I started Westknit’s 2026 surprise sock along this week with clue 1 of 4. Images are at the end, so if you’re also making these and don’t want spoilers skip the rest.

I used some yarn I already had. The Drops I was planning on making a different pattern with, but it went well with the Undercover Otter. After just finishing his Delectable Collectible socks and all those color changes, I was relieved to see this pattern only uses 2 colors.

The cast on and all of clue 1 was very interesting. It doesn’t look like a sock yet. I had a lot of fun taking pictures of all the non-sock things it looked like. Maybe clue 2 will move it more in a sock direction.

A SSAL is a new pattern that’s never been released before, and the pattern designer sends you 1/4 of the pattern every week for 4 weeks. No pictures of the completed sock are available until after week 4, so you have no idea what your sock is going to look like when finished.

Pattern: Chameleonic Socks Yarns: Undercover Otter in citadel, Drops Fabel in green turquoise

Sometimes a pattern is hard to read at a glance when you are in the middle of juggling five needles while knitting in the round.

So I color code it.

This will be for a pair of socks.

The pattern comes from the Japanese Knitting Stitch Bible. If you haven't heard of it before you should definitely check it out. Super dense, it uses about 130 different stitches and hundreds of patterns. This pattern is one of the easy ones.

These socks are officially off the needles, just 4 days before the next surprise sock-along starts.

I’m counting them as done even though all these ends aren’t secured yet:

The toes are supposed to be striped, but I didn’t want to make any more ends to have to weave in, so I just used my variegated yarn. I also included a little pop of bright purple on the bottom of the heel.

Pattern: Delectable Collectible socks

Yarn: lots of different ones, all from my stash

One pair of stocks in 9 days. A personal best.

67 grams of yarn. Size 1 needles. "Strong heel" Barn Toe.

Cast on once, never pick up stitches.

I'm going to call this a winning general pattern. From here I can add some variety like cables.

Link to the pattern: https://ravel.me/paraphernalia This is my first completed project with cabling!

Still chugging along on these socks. The next sock-along starts July 28, so I’d like to have these done before then. Maybe not all the ends woven in though…

Testing the "strong heel" method. No flap, scrap yarn, hole, picking up stitches, Kitchener, or weaving loose ends. This might be my new heel. Available in toe up or top down. It solves every problem with knitting heels.

Cheap, broken yarn test.

#knitting

This is a skein of Red Heart sock yarn. 75% wool and 25% plastic. If it weren't for the fact that it cost me $6 for 6 skeins I wouldn't have picked it up at all. It's trash. I generally avoid Red Heart because even their 100% plastic yarns are scratchy crap.

If you look closely you can see several breaks in the skein that make it impossible to reroll. In the section I have wrapped around it there are four weak areas that will need to be compensated for. In the knitted piece which is all of 60 stitches per row, 18 rows on size 1 needles there were countless breaks and weak spots.

Because this is the top of the sock I had to do a lot of wet joins. Fortunately I am far enough in where I can just double up on strands

And this is exactly what I've come to expect from Red Heart. I have no idea how they stay in business offering such a miserable product.

Oh, and the color scheme is obviously trash too.

I started these socks last August. Then in September I started a new job (in a new career) and didn’t have the mental capacity to work on these socks. They’re Stephen West’s 2025 Surprise Sock Along, and he included everything but the kitchen sink in this pattern.

I just signed up for his next surprise sock, with the first 1/4 of the pattern being released July 28. That gave me the push to want to get these socks finished before then. I highly doubt I’ll get all these ends woven in too, but you never know. Luckily I don’t need as much mental bandwidth to weave in ends as knitting this pattern takes for me.

My socks are done! I have 7g of the blue and 6g of the pink left.

Pattern: Dragon skin socks

Yarn: Bling Your String mystery club - March/April 2026

Now for sock two. The hardest thing in knitting. Afterthought heel. No real pattern was used but I did write it down as I made it so I can repeat it.

I'm tired of buying socks that blow out after a week. I have been hoarding discount sock yarn for years and it's time get it used so I can repair instead of toss.

Still making progress on my socks. I’m planning to knit with the main color until it runs out. If it’s long enough to start the cuff, I’ll switch to the pink and do that.

If I run out of the main before it’s long enough, I’m trying to decide what other color I could use to make a contrast stripe before starting the pink cuff. I have some dark blue but wonder if using a dark color will change the vibe of these socks. I’ll just have to wait and see.

Some progress pictures. All this over one weekend! Used 100% acrylic yarn, medium weight

Work was really busy in May and the first part of June, so I haven’t made much knitting progress. My socks were a little too loose, so I ended up unraveling them and starting again with fewer stitches. Today I finished the heels on both socks. Now all that’s left is to knit around and around (and around) until it’s as tall as I want.

I did get some more hair scrunchies made using leftover yarn - I’m up to 6 finished scrunchies.

I hope I haven't been cross-posting too much today 🙂

cross-posted from: https://discuss.tchncs.de/post/61821343

Bought this sweater from a local master, but my wife asked to use it for her doll 🙂I really like how it fits on her.

It closes on the back:

cross-posted from: https://discuss.tchncs.de/post/61821283

I named this doll Helena because her face comes from a Fairy Godmother doll, and the Fairy Godmother was played by Helena Bonham Carter 😅 I found her used at a local market and not in good condition, and gave her a new life by swapping the body for a more articulated one.

The tunic is from a local master. It's so nicely done. I wish I could have such skills.

It has a button on the back:

cross-posted from: https://discuss.tchncs.de/post/61820422

Bought from a local master. The stitches are so tiny!

Here a few closeups:

I bought a pack of Hanes socks. Not a single pair lasted more than 8 days.

I've made socks. Big ones. Kilt worthy ones. Weeks of work. But what if I made ankle socks. Ones where you get two socks from a skein instead of three or for skeins per pair?

I have a stash of sock yarn. Some of it is this brown and blue that was popular in 2008 and is, in my opinion, one of the worst color combinations that has ever existed in human history. But it's free.

I have my swatch done. Now to figure out a pattern. Eventually I'll need a darning egg.