Christmas Socks

These socks were started  and then interrupted by the previous 'posted' pair. From my favorite supplier - The Loopy Ewe with their own yarn solid series in Cardinal Red... Now,  again another pair needing a home.

Ursala

Socks in a hurry

These are for an adult child of our friends... yes it gets like that...

I had made socks for her mother and she was very interested in having a pair of 100% wool socks.

Finished on Christmas Eve, just six days to find a yarn shop and knit them up and ready for delivery!

In Memory of Miss Loopy

Miss Loopy went missing at a gas station stop in Queensland...so in memory of her I knitted this pair of 100% wool socks. I forgot to add them to the blog at the time and I have since worn them out.

I hope Miss Loopy found a good home!

Ursala

14 Dec

Last pair made in Mildura

Yarn from The Loopy Ewe
I haven't tried this brand and type before. The variegations are subtle and the yarn is 'firm' which is quite nice for socks. It's 90% superwash wool and 10% nylon. Hoping the tiny bit of nylon will help them wear longer without losing too much of the fabulous qualities of pure wool.
Having tried the Teal Goo pattern as a side panel I thought it might be nice as an overall lacy leg.

Again I used this Miraculous Elastic Bind Off .... Yeah a fantastic result and no sewing needle required!

I'm satisfied with the results.

Now all they need is a good home!
Ursala

Ghost Gum socks

Yarn from my favourite yarn supplier.
It's 85% wool and 15% nylon... Not quite as nice to knit but will suit someone who would like something that wears a little longer. Australian yarn hence the colour name and very apt since this is where I am.
I used this toe up arch shaped pattern. I used my own favourite heel shaping tho.
For the side panels I used Teal goo chart . It looks ok but is certainly asymmetrical!

My usual stretchy cast off requires a sewing needle (horrors!)

The reason I knit socks is there isn't much that has to endure the sewing needle treatment!

I'm even happier now This way is a very smooth edge and voila no sewing needle required!
Ursala

Royal socks!

100% cotton from The Loopy Ewe in Ultra Pima.

Made as toe up with a shaped arched. See instructions here

Bumblebee Socks

Nice yarn from The Loopy Ewe (of course!) delivered to me in Perth... Loopy Ewe deliver anywhere in the world.
Marco as usual admired them - always hopeful of scoring a new pair!
I had mended his other hand knit wool socks since we've been on the road and so these are for him... Whilst on the needles he called them beehive socks!




12 November 2012

Anniversary Socks

These were finished on the 15th of October which is the three month anniversary of our trip around this continent/island.

We started out from Canberra on 15 July.

American Beauties

The Loopy Ewe very kindly sent me this yarn for me to collect from the Post Office in Kununurra WA (just over the border with Northern Territory).

So they have been completed as we made our way across the top of Aussie. I recall turning the heels on a very hot dusty afternoon at House Creek Bridge Rest Area ... very dry with fine fine red dust that swirled about if the breeze jumped up or a car pulled in at anything faster than 8kph. It so hot we barely moved!

Anyway we are now in the cool again and they were finished off at the caravan park at Kalbarri and photographed tonight at Leeman.

We are almost at Perth. I'm hoping they will fit our friend Jonathon T who we'll catch up with there.

Nice yarn too Shalimar 100% super wash

Dark night socks

Finished by torchlight so I decided to photograph them hanging from the clothesline.

They're quite small and when we arrived in Darwin there isn't anyone to give them to. No-one in the tropics needs warm socks... Of course!



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Krys The Crocodile

This is a replica of a gigantic crocodile shot in the area in 1957. Over eight metres long!

Miss Loopy is very small indeed

Ursala

Miss Loopy the Adventuress

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School Point Camp (2)

Almost looks like Canada or northern Europe with this gorgeous lake



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Billy's Big Feet Socks

Little Loopy was ecstatic to sit on Bill's big Yamaha Tenere and show off his newly finished socks.

I purchased this yarn in Canberra and was surprised to be able to make the socks without something extra.




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Location:Murray Falls NP

Little Loopy in QLD

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Little Loopy in Queensland Northern

Little Loopy is enjoying the warm summer-like condition that is called "winter" in Townsville with another pair of socks for our friend Bill.

He won't need them this year as it going to continue to be warm and warmer and dry too until we are back south and after Nullabor Plains


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Location:Townsville

First pair of socks finished "on the road"

Little Loopy is celebrating the first pair of socks that were both started and finished in Australia.

Photographed at a picnic spot just after crossing the border from New South Wales and into Queensland.

Sister's Socks

 

The pretty green teal ones (see 2nd Quarter Challenge posting) I made never arrived.... hmm...I have been compensated (only for the value of the wool of course!)... by NZ Post. 

How lost it tho? Well I'll blame the Aussies...

Big man socks

Bamboo/cotton/elastic

Specially for a brother-in-law

Hmmm a half linen stitch

"Half" Linen Stitch

I first came across using a Linen Stitch on the sole stitches for socks here from Knitty. In this pattern it is necessary to work an extra row in the sole stitches for every four rows of instep when knitting in the round. This is because of the density and non-stretch in the Linen Stitch.

I wasn't following the pattern on my Graphite Socks exactly and realised that my Linen Stitch wasn't EVERY row as in the pattern. I was making alternate rows of all knit stitches. This worked well but the stitch was still very "tight". To overcome this problem I used a size larger needle when working my sole stitches. It still required me to make an extra row but only every 16 rows. You may prefer to add the extra  row at lesser intervals than 16 rows. I refer you to the pattern mentioned above as to how this extra row is done.

So my linen stitch for sole stitches works like this on an uneven number of sole stitches only. The instep stitches are worked in pattern/stitches of your choice.

Row 1: K1 [K1, Sl1p wyif] until two sole stitches remain, K2.
Rows 2 and 4: K all sole stitches.
Row 3: [K1 Sl1 wyif] until one sole stitch remains, K 1

Abbreviations and their meaning can be found here

Graphite Socks

80% Superwash Merino, 10% Cashmere and 10% Nylon... Very nice.

I made the sole in a version of Linen Stitch. I'll write a separate entry to explain.

Traveling Vine panel

These are toe up with shaped arches. Love the bright pink myself. I put a traveling vine panel just on one side of each as it would have been toooo much like a lace sock. Yarn from from my stash purchased in December 2011 from Loopy.

Diamonds on the Sides

I added a 7 stitch diamond panel on each side....looks good. I used this 100% superwash wool from Loopy

Dishcloth

Taking a short  break from the socks to make a dishcloth.

DEA Yarns are located in Levin (north of Wellington in the North Island) so we stopped in on the way to Hawke's Bay about a month ago and bought some unusual yarns... this one is rayon and cotton...so we'll see how it works...

The ultimate in warm tootsies!

Hubby admired the teal coloured ones that went off to Australia that I thought he might like a pair to match the motorcycle....so here they are....wool/silk knitted up on 2.75mm in a standard top up style. 60 sts was just right.

Next Pair

These are for hubby to "match" his Candy Max V-Strom. Will give him more vroom..vroom. Although they'll be hidden in his boots!

2nd Quarter Challenge

 

The challenge was to use a cotton yarn....it's coming up Spring in the Northern Hemisphere so it makes sense to them.  I found it rather challenging to get the right tension in a yarn that was more like a DK but needed to be close weave for socks. I used 3.00mm circular.

When I've made cotton socks before I've found myself short of yarn...somehow it just needs a bit more than 100g. So I ordered 200g and it certainly needed the bit extra.

Here they are...a tiny bit short for me but will fit my sister for sure.