Socks. They're Just Socks

I finished my Pink Gym Socks!  These are the Broken Rope socks from Summer Lee's Hello Sailor pattern set.  I did a variation on the gym sock stripe in the pattern.  They are knit in Potions and Purls Luna Sock in Keeper of My Heart and the accent color was included as a mini skein.  I think I probably could have gotten heels out of the accent skein as well as the stripe and toes, but I wasn't brave enough to try.  The pattern was straight forward and well written, and the stitch pattern was easy to memorize so I could knit them on auto pilot.  This stitch pattern could easily work for men's socks, either with or without the stripes.  I could see the stripes done in school colors, favorite team colors, or even Hogwarts house colors.   

One Down, the Second Started

I've finished my first Broken Rope Sock (AKA Racing Socks for watching F1).  I've started the second sock, but there's a bit of an issue.  A normal racing season begins in early March and ends in early December.  The month of August is taken off as a midseason break, but throughout the season there are occasional one or two weekends off.  Partly these are logistical because the season is all over the world and shipping takes time, and partly this is for the sanity of those who are part of this circus.  24 races a year, in every corner of the globe, has got to be exhausting.

I had planned to just knit socks through the 2026 season, ignoring the weekends off, just making sure that I had socks to knit on Qualifying and Race days.  However, due to the situation in the Middle East, the Bahrain Grand Prix and the Saudi Arabia Grand Prix have been canceled.  I completely understand the reasoning behind this and I think it was probably the right call (not that anyone really cares what the Pink Lemon thinks).  What this means though is that we have the Japanese Grand Prix this weekend at Suzuka, and then nothing until the first weekend in May for the Miami Grand Prix.  There's no racing at all in April.

So, are these Racing Socks?  If I set them aside for a month and didn't mess with them, they could be, but I don't plan to do that.  I plan to keep them for knitting when I need a small, portable project, but I feel like they won't be racing socks anymore.  I feel like they just became socks.  Not that that's a bad thing, to be just socks.  Most socks go through their entire existence just being socks, but these socks were cast on with the promise of being something more.  It's tough being a sock sometimes!

Racing Socks

I've made it past the heel flap and heel turn, and I've begun the foot of my first 2026 racing socks!  (These are socks I knit while watching F1 racing, the pattern is Broken Rope from Summer Lee in her Hello Sailor Sock collection.)  I would have been farther but I made an error on the leg and ended up undoing about 20 rounds of work.  It's a simple stitch pattern, but when you make a mistake, that simple stitch pattern makes it glaringly obvious.  Once I redid the leg and knit the heel flap, I messed up the heel turn (I've only done hundreds of those in my lifetime), and had to redo that.  I blame the good racing action!  There's no racing this weekend, so I plan to try to finish my Austin Hoodie. 

Still Life With Sock and Dog Toy

This is my racing sock - as in, I knit it during Formula 1 practice, qualifying, racing.  It's a simple sock that I don't have to look at while I knit it, but it gives my hands something to fidget with as I watch Kimi Antonelli wreck his car at the end of Practice 3, less than three hours from Qualifying. (So as not to leave you on a cliff hanger, I will tell you that he was fine, and they not only got his car put back together for Qualifying, but he qualified in P2, and went on to finish the race in second place!) 

The sock pattern is Broken Rope from the Hello Sailor Sock set by Summer Lee.  I worked a slight variation of the Gym Sock Stripe pattern - mainly, I added a third stripe and I only changed colors on odd numbered rounds so that there wouldn't be purl bumps showing.  The yarn is Potions and Purls Luna sock in Keeper of My Heart.  The accent color was included with the skein for cuffs/heels/toes/whatever.  I have used it for the stripes, and will probably also use it for the toe.

The dog toy is one of Obi's favorites - it's a Holee Roller.  Our house is covered in them in various sizes.  The smallest size is a great ball for fetch because he can breathe through it when he's running around like a lunatic, and the largest size is great for tug of war, general chewing, and sometimes it serves as a dog pillow.  Our first Holee Roller lasted nine months, with much of that being through his puppy teeth/furry land shark stage, and we were so impressed we've just kept ordering them for him.  The oldest one we currently have is over two years old.  No affiliation with the company, but just a very happy dog mom.

Let's Try This Again

I see that I haven't blogged since July of 2025!  I had no idea it had been that long ago!  I vaguely thought my last blog post was sometime this past fall, but apparently not.

I don't think I have it in me to go through absolutely everything I've made since July, but I think in an effort to start somewhere, anywhere, I will quickly sum up last year's makes.

• I crocheted one cardigan.
• I knitted two shawls (Technically one of those was begun in 2024 and finished in 2025, but that meant it was put in the 2025 list of finished things so I'm counting it here.  My list, my rules.) 
• I finished a knitted pullover that was also started in 2024. 
• I knitted nine pairs of socks. 
• I sewed eight tops.
• I sewed two skirts.

Here is a photo of the very last socks I finished this past year, just to make the post a little more interesting:

These are the Hermione's Everyday Sock pattern, knit in Potions and Purls Luna Sock in the Gingerbread Cookie colorway.  If you've never knit this pattern before, I highly recommend it for a simple, easily memorized design, perfect for sock knitting in public or while watching TV.  I've found I need this type of pattern (easy to memorize and knit on autopilot) to watch Texas A&M football and Formula 1 racing. 

We are currently out of season for both sports right now, so while I have a new pair of socks on the needles (I'll show you current projects in future blog posts), I'm mainly focused on finishing some Works in Progress right now.

We'll talk about those later, but I hope everyone had a lovely holiday season and new year, and I'm hoping to get back to more regular blogging as we move forward! 

Finished Socks

I finished my Old Sweatshirt Socks!  I actually finished them over a week ago, but last week Caleb graduated from Texas A&M!  We are so proud of him!

These socks are the second time I've knit this pattern. I love the slouchy legs and fitted foot of the finished socks, but the knitting is fun too.  It's a simple enough stitch pattern that a busy yarn can shine and just a good, basic ribbed sock.  The pattern does come in different sizes so it can be used for different sized feet without having to do a bunch of maths.  The only downside is that it eats yarn.  Lots of yarn!  I skipped one of the leg repeats and still ended up needing a couple of yards of another yarn to finish the second toe.

I will probably knit these again at some point, but maybe I should just plan on an accent color for heels and toes!

New Socks

A couple of years ago I did The Handmade Sock Society from Helen Stewart.  Running from May to October there was a new sock pattern released at the first of each month.  I'm going to do it again this year and the first sock pattern will be available Thursday, May 1!  In the meantime though, I had no socks on the needles so I started a pair that I'm hoping will work up quickly.  

These are the Old Sweatshirt Socks and I've knit them before and really like the fit of the finished sock.  I'm knitting them in Becoming Art Cielo Fingering in the Love Bird Colorway.  These socks have a normal fitting cuff which increases into a slouchy, relaxed leg, and then decreases back to a snug fit at the ankle and a normal fitting foot.  This makes them wearable in shoes, but they're also perfect for lazing around the house or sleeping in as well (just like an Old Sweatshirt).  The pattern calls for four repeats of the stitch pattern in the leg, but like I did in my first pair, I'm only working three.  This sock pattern uses a lot of yarn (slouchy comes at a price) and apparently some people were running out of yarn.  I had seen a few projects that worked only three repeats, and there were no notes about running out of yarn.

I'm actually a little farther along than this picture - I finished the first sock yesterday and have cast on for the second sock now, but it's too overcast and dark to get a good photo.   I don't know that I'll finish the second sock by Thursday morning, but I should be done by this weekend and then I'll be ready to start the new sock designs!

Let's Talk About Socks!

I've knit two pairs of socks so far this year, so I thought this morning I'd show them to you!  They're both socks knit from the top cuff down in fingering weight yarn, but that's where the similarities end.

The first pair is the I Heart Harvest Socks.  I knit them in Malabrigo Ultimate Sock in the Sabiduria colorway.  This is a ribbed sock and the gusset is on the top of the sock instead of the lower sides by the heel flap.  The ribs accentuate the shaping and fine tune the fit.  The finished socks are a little more interesting than a standard ribbed sock, and would be great for gifts because the ribs give you more leeway size wise.  

The pattern comes in multiple sizes, so as long as you're in the ballpark, the ribbing will adjust to the actual foot size of the wearer.  The knitting itself is straight forward, and while I did slow down a bit at the heel turn and setting up the gusset, once I understood how the pattern worked I was knitting along quickly again.  The second sock went faster through this section.  I love the finished socks.  There's enough design wise to make them interesting to knit and wear, but not so much that I would hesitate to knit a pair for Mickael or Caleb (they both prefer simple sock styles).  I will definitely be making more of these!

The second pair of socks is the Feet Teeth Socks!  This pattern has several variations between the tooth size and style; stripes, dots, or a solid "body;" and even the placement of the mouth.  Sizing for kids to adults is included so everyone can have some!  I chose to make the striped socks with the large teeth on the toe.  I grabbed some yarns leftover from other socks to make these, and I will definitely be making them again with some more leftovers.  The main part of the socks are knit in Cascade Heritage in Caribbean Sea and Lady Dye Sock yarns in Whistledown's Watchful Eye.  The teeth are knit in Cascade Heritage in Snow, and the mouth and eyes are both Sweet Georgia Yarns Tough Love Sock in Secrets and Charcoal respectively.  This is the first time I've really done duplicate stitching (the eyes are duplicate stitched) and it shows.  The second pair of eyes looks better than the first.  I love these socks just because they make me laugh.  If you were to put them in shoes, they would just look like striped socks, but you'd know there were monsters in your shoes!  I think they'd be really fun in a dressy, conservative black or navy with the monsters lurking in wing tip shoes.  I might have to knit Caleb a pair to wear to interviews!

Christmas Candy Mischief Socks

I've finished my first sock, the zig zag one, and now I've started the checked one!  These are the Mischief Socks using additional contrasting colors for the cuff, toe, and heel.  I've knit these socks before, but I feel like I've finally perfected the fit thanks to some project page comments left by other knitters who knit the gnome socks I made at the first of this year.  I thought I'd make sure to share this here, in case anyone else is struggling to find the sweet spot for fitting stranded socks.

For the majority of single color sock patterns* using fingering weight yarn, I use around 64 stitches per round and US 1's (2.25mm).  If I'm using a fine fingering weight yarn (Hedgehog Fibres Sock, the old Lorna's Laces Sock, Cascade Heritage Sock) I prefer to use about 72 stitches per round and US 0'S (2.00mm).  I find these combinations work well for my feet, which are on the narrow side of normal and have high arches.  Tweaking the stitches per round either plus or minus by two or three stitches doesn't cause any fit issues for me.

*Heavily cabled and certain lace designs where the increases and decreases are widely spaced are the exceptions to this rule as they have less elasticity in the fabric.

Then I started knitting stranded colorwork socks.  I actually used socks to figure out how to knit stranded colorwork because if there are tension issues (and there always are when you're learning), they don't really matter if they're stuffed in a shoe and no one can see them.  Stranded colorwork introduces two issues you don't normally have in a single color sock.  First, they're less elastic than stockinette stitch is in a single color.  That goes to the floats.  They need to be long enough not to pull the sock in, but if you make them too long your stitches look sloppy and the sock won't wear well.  Secondly, (and again because of the floats on the wrong side) the interior diameter of a stranded colorwork sock is smaller than the outer diameter.  The floats make the fabric thicker, thus the inside of the sock isn't as big as it looks from the outside.

So, knowing and understanding these things - my own feet, my generic sock recipe, and how stranded colorwork changes the fabric - I can adjust the fit.  Here's what I do:

• Use the 72 stitch (or the closest the pattern has to this) size
• Work the top ribbing in US 0's (2.00mm)
• Switch to US 1's (2.25mm) for the leg colorwork and usually heel flap/heel turn (this gives me extra height for my high instep)
  
• Switch back to US 0's for the gusset and foot colorwork, as well as the toe

This system gives me a looser lower leg with a fitted heel and foot.  It does mean I'm working with several different gauges, but by shifting needle size around I'm able to get a sock that fits my feet properly.

If the sock only has colorwork on the leg, after working the colorwork section I switch back to the US 0's (2.00mm) for the lower leg and keep using them for the rest of the sock.  If it still feels a bit big, I can always decrease a few extra stitches in the gusset decreases so the foot doesn't have as many stitches as the leg.  (See my Christmas Dudes socks for an example of these things.) Does this change the gauge between the colorwork and the rest of the sock?  Yes it does.  The colorwork section is slightly larger, but it's also smaller on the inside, so the fit is right.

Obviously, different shaped feet are going to have different fitting needs, but most of us don't start knitting colorwork socks for our first pair of socks.  Hopefully, after knitting a few pairs of regular socks, you'll have some idea of what does and doesn't work for your feet and can use these techniques to get a good fit in colorwork socks!

I hope this helps someone get their socks to fit better!  Have a great weekend!

A Palatte Cleanser

Since finishing my gnome socks and my pullover, I wanted something simple to work on.  The next ESK Craft A Long doesn't start until Monday and since I'll be casting on for a sweater for that, I wanted something small.

Hello socks!  This is the first of the Hibernal Socks, knit in Yarn Love Oliver Twist in Pizzazz.  The repeat is easy to memorize and the sock is knitting up quickly.  I should have this finished by the first of next week, making it the perfect little knitting palatte cleanser!

Have a great weekend!

A Hidden Gnome!

I'm still working on my first sock of the new pair (why does stranded knitting take so much longer than single color knitting?), but I'm past the heel turn and the gusset now.  You can see the little gnome above, between the gusset decreases.  He's technically knit into the gusset of this sock, and he sits right on the underside of the heel.  You can barely see him in the photo below

When I started the stranded section for the foot, I decided to use a smaller needle than what I used for the stranded section of the leg.  I tried on the sock, and the leg portion is looser than I like the feet of my socks to be.  For anyone who's interested, I used US 0'S (2.0mm) for the top ribbing, heel flap, heel turn, and foot colorwork.  I used US 1's (2.25mm) for the leg colorwork.  This tightened up my gauge on the foot section so it will fit more snugly.  This also means I will have to knit more rounds in the foot to get the length right.

Socks!

I've finished my first Winter Dudes sock.  I'm through the colorwork and about to start the heel shaping for the second sock.  You can see the trees on the first sock.  There's an additional chart with this pattern without the trees.  It has more gnomes (wearing backpacks!) instead.  I went with the trees because I am making Christmas socks, but the all-gnomes design is also cute.

Now that I'm through the colorwork, the rest of the sock should go pretty quickly.  This pattern has a heel I've never worked before.  It's a short row heel, but there are little gussets on the side which should give me a better fit for my high arches than just a regular short row heel does.  I'm looking forward to testing these!

We Now Return To Our Regularly Scheduled Programming

Happy 2024 everyone!  Sorry to just ghost everyone like that, but we had some medical issues in the family and all of my mental bandwidth was spent on that.  There have been multiple days in a row that I didn't even pick up knitting needles.  (Crazy, right?)  Anyway, things are returning to normal, everyone is getting healthier, and I've done a bit of knitting, so here I am.

At the end of the year, I like to look at what I've gotten finished that year, and I hadn't done that recap, so here it is.  (This is mostly for my own records and you totally aren't going to hurt my feelings if you skip to the new project below the lists.)

2023 - Sewing

• 6 Pajama sets (I actually made PJ's for all three of us over the course of the year)
• 6 Bags (One tote, the other five are smallish knitting bags)
  
• 2 Skirts
• 1 Top
• 1 English Oak Leaf (This was Mr. Noodle's Christmas gift, he sits on it.  This is the pattern.)

 

2023 - Knitting and Crochet 

• 14 pairs of Socks
• 5 Sweaters
• 3 Hats
• 1 Crocheted Shawl

So there it is, 2023 all wrapped up.  Apparently it was a year of socks and pajamas!

I have gotten started on some new projects and while I'll give my current Sweater-In-Progress it's own post, I'll show you my first pair of socks for 2024!

These are the Winter Dudes socks.  I'm actually just past the heel now, but this is a better photo of the colorwork.  I'm knitting them in Cascade Heritage Sock in 5629 Citron (a very pale, lime green), 5607 Red, and 5618 Snow.  I'm going for a Christmas sock feel, but I prefer lime green with red over a more traditional, darker Christmas green because it contrasts more.  The pattern has two different charts for the legs: this one with the gnomes and the trees, and the second is all gnomes.  I plan to do both socks using this chart, but you could knit one sock from each chart if you wanted to.

I hope you all had a lovely holiday season and I hope 2024 is a good year to everyone!  Caleb told us he has a feeling that 2024 will be a good year and that sounds great, doesn't it?  After the last few years, it's not like the bar is set very high after all!

 

One Down, One To Go

I have finished my first sock in the colorway Don't Procrastinate, Delegate To Your Future Self!  I decided to knit these socks from opposite ends of the colorway, so I'll have fraternal socks, not identical.  I didn't make it into the dark purple shades on the first sock (I should have added more rounds to the leg, apparently), but after some looking, thinking, considering, rethinking, and just generally overthinking about if and how and where I should start the second sock, I just cast on at the end of the dark purple and went for it.  

They're socks.  No one is going to die if I don't match everything perfectly.  Sometimes I have to remind myself not to overthink things.  As you can see, Mr. Noodle has inspected things and he had no complaints.

When he's not inspecting knitting, he's getting Obi in trouble.  He's also getting Obi stuck under the bed, which is something he used to do (and Max did too) to Logan.  First he gets the dog to chase him, then he runs under the bed and the silly dog falls for it, and goes under after him.  Unfortunately for the dog, there's not very much space under there, so while Mr. Noodle just runs under and out the other side, the doggy hasn't even gotten all the way under before The Noodle is out the door, down the hall, and on to other cat activities.  Then Obi realizes there's just no point and lays under the bed because he knows he'll never get the cat.  Why our dogs have never figured this out before they go under the bed, I don't know.  (As soon as I took the above photo, I took the yarn out of his mouth.  I know better than to let him actually eat it.)

I've also been doing some sewing and while I don't have anything finished yet, I'm working on a pair of Eastwood Pajamas for Caleb and an Oak Leaf for Mr. Noodle.  I will definitely get photos when I'm finished!

 

The Slouchy Fade Socks Strike Back

I started another pair of Slouchy Fade Socks.  These are also knit in Shirley Brian Yarns Deconstructed Fade Socks, but the colorway is Don't Procrastinate, Delegate to Your Future Self.  (The colorway names on these crack me up.)  I'm knitting them exactly like I did the first slouchy socks, but I've added 10 rounds to the leg in an attempt to use up a little more yarn.  Also, I plan to start the second sock with the dark purple end, so they won't be identical, but fraternal socks.

I was initially thinking about knitting a pair of colorwork socks, but decided to stick with simple for now.  It doesn't get much more simple than a pair of stockinette socks where the yarn does all the heavy lifting.

Have a great weekend!

Faded Socks

I finished my Slouchy Fade Socks.  These were the perfect, brainless socks where the yarn did all the work.  In fact, I'm debating whether or not to knit another pair or two through the end of the year, or to try something more involved (I've been looking at stranded sock patterns).  I'm basically at the time of year where everything gets crazy until next year, so letting the yarn do all the work is probably a good idea.

The yarn is Shirley Brian Yarns Deconstructed Fade Sock in Here's to Us, Long May They Sneer.  I ended up having more yarn left than I'd hoped for so whenever I knit these (in this particular yarn) again, I'll be adding more rounds to the leg.

I'm still trying to break free of the gravity of the knitting black hole on my pullover, but I'm going to try it on today and see how it's doing anyway.  Maybe hanging on a body, vertically will help it? 

I'm not going to blog next week because Caleb is coming home for Thanksgiving and we're hosting Thanksgiving.  Also, Obi is turning eight months old.  He's gotten leggy again, which means he'll have to grow into those silly stilts, which means he's still getting bigger.  We haven't tried weighing him since he was about five and a half months old and he weighed 64 pounds.  He hasn't had to go to the vet and trying to weigh him at home is kind of a circus now.  His breeder told us to expect somewhere between 80-100 pounds, and he seems to be right on track!

For reference: Bear, our first Golden, a red American style Golden, who was pre-blog, was 80 pounds;  Finn who was 75% Golden/25% Labrador was 60 pounds;  Logan who was an English style Golden was 90 pounds.  Little Obi Dog may end up bigger than them all!

A Faded Sock

I've started a new pair of socks, and this time the pattern couldn't be easier.  The yarn is doing all the heavy lifting!  The pattern is my plain, vanilla, stockinette sock (it's not an official pattern, it lives in my head, but there are oodles of actual patterns out there that are very similar) with an extra slouchy leg.  After the ribbing I added 25% more stitches in an increase round, worked even for a while, decreased back to my original cast on number and worked about six rounds even before starting the heel flap.

The yarn though, and I know that's what you're interested in, is Shirley Brian Yarns Deconstructed Fade Sock yarn in Here's To Us, Long May They Sneer.  This is sold in pairs of skeins so you can make matching socks.  As far as I know, she only sells through her website, but I'm not affiliated in any way, just a customer.  This particular colorway starts with a very dark navy blue, fades into a blueish green, and then goes to a sandy beige color.  Watching the color change is SO.  MUCH.  FUN!  This was the only yarn I've ever bought from her, but I'm going back to get more!

Finished Socks

I finished the Studiolo socks and gently blocked them.  These are knit in the Malabrigo Ultimate Sock in Valentina that Mr. Noodle chose for me, and this completes all six designs of The Handmade Sock Society Season 5.  I have enjoyed knitting this collection and I liked all six of the designs.

Apparently, I'm not done knitting socks though, as I immediately cast on another pair after finishing these.  It is easy to knit socks with little Obi dog, and he's always very curious about what I'm knitting.

The Handmade Sock Society

I'm currently knitting on the last design for this year's version of The Handmade Sock Society.  The Studiolo Socks are the sixth pattern in the series.  I'm knitting them in Malabrigo Ultimate Sock in Valentina.  When I went to the sock yarn stash to pick out a skein for this pair, I initially pulled three skeins that I thought would work well for it.  Mr. Noodle was with me, and he marched straight over to the sock yarn, climbed in, and came out carrying this skein of yarn.  I'm not one to argue with a cat who has such good taste, so I put the other skeins back in the stash and wound the Valentina.  He was right as usual, this is the perfect yarn for this design.  I've finished the first sock and I've started the heel flap on the second.  The little lace edging is just perfect on this sock!

A New Pair of Socks!

I've finished the fifth (of six) pair of socks from The Handmade Sock Society, Season 5!  These are the Mermaid Shell Socks knit in Dream in Color Classy in the Enchanted colorway.  If I had known this pair was coming, I would have saved my skein of Mermaid Shoes (the first sock) or Mermaid Tavern (the third sock) for it!  Oh well.  I decided this yarn looked like a mermaid's treasure box, full of random bits of things found and recovered from shipwrecks.  At least that's what I'm thinking.

I love the little shells knitted into the top of the leg.  It was such a fun pattern.  I've really enjoyed knitting all of these patterns and I'm planning to cast on for the last one today.  Mr Noodle actually chose the yarn for it!

Have a great weekend!