Stash busting idea

If you're like me you have those pesky one and two skein yarns kicking around that you just can't figure out what to do with them.  Berroco  has an excellent idea how to use up those awkward bits of your stash ..

If you, like me, find yourself daunted by the amount of yarn in your stash and want to use it up quickly, one way to do so is to knit with your yarn held doubled. That simply means that you hold two strands of yarn together while working on your project. Holding two strands of fingering weight yarn held together gives you a gauge that’s close to a DK weight yarn. Two strands of sport weight yarn held together are approximately the same as one worsted weight yarn.
Say you want to knit a sweater pattern that calls for a DK weight yarn, but you have an extraordinary amount of fingering weight yarn at hand. You can swatch the fingering weight yarn held doubled and, if your gauge is right, use that instead of having to purchase DK weight yarn

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Take Three ish ...

To bad this colour didn't grow on me like I was hoping it would.  But that's okay - I gave it an honest try - that's all I can ask for.  You know how sometimes a colour or combination just grows on you - that didn't happen here - even looking at this pic - it still isn't growing on me.  It didn't pick up the blues / purples like I was hoping it would.  I'm thinking it did the exact opposite and just 'blurred' the colours together.  Not to sure, but not for me

I know I really wanted a gray or brown for the heel - and that thought / wish must've been niggling in the back of my brain - also the idea of a short turn row heel speaks more to me as well.

I finally got a chance to check out the 'new' yarn store not to far from me - nice place :)  she features local yarns as well - hand dyed yarns .. I'll treat myself to them soon enough - I've some other socks to knit up first before I go ahead and purchase a hank of that.

So yet again,, this poor sock was frogged back to the beginning as tinking back all those rows was more patience than I had right then.  I've not knit in a day or two.  I'll be casting on this sock again tonight after I get done with supper - right now I'm off to make some home made pasta to have as a side with some spicy grilled chicken breasts that are for supper tonight.

So this time, the right colour and I'll do a short row heel for it as well .. the look of that heel is speaking to me :)

And of course we can't forget this is 9/11 - Never forget - Always remember

Back I Go

A huge thanks to Fiber Babble!  In response to her comment on my last post I answered my own quandry - If I continued and finished off with different yarn for the toe - not a big deal, but what happens in if the yarn doesn't end in roughly the same place on the 2^nd sock?  My OCD beastie wouldn't just twitch, it would convulse like mad!  So back I go to the heel shaping and use a different yarn.

I ran into a small problem when I pulled out the yarn I picked up to finish these socks - they are light fingering weight, while the yarn I've been using is fingering .. ah crap!  The wraps per inch are way short and it could be solved by doubling the yarn, but I can see severe issues when decreasing and trying to pick out the stitches I need - I would go mental and rip out my hair.  It's really to bad as this yarn would be perfect to finish off the socks or even as a contrast yarn for the heels and toes.  DRAT!  Next time check out yarn weight before buying it.  Although I can do other socks with this yarn - so a win there!

I dug into my oddball stash of single skeins and leftovers and found a few that are close in weight, but the colour wasn't the best match.  I picked the best one that is going to be a decent match - it will pull the purple and blue colours out of the yarn.  Should be an interesting mix me thinks.  It will prolly look as good as the pink could - I just had a different look in mind, but that's okay - My original choice was gray or brown.  So I'll be spending most of the day tinking back - the temptation to frog it all and start all over is almost overwhelming as it'll take the same amount of time to get back to the heel shaping, but naw .. don't want to put more frog stress on the beginning of the skein as there's already been enough with all the frogging from the previous sock pattern attempt.

I really am okay with this and not frustrated at all.  I know it's going to be worth it for the final product :)  I'm tempted to try the short row heel method as I do prefer the look of it - I'll decide when I get to that point

Update:  I opted to frog back to the beginning - tinking back all that way was just more than my patience could handle today LOL - I started at the other end of the skein where the yarn hadn't been abused yet.

So close ..

Just as I feared - I'm short. I'm roughly 1 ¹/₂" short.  I have to decide if that's close enough to the toe that it won't make my OCD twitch.  I'm thinking it's going to twitch like mad regardless LOL

On a good note, my yarn ends on a the dark colour which blends to the pink colour - which is rather lucky as I picked up a pink for the filler.

I tried on the sock and it's not as bad as I feared - I think I'll just go all the way to the end and then use the pink to finish with.  I'm supposed to end on row 9, 10, 19, or 20 - and I'm on row 7 now - so this just might work out me thinks .. me hopes LOL

It's either that or tink back to the heel and do that in pink and the toe in pink - not sure I want to tink back 30 rows for the instep / foot and then all the heel shaping to change to pink for the hell shaping - redo the foot / instep, then change to pink for the toe.  It might take just as long to frog the whole sock and start again as it would be to tink back all the way ..

I am of the mind to just keep going to see how it's going to look - if I don't like the way it makes my OCD twitch then I can tink it back to heel shaping.

At least this time, I'm not having issues with the pattern directions LOL

Ravelry Link - Midnight Oil Socks

Scratching my head ...

There are times, I am beyond amazed at my own ability to be a twit! I've been knitting along happy as a clam with the Candlepower pattern - my only concern was if I would have enough yarn - I still don't know .. it's going to be very close.  I guess I was so stressed about the amount of yarn left that I wasn't really paying attention to the stitches closely.

This pattern has S2KP and SSK - The part I'm working on right now has several rows that start with SSK and Kx - Instead of doing SSK, I was doing S2KP,  But on thinking about this - they are both double decreases - just slant in different directions - so I still have no idea where I went wrong.

Soooooo - tinking back roughly 5 rounds as that's where I know where I was on track.  Chances are I'm going to end up frogging this whole thing if I'm short on the yarn, but that's not the point - I want to do it right - just in case I've got enough and only have to do the toes a different colour - Anything is possible.

I am having fun with this project and can't wait to get then done and get to wear them.  Not that I'm wishing for cold weather . oh HELLZ NO!  Just want to wear them LOL

9.1.2016 - Update

I tinked back to the last round of the YO before the SSK began (8 rounds) and it's all worked out now - all stitches are where they're supposed to be - yea me!!