I have no knitting pics today. I have started on the STR Mudslide and Stonewash socks. I’m pretty happy with how they look. I’m about 3″ into the toes. I’ll try to have a pic tomorrow.

Today, I offer this unfortunately blurry glimpse of a visitor to my butterfly bush. He was very shy. Every time I tried to snap a picture, he moved to the other side of the flower spray. So this picture was taken “on the run.” I hoped he would come back, but since then the only visitors have been the bumbles, who love the butterfly bush and the lavender that grows around it.

The Lapis socks (now renamed Tangled Up In Blue) are finished, washed and blocked. And here they are, posing on my Butterfly Bush. Click on the pic for the bigger version so you can see how weirdly fraternal these socks turned out. It’s the same yarn, but you’d hardly know that to look at it. The sock on the left has much more of the lime green color apparent, and it pooled a lot. The sock on the right has more of the turquoise blue, didn’t pool at all, and striped on the ankle. Go figure.

I don’t care. I like them in their fraternalness. If I wanted them to look the same, I wouldn’t have picked hand-dyed yarn!

One other point: If they look skinny for their length it’s because I made them to fit my feet. The pattern is written to fit people that have normal feet!

Pattern: My own, available on the Freebies page or here

The Particulars:

• Yarn: Blue Moon Sock Candy, colorway: Lapis, most of two skeins
• Needles: Inox gray, US#2 (2.75mm)
• knit toe-up, two at a time
• Magic Cast-On
• Picot edging
• drop-stitch lace stitch pattern on ankle
• flap & gusset heel with slipped-stitch heel pattern

I am not a pink person. I’m just not. I can look at pink objects and see how others — you know who you are — would like them. I’ve been known to knit pink objects for friends who are pinkaholics. But I’m just not a pink person myself.

That rule very nearly went out the window today as I, for the bazillionth time, lusted after admired the Socks That Rock in colorway Mist. I picked it up from Tangle’s window this afternoon and fondled it. There’s something about pink and brown together that I really do like. Pink and brown and raspberry and…

And I set the yarn down, backed carefully away, and sat down on the other side of the store to finish the last few rows of the Lapis socks.

I know what you’re thinking. That yarn in the picture was too strong for me and I was forced to buy it and bring it home. Not true! I was saved by the good graces of Lori Rode. Those two skeins went home with her. But isn’t it beautiful? I had to share a picture so you could see why a non-pink person would be so temped!

Yeah, yeah… I know. I have such a dearth of sock yarn. But that doesn’t mean I don’t hear it calling to me…

Sarah Elizabeth asks:

That yarn is BEAUTIFUL, what is it?

Hi, Sarah Elizabeth. The yarn is Blue Moon Fiber Arts Sock Candy in colorway Lapis. It’s the cotton cousin to Socks That Rock. The colors are a lot better in person. I’ll try to get better pics with the finished socks.

I’m known as jabecker on Extreme Tech, but I rarely post there any more.

Adriana opines:

I LOVE those socks! I can’t wait until you post the pattern. I think I’ll do the foot of my sock in 2×2 rib so hopefully I’ll get to the leg around when you post the pattern (no pressure though 😆 )

Thank you, Adriana! The socks are finished, and blocking even as we speak. I plan to have the pattern up tomorrow. Or at least within the next few days. If you start with the 2×2 rib, you should be fine. Just make sure that the total number of stitches is evenly divisible by 8.

Kristie asks:

I love your magic cast-on, but I’m unable to figure out how far up my foot to knit before I start the heel section. I’ve only knit 3 pairs of socks though (I’m a self-taught knitter).

I’m also knitting a pair of socks from Blue Moon Fiber Arts. It has got to be some of the most beautifully dyed yarn I’ve ever seen.

Also, who made your sock forms? I’d love to get some for blocking since I’ve finally decided I like making socks.

Hi, Kristie! If you are knitting a traditional flap-and-gusset heel toe-up, my rule of thumb is that when you are finished with the gusset increases and are ready to turn the heel the sock should be long enough to reach about the back of your ankle bones. To know when to start the gusset increases, measure your row gauge on the foot, figure out the length of the gusset increases, and subtract that from the toe-to-ankle bone measurement. For example, let’s say the length of your foot from toe to the back of your ankle bone is 8″, you are knitting 12 rows/inch, and the pattern calls for 16 gusset rows (that’s 8 increases on each side, worked every other row). The gussets will be about 1-1/3″ long (16 rows divided by 12 rows/inch). So you should start the gussets when your sock is about 6-2/3″ long (8″ minus the length of the gussets). If you finish the gusset increases and the sock is still too short, you can always knit a few extra rows and it won’t look weird.

My sock blockers are made by Fibertrends. I purchased them at a local yarn shop. You can also make some pretty nifty ones out of wire coat hangers. I don’t have the link for it handy, but if you google sock blockers you should find it.

Good on you for being a self-taught knitter! That’s very cool. Have you been knitting long?

A new knitter in the form of a teenager was born today at Tangle. That’s always so fun to watch! Such enthusiasm!

I have a new pair of socks on the needles now. I’m combining STR in Stonewash (a faded denim blue) and Mudslide (shades of brown). I will post a pic when they get further along.

The Lapis socks have finally been rescued from the knitting black hole they were in, and I’m actually making progress. And here’s a couple of pics to prove it.

The pattern is the same as the one I used on the red Fixation socks (that I still need to get a page up for and get added into the FO gallery). It’s a little harder to see the stitch pattern on the Sock Candy because of all of the colors. But I think it’s going to be obvious enough.

I’ve stretched one of the socks on a blocker so that it looks a little more like a sock and a little less like a crumpled mass of ribbing. When they’re finished, I’ll take a side-by-side shot so you can see how fraternal they’ve remained. You can see that the one on the blocker pooled at the instep. The other one didn’t pool at all. Until now. It’s pooling on the ankle. Go figure.

This is a close-up of the dropped-stitch rib pattern. I’ve worked one pattern repeat and have three to go. I really like this stitch. It’s fast to work, and it’s always fun to get to drop stitches on purpose! I really like the way that the heel turns out on these, too. It’s a slip-stitch heel masquerading as 2×2 ribbing. I promise to have this pattern up in the Freebies section just as soon as I get these finished and have pics.

I’m so glad to have these out of the black hole! I don’t know how other knitters feel when working socks. But, for me the toe is really fast, and the foot is a slog. The foot just goes on and on and on interminably until I want to stab knitting needles through my head. I have to knit about a million rounds to get 1/2″ of progress.

Then I finally reach the start of the gusset increases, and the black hole is left behind. Heels don’t take any time to turn. And the ankles and cuffs are really fast. And suddenly I have a pair of socks without hardly any effort!

All projects seem to have a place where this happens. With sweaters, the black hole shows up when I’m knitting the back. With bags, it’s the last inch or so. Scarves… well, it shows up when I cast on and it goes away when I bind off. I’m just not a scarf person, but I greatly admire those of you who are! Lace I can knit for a long time and not hit the black hole.

Is there a place in your knitting where your project falls into the black hole? What do you do to rescue it?

I’ve had several emails from readers who tried to post a comment only to be redirected to the FBI’s web site. Some have wondered what interest the FBI could possibly have in comments left on a knitting blog.

Ahem… I am not in league with any nefarious parties. Nor is any agency, as far as I know, keeping track of who may be hanging around here and commenting.

It’s the anti-spam utility I use to keep the blog spammers at bay. It redirects commenters that it decides are spammer right to the home of the FBI, where it is to be hoped that they might see the error of their ways.

But nice, ordinary readers who just want to leave nice knitterly comments should be able to!

As far as I know I haven’t made any changes. But for some reason the spam checker has decided to clamp down. I’ve loosened things up a bit — hopefully not so much that the spam gates have opened.

Please try to comment on this post. If you have problems, email me at (just click on that link if you want) and I’ll try tweaking it again until I get it right. Believe me, I have no desire to keep anyone from posting a comment (unless they’re a spammer)! If necessary, I’ll look for an alternate spam-blocking method.

Danielle asks if I have a favorite bind-off for a 2×2 ribbed sock.

On socks for women, I like to use a picot bind-off (cast on 2, bind off 4, repeat). It’s very stretchy, and cute besides! For some reason many men are a little squeamish about having a picot edging on their socks! 😉 So when knitting socks for men, I usually use Elizabeth Zimmerman’s sewn bind-off, or a single-crochet bind-off. I also like the purl or lace bind-off.

Unless the pattern calls for 2×2 ribbing, though, I usually do a 1×1 rib and a Kitchener bind-off.

Susanne points out that there’s a bit more errata in the Magic Cast-On instructions:

On the bottom of Page 3 on “Row 2: K all stitches on both needles (no decreases).” I think you mean no INCREASES as we have just cast on.

Susanne, you are so right! Good catch! I have fixed the on-line instructions and the PDF document, and I’ve added it to the Knitty article errata.

Like me, it’s a work in progress! 😉

Happy Birthday to you

Happy Birthday to you

Happy Birthday dear #1 Son

Happy Birthday to you

Welcome to the adult world. I am so proud of the man you have become that I can hardly stand it. And, although I know that some might find this hard to believe, words fail me.