Party Socks and Knitty Surprises February 3, 2009

On January 10, my knit group did this “Party Socks” swap, where you bring in a 100g ball of yarn, and leave with 100g of sock yarn.  While a fun idea, everyone has since agreed that next time we’ll do a themed swap, where the yarn you get looks like… something.

Here’s the artistic shot:

And hold onto your breakfast, because here’s the full shot, on the sock blockers, with the last color turned down because they’re too tall for the sock blockers.

Mine are the first finished pair of socks. Lyn made an awesome bag out of her yarn, a couple people are knitting their socks, and some haven’t even started, not figuring what they want to do with the ends yet. I did the ‘weave in as you go’ method, with one russian join in the heel section. 3 weeks of knitting, and they’re done. More info on my rav page for this project. I’m thinking as a teaching tool, as a ‘this is how much yarn one needs to make socks of this height’, it wasn’t such a bad project. I just got stuck in some of the colors for longer than I thought necessary.

After finishing the party socks, the Knitty Surprises were posted. There was a coat, a funky hat, and a heart. I think I might knit the funky hat at some point, but I thought the heart was really kinda cute. So yesterday, I sat down and knit one.

I kinda messed up the first ‘valve’ — it’s supposed to be taller by 4 rows, but if you didn’t know that the pattern was supposed to be a little taller, you’d never see it. Back view (or is it front?) on its own rav page. I had a hard time naming it. “Ya gotta have heart”? “I left my heart in San Francisco”? I settled on “Why I Aorta”. It makes me giggle. The red and orange is handspun that’s been sitting around for a while, and the red is Cascade 220 Heathers. I stuffed it with some of the ‘beginnner roving’, carded & pin-drafted mystery wool.

The kind of weird thing about the heart is that I got row gauge without even really trying. I didn’t measure my stitch gauge, but there are several parts where you’re supposed to knit for X inches, and I based that on the number of rows in the given row gauge. When I measured, I was spot on. I thought it was rather strange, given that the yarn requested was sock weight on 1′s, and I was using worsted on 3′s, but it wasn’t until almost the end of the project that I figured that out, so I was somewhat pleased and a little weirded out.

I’m currently knitting a hat with the leftovers, but I don’t have a link for that yet. It’s a surprise.

Calf Shaping for Toe-Up socks January 27, 2009

Calf Shaping. There, I said it. It sounds like a dirty phrase, but it’s not. It’s a way to make your socks fit better, and not slouch and bag around your ankles because you can’t get them properly on your leg further than the 3″ above the ankle. I’ve got legs, you see. Legs with calves that don’t go straight up and down. I found that when knitting a full 100 grams of sock yarn, first the stitches stretch to go around my calf, and then they decide not to go around them at all. I thought, since I’m knitting these for me, why not custom-shape my socks? So I started thinking about it, and now I can tell you’re thinking about it, too.

The first thing to think about when you’re thinking about making socks that are tall enough to need calf shaping (which, considering how varied bodies are, this could mean anything from anklets to knee-highs) is the pattern. Is there anywhere in the patterning that would allow you to add in stitches without ruining the carefully set-up patterning? If you’re knitting stockinette or ribbed socks, the answer is “SURE! Put increases anywhere!” If you’re knitting from a pattern, it’s a little harder to tell.

The easy way to figure out if you can use x pattern and do calf shaping is to look for columns of knits and/or purls. For example, the Primavera socks pattern has an 11-stitch repeat where columns of knits sit next to columns of purls. The Wyvern socks have ribbing on the back. The Nutkin socks are stacked knits and purls in nice, neat columns, too. Even the Boyfriend Socks are a good candidate for calf shaping because there are places to hide your increases that won’t affect the patterning of the sock.

The second thing to think about is where exactly you’re going to hide extra stitches. Adding purl stitches to a rib, or to a background that already has lots of purls is a good idea, because it keeps the ribs straight looking (even if they are actually veering). If you’ve got a stockinette background or just a plain stockinette sock, you can (pretty easily) just add more stockinette stitches without too much fuss. I like to put my increases on the back of my sock, just because that’s where my calf is. Because of knitting’s forgiving stretchyness, you could easily put your increases all around the sock, but they’ll look funnier when they’re not on legs if you do.

The third thing to think about is which increases to use to add stitches. Here are a few of my favorite ways to add stitches:

• KFB: adding a purl stitch between ribs, just knit in the front and the back of the last knit stitch of a rib.
• M1(L): the normal make one is a Make 1 Left. I use this on the left half of the sock by lifting the strand between the stitches, putting my left needle in from front to back, and knitting in the back of that ‘stitch’.
• M1R: Used as a mirror to the normal M1 (M1L), add stitches on the right half of the sock by lifting the strand between the stitches, put your left needle through from back to front, and knit in the front of the ‘stitch’.
• M1P (L or R): Make one purl — instead of knitting into the front or back of the strand you pick up to make a stitch (to lean the correct way), purl it instead.

Now for the hard part. The math. No, wait, don’t leave! We’re taking baby steps here! Since we’re knitting socks toe-up, the easiest way to figure this out is to TRY ON THE SOCK. Take your measuring tape and measure the circumference of your leg where your sock is. Write that down somewhere.

Now, take a marking device –a pen works fairly well, but if you can get away with making a non-ink mark on your leg, you can try a pencil or the tines of a fork or something — and, using a measuring tape, measure one inch (or some useful measurement for metric people) above where your sock hits currently and make a mark. Connect your marks with the measuring tape. Measure this part of your leg and write that down somewhere, too.

Here’s the really hard math. Subtract your at-sock-currently number from your 1-inch-above number. Multiply that number by your 1″ stitch gauge. That’s how many stitches (approximately) that you need to add to make your socks fit the next 1 inch of leg. Your husband/wife/significant other/knit group/cat/dog/hamster may look at you funny for having marks on your leg, but this is the easy way to measure.

So let’s say you need to increase 12 stitches in the next 1″ of sock. You know (because you’re good and measure these things like I don’t) that you have a row gauge of 6 rows per inch. You have a couple of different ways to tackle this increasing. You can increase 2 stitches every row, 4 stiches every other row, 6 stitches every third row, or 12 stitches in one row.

If you increase ALL of the stitches in one row, you run the risk of the sock bagging there, because your leg isn’t big enough to fill in that part of the sock. You may also have a more noticeable line where your sock magically becomes bigger all of a sudden. I like to try to match the increase rate to the pattern. If you have a 2-row pattern, increasing on the plain-stitch row (or the plainer-stitch row) will let you see where these increases go without messing up your very careful patterning.

I also like to make my increases symmetrical, so if I increase 1 at the beginning of a row, I also increase at the end of the row. Or if I increase after the first rib, I increase before the last rib (if I have ribbing). Since I knit my socks 2 at once on magic loop, this is fairly easy to remember. If you’re knitting one at a time, WRITE DOWN what you do for one sock and put it in a safe place so you can reproduce it for your second sock. If you do 2 socks on 2 pairs of dpn’s, you can do one increase row and the plain row or rows, then pick up the 2nd set of dpn’s and do the same thing, making slower progress, but progress that will make sure that both of your socks turn out the same.

With a LITTLE math, and a few weird marks on your legs, you can get your socks as tall as you like, and you can get those tall socks onto your legs.

Heads are Round from the Top Down November 10, 2008

I’ve got a new pattern for you to play with. I call it “Heads are Round (from the top down)”. It’s a top-down hat that’s actually round. I use the same concept as the round toe and apply it to something else that’s even MORE round.

Here are 2 of the finished hats:

and

I love the tassel with its awesome bead. It’s from Blue Cat Beads. She makes beads, buttons, earrings, bracelets, etc. with hot glass. She does a lot of dichroic work, and her beads are just lovely.

Download the pattern here!

Toe-up Stockinette Socks November 5, 2008

I know I’ve been gone a while, but I figured I’d just post as if nothing were going on. So, I’ve been working with toe-up socks for a while now, and the ‘wedge toe’ that looks like a short row toe has been working, but has also been slightly too pointy looking when it’s off, so I’ve reverse-engineered a German Round Toe for Toe-up socks.

It looks like this from the top:

And this from the side.

A vast improvement on the normal wedge toe, especially when started from 12 sts.

Here’s the toe in all its glory:

Stitch counts (in parens) are for 1/2 of the stitches, as I’m a 2-at-once Magic Looper. These counts work for both 2 circs or ML. For 4 DPN’s, you will have to figure your count over 2 needles. The ‘Inc on each end of the needle’ goes like this (for me): K1, KFB, knit to 2 stitches to the end of the needle, KFB, K1. This is a decent increase that doesn’t leave holes, because you’re not placing 2 together. If you have a favorite increase technique, feel free to use it. I only list my way because it works for me.

Row 1: Using Judy’s Magic Cast-on (or your favorite Provisional Cast-On), Cast on 12 stitches.
Rows 2-5: Inc on each end of the needle (14, 16, 18, 20 sts)
Row 6: Knit plain.
Row 7: Inc on each end of the needle (22 sts)
Row 8: Knit plain.
Row 9: Inc on each end of the needle (24 sts)
Row 10: Knit plain.
Row 11: Inc on each end (26)
Row 12-13: Knit plain.
Row 14: Inc on each end (28)
Row 15-16: Knit plain.
Row 17: Inc on each end (30)
Row 18-20: Knit plain.
Row 21: Inc on each end (32)
Row 22-25: Knit plain.
Row 26: Inc on each end (34)
Row 27-30: Knit plain.
Row 31: Inc on each end (36)

This leaves you with 72 stitches on your needles total, and ready to make your foot.

To figure it for any other number of cast-on stitches to any other number of stitches, simply figure out how many increases you’re going to need, and divide that into 4 sections. Your first section will be increase every row, your second section will be increase every other row, your third section increases every third row, and your fourth section increases every fourth row. If you have only 1-2 increases per section, you may want to group your increases into three sections, and leave out the ‘increase every fourth row’ part.  The key to this toe is the different rates of increasing, which make the toe more round.

On these socks, I’m using a short-row heel without wraps. This heel had a K2TOG across the ‘gap’ between the stitches, then a M1 right after.

I’m working from a sock blank that I dyed in September, right before Dye Day at my house. As you can see, I’ve got a ways to go on this 100g of yarn. They may end up knee socks before I’m done!

Crazy-Poking Stick (Pattern) July 3, 2008

I know I said (on Ravelry) I’d have the pattern up on Monday, but it took me another couple days due to issues beyond my control. This is the pattern for the Crazy-Poking Stick…

Click here, or on the Pokey Finger for the Pokey Finger Pattern

What will this roving look like spun up? June 3, 2008

By and large, I got this question the most while we were in Pagosa. So the last couple of days, I’ve been experimenting to show much better that it’s all in how you spin it. So I started with this roving: 4 oz of canyon shadows. Link goes to the actual item in my etsy shop. This is 4 oz of superwash roving, photographed during unbraiding.

I split this into 4 equal pieces of equal color repeats.

I spun up a singles after splitting one of the pieces into four and spinning in sequence:

Then I spun up a 2-ply after splitting the yarn into 8 pieces, spinning in sequence, and plying with itself:

Then I split it into 12 equal parts and chain-plied the yarn to make a 3-ply.

For the final yarn, I decided to go an entirely different direction. I split the roving into individual colors and spun them individually, plied it with itself, and captured mohair locks in between the plies.

Here are all 4 skeins together. You can see how different they look in the skein:

Then I knit swatches. Not traditional swatches, but corner to corner diagonal ‘swatches’ knit like the dishcloth pattern, in garter stitch. All four swatches were knit on the same needles.

First, the singles. They knit up soft and smooshy, and definitely striped.

Then the 2-ply. The colors blend together a little more, but they’re all still there.

Now, the chain-plied 3-ply. You can see how defined the stitches are, and you can tell I (mostly) kept the colors together when I plied, as the swatch is still definitely striped.

Now for the really fun one. The mohair yarn. The swatch didn’t even go through half of the yarn, so I only got a little color difference, but that’s not the main attraction, because the mohair is fluffy and silky.

Here are all four swatches together. All spun from the same exact roving, the same exact colors.

So when I say ‘it depends’ when you ask “What will this roving look like spun up?”, this is what I mean. We braid our roving to put all of the colors next to the other colors, so you can see what’s going on, and what the colors look like next to each other. It’s all up to you as to what your finished item will look like. That’s the fun of spinning, you get to decide what your yarn will look like, you get to knit or crochet or weave your yarn, and you have full control over the project from beginning to end.

I wore Earnshaw today. February 17, 2008

I’ve been obsessed with this sweater since I started swatching for it at the end of January.

I finished the sleeves on Friday night, finished the hood on Saturday night, and started seaming it. I finished seaming it this morning before going to work, and wore it to work.

I spent the weekend doing a couple of things, including teaching the 2nd half of 2-socks-1-circ class, which included the heel and how to bind off — I think I’ll make a couple of samples for the next class, in case the students aren’t prepared.  The rest of the weekend was spent spinning and knitting and sewing up. Two of the merino-silk rovings “fell off” of etsy, and I’ve spun up one (yellow-green) and added mohair locks to it. It’s on the drying rack downstairs. The other, a pink-orange, is half-spun-up… one bobbin done, the other bobbin half-full. I’ve got some of the peachy-yellow locks to be plied into that one, and they’ll all go up for sale… sometime this week. Before Thursday, hopefully, as we head out on Thursday to visit California.

Holiday Fun… December 14, 2007

So, next week at this time, my mom and 3 of my brothers will be in, and it will be utter pandemonium. My house will be full of people, dogs, and cats. 8 people, 3 dogs and 2 cats. Yes, the 2 cats and 1 of the dogs is ‘normal’. My brother and his wife are bringing their pups, as it’s cheaper than trying to board them. The good news? We’re almost done with shopping for everyone.

The bad news? I’m only half-done with stockings. I’ve knit 3 of them. Unfortunately, photobucket doesn’t like me right now, and only uploaded 2. But they give y ou the sense of the third. No, I’m not using typical Christmas Colors. Yes, it’s just a big sock. Yes, I *did* knit three at a time on one magic loop. I’m knitting the next three the same way.

I dyed up a shetland fleece the night before last. I separated the cleaned fleece into approximately 4 oz chunks and dyed brown, another brown, grey, black, teal, pink, two kinds of purple (one more blue than purple), dark blue, and red. (2 lbs, 91/2 oz of fleece all told.)
I think what I’m going to do with all of that fleece is spin a progression of color. Pick up all the, say, brown, card it, spin it fine, and then pick up the red, the pink, then the pinker purple, the bluer purple, the blue, the teal, the grey,  and the black. Spin until one bobbin is filled, go to the next, of course. I don’t have a bobbin that can hold 2 and a half pounds of fiber. Navajo ply to try to keep the colors separate and then… knit.

Knit what, I don’t know. I’m thinking a vest or a sweater. Maybe a simple top-down raglan with garter stitch edging. I’ve been dying to knit one for a while. Maybe something like the sweater in Spin to Knit, where she used handspun for the yoke and then a commercial yarn for the sleeves and the rest of the body. Hmm… something to think about *after* I knit the rest of the stockings.

I think I’m finally rested enough… November 1, 2007

to blog.

On Saturday, there were 10 girls from knit group in my house, dyeing yarn. It was DYE DAY! I don’t think I’ve ever been so exhausted in recent history. MJ has some details on her blog, as I didn’t have the wits about me to bring the camera out. Let’s just say lots of yarn was dyed, and the new dye studio (pics forthcoming — I took some today, but forgot the flash and… sigh…) worked out rather well. There were generally 2, sometimes 3 women dyeing at a time. No one ran out of plastic wrap, and everyone left with some really cool looking yarn.

It was a fun time, and left me tired, but happy. I hope we can do this again, sometime after the holidays, of course. I’ll remember to take the day off before dye day to minimize the sleep deprivation next time. (I work nights, dye day started at 10am.)

I swore I wasn’t going to dye until Tuesday, but I dyed on Monday, and posted some cute new things to Etsy. (More below the jump,  but skip if you don’t like color, or  happen to be  on a yarn diet.)

The Starting is the easiest part… October 18, 2007

While acquiring my 40″ size 1 Addi yesterday (so that I could start Ben’s socks), I chatted with the owners of the LYS and a customer who came in, and first, told them about my favorite way to knit socks — 2 at a time on 1 circ, judy’s magic cast-on, increase either side of the toe, short row heels (wrapped, yo, or sherman), and long cuff– and I told them that the starting of a project is the most fun for me. The  item is still just a possibility I’m working toward, and I think that’s what leads a lot of us to  having “startitis”, or starting bunches of projects and losing steam on all of them at once.

I hadn’t thought about how much I loved starting a project, even as I started the toes last night (I’m up to 32 sts on each side of the sock, 4 rows left of the toes). I love the possibility that this sock, hat, etc. will be really really cool looking, and I love trying to visualize what a charted or printed  pattern will look like in the yarn I’ve chosen. The rows before the heel I spend thinking about which heel I’m going to use, and the rows after the heel and before the end of the sock, I think about what treatment I’m going to give the top of the sock. 10 rows of 1×1 ribbing? 8 rows of 2×1? 20 rows of stockinette to curl delicately over the top? 2 rows stockinette, and a picot bind-off?

Until the last stitch is knit, and the last stitch is cast-off, there’s still a possibility for change, for the pattern to grow, for the sequence of knits and purls to end up as something else.

What we’re doing isn’t just knitting, it’s collapsing all of the possibilities into one reality. No wonder it’s hard work! No wonder each stitch we make toward the end goal is so hard to make!

Starting is the easiest part, the part with the most potential (as you start with JUST yarn and a needle or five), and it locks us into a set of possibilities.  Thee most energy is expended in those first few stitches, no wonder it’s so exciting!

I think this is what is called “mindful knitting”, thinking about the process, thinking about how the process of creating affects us as we become part of it.  Thinking about knitting is probably my favorite part of knitting, and it all starts with a single cast-on stitch. If you think about it, it’s amazing that what starts with a single stitch can become a sock, a hat, a sweater, a bowl, a mobius, a shawl, a washcloth, or… whatever your mind wants it to be.

This is why I knit. It’s a creative process, generating something from a bit of string and some sticks that wasn’t there before.