I know it’s been all garments all the time around here lately, but that changed this week when I decided to wind my 15 Color Rainbow skein.
I bought this yarn back in October and thought I’d wind it up and knit on it while at Rhinebeck. But then I didn’t and so it sat waiting for some inspiration. I became obsessed with it Friday night and CO a pair – my first pair! – of afterthought heel socks yesterday.
I blame Janet because she posted her plans to start a new sock every month. You guys know any plans that involve casting on more projects is right up my alley. My sock of the month will be a bit different than Janet’s though. I’m planning to:
- cast on a new sock project each month
- finish knitting one sock from any of my sock WIPs each month – that’s one sock, not one pair
- treat myself to some new sock yarn after I finish a few pairs. The “few” is decidedly non-specific.
Since people are all about the socks this year always, I started the Rock the Socks KAL in the My Sister’s Knitter KAL group on Ravelry. I love seeing other people’s progress and the encouragement they all give. Plus a bit of peer pressure is always a good thing. Come on over and join us!
I’m having a blast knitting this sock. The short color repeats make me want to knit just one more stripe and the yarn is incredibly soft for a 75% merino 25% nylon blend.
As I mentioned I’m doing an afterthought heel on these – I don’t want to interrupt the awesome stripes. This will be my first afterthought heel though so I did a bunch of reading about how to get a better fit. A couple things I plan to do:
- Work the heel over 60% of the sts. My sock is 66 sts I’ll be doing the heel over 39
- Once I pickup the heel sts, work 4 rnds plain before starting the decs
My hope is that these two things will create a deeper heel that’s closer to the way a heel flap fits. If you have other suggestions please leave a comment – I’d love to hear them.
Oh and I really want the stripes to match so I measured the length of the lavender yarn before casting on. Sometimes I don’t care if they match but this time I want matchy matchy.
I’ll catch you on the purl side.
I love self-striping yarn! And 15 color rainbow looks like a winner.
If only I didn’t have so much deadline knitting. Hopefully soon I’ll be able to join in some capacity… or at least get back to my socks!
knitting a little for yourself is good for the soul – even if it’s just a few rounds a week. do it!
I love/want that yarn! (I have a weakness for stripes).
Thanks for the shout-out! I started my February socks last night. And now I’m going to whoosh over to the Rock the Socks KAL.
yay definitely join in! you were my inspiration for starting these socks now and i’d love to knit along with you.
How are the blender socks going? They looked awesome, and I would love to see an update. (Or just the same picture, really. It makes me happy- rainbow + sparkle = awesome!)
i haven’t touched them in several weeks! let’s see if they’ll post here in the comments though…
Thanks! I think they are awesome and I can’t wait to see the finished product.
That yarn is fabulous!! Where did you get it? I think I need some socks like that.
It’s 15 Colour Rainbow by Fab Funky Fibres http://www.etsy.com/shop/FabFunkyFibres. She sells out so you need to special order it but she was really quick with my special order – I think I had it in my mailbox within 2 weeks from the UK!
I LOVE LOVE this color way! so fun! As it happens my January socks are rainbow as well!I love knitting stripes, I just purchased some trailing clouds which I’m anxious to try soon..I am knitting one pair a month as well and I have found it helped to have them cast on right at the beginning and work on them a little bit every other day. My own trick for one at a time socks is cast them on both at the same time and just work on one every other time. This month I am attempting to do two at a time, which is a first for me, yikes!
lotsa rainbow socks!
i’ve tried the TAAT but it wasn’t for me. i love it in concept but i didn’t enjoy dealing with 2 balls of yarn. i hope it works for you!
Maybe it’s the winter blues or something but the socks I cast on in January were rainbow too! Love the blender socks too- consider me in for the sock KAL!
rainbow are so much fun! what yarn did you use?
and welcome to the kal!
You talked me into joining one more group. Heading to the “Rock the Socks” thread now. I’ve been on a sock hiatus during the winter, but really need to use up a lot of stash fingering so I can buy more. (Did I just say that outloud?)
well you’ve come to the right place. i tell myself that leading up to each festival – must use up yarn so i can buy more.
i stopped making it a goal that i would end up with less yarn each year. the new goal is just to stay even.
What fun … you know that I’m knitting on a pair of socks right now but I think I’ll take them s.l.o.w. Love your new yarn!!!!
smart move – you’re making such beautiful progress on your socks!
RAINBOW SOCKS! The perfect thing to knit to get out of this cold winter funk! I am in love already! I had no idea that you had a Ravelry group, but I remedied that problem and can’t wait to join your sock KAL!
it’s actually Andi’s group – I’m just one of the moderators.
welcome to Rock the Socks!
For an afterthought heel, I really like the Crystal Heel more than a regular afterthought. It is in a Knitty pattern from a few years ago, Crystal Socklets or something. Google finds it for me!
A regular afterthought (at least ones I’ve done before) is basically a toe, with 4 decreases total, done in pairs on either side. The Crystal spaces them out to the quarter points of the sock, and I find the fit much comfier. But that’s just what my feet like!
ooh thank you! this looks like it uses the “knit plain rnds” that i was going to do but also does more of a hat swirl decrease instead of the mitered look that you get with the standard afterthought heel. i might try this!
and for those curious , here’s a link to the crystal socklet.
Love that rainbow yarn, can sure see why it sells out!