Up North Socks

I went to the LYS (Local Yarn Store) Leelanau Fibers in Suttons Bay, near Traverse City, Michigan, when I was on vacation with friends in July 2022. I wrote about that fun trip in a post you can read here. Many brick and mortar yarn stores have gone out of business. When you do come across an independent yarn store with unique products that you can’t buy in a big online store, it is a treat to browse. I have always loved taking in all the colors and textures in a yarn store. And of course I cannot leave the store without buying something, whether I need it or not. At Leelanau Fibers I bought some sock yarn from a local business called “Up North Yarns”.

I cast on a pair of socks with the Up North yarn in the spring of 2023, with both socks on a magic loop needle. The background in the next couple of photos look like the floor of our RV, so it must have been at the end of March or beginning of April.

The color of the yarn is called “Petoskey Stones”. The Petoskey stone is Michigan’s state stone. I found a photo online of some Petoskey stones, which you can see below, and which look very much like the colors in the yarn.

I had a busy summer and got side tracked with other activities, so the sock project sat in a basket for months. Finally in the fall I make some progress on the feet.

When knitting socks from the toe up, it is a little tricky to figure out when the foot is the right length to start the heel. I measured with my sock ruler and compared to another sock that I had knit. I thought it was the right time. I prefer to knit the heel with only one sock on the magic loop needle, so I took one sock off and put the stitches on double pointed needles to get them out of the way. I added a stitch on each side to make sure the heel would be deep enough, and knitted the first heel using the Fish Lips Kiss Heel pattern. When the heel was done I slipped the sock on my foot to make sure it was right. It was not right at all. It was clearly straining in every direction, being both too short and too narrow. I compared it to the other completed sock and found it was narrower. It was wide enough to slip over my narrow foot, but more width and length were needed to make it fit the rest of my foot. ARGGG. I ripped out the heel stitches and reminded myself it is about the process, not a race to finish the project.

After knitting another half inch or so on to the foot, I added another stitch on each side to make it a bit wider and knit the heel again. With the extra length and additional stitches, it seemed right. I moved the sock with the completed heel to the double pointed needles, and moved the other sock back on to the magic loop needle to work that heel in the same way. For the record you can knit the heels of both socks while they are both on the magic needle, but I prefer to do the heels one at a time.

After completing the second heel, I put both socks back on the magic loop needle, added yet another stitch on each corner of each sock, and then knitted another half inch before starting the cuff.

I was a little worried that the cuff might be too big around since I had added six stitches to each sock. But because the cuff is ribbing, it bunches together and fits the shape of your foot.

I worked on knitting the cuff while we were in St Paul recently at our son’s house. He is on paternity leave until the end of the year. We were happy to help take care of our granddaughter while our daughter-in-law was on a work trip. Blair has many board books. At almost five months old she enjoys sitting on our lap and looking at the pages as we read to her and talk about what is going on with the illustrations. There is one children’s book showing a range of activities that grandmothers might do with their grandchild, such as baking, riding bikes, having a picnic, painting, etc. One of the drawings is attempting to show the grandmother knitting, or at least I cannot think of what else they might be trying to portray. Apparently the author, illustrator and editors had no idea what knitting looks like. Anyone who has learned how to knit, or paid any attention to how knitting works, will notice several things wrong with the drawing below from the book.

It looks like the grandmother is holding chopsticks. This is not how you hold knitting needles. And there are no stitches on the needle. And there are yarn ends coming from the project to both needles. I am tempted to write a letter to the author to point out these errors. I think they should have the illustrator draw a new accurate drawing of the grandmother knitting.

I finished the socks after we were back home. The yarn is so soft and they fit beautifully. The color looks good with my sneakers and with my hiking shoes. I will think about the trip with my friends and the Traverse City area every time I wear these socks.