New Cast-On Podcast

The latest Cast-On podcast is now available. This episode includes a discussion on hand-knitted socks plus the Museum of London’s huge vintage button collection. Also, postcards from the knitting edge, Depression cooking, and music Oh, joy! I will be gathering my yarn and pointy sticks and listening right after dinner tonight.

Second Cool River Sock

I'm about half way done with the leg of the second Cool River sock. The pattern is exceedingly easy (K1tbl, P1), but also very boring which makes it slow going. I want to get it done so that I can go on to the next pair which is more complex.

Socks in the Archives

One of my favorite databases is ArchiveGrid, which allows for "searching through historical documents, personal papers, and family histories held in archives around the world". Access to this proprietary database is available through a variety of institutions and serves as a tool to locate finding aids; it is rare to actually find the materials digitized. With that said, here are some I found searching for socks.

Hoyt Furman letter : San Francisco, to A.B. Jones : ALS, 1852 Nov. 30.
Discusses business conditions in San Francisco during the time of the gold rush, focusing on the market for woolen socks for the miners.
University of California, Berkeley

Anna H. Beckmann letters, 1944-1945.
This collection consists of V-mail (Victory mail) letters from World War II addressed to Anna H. Beckmann. Five letters are from Munroe J. Epting, written from San Francisco, 1944. In the letters, Epting writes of personal news about life in the navy, people in Savannah, the dangers of the war, and of his discharge from the navy. One letter is from Luke Beckmann, written from Germany in 1945. In the letter, Beckmann writes of family news and requests knitted socks.
Georgia Historical Society

Sarah Lois Wadley Papers, 1849-1886
This collection includes a draft of a letter to a Captain Marks of the Vicksburg Blues, ca. 1861, about knitting socks and clothes for the troops.
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Boyd Family Papers 1857-1982.
These papers include correspondence regarding the knitting of socks for the Red Cross. 1914.
Trent University Archives

I did, however, come across this photo of Naalbinding Socks on the University of Arkansas Library Special Collections page.

Too Hot to Knit

Ladies, it is just too hot to knit. It's been in the 90's the past few days and we've been warned it could hit triple digits by the weekend. I have finished one of the girly-girl baby socks and I'm on the second Cool River Sock (I've been trying to think of a name for these socks and it just came to me), but mainly I've been reading, watering my flowers, and playing with fabrics for a doll quilt.

Baby Socks and More Yarn

I finished this pair of baby socks. The pattern is Wiggles and the pattern can be found here.

I also couldn't resist this yarn. Well, it helped it was on sale. It's from Sweet Georgia Yarns and the colorway is Violets.



It reminded me of this from Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream:

I know a bank whereon the wild thyme blows
Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows
Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine,
With sweet musk-roses, and with eglantine:
There sleeps Titania some time of the night,
Lull'd in these flowers with dances and delight:
And there the snake throws her enamell'd skin,
Weed wide enough to wrap a fairy in.

Hedgerow Socks Done!

My third pair of socks for July.

More Stash Enhancement!

I've begun working on the second Hedgerow sock. It's the third pair for this month and it's a good thing too as I've recently purchased quite a bit of additional sock yarn.

I bought two 50 gms skeins of each of these three colorways of 100% superwash merino sock yarn from Sweet Georgia Yarns. As these are dyed to order, I thought I might have a long wait but they arrived in only a couple of weeks.

The first photo shows Boheme, the second River, and the third is Rust.






I also bought three more from Meg Warren, aka The March Hare on Etsy. The orange is Pumpkin Patch, which is 455 yards of fingering weight, 75/25 Superwash merino/nylon. I'm saving this one to knit in October. The red is 435 yards of fingering weight, 70/30 merino/silk blend, Scarlet Letter. I'm considering what pattern I may wish to save this one for. And the last one is Glacier Bay, 435 yards of true fingering weight 70/30 merino wool and silk.


This luscious 100% merino wool Koigu yarn, colorway 1125, bought at Fiber Nooks and Crannys, my LYS, at the same time as I bought the yarn for the Denali Wildflower Socks, will be used to make Raspberry Socks.

These two skeins of self-striping yarn tempted me and they too were purchased from an Etsy vendor. The first is Watermelon which I shall knit for August.

The second is a white/black/orange stripe which will be perfect to knit in October not only because of Halloween but as my school spirit socks. I work at the Oregon State University Library/Archives you see and OSU's colors are black and orange. The school mascot is a Beaver (this is Oregon after all)and I will name my socks Go Beavs!


And today some Regia sock yarn (color 4749) I'd ordered on Ebay arrived. And what possessed me to get this yarn? It was because I saw this photo and fell instantly in love. I have a lot of clothes which are blue and/or brown and thought I might actually wear these socks. Where they fit on my to-do list, however, I don't know.

Is there more? Oh dear, yes. I'll post photos when I've received them.

A Pair of Socks in Special Collections

I recently came across this story on the Newcastle University Special Collections page entitled The Ardlamont Mystery Solved, which refers to a pair of socks kept in their Special Collections. The story continues here and there's a letter about the socks here, but unfortunately it is not clear just how the socks were useful as evidence.

Denali Wildflowers Socks

Here is my second pair of socks for July.

Blueberry Hill Socks for July

Here is the stitch pattern I used.
Rnds 1 and 2: K3, P2
Rnd 3: SL1, K2, PSSO, P2
Rnd 4: K1, YO, K1, P2

The yarn is Koigu (colorway 2320). Because the stitch pattern is so stretchy, I began with 56 stitches, decreasing one stitch before beginning the five-stitch pattern.

A Little More Stash Enhancement

I feel in love with Cookie A.'s Mingus sock pattern and bought it from Blackberry Ridge Woolen Mill along with a skein of silk blend fingering weight yarn in Midnight. I have these socks on my list to make next month.

Knitting When It's Hot

It's going to be in the mid 90's today, unusual for us in the mid-Willamette Valley of Oregon. Today I have time to knit and that's what I want to do. I've closed up the house, placed the fan so it's blowing the cool air on me, poured myself a glass of pink lemonade, and put on an opera CD. It's one of my favorites, La Traviata, and I have the volume on low so it's background music.

Ignore the photo of the Blueberry Hill sock I put in my last post. I've changed the pattern. Again. And now I'm working on a third pair of socks for July made of a lovely Koigu yarn (colorway: 211) I bought on Tuesday. I've named the socks Denali Wildflowers. The stitch pattern is a simple one. No sense making things more complicated.

Rnds 1-3: Knit
Rnd 4: YO, SSK
Rnd 5: Purl