Mayday! Mayday!

BWEEP! BWEEP! Sorry - I admit WAY too much time was spent Monday painting, or between coats watching old WWII war movies. I think I'll just blame the fumes....

First let me express my condolences Anni -

My May Day socks are a tale I tell you. I got the pattern. COULDN'T WAIT to get started. And I knew just the yarn in the stash (trying to respect the budget....) I was going to use. I dug it out. Patted it a little. Remembered exactly how much I loved it when I bought it - and cast on.

Spent some time knitting the cuff. Worked into the pattern. Realized I hated the colors of the yarn. HATED. This is the result -

I tried for two weeks to finish this sock. And it still pretty much looks like this (although at this point a little more wadded up....).

I then had a little "outing" to a not so LYS and picked up this -

It really does look a lot more like a sock now.....I think once I finish the pattern repeat I am on it will be ready to start the toe.....however DS has "mislaid" the camera. And the pic from the phone looks a lot like it was taken under water......muddy water. So photo to come along with the fiber info.

Throwing in the towel

I will have to also admit defeat on the May Day socks. I was on quite a roll with the second sock last week and thought I'd be able to do it, but these past 5 or 6 days have been so crazy that I have not had any time to knit at all save for one or two rounds on the train the other day. This pattern has been a lot of fun to knit and I will definitely finish the second sock eventually, just not in time for the end of this month. I will try and take a picture soon and either post it here or to my blog.

Anni, I am sorry to hear about your grandfather. My thoughts and prayers are with you and your family.

May Day Socks complete

Finished socks over here!!
I'm hoping this picture works. I'm using dial up right now and I know this picture is going to take forever to load *fingers crossed that it does*
I finished these about a week ago but with our move I haven't had a computer to post.
The only modification I has was that I did the picot edge at the cuff, everything else was just as the pattern said.

BLAST! ok so I can't get it to upload on the post but after much patience it eventually uploaded to flickr they are here http://www.flickr.com/photos/7221831@N06/522383404/
I used Hand Dyed Yarn by Sugar Bunny Blvd in colourway Kelly check out her etsy shop.
Kelly
www.celticcaston.com

I'm beat

Anni, I'm so sorry to hear about your Grandfather. I hope you find comfort in being surrounded by your family in Norway.

Alas. I'm going to have to admit defeat. There were huge staffing shake-ups on a big project I'm working on and I have had to practically kill myself in order to meet a June 4 deadline. Add to this that I'm moving to a new apartment on Saturday, so I've been packing like mad for several days, and you can see that there really is no hope. I'm nearly finished the 1st sock, but I haven't knit a single stitch in over a week because I haven't even had one spare second since then. Normally, I could whip out a sock in a week, but this is all just too much. Ah well, here's hoping next month is better. Good luck to the rest of you!

ADHD socks

I have ADHD. And when I say "I have ADHD", I really mean --oh, my tea is done!

Sorry, couldn't resist that old chestnut. Anyway, I'm a bit better at multi-tasking than most people, and a bit more distractible when the multi-tasking list gets full. (When I'm under a lot of stress, on bad days this list can only handle two items.)

Knitting has really helped with the ADHD. I wish I'd learned that knitting during classes allowed all of the mental energy that I'd been directing towards "I must sit still and not be obnoxious" to be freed up for learning ages ago.

But the type of knitting that's best for me and my ADHD is "plain vanilla knitting." Stockinette, lace with a four row repeat, that sort of thing. Stuff I can pick up, work on, put down when I need to do something else, and pick up once more when the time is right and not have to worry about counting repeats or anything like that.

This pattern is lovely. I began making it for a friend, and right now I really want a pair for myself. Alas, I only have one sock and an inch of ribbing on the second sock done so far, so it might be a bit. Que sera sera, and I really need to learn to knit faster!

(I don't know when I'll be able to post pics of my lack of progress. DH loaned the digital camera to friends of ours to document their remodel. Does talking about the sock on my blog count?)

Naomi

Finished pair!

Here is my completed pair for May. I used the new Silkie Socks That Rock yarn from Blue Moon. There are just a couple (and very small) modifications to suit my size and preferences. More pictures and details are available here. Thanks Anni. : )

With A Little Time To Spare

Anni, I am so sorry to hear about your Grandfather's passing. My thoughts and prayers are with your entire family.

I just finished the second sock and they are blocking. I just love the way they turned out. I used Regia Stretch and once I was able to remember the pattern in my head the socks went so quickly. Thank you for such a lovely design. I did these socks, as I mentioned before, from the toe up and I worked the chart as written. I have special plans for these socks. I just hope the recipient will love them as much as I loved making them.

DONE!

Anni,

First I want to offer my sincere condolences for your loss. You are right, I'm sure no one wants you to worry about this right now so take your time. We'll be here needles ready for when you are.

Here are my finished May Day socks. I knitted them in Socks That Rock in Moss Agate but it seems it was an old hank with the old smaller yardage and I ran out of yarn! So I improvised and did the toes in Mama E's C*EYE*BER Fiber. I think it came out rather well!

The pattern worked out well and I'm pleased with the socks! Thanks Anni for a great pattern and take care of yourself. {{HUGS}}

Please Read

Hi everyone. How are you all doing with your May Socks? Ready to start the June sock yet?

At the moment I`m in Norway. As some of you already know my Grandfather passed away on Wednesday morning. It wasn`t totally unexpected as he has been quite ill for the last few months and has been gradually getting weaker and weaker. We had to quickly book tickets to get to Norway and arrived last night. We`re here for 10 days. Luckily it coincided with the girls` half term holiday this week so that made it a lot easier. The funeral is on Thursday but we`re staying until Wed 6th June as we decided to make a holiday of it.

The patterns for June are ready (there will be a toe up and top down version of the same pattern). The top down sock was finished an hour ago. And I started knitting the toe up sock last week but wasn`t happy with the yarn, it was too thick and heavy, so I`m starting again tonight with some of my own hand dyed merino 4ply, which is gorgeous to knit with.

So all I need to do is finish the toe up sock and get both socks photographed, which won`t be as easy in Norway as I`ve not got my fake legs to help me. But I`ll get it done anyway. Then I just need to make any alterations to the pattern if needed, add the photos. Then comes the time consuming bit - e-mailing it out. I`m hoping it`ll go better than last month.

And this is where the problem may arise and I will need to ask you all for your patience. As we`re on holiday I don`t want to spend half a day sending out e-mails so I`ll start e-mailing Friday evening probably and then try to get them all done but if I can`t and some of you get your pattern over the weekend I hope that`s okay. I`ll do my best though. I won`t be doing anything on Thursday as its the day of the funeral.

Also I may not be able to do pdf versions until I get home as I`ve not worked out if my Dad has a pdf writer programme or not yet. If he doesnt I`ll send out MS word versions and those who need pdf will get theirs on Thursday 7th. We`ll see how it all works out and if necessary I can always extend the deadline for the finished socks to be posted to be included in the June draw by a few days.

I know you`ll all be understanding and probably tell me not to worry about hte pattern till I get back home but I want to get them e-mailed out on time if I can.

The prize yarn for June will be some of my new hand dyed merino 4ply/fingering weight yarn.

I dyed some before we went away and there are pics on my blog. I`ve got more to dye when I get home. The plan is to have a go at selling my own handdyed yarn. It it takes off it will probably become a permanent venture and if it doesn`t take off then at least I`ve tried and had some fun. I love dyeing yarn and had great fun iwth it on Thursday and Friday when I should be getting ready and packing to go to Norway. I`m also knitting up both versions of the June sock iwth the new yarn too. And it`s fab to knit with. It`s the softest yarn I`ve ever knitted with. I`ll post pics of the prize skeins for June when I get home.

Off to update the finished list now. If you`ve finished your May socks get your pics up asap. I love seeing pics of all your fab socks. Its great to see how it knits up in different yarns etc.

I Give Up

I love the pattern and I love the yarn I'm using for the pattern. For some unknown reason, I'm having great difficulty with this pair of socks. I keep making stupid mistakes. This is what I've completed:
It doesn't look too bad in this picture, but it really is sloppy and isn't making me happy at all! Once I got this far, I decided to try it on - too small! My first mistake was that I cast on for the small size without even thinking about it; I have no idea why I did that - I have big feet.

I'm going to take a break and will probably do them after the June socks. This was not how I wanted to start this KAL. I will start June's socks at the beginning of the month so that I can finish them for sure!

Julie
http://noolieknits.typepad.com

more MayDay

Mini MayDay socks....and some for me in maxisize!

First Sock Complete

I managed to finish the first sock when I was in NYC this past week. I used Regia Stretch. I am really enjoying knitting this pattern. I knit the pattern in the large size and Knitpicks 0 circular needles doing the magic loop method and I knit the sock from the toe up. I did the chart from row 1 to 24 instead of changing it to go from 24 down to 1. I will make these socks again and when I do I think I am going to change to the US 1 needle for the cuff the next time I do the pattern.

This is a closeup of the heel. I don't like the short row heel. This heel looks the same as when you knit socks from the top down because you still have the sl1, k1 heel flap.

Ready for June

Mine are done! I used Fearless Fibers Peppermint Pink.

Sockaholic

Just Goofin' Around

The mail lady brought this lovely girl to my door yesterday. I got the yarn from Mama Llama Knits again. This time the skein was reduced because it had small imperfections in it and she couldn't sell it full price. To tell you the truth, it only has very few and very small red flecks in it. Besides I love imperfections as they make things a little more interesting and as nothing is really perfect, I don't really get the idea behind "imperfection". It's either good or not... and this one is ALL good :)

So Anni, what do you have in store for us in June? Do you think this yarn will be appropriate for the pattern? Will we need more than one colour, striped or variegated yarn, etc.? Also, I was wondering. This club being monthly, don't you feel it will put too much stress on you? I mean, if you wanted to make it a less frequent thing to help you breathe, I would totally understand. You seem to be able to knit so fast and do so many things at once... I don't know how you do it, but I'm very thankful for it. Thank you for making this club happen, it's so much fun :)

Finally Cast On!

Am I the last one to cast on? I think so!

In the end, I decided to not make this pair for my boyfriend. For one thing, I am soooo late casting on and he has BIG feet! With a huge work project and a move to a new apartment at the end of the month, there's no way I would have finished in time. Secondly, he has been out of town for 3 weeks and when he got back on Saturday, I asked him if he would like a pair of socks out of the Trekking pro natura. He said socks seemed like a lot of work and he'd prefer a cuff/bracelet-type thing. Okay, he'll get socks later.

He had a presentation at a conference that night, so I went and knit on the socks - now for me. Several colleagues asked why I wasn't knitting socks for him, so I told the story of how he had turned down my offer and he exclaimed, "Well, I didn't know you were going to make the socks anyway - you can make the next pair for me! But, I'll take the bracelet first." Sheesh - boys!

Thanks for your advice anyway. And to Paula, whose son thought these socks are "too lacy for dudes"? What would he think of Anne's manlace series????

On to my May Day socks, which I will. finish. in. time. I recently received a skein of Trekking XXL in color 105 in the mail from sticksnstring for winning a contest on her blog. (Thanks Lori!) I thought this would be a nicer choice with the pattern than the Trekking pro natura. I have small ankles and feet so I'm doing the smaller size (also, because of the deadline) and have made it halfway through the heel flap. Here's my progress so far:


It is a little snug to get over my heel, but hopefully, blocking will help? I've never blocked socks before, so I really don't know. But, I'm liking them anyway and will just be happy to get a pair done. They can always go to my niece if they're too small for me!

RIP

There was only one and a half repeat left until I could start the ribbing. I tried it on. I had just started on that repeat to do the pattern on both back and front of the leg and it just wouldn't fit anymore. It was too tight to be able to put it on without lots of tugging and pulling. You know where this is going don't you?

Well, I pulled my trusty size 0 circular and started going through each stitch below that pattern repeat and I ripped. Why I didn't just unknit is beyond me. And it just wouldn't work out and all I did was make it worse. I ended up ripping the whole thing out. I really like the pattern but haven't had much luck with it so far. I'm sure I'll try it again but I've given up to finish a pair by the end of the month. I hope I have better luck with the June pattern! : )

Not so hot off the needles

I finished working on these yesterday afternoon, and I'm really pleased with the way they turned out. I'm also happy that I've finally managed to graft a sock without looking at any instructions. :)

They're knit in Trekking XXL, shade 106. The colour changes are quite subtle as there are at least 2 colours plied together. I knit the larger size, on 2.5mm bamboo dpns. I changed the toe shaping, and decreased at the end of each needle.

Thank you for the pattern Anni - it's great. I love the heel flap stitch, and will make a note of it for future socks.

Kathryn

Moving Slow

But at least I'm moving. I finished the second repeat of the leg on my first May Day sock yesterday. You may remember I was contemplating frogging it after the first repeat because I realized I was doing the Make One Purlwise wrong. After reading your helpful comments, I decided to just continue on. I actually decided to start doing them the right way and figured if there was a noticeable difference than I would frog. Whew! I can't see the difference; I think I was ending up with the same stitch but I was going about it the hard way. Here's the first cuff:


What do you think? Any noticeable difference between the 2 repeats of the pattern?

I had better get busy working on these socks though, or I won't finish by the end of the month. I have just had so many things I've needed to get done this month that I've not had a lot of time to spend on them. That's going to change!

Julie

Getting Close

I had some knitting time this weekend while driving/riding 6 hours both Friday and Sunday. I'm getting close to finishing. I did as someone else suggested and did 2 pattern repeats on the foot and changed to stockinette to the toe decreses. Actually it was only a few rows. I know I will get finished by the end of the month. Hope my DD can help me with the photos. Thanks for the fun pattern Anni. I'm looking forward to June.

DD socks are complete!

I finished these today. I used Marks & Katten #1687 - a cotton/wool blend. I worked the larger pattern a total of 5 times before working the toe on size 1's for a tighter gauge. I am happy witht he matching that happened as well - they fit her perfectly.

I can't wait for the June pattern!

Add My Name To The List -- May Day Socks Completed

I completed my May Day socks Friday evening. Love the pattern, easy knitting. Can't wait for June. As I said in a previous post I used yarn that I had purchased from Anni from her DeStash Sale--Opal - Anni Design Hand-dyed - Red/pink variegated. I used the larger size and #2 dpns. I followed the pattern but when I was working on the foot, I worked two complete pattern sets and then switched to plain knit to complete the length before starting the toe decrease.

Barb W.

Off the Needles!

Here you go! I'm amazed at how quickly these knitted up once I got going. Then again, I've been having trouble sleeping this last week, so I've been spending a lot more time with the needles than usual.

After my disaster with the first sock I was going to restart with a different yarn, but after going through my stash, I wasn't able to come up with anything else that I was happy with. So, I stuck with my original choice, and I'm really pleased I did. :)

The yarn is Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock in Tuscany. The photo seems to have come out really dull here, but there's a better one on my blog for anyone not familiar with the colourway.

The pattern was great to knit, and worked wonders at curing my previous aversion to purling through the back loop. :) All those instructions to Mp forced me to think about what I was doing, and before I knew it, I was pulling them off with aplomb, and feeling quite pleased with myself!

I used a tubular cast-on, working 13 rounds for the rib, and substituted a rounder toe for the one written.

Thanks for the fab pattern, Anni!

Put a Sock in it

Some yarn likes staying in a ball

I came to this realization last night around 11:00 p.m. Earlier this week I had 3/4 of my first ever sock done, when I realized I had done something wrong with the pattern. Anni and others immediately advised me how to right my wrong, so gingerly I began to undo my socks back to the point Anni had suggested, before I knew it, the yarn had taken over and my 3/4 sock was COMPLETELY unraveled. This didn't faze me too much, I am use to attempting a project several times before accomplishing. So I thought no problem, I will start again and it will be better than the first time, because now I am experienced,LOL. Well long story short, two days later I am not even done with the ribbing. I told my husband last night after undoing it for the fourth or fifth time, I finally quit counting, that this particular yarn was quite content to remain in it"s secure, warm little ball and in no way was going to allow me to alter its "comfy" state. I thought about trying again tonight, but I am still getting a bad vibe everytime I look in the direction of that ball of yarn. Maybe later I can sneak up on it and at least retrieve my new knitting needles. Thanks for letting me share

May Day socks finally done!

I finally finished the socks. I knit them out of SWTC Tofutsies colorway #725. I knit them by the pattern except I did the s2kpo I slipped the two stitches purlwise and together. My needles were not very pointy and I could not do it the correct way. I also did my MP through the front loop, just could not get my mind around the other way (I just learned to knit continental and am not good at some of the fancier stitch ways). I knit the large size and found that I should not have so they go to my DDIL since she has big feet, lol. I loved the pattern and will be making 2 more pair, one for me and one for my daughter.

Here they are in all their glory. (One of these days I will get better at taking pictures of my knitting.)

Started Over!!

I ended up not liking how the Dancing Yarn socks were coming out - couldn't see any of the pattern detail. That yarn (or maybe just that colorway) is better suited to plain stockinette stitch.

I restarted using Parade yarn from Knit Picks; it's a thicker yarn so i switched to knitting the smaller size (again, toe up and will use short row heel) but am following the pattern as written otherwise. The pattern shows up in this yarn and is looking good although I am in the middle of ripping back about 6 rows because I misinterpreted or miscounted and rather than try to match the mistakes on sock #2 I decided to rip back and do it right. It's going rather quickly and I am absolutely loving this pattern.

Fantastic socks

Hi all, how are you all doing? I love seeing all the great socks appearing and if you look in the side bar I've started a list of finished socks for the May draw as we're just over half way through the month. I'm not doing so well - I've not started my 2nd sock yet. I've been too distracted by other socks, most recently a skein of STR Lemongrass which are being knitted up into a cable sock. But Iwill try to get my 2nd May Day sock done before the end of the month.

I've listed the blogger user name of those who've finished their socks in the side bar, I've not added links to everyone's blogs but I may try to do that later. All contributors and links to their blogs are listed further down the sidebar anyway.

IF I HAVE LEFT ANY FINISHED SOCKS OUT PLEASE FORGIVE ME AND LET ME KNOW AND I'LL ADD THEM. I'll keep updating as and when I see socks finished. Please make sure you all post your pics of finished socks on ehre and not just a link to your blog please as it's easier for me to spot them and add them to the list for the draw - you don't want to miss out on that.

Keep up the good work and happy knitting.

And to all the Norwegians on here - Gratulerer med 17 Mai (it's Norway's Day of Independence today).

Done!!!

That's it.

Yarn used: Silja (80%wool superwash,20%nylon,50g skein/150m, 26stitches=10cm)from ASA Gjestal Spinneri, colour 312. Knitted on 2.5mm DPNs, top down.

2 pattern repeats for the leg, 2.5 for the foot/instep. Hopefully they will fit my niece.

One change done though: I ran out of yarn...when I had only 9 rows to go on the toe of the first sock....so I ripped it from the ribbing(That does not work well-LOL), and ended up with a ribbing that is 11 rows instead of 18. I also think that I might have done "wrong" on the Mp...I purled into the front of the strand, with a twist(impossible to explain-but it worked and was pretty easy to do)

I am very pleased with the pattern, and will make a pair for myself too as soon as I get some yarn!

Thanks, Anniken.

Marit

just wanted to say that I am really looking forward to June's pattern:-)

Request

I would like to make a request!

Everyone seems to be doing a great job and what beautiful yarns! I would really like to know what all the yarns are!

Can we specify the yarns we are using in our posts or would that be too much of a pain?

Just thought I'd ask!

May Day Sock Confusion

I am really enjoying looking at all the completed sock photos, each one is beautiful and so well done. Thank you for sharing, your photos have made me realize I am doing something wrong. I had a feeling something wasn't right last night, but I kept on going. This is my first attempt at socks, I thought I was doing pretty good, until I got to the instructions for the gusset. I think I got the first part about transfering and working needle 1,2,and3 and progressed thru round 1 instruction and then knit all the stitches on the three needles for round 2, but when I look at your socks I see you have the pattern on the top of your socks, mine have stockinette stitch all the way around for several rows. Was I suppose to do something different on needle 2 for the round repeats. I hope this make sense and someone can help me. I am stuck at this point. I had hoped to have the first sock done by today, but I keep forgetting, learning something new takes TIME!!!

Started Socks

I have finally started my socks. With working full time and taking two classes plus fire prevention this month, I don't have that much free time. Plus I have to finish socks for another swap. But I am liking the pattern so far and am doing it top down which is strange for me since I am a toe up girl. Hopefully there will be enough of the sock soon to post a photo of it.