I've got socks!

I finally finished the Cedar Creek socks yesterday! I made them toe-up, both at once on a 40" Addi turbo circular, size 1, which is 2.5 mm (my size 1 dpns are 2.25 mm, and I have a set of size 1.5 dpns that are 2.5 mm). My purpose in doing them toe-up was to make the legs as long as I wanted, instead of the 4.5 - 5 inches specified in the pattern. I finally quit when they were 7" long! I had estimated the amount of yarn needed to do the picot hem and butterflied it off, marking the start of those 8 yds with a safety pin through a slip knot. I started the hem before I got to that last 8 yards, though. After I got the knitting part done, I had to figure out how to attach the hem inside the sock. I had seen a suggestion on another blog about using a Kitchener stitch to sew the hem down. First, I slid the sock off the circular and onto 4 dpns. I tried to do the Kitchener sort of free-hand at first -- a bit of a disaster. So I found a use for my set of short (5") size 1 dpns -- on the inside of the sock, I picked up the top loop of the stitches I wanted to Kitchener the stitches on the needle to, and went from there. This method allowed me to see what I was picking up, making sure they were all on the same row. I was actually a row below the first row of the hem. Oh, and I picked up just 1/4 of the stitches at a time, so I wasn't dealing with such a porcupine of needles.


Next up: the Sixth Sense socks from Six Socks KAL. I have just under 2 weeks before the new pattern is posted on June 1st. I'm making these cuff-down, one at a time, on dpns. The yarn is Stahl Socka Color # 9193 -- I think it's old enough that the color number will have changed if it's still available. It appears to be #2401, in the Fortissima Colori/Socka Color by Schoeller+Stahl.


And in today's mail... the gorgeous new Fairgrounds colorway of STR, with an intriguing pattern for a sock with a sideways cuff done in Linen Stitch.

On the domestic front, I have attempted to make sourdough starter using only flour and water, left out on the counter for several days, fed every 24 hours with another 1/2 cup each of flour and water. It seemed bubbly and done after about 48 hours, but I fed it again. The next night, it wasn't as bubbly, but I decided to try making bread with it anyway. Maybe not such a good idea -- it's in the bread machine right now, and, well, it isn't risen... and it's up to the baking part of the cycle. So I have probably made a sourdough doorstop.