Rainbowllenics Socks

With two pairs of socks (and a hat) all finished in the past week, I've been thinking about what to cast on next.  However, a perfect storm of events all came together to inspire me to cast on my next pair of socks for me, my Rainbowllenic Socks.

First, Felici Fingering has been discontinued by KnitPicks so I had six pairs of socks worth of Felici show up this week.  I've been wanting to knit another pair of Felici socks.

Second, I've been constantly tempted to wear the Jaywalkers I made for my mom's birthday socks (and I showed off last time).

Third, I was checking out the Ravellenic Games 2014 rules and found a category for "The Rainbowllenics Parade".  The description for this category is "This parade is to celebrate rainbow projects! No matter your reason for choosing to craft a rainbow (any rainbow!), be it for LGBTQ solidarity or pride, a personal protest against the anti-LGBTQ laws in Russia and elsewhere, or you just like rainbows, here’s the place to share your beautiful work with the group at-large."

All this came together into making my Rainbowllenic Felici Jaywalker Socks.  I will be casting on in a couple of hours with the start of the Opening Ceremonies.

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I'm not participating in the Ravellenics in any sort of formal way.  Actually I was planning on ignoring it, and the Olympics, all together this year because of Russia's anti-LGBT Propaganda laws. But this approach seems like a nice balance, a small, insignificant statement in support of the LGBT individuals currently being persecuted in Russia and I get some awesome rainbow socks out of it.

Two weeks, three pairs

[gallery type="rectangular" ids="3096,3098,3099"] After not finishing a pair of socks for me since last August (during the Ravellenic Games) I finished up two pairs of socks for me and a pair for my sister Carla.

I love making socks, but it took a little kick in the pants to finally get back into the swing of things. I find them the perfect project.  They are small projects (meaning they are quick to finish when I actually work on them), but they can be intricately detailed (but they are knit in the round so all knits), and they eventually wear out which means you can keep making more.  I'm finding I'm reaching critical mass of scarves, shawls and stoles, they spend far too much time in a chest by the door and I forget to wear them.

So I've already cast on for my next two pairs, because I really need to alway have a pair on the go.

FO: Tower Hill Birthday Socks

So, I love my mom.  And after last year's disastrous pair of socks (which didn't fit right and hurt her feet) I wanted to make it up for her.

So I made her a pair of stripey socks, because everyone needs stripey socks, no matter how old, or young they are.

But, not only that, they were custom made for her.  I'm trying to design the perfect sock pattern for me, so this was a chance to try out the pattern I have been designing in Felici Sport as seen in my Kingpurse and Sunny Being a Kid socks.

So, turns out I was able to solve all the problem, the bottoms are comfy, the legs are long enough and they are a fun, stripey pattern.

Happy Birthday Mom (back on October 12th), I might have been 7 days late out of the womb, and this post might be 2 months late, but I got your socks made in time this year!

- Details -

Project Name: Tower Hill Birthday Socks

Pattern: Mine!

Recipient: MummyAnne - my superawesome Mom

Yarn: KnitPicks Felici in Botany

Modifications:

• Pattern is still in development, that way they are design features not mods.

New Skills:

• Stockinette Short-Row Heel

Feedback:

• Yarn: Felici is nice, but it is probably more of a light fingering than a standard fingering. I find myself preferring Felici Sport to Felici Fingering.
• Pattern: It's still not perfect. but I'm getting close to my perfect plain sock pattern.

Re-Knit?: Yes, becuase I will get my perfect plain sock, and Felici is my preferred plain sock yarn so I will be knitting these again, and again, and again.

FO: Kingpurse Sock

Editors Note: Here we go again, I have another batch of FOs to share, these ones start in mid-August and run through mid-October.  I went on a bit of a knitting hiatus in mid-September for some unknown reason, but I am back with a vengeance.

So Kingpurse, has to be the best fitting, most comfortable pair of frankensocks I have made yet. Rather than frankensocks I need to think of them as superband socks, putting together all my favorite sock elements into a single sock. The toe, which uses an shallower toe by spacing the increases differently, the y-shaped garter stitch heel that takes up 60% of the body of the sock, the 3x1 ribbed leg that fits so nicely.

Also, I LOVE the way the stripes worked up on this pair.  Rather than my usual plan of just starting the socks and letting them stripe differently, I tried to make this pair match, however I didn't notice that the stripes were uneven and the orange ones appeared at a different interval, so when I started knitting all was well and when I got to the first stripe they were the same width by different colors, and I just went with it.  I love the way they are the same but different, kind of like me!

The only thing I don't like about this sock is the bind-off, I tried a doubled bind off (where you knit one, slip back, then K2tog tbl, and repeat).  It turned out much to sloppy and loose, so I will be going back to Jenny's Super Stretchy Bind Off.

I think with this I have perfected the sock recipe, I need to put it to further test. I tried it on fingering weight yarn, but I found that with the looser gauge the heel looked funny, so I may just release it as a sport weight pattern, or try to get the gauge on Felici fingering down to what I use for Felici sport.

- Details -

Project Name: Kingpurse Socks

Pattern: My own design

Recipient: Me

Yarn: KnitPicks Felici Sport

Modifications:

• Did my "doubled" short row heel, that increases the amount of space in the heel without loosening the ankle
• I didn't do Jeny's Super Stretchy Bind Off, and I regretted it, I will be going back to that for the next pair.

New Skills:

• I'm still refining the design, so I'm still learning about designing.

Feedback:

• Really getting things going on this yarn and design, but I'm still not done yet.

Re-Knit?: Already have my next pair on the go.

FO: It's Sunny Being a Kid

Ahh, plain vanilla socks, they are great knitting a comforting friend in times of stress and boredom and with with stripe-y Felici they become something greater than just vanilla socks.

I have been enjoying working with Felici, I have made 2 other pairs of Felici socks (Groovy and Recess) and I wore them all winter.  While I have enjoyed the pattern I was working, I wanted to try different heels, and when I ran across the garter short-row heel of the Up + Down Socks in Simply Sockupied eMag (which as a side note is a great publication for learning basic sock stuff and a great format) I was sold.  However it has a short-row toe and wasn't designed to be two-at-a-time so I decided to hijack the heel and act like old Frankenstein and make myself a hybrid/mutant sock.

I think this, with a modified slightly more roomy heel that I just figured out yesterday, might be my new go to vanilla sock.

In addition to being awesome, these are my May entry to my Year of Socks. I have a pair of patterned socks on the go, but with my lacy test knit cowl (that I hope will be released soon-ish), a crocheted cowl, some handspun yarn and two woven scarves, I'm only on the leg repeats of the patterned socks right now.  So these will be my May socks and hopefully I will get my patterned pair done for June.

- Details -

Project Name: It's Sunny Being a Kid

Pattern: Proto-Casserole Socks (a plain sock pattern I have been designing), but are a hybrid of the Up+Down Socks and the Kid Stuff

Recipient: Me

Yarn: KnitPicks Felici Sport in Sunny Day, a 2011 Color

Modifications:

• Well, these are hybrid socks, so I took the toe and leg from the Kid Stuff and the heel from Up+Down Socks.

New Skills:

• Short Row Heel: LOVE IT!  I find that the arch/instep fit more tightly than a heel flap sock.
• Garter Short Rows: LOVE IT TOO!  I'm finding myself more and more in love with Garter Stitch, I may feel differently about Garter Short Rows after I make my own Color Infection Affection Shawl

Feedback:

• Yarn: Felici Sport is one of my favorite yarns, it makes for interesting plain socks and is so soft and wonderful. No knots or big jumps in this one, so that is a good thing.
• Pattern:  I want to make the heel cup bigger, and I have my proof of concept so my next pair will have deeper short-row garter heels.

Re-Knit?: Yep, next pair is already on the needles and I have an impressively large stash of Felici.