Saturday, July 12, 2008

Perplexing Picot

I finished my Canyon Socks and decided that my next pair would be something kind of lacy and fancier than the other socks I've made before. After much deliberation, I chose the Vandyke Lace Panel Socks by Kristin Benecken. (I downloaded the English version.)

Because I can't leave well enough alone, I made the following changes: I increased the stitches to 72 (I have big feets and I knit pretty tightly) and started with a picot cuff.

I don't know why I went with a picot cuff. I hate crochet cast-on because I hate picking up stitches. Well, I started and finished the picot edge last night, and it's a wonder I didn't lose my mind. Somewhere along the way, I wound up with too few stitches, and then too many. I think I fixed it, and it looks great, but I'm still keeping my fingers crossed that the whole thing doesn't fall apart like cotton candy in a toilet.

Yeah, I don't know what that means, either.

Anyway, notes for myself: 72 sts, start with 2.5mm needle. Knit five rounds, knit picot round (yo, k2tog, repeat), knit five more rounds. Fold in half, knit stitches from both halves together. Knit one round plain. Switch to 2.25mm needle on first round of pattern. For sl1/k1/psso, I slipped as if to knit. I also changed the stitches around so that I had 35 on the instep side, and 37 on the heel side. That way, the 17 pattern stitches have an equal number (9) of plain stitches on either side.

Notes for my future self when working the second sock: Cast on with waste yarn instead of using crochet cast-on. Slide cast-on stitches to spare needle before attempting to knit them with new stitches. Less chance of losing stitches that way, I think.

Yarn: Regia 4-ply, light blue
Needles: 2.5mm, 2.25mm Knit Picks and HiyaHiya
Method: Magic Loop

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

Heel adjustments

Although I love "afterthought" heels, I felt like there was a way I could make them fit my incongruously small heels just a little bit better. The heels on the other socks I made fit pretty well, but I thought I could do better. So I just left out three rounds of plain knitting, and voila! No sag at all now.

My "Canyon Sock" in progress, with heel done and starting the rest of the foot:


Previously, I had done the heel as follows: Knit three rounds plain, knit a decrease round (six decreases), repeat until I had half the stitches I started with, and then decrease every round until I was down to six little stitches, draw the yarn through the loops, and it's done.

This time, instead of waiting till I got to 36 sts (half of my original 72), I started decreasing every round when I got to 42 sts.

Friday, June 27, 2008

The Secret of My Sock Success

I'd wanted to knit socks for years, but my early attempts discouraged me. I tried using DPNs and every attempt was a spectacular failure. I think I'm too clumsy, and I lose things too readily to be trusted with that many little needles at one time.

Then I read Knitting Rules!, which gave me the inspiration I needed to look outside the box. I'd taken to DPNs because that's what my limited exposure to sock patterns had called for. I decided to try EZ's "Moccasin Sock" since it was partly knitted flat on two needles. Soon after, I discovered I really hate picking up stitches and sewing seams. It's a brilliant design, but for someone with my particular aversions, it wasn't a good fit. My one completed sock sits unmatched and alone in a drawer.

Then as luck would have it, I almost simultaneously came across information about the Magic Loop technique and Afterthought Heels. I only have to pick up six stitches per sock and I never lose my needles! I'm on my seventh pair of socks now, but if Magic Loop hadn't worked for me, I would have kept looking until I found something that did.

Sunday, October 21, 2007

A letter to a sock.


Dear Opal "Magic" Sock,

Why are you so fugly? I'm putting a lot of tender loving care into knitting you, and you repay me by turning into this horrible thing. You look like a Venus Fly Trap ate a whole mess of bees and then regurgitated them onto my needles.

You look slightly cuter in this listing, but the picture is very small. How was I supposed to know what you look like close up? You're like those people on Yahoo! Personals who post pictures of themselves so tiny that no one can tell what they really look like. Not that I've ever used Yahoo! Personals. But I feel you were a little deceptive. You led me to believe you were cute (or at least presentable) when in reality you are barfed-up bees.

Perhaps I shouldn't be so shallow. Maybe all that matters is that you'll keep my feet warm this winter. Goodness knows I dated a man or two for lesser reasons. I guess I'll give you a second chance. If I still find you unappealing, I can always wear you in the dark.

Yours in mingled anticipation and disappointment,

A knitter.

Monday, October 15, 2007

DUH!!!

I had a huge "DUH!" moment today.

I like making my socks with "Star Toes" because you finish it off (cuff down) with running the yarn through the last six to eight stitches and there's no grafting. But I've been lamenting the fact that the toes of both finished socks have visible lines of decreases going in the same direction.

Just as an example (with an imaginary 28-stitch sock), here's how I've been doing my decreases:

Rnd 1: *K5, k2tog, rep from *. 24 sts rem.
Rnd 2: Knit plain
Rnd 3: *K4, k2tog, rep from *. 20 sts rem.
Rnd 4: rep rnd 2.

And so on.

Today it dawned on me that if I reverse the order of knits and decreases, I'd have a line that went the other way. For example:

Rnd 1: *K2tog, K5, rep from *. 24 sts rem.
Rnd 2: Knit plain
Rnd 3: *K2tog, K4 rep from *. 20 sts rem.
Rnd 4: rep rnd 2.

I'm sure every other knitter on the planet already knew this, but for me it was quite an epiphany. I'm so excited that I decided to start working on the tweedy green socks again.

Saturday, October 13, 2007

Done!

My Crazy Color socks are done!

Unfortunately, Blogspot is refusing to put up the pictures I just took, so that will come later. For now, I'm basking in the afterglow of completing a project.

Tuesday, October 2, 2007

Recycling

After reading a post about ecological recycling on the Knit Witch's blog, I got to thinking about a sweater recycling project I had recently undertaken. Long story short: I had decided to take some thrift-shop human sweaters and turn them into dog sweaters.

Here's what happens when you get a slightly felted L.L. Bean sweater and cut it out then sew it into a more-or-less canine shape:



And here's what happens after you chase a small terrier around the house and make him try on the sweater:




I'm not really a huge proponent of dressing up dogs. They're dignified creatures, after all. It's hard enough to maintain your dignity when you're compelled to sniff other creatures' butts all the time without being made to wear frou-frou garments. But I tend not to run the heater much in the winter and I have cold-natured dogs, so making them elegantly understated and practical sweaters seemed like a good idea.

What seemed like a bad idea was spending a lot of time knitting sweaters from scratch. The thought of spending weeks on a neat fair isle outfit only to have it end up covered in poop and leaves and mud after a brisk chase session in the yard was too much to bear. So I bought a few woolly sweaters for $3 and under and dragged out my grandmother's sewing machine, which heretofore I had only used once in life, the end result of which was to make myself a pair of shorts with mismatched legs.

But the dog sweater turned out quite nicely, I think, and so cheaply, which is a bonus. I didn't even have to spring for a pattern. I just measured the dog and after I cleaned up all my bite wounds, I was good to go.