This is FUN..... knit socks and watch TV...

A couple of weeks ago I saw this sock on Instagram...

and I instantly LOVED it... scrappy and stripey... so wonderful. It was knit by Helene Dehmer @happygoknitty. She calls them ragrug socks and you can see a lot of them here on Instagram. Helene has done several color version of this sock which sent me scurrying to Nordicmart to purchase a couple ... several ... A WHOLE LOT of Drops Fabel sock yarn which you can see here.

I cast on a new sock as soon as it arrived and started knitting them as she had alternating the rows every two rounds but no matter what I tried I got a jog in the stripes that I did not like. I watch a bunch of videos on youtube and tried different techniques and while a couple were good I still wasn't happy so I decided to do them my way... I alternate yarn after every round.

My version of ragrug socks... skinny ragrug socks!

I used Drops Fabel 905 and 672. By changing yarns every round I've pretty much eliminated the jog issue...here is the side where I changed yarns.

It doesn't show much in the picture but IRL I do have a slight bit of a bump where I changed yarns... I pulled it too tight and I'm paying attention on this pair to eliminate that bump.

This sock uses Drops Fabel 151 and 901 and I LOVE how it is turning out too. By alternating the yarns every row I'm getting swathes of stripes which remind me of a piece of fabric... it is like I sewed pieces of different striped fabrics together... scrappy scrappy scrappy ... and I LOVE scrappy!

These socks are so much FUN...anymore I just like to knit plain vanilla stockinette socks so the yarn has to do the heavy lifting. I like yarns that stripe and sometimes pool like Blue Moon Socks That Rock and I like self striping yarns but combining 2 self striping yarns is the so addicting. You have no idea what it is going to look like and that keeps you knitting row after row after row after row. I think is it like the Stack N Whack/One Block Wonder/Four Patch Posey of the knitting world. You don't know what you are going to get when you start a Stack N Whack/One Block Wonder/Four Patch Posey and that is what makes them exciting. Hey, it is my idea of living dangerously...LOL... that and a nightly bowl of ice cream!

So I am happily knitting away and trying to keep myself from starting a new pair so I can see how they stripe up. This is the perfect project for my Sunday night PBS marathon TV watching. Have you checked it out? I'm a big fan of the British dramas... Mr. Selfridge...Downton Abbey...love them!  On Sunday nights I park my butt in my chair from 7 till 11pm... first The Great British Bake Show... it is a reality competition cooking show but totally unlike the American versions...no bad behavior...the contestants seem to actually like each other and the stuff they bake looks so good. I time my nightly bowl of ice cream to coincide with their showstopper reveal. Then I'm into Home Fires...set in a little town in Britian at the start of WWII...it all revolves around the women of the town...love the actress Samantha Bond who plays Mrs. Barden (she is also in Downton Abbey too).  After that is Indian Summers which takes place in India at the time the country was striving for home rule. It follows the lives of a group of  British ex-pats and an Indian family. Lots of intrigue. Then I move onto The Guilty, a crime drama which moves back and forth between the disappearance of a small boy five years ago and now when his body is discovered but no one has been charged with the crime.  I enjoy all of these shows except for the fact that there are no commercials... as a woman of a certain age I need regular bathroom breaks.

Anyway I have plenty of knitting and good tv watching planned for tomorrow. Too bad there is almost nothing I watch during the week...with baseball over  I watch a show or two on PBS (Antiques Roadshow) or American Pickers on the History Channel and I watch the local news...not much else. Hope you are having a great weekend. It got cold here...upper 50's for the weekend... we had mid-70's last week... I'm wearing warm socks today.

happy knitting-
carol fun