Void Socks - Finished!

I finished these up this past weekend.  I ended up having 3 joins in my second sock due to damage from carpet beetles.  I am very thankful there wasn’t more.  I am pretty pleased with the fit, although I think I could have started with fewer stitches on the cuff to make them just a wee bit more snug.

I do have several sock patterns to choose from for my next sock project, but my knitting mojo seems a bit low right now, so I think I will concentrate on finishing up some WIPs.

Pattern:  The Void Socks by Melanie Gibbons

Yarn:  madelinetosh Tosh Sock in Logwood

Needle:  US 1 (2.25 mm)

Void Socks - One Sock Done!

I finished up the first sock Tuesday, so less than one week to finish.  I am already working the gusset decreases on the second sock, so that one will be finished soon.  Knowing that I will soon have these finished I went looking for another sock project to cast on.  Over the years I have joined several sock clubs.  I have a nice series of socks based upon the Chronicles of Narnia, so I will probably be working through those next.  I did dig out an in progress sock that I had cast on just over a decade ago.  I had unearthed it when I was cataloging and organizing my yarn, and putting it up in nice plastic containers, and had set it aside.  I knew that there were issues with it as I saw evidence of carpet beetle activity.  It has been stored in a thin cotton bag.  I finally took it out last night to evaluate the damage.

Yeah, I think that skein is pretty much a total loss.  There are a few larger balls, but nothing big enough to knit a sock, and I really don’t like having joins in a sock.  I already have two joins in my second Void Sock, one because there was a knot, and one because of a thin spot where a carpet beetle had been at work.  There were actually a couple of thin spots, one I discovered very early in the winding, one I discovered just as I started the heel (I had just joined the second ball, so I tinked back and started again), and one that I discovered this morning as I was starting to work the gusset decreases.  Both joins are in spots that are not going to have much impact, thankfully.  I am hoping that I don’t find any more thin spots and that I rescued that skein in time, unlike this one.  I will be stash diving for a replacement skein, fortunately I have a lot of sock yarn in my stash.  The sock pattern is Danube by Janel Laidman.  She was a very talented designer that has pretty much vanished from the knitting scene - based on the lack of activity in her group on Ravelry.  I have some other sock kits from her that may have met a similar fate.  I have them in a plastic bag and one of these days I’ll muster the courage to evaluate the damage.

In the mean time, back to my Void Socks.  When I get to this point I really just want to keep going until I finish.

Pattern:  The Void Socks by Melanie Gibbons

Yarn:  Madelinetosh Tosh Sock in Logwood

Needle:  US 1 (2.25 mm)

 

Void Socks - Cast On!

As soon as I finished the Celestial socks I caked up the yarn for the Void socks and cast on.  I did find a knot in the skein, which is annoying, as the larger of the two cakes I ended up with is not enough to make two complete socks, and the smaller of the two cakes is not enough for one complete sock, so one sock will have a join in it.

I started out with 80 stitches, same as I did for the Celestial Socks, and just worked the extra stitches into the pattern.

I also decreased every 12 rows, during the pattern section, and ended up working 64 rows (16 repeats) of the pattern before I started the heel flap.  I worked the decreases with the first and last two stitches on each needle as that seemed to be the least disruptive to the pattern.  I also am doing a right twist instead of a left twist as the pattern calls for.  The right twist is easier to work - no trying to work into the back of that second stitch - and somehow I don’t think the orientation really matters.

Pattern:  The Void Socks by Melanie Gibbons 

Yarn:  Madelinetosh Tosh Socks in Logwood

Needle:  US 1 (2.25 mm)

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 - 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)