When working with yarn that might bleed, you’re going to want to wash it before you knit to make sure it isn’t going to bleed AFTER you’ve wrestled with it for eons.


Here’s the back story on that priceless tip:
I WAS thrilled with the Vanessa socks and gave them a quick cold bath (I’d let the water sit for a day so it would be cool since it is like 105 degrees out and my tap water is warm). While taking them out of slightly brown water they’d been in less than 5 minutes, I hoped/prayed the yellow would be less green when they dried and tried to ignore the sick feeling in my stomach. No such luck. The colors next to the yellow bled and there was a darkish stain down the middle. I resisted a frustrated cry and wrapped the less than satisfactory socks up for Turtle.
God bless her, she opened them and exclaimed over them like they were the Sistine Chapel. Only a day later when I mentioned the stain during the photo shoot did she even acknowledge it. She agreed that if she didn’t crease them on that line when she washed them, the stain might fade. I offered to overdye them so they’d be semi-solid but she declined, declaring that she still loved them which made me feel worlds better. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is why she is now the proud owner of a second pair of socks knit by yours truly.

I delivered the Rainbow Vanessa Socks to Turtle and was happy to spend some quality time with her clan.

Knit socks also make great hats.

I also had a lovely time playing Marco Polo in the pool with my brother and nephews and niece. The gray socks fit my niece; I was so pleased to find them a home with someone I love enough to give hand knit socks to….and it healed my heart to have them go to someone that knows and loves my dad (the intended recipient).

The niece may have a future in sock modeling.

First, US women’s shoe sizes are BS. When I make socks for the dimensions I find online, they don’t seem to fit the matching live feet. This time, I decided to find someone with similar sized feet to the giftee and then talk them into trying on the first sock. Thankfully, even though this sock fit me (size 7.5 shoe), the yarn is just stretchy because my size 6 friend declared them a perfect fit.

Second, while Meghan was admiring the sock, she noticed that maybe I hadn’t woven in the end? but there was very little tail left? Sons of biscuits! I thought I’d done my usual method of knitting in the tail and for some reason I did not and I snipped the cast on tail off way way way too short. So, I carefully wove a bit of yarn through the cast on, tied a discreet knot and will weave in the longer tail…..tomorrow.


On to the second sock!

To see what others are working on, check out:
Tami’s Amis
Small Things (I’m still listening to “Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us”.)
Frontier Dreams