The Hairy Knitter

Time for toes!

Well, I'm excited. It's a step closer to publishing my Snappy Socks pattern. Just two more sizes and their charts, and lots of writing to go. Plus probably test knitting.

I know that someone out there isn't ALWAYS knitting one of my designs, but it's nice to know that Eliel Quiles is knitting a Hallgrim Scarf in Jody Long Alba Aran in colorway Granite. —————————— Get @reshare_app • @darthred (IG, Threads, and BlueSky) Still knitting my Hallgrím scarf by Jamie McCanless, reading The Last Rockstar by Ron Chandler, and doing it all to the sound of rock music.

Knitting + books + rock & roll. In my humble opinion… perfection. 🤘🏻🧶📖🎸

You know what they say about big feet? Big socks.

Quietly making progress on this Snappy Socks design sample and measuring, measuring. Always measuring.

Amazing the progress you can make when you choose the right yarn.

I needed two colorways that look good in stripes, but one must still stand out as the diagonal line in the design. Nailed it.

Brain is fried. I just finished my ballot for our midterm primary. Nine positions. Feels like life or death this time (more than ever, I mean). I'm just going to be knitting ribbing for a while.

The largest size of my sock design isn’t very far along, but now I have a working name for it/them: Snappy Socks!

When I posted my completed socks for Jen’s Easy Peasy Scrappy Socks KAL 2026, I used the “Stomp Snaps” audio, and it suits me. You know, the way snapping your fingers is a quieter form of applause or approval.

I’m glad people like the term pirate socks for socks knit from leftover yarn, but I don’t want to narrow it to this design.

I confess. I bought yarn. Beautiful yarn.

2 Guys Yarn Company is shutting down, and I succumbed to Gene's sale and the chance to replace 2GYC yarn I bought long ago. From top to bottom, these fingering weight skeins are:

Tweedy Toes • OOAK 001-01 (red) • Frank's Tile (orange) • Focus Enhancement (golden) • OOAK 6 (soft pink) • You Lichen It (gray green)

Snowball • Guac (green)

To paraphrase Douglas Adams, "So long and thanks for all the yarn.

There, that's done. Today was cool and a little rainy, a perfect day to finish the short sock I was knitting on the ferry yesterday. The finished pair is so comfortable, bright, and cheerful.

It'll be close, but I should be able to knit two more short socks from the rest of the ball of Universal Yarn's Filly cotton and wool fingering weight yarn in colorway 101 Bloom.

It was really just a series of delays, and if you live here for very long you learn forbearance. Several ferries have run late all day, probably the result of crew availability. At Lopez Island, the last stop before returning to Friday Harbor, a collision on the car deck kept us there for a while. I don't think I've seen a ferry make that last leg as quickly as we did today.

Honestly, I didn’t mind. The sky was so clear you could see Mt. Baker, and the day was generally beautiful. I would have liked a little MORE time to finish the last round of my sock before starting toe decreases. As long as I have knitting with me, long lines, delays, and wait times barely affect me.

This will be the largest size of my new sock design, and I’m checking some technical stuff before knitting the prototype.

Perhaps one day I’ll hear how it was a favorite gift or a knitter feels a sense of accomplishment or it’s the pair someone reaches for when they’re in a particular mood.

I’ll have named the design by then. 😋

Few things lift this knitter's spirits like new yarn. Today, this beautiful skein arrived from dyer Jeremy Kaiser!

Jeremy tells me that he adapted a culinary technique to dying yarn. I don't know what technique that is, but the results are spectacular. The neon pinks and greens in this yarn plus the smattering of blue and purple are perfect for summer.

It's fingering/sock weight, 75% extra fine superwash merino wool, and 25% recycled nylon.

A little peaceful porch knitting on this soft sunny Sunday. From bottom to top, stacked the finished short sock, the ball of Universal Yarn's Filly, and the sock-in-progress.

Now it’s a saga. 🙄

A follower took comfort in what he thought was a gap where a heel flap and gusset intersect. 😮 I don’t pretend that my method for preventing those gaps is foolproof, but it’s been very reliable.

On close examination there was no gap, but there WAS a missing/dropped/lost stitch on the SSK side of the purple and pink sock that grew when I poked at it.

Sigh.

Couldn’t let that stand. I ripped back to the beginning of the gusset and found what happened. I know what I’ll change in the pattern, and I’m nearly ready to reknit the toe. I’ll be able to knit this design in my sleep! 😵‍💫

I do like my gussets.

Worthwhile Wednesday

I really truly finished my scrappy pirate socks for Jen's Easy Peasy Scrappy Socks KAL 2026! (@every.thing.shapes.us on IG)

I didn't have much that I'd knit in stripes. Besides, I really like helical knitting in leftover yarn. I thought a pattern stitch would be more fun, too, then thought "what if the second sock was the pattern stitch reflected" and had to come up with that slipped-stitch right twist. Never mind the frustration of versions that didn't fit, these are two of the most comfortable socks I've ever knit!

The rules want six or more colors. I used these eight:

Froelich-Wolle Special Blauband 59 (orange)

Froelich-Wolle Special Blauband Multicolor 7279 (blues)

Knit Picks Essential 23696 (gray)

Lang Yarns Jawoll 83.0184 (hot pink)

Lang Yarns Jawoll 83.0198 (medium olive)

Lang Yarns Jawoll 83.0246 (light lavendar)

SpaceCadet's Mini-Skein (a tonal purple)

Sugarplum Circus Sparkle Sock Rachel (variegated yellow)

As soon as I posted photos, people asked for the pattern. I hate when that happens. (No, I don't.) There isn't a pattern, though. Yet. If you followed this adventure, you've seen one of the messiest design processes I've ever muddled through. This pair fits my size ten-ish feet, and I want to include one larger size and two smaller, so this may take a while.

Tuesday Toe!

This "finishes" my pair of scrappy pirate socks for the Easy Peasy Scrappy Socks KAL 2026. Of course I tweaked it a bit since knitting the first sock's toe. Of course I'll reknit the first one.

I worked on my scrappy pirate sock today.

Translation: I contentedly knit for hours and hours.

True, I also did a lot of obsessive measuring and recording yardage.