Celestial Socks - Done!

While the first sock took a very long time to complete (about 20 months), the second sock only took me three days.  I will confess that I did not actually count the stitches that I picked up along the side of the gusset, I just decreased until I was back to 34 stitches for that needle.  I did use a row counter to keep track of how many rows I knit on the first sock so that I could match with the second, but I also counted the repeats of the pattern on the top of the foot, because sometimes I just forgot to click the row counter.  I decreased every other round for the toes until I had 12 stitches left (the pattern had you decrease every other row, and then every row, until 4 stitches remained) and then grafted to close up the hole.  I am well pleased with the fit.

Pattern:  Celestial Socks by Melanie Gibbons

Yarn:  1 Akasha Zeropoint Colorworks SW, N Quasi-Solido Sock

Needle:  US 1 (2.25 mm)

Celestial Socks - One Sock Done!

I started this sock back in February of 2021 - February 15, 2021 - according to the project page.  The pattern has only one size, and I had not gotten very far on the cuff before I realized that the size was simply too small for me.  I could barely fit the cuff around my ankle.  I put the project in time out while I worked on and finished some other things (36 other things, to be exact) and pondered how I wanted to approach this problem.  I considered changing the pattern to work toe up instead of cuff down, as then I would be able to adjust the pattern on the fly, but I really just did not feel like making that big of a modification.  Finally, this past Monday I was looking around for something to knit and I thought I would pull this one back out of the WIP pile.  I decided to take some measurements of my ankle and calf and just cast on more stitches at the start.

I quickly determined that I needed a 10” circumference at the top of the sock and an 8.5” circumference at my ankle.  I also decided that the length of the cuff for that stretch of my leg needed to be 4 repeats of the pattern, plus the 12 rows of the ribbing.  But now I had to decide what to do about the patterning.  Did I expand the patterning to fill up those extra 16 stitches?  Create some cable pattern that would transform into the original cable?  Expand the panel of star stitches?  In the end I decided on simple.  Both the cable and the star stitch are a bit of a pain to work in this sock yarn, and I decided I just didn’t want the extra hassle, so I just filled in those stitches with extra stockinette.  I did chart the pattern with the decreases, just to make it easier for me to work.  After I finished the decreases I worked an additional repeat before I started the heel flap.

My modifications resulted in 34 stitches per needle when I reached the cuff, as opposed to 32, but the modifications to the heel and gusset were straight forward.  I did work 34 rows for the heel flap, instead of 32, and decreased back down to 34 stitches when working the gusset.  I stopped the toe decreases when I had 12 stitches on each of my needles and Kitchener stitched them closed.

I am pretty well pleased with the fit.  Looking back in my projects on Ravelry, the last time I knit socks was back in 2017, but I wore a pair of my hand knit socks two weeks ago when we were going out to dinner with friends and family and remembered just how nice they are to wear.

Pattern:  Celestial Socks by Melanie Gibbons

Yarn:  1 Akasha Zeropoint Colorworks SW, N Quasi-Solido Sock

Needle:  US 1 (2.25 mm)

 

Celestial Socks - Cast On

 

This pattern has been sitting on my sewing table for ages, an old fashioned print out, and the yarn is the very first item on my stash page and has been taunting me to knit it up.  I haven’t knit socks in ages, so I thought I would cake it up and cast on.  I considered learning two-at-a-time, but I thought I should get back into the sock knitting groove before I tackled that.  When I pulled the pattern out of the protective sleeve I discovered there were actually two patterns - the Celestial Socks and the Void Socks.  Turns out I have the yarn for the Void Socks as well, so I dug that out of my stash.  Then I had to track down my 2.25 mm needles.  According to my Needle Inventory on Ravelry I had several sets.  I checked my project page and discovered that the ones that I wanted were being used in my Pippi Short Stockings - a basic sock I was knitting out of left overs from a Blue Moon Fiber Arts Rocking Sock Club.  I hadn’t worked on that one since 2017, so I frogged the half of a foot I had knit up, and tucked the yarn into a zip-lock bag to keep it safe.

Pattern:  Celestial Socks by Melanie Gibbons

Yarn:  SW, N Quasi-Solido

Needle:  US 1 (2.25 mm)