreciate that all these looms are made by ‘local’ craftspeople who are dealing directly with their clients.

No affiliations- I don’t own any of these looms, and I don’t profit by finding links to them for you.

Hope this will fill the small loom gap in your life, and be fun for covering the holes in your hand knit and crocheted sockies!

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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!

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these socks are a painterly homage to the 50th anniversary cover of the Hobbit

Hobbit Socks 

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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 have enough ‘UFO’s’ to occupy several lifetimes. Far too many to be able to count them!

So, sometimes, socks languish on the needles for months.

and months.

and months…..

So….. lately, I have taken to knitting my honeypie’s socks while we are driving in and out of the city. (We live on a small farm outside a city in Western Canada).

Um… he drives. I knit. 

And, because I can knit socks in the dark, but can’t crochet or weave in the dark, I can knit my honey’s socks while we drive home from things that kept us out after dark.

Are the socks absolutely poifeck? Nah. But, at least, these knitted in the dark socks are DONE.

Wait a minute…. I have to finish off that toe….

Oh rats.  Here I was, thrilling to the thought of them being done, and the toe’s still open to the breezes.

Oh NO!…. now I have to find the mate (knitted months and months and months ago)  to this ~almost~ done sock………

That could take FOREVER!

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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 worth of luscious knitted socks. And, a heap of fabulous information.

Buy it. You’ll love it.

Noreen

www.crone-findlay.com

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