Tag Archives: Patons Knitting Book C11

box of socks; the November edition

24/11/2019 6:26 pm \ 4 Comments \

I finished my November pair of socks; yay! And actually within the month of November too.. double yay!

So I bought this Utterly Divine Yarn #capitalswarranted in San Francisco during mine and Yoshimi’s holiday there… we visited this fantastic little yarn store called Imagiknit in the Castro area and of course I had to buy a souvenir!  Yoshimi did too, and finished hers super quick… see here!

This is actually my very first wearable souvenir of my US trip to be made up and realised, just a little more than a month after coming home but given my current workload I consider that to be not too bad, not too bad at all!

The yarn is Urth merino sock yarn, col 2002, made in Turkey; I did look out for some US made/grown yarn but simply could not walk away from this colourway once I’d spotted it.. isn’t it just the most glorious set of colours?!!  I couldn’t resist winding it up during my stopover in Auckland on the way home, hehehe; yes; it’s weird to wind yarn in public BUT; killing time, and doing something constructive towards my next pair of socks, well seems like a good idea to me!  Two ladies separately came up to me in the lounge and we had little chats about knitting and yarn, which was really nice!  Aaah, knitting…. the great equaliser.

contemplating winding in public

it’s kinda rare to get a view like this while you’re winding yarn

and… done!  I thought it fitted right in with the decor of the Air New Zealand business lounge

I so enjoyed knitting this up; as each little section of colour came up I drooled anew every single time.  That dusky plum-pink! that rich chocolate-y purple! that sharp acidic safety-vest yellow!!  SO GORGEOUS!!  REOUUUWW! – that’s me ripping into the ball of yarn with my teeth and gobbling it all up; it’s just that yummy….  metaphorically speaking, obviously!

It’s a wondrous thing to not tire of the yarn before finishing the socks; usually you do get just a wee bit over the colour before the end but in this case I was just as fully in love with it at the last grafting-off as I was when I first spotted it on the shelf.

le Box of Socks…

Now just one final question comes to mind … is it possible to squeeze that one last, 12th pair of socks into the box, mmm??  This remains to be seen… stay tuned!

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box of socks; the October edition

01/11/2019 1:16 pm \ 4 Comments \

I meant to post this yesterday, however I’m … ok I’m NOT going to complain about being busy.  The dreaded B word.  It’s annoying.  Sorry!

However, ta da!  I finished these socks during my holiday away in the US with Yoshimi.  Here is the incriminating evidence of me in the act of conversational knitting while in San Francisco with Shams and Yoshimi…  and I can assure you we’re actually sitting in our air bnb here and I’m NOT actually humiliating us all while out in public..

I took my bamboo needles away with me, because I knew airlines are ok with skinny little bamboo needles.  However I did not knit one single stitch while on the plane!!  Nope, upon getting on the plane I proceeded to watch movies, eat dinner, sip champagne, and sleep.  I did absolutely nothing constructive whatsoever.  Ha!

it’s a tough life but somebody’s gotta do it

I bought the sock yarn while I was in Japan in April… it’s Opal yarn in the Van Vincent Gogh “Vase of Sunflowers” colour way 5432; and the pattern is kinda my own, heavily adapted basic sockette pattern in a Patons pamphlet from the 60’s, no C11.  I completely adore the warm swampy mossy yellowy, browny greens.  So very moi.

#thePerilsofBeingaPetOwningKnittingBlogger

Before I drag out ye olde updated box of socks picture, I just want to put up this picture Tim sent through.. I’m rather thrilled he’s still wearing that outfit for Hallowe’en!!

Also I thought I’d share here my own Hallowe’en post for this year although you could not call this a costume, it’s just an outfit that I would wear on any other day.  Sophie makes the whole thing, imo… that darling little powder puff.

And now… finally.  Le box of socks is looking rather gorgeous, I reckon!!

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box of socks; the September edition

27/09/2019 10:19 pm \ 18 Comments \

So I’m really trying to keep on top of the box of socks situbar, because I’m worried that I’m just not going to get made the twelve I promised myself I’d make.  I’ve just been so… oh dear, I find it very tiresome when people whine about how busy they’ve been lately, but well, I have! during the last month Cassie announced her engagement to her long-term boyf Daniel, and then fulfilled my dream ever since basically the day I gave birth to her by asking me to make her wedding dress.  I’m so very thrilled for this!  Of course the whole family is over the moon and excited for another family wedding so soon!  Our days are becoming very very full.  And this will be my second wedding dress within a year!

I’ve even got started on the dress already… Cassie and I went shopping together at Fabulous Fabrics for a pattern and fabric, and bought a gorgeous pile of laces and the most beautiful heavy silk taffeta.  I’m so excited to cut into it!  And this is muslin number one.  It’s ok, however the fit is not quite right and there will definitely be a second before cutting into the precious taffeta.

Vogue 8470…

Aaaad anyway, just quickly getting back to just about the biggest anticlimax possible, my new pair of socks.  Pretty, huh?  I bought the ball of yarn in Japan.  Of course.  Everything in Japan is cool.

This is Opal yarn, colour KFS 128 “Ice cream”.  I absolutely love the soft pretty pinks and the frozen iceberg blues, however there was a short section in there of a sort of dirty white, with purple and green splotches; which I did not like.  So I removed these parts of the yarn while knitting, and I think the colour way is just so much the better for it.

The box of socks is looking pretty stuffed but mahty fahn all the same!

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box of socks; the August edition

01/09/2019 4:43 pm \ 8 Comments \

Wait, it’s now September.  It’s not August any more…. dammmmmm!!!!  I’m a day late!

In my own defence I did actually finish these yesterday, which was still August; but it was like nigh on midnight and the lighting at midnight is kinda not conducive to Un Fashion Shoot of Le Feet.  And I was tired.  I had to wait until morning.  But I got there eventually!

I chose this warm, colourful and cheerful colourway specifically because August has always legit been my least favourite month; the last month of winter, my least favourite season, and it’s so cold and miserable and depressing and always seems to drag on fooooreeeeveeeeer.  So I wanted, nay needed! a project that I thought would cheer me up.  Even so; I don’t want to even go into the details of now these socks were started and unravelled and restarted and re-unravelled over and over.  I think they had four, if not five; false starts.  I had grand fair isle plans, shall we say, that came to naught and got abandoned…  it’s a bit depressing to think about though, so that’s all I’m going to say on the subject.  Instead; look how upliftingly joyful and lovely!  They’re like a warm, comforting, crackling fire for the feet!

I bought the yarn in Japan; it’s the Opal Regenwald 14 or “rainforest” range of sock yarn, in col. 9627 “Sascha – der Sommelier”, and added some blue in the heels and toes; this is a yarn I bought in Haynes, Alaska during our holiday from two years ago; Online Supersocke 100, Vintage Colour; col. 1412.  The heels are alternate stitches of the two colours, with the two yarns carried and crossed over each and every stitch at the back; making them double thickness for a bit of extra strength in an area which always wears through the fastest.  I’m not sure now why I selected this particular blue which doesn’t even match for the purpose but it’s neither here nor there any more since there it is.  The toes are in the straight blue.  I was quite doubtful about the blue after the first heel was finished, but at that point was NOT going to unravel yet again and redo; and actually I like the contrast with all that orangey/crimson-y/turquoise in the end.  Yay!!

I went to great lengths to make the stripes identical.  This is not as straightforward as it sounds; some of the orange sections had four orange stripes, some had five.  There are more than a few joins in there; all neatly woven in on the inside.  Final verdict?  I really love them, the colour is so happy and heart-warming; but phew boy! I am SO GLAD to have finished them!

the box of socks… looking quaite naice I reckon!

and PS; thanks so much every one for your kind and thoughtful responses to my previous post.  I wasn’t trying to complain! honestly! but I really REALLY appreciate all those lovely thoughts.  🙂 xxx

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box of socks; the July edition

31/07/2019 9:43 pm \ 8 Comments \

Dotty socks?  Socks with the pox? Poxy socks? A pox on socks!

Squeaking in under the wire at the very last minute for the month again, I present this month’s pair of socks… kinda fun, huh?  I absolutely love them retroactively.  While I was actually making them, hmmm, not so much!  I really struggled to get into these ones, funnily enough.  I liked the turquoise yarn with colourful flecks very much at first, but it rapidly became quite blah and too subtle to my eyes.   I felt it really lacked a certain necessary “something”, and I discovered some of that something when I laid the ball of bright yellow yarn against it.  Drab to fab in one fell swoop!  I experimented with several different ways of getting the yellow in there somewhere, but (obviously) in the end settled on embroidering random dots of various sizes here and there.  This gave exactly the fun and quirky look I craved, but was surprisingly difficult to get them looking neat, owing I think to the fact that the yarns were of completely different gauge.  This discrepancy can be seen most clearly in the heels and toes, where the yellow looks quite “puffy” and plumped up compared to the much finer turquoise yarn.  Yeah, it’s funny-looking but still, I love it.

I only had time to embroider a sprinkling of the dots around the top few inches of sock; but if I get some more time -which seems very unlikely – I may add some more “pox”…

Pattern; my usual plain Jane favourite, from a Patons 60s pamphlet with my own modifications

Yarns: flecked turquoise is Opal “Relief” sock yarn, colour 9494; with a yellow Piccolo multi-purpose craft yarn, made in Japan.  Both yarns purchased in Japan during our recent holiday there

oh hey there my lovely little photobomber… must be close to dinner time, mmmm?

The box of socks is looking a bit squished, but pretty!

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box of socks; the June edition. plus a bag!

26/06/2019 6:54 pm \ 9 Comments \

Pair of no-frills socks, but look at those pretty stripes!  LOVE those bright pastels!!  Making these has dutifully used up some more of the leftovers from my advent jumper, from the Dingo Dyeworks advent calendar of last year…  pretty cute and frugal, huh? *self-back-pat*  and this yarn is so soft and divinely snuggly.

the box of socks is looking quite colourful!

Oh! and I also ran up a little bag, specifically for my sock knitting.  I’ve been using my pink bum bag for this purpose ever since Japan, which was… fine, I guess, but still not ideal.  It wasn’t really big enough, for one thing, and had zero pockets.  Hmmm, yes; ordinarily a zero-pocket bag would have its days very much numbered, except that I’m kinda sentimental about it since Mum and Dad gave it to me when I was quite a young teenager and it’s always been … well, one of those forever things, you know??  Anyway, I digress…  What I really wanted for my knitting bag was one identical to the one I made for Mum, blogged here.  So I rummaged through the old clothing chuck-out bag and came out with a pair of old chinos that I used to wear when the kids were really little. Haven’t worn them in decades and don’t really know why I kept these hideous things but probably for the usual reason, that the fabric would come in handy some day.

The new bag is terrible really; slapdash, ugly, just thrown together in a very uncaring way.  But man, it was so much fun to do a bit of rough, random, whatever sewing!  Quite a therapeutic project, in fact!   And/or cathartic!  Slicing, dicing and cutting on the fly, drawing straight onto the fabric, machine-stitching rather wildly, minimal measuring, if any.   FELT SO GOOD.  THIS HOUSE, IS CLEAN!!!

I used the back of the chinos, and gave the bag a “bottom”, so it can stand up by itself.  It is self-lined, using more of the same fabric from a leg of the chinos, and has five pockets including the two outside patch pockets with buttoned flaps, that were originally in situ on the seat of the chinos.  Inside, I stitched two new, rectangular open patch pockets to the lining, as well as the tiny and rather adorable coin pocket that I painstakingly unpicked from the chinos just because it was so super cute.

I slipped a few coins in there for … I dunno, just in case

The other pockets hold my kindy scissors, my notebook and pen, a wool needle, and my personal, basic knitting pattern.  Which is near-identical to the Patons one I’ve been using for years, but has one or two mods that I’ve developed along the way to make my own idea of the perfect sock.  Actually I recently re-typed it all into a new word document so I can print it out for myself any time, and now I no longer have to decipher the old photocopied one from the Patons pamphlet that is almost falling to bits from un-folding and re-folding, and has multiple crossing-outs and arrows and modifications and notes scribbled chaotically in the margins and on the back.  Hurrah!

The inside waistband of my old chinos had  a rather nice bias bound strip finishing, so I kept this and used it to edge the, also recycled zip for the bag,  Goodness knows why I once went to the trouble of ripping out and stowing away an old zip just in case, but hey.  I did indeed find a use for it in the end!

So, cute bag? or piece of trash?  completely rhetorical questions btw since I know that; yes it is a pretty rubbishy sort of a thing!  It’s nowhere near as nice as the one I made for Mum, which I did measure out, cut carefully, and sew somewhat meticulously, and also had really nice fabric going for it.  But it only cost me some thread and half a day, and it will do for now.  And I had a lot of fun making it!  Maybe I’ll treat myself to a proper one, one of these days.

couldn’t resist taking a picture showing my ever-present companion, wondering what the heck I’m doing…

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box of socks; May edition

29/05/2019 8:51 pm \ 7 Comments \

 

so I have to be honest and admit straight up that Craig and I have been semi-fighting over this particular sock yarn! we both really really love it and wanted it for ourselves so in the end we went online and hunted down another ball of this wool… #secrettoasuccessfulmarriage

Of course there is a story… I saw this yarn in Japan -of course! Japan has the coolest stuff, I’m telling you… Craig was in the store with me and picking up and admiring various sock yarns too; and because he was being so patient while I browsed sock yarn endlessly I promised that I would knit a pair of socks for him if he just picked some yarn.  I mean, that seems fair, right? a pair of socks in exchange for a trip to Japan?!  yeah I thought so too… hehe… anyway!  I had chosen all the yarn I wanted and I went up and bought it.  A little later, and I’ve started knitting it up, and Craig goes, those are my socks, aren’t they?  and I go, um, nooooooo? and he goes, but that’s the yarn I wanted for my socks! and I go, well I wanted it too, and I tooooold you to put some yarn to the basket if you wanted any!  and he goes well I thought THAT one was for me, and I go, no it’s for me! and then he looked quite crestfallen and so did I because I DID really want to knit a pair of socks for him, that he loved.  And so then in an exceptionally generous gesture I thought, because I too really really love this yarn I said oh, ok you can have them, then he said, no it’s ok, you can have them, and I’m like, no I want you to have them, and he’s like, no, it’s ok… well you get the picture.  So in the end, yeah; we went online and found some more, so very soon we’re going to have matching feet … you know when you’re young and newly in love, and there’s a stage where you dress like each other?? well it’s been a while, and actually I’m not even sure we ever ever went through that stage! but looks like we are going to go through it after all…

 

So this yarn is the legendary Opal yarn, that it seems you can buy everywhere in the world except Australia, grrr… the label reads KFS Kesennuma, colour Forest, or KFS108. and is a really beautiful, verdant array of deep teal, bottle free, olive green, bluey-grey green, and through to a springy leaf green and pure ivory…  I love the way it knits up to mimic a fair isle design, the repeat is just like the yoke of a Scottish or Scandinavian jumper.  It’s my favourite colourway out of all the self-striping sock yarns I bought, because of that clean “evergreen trees in a snowy wintery wonderland” vibe.  I can almost smell the pine needles!

I used my old Patons tried and true basic sock pattern, and carefully arranged the colours to have the heel in all the darks, and cut and spliced so as to have a mostly pure white toe, though just a tiny spray of green at the very end snuck in there too… so pretty!!

the updated box of socks… and I reckon I should have started with a bigger basket!

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box of socks, April edition

28/04/2019 7:59 pm \ 9 Comments \

Hmmmm, I wonder; what could’ve been the inspiration behind my new socks.  Could it be… cherry blossom??  Yes I totally have pink on the brain right now… apologies for my current obsession, though I have to admit that actually I bought the yarn before we left and knitted the socks during our holiday.  Can I say I was pre-inspired?  😉

 

I bought the skein of Saltwater Yarns 80% merino 20% nylon in colour way Shell Pink from Calico and Ivy just before we left, experimented on the plane, and by the time we’d got to Tokyo I’d worked out my “cherry blossom” design  🙂

 

I adapted my tried and true Patons basic sock pattern to my tastes, and I’m thinking I might write up a real pattern…w hen I get time! but for now here is just the lace design..

there are 60 stitches in the leg part of my sock, dividing neatly into 10 x 6 stitch repeats.  The 6 stitch repeat pattern is as follows:

row 1; K1, K2tog, y fwd, K2, P1  (repeat these stitches for the 60 st round)
row 2; K5, P1 (repeat for the round)
row 3; K2tog, y fwd, K1, y fwd, ssk (repeat for the round)
row 4; K5, P1 (repeat for the round)
row 5; y fwd, ssk, K1, y fwd, K2tog, P1 (repeat for the round)
row 6; K5, P1 ( repeat for the round)
row 7; K1, K2tog, y fwd, K2, P1 (repeat for the round)
row 8; K5, P1 (repeat for the round)
row 9; K5, P1 (repeat for the round)

……

the current denizens of my box of socks!

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