Seeing as Clessidra is off the needles, I had to find a new sock to knit. Or two perhaps. I always have a plain stockinette sock going for those times that I just can’t concentrate on anything else. Now is no exception. I started a sock during my last sock class, but realized that it wasn’t going to be enough stitches for the intended recipient. So I ripped out and restarted and can now count this toward my SOS totals:

The first sock is done already as you can see. It is resting with our homemade mojitos (recipe courtesy of Cookie) that were whipped up this weekend. I can’t remember who it was, but whomever warned me that our mint plant would totally take over, you were right! The drinks were an attempt to quell the beast!

The sock is being knit in Austerman Step yarn, the one with the jojoba oil in it. I definitely feel the difference and hope the recipient does too. This sock and it’s mate have been knit mostly while reading this:

I’m a bit behind the rest of the world, but thanks to Juno’s generous loan, I managed to catch up this weekend. No spoilers here in case I’m not the only one a bit behind, but I will say that it was definitely a well crafted ending. And I’m finding myself at a bit of a loss to think that there won’t be another book about Harry and the gang’s adventures to keep me company on many long train rides.

You’ll also see next to it that there is another sock in the making. I can’t read while doing colorwork so it’s been going a bit slower. This is the Red Herring pattern from knitty. I apparently had another insatiable craving for colorwork that could not be ignored. I’m actually using the called for Tess yarns, which I picked up at Maryland this year and I can already say, I’m in love! The yarn is soft, squishy and beautifully dyed. What’s not to love? HWJF and I are going to Maine next weekend and we may be going to the shop to procure some more if possible.

You might also notice something a bit shocking there. I’m doing a sock cuff down! Alert the media!

Sometimes, you just don’t want to use the brain enough to mess with the pattern.

I’ve been doing plenty of spinning lately too, but let’s save that for next time.

Clessidra – Summer of Socks #3

Pattern: Clessidra from Knitty.com

Yarn: Regia Silk – 2 balls

Needles: Size 1 addi lace

Knit: 7/6-7/31/2007

Mods: I made these toe up with a flap heel and significantly shorter than knee-high. You can read about the modifications I made here and here.

It hasn’t taken me this long to knit a pair of socks in quite a while, but it was well worth it. I love the look of this pattern. While the miles of seed stitch were a little trying at times, the look of the texture, especially in the lovely Regia Silk yarn, I think is really beautiful. I’m really glad I took the time and went through the trouble of converting this pattern to toe up. I was able to make these more than long enough to suit me while using the yarn until it was almost completely gone. That alone was satisfying! If I were to knit these like this again I think I would put the big cable down the front of the leg instead of the back. I really felt like I didn’t get to do that patterning as much as I would have liked and while I still love these, I think it might be even more striking at this length with the pattern down the front.

I rarely knit with silk yarns. My Tweed Pullover is my first time working with a silk blend and these socks are the second. I think I may now be officially spoiled! These feel incredibly good on my feet and even though they are fairly thin, I think they’re going to be quite warm. A quick try-on in my air conditioned apartment (not to mention the photo shoot outside in 90 degree weather) proved that! The yarn was great to work with and I’ll be very interested to see if the silk content has any effect on how long they wear. I also am quite impressed with the yardage per ball. Despite all the patterning in these socks and my size 11 feet, I was able to get a very good sized sock out of one ball for each foot. Every time I thought I was going to run out of yarn, I just kept knitting and the yarn kept coming! Always a good thing for those of us with huge ample feet.

Overall, I’m quite happy! Were I not on a mission to knit patterns that I haven’t tried before, I would totally do these again. And should I come across more Regia Silk in a must-have colorway, it may very well be going home with me.

Clessidra has been progressing and doing a bit of traveling around with me lately. She got to meet Ben Franklin when HWJF’s parents were here:

It took a bit of figuring, but I managed to get past the heel turn and got up to the point where I had to increase in preparation for the big cable in the back of the leg.

You can see the increases just above the orange marker. Figuring out the stitch count here wasn’t easy. I kept going back and forth to the pattern and the pictures on the web (I never print the pictures when I copy something off of knitty to save paper. This time, I wish I had!) trying to figure out just where I had to go with this next. Once the stitch count was figured out, putting the pattern into the right place was also a bit of a challenge. In hindsight, I probably should have worked those increases into the seed stitch pattern, but I think I’ll probably be the only one to notice.

Once the pattern placement was done it was pretty much smooth sailing until I got to the point where it was time to finish off the sock. The big cables were just not going to flow into the ribbing nicely no matter where I increased or decreased to force them to do my bidding. I think we all know who is in charge with these types of things sometimes! The sock, not me! This was of course, caused by my need to do them toe up instead of top down, but we just won’t talk about that. I decided that the solution would be some kind of frame around the big cable in the back.

Click to bigify.

I think it kind of works. I’m well on to the second sock already and should have a finished object post for you on Friday. And you remember how I bought an extra skein of the yarn because I wouldn’t have enough for one sock. Yeah. Didn’t need it.

Anyone want a lone skein of Regia silk?