Socks galore--Bex, Nebula, and Stranded

I thought about posting these three socks separately, but thought against that. It takes me long enough to post that I might as well do it all at once. So, here we go...

First up is Bex. If you're a knitter, you've heard of Cookie A. If you're a sock knitter, you've definitely heard of her. She's an awesome designer. I sample knitted this sock for her book, Sock Innovation. Sadly, that sock had to be shipped away and I think it's part of a trunk tour for Cookie's book. They didn't fit me either. :-( I've had this design for about a year and I knew that I wanted to knit a pair for me.

First, I needed to figure out how to modify the charts. Cookie states that there are three separate main areas of the Bex design and it should be easy to resize them. Instead of doing that, I just added a column of purls to the right hand side of the set-up chart. I kept that extra column for the leg chart, but had to move them when I came to the end of the repeat. If you have the book, I moved them on row 26. I would decrease the extra stitch away at the beginning of that row and increase in the very center of that row. Ta-da! Problem solved and the socks fit great!

Details:
Pattern: Bex by Cookie A in Sock Innovation
Yarn: flydesigns Lacewing in Lavender
Needle: size 2.25mm for the leg and instep, size 2.0 for the gusset and sole
Notes: I added 1 extra purl stitch to the chart. That adds 4 stitches to one round. I had to shift that stitch to accommodate the chart shift at the end of a repeat.
Start: April 9, 2009
Finish: April 24, 2009

The next sock is Nebula, another Cookie A pattern. I test knitted this and it had to be done quickly. She wanted one sock completed in a week. Sounds doable for most---right? With all of the twisted stitches and mini cables, this sock took longer than usual for me. I did still finish the pair in a week. This pattern is pretty cool in that it looks complicated, but isn't. The charts are small and very easy to memorize after a few repeats.

This pattern comes in 4 sizes. I knit the largest size for the leg, but decreased to the next size down at the gusset. This left the sole of the sock much smaller in stitch count than the instep. I had to improvise when it came time to do the toe. A few of the other test knitters carried the twisted rib through the toe. I've done that once and didn't really like it. It looks pretty that way, but no one sees it in my shoe anyways. ;-) I'll go for comfort instead.

Details:
Pattern: Nebula by Cookie A
Yarn: Opal 4-ply solid in red
Needle: size 1 (2.25mm) for leg and size 0 (2mm) for foot
Notes: cuff down, knit largest size for the leg, decreased the gusset down to the next smaller size for the foot
Start: April 13, 2009
Finish: April 19, 2009

And finally, we have the stranded sock. I'm calling it Loopy's Loopy socks because of the patterning on it and the yarn that I used for it. These socks are in the book Knitting Marvelous Mittens by Charlene Schurch. I wanted to do them because I like how the stranded pattern is on the gusset and sole of the foot. I also like the seam down either side. That helps eliminate the jog that you can get with colorwork knitting.

Sock Knitter's Anonymous had a challenge to knit an under appreciated sock pattern. This pattern didn't have any projects listed in ravelry and no picture. I have been wanting to knit a stranded type pattern with one solid and one self-striping yarn. With this bold stranded pattern, I thought a self striping yarn would look great as one of the colors. I like how the Syncopation yarn has really wide stripes. It's too bad that it's so hard to get now. I bought this yarn a loooong time ago.

The name that I picked for this sock is fitting. These socks nearly drove me loopy. I had to knit three socks. The first sock was okay--stranding could be more even, but I'll live with it. The second sock turned out huge and I didn't discover that until I finished the sock. I had to frog the whole thing and start the second sock over again. The third sock came out great! It's probably my most evenly tensioned stranded project. Yay!

Details:
Pattern: Sock With Shaped Heel in the Knitting Marvelous Mittens book by Charlene Schurch
Yarn: Dream in Color Smooshy in Black Parade and sKnitches Syncopation in Loopy's Red Socks
Needle: size 1 (2.25mm) Knit Picks Classic Circular
Notes: modified charts to have 76 stitches instead of 84
Start: April 8, 2009
Finish: April 29, 2009

Now, the blog is all up to date with my finished projects. Well...of those that I can blog about. ;-) I've started a pair of plain stockinette socks for my son with some self-striping sock yarn from Elann. After that, I'm itching to design something.