As I mentioned, I recieved my sockapalooza socks last week. These pretty socks where made by Regina from Sweden, I checked on the the list of paloozers! and she doesn’t have a blog 
I am doing my investigating as I would love to know what yarn she used, as I love the colour on the toes, heel and cuff.
EDIT: The yarn is Bambino (Baby) Ull from Norway, and the pattern is Old Shale Two Yarn Sock Pattern by Stitches of Violet.
Yarn: Natural Dye Studio Sock Yarn in Lilac Sun
Pattern: Lacy Scallops (pdf)
Needles: 2.5mm DPNs.
Notes: My main alteration to this pattern was after the picot edging, I thought it looked a little bulky going straight from the joining row into the pattern, so I added an extra purl line (row 12 from the repeat). As well as stopping the bulkiness, I think it frames the lace. The lace part of this sock is very easy to knit. I had a few problems with heel, I didn’t really understand the pattern, I soon realized as long as you knitted the last stitch on each line and slipped alternative stitches you will get there.
I had quite a lot of yarn left over from this project and what does one do with leftover sock yarn?
You make a Lacy Scallops Pouch!
After row 8, I did an eyelet row and this continued in stocking stitch, until I ran out of wool. (I did leave a small amount to make a crochet chain cord). Unfortunately, the pouch is a little too small to hold the socks, but I think it will be perfect vessel to sent a little something extra to my pal.
The Sockapalooza Socks are finished, all the socks I have knitted to date have been plain, I have never had the need to block socks before as Alison pointed out lace socks look so much better blocked, so I returned to SnB Nation, found two wire coat hangers (thank goodness for the dry cleaners). and made some sock blockers (some photos tp follow).
My attempt at knitting socks with two circular needles is coming along well, I managed to turn the heel and am decreasing for the toes. I opted to re-try a short row heel rather than heel flap, the stripes are smaller with this magic stripe yarn, than with Opal and I thought it might look silly with a larger stripes on the heel.
Of course, I can’t just have one pair of socks on the needles and this weekend, I cast on Hedera (my first attempt at a Cookie A pattern), I think these socks are going to be a breeze to knit, the pattern is easy to memorize (only four rows for a repeat), and it looks really affective.
Unfortunately, we had an extremely busy weekend, and I was unable to do much knitting. On Sunday we joined the thousands of others under the arch to see Muse, strangely, we on Saturday we discovered several of our friends were going, so most of the early part of the gig was a series of text messages and hunting in bars for friends.
Traditionally, Tuesday is meant to be Knit-Along Day, so I thought I would update with my progress on my sockapalooza socks. I finished my first sock over a fortnight ago and have just turned the heel on the second sock – all was going well, at least that was what I thought!
I looked back at the first sock to calculate how many repeats of the pattern I needed to complete for the foot and I noticed an error on the in the repeat (in between the blue lines) I missed out rows 5 and 6, only making three eyelet rows not the four, I have in the other scallops.
Normally, I would let this slide but these socks are a gift and I wanted to create something truly special, so I am going to have to rip part of the first sock.
I know the summer of socks isn’t due to start for another few weeks, but the sunshine in London has prompted me to cast on yet more socks. Recently a few sock patterns I have been looking at, are written for two circular needles rather than double pointed needles, I figured this was the perfect opportunity to learn a new technique.
Alice recommended the tutorials on knittinghelp.com, so I had a quick look and I suddenly realised like knitting with DPN this looks more complicated than it is. I decided to experiment with the yarn I recently received in a swap – as it is self patterning it is really only suited to Stockinette socks, the yarn came with a pattern on the ball band so I hunted in my knitting supplies, I found two 3.25mm circular needles and cast on! After a few nights of great TV (24 finale, Prison Break and Heroes), I have knitted almost six inches of the leg.
1. Provisional Cast On and Eyelet Row. 2. Picked Up Stitches. 3. Knitting the Picked Up Stitches.
4. Picot Edge. 5. Finished! 6. Party Rings.
I have cast on the second sock for sockapalooza, this time I was a little more relaxed and could take some photos of the picot edging. It is extremely un-nerving unpicking your casting on, then having to knit with three needles, however the results are worth it 
This colourway is called Lilac Sun, however, I think the curves from the pattern look like Party Rings so I am renaming this shade Party Rings.
Also this weekend, I got this Magic Stripes Socks from Julia as part of the Superfluous Sock Yarn Swap.
I have to admit it I love little swap like this, I love receiving a parcel (everyone loves post don’t they), I got some new yarn to create with. Even though, I didn’t manages to reduce my stash I did something far more impressive, I re-fell in love with some yarn from my stash.
As I mentioned before, I have no idea about magic loop knitting, even though the Lacy Scallops (pdf) is meant to be done in this manner, I am attempting to knit them on DPN’s.
I had 24 stitches on each needle for the first 3 repeats - I used a stitch marker after the 12th stitch on needle 2, so I would know that the stitches on needle 1 and half of needle 2 related to needle one in the pattern.
Continuing in this manner - I decreased the six stitches and continued the pattern with 22 stitches on each needle and it seems to be working out just fine.
My pal had mentioned she didn’t like too long socks and tended to wear shorter ankle socks, so I decided to only do 5 repeats of the pattern.
When I reached the heel, I was torn between knitting a plain stocking stitch heel flap or knitting the fancy heel flap that the pattern calls for. After looking at the completed Lacy Scallop FO’s in Google - I decided to follow the pattern and I am really pleased with the result!
I have been taking advantage of Rule 2.a in the guidelines for Knit from Your Stash and have ordered several hanks of Natural Dye Studio yarn. I first brought this yarn for my One Skein Secret Pal, last year and of course, I had to buy some for myself. However the yarn has sat in the drawer since the summer, when I signed up for Superfluous Sock Yarn Swap, I decided to send this yarn to my spoilee.
The thought of being separated from this yarn, drew my right back to eBay. My plan was to buy some yarn to make my sockapalooza sock, my pal is from America and loves colour, so I thought a hand dyed British socks would be perfect. The colour is Lilac Sun, as for the pattern, I am thinking something like Lacy Scallops (pdf) or Razor Shell (pdf).
Of course, I couldn’t bid on just one lot and ended up buying four different colours – and there was me thinking the Superfluous Sock Yarn Swap, was designed to help stash-bust not to encourage me to buy more yarn!
As I am knitting from my stash I have already decided what socks I am going to make. I am going to jump on the Cookie A bandwagon, the Lipstick (bright pink) is going to become Hedera, the Regency (pink/lilac )is going to become some Pomatomus and I guess if you are going to knit some Cookie A socks you have to make some Monkey socks which will be the Midnight Ice (blue/white).
To help encourage me to knit these socks, I have signed up to the Summer of Socks KAL, I doubt I will be able to knit four pairs of socks this summer - I am sure SSS will set in but you never know. I guess I should finish the my jaywalkers.
I am trying to convince myself that buying yarn from Knit Picks is benefiting numerous knitters therefore it doesn’t matter that I am breaking the rules of Knit from your Stash, I could place an order entirely of sock yarn – but I have been thinking about patterns I love, like Central Park Hoodie and Fetching and have been buying to make those projects.
I signed up to Knit from your Stash at the beginning of the year in an attempt to clear some room, get more organised and cross some items of my “To Knit” list… However, since then I have not been knitting. I am still slowly working on my sister’s cardigan (it’s only been 8 months) but I haven’t even put a dent in my stash.
As it is my sister’s birthday this month, I thought I’d knit her another pair of birthday socks, like I did for my Mum. So as it stands my To Knit list is…
I signed up to the Superfluous Sock Yarn Swap, however, when deciding what yarn to swap, I rediscovered The Natural Dye Studio, and have ended up ordering more sock yarn, and so my stash is growing!
Speaking of lists, I rediscovered 43things recently and I decided to try and read the previous six Harry Potter Books, before the release of the seventh book, according to The Leaky Cauldron, I have 73 days and counting down…
Of course, I can’t just have one list of things to do so far, I have 9.
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