FO: Plain old socks

Nothing like a pair of good, plain, stockingette socks. They are the kind that you can take in your bag with you anywhere, knit in cafes, bars, restaurants, on the bus, while having a conversations. After I finished these, I found that I was missing having something for my hands to do in all of these situations! I will need to start a new pair of plain socks ASAP… I was a bit silly and lost the bands for the wool that I used. I do remember that it is an NZ wool, bought in two separate 50g balls – on sale at a shop in Tauranga. A mix of wool and nylon, the usual for sock wool. It feels tough and a little scratchy on my feet, but I think that they will soften up with washing and wearing. 

 I always knit my socks toe-up, and I cast on 26 stitches instead of the smaller number that the pattern (All the Math) suggests. I don’t like having flappy little pointy toes! I’ve knitted so many pairs of socks using this pattern now, that I hardly actually refer to it. Sometimes I just need a reminder when it comes to turning the heel to get the exact counts of stitches. I used a new (to me) kind of increase in these socks, as you can see in the picture above, and I am in love with it. It’s a Lifted Increase: LLI and RLI are the codes for the left and right leaning versions. It’s a bit complicated to get your head around, but once your head is all wrapped around it, it’s easy and makes a lovely looking increase. If you want to try it, there is a pretty clear tutorial here. 

 

 

The heels are reinforced with a slip one knit one on all of the right side rows. It makes such a thick, cushy heel, and I haven’t had a pair like this wear through yet. I have, however, had a couple of holes in the bottom part of the heel, which is not reinforced. 

I also changed the ribbing on the top of the cuff to a ‘knit through back loop, purl one’ style, because I think it looks a lot tidier than the regular K1P1 or K2P2 ribbing. I bind off using Jenny’s Surprisingly Stretchy Bind Off, as always. 

 

Toasty. 

 

Tastes and Toes

I’ve recently discovered the most amazing website.  I don’t know if you’ve heard the term “Food Porn”, but this site is definitely full of it.  It’s called TasteSpotting and collects photos and descriptions of food sent in by people (and edited by humans), which you can then click on to get the recipe via a blog or something.  It’s so delicious.  I haven’t been able to stop looking at it for the last two days, but luckily this turned out to be productive, because last night’s dinner (and today’s lunch – can’t wait!) came out of it!  This is my first ever risotto (I won’t count being the designated stirrer of my friend’s lovely mushroom risotto).  It’s not a hard recipe, but not one you’d want to cook in summertime, as it involves a lot of standing at the stove and stirring.

 

Lemon Risotto with Peas and Leeks from Kitchen Grrrls.

It’s also the first time I’ve cooked leeks.  I think they are nice because they give bulk and nutrition, and feel like onions, but don’t have a super distinct flavour, so they let the lemon flavour of the risotto come through.

 

Here is the finished product:

I have to say, risotto doesn’t photograph very well…  But it tastes delicious!  I can’t wait for my lunch!

Now for the toes part:

If you’re a sock knitter, you may know what that is.  That is a sock being knitted from the toe up.  I’m pretty darn excited about this, as my boyfriend the Pilot will attest to – I keep interrupting whatever he is doing to point and say “It’s a toe!  It’s a toe!”.  I’m pretty sure he understands how exciting it is… Hmm..

 

Anyway, after numerous failed attempts at various ways of casting on, I used Judy’s Magic Cast-On, which is indeed magic.  I tried two other ways, the Short Row Cast-On and the “Easy” Toe (not so easy for me), and the Magic Cast-On was definitely the easiest way to do it for me.

 

I decided to knit these socks toe up because Alice told me that the wool knits quite tightly, and also I want to use all of it!  I love the idea of toe up socks because of that – when I was knitting my last pair I just kept stressing out that I would run out of wool just before my toes or something!  So this method, because it starts right at the end of the toe means that I can keep increasing until the sock seems big enough around for me.

 

Right, back to work.