Kninja Knitter

Yesterday I talked about the complex afghans/blankets I’ve knit along with the one I’m working on right now. Baby blankets are a common gift, too, though they’re not generally complicated. I like making them as baby gifts since babies come in so many shapes and sizes; and depending on the time of year they’re born, it can be a major challenge to make sweaters and such that fit them!

In fact, I knit a sweater and hat set for Christmas last year, intended for my grandson who was due in mid-January. He arrived two weeks early and never wore either item because they were too big for him at first, and then he outgrew them lickety-split!

I’m always working on at least one knitting project, and I usually have several going at once to keep things interesting. Plus, I have different sized projects as well as varying complexity. Spreadsheets are my friend for larger projects so I can set a due date and meet it fairly easily. But my go-to short-term or travel project is always socks!

This year, as I did in 2017, 2019 and 2021, I am participating in the Desert Vista Dyeworks “Monthly Sock Club.” This is hosted by an indie dyer who specializes in self-striping yarns. Her collection is massive! The Sock Club is a challenge that runs all year, rewarding knitters who complete one pair of socks each month within the month. Discount codes are offered based on the number of months in a quarter that socks are completed; and for Q2 and Q4, if you complete each month to date, you get a free skein of yarn.

As usual, I’m on track for the year. Ten pairs have been completed already…

I have had a few go-to sock patterns for “vanilla” knitting (plain stockinette” over the years. But a new pattern from a designer I know got my attention earlier this year. Sarah Jordan created one of my favorite patterns called CPCTC which I discovered a couple years ago. With a podcast-based craftalong this summer, I found that she had released a similar pattern with some tweaks to the structure of the heel and gusset, quintessential elements to a sock design. Starting in July, this has become my favorite sock pattern, called SHaGS, which stands for Simultaneous Heel and Gusset Socks.

While the Sock Club rules require using a brand new skein of yarn each month, we ARE allowed to make one scrappy pair per year. It’s a big help being able to go back to my leftovers to “assemble” a pair to save a little bit of money, particularly when it can take several weeks for an order to arrive since each skein is hand dyed.

I’ve opted to go the scrappy route for November, working with three different color way remnants plus another Neutral mini for the cuffs and toes. Here’s how they’ve worked up to date.

The only drawback to the helical stripe knitting in the socks is that I can’t knit them in the dark (aka movie theater). Looks like I need to cast on another pair for my movie knitting…

Susan at Desert Vista Dyeworks has announced that she will only run the club for one more year (the tenth for her), so I guess I’ll be altering my schedule of odd years to participate. In recent years she also modified the club to allow for knitting non-sock items, so I may make a hat or two next year (Ysolda Teague’s Musselburgh or something similar). Time will tell!

Knit on.