Floret Socks - Done!

This morning I finally finished up my second Floret sock.  I finished up the patterned part of the foot last night, and just had the toe to do this morning.  Even with my new right eye I had some challenges with the grafting of the toe when I got to the snugging up the graft.  I had to resort to my crafting glasses to get enough close up acuity to grab the correct stitch legs. Despite the fact that the prescription is off at this point, it was enough to get me what I needed.  The mono vision works fine for day to day stuff around the house, but I’m going to want glasses that enable me to bring both of my eyes to bear on some tasks.  I have an appointment with an optometrist the first week of February.

I would have finished these socks earlier this week except that I got distracted by an excellent book - No Man’s Land by Sarah A. Hoyt.  It is a single book published in three volumes and I pretty much devoured all three volumes in three days.  I didn’t do much else but read, no knitting, no spinning, no piano playing, just reading.  It has been a while since I have found a book that engaged me that much.  There is more in the series to come, and I’m looking forward to that.

Pattern:  Floret by Makenzie Alvarez

Yarn:  Expression Fiber Arts Resilient Sock

Needle:  US 1.5 (2.5 mm)

Floret Sock - Second Sock Heel Done!

I worked the heel and gusset on Sunday, now I am working the foot, just four and a half repeats of the motif to go before I do to the toe shaping.  I’m still adjusting to my new eyes, and they are still settling, but they are working pretty well for me.

Pattern:  Floret by Makenzie Alvarez

Yarn:  Expression Fiber Arts Resilient Sock

Needle:  US 1.5 (2.5 mm)

Floret Sock - Second Sock Leg Done!

My new right eye is working quite well, and I was able to finish the leg of the second sock, working on it yesterday and today.  I haven’t worked on this project since the day before my first surgery (on the left eye).  Prior to my surgery, I had been using bifocal crafting glasses, that had the near field set for where I hold my knitting, and the top part set for watching TV, but when I used them my IPad would not be in focus unless I leaned forward to peer at it, which made using knitCompanion annoying.  Now I can see my knitting, and my IPad, and watch TV, without glasses, and without having to move closer to anything.  It really is nice.  I’m still getting used to things, but so far, so good.  On to the heel!  And that black blob with a tail to the right of my foot is my cat Jezebel, she finds my knitting needles fascinating.

Pattern:  Floret by Makenzie Alvarez

Yarn:  Expression Fiber Arts Resilient Sock

Needle:  US 1.5 (2.5 mm)

Floret Socks - One Sock Done and Second Sock Cast On!

After finishing up my Acorn Sweater I quickly finished up the first sock Sunday evening.  I immediately cast on the second sock and am about half-way done with the leg.  The fit of the first sock is perfect and I am very pleased with it.

Pattern:  Floret by Makenzie Alvarez

Yarn:  Experssion Fiber Arts Resilient Sock

Needle:  US 1.5 (2.5 mm)

Floret Socks - Heel Turned and Gusset Done!

I do always enjoy turning the heel on my socks.  It still seems like magic.  At this point the heel is turned, the gusset stitches picked up and all the gusset decreases done, so now I just knit the foot, with patterning on the top and stockinette on the bottom until it is long enough to start the toe decreases.

Pattern:  Floret by Makenzie Alvarez

Yarn:  Expression Fiber Arts Resilient Sock

Needle:  US 1.5 (2.5 mm)

Floret Socks - One Leg Done!

Even with all the other knitting going on, I have not been completely neglecting my Floret Socks.  These are mostly podcast knitting, when I don’t need to be paying close attention to something on TV.  The dark yarn can be a bit of a challenge at times, but that is what good lighting is for.  Overall I am very happy with how these socks are turning out.  Here is a picture of the patterning.

That repeating motif will continue all the way down the foot to the toe.

Pattern:  Floret by Makenzie Alvarez

Yarn:  Expression Fiber Arts Resilient Sock

Needle: US 1.5 (2.5 mm)

 

Floret Socks - Cast On!

So yesterday I cast on the Floret Socks by Makenzie Alvarez.  This is the first pattern of this designer that I have knitted, but she has some really beautiful patterns in her Ravelry store.  I am through the ribbed cuff and a few rounds in to the chart.  The pattern is well written.  This skein is one of the Spring’s Promise trio.  The yarn might be a little dark for the patterning, but I’m good with it, even if it is a bit challenging to the old eyeballs.

Pattern:  Floret by Makenzie Alvarez

Yarn:  Expression Fiber Arts Resilient Sock

Needle:  US 1.5 (2.5 mm)

Moderne Socks - Finished!

I finished up my Moderne Socks yesterday morning while watching the rest of the Fleece & Harmony wool cast, and the latest John Arbon Textiles vlog, and then random classical guitar and lute videos.  This is it for the Janel Laidman sock patterns.  I do have one more skein of club yarn, but I think I will use it for  a Cookie A sock pattern instead.  I looked at the Janel Laidman pattern that it was intended for and it just didn’t excite me at all.  This skein of Expression Fiber Arts came as part of a trio called Spring’s Promise and when I was putting the remnants of this skein back in the box I pulled out the other two skeins and decided that they really need to become socks, so I caked them up and went pattern searching and found patterns, that were already in my library, for both.  So even though Socktober is over, I will continue with the sock knitting.

Pattern:  Moderne by Janel Laidman

Yarn:  Expression Fiber Arts Resilient Sock

Needle:  US 1.5 (2.5 mm)

Moderne Sock - Second Sock - Heel Turned!

And here is proof that I have not forgotten the second Moderne Sock.  I did actually cast on pretty much as soon as I had finished the first sock, and I’ve completed the leg and turned the heel and am working the foot.  I have just started the gusset decreases, which are all on the top of the foot.  Now that I have the Tahari Tank through all the interesting parts I can turn my attention back to this project and get it finished up so I can start the last Janel Laidman sock club sock in my stash.

Pattern:  Moderne by Janel Laidman

Yarn:  Expression Fiber Arts Resilient Sock

Needle:  US 1.5 (2.5 mm)

Moderne Socks - One Sock Done!

I finished up the first sock last night, but it was not without some challenges.  There is a chart for the toe, and you have to pick the right spot to start it.  I had seen comments on project pages about the fit of the toe so I was a bit concerned about starting that last chart in the “right” spot.  My first attempt started the chart too early, and I ended up with too much toe left at the end of the chart.  No problem, I thought, I can just work a few more rows and decreases and it will be fine.  Well, it wasn’t fine, for a couple of reasons.

Yeah, no toe should look like that.  And it doesn’t work any better on a foot.

At this point it was time to exercise, so I put it back in the project bag and went downstairs for my daily workout.  While exercising I pondered my next move and decided to just rip back and try again, which I did, at which point I noticed another mistake that I had made way back when I started working the gusset.

See that column of purl 1, knit 2, purl 1 near the bottom of the foot?  Yeah, it shouldn’t be there.  That should just be knit.  Don’t ask, I don’t understand how I messed it up, but I did.  So, I dropped down those columns of purl stitches (they are on both sides of the foot) and picked them back up as knit stitches.  Pretty easy, really.  And then I got back to that toe.  I worked a few more rounds before starting the final chart and everything was going great until I decided to check my stitch counts and discovered that I had one less stitch on the top of the foot than I was supposed to have.  I checked my knitting and discovered that I had done an extra decrease way earlier in the chart.  I thought about it for a few minutes and decided I was not going to go back and fix that one as I had already ripped back once.  I just did an extra decrease on the same side on the bottom of the foot and called it good.  I’ll repeat the mistake on the other sock, but do it on other side so that whichever way I put them on both mistakes will either be on the inside or the outside of my foot.  Now I will go cast on sock two.

Pattern:  Moderne by Janel Laidman

Yarn:  Expression Fiber Arts Resilient Sock

Needle:  US 1.5 (2.5 mm)

Moderne Socks - One Leg Done!

I have been making good progress on my Moderne Sock, completing the leg of the first sock yesterday afternoon.  I like the patterning, Janel could design really cool socks, and I’m glad that I did the twisted knit stitches in chart one instead of regular knit stitches.  I do think it looks better.  There was an error in this pattern as well when it came to shifting the stitches prior to working the heel flap to center the design so that it continues onto the top of the foot correctly.  Fortunately another knitter had already noted the issue, and it wasn’t hard to figure it out just from looking at the charts.  I am also really enjoying the yarn.  This is the first time I have actually knit with Expression Fiber Arts Resilient Sock, although I have used some of their other yarns.  I love the colors, especially that yellow spiral going around the leg.

Pattern:  Moderne by Janel Laidman

Yarn:  Expression Fiber Arts Resilient Sock

Needle:  US 1.5 (2.5 mm)

Moderne Socks - Cast On!

I finished up the Sylvan Socks yesterday afternoon, so last night I cast on the last of the Art & Sole Sock Club sock patterns - Moderne.  The original club yarn was destroyed by carpet beetles, and all that I have left is the yarn label.

The yarn is discontinued, and I had no luck in finding a replacement, so I went to the Yarn Substitution website and found a substitution.  The very first yarn listed as a possible substitute, with a 99% match, was Expression Fiber Arts Resilient Sock.  Now I have a fair bit of Expression Fiber Arts yarn in my stash, including several skeins of Resilient Sock.  So I did a quick search on my Stash page and came up with the skein above.  It is even orange (the original color was Slice of Orange).  I do not know the color name for this skein as it came as part of a trio called Spring’s Promise, and the original bag it came in is gone.  I am making a modification to the pattern - the first chart is a lot of purls and knits that are forming a sort of broken rib, which then flows into Chart 2 which has twisted rib (knit through the back loop, purl) and it just seemed odd to me that I was not knitting those stitches in Chart 1 through the back loop, so I decided to make that change.

Pattern:  Moderne by Janel Laidman

Yarn:  Expression Fiber Arts Resilient Sock

Needle:  US 1.5 (2.5 mm)