FO Friday: The Sock Edition...And a Hat?!

Happy Friday! I totally forgot that it's Friday...but, a few FO Friday posts reminded me that it was, in fact, Friday, and that I should probably get on with a FO Friday post...

These socks have been a loooooooooong time in the making. The idea popped into my head after I had been knitting maybe a year...maybe. I decided that I could be a designer (really, it can't be that hard, can it?!) and I made this scarf using some relatively newly-stashed yarn and a stitch dictionary that I had picked up at Barnes & Noble. Anyway, I made the scarf and when I was about halfway through it, I thought that the stitch pattern might be nice on other things. Well, about a year after that (around the time I finished the scarf), I was taking a sock class at Wisconsin Sheep & Wool (and I was very pregnant with Little Man at the time)...and the idea came into my head again. So, I made a prototype for the baby sock version...and then I made the second one. And then the idea sat for awhile....over a year.

But, I started the socks and now I've finished them and I can share them...

Traveling Vines Socks (link to Project Page)

Pattern: Traveling Vines Socks by me
Time Frame: started May 31, 2013; finished March 3, 2014
Yarn: Cascade Heritage Solids in Italian Plum (less than one skein - I expect I'd be able to squeeze a baby pair out of the remaining portion)
Needles: US #1 (2.25 mm)
Size: Sized to fit me (70 sts.)
Modifications: None. It's my pattern. However, straying from "conventional" top-down sock fashion, I used a Double Gusset Heel instead of the regular gusset decreases...but that's not really a modification in that I intend to include that in the pattern (as well as the regular gusset decreases).
Thoughts: These took much longer than intended but it was mostly because I was working on writing down what I was doing at the same time. The second sock went faster than the first, except when I was trying to match the other sock at the heel/gussets. So, I have the 70 st. size worked out but I also intend to have 60 st. and 80 st. sizes for adult feet (and then there are the baby/child sizes but that's a whole other ball of wax). I need to figure out the math for the heel turn and gussets on those sizes. Then I might have a working pattern. I've decided I'm going to try to self-publish this one and we'll see what happens. I was tossed about whether to self-publish or to submit it for publication elsewhere and the problem I keep coming back to is the Double Gusset Heel that I use. It is not my creation but it can be found online for free.....so, I'm tossed about it. I don't want people to think it's my creation (which is why I'll have a link to her directions and I will definitely not claim it as my own). But it's one of those things...

Anyway, yes, my socks are done and I can wear them and they're lovely and you know you want them! Too bad. The pattern isn't done yet.


But, I said this was a twofer...and so it is :)

Babbeh Hat (link to Project Page)

Pattern: None. I came up with it on spur of the moment...
Time Frame: started March 3, 2014; finished March 6, 2014
Yarn: Yarn Hollow Twisted in Ganesha (it used to be called Licorice Twist or something like that but Twisted is the "new" version of the same yarn)
Needles: US #7 (4.5 mm)
Size: 70 sts.
Modifications: None. There's no pattern to modify
Thoughts: Well, this isn't exactly a baby hat...it fits Little Man (3 years old). It was intended to be a baby hat but when it got long enough, I tried it on Little Man and it fit him...so it's a hat for him. I have some yarn leftover but I'm not sure it's enough for an actual baby hat. So, I might stripe it with something else for another project another day. So, aside from my "whoops" that this hat is for Little Man, it's fabulous :)


Anyway, it does not appear that Tami has a link today so I'm just going to go on with life...