Yesterday I went to link the projects in the sidebar to the blog posts explaining what they were, but it turned out I had never written an entire blog post on the Socks For Others Club. So I’ll write one now.

Early this year I started reading posts on other knitting blogs about an idea called the Personal Sock Club. Knitters, frustrated with not getting into sock clubs (where yarn manufacturers or dyers send out a skein of sock yarn at regular intervals) and that they weren’t using up the sock yarn in their stash, decided to set up their own club. They packed their own yarn into bags or parcels, without or without a pattern, and selected one lucky-dip style at intervals.

I did the same, and flew through six pairs and the last of my ‘fancy’ (not plain Patonyle) sock yarn. I was keen to do it again, but I had one big problem.

I have too many pairs of handknit socks. So many, I’ve started a stockpile.

Somehow I came up with the idea of knitting socks for other people instead. I put the word out on my private LiveJournal, and within a day I not only had six people lined up, but a waiting list for the next round.

One of the amusing twists to this was that I had to then buy sock yarn. I wasn’t prepared to use the (old) Patonyle. It tended to go fuzzy and felty with wear. My very first pair of 4ply socks were still going strong, however, and they were knit from Opal yarn. So I did a bit of looking around on the internet and noted which yarn brands were observed to wash and wear very well, then bought colours that the recipients requested.

So far I have three out of the six pairs of socks knit. I’m running a bit behind on getting them knit by Christmas, but one pair is for a child so they’re fast to knit. (The other is for a man, so that may cancel out the advantage.) And I’m not knitting anything else at the moment.

The charity blanket

And thank goodness for that. I swear, weaving a blanket from scratch to give to charity would be a lot more fun. So long as they didn’t require me to make it out of squeaky, sweaty acrylic. Blah!

I’ve nearly finished putting together my Bushfire Blankets of Friendship blanket. I’ve got only one square left to crochet around, then three rows of squares to attach to each other and then to the rest of the blanket. Here’s a pic of the arrangement I thought I might use:

Before:

But that’s changed a little as I tweaked and changed my mind:

Almost done:

And I realised that one of the squares was knit horizontally, while the rest are all diagonal. So I knit a diagonal square to substitute:

Extra square

Once all the squares are together I’ll crochet a border around the whole thing. But I need to look up the ideal size for these blankets, and if it’s a little small I can just add more rows around the outside.

I’m now halfway through my Socks For Others Club packages.

Pattern: A Pair of Hearts Socks
Yarn: Opal Uni Solid
Comments: I’ve knit this sock pattern before – actually, I test knit them. This time I knit them toe-up, reversing the lace pattern. They were just as much fun as the first time around.

Once they were done, I reached into my felt bin of sock club goodness and grabbed another parcel.

There are to be socks for Tori, a friend’s daughter. Which, believe it or not, will be the first time I’ve knit children’s clothing. I don’t have measurements for Tori’s foot, but I figure these will be so quick that I can easily make a second pair if they’re too small.

And it’s also a good thing that they’re small, or I might not make my six pairs by Christmas goal!