There’s a Flickr group and a Ravelry group, too.

It’s all about creativity and being inspired by specific ‘triggers’.  The leaping off points for May and June are the following:

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

EAST (May/June)
Color: Yellow
Material: Wood
Season: Spring
Element: Air

We have had the longest winter ever, and a late and cold and miserable springtime.

This means that we are sadly lacking flowers outside right now.

Bless the sturdy little dandelion that braved the cold and popped up outside my window.

In order to get flowers, I have to make them myself.

Here’s a yellow wire flower pin that I made the other day on a wooden flower loom that I made so I could play with wire.

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

So, yay…. I have used the element of wood, and look… there are more yellow flowers, as well as a vintage flower loom that is yellow plastic.

And, since socks seem to be an eternal necessity in our sadly cold weather these days, it makes sense to have socks that are totally whimsical and wild and wonderful.  I love tatting flowers onto the tops of my handknitted socks so that I will always be walking close to flowers.  If I can’t walk through fields of them, I will dance with them attached to my socks!  (The link to the pattern written out is in the last sentence, and the link to the video tutorial is in the next sentence).

Yellow tatted flowers: A video  tutorial

photo and project by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

One of my most favorite recent yellow projects has been this very very simple little thread doll. She’s part of a series of little comfort dolls. (check the link for instructions on how to make them).

And, the YELLOW that I would really enjoy seeing more of these days would be sunshine, balanced with just the right amount of rain, so we could see glorious GREEN!

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photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

You can add a little embellishment to socks that you have knitted or crocheted,

like these ones that I just finished knitting.

Or, you can dress up purchased socks by stitching on purchased or crocheted or tatted

lace.

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

I tatted super simple flowers onto these socks…. it took 4 attempts to get the sock

edging right.  I found that I liked it best when I cut the self striping yarn into colorways

that made sense for the flowers.

The flowers are rings of 3 ds, p, 3 ds, p, 3 ds, p,3 ds, p,3 ds, p,3 ds, p,3 ds, p,3 ds, close.  So, I put the flower colors onto the tatting shuttle, and used the green shades as the ch of 7 ds, to make them read as the stems for the flowers.

By cutting the yarn, and paying attention to where the colors were going to be, it made the flowers read much better than when I  just let the yarn come off the ball willynilly.

Don’t be afraid to cut the yarn! Make those stripey bits work for you.

AND…. have fun tatting with sock yarn. Sock yarn is springy and bouncy and tats up just beautifully.   So….. sock yarn is not just for knitting or crocheting! Get out your tatting shuttles and tatta-tat-tat with it!

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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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Generally, you receive a pattern and yarn each month for a specific pair of socks. Some clubs require you to sign up for the year, while others go on a month-to-month plan.

I’ve yet to take part in any of these clubs, mainly because I wonder what happens if you don’t like the designated pattern that month. I love knitting socks, but I’m picky about patterns in general.

Still, I think it’s a good way to:

1. Get your sock knitting in: After paying club dues and getting the yarn and pattern, you may as well use them.

2. Foster some community: A lot of these clubs run knit-alongs and blogs and this is a way for you to get involved, ask questions, get help on patterns, etc.

3. Try new things: You’ll probably not only use some yarns you’ve never tried before, you’ll also try different techniques (a short row heel instead of a Partridge heel, round toes instead of grafted, toe up instead of leg down).

If you take part in a sock club, tell me what you like about it and if there’s anything you’d like to change.

Image: Retro Rib Socks, © D. Sandeen

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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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