I have to admit that I am a ‘mindless sock knitter’.

Photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright.

I knit plain socks that can just flow through my fingers without me having to pay attention to them except at critical points like heels and toes.

I use sock knitting as a way of soothing myself if I am feeling stressed,

or if I am in a situation where I have to pay attention to other people,

or if we are driving (my husband is driving, that is, and I am passenger-ing),

or if I am in waiting mode.

So, I tend to use self striping yarns and let them do the work,

or  I use bright colors and switch them around for a whimisical approach,

and I love to tat flowers on the tops of the cuffs.

So, even though I tend to like to zip along with easy sock knitting, I still love to collect fun patterns for great socks.

My daughter recently sent me a link for 5 free sock patterns, so if you would like some more sockie patterns here’s the link for you, too:

Free Sock Patterns

Post from: Hankering for Yarn

It was the pits, and has left me feeling very worn and frazzled.

When I was sitting in the doctor’s office, I was knitting a sock. There I was, with the erky drops in my eyes so they could do the tests- feeling freaked out from all the awfullizing I had been doing over being scared sideways by the weirdness going on with my eye -  and the best way to keep myself from falling completely apart was to knit knit knit my sockie.

Photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright.

For me, sitting still, freaking out, is not a good thing, so even though I couldn’t see, I could still knit, and be comforted by the knitting.

A lady who was sitting beside me in the waiting room started chatting with me about knitting and handwork.

She had never seen self-striping yarn before, so was inspired to go out and buy some after seeing my sock.

Also, she said that her hands really hurt when she knits, so I suggested the fingerless craft gloves that give support to aching hands.

She was delighted to learn about them and those are on her shopping list now, too.

She got called in, and another lady sat down beside me.

The second lady started chatting with me about my sockies, and was also very excited about self-striping yarn.

(She’s going yarn shopping, too….)

Lady #2 told me that she’s so pleased to see a huge revival in crafting, and I agreed.

She then said that there is one craft that she doesn’t think will be revived.

Immediately, I thought… she’s going to say- tatting…..

She said that her mother-in-law had done something that she’d never seen anyone else do, an unusual thing called, tatting.

I grinned, and told her that I love tatting. She was pretty amazed.

I pulled up the cuff of my jeans, and showed her the cuff of my sock:

Photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright.

She liked the tatted flowers a lot!

Then, she asked me about an odd thing that she’d been given from her mother-in-law’s estate.

No one knew what it was, so they gave it to her.

It’s a ‘U’ shaped wire thing with a little clip on it.

Oh! That’s a hairpin lace loom! and then described how it works.

She was enchanted and said that once the eye drops had worn off, she was going to go dig it out and get started with it. She’s going to the library to take books out on hairpin lace. Neat!

Eventually, it was my turn to see the doctor and get the good and less than good news (ick on what happened in my eye, and whew that things will get better. He said ’should’, but I say ‘WILL’.  AND, I also refuse to think that it could happen again. Been there, done this, don’t intend to ever do it again.

Anyhow, they said that they are going to keep an eye on me.

Which immediately set off a series of metaphoric images for me….  I thought…

hmmmm……  ‘keeping an eye on me’…….

So, after I came home and slept for 4 hours,

I went out to the workshop, and cut some pieces of branch off a piece of discarded firewood.

I was inspired by the buttons I made with a branch from my daughter and son-in-law’s house. So, it was natural to still be thinking about using slices of upcycled branches to work with.  The photo makes it look much larger. It’s actually only 1 1/2 inches wide.

Photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright.

I drew an eye on it, and then burned it, painted it, varnished it and glued a pin back on it/

Photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright.

While I was making it, I was visualizing healing and re-generation, and all kinds of good things.

So, fingers crossed for good health for all of us!  We’ll keep an eye on that, okay?

Post from: Hankering for Yarn

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

experiment with plain, unadorned sock yarn.

Why? I had just done a trade on a handspinning list on yahoo.

My trading partner had sent me  several cones of what looked to be a very vintage blending thread: Bucilla Silk Tweed.

That’s it in the pic, sitting just above the needles.   Oooh… yummy stuff!

I have used the Bucilla Silk Tweed thread in all kinds of projects and absolutely love it.

It’s a slubby, mostly super fine strand of quite lively thread that blends beautifully with any yarn that it is held together with.

I have woven it into shawls and scarves, and all knitted all kinds of socks with it.

But, I had forgotten about my original plan for the tweeded-up wild color socks until just recently.

A week or so ago, I wrote about a pair of socks that I have just recently knitted and tatted flowers onto:

Flower top socks

Well… those socks made me remember the balls of  Sox yarn. I dug out a balls of turquoise, red and purple, and a cone of the Bucilla Silk Tweed thread:

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

The plan is to tat flowers onto the tops of these socks, as well. I am going to  use green yarn for the stemmie bits and bright yellow for the flowers.  I am sick of winter drab and am breaking out by knitting oh so colorful sockies!

I just love the silk thread so much and am sadly, running out of it.

I was wondering if there is anything in the current marketplace that is close to the Bucilla Silk Tweed?

I googled and searched  and came up blank on it.

So then, I thought… what about blending threads?

So I googled on that, and came up with Kreinik’s blending threads that are mostly meant for embroidery:

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

The Kreinik blending threads are really neat, but I don’t think I would use them in the body of a sock.

I think that I will, however, experiment to see how it looks with the tatted flower sections at the top of the socks.

I love tatting with metallic threads, so it’s worthwhile to do some sampling.

BUT…. finding something that resembles the silk tweed has totally eluded me and it remains a mystery.

Do you know if such a thing still exists and who carries it?

I bet someone out there knows!

Post from: Hankering for Yarn

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.

Post from: Hankering for Yarn

I went into Hobby Lobby the other day for some cotton dishcloth yarn. You really can’t beat the craft stores for inexpensive cotton yarn.

They were having a sale on some items and bargain-loving woman that I am, I decided to buy this yarn I’ve never tried before. I’ve used Lion Brand before and it’s a good workhorse type of yarn. I’ve never tried their sock yarn, however.

So far, so good. It’s not as luxurious as Lorna’s Laces or Claudia’s Handpainted, but it’s similar to Opal. It feels like a sturdy, dependable sort. Of course, I won’t have a full review until after my socks are done and I’ve worn them and washed them a few times, but working them on my new nickel plated needles has made for speedy and enjoyable work.

But for $8.00 for one ball — and as you can see, “one ball makes a pair” — I thought it was too good a deal to pass up.

Ever used this yarn? What do you think?

Images: © D. Sandeen

Post from: Hankering for Yarn

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!

Post from: Hankering for Yarn