knitting

Frank Ochre Knit Socks

Well, if you’ve read my blog in the past few years or so, you might have seen a few knitting projects come though! I love following knitwear designers, I love yarn, and I love the beautiful things you can make. I however, am a very slow knitter (I don’t mind that one bit) and only knit when the mood strikes. So sometimes a project takes me a very long time – like these Frank Ochre knit socks!

Frank Ochre Knit Socks

I adore this color! It’s warm and happy and perfect for fall and cheerful for winter. I think I finished them in the summer sometime on a car trip, but stuffed them back in my knitting bag and forgot about them.

Frank Ochre Knit Socks

I’m So Basic Pattern is so good!

I used the I’m So Basic pattern by Summer Lee Knits. It was wonderful. Like honestly, the perfect sock to knit. If you recall, I knit my first pair of socks during the first summer of COVID, so it was pretty easy to keep knitting away on them. I did struggle with understanding the toe-up concept with that pair, but I managed and the socks ended up a little wonk, but hey, I made socks! So I was determined to get a pair of socks made that I would wear, and I jumped on the Summer Lee bandwagon when she released this very generous free I’m So Basic sock pattern that includes tons of helpful photos and tips and videos! yay!

So here they are in all their winter glory! Just in time before a huge snow storm here! Thanks for joining along on my blog, I appreciate each and every comment and bit of encouragement. I’m hoping to get my next sewing pattern out very soon. Keep an eye out for that, I’ll be sure to post about it here on my blog.


Sock Details


Have a great weekend! 🙂

knitting

Rust Reunion Cardigan

As soon as my friend Brienne released her pattern, the Reunion Cardigan, I knew I had to make one! A rust Reunion Cardigan to be exact!

Rust Reunion Cardigan

Even though I’ve been knitting for gosh, eight years now. I still don’t have a huge knitting skillset, and I’m okay with that. Every now and then I try a new pattern and pick up a new skill here and there. So when she released the Reunion Cardigan I immediately felt like it was something I could work on and probably finish! So I started it last summer, maybe in June or July I think? And sure enough, I finished it just a month or two ago. Of course I couldn’t find buttons that I wanted to use, so it sat and waited. But I found some! And then we took some pictures! And now I can wear it!

Rust Reunion Cardigan

I had only tried one knitted garment prior to this one. I never really wore it, but I loved the color. I’m really happy I stuck with this one. Brienne wrote a fabulous pattern and it was well planned out and felt very approachable by this newbie garment knitter.

I think my button band turned out okay. I still am not sure I did the pick-up ratio correctly, but I don’t even care. It’s a cardigan with two sleeves and it has buttons and buttonholes — so that works for me!

Only a couple customizations for me, I knit the body a few inches longer and did a full-length sleeve. I’m happy with the result! Next I’m planning on finishing my second pair of knit socks. I can’t wait to wear them and show them to you here!

knitting

Knitting socks!

Hand knit socks, using My First Toe-Up Sock pattern by Susan B. Anderson

Hand knit socks, using My First Toe Up Sock pattern by Susan B. Anderson

I hope your August is going well. It’s been such a difficult year, hasn’t it?! It’s been a challenging one to navigate as a family and as a small business. I think part of why knitting has jumped back on my queue is because of the uncertainty of everything. I’ve been wanting to knit socks for a very long time and just never made the commitment to myself to get started. I had gotten a skein of sock yarn from my local knitting shop a couple of years ago and it just sat in a drawer.

Well, I finally dug up the motivation to just start! It’s tough to be a beginner at anything, but it is a very very good reminder for me. I don’t think I’ll ever consider myself an advanced sewist, even though I’ve been sewing almost daily for more than 12 years now (and had been sewing many years before that!). But knitting has been a skill that intrigues me so much. And although I’ve got a few years of knitting under my belt, it’s been infrequent and gets pushed aside for whatever life throws at us. Socks always seemed much more difficult than my usual cowl or mitten. So, my family and I got to go camping for a few days in June and I wound my skein and grabbed a pattern (after so.much.research.) and was determined. I think I cast on one hundred times! Seriously, I messed up royally over and over again. Even though it was frustrating I just kept at it! I needed to figure it out and I knew eventually things would click. And they did!

My first sock took me over a month to complete. My second sock took a week and half I think? Even though there are many flaws, I am so happy with how these turned out. They’re socks after all! They look like a sock and can be worn so I call that a win! I gave them to my youngest daughter (because they fit her!) and promptly went shopping for a second skein of sock yarn. I’m excited to learn even more on my next pair.

I hope that if you’re new to sewing, that you stick with things. I know there’s a huge learning curve, but even if you can grab a friend and work through things together I think it can give you such a feeling of accomplishment. And I think we all need to feel that in times like these!

Yarn: Abacus Dyeworks (color is Secret Garden) purchased from Yarn Cakes
Pattern: My First Toe-Up Socks by Susan B. Anderson