The Rest of the 52 Pair Plunge Socks

Here are the last two pairs of socks I knitted for the 52 Pair Plunge. 

I wasn't intending to participate in a Plunge this year (July 2012-June 2013), because I was looking forward to knitting whatever I wanted to knit, shawls and cowls and mitts and hats and who knows what.  But I hate to be "left out," so I had to join in again.  But this time, I'm just doing the 26 Pair Plunge, so it won't be the same crazy pace.  And if I don't complete it, I really don't care.  I just wanted to be in on the fun and play along.  I've already made some good progress, though.  I'll show you that tomorrow.

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My Socks So Far This Year

Here are the socks I did for myself for the second half of the 52 Pair Plunge, which ran from 1 July 2011 to 30 June 2012.  I've already shown the socks I knitted in the first half of the year, and two days ago I showed two pairs I made for myself, which were related to the pair I made for my mom.  This is the rest of the socks I made for myself between the first of the year and the end of June:

Apparently, I can't add all the pictures I'd like to here.  So I'll post the last two that didn't show up here in another post to follow this one.

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Socks for Carrie

The only other pair of gift socks I've made so far this year was actually started back in the summer of 2010.  This was a kit (pattern + yarn + commemorative stitch marker) which was sold as a fundraiser for the Susan G. Komen foundation by Knitters Brewing Company.  I didn't want to make pink ribbon socks, but Wendy from KBC posted a list of awareness ribbon colors.  I saw that purple was the awareness ribbon color for Cystic Fibrosis, and that was it.  My friend Carrie and her husband lost a daughter to CF some years back.  It wasn't so much that I thought she needed more awareness of CF, but it was a way to honor the life and memory of her daughter.  I set these aside several times, as they're a bit complicated, and I needed to focus when I was working on them, not be watching TV or anything else at the same time.  I finished them in June, but didn't give them to Carrie until late July -- ironically just a day or two after her birthday, which I wasn't aware of until I gave them to her ;-)  Gotta love those happy accidents!  Anyhow, here they are, though the color's off a bit.  They're a lovely medium purple shade in real life:

It's not obvious from this photo, but up the center front and center back are the ribbon motifs.  Here's a picture where I turned them a bit to the front, trying to capture that:

Carrie liked them, and apparently her grandmother used to knit for her, so I struck a nice chord on several levels.  Win!

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Socks Because She Nagged Me...

So, my mom claimed she was jealous because my aunt got a pair of socks I made for her.  Last spring (I think it was in April), I was at my parents' house, to be there while she had heart surgery.  While I was there, I asked her what color socks she wanted, and she said "black or gray, they'll go with the most."  She didn't understand, that's like buying a painting because it matches your sofa.  Handknit socks are art for the feet!  Well, I told her "I'm NOT knitting black socks!" and didn't think much more about it.  But then I had to go to Jo-Ann fabrics for another reason, and I checked out their sock yarn, and found one that was self-striping in grays and cream.  I thought I could just about stand to work with that without getting bored to tears, so I bought it to make my mother's socks.  I cast them on, then kept putting them aside for more interesting projects.

I finally finished them in January, and sent them to her.  She received them on Monday, February 6.

I called her that Thursday, and she let me know that she'd gotten them and really liked them.  That was a good thing, because that Saturday morning (February 11), my dad called me to tell me that she'd died earlier that morning.  I had been expecting it some time in the next few years, but not that particular weekend.  Still, although we weren't close, we weren't estranged, and I'd spoken to her a few days earlier, so I didn't feel any of the regret that sometimes makes an unexpected death even more difficult to deal with.

When my dad called, I was finishing up these socks from leftovers:

Even after I finished them, I still had some of the gray yarn left, though I'd managed to use up all the pink, yellow and green.  So, I cast on toes of new socks with the rest of the gray, then used the rest of the yarn from the socks I made for my mom, and made these:

I only had a few inches of leg done when the "mom sock leftovers" ran out, so I continued with something from my stash that coordinated pretty well.  I call this project "Mom-mento mori," which is a variation on the term memento mori, which was an object (often a skull) intended to remind people of death and mortality.  In this case, it's more a reminder of my mother's life, and a way to feel connected to her.

My mother wasn't very old when she died, she'd turned 67 the previous October.  But she had a number of health issues that had developed in the last ten or so years, and she had smoked for more years than I'd been alive.  She quit in 2006 when she first got acutely ill, but had gone back to smoking a few years later.  She had about 5 years longer than anyone expected her to live, after how bad she was in '06, and they were mostly good years when she was able to do things she enjoyed.  She would have hated being an invalid, and from what my dad told me it sounds like her death was relatively quick and fairly painless.  So, there were a lot worse ways it could have happened.  The timing was a bit of a surprise, but we knew she wouldn't have another five years, probably.  I'm just glad I finished those socks and got them to her.

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Have You Missed Me?

It's been a really long time since I've posted, I know.  All I can say is that this year has been a series of things that have exploded in my face.

I've knitted a number of pairs of socks since my last post.  This time, I'll post the ones I've made for DH.  Then I'll post those I've made for others, and finally the ones I've made for myself.  So, since the beginning of  this year, DH has gotten seven new pairs of socks.  Here they all are:

I'm so glad that he doesn't want plain, boring black or blue or brown socks!  Of course, if he did, I wouldn't be knitting him socks, but would be buying them instead.  He loves the socks I knit, though, and he loves the wild ones best ;-)

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One More Pair of Socks

I finished another pair of socks for DH last week:



This yarn was a prize I won in the Year of Stash Socks group on Ravelry, over Labor Day weekend. As soon as I received it, I thought it would be great for socks for DH, and I like how they worked up, with those sort of spiral-y stripey things. DH likes them, so it's a win.

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And Another Pair of Socks

I'm starting to feel like this is turning into a sock knitting blog, to the exclusion of anything else. But I plan to do some sewing this week, so hope to be able to show some results of that soon.

In the meantime, late last week I finished this pair of socks for DH. The yarn colorway is called "Rasta Man," but I think they also look somewhat Christmas-y. Anyhow, DH likes them, and is already wearing them.


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Another Pair of Finished Socks

Even in the midst of packing and moving, there's down time, waiting time, and that equates to knitting time. So last week, I finished another pair of socks. These are a bit more teal-y green in real life. They're for me, and I just love them.

I didn't end up making it to see Scrooge last evening -- I decided that packing, and making a trip over to the new place with some stuff, was more important and more pressing just now. I would have just been thinking about all the moving chores that need done all through the performance, so I decided to save myself that aggravation.

Today will be a day of moving some of the big stuff. Not looking forward to it, but looking forward to having it done.

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One More Pair of Socks to Show

My feet were really cold around the middle of last month, so I dug out some heavier-weight yarn, and made this pair of socks in just 8 days. I think this may be some kind of record for me.


I only had two balls of each color, so I added in the darker color to get the leg length I wanted. They're soft and cozy and warm, and I've got another pair started, that may go to DH. But I've got more sport-weight yarn, so I'll be making myself some more heavier socks, too. My feet have always tended to be cold, but this year it seems worse than usual for some reason. The other thing is that those socks from heavier-weight yarn knit up quicker, so that's a really good thing.

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Another Pair of Socks Finished

I finished another pair of socks on November 12, and haven't shown them here yet. I haven't done any sewing to speak of this fall, but I've found time here and there to do a bit of knitting. These are for me, and they're just a plain pair of ribbed socks because no pattern stitching would show in this yarn, for whatever reason. I've used it, in two other colorways, and it's always fought with any pattern stitch -- so any more yarn like this in my stash (and yes, I have to admit there is more of it) will be plain socks. But it's lovely, wool and silk, and feels just great to wear. So plain socks it is. Anyhow, here's this most recent pair:


I like the rolled cuff on these -- sort of a fun little touch. Thanks for stopping by to play. Come back again soon.

Another Finished Pair of Socks

Here's another pair of socks I finished last month. These are also for DH. Just plain ribbed socks, but they're cozy, and he likes the colors, so he's happy. I finished these on November 7, but never posted them here.


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Moving = MIA Blogger

Well, there's been a lot going on here, but not much of it's been crafty. DH ended up in the emergency room with some chest pain the Tuesday night before I was supposed to leave for my retreat last month, and they admitted him to do some testing, so I decided not to go to my retreat after all. Sad, but I was where I needed to be.

Then, we've decided (some time ago, actually) to decrease our financial footprint here, since we still own (and are paying the mortgage on) the house in Ohio. Our rent currently is about 2.5 times our mortgage payment, and we decided that was a bit too much outlay every month. Plus, the house we're renting here is really poorly insulated, and has the whole back wall of windows, so the house is constantly cold, and our utility bills are pretty crazy. So we've found a larg(ish) apartment, and we're in the process of moving there. Some of the stuff from the house here will go to the apartment, and some will go back to Ohio, so we're doing the move piecemeal. We've got until mid-January to be out of the rental house, but we're thinking we may see if we can extend that to the end of January, just to give us a bit more wiggle room.

On a crafty note, here are the "Stashbuster" socks I made for DH, with leftovers from other completed socks.




I finished them on November 2, but never remembered to post here. The cool thing is that, when he's got his shoes on, no one can tell he's not wearing plain navy socks.

I've got some other things to share, but I'll do that in more posts later this week. I'm still trying to finish up a few quilts before the end of the year, but the moving stuff has got to get first priority. Thanks for stopping by to play. Come back again soon.

Not Sure Where the Time's Gone

It seems like from last Wednesday, I blinked and it was Saturday. Then Saturday was a really full day, and it seems like I blinked again, and here we are into a new week. It's been a whirlwind, and I couldn't tell you what I've been doing, but I know for sure I've been busy.

I did manage to finish a pair of socks for my DH last evening. He's happy with them, and I'm really happy that they're done.


I love the blues in this yarn, but the pinks were really annoying me. It seemed like the project that wouldn't end, for quite some time. I've cast on toes for "leftover" socks with the remainder of the yarn. They'll have crazy feet and conservative, one-color legs.

Today, I've got to find some time to sew! Thanks for stopping by to play. Come back again soon.

Tuesday -- Packing, and Another Pair of Socks

I finished up these socks yesterday. I love the colors -- they're fun, and it makes me happy to look at them. The picture's colors aren't completely true -- what looks gray here is a sort of sage-y, lime-y soft green.



I'm packing and getting ready for my time in Kansas City this week, at the Original Sewing and Quilt Expo. I'm taking some fun classes, or at least I expect they'll be fun. I'll post pictures of the class projects here, though they may very well not be in a finished state this week.

I'm off to check my list one more time, to make sure I don't forget anything. Gotta remember to pack my newest pair of socks! Thanks for stopping by to play. Come back again soon.

More Finished Socks

When I got home from retreat on Sunday afternoon, I felt pretty lousy. I pretty much went right to bed, and slept for a few hours. When I got back up, I felt a little better -- just being home in my own bed and my own environment helps some. I didn't feel up to unloading the truck, or doing any sewing, or even any knitting that required any thought. But I did feel able to finish up this pair of plain vanilla socks, which are for my friend Renae:

They're bright and happy, and I hope she'll enjoy wearing them.

I also had a knitting project at retreat with me, and worked on it a little bit each morning. It's a great way for me to ease into the day and get my brain in gear. Friday morning, I had so little left to do on these that I spent the extra hour to finish them up and weave in the ends. These are for DH, and he's already happily sporting them:


On Saturday, I was already feeling pretty bad and didn't really feel up to any more sewing. So I cast on the toes for a new pair of socks which will also be for DH. But this will be a project that will just live in his vehicle, so if we're out somewhere and I've forgotten to bring any knitting with me, I'll work on them. So it'll likely be quite some time before they're finished, but they have no deadline, so that's fine.

I'm feeling better today, though the cold became pretty nasty and I also developed laryngitis. I slept quite a bit yesterday, and that and time have seemed to help some.

Later today, I'll have a Quilter's Accountability post -- I haven't done one in months, but I really want to get back in that habit. I'm planning to do a lot of quilting and finishing things up in this last quarter of the year, so I hope to have lots of good stuff to post here.

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More Finished Socks

I recently changed from the 26 Pair Plunge to the 52 Pair Plunge -- so now, instead of 26 pairs of socks between 1 July 2011 and 30 June 2012, I'm trying to complete 52 pairs in that same time span. I've recently completed numbers 11-14:








I'm slightly ahead in my pace, but still need to finish almost a pair a week, on average. I still have a lot of partially-completed pairs, as well as more new things I'd like to start. I don't know if I'll actually finish 52 pairs of socks by the end of June, but I'll give it a good try. Even if I don't make it, I'll have lots of great new socks ;-)

My DH is getting some new socks out of this endeavor, as well. So he's happy about it too.

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