knitting socks – Daily Fiber

Unravellers Wednesday 2-24-26: Gifted

Posted on February 25, 2026February 25, 2026 by Laura Kate

Making good on my promise to Bill at Christmas, this week I finished knitting this pair of socks for him. The lovely, self-striping yarn is Regia by Schachenmayr, made in Italy for a German company. Once I popped open the yarn strap, I was surprised to learn that the manufacturer offers a 10 Year Guarantee! That includes a free replacement if the yarn does not meet my high standard after washing and wearing!

So far, the pair meets Bill’s high standard for fit and comfort.

I can’t speak quite as highly of the pattern I used, to the point that I’m not going to link you to it. Unfortunately, the Vanilla Socks on 2 Circs pattern that I used for this knit was a bit vague and contained at least one error. Instead, I would direct the would-be sock knitter to a terrific pattern called Hermione’s Everyday Sock, available via Ravelry.com

More than 44,000 knitters have made socks using this pattern, so it must be good. The pair I knit a few years back using this pattern by Erica Lueder, came out very well indeed, if a touch big for my skinny feet. And if you haven’t yet signed up to be a member of Ravelry.com, this free pattern should be a good incentive to do so. Membership is also free.

So that’s what was on my needles most recently. Under my eyeballs during the same time was Boys in the Boat, by Daniel James Brown. This biography of the 1936 Olympic eight-man crew gold medalists is not a typical fit for my reading tastes. It was recommended to me by a friend. By a strange coincidence, I saw the book on a prominent shelf at my local library within a few days of getting the recommendation. I was clearly meant to read it. The author does a masterful job, telling the story about young men growing up in hardship during the Depression, and how they triumphed by learning to trust each other while pursuing their shared goal of Olympic Gold in Hitler’s Berlin.

This post is linked to As Kat Knit’s Unravelers post of Feb 25, 2026.

knitting, painting

Unraveled Wednesday from Here

Posted on January 22, 2026 by Laura Kate

Waking up again to new snowfall. The wind blew it all about, and it’s clear that we are in for some of the coldest weather I have ever experienced.

Not to fret, I have my yarn (and blog friends) to keep me warm. Here’s what’s on my needles today.

In December I promised Bill that I would knit him a pair of socks. At Christmas, I formalized the promise with this gift, wrapped up with a swatch of the yarn.

This yarn has been in my stash since last January. It is Regia, by Schachenmayr. I have wanted to try this classic self-striping sock yarn for a long time. It was a bit fiddly getting started. I chose to knit from the cuff down using a 1 by 2 rib pattern. Getting cast-on with four sock needles was hard and the first few round tedious. But now I have my rhythm going.

As far as reading goes, the desire to stay inside and curled up has me almost desperate for new reading material. Succumbing to the stacks of detective novels that Bill has sprinkled throughout the house, I chose StillLife, by Louise Penny. I pretty much raced through it in two days. As murder mysteries go, it was fairly gentle, with more writing about relationships than graphic descriptions of violence and cruelty. It turned out to be just what I needed to get through the long, cold nights of January.

To read about posts by Kat’s other Unravelers, visit her site and link into the party.

knitting, Living Life Well

Mary Delaney in the Garden

Posted on May 2, 2024 by Laura Kate

Yesterday I finished the first sock using KDDs design Mary Delaney. During a break in the rain, the sock and I took a stroll through the garden.

Pinned to a panicle of the Oakleaf Hydrangea. As you can see, the blooms are close to opening fully.

Mary Delaney on the rock edging surrounding the herbs. You see lemon thyme here. Very fragrant and excellent in chicken or fish dishes.

Hanging around with the garden peas. This variety is Sugarsnap.

Some of the paeonies haven’t bloomed yet, but buds are swollen. This stop resulted in a few surprised ants walking across the sock.

On the trellis with some clematis blooms. Notice some of the fluffy seedheads. They are fun to touch – springy, but soft as corn silk.

The sock has come to rest on my concrete statue of a garden cherub. I call him Dickon, after the character in A Secret Garden who charmed the wild animals.

I hope you were as amused as I was by this fanciful photo shoot uniting knitting and nature. When the rain starts up again, I’ll cast on sock no. 2.

knitting, painting

Friday Finishes (Yes, two!)

Posted on December 15, 2023December 14, 2023 by Laura Kate

It’s been a pleasant and productive week for me. You see in the image that I have finished the second sock of the Mary Delany pattern.

This is the first time I have stranded two yarns across the heel. For the past few years I have been seeking construction techniques that reinforce the areas of the sock foot which always get holes. Logic tells me that two strands are stronger than one.

I used one blended yarn and one all-wool yarn. Fiber content includes acrylic, alpaca and sheep’s wool. Time will be the measure of success in this test of tensile strength!

The pattern is by Kate Davies, and I will again insert the link to it. I must confess to substituting another Fair Isle pattern for the pattern’s. Your results will vary.

https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/mary-delany

My second finish of the week is the Winter Birds watercolor painting based on Bill’s photographs. My composition is compiled from three of his photographs.

The two chickadees are cozied up to a pinecone, with the pine’s branches and needles as background. Working out the best layout was a wonderful challenge. My goal for the painting was to suggest bird camaraderie during the depths of winter.

This painting is about done. I still need to clean up some edges, tone some of the masked areas and add a highlight or two. All fun stuff. And it’s finished in time to slip it into a frame and hang it on the wall before Winter officially begins.

After laying in masking fluid, I used hansa yellow deep, transparent orange, pyrrol scarlet, burnt sienna, Winsor green blue shade, Cerulean blue and ultramarine blue. My new favorite black mix is ultramarine blue and transparent orange.

knitting

ThWIP Thursday – SOCK!

Posted on November 30, 2023 by Laura Kate

Back from Wisconsin and fresh off my no.1 cable needles is this fancy sock – the first of a pair for my beloved husband. It turned out to be a pretty good travel project, as long as I confined my knitting to daylight hours. Under artificial light, the tiny stitches were very difficult to navigate.

I used Kate Davies’ pattern for the Mary Delany sock, with some significant modifications. The first was to make it wider to fit a man’s foot. Fortunately, choosing a larger needle got me most of the way there. I also substituted a 6 st. by 7 row stranded pattern for Kate’s 37 stitch diamond flower pattern.

This pattern is found in 750 Knitting Stitches, the Ultimate Knit Stitch Bible. It worked up beautifully with a light solid and dark-to-medium variegated yarn.

This sock is knit from the toe up. When I got to the cuff ribbing, I switched from a size 2 to a size 1 needle. For a looser bind-off, I went back to the 2..