Foot-pampering socks for Mom

Recipient: My mom
Designer: Stephanie Pearl-McPhee
Pattern: Yarn Harlot's Sock Recipe
Source: Knitting Rules!
Completed: December 13, 2006
Colours: #08, "Brombeer" - stripes of red, grey, dark grey and white...or, a purply/pink/tealy combo
Yarn: Austermann "Step", 75% wool/25% nylon with aloe vera and jojoba oil, sock weight
Ungiven status: To tag, wrap and give at Christmas
Pictures:

Completed socks


'In action' (better colour representation in this shot, too)

2006-Dec-13

For those of you who can see that the socks appear to be too long for my feet, rest assured that this is okay, because my mom's feet are longer than mine. And hey, if the socks do end up being a bit too long for her feet anyway, I can fix that.

BTW, they feel soooooo good on the feet. My mom's pretty lucky they're too big for me, otherwise I'd be tempted to keep 'em for myself.

2006-Dec-12

Uh...what was I saying in my last entry about wanting the second sock to go faster than the first?



Yeah. Holy crap.

Incidentally, when I tried on sock #1 after re-grafting the toe, I got a really nasty shock because it seemed as if I'd done the decreases for the toe at the top and bottom instead of on the sides. I once again began cursing my inability to do anything right on this damn project. Fortunately, I examined things a little closer and realised I'd just twisted the sock a bit when I'd tried it on. It is fine. Phew.

Oh, and the other thing that was fine was my initial run at the heel flap. It turns out that Steph gave three possibilities for how to do the heel. I started out doing method #2, and then when I went back to the sock, I read the instructions for method #3 - hence my belief that I'd done it all wrong. Oh, well. Too late now, and I like the way the heel looks anyway, so no loss.

2006-Dec-8

Boy, have I been screwing the pooch on this one. Basically I have been messing up all over the place with following the pattern directions. The irony is that I'm working with the Yarn Harlot's pattern, who herself is notorious for not following pattern directions. Accordingly, her pattern (or 'recipe', as she more accurately calls it) is very straightforward, easy to understand and is clearly designed to be easy to get creative with and riff off of. And yet.

First off, the heel stitches kept falling off the needle when I took a break from the sock, and I ended up losing a few rows before I got them all back on. Then, I was almost finished the heel when I realised I'd completely f***ed up the pattern, and had to start it all over again. When doing the heel over again, I messed up the edge stitches on one side, but told myself, screw it, and instead (successfully) fudged picking up those edge stitches when I began the foot. Oh, and then what happened...oh yes...after working merrily on the foot for some time, I figured I must be approaching the toe and tried it on to see how I was doing. I had waaaaaay overshot myself. Again, riiiip. The final straw was finishing the toe, doing all the grafting, and then looking back over my grafting job with admiring pride, only to discover that I'd twisted the stitches when grafting and it looked like utter crap. (I'm so not looking forward to undoing and redoing all the grafting, but trust me, it must be done.)

The second sock had BETTER damn well go way faster than the first one, I tell ya, or my mom's getting just a singleton sock for Christmas.

2006-Jul-18

I decided to go ahead and start using the Austermann yarn that I bought originally, the stuff with jojoba oil and aloe infused into the fibres. I mean, what the heck, who else am I going to use it for, right?

Answer: ME. Omigosh...this stuff feels a bit scratchy in the ball, but knitted up it's much nicer. You really can feel the difference that the jojoba and aloe make when it's in sock form - but it's not oily in the slightest. I've no idea how they do that. Plus I love the way it stripes.



(I am determined to make them match, despite rachel's Opal sock yarn horror story from last entry's comments. Shudder.)

I'm using the Yarn Harlot's 'sock recipe' from her Knitting Rules! book, because I was tipped off by my dad that my mother's feet are so wussy that she absolutely cannot stand toe seams (thank you, Dad). Therefore my usual toe-up sock pattern that I usually use is right out, and Harlot's sock recipe (top-down, obviously) is in.

I haven't given up the idea of knitting my mom some socks in the Sea Silk - I had a dream this past week where I whipped it up into a pair of beautiful lace ankle socks, which, after I woke up, my conscious mind agreed was a really rockin' idea. But for this Christmas, I think she's getting these stripey ones.

2006-Jun-15

This is "Sea Silk" from Handmaiden. It is really cool stuff and I've been hankering (no pun intended) after some for a while. But the cost was always kinda prohibitive. At 20% off, though...I caved. This stuff is niiiice. It even smells like the sea (that salty seaweedy tang).

I bought it because I thought it would make absolutely fabulous socks for my mom. She blisters super-easily, and finds wool scratchy. I had bought some Austermann Step yarn - infused with jojoba and aloe oils - intended to be socks for my mom for Christmas. But lately I've been nervous that this yarn, being 75% wool, would be too scratchy for my mom even with the oil infusion. Whereas silk is absolutely not scratchy, and the advertised release of vitamins and minerals, anti-inflammatory properties and whatnot from the seaweed in the yarn strikes me as a huge plus for my mom's wussy feet.

The only thing is that there are 400m of yarn in this skein. That's enough to make a small lace shawl! (As evidenced by one lovely lady who showed up last night in a GORGEOUS dark purplish lace concoction made out of a single skein of Sea Silk. Harlot took a photo of it last night and will probably be posting it on her blog today, so go take a look.) And it's definitely enough for more than one pair of socks. So...what do I do? I mustn't keep it all for myself - that would be wrong. But it's so tempting! I really must use at least half of it to make Mom some socks. But the other half - what do I do with that? Make something small and snazzy for myself? Make Mom a second pair of socks? And then...what do I do with the Austermann stuff? Do I still make her socks out of it? Which socks will be her Christmas gift this year?

Sigh. I just don't know.

2006-Apr-21

My only concern, now that I've handled the yarn, is that even with the oils, the Step yarn might give my mother scratchiness. I'm nervous. But we'll see. I am, of course, still going to make the socks.

2006-Apr-12

I found myself at Yarn Forward's website (hooray for online Canadian companies). And I found this - Austermann "Step" sock yarn. This is your usual 75% wool/25% nylon blend, machine-washable, niftily-striping sock yarn. However. This stuff has aloe vera and jojoba oil "impregnated into the fibres", according to the product blurb. Apparently these serve to "protect the skin against dryness, and provide care for feet on the go." The effects of these oils apparently remains after more than 40 washes.

Sign.
Me.
Up!

My mom's feet are the bane of her existence. They blister super-easily, are frequently uncomfortable, and generally give her a really hard time, especially when it's hot. During the summer, her floors are littered with talcum powder because she practically buries her feet in the white stuff in an attempt to keep them dry and blister-free. Therefore, whenever I hear of products designed to keep feet comfortable, I instantly think of my mom.

Now. I know that $17.99 plus tax and shipping is way more than I would ordinarily be willing to pay for sock yarn. I also know that wool socks with oils in them are unlikely to keep her feet cool and bone-dry. However...$17.99 plus tax and shipping is pretty much bang-on my budget for my mom's Christmas gift. And if they are given at Christmas, well, that's wintertime, and at that time of year, they should be ideal to pamper her feet.

I'm also fairly confident that her usually prone-to-itching-upon-contact-with-pure-wool skin will not react to this stuff, because of the oils, and also because of the superwash nature of the yarn (I am also fairly sensitive to pure wool, and I have ZERO problems with my Fortissima socks). Throw in the fact that I haven't thought of a Christmas gift idea for my mom yet...well, that adds up to a heckuva lot of good excuses for clicking on the 'add to cart' link, boy howdy. Even DH thought it was a killer idea. (Yes, I know it's only April, shut up, I'm open to Christmas gift ideas year-round. Yes, I am a freak.)

I got colour #8 - "Brombeer". Big red, black and grey stripes separated by thin strips of white. They're going to be great.

(I'm way ahead of The Schedule. I'll whip them up in no time knitting continentally. I'll be fine.)