School of Sweet Georgia Socks

I started knitting a pair of socks in December, to bring on our post holiday road trip to Arizona. It was so unseasonably mild at that time in Minnesota that it barely felt like winter. It was 55 degrees on Christmas Day. Some of the bigger lakes in Minneapolis were open water over the holidays which is unheard of. I saw an article on my google feed describing “Five Lakes in Minnesota that Freeze Over in the Winter”, or something like that. Hello, in a normal winter ALL of the 10,000 lakes freeze over solid. This year has been very strange.

I used Valley Yarns Huntington 75% Superwash Merino Wool / 25% Nylon yarn in the colorway North Sea for this pair of socks. I thought it was thicker than the Up North Yarn used in my last sock project. Note to self, always knit a swatch before starting a project.

I cast on the green socks and knitted the toe with size 2 magic loop needles, increasing until I got to 60 stitches, the same as the Up North Yarn socks but with one size bigger needles. Although the Up North socks fit very well they are straining a bit at the heel diagonal. For that pair I had added a few stitches before working the Fish Lips Kiss short row heel in order to increase the heel diagonal, but not in any scientific way. I had figured that if the green yarn was a bit thicker, knitted with the same number of stitches on size 2 instead of size 1 needles, the socks would be just a little bigger around.

The gauge for the green yarn is a mystery. After completing the toe and knitting a few inches of foot they seemed the same circumference as the last pair that were on smaller needles. I do not get how that can be. The label on the green yarn says that the 50 gram ball is 218 yards. I realized that The Up North Yarn was also a 50 gram ball, with 219 yards. That would imply it is very similar, so not sure why the the larger needle size and fewer stitches per inch is suggested for the green yarn.

After a week in the Twin Cities over the holidays, we had only two days before leaving for Arizona. That included putting some Christmas decorations back in the basement, because I did not want to see them all over the main floor when we got back home in April. I had done a lot of preparation earlier, so it was doable. On the day of departure Wayne backed the truck up and connected to the RV hitch on the first try. Woohoo! It was a pretty morning about 25 degrees. The first time we did this in January 2022 it was zero degrees, there were many attempts, and it took a long time.

If we are in our car on a road trip I do some of the driving. When we are towing the RV Wayne does all the driving. That is fine with me as I have more time for knitting. I continued working on the sock foot while we were on the road.

In recent months I had been following social media posts and watching YouTube videos from Sweet Georgia Yarns (a hand dyed yarn company) and the School of Sweet Georgia (a membership based school and community for multicraftual makers). They have online learning for knitting, weaving, spinning, dying, and other related crafts, patterns, and ways for members to share their projects, questions, ideas and journey. I saw a Sweet Georgia video about Circular Sock Knitting Machines. I have been intrigued by vintage circular sock machines for a long time, but now my eyes were opened to a world of new machines that are amazing things. There are people who get together to “crank”. Haha that is what it is called. I really want one of these machines but they cost anywhere from $800 to multiple thousands of dollars and they have a steep learning curve.

I am continuing to enjoy knitting socks and learning different patterns and methods of making them fit better. I would like to be able to make more pairs of socks for gifts but it takes me forever to knit the foot and the cuff. I like the idea of cranking out a pair of socks in one hour! There are ways to make the entire sock using the machine, or you can just crank a tube and knit the sock and heel manually. I have so many questions about how it works and how you can customize sock sizes. I cannot justify buying a CSM now (or probably ever), plus I do not have the bandwidth to learn another thing right now. There are “crank-ins” where people get together to crank, so I may try to find a group of “crankers” in my area to observe and learn. Following is a photo of a CSM from the website of Dean & Bean’s sock machine company. 

In December there was a promotion from the School of Sweet Georgia for a two week membership for $1.00. The timing was not ideal since it was the last two weeks of 2023 when I was busy with the holidays and packing for Arizona, but I decided to go for it. I downloaded some patterns that were available to members, and reviewed the list of virtual classes offered.

I found a School of Sweet Georgia class on knitting custom sized toe up socks that included a PDF workbook and videos (click here for a link to the course). I had not gotten very far on the green socks so it was a good opportunity to take advantage of their instructions. I have knitted socks using a similar pattern with a short row heel but this one had a worksheet with calculations using measurements for your foot, along with the specific row and stitch gauge for your yarn. This info is used to determine when to start increases so that the heel diagonal is the right size, how many increases to make, when to start the short row heel, etc.

Continuing the mystery of the green yarn, the measurements and instructions said I should have 64 stitches around for my sock. I had started the socks with 60 stitches, so I went ahead and increased to 64 after already knitting a couple of inches of the foot. On the Up North Socks I had increased 8 stitches near the short row heel to make the heel diagonal wider. That was probably not enough, but this pattern had me increase 20 stitches which sounded like way too many. Note that most patterns using a short row heel or afterthought heel do not include any increases for the heel diagonal.

Following is a photo of the sock instep (the top part) with the increases.

We spent New Year’s Eve on the road in a hotel room watching the Minnesota Vikings football team get creamed by their arch rival, the Green Bay Packers. I should say Wayne watched the game, I worked on the sock project. When traveling with the RV we must eat dinner within walking distance of the hotel, to avoid towing the RV to a crowded restaurant parking lot. In this case there was only one option, Popeyes chicken. We got take out fried chicken and ate it in front of the TV. Not something I would normally choose but at least they had a healthy side choice of rice and beans.

In order to knit the heel, I transferred one of the socks to double pointed needles so I could knit one heel at a time on the magic loop needles. This pattern uses a short row method with yarnovers. The instructions are very detailed and helpful but there was one place where I was unsure what to do, so I googled to see if there were some tips or help online. When doing short rows you turn your knitting around in the middle of a row, causing your working yarn to be on the left needle instead of the right. The instructions said to do a “reverse yarn over” at this point with the working yarn on the left needle. If you are a knitter you might know what this would look like, but in any case it is an awkward thing to do. I found a conversation online where another person was trying to figure this out too, beginning with “what fresh hell is this?” Haha I understood where she was coming from but I figured it out.

When I got almost done with the first half of the first heel on the magic loop needles, I could tell that something was wrong. I went ahead and knit the heel for the second sock on the double pointed needles. That one came out correctly, so I ripped out the first heel and started over. The next photo shows one heel in progress.

We arrived at the RV park on the far east side of the Phoenix metro on the first of January. This is our fifth Snowbird adventure at Gold Canyon RV & Golf Resort, the third time in our fifth wheel trailer. As usual there were some swear words as Wayne got the RV leveled and utilities connected, but it all worked out OK and after a few days everything was organized inside the trailer.

I continued knitting on the socks after we were all settled. After finishing the second heel, I transferred that sock back to the magic loop needles. The next step was decrease rows to get back to the original number of stitches for the cuff.

After the initial two weeks for $1.00 the School of Sweet Georgia charged me $24 for the next month. Wayne has already spent about $250 on golf in the three weeks since we have been here so I guess it is OK for me to spend $24 on a whole month of information and support related to my main activity. The following photo shows the green socks with the cuff in progress.

The School of Sweet Georgia pattern uses a type of bind off that I have not used for socks before. It involves knitting two stitches together, and then knitting the next two stitches together, etc. It is considered to be a stretchy bind off which is what you want for socks. I liked it and will use it again.

After I finished the knitting and woven in the ends, I put the green socks in a tub of water to soak with a bit of dish soap along with two other pairs of socks that needed to be hand washed. I also put in some yarn that will be featured in a future post.

This yarn is very soft and fuzzy. It also split regularly and pills a lot. The socks are a little bigger and looser than the Up North Yarn socks. I should have done a sample with a size 1 needle. The fact that the yarn label suggested size 2 or 3 needle threw me off. That is why you are supposed to knit a swatch. Despite all that the finished green socks looked pretty good after laying out flat to dry.

The School of Sweet Georgia pattern was very detailed with both video and written instructions. The section with abbreviations had mini instructions for exactly how to do each thing. I really liked the suggested bind off method. There was even detailed information and video on weaving in the ends. Even though my socks came out a bit loose, I will use the pattern again with adjustments for how I like my socks to fit. I recommend checking out the School of Sweet Georgia if you are looking for instruction and community related to knitting, spinning, weaving, etc. The classes are all very thorough and include written transcripts you can download, as well as video instruction, and also forums for discussions and questions. Click here if you want to check it out.

We have had some cool weather here, even getting down to freezing a couple of nights, but we did not complain. At the same time the high temperature back home in west central Minnesota was minus 10. The next photo is me modeling the socks in front of our RV, ready for a bike ride in Gold Canyon.

I could keep the socks for myself despite the generous fit, but instead I will give them to my daughter. Her feet are the same length as mine but wider and I know she will be happy to have them.