A Pine Tree Sock

Pattern: Pine Tree Socks by Katherine Misegades, free pattern here

Yarn: Dale Heilo, 3 skeins of 50g

Needles: 3 mm

The Katherine Misegades sock is made with a special heel, which is very cool. There are no short rows, and no picking up stitches. There are no special heel stitches and this allows the patterning to flow all the way down the back.


They are super comfortable. I love that they are nice and long. Also, the way the sock is angled gives it a shape that fits my foot very nicely. Now I am almost looking forward to the cold so that I can wear my Pine Tree Socks. As soon as I finish the other one, of course.
Thank you, Katherine!

Also, my user name on Ravelry is mohairkid. Or The Mo-hair Kid as we like to say it 'round these parts.

Pine Tree Socks

Thanks to Anni, I have discovered some wonderful socks. They are the Pine Tree Socks from Katherine Misegades. Her name may be familiar to you from her beautiful collection The Tongue River Farm Sock Collection.

The Pine Tree Socks feature knit and purl trees along the front and back and a small cable decorating the sides. Aren't they sleek and pretty? Don't they look warm? I think they will be perfect for living at Pine Cone Lodge this winter. And not just because of the name, though that's a bonus. Pine Cone Lodge can be pretty chilly!

Like Katherine, we also have tall spruces around our house, and I can see why she would not want to take hers down. They add so much character and atmosphere.

Katherine Misegades' blog features many beautiful designs for both socks, sweaters, hats, and scarves, along with thoughtful, inspiring quotes. This awesome sweater reminds me of a traditional Norwegian pullover called a "vams". She also has several free sock patterns.

My last pair of socks had some lace, and maybe it's not so practical to have wool socks with holes in them... doesn't that defeat the purpose of staying warm? I think it might be a good time for me to start on some socks again. :)

Photo from Katherine's blog.

Ooops, and I did some socks, too...

Ribbed Lace socks from Sensational Knitted Socks.



Yarn: Silja from Gjestal
Needles: 2.5 mm
Pattern: Ribbed Lace from the Eight Stitch Patterns chapter.
I love this book, and I can't wait to see the new one from Ms. Schurch!

For my second pair I thought I would try top down socks. These were started for me by my mother back in October. I liked toe-ups better for a couple of reasons. First, here I ended up with a small amount of leftover yarn, and second, it took me forever to get around to grafting the toe! Should I admit that the second sock was actually done about a month ago?

Trying to get creative while looking for a suitable background for my sock portrait. Turns out granite makes socks fuzzy!

All Blue

Thank you so much for the great compliments on the Glowing Colors sweater. Pippi thanks you, too!

I have a new favorite distraction now, which is watching the live Elecam, from the Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee. I became aware of this sanctuary a few years back when seeing a National Geographic program about elephants being retired from zoos and circuses and allowed to move there. If you have ever seen this program, you know how touching their story is, and how happy they are to be able to live in a big family again, and not be living singly as most of them were. Both my husband and I cried when two of the elephants were reunited after thirty years. I love watching this webcast and seeing the animals just move around closely together. They are so sweet. If you are lucky you can catch them having a blast in one of the ponds.

In knitting news, you all were right, socks are fun! My first socks are finished, and actually they have been finished since last week, but the thought of making a "modeled" shot kept me procrastinating. It's cold, and I don't want show off my purple long-johns, and besides, purple doesn't seem to photograph well anyway.

Pattern: Beaded Rib toe up socks from Sensational Knitted Socks
Yarn: Gjestal Silja in denim blue

My only problem was that I didn't stretch out the ribbed fabric before measuring my gauge and calculating the number of cast-on stitches. Silly me! Therefore they are a little bit big and are going to be for the husband. Good thing I picked a dark color!

They were fun to make, but not nearly as interesting to look at as all the cool socks you all are making out there. I have ordered some handpainted sock yarn for future fun, though.


I have also started working on a scarf in beautiful, tweedy Dale Sisik, which I was lucky enough to get in a swap with Kris a few months ago. The colorway is Camel, and the yarn is delightful! So soft and silky. It's a mohair, wool, acrylic, viscose blend. I join the chorus of people wishing it had not been discontinued.


And there is more! My next sock project is this turquoise lacy sock, also from Sensational Knitted Socks. Top down this time. Actually my mother started this one for me when she came to visit me from Norway, so I am kind of cheating. The yarn is again Silja.



While she was here, she also knitted me some mittens. She was really inspired when we went to Knitting Treasures in Plymouth, where she found this pattern for Newfoundland Mittens (click on the picture to see the pattern better). The yarn is Brown Sheep Lambs Pride Worsted, and I was the one who picked out the bright colors, Kiwi and Sapphire. I keep finding myself gravitating towards brights recently. They are really warm and the Lambs Pride wool/mohair mix is super soft.

We also picked up the book Jackets for Work and Play from Knitter's Magazine which is excellent! She took it with her of course, and I may have to go and get my own copy. It was so interesting that my mother, coming from Norway, was finding all the knitting interest here inspiring. She tells me that all the yarns stores near where she lives have closed!

Sensational Sock

I finished my first ever sock, and I am very proud of myself. I must show a picture. The pattern is Beaded Rib from Sensational Knitted Socks, and it's a toe-up pattern.



Now, I have a question for all you sock knitters out there. What is your favorite way to cast off for toe-up socks?

Turns out that knitting toe-up is not completely idyllic. I don't usually knit things where the cast off is very important, so I always cast off in the most basic way. But the basic cast off flares with ribbing. I tried several different methods, and they all looked equally mediocre. So I went back to the basic, and cast off in pattern. I found this to be the least offensive. It's not all that elastic, however. These are intended for my husband and he found it loose, while I found it a little tight on me.

Is there a perfect ending to my sock?

I give in

Socks, socks, socks are everywhere. I love handknitted wool socks, and I still wear some made for me by my grandmothers. Thick socks for winter boots. They are so comfortable and they could never, never be duplicated by something store-bought.

Myself, though, I was never interested in knitting socks, except for replacing my grandmothers' socks when they wear out some day. When Nancy Bush started coming out with her sock books, oh more than ten years ago, I thought why would anybody want to knit socks enough to write a book about it? How many socks could a person possibly want? Socks are just for utility, kind of dull. I mostly associated handknit socks with Birkenstocks, and I was never one for Birkenstocks either. Knitting socks was just silly when you could be knitting a sweater, or a jacket, or a scarf, something that can be seen while you are wearing it. To me, knitting was all about the glory of a beautiful sweater, the drape and warmth of a large knitted fabric.

Forgive me for my prejudice. My resolve to never make socks is wearing down. First of all, there are all these magically beautiful sock yarns. Here is one that Kris showed on her blog, and here is the result. Turquoise, lime green, with a touch of yellow, such a gorgeous color combination. Here is another on Yahaira's blog. The stripes are so cheerful, looking at them just make me smile. I drool over Lornas Laces Bittersweet and Socks That Rock County Clare and Curious Yarns Ocean. The truth is, I really just want more reasons to handle beautiful, gorgeous, soft, colorful yarn.


So, I determined to knit some socks. I started my preparations by buying a book. I like to do my research properly. The Charlene Schurch book Sensational Knitted Socks seemed like a good comprehensive intro. Charts for making all the patterns in any gauge, and toe up, toe down, any way you want. The patterns are divided into chapters with four stitch patterns, five stitch patterns, cable patterns and so on, all of which you can make in any gauge and any size. I LOVE this kind of layout. And after a while I had to have Nancy Bush Vintage Socks, who could resist?

And then I started picking up a sock yarn here and there. First secretly some Wildfoote in brown and gray, handknit socks were for boots after all. This was months before I even acknowledged that knitting socks might be ok. Then I got a bunch of Silja, in solid colors, I had to stock up as it was being discontinued in this country. And some Plymouth Sockotta. And some Patons Kroy. And some GGH Marathon. Last week I got a ball of Trekking. It doesn't seem so expensive to get a skein here and there. Wait, is this some kind of marketing ploy?




The time is right for my first basic, solid colored sock:



I decided to do a very simple pattern for the first pair. This is the Beaded Rib in Sensational Socks, knit with Silja sockyarn. I am extremely paranoid about either running out of yarn, or making the sock too short, so it's toe up for me this time. I am also extremely picky about wanting socks that are very stretchy, so I went with a variation of rib. For the same reason, I will probably never do anything really fancy in patterning.

I am enjoying it. It's going pretty fast in spite of the thin needles. Each round is so short, that when I tell myself I'll just do one more round I end up doing several. The sock is growing at a VERY satisfying rate. And there will be no finishing, and only four ends to darn in. I might be a convert! But will they be comfortable? Will I be able to wear wool socks over bare feet? Time will tell.

From a fashion standpoint, one thing I have not figured out yet, is when I will wear them. All my shoes are either dressy for wearing with hose, or they are for wearing with bare feet in the summer. I don't wear any shoes at all that require "trouser socks". I certainly can't wear them with sneakers.

Will this be a fashion faux pas? Will I be able to coordinate? Stay tuned.