You are currently browsing the Socks category
Or, a post in four parts.
First, thanks so much to everyone who commented and emailed, for all your sympathy and suggestions about my seamless alpaca debacle! I retreated from the sweater and resisted burning it in the grate. A large relative’s visit is looming on the weekend, and I might just do the lofty thing and give it away. It still is rather gorgeous looking, for all its misshapenness, but I think I’ll feel happier knowing it will keep *someone* warm, even if it isn’t the originally intended recipient. So instead, I knit on my Cobblestone for a bit, adding some waist shaping (can you spot my full-fashioned decreases?)
Second, after achieving this high-minded closure, I regrouped my ego and nerves, and went to various LYSs in search of the perfect (read affordable – have you seen the friggin’ prices on some of these????) wool/alpaca blend. I fantasised about buying ten skeins, knitting the swatch on the bus back and voila, hey presto, being done by Christmas. Alas, only one store in our area carries Berroco Ultra Alpaca (Thanks to all who recommended it!), and they had only three skeins of the one shade the spouse liked. I did try Nashua Creative Focus Worsted, but it was too scratchy around his neck, not ideal for a turtleneck. But when I realised my pullover-in-two-week fantasy was going the way of my dramatic-weightloss-in-two-weeks fantasy, I decided to wait and order it at leisure. (Talking of weight loss, my last post with those two words got pingbacks from strange sites – those that trawl blog posts for such popular key phrases, I guess. I’m probably getting a lot of disappointed visitors who expect to find diets but see alpaca yarn instead.)
Third, this epiphany was followed by another: the last thing I wanted to do was measure gauge and fret about size (talking of key phrases, ahem). Final papers were soon to arrive. Why not go for something relaxing and simpler? So I did. I knit him a pair of felted clogs with Cascade 220. He’s happy with them, even though they’re – you guessed it – a bit too large! I’m going to give them one more spin in the hot washer the next time I do laundry.
And finally, fourth:
This aran is knit with the same yarn as the Cobblestone above: a light worsted merino called La Paz, handpainted by Laura Macagno-Shang of Textiles a Mano. The sweater is five years old, and was my first major aran project after learning how to read charts and patterns. I picked up a Vogue Knitting pattern and sort of went with it, changing an ugly shawl collar to the V. It was great for my knitting confidence overall and I’ve worn it a lot.
Problem is, I only ever wear the sweater at home, because I don’t care for the aran pattern anymore, and I hate the way the cabled sleeves look puffed; I feel vaguely like an American footballer. While it’s very comfy, it is quite shapeless, the sleeves rather long, it’s too bulky under the arms and the finishing would now make me blush. It’s a shame, because I love the yarn, which has begun pilling only now, after years of heavy wear, and the subtle brown shades.
See the hole right at the waist in the central panel? That was what got me thinking – what if I were to unravel and reknit the yarn into a more fitting and interesting pattern? Any suggestions for what might look good in this yarn? A search on Ravelry for cardigans and pullovers is like setting off an avalanche and being drowned in patterns, so any specific suggestions are most welcome. Hope everyone’s holiday knitting is coming along well!
Last week, one of my wear-at-home slippers gave way, and I realised I needed a new pair. Not a big deal, except I have had this pair for nineteen years. I bought them in 1988, the summer before I went away to junior college in Pune, amidst much excitement about life on my own in a hostel. These slippers have been with me through college, grad school, relationships, jobs, cities and countries. It was only after one of them tore that I realised how long it had been – do you blame me for mourning their passing?
I will have the torn slipper resewed (you can see it in the picture above), but in the meantime I needed a new pair. Rather than the boring option of buying a pair from the store, I first tried to get one by writing soulful poetry (come on, bad limericks can be soulful, you just need the right attitude!) for a contest on Ruth’s blog. Alas, she preferred a more prosaic (and, alright, deserving) entry, so there ended that.
So, I made a pair of the quick and ever-popular Felted Clogs (by Bev Galeskas/Fiber Trends) myself. Inspired by Ruth, I used the opportunity to mop up some loose skeins in my stash. Amazingly enough, the multicoloured clogs did not result in an ugly, mismatched pair (as I’d almost hoped!).
Slipper ingredients:
*The tannish body is 3 skeins of Indiecita Alpaca in shades of beige, brown and browner (Boy is this alpaca hairy after felting!).
*The blue inner soles are Cascade 220.
*The reddish cuffs and one of the outer soles are Elann Peruvian Sierra Aran and Elann Highland Chunky.
*All on size 11 needles.
Am delighted to say that nearly all of these skeins (roughly 100 yards each, give or take), were used up. I can use the remaining bits as lifelines, stitch holders, markers, etc.
I never stop wondering at the magic of felting. All yarns, surprisingly, felted relatively equally too. The slippers took me two rounds of a hot wash in the top loader at the laundromat, with periodic dunking in some cold water. Now, trimmed and dry, they are snug on my feet. They’re not really a replacement for my old slippers, but I think they will do nicely. I do need to get some bottoms for them, though, because they are a little, well, slippery on the wood floor.
§ October 30th, 2007 § Filed under Socks § 9 Comments
This one sock is both the fastest and slowest sock I have knitted to date. I started it nearly ten days ago, but as is normal with the simplest of projects, I made several mistakes and had to start over, and over, and over again. And then, bang, the day before yesterday I started off and finished it last night. I know that’s nothing for some people, but for me it was like streaked lightning. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that I knit it *exactly* as is, with no changes to the pattern. It was quite refreshing!
This pattern is deceptive. As with all of Grumperina’s designs, the construction is intuitive and simple, but clever use of stitches results in a most satisfying project. As I was knitting this I wondered what all the fuss was about the brioche stitch, because it looked just like 3×3 rib, but took longer. Then I put on the sock as I was going along, and realized that the brioche adds a lovely little detail along the purl rib.
This sock, knit in Koigu on size 0 bamboos, is for a friend (hi!) who wanted one in fall colours. I couldn’t find any one brown or green that said fall colours to me, but then I saw this colourway, which looks quite like one overall. But it has taken me so long to knit one that I am going to send her the second one raw – she can knit it herself, I’m sure she’ll enjoy that. I’m done! I’m sending her the sock with a little handmade Indian lipstick case, just to keep with the whole handmade theme. I hope she enjoys the whole package!
School is barely two weeks away, and occasional emails from students about reading lists and such like are forcing me from the torpor of summer siestas, food and fiction. Has anybody ever weighed the stomach-churning anxiety of the first week of class against the last week’s nausea of grading? Every December and May I know that grading very easily trumps having to face a new batch of unknowns by a long shot in the what-I-hate-most-about-my-job department, but every August and January I’m not so sure. I try to calm the butterflies by thinking in cliches about clean slates, leaves turning, new dawns, fresh beginnings, but there’s still something about the introductory riot-act-and-syllabus spiel on the first day of class that depresses me no end.
Still, after this horrid summer where I haven’t been able to knit very much, I am looking forward to warm clothing and this beloved hobby that produces it. So after weeks of getting on to Ravelry and not doing very much with it, I’m looking around for patterns to queue. Look for me there: I’m (no surprises) Desiknitter. It’s also been a lot of fun looking at photos of people who are making and queuing my Cloverleaf socks and the Rangoli hat. Speaking of which, do look at the gorgeous shades on Spudsayshi’s Rangoli hat!
I amused myself the other day by learning a new method to start toe-up socks – Magic Cast On. I used the wool I bought in Delhi, with two US 0 (2 mm, or Indian size 14) circular needles. This is way simpler and quicker than the short-row toe, and allows you to manipulate size better, too. That’s if you can figure out which effing needle is which, and don’t complicate matters by using the wrong needle every single time. During several tries, my project looked like blurry and messy with visible signs of frogging.
Did I mention that I bit off more than I could chew by casting on for two socks at the same time? It all actually settled down after a while, and I couldn’t help thinking this is probably a lot like having twins – double the trouble and you keep asking yourself what the hell happened, but then you have two instead of one all at once and tell yourself that at least you don’t have to start all over again soon.
Mercifully socks are easier to manage than twins; if doing them together gets to be too much, at least I can just take one off the needles and do it later! I find that continuously moving the stitches to the end of the circulars for every round is quite annoying, so I might actually switch each one to DPNs and finish them individually. Try keeping one of your kids in storage while you focus on raising the other! Oh, and although you can’t see them because of the rolled brims, these are Flintknits’ Marigold Socks! (Pattern free, easy and gorgeous)
I’m nearing the end of my Kiri shawl – stay tuned, I have a long trans-Pacific flight to take one of these days….
Edit: apologies for reposting a couple of times, found some awful spelling errors.
In Delhi, after a wonderfully decadent week in Hong Kong. I have lots to tell and show about it, but something else first.
Everybody around me is begging me not to jinx this by talking about it, but I cannot help it: Delhi is actually tolerable right now! I know, I know, it’s the last week of May and those of you who have ever been in the vicinity of 110-115 degree weather are probably shaking your heads with some sadness that the heat has made me delirious so soon after getting here. But it’s true, and I too cannot believe it. I woke up from a nap yesterday afternoon and realised that there was something else adding to the hum of the madly whirring ceiling fan and cooler. Rain! Sweet, sweet heavy rain.
I went out into the balcony and smelt the heady wet earth scent and dig
a mad jig. There was actually a cool breeze that blew all evening, and right now, it’s midday and barely in the 90s.I was marvelling every stitch of the way as I sipped some tea and bound
off these this morning:
It’s apparently been raining quite unseasonally every few days the whole month, and kept the temperatures from being brutally high for days on end.
So, the sock specs:
Claudia Handpainted socks in the "Just Plum" colourway.
Pattern: Generic toe up, with 52 stitches, my first pair on size 1 needles. I did the heel flap toe-up, which I learnt from Cabezalana. If you are bored of short-row heels but still want to do toe ups, check her generic pattern (the link takes you straight there), it’s great. Thanks, Mel!
Needles: size 1 bamboo, now slightly plum in colour. This yarn stains the needles like mad! At first I thought it was only the needle all my friends used to stir their coffees at the baseball game (yes, I allowed them to!), but later I realised it was the dye on all of them. I need to wear these socks to see how the relaxed gauge feels on my soles, but 52 stitches sure beats 60 or 64!
More soon on my Hong Kong trip. Agnes, I wish I’d known earlier that you are from there, I’d have asked you for tips on where to eat and stuff to see! It’s a stunning, stunning place.
Keep your fingers crossed that the weather remains like this for a few days at least…
(with apologies to Robert Darnton!)
This is not a good time for knitting here chez Desiknitter. Sweaters are on life support, with no prospects of immediate recovery. In addition, here’s what I have to show for hours of sock knitting in the last week:
The Jaywalker sock, above, coughed and spluttered its way past the heel, but the prognosis, after several early froggings and expensive treatments, aka efforts to learn a new heel flap method, was never good. Somewhere up the cuff I realised that I couldn’t stand the pattern. Actually it was when I knit my Chevron eyeshade that the boredom of the zig zag pattern hit me. Yes I know, it’s supposed to enliven the yarn and do wonders for stripes, but whatever. I frogged it down to the toe. The blue one next to it is Claudia, leftover from my Spiral scarf which I tried to start into a striped sock after Eunny’s but everything I striped it with was either thicker or thinner, resulting in an unhealthy, mottled look. That is now languishing at the toe as well. The other maroon Claudia looks like it might survive, although this was after several attempts to start these which went nowhere. So now all I have is a bunch of sock heads that look like they got decapitated rather messily.
I think the magic medicine is simple: stockinette. With this simple diet, my socks might yet survive the summer. But when I am ready to tackle a pattern again, it’s going to be Pamela’s Marigold Socks. I missed seeing her today as she’s on a busy tour of the Bay area, but will hopefully see her sometime soon.
A second opinion, however, suggests alternative treatment: lace. And seeing no harm in combining these, one of the two is currently under consideration from the book I recently bought: Stahman’s Shawls and Scarves.
This book has some fairly straightforward patterns in the Faroese construction, and each motif is also adapted to a rectangular scarf, which I really like. I will likely use the book quite a lot, even though some bits are odd: no yarn estimates or finished dimensions are given. You are in a Zimmermanesque universe, figuring it all out yourself! Aside: do buy this book from Schoolhouse Press if you want to; there are some absurdly high prices on Amazon for used copies, but I got it for a standard price new within a week from them. I was afraid it was dreadfully back-ordered because I saw the Amazon prices after ordering it, but seeing it in my mail was a pleasant surprise yesterday.
Thanks so much for all the sock pattern suggestions, everyone. I am eyeing all of Cookie A’s patterns, especially the new ones! But after swatching for "hedera", and for the "smoking hot" ones for my variegated skein, I decided that this particular Trekking grey yarn was meant to be a pair of Jaywalkers. I’ve said this before, you know how a yarn sometimes almost wills itself to be something no matter how hard you try to do something different with it? The dark shades in this skein made it quite difficult to try something complicated, although my efforts introduced me to something wonderful in the process: The Walker Treasury Project. What a wonderful resource! I was trying out some lace repeats to develop a sock pattern of my own from the Barbara Walker volumes I have, and when I googled the names
of the stitches a lot of them showed up here. I’m planning to join the project myself in the summer.
Like Spud, I also reduced the number of stitches for the Jaywalker pattern (76 cast-on was waaay too large for me) and with 64 and just two repeats, it’s nice and snug. I’m doing them toe-up, short-row as usual, and might increase a few stitches from the ankle up. So far I quite like this Trekking yarn, although I imagine I’m going to be left with quite a lot of it after the pair is done.
I also started something else. Seeing the lovely pink flowers all around me here (and also the gorgeous pinks cropping up on various blogs) made me pull out my Malabrigo laceweight in Damask Rose. Mmmmmm Malabrigo.
I had set this yarn aside for something complicated like Frost Flowers or the Sampler Stole from Gathering of Lace, but once again, it seems destined to be something else. I got a lovely pink and grey silk salwar kameez as a gift that this yarn shade will go well with. So I thought I might make a light wrap out of it first, and then maybe use the rest for a cropped shrug/sweater of sorts. Let’s see.
So this is the beginning of the "North Sea Shawl" from Cheryl Oberle’s Folk Shawls book. The yarn is held double on size 6, but after an initial blocking I think I might frog, reduce the number of repeats and go up a size to make it a little drapier. I knit this very quickly; the pattern is a variation on Feather and Fan, and it’s the right combination of mindless and interesting knitting that I need right now.
Spring break begins tomorrow! I have a paper due for a workshop that I have to do during break, but just not having to go in thrice to teach means I have some time to actually sit and write something (other than a blog entry, ie!) and I am excited about being able to do that. Am also looking forward to seeing the Namesake tomorrow.
Remember my cartridge-rib-turned-twisted-stitch-turned-NIGHTMARE alpaca pullover? In a burst of virtue I picked it up again a few nights ago, determined to complete it before the weather got too hot. I have finished one sleeve, the body is done in the round to the armholes, and really, the other sleeve and the yoke should not take that long (yes, yes, I know the perils of saying that). I had knitted the sleeve in the round too, with size 3 metal dpns for the ribbing, and then bamboo circulars. I realised with irritation that one of my Susan Bates metal dpns is missing, so I have only 3 left. So I went to the store (my neighbourhood LYS) and bought another set, this time of Takumi bamboos (don’t know why I didn’t pick the metals again). I cast on, knit an inch or so and am worried that the Takumi 3s are somehow larger than the Bates 3s: (3.25 mm as opposed to 3 mm? am not sure) and are producing a larger fabric. The photo is lousy, sorry, but can you get an idea of what I’m talking about? I’m tempted to let it go, because it’s going to all stretch anyhow, and I’ll be transferring to takumi circulars in a few inches anyhow. Or should I use just one of the bamboo dpns and use the other 3 metal Bates for the ribbing?
I actually went to another store in the area to see if they had Bates DPNs in size 3. Would you believe it, they had all this gorgeous yarn, a fun knitting group that it might be nice to join sometime, lovely space to browse in and just far enough for me to make a brisk weekend walk out of the trip, and all sizes imaginable in needles but NO size 3s in Bates! I took that as a sign, and did the only dignified thing I could. I bought some sock yarn.
I haven’t bought any in a long time, plus there was this Trekking yarn that I’ve never tried (the grey stripey one, which is brighter looking in person), or the luscious blue Claudia Handpainted that totally took my mind off the fact that the store has no Koigu (wtf is up with that?). The lilac Louet gems in the middle, I’m seeing these gorgeous flowers all around me… there’s no way I could leave those skeins there.
It’s probably no use, this virtuous return to UFOs. All I seem to want to do is knit socks. I cast on for the Trekking, and am currently on the lookout for a good pattern that shows off variegated yarn. For all the lovely handdyed sock yarns on Etsy there are remarkably few patterns for them, no? I thought of Jaywalkers and others like it, but am still holding out for something else. Any suggestions?
If you’ve moved house/job/city even once, you know how painfully long it takes for things to start feeling familiar and comfortable. There are of course the big things: new colleagues and neighbours, fresh bureaucratic nightmares, DMV lines, the deeply depressing yellow strips of paper that are stuck on all your incoming mail for months, reminding you of the unfamiliarity of your new place. Having lived in five states since 2001, I have some idea of this unsettled feeling.
All that eventually, if painfully, sorts itself out, even though you are greyer, more prone to drink, and beside yourself with anxiety at the very sight of a moving truck. However, it’s not until some other small things fall into place that you really begin to settle in: finding a hairdresser you don’t want to stab with the nearest shears handy after looking in the mirror, a yarn store that you actually want to browse in and isn’t a pain to get to, and a cafe in your neighbourhood that you can make your own familiar hangout.
Can you imagine the smile on my face? The coffee isn’t great, but I’m not much of a coffee drinker. The salads are excellent, the sofas inviting and the music unobtrusive and the artwork unpretentious. One of the guys who works there (not the one you can see in the picture) is a bit dyspeptic, but I’ll take dyspeptic anyday over excessively chirpy.
Then there’s the yarn store that is technically in another town, but a short bus ride or brisk walk away. So far at least, the folks there have not set my teeth on edge, and I’ve bought stuff from them several times. As you can see, even my socks like hanging out there!
Miraculously, after two initial disasters, I also found someone who can cut my hair without my having to wear my cabled hat for the next few weeks while it grows back. Right around the block from where I live, too!
So I kicked back today, knit and read a bit in the cafe on a bright sunny day, wandered by the store in my flipflops and bought some needles, and came back and finished my Tiger socks (Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sock toe up in stockinette on size 0s, shortrow heels and toes, 60 stitches). A sunday well spent.
Of course, there was that 4.4 point earthquake some days ago that reminded me, a little aggressively, that I’m in northern California, but I am ignoring it; apparently one soon becomes blase enough to call out the numbers on the Richter scale.
I don’t know if I’m going to get that settled in, but well, we shall see.
§ February 27th, 2007 § Filed under Socks § 5 Comments
I started a post last night, full of links to movies I’d seen recently, etc. Right when I decided to save it, Typepad was declared unavailable: of course, with my perfect sense of timing I chose to post just when they were doing scheduled maintenance! So here I am again.
At the top in the picture to the left is the Shepherd sock I made sometime back on size 1 needles, cuff down, with 60 stitches. You can see the 1×1 ribbing and the regular heel flat. For some reason I didn’t take to this sock: the fabric was a little loose and I could feel the purl bumps, and the ribbing was too tight.
At the bottom is the second sock, also with 60 stitches but toe-up and on size 0 needles. Isn’t it strange how minimal pattern variation results in such differences in striping? The white stripes are much more prominent and I like that, so I’m going with the newer iteration. Will frog the first and reknit. Also, it looks like these will be longish socks, because there’s an awful lot of the yarn left.
Aside from this soothing stockinette, I’ve been trying to write up the pattern for my cabled rangoli hat after getting a few requests for it. I read fleegle’s post about charting with Excel, and downloaded a few fonts that she mentions there. Since I recently moved to a Mac and left my stitch and motif maker software behind in my past life, I was excited at this prospect of not buying more charting software. From Fleegle’s review Knit Visualizer seems very nice indeed, but I don’t know if I want to put down $135 for it just yet. For some reason, though, even though I downloaded the fonts and they show up in my font list, I can’t see them or use them. Restart? did it. Reinstall? did that too. Swore at the machine? Of course. Finally, one of them did show up, but with a tremendous reluctance to behave properly. Admittedly, I am not an Excel whiz, but I cannot figure out why some of the symbols don’t fit into the boxes, or why some of the boxes don’t appear clearly. Maybe it’s just the type size? I tried increasing the box size but that didn’t work. Some symbols are also lighter than others. But there are upsides to this experiment. I know I am really late to this party, but I was insanely pleased when I realised I could chart simple patterns with the Wingdings font.
Still, do bear with me; I’ll put the chart and pattern together soon, in words if not in pictures.
« Older Entries
Newer Entries »
