Socky Goodness

November 12, 2003/18 Comments/in Uncategorized /by Michael

:: doing the one-footed Snoopy Dance::

I got the first sock finished. AND it fits! Yaay!

I also poured eight pounds of soap and made eight recipes of bath seltzers. Whew!

18 replies

profundis says:
November 12, 2003 at 9:37 PM

I’m so happy for you and your sock, I hope you have a long & happy life together. 🙂
draco_kc says:
November 12, 2003 at 10:12 PM

Congrats on the newly-completed sock!

An old friend of mine, , has knitted a lot of socks, of late. (To the extent that she regularly posts a “sock report” as part of her journal.) She has a number of other other string addictions, as well. You might find her journal worthy of a gander.
admin says:
November 13, 2003 at 6:58 AM

Thanks! I’ll check it out.
treeskin says:
November 13, 2003 at 9:42 AM

I wondered how you’d found me. Nice sock.
admin says:
November 13, 2003 at 10:04 AM

Thanks! I had meant to leave a comment in your journal, but then work got hectic for a little while, and I had to shut the system down and forgot.

Howdy!

And thanks. I’m having fun with it. I need to do the other one now, so I can stop going around with one sock on to show people. 😀
dubious_one says:
November 13, 2003 at 10:21 AM

whoa! what beauty, what craftmanship! i’m impressed.
admin says:
November 13, 2003 at 10:28 AM

Thanks!

Hopefully, I’ll be able to move onto something more interesting soon… but I want to practice on these for a little bit, get the weird techniques like the heel and toes down, before I look at more complicated stuff.
julilla1 says:
November 13, 2003 at 3:45 PM

Beeyootiful! But wait! There’s a hairy leg in it! 😉
treeskin says:
November 13, 2003 at 3:53 PM

Pleased to meet you.

I had a lot of trouble whenI started knitting socks, motivating myself to do the second sock. I ended up buying 2 sets of sock needles, and doing the socks at the same time. It also helped me make sure that my socks were the same length.

You might check out this pattern by Judy Gibson; I’ve used it a lot with good results.

When you feel up to more ambitious projects, you might check out Ethnic Socks and Stockings by Priscilla Gibson-Roberts, and Simply Socks by Anna Zilborg. Both give patterns and techniques for Middle Eastern styles of socks, which I think are easier to knit in a lot of ways. Toe-up, simple heel shaping, and wildly patterned–I’m quite addicted. I keep saying I’ll get pics of my socks up one of these days, but the time seems to get spent knitting instead.
chromatic_dawn says:
November 13, 2003 at 4:05 PM

next project…

Maybe a doggy sweater for Connor-dog?
sola says:
November 14, 2003 at 9:08 PM

actually, that’s a friggin’ great-lookng sock, and you should be right proud. i admit to still being flummoxed by heel turns; i’ll get it one of these days, so i do swear..
admin says:
November 16, 2003 at 10:07 AM

2 sets of sock needles

What a truly excellent idea! I actually got enough of the right size needles to have two sets – because I wanted to see which brand felt better in my hands, one is plastic, one aluminum, but both work well. So I will gang up the next pair of socks!

I finished up Sock #2 last night. Of course, it went much more quickly and smoothly than sock #1 – especially since I did it in one long essentially uninterrupted span with breaks – I didn’t have to pick it up and figure out where I had left off. And I got 2 movies and a TV show watched. 😀
treeskin says:
November 17, 2003 at 6:08 AM

Hey, I went and looked at your tablet weaving. Very impressive. ‘s the only other person I’ve seen doing that fine of work, and he regained his sanity after a couple of years *grin* What did you use to dye the silk with?
admin says:
November 17, 2003 at 9:44 AM

The silk that I’ve dyed myself, is acid dyes – Jacquard brand, I think. Most of the stuff that I use, is already dyed when I get it.

Funny thing that – I have been reading his journal for a long time now, and had *no* idea that he’d done any fiber stuff. Small world!
treeskin says:
November 17, 2003 at 1:46 PM

He used to, when he & I were both active in the SCA, but that’s been a long time. School and work and real life caught up with both of us. But he did amazing blackwork, and tablet weaving….very patient and meticuluous.

Where do you get your silk threads? I’m always on the look-out for good string sources….
admin says:
November 17, 2003 at 3:02 PM

The black and red stuff, I got from Robin and Russ.
http://www.robinandruss.com
they don’t have it on their website, but will send a sample card if you ask. It’s a thousand yards of the 60/2 on a spool for seven bucks.

The brocading weft, I made from scratch. Take a thousand silk worm eggs, wait for them to hatch, feed them four times every day for a month, stifle the cocoons, then unroll them off, multiply them up to the right size, and color them with acid dyes… I’ve also used silk embroidery floss, and cotton embroidery floss.
treeskin says:
November 17, 2003 at 3:18 PM

I will look for that silk, it looks like just the thing for some of my embroidery.

Can I ask–what in the world do you feed silkworms?

I have this mental image of a big box of cocoons, and my cats discovering that not only are they the size of toy mice, but the cocoons are made of thread that they can unravel….
admin says:
November 17, 2003 at 4:17 PM

Silkworms only eat mulberry leaves. They’re very finicky. They eat a LOT of mulberry leaves, too.

The cocoons make decent cat toys, although the fiber tends to stick to the cocoon, so they won’t spontaneously unroll. Maybe get chewed apart kind of like a tennis ball, though.

Check out: this entry in my journal about the silk rearing process, if you’re interested. I have lots of cocoons on hand, if you want some to play with.