Socks and Other Summer Knits

By Rebecca on July 25, 2024

I thought I brought an absurd amount of knitting to do during our summer travels. But it turns out that over the course of several months, I do an absurd amount of knitting! I finished knitting I planned for: the Wervel Sweater, and 3/4 clues of the Goff Mystery Knit-Along (spoiler below); that's about what I planned, along with some stray hats. Why am I surprised? It was three months. I just couldn't bear the idea of bringing even more yarn to Europe; that's rather the original bringing coal to Newcastle. (I did buy yarn in Newcastle, but not that Newcastle.)

Anyway, here's a short catalogue of the yarn I've bought and knitted while on the go, and my plans to use up the remainders during the Ravellenic Games.

It was during our first week in Switzerland that I encountered that lovely phenomenon of sock yarn at the grocery store. It was very nice sock yarn too, complete with two little bobbins of coordinating nylon yarn for reinforcing heels and toes. I finished this pair, for myself. I opted for top down socks, which I hadn't done in a while; I took the opportunity to play with a more precise fit to my particular feet. The heels and toes are reinforced, with the last bit of thread duplicate stitched to the ball of the foot.

I've mentioned the second ball of yarn I bought to make myself socks, this time wool boot socks that perfectly match my Wervel. These were practically sneezed out in a couple days. I don't expect them to last very long if I use them normally, so I'll probably save them for when I really need the extra boot sock layer.

This third ball of yarn was actually purchased back in Meiringen; Dooner chose it for socks for herself and her sisters. I love this unique colour choice, complete with sparkle. Anyway, I only got around to casting these on in Sligo. I did something weird, knitting them as tubes down to the toe, then making a tiny tube, and increasing back up to knit the second foot. My thinking was to be able to keep knitting through conference sessions, though it was pretty silly. Dooner wanted to wear them as soon as I closed the toes, but they didn't fit right without heels, so I stole them back for heel installation.

Finally, while in Newcastle (the one in Northern Ireland), we drove past a yarn shop with a beautiful yarn mural painted on its windows. They didn't really have my type of yarn, but I did cave and buy a blanket quantity of bulky chenille for a blanket MiniMighty has been wanting to make for over a year. Please don't ask how I'm going to fit it in the suitcases.

Dooner saw a sample she fell in love with as well - she wanted me to buy it right off the hanger, but it was just two balls of bulky, so I caved. She absolutely hounded me to finish, to the point that when I cast it off today while walking around the Ulster Museum, I just popped it right on her, ends and all, so she'd give it a rest.

But I had my notions on me, so I sat down and did the finishing an hour later, and it's really done now.

And now the Olympics!

The Ravellenic Games starts tomorrow! (The Tour de France ended a few days ago; I'm still working on that recap!) and believe it or not, the entire Olympic Games will take place before we get back home to Rankin. I decided this is the perfect moment for me to use up this small mountain of leftover yarn I've been collecting as projects finish.

First, here are my Wervel leftovers! I have over 300 grams, which should be enough to knit another sweater for one of my kids, even if I speed things up by holding the yarn double. That's my number one Ravellenic event!

Second, I've got these leftover sock yarns! It turns out that her sisters do not like this wonderful colourway, so dooner has asked for a pair of arm warmers. I threw the Tough Love Sock leftovers from Wervel into this pic because… I don't want to knit arm warmers on tiny needles? I don't know. I also don't know what I'll do with the blue sock leftovers, but here they are.

Third, here are a bunch of worsted and worsted-adjacent leftovers that will become… hats? I think. When I was touring Donegal Tweed last week (more on which anon), she gave me some samples of their Aran weight yarn; I'm excited about using those. There's some handspun, some leftovers from my colourful socks, and the DK grey I've been using as a contrast.