Socktember 2026 – Week 2 review

It’s the end of Week 2 of Socktember 2026 and I hope you’ve had a lovely week!

If you’ve just found the blog for the first time, Socktember is running throughout September this year and I’m encouraging you to start your first pair of Basic 4ply Socks if you’re new to sock knitting (or start a new pair if you’re not), to knit a pair of September Socks (that’s my new pattern out for September) or to get on with your gift knitting if you’ve got plans for Christmas or holiday presents because it’s not that long until December!

As part of Socktember, I’ve got two prize KALs (Knit-alongs) for the Basic 4ply Socks and the September Socks and you can be entered into the draw by posting your socks on Ravelry in the Winwick Mum group threads (more on that later).

First, let me show you what’s been going on this week!

The first socks are posted in the finished threads on Ravelry – and there need to be a few more otherwise it will be a very easy prize draw for me to do at the end of the month! 🤣

In the September Socks thread, this lovely pair has been posted:

and in the Basic 4ply Socks thread, Sue’s socks are the first pair:

Don’t worry if you don’t knit that fast – here are some more pairs in progress:

These are all September Socks – if you’re knitting Basic 4ply Socks and want me to include them in next week’s post, then please get in touch to show me your photos!  You can post in the Ravelry chat threads for both the Basic 4ply Socks and the September Socks, you can post on Facebook (if you tag me or use #Socktember, it’ll make it easier for me to spot your posts) or send me an email with your photos.

There’s more info on the KALs in the Socktember post which you can find here: Socktember 2026

 

I spotted a post on Facebook yesterday where someone was asking about uploading photos to Ravelry so I thought I’d add a quick tutorial on that here.  This info is also in the Socktember post.

If you’ve never added a photo to a Ravelry post before, this is how you do it.

1  Find the thread that you want to add your photos to.  For the finished Basic 4ply Socks thread click here, and for the finished September Socks click here.  Click on “reply to thread”.

2  Click on the photo icon in the bar above the text box.

3  You can use a photo from the web but it’s easiest to add your photo from your project page.  Yes, this does mean that you’ll need to have created a project page in your notebook, but it also means that you have a record of your sock and your progress.  This is particularly helpful if you go back to a project later and you’ve made notes to remind you of what you did, or you want to check out someone else’s project page for a pattern to see if they’ve made any notes that can help you if you’re stuck.

If you aren’t on Ravelry and don’t want to sign up then that’s fine, you can send me your photos and I will upload them.  You won’t be able to upload images from your computer without paying (if you haven’t already paid to do so), so sending them to me will save you the money.  Obviously it’s better for me as a designer if you can join Ravelry and create a project page, but some people have issues with Ravelry so I’m not going to say that you can’t join in unless you do so.

 

My own knitting has seen some progress this week.  I’ve got a pair of Basic 4ply Socks (my Emergency Socks) and two pairs of September Socks on the go (I explained why in last week’s post 🙂 ).  I’m nearly up to the toes of the September Sock …

and I’m part-way down the foot of the Basic 4ply Sock.

The green saucer is one of the pots that I made when I went away for my friend’s birthday weekend (you can read about that here) and the shortbread biscuits are made with my new favourite recipe – I’ve been looking for a good shortbread recipe for years and found this one on the back of an Aldi plain flour packet.  They’re really good biscuits!

 

It’s been a funny week, though – part of me has needed to knit and the other part of me hasn’t wanted to at all: we had to say goodbye to our cat Hattie unexpectedly on Sunday and my knitting has been something of a comfort, but at the same time I’ve not really wanted to sit down and knit very much.

I mentioned a short while ago that Hattie had been diagnosed with a heart condition and we knew it was life-limiting, but had still hoped she’d be around for a good long time to come.  A check up visit to the cardiologist last Tuesday resulted in him finding a mass in her abdomen that our vet needed to investigate and despite my hopes, it didn’t look like it was a hair ball.  Hattie was absolutely her usual self until Sunday and then she went downhill fast, and by the time we got her to the emergency vet on Sunday night, there was nothing he could do for her.  He did say that he could try to patch her up so that we could take her home, but that wouldn’t have been kind.  Instead, my husband, not so small daughter and I (big daughter was away) were with her as she went to find those pesky mice on the other side of the rainbow bridge, and then we brought her home so that Astrid and the dog could say goodbye too.

Astrid has been looking after me this week; she’s stayed much closer than usual and I’ve been grateful for her furry presence.

The dog always used to tell us when Hattie was at the door and wanted to come in and he’s been released from that duty now; I think that bringing her home for him to see her one last time has helped him as he’s not been distressed or looking for her in the same way that he did when we lost our cat Mike (and the reason why we got Hattie and Astrid so soon after losing Mike as we did).  I’m glad about that.  We do have space in our home and our hearts for another cat, but not this week.

 

So that’s it for today, I hope you’ve had a happier time of it and I hope you’ve got plenty of knitting done as well!  In case you missed them, there were two Sock of the Day posts out earlier this week (you’ll find them on the list of posts on the blog home page) and I’ll be posting more of those over the next few days too.  See you next weekend for the Week 3 review!