I did it! Today I signed up for the 2012 Cookie A. Sock Club. If you've been following my blog, you know that I've been knitting my way through her latest sock book - "Knit Sock Love" - along with bunches of other people on the KSL knit-a-long group on Ravelry.com. Her sock club is a year-long club where every two months you get a skein of sock yarn, two exclusive patterns by Cookie, and two cookie recipes (yes, for actual cookies that you bake in the oven). So you can make Cookie socks and Cookie cookies. Double cookie bonus!
Now, this club is pretty exclusive. It sells out every year and sign-ups are open first to those who are current members. That leaves people like me crossing my fingers hoping that there is room for us mere non-Cookie Club mortals to join when sign-ups finally open for the riff-raff.
General population sign-ups started this morning at 11:00 AM EST and I had no idea how fast they might sell out. Is it a matter of minutes? Hours? Days? No clue. So there I was this morning, at our newly-opened Wegman's grocery store (holy crap, that store is giant - and awesome!) having breakfast and conversation with a couple of friends with my netbook plugged in to a nearby outlet. The browser was open to her sock club page and beginning at 10:55 AM, I started hitting the refresh button every 30-60 seconds. The only time I remember exhibiting such manic refresh behavior has been:
A Grant Creek Yarn shop release about 6 weeks ago when I had to get my hands on her Inventor Arthur Fry Post-It note hand-dyed yarn.
About 14 years ago when trying to get concert tickets for the Monsters of Rock tour (with Poison!) before it sold out.
At 11:00, I refreshed and there it was! The sign up link! I almost couldn't click on it because I was too excited and kept overshooting the clicky box with my cursor. Add to cart, dammit! Add to cart!!! Loading, loading, loading... Why is it taking so long??? Am I too late? It's only been 37 seconds! Wait, here it is! Yay, in my cart! Now check out, check out, check out! Oh crap, only takes PayPal! Log in - hurry! Mis-typed my PayPal password - NOOOO!!!! Password attempt - take 2. Type slowly and carefully while still freaking out that all those people who typed theirs correctly the first time are taking up all the spots. What??? My credit card isn't showing up - only direct transfer. Add card! Add card! Type carefully... why are there so many freakin' numbers for a credit card?!?! Expiration, and that stupid code from the back. Come on, come on, no typos... and click to add the card. Change payment option, choose the card, and SUBMIT PAYMENT! DONE!!!
I'm now a member of the club. Be jealous. Be very jealous.
First installment ships the first even month of the year. Is it February yet???
Could I have more projects started but not finished???
My WIPs (works-in-progress), completion percentages, and their deadlines:
Monkey Socks - 25% - Dec 15th
Cauchy Socks - 25% - Nov 30th
Lissajous Socks - 5% - Dec 30th
Scalene Shawl - 80% - Dec 22nd
Button-Up Beanie Hat - 20% - this winter
I have finished the Hedera socks I started a while back (Sept? Oct? I've completely lost track of time.) that are a Christmas present. One gift down! Only 37 to go! Okay, not 37, but the Scalene shawl is a gift plus I want to make a second one for another gift. And I need to make a hat for my cousin Cameron who just started chemo this week. And maybe socks or a shawl for my grandmother who just went through yet another surgery but has a lot of recovery ahead of her.
Needless to say, I'd better stop typing and get my knitting butt in gear.
And as if on cue, there goes the buzzer of my dryer. There's laundry to fold....
I came across a book of knitter's cartoons while perusing Amazon.com today. The book's title is "It Itches: A Stash of Knitting Cartoons." While taking "a look inside" the book, there was a page titled "Lost Knitting Diaries of the Famous." One in particular really tickled me, so I'm sharing it here. (I know it's copyrighted, but it's printed on their page so I figured there's no harm in reposting on my blog. But if I'm shut down tomorrow, you'll know why. ;)
"The weather being very fine, I sat for some hours in the park to work the second of the pair of stockings I wish to give Lenore as a birthday gift. When for a moment my back was turned, its finished mate was plucked clean from my knitting basket by a large raven. I am sick at heart to think I shall see it nevermore. (Note to self: Possible story idea here?)"
There are various ways one might define insanity - some clinic, some anecdotal, and others based on actions. In the spirit of the latter, I have cast on a pair of knee socks. And not just any knee socks, but a pair of knee socks from Cookie A which have many charts and many, many cables. The pattern is called Lissajous and comes in both a sock (ankle-length) and stocking (knee-high) version. I love knee highs in the winter, so I decided rather flippantly to knit the stockings. I ordered three 50g skeins of Shibui sock yarn (most socks use ~100g, so I figured 150g would be plenty) in a pale yellow called Jonquil and waited excitedly for October to come so I could cast on.
I had started a scarf pattern called Scalene after finishing my September In and Out red socks, so before casting on for Lissajous, I wanted to finish it. The scarf was done in fingering weight yarn - Knit Picks Chroma. I basically copycatted someone else who knit it using the same yarn in the same colorways. The pattern was gifted to me by someone in the Random Acts of Kindness (RAK) group on Ravelry, and I ordered the yarn from one of our frequent Knit Picks orders.
I had never worked with Chroma before but knew that it was a single ply yarn. I have to say that while it was very soft to work with, the single ply was a little tricky at first The yarn has very little to no twist, so it's almost like skinny little roving. When I first started the scarf, I was splitting the yarn left and right. Luckily after several rows, I got used to working with it and didn't have any more splitting issues.
The Scalene pattern is basically a triangular scarf done in garter stitch - knit every row. Back and forth. Knit knit knit. But there are some keyholes added where you can pass the scarf through when you're wearing it. Those added a bit more of a challenge than all the knitting, but the pattern was pretty easy to follow. I did have to cast off a bunch of stitches in the middle of a row which wasn't hard but I had never done it before. Then I also had to cast on stitches in the middle of a row which necessitated some youtube searching before I felt confident enough to do it. All in all, Scalene is a pretty quick project even with fingering weight yarn. I think I'm going to attempt to make two more for Christmas gifts, this time using worsted weight yarn so they go even faster. I have a pending Knit Picks order for more Chroma but in worsted weight, plus size 7 needle tips to use with their interchangeable cables. (The pattern calls for U.S. size 4 needles for fingering yarn.)
I still want to block the finished scarf so that it's a flat triangle, but just got some T-pins two days ago and haven't done it yet. Here it is unblocked:
Unblocked Scalene Scarf using Chroma fingering yarn in Prism & Bare
Scarf done. On to socks!
At this point, I had two pairs of socks in progress - Monkeys using the Tree Fort colorway from Knit Picks and Hedera using Patons Stretch sock yarn in Kelp. Monkeys for me, Hedera for my Curves boss Elaine for Christmas.
Only two pairs in progress??? Wow, that's pretty darn good. So no problem starting a third! I cast on Lissajous.
Heaven help me! This pattern, while the knitting itself isn't THAT complicated, putting the pattern and charts together correctly to actually knit it is an exercise in organization and strategic post-it notes placement. Here's an example of what I have to do:
Knit chart D for front of leg. For back of leg, knit to marker, knit chart B, knit to marker, knit chart E, knit chart G (starting after row 10 of chart D, otherwise skip G), knit chart F, knit to marker, knit chart C, knit to end of round.
That's a lot of charts to track. And that's not including the earlier part when I had to knit halfway across chart A, insert charts E & F, then knit the rest of chart A. (Did I mention that charts B & C are subsets of chart A so after the first 8 rounds you abandon the other stitches in chart A and only work B & C with E and F between then and knits making up the missing stitches from A? Are we having fun yet?)
As amazing as it sounds, I cast on and have been knitting without any major chart oops errors.
As a side note - see that green Ball Sack? A wonderful woman on the RAK forum made a pair for me! I had requested them for my birthday and she contacted me saying she was going to knit them. How awesome is that??? Hmmm... maybe I should have called this project "Lemon & Lime." :)
Anyway, after knitting about 1.5" of sock, I tried them on and slide them up over my calf to just below my knee. I noted two things.
1. Even though I'm using the needle size (U.S. 1.5 - 2.5mm) called for by the pattern and knitting the size based on my leg measurements, I probably could have used size 1 needles for a snugger fit.
2. My legs are freaking long.
I thought knitting 6" of sock before starting a heel was a lot of sock. Ha. For these babies, I've got a good 12-13" of sock to knit before I can start the heel. And that's for one sock. Let's say 25" of leg, two heels is another 5" or so, then almost 9" per foot. That's a grand total of 48 inches of sock. Four feet of sock knitting. With skinny yarn. On tiny needles.
This, my friends, is the definition of insanity.
(Oh, did I mention that after knitting 2" of Lissajous, I cast on a fourth pair of socks? Yeeahh... I'll tell you about that next time....)
My interests aren't limited only to knitting, you know. There are a variety of "fiber arts" that float my boat. For example, I would love to spin. I want a spinning wheel. But so far I have refrained due to several factors. Number one, it would take up valuable real estate in our house, as would the many bags of fiber I would be certain to accumulate and hoard. Second, it would be expensive - a decent wheel is usually $600-1000 plus accessories, and all of that sure-to-be-hoarded fiber isn't free. Third, I unfortunately have a limited amount of time to devote to my hobbies. If I added spinning, that would cut down on my knitting and reading. (I can only wish that somehow it would reduce my time spent cooking or doing laundry. Maybe if I could spin straw into gold....) And finally, if I was spinning yarn, I'd have to knit it or my yarn stash would grow at a greater rate than it already is, plus we then go back to reason number three - more yarn but less time to knit.
But there is one yarny, fibery thing that I wanted to do that wouldn't take too much time and wouldn't increase my yarn stash too much (at least at first, because believe me, the potential is there) - dyeing my own yarn. Start with natural, undyed yarn and before you know it - BAM! Gorgeous yarn. (Or a muddy-looking mess, but let's stay positive, shall we?)
A while back, I had posted somewhere on Ravelry.com that I wanted to attempt to dye yarn some day. One of the other members saw my post and emailed me. She lives about 20 minutes away and offered to have me to come to her house and having a dyeing day. Uh-huh. Twist my arm. This was in early August and we decided to get together after my kids were back in school.
Kids + professional permanent dye = potential for disaster.
So we did it! On September 19th, I made the short trek to her home with my little tote bag full of three skeins of blank-slate yarny goodness. (Knit Picks Bare Fingering in merino/nylon). Jennifer then proceeded to school me in yarn dyeing.
The first step is to make sure the yarn is tied at least four times around so that when it's being stirred in a pot of dye water, it doesn't end up being a tangled mess. The Knit Picks skeins are only tied twice, so I added two more ties to each.
Next we had to soak the yarn for 20-30 minutes in water with a little wool soak. The water temperature wasn't cold or hot - just middle of the road from the faucet.
For my first skein, I wanted to try to recreate a colorway by Grant Creek Yarn called Hollyhock. It's a pretty light-to-midrange pink with splotches of darker, almost rusty pink on it. I have around 12 skeins of GCY at $20-25 each, so I've been trying to be good and use some of it before buying more. But this color called out to me and it was so hard to resist! So I figured what the heck, I can at least try to make my own.
We started out mixing up dye in fuschia and brown. The fuschia was screaming pink, so the brown toned it down quite a bit. Once we got a color we liked (testing drops on a white paper towel), we added some of the resulting dye to a pot of simmering water on the stove and dumped in two skeins of yarn - one for each of us. This is often referred to as kettle dyeing. (Sounds more impressive than "dumping dye and yarn in a pot of water," doesn't it?)
We then started dropping in more of the dye as the yarn absorbed it since the color started out too light for what we wanted. I also attempted to drop in dye without mixing to see if it would create the dramatic splotchy effect I was looking for. It did give variants of color but not as much as I wanted, so once the dye was exhausted (completely absorbed so none was left in the water), I pulled out my skein, put it into a pan and started "hand painting" splotches. I just used a spoon and the leftover fuschia/brown dye mix. to get some really dark, distinct areas of pink. (Yet another fancy term -"hand painting" sounds so much better than "dropping dye onto the yarn with a spoon, brush or squirt bottle.")
Jennifer didn't do the dark pink splotches on hers, but she did leave her skein in the pot and add some straight brown to it. Here is a picture of our two skeins hanging from the knobs on her grill to dry. Hers is the longer skein on the left with the muted brown. Mine is the darker pink on the right. Jen's reminded me of a colorway by Knit Picks called "Frosting" which is pink, brown, and cream, but without the cream color.
One skein down, two to go! Next we decided to do something with an Autumn feel to it, since summer is over and winter is rapidly approaching. I'm cold and grumpy just thinking about it. Anyway....
Jennifer had a great color called Aztec Gold that she hadn't tried yet. I was game, so into the pot went our yarn with the gold dye! Mmm... spaghetti...
After we kettle-dyed the gold to a really pretty deep gold-orange color, I took mine out and decided to give it a little variation. Jennifer put the rest of the fuchsia/brown dye into a squirt bottle for me and added some water to dilute it. The I proceeded to just dribble it around on patches of my yarn. I went for a more subtle effect than with the first skein.
Jennifer hand-painted her yarn after the initial gold dye with distinct sections of purple, red, and a darker orange. She told me that she has since overdyed it so I have no idea what hers ended up looking like. I can't wait to see once she knits it up into something.
For third and final skein, Jennifer went way purple on hers with a little gray mixed in to mute it. It actually gave it a bit more of a periwinkle look than the royal purple it started out as. I'm not a huge fan of purple, but her resulting color didn't annoy me.
For mine, I went with a gray and decided that since we had purple mixed up, I'd add some faint streaks of lavender through it. So I kettle dyed my yarn with the gray dye, but had to mix up some black and add it to get it dark enough. I actually had someone on the yarn dyeing forum on Ravelry comment that I got a good gray, so I guess we did okay getting a medium gray! Then I tried the squirt bottle technique with very diluted purple. I also went with more distinct stripes around the perimeter of the yarn rather than random splotches. Looking back, I should have added a little black or gray to the purple to mute it because it still turned out more purple than I wanted. I think it's pretty - if you like purple. (Which means my 7-year old daughter loves it.) Here it is in the tray after the purple was added. The camera really shows the purple - it did not look that bright/distinct in person.
Dyeing was done! We hung everything to dry outside while we cleaned up. Here's a nice picture of all six of our skeins hanging of Jennifer's deck railing. Mine are the three on the left which means that hers are (obviously) the three on the right.
Here is a close-up of my three:
Once I got them home (in plastic bags), I hung them from the door frame over the washer & dryer until they were completely dry the next day. I was tempted to try to reskein them because all of the dipping and swishing in the dye pot made them a bit unruly, but luckily realized that I would have spent hours (and probably a bit of cursing) to do it. Instead, I twisted them into hanks, and I think they look pretty good even though they are a bit messy.
So I give you the final results of my dyeing day, in hank form!
There are just two things left to figure out. First, what shall I name the colorways? (Post comments if you have any good ideas!) And second...
Is it just me, or do the days go by faster and faster? I know, I know, that's so cliche to say, but I swear they do. I had anticipated tons of free time with the kids back in school and Chris at work, and yet it seems as though I have less time. I have still been knitting, though. My primary focus is to keep up with the Knit Sock Love knit-a-long so I can knit every sock in that book. The other couple of KALs I've been participating in are taking a backseat, especially as I've finally started to knit my first Christmas gift for someone.
But first, the latest in the continuing saga of KSL. This particular sock is called "In and Out" and I have to say that the photo in the book didn't do much for me. It's in a dark blue yarn than, while very pretty, doesn't show off the pattern to the best advantage. But I'm doing every sock, darn it! So I choose some of my "good yarn" - Grant Creek cushy merino/nylon in a gorgeous deep red called "Frankly My Dear..." (If you don't get the reference, you can stop reading here and go get some darn Southern culture, pretty please with sweet tea on top.) Coincidentally, the solid socks group has red as their color for September. It's my favorite color and yet I didn't have any RED socks. How is that possible? I had to remedy that situation right away.
Now "In and Out" is a chart heavy pattern - several charts for the sock and different charts for each foot since they are mirrored. However, the hardest part was keeping track of where I was on each chart - not just which row but where in heaven's name I was in a 66 stitch row of symbols. I ended up using my chart keeper from Knit Picks and having a long magnet placed just above the row I was working on, and then a short magnet that I moved across the row from right to left to mark where I was in the row. And my wonderful friend, Leigh, had made copies of the charts and blown them up, so she gave them to me to use (since she was a speed demon and finished these socks pretty much as I was starting mine).
Note about the KP chart keeper: I like it, but the magnets move easily, so I don't trust it to carry around and not lose my place. When I finish knitting in a session, I write down or use a row counter to record what row I'm on rather than rely on the magnet which is easily bumped & shifted.
So after a fairly quick knit, these are my In & Out socks (the picture isn't that great - it was super gloomy when I took it).
I like them more than I thought I would, and I can't wait to knit more red socks!
Holy crap, where did the summer go? Talk about getting back to reality - in the past two weeks, my kids have returned to school and my husband went back to work. After 9 weeks of all four of us being home together, it's been a bit of an adjustment starting with getting up about 2 hours earlier than Chris & I were used to. (The kids get up around 7:00 regardless.) Silly me thought that I'd have so many wonderful, alone hours in which to knit my heart out. Everyone gone and it would be just me and my yarn.
Ha. As if.
How could being alone in the house cause there to be more work and fewer hours in the day? There must be some breach in the time continuum that somehow only affects stay-at-home moms. (Continuum? Is that a real word? Spell check thinks it is.) Of course, having gymnastics immediately after school four days a week for three hours at a time requiring major pre-planning with pre-pared dinners and pre-packed leotards & water bottles also puts a damper on fun time.
However, I am happy to report that I did finish the August socks for the Knit Sock Love KAL - Twisted Flower. My goal was to have them done by the end of August, but I actually finished on September 3rd. So sue me.
This pattern is a one size pattern. How I love the one-size-fits-most sizing. It's kind of a big "screw you" to anyone who is smaller or larger than the majority. There should be a note with them that reads, "Sorry, this pattern is for the average person. Those of you on the outskirts of the bell curve can bite me." Like with hats. I have a tiny head. Like a little orange on a long toothpick of a neck. Hats invariably come down over my ears. And eyes. Grrr.... This could be the reason I'm not a hat person. Either that or because they look ridiculous on me. It's one or the other.
But I digress.
The pattern for Twisted Flower was one size, but heck, I'm game for almost anything, so I crossed my fingers and cast on. At first it was seeming pretty big on my calf/ankle, but I kept reading people's posts on Ravelry saying they were worried it was going to be too small. Hmmm... I guess along with a giraffe neck, I also have chicken legs. But I persevered and kept knitting and luckily they tightened up as I went. The final product is a smidge looser than I'd like, but not loose enough for me to give them away as a gift. Plus they were a lot of work and I know I'll appreciate them.
These socks were a lace/cable combo. First some lacy, fan-looking stuff, then a bunch of teeny cables crossing happily, then more lace, then more cables, and so on. I realized that I hate cables. Teeny tiny little cables - just two stitches crossing a specific way, over and over across a row, maybe 5 times, maybe 10... I'm gritting my teeth just thinking about it. Not that it's hard, just tedious. Tee. Dee. Us.
But here they are, in all of their lacy, cabley glory! I give you.... Twisted Flower Socks.
Twisted Flower
Yarn: Plymouth Yarn Co. Happy Feet
And since it was September when I finished, that left me free to cast on the next pair of socks in the KSL book - In and Out. The photos of this sock in the book don't do much for me, to be honest. They are a dark blue which is pretty but doesn't showcase the pattern very well. I'm using RED yarn. (All caps because this yarn is really, gorgeously RED.) It's from Grant Creek Yarn and the colorway is "Frankly My Dear..." I think the name is completely clever and the color is beautiful. And since red is the color of the month for the Solid Socks group, I can double dip in their challenge.
Here's my first In and Out in progress:
I'm working these one at a time instead of two at a time because there are different charts for the left and right feet and I didn't want to fiddle with following the correct chart and tracking which sock was which. I felt it would leave me too open to messing up somewhere along the line. However, I'm past the heel turn and gusset decreases on sock 1 (the left) and am working down the foot and can already feel SSS (second sock syndrome) creeping up. I have the urge to cast on another pair of something different rather than think about the second RED sock.
Must... Resist.... Urge!!!
Luckily I do have another pair of socks OTN (on the needles) that I can alternate with if necessary. They are a pair of Monkey socks in the Tree Fort colorway from Knit Picks. I don't have a photo yet, but I promise to put on in an upcoming blog post. Plus I'm just past the cuff so there isn't much to see yet.
Hold on...
Did I totally forget about my second pair of BFF socks? In a "firey" colorway? Short version: Since we were driving to western NY at the beginning of August, I needed a car project that I could do without reading a pattern so I cast on a second pair of BFF socks in an unknown colorway from Holiday Yarns that I got from their bargain bin. It looks like fire to me, so I call the socks my Firey BFFs. Finished August 25th - here they are...
How about that artsy-fartsy photo? What can I say, I was feeling artsy at the time. Or was it fartsy? I can't remember. Either way, the piano seemed like a cool idea.
I also bought more yarn. A few times. My sock yarn stash is growing faster than I can knit it down. I may be approaching S.A.B.L.E by the end of the year. (Stash accumulation beyond life expectancy.) Unless I live to be 147, then I'm good. If you're a Ravelry member, you can see all of my pretty yarn on my stash page. I still have a couple of hanks to post, but most of it is there.
So there you have it - you and the rest of the world are now up to speed on my knitting exploits. Next week I'm going to dye yarn for the first time with a friend I made on Ravelry who lives about a half hour away. I'm taking some bare yarn and she's setting us up with dye and the know-how. I'll try to take pics during the process, but if it's too hard or messy then I'll at least be able to share the results!
I finished my butterflies socks a few days ago, and I am so happy with how they turned out! I did have to get a few minor clarifications on the pattern and found one error, but the author was very helpful and will be updating the pattern on Ravelry.com to reflect the changes. She told me I should test knit her next pair. Apparently I'm thorough (aka: anal). Until then, my project page on Ravelry has my notes if anyone decides to knit these: Why Can't It Be "Follow the Butterflies?"
I have a feeling these may become a favorite pair of socks for me this fall. And since they are stranded, they are basically double thickness which means they will be toasty warm this winter!
So here you go - photography compliments of my husband (and my photo cropping mad skills):
Since then, I've been alternating between my Twisted Flower and my BFF socks. I really need to prioritize one pair over the other because there is no way I will finish both in the next 10 days. It should be BFF since those won't count for anything after the end of the month, but then I won't have any carrying-around socks to knit. (Weeellll, except for the Monkey socks that I started but aren't past the cuff.)
Hmm... I just realized that if I want my Twisted Flower socks to count for the Solid Socks KAL (which I why I made them blue in the first place), they need to be done by the end of the month. So I have three pairs to finish in two weeks.
Goal date: Aug 31
Twisted Flower - 15% finished, knitting 2AAT.
Butterflies are free - 60% done. One sock done, other in progress (2 1/2" done on leg)
BFF - 40% done, knitting 2AAT, just starting the heel flap
Can I do it??? I don't know, but I'm sure going to try!
It doesn't help that we went peach picking over the weekend and came home with 88 peaches. Instead of knitting this morning, I spent three hours making peach muffins, peach crisp (two versions - one allergen-free), and peach pound cake. At least I'll have yummy snacks to sustain me during my knitting marathon the next couple of weeks.
You can check my project status on Ravelry if you're a member - my user name is "melissabeyer". Just do a people search and then click on my projects. Or watch here for updates. Don't forget to subscribe to my blog!
I have a lot of sock knitting to catch you up on, so grab an iced coffee, lemonade, or whatever floats your boat, maybe a snack, and pull up a comfy chair, because you have a lot of reading ahead. Seriously. Go do it.
Ready?
Many people don't think of knitting as a summer activity. For some reason, 90 degree weather doesn't bring to mind cozy things made of wool. I'm not sure exactly why. This is the perfect time to keep knitting to stock up on things for the fall, which as you know, is just around the corner. (Apple picking starts the end of August, people!) Sock weather is a-comin'.
My last blog post was a teaser of my very first colorwork socks. Colorwork (aka stranded knitting, some of which is also called fair isle knitting) is when you knit with two (or more) yarn colors. I have always been a bit daunted by colorwork knitting because two yarns means you have to somehow hold and tension both of them. There are fancy little finger contraptions that you can strap on to a digit that will supposedly hold both yarns neatly, but not only am I wary of relying on a piece of plastic to do something, I believe most of them are designed for Continental knitters. Alas, I am an English thrower, not a Continental picker.
Quick explanation for those of you who are thinking "huh?":
Continental - holds yarn in left hand
English - hold yarn in right hand
Picker - uses the tip of the right needle to "pick" the strand of working yarn and pull the loop through
Thrower - moves hand (typically the right hand) to wrap, or throw, the yarn around the needle
Continental/picking knitting is generally faster and requires less hand/arm movement than English/throwing, but that's now how I learned. Plus I'm not sure how to purl Continental-style. I'll have to check it out on youtube.
Anyway, when you knit with two yarns, you can hold both in your right hand, both in the left, or one in each. See what I mean? Daunting. But the Sock Knitters Anonymous (SKA) group on Ravelry was doing colorwork for their July challenge, and since I was done with my BFF socks for the Knit Sock Love (KSL) knit-a-long, I gathered up my knitting courage and decided to give it a shot. And of course, I didn't pick a sock that has one little row or border of colorwork. I jumped in with both feet to knit Wendy Johnson's Norwegian Rose socks.
Here's the photo of the socks from her book:
Pretty, aren't they? I had purchased a dark brown yarn from Knit Picks a month or two ago in anticipation of someday knitting these socks. And as luck would have it, I had also recently acquired some Grant Creek Yarn in Spring Green. I love the color palette of the stock sock photo, so I was all set to copy it.
The toes were boring - just brown. I was nervous and anxious to start the colorwork portion - also knowing that these socks have a lot of colorwork! Even the soles have dots of green stitches all over them. Plus, not only is there the matter of manipulating both yarns, but many people have issues with their floats when making stranded socks. See, when you aren't using a yarn, it gets carried behind the yarn you are using until it's needed. That yarn going along the wrong side creates "floats." If there isn't enough slack in the floats, the socks will have no stretch and will be hard to get on. If there is really not enough slack, the floats can pull and bunch up the knitted fabric. But if the floats are too loose or too long, you can catch your toes in the loops when you try to put on the socks. So the goal is to have floats that are long enough to give a little negative ease on the socks but not so long that you're getting caught up in them.
Colorwork is sounding more and more fun, isn't it?
I read a tip of the SKA forums about knitting inside out to manage floats. By doing this, you can easily see how tight/loose they are, plus when you from needle to needle, you are forcing the floating yarn to take the long path around the outside of the sock (which is really the inside since it's inside out), rather than cutting the inside corners and being too short. Confused? I actually did a youtube search to find a video showing how to knit a colorwork sock inside out and didn't find anything, so I created my own. This will give you a better idea of what I mean:
And bonus! You got to see the progress of my socks! And, if you look at the video, you will also notice that I decided to knit holding one yarn in my left hand and one in my right. So the main color (dark brown), I knit using my right hand, throwing it as I usually do. The contrast color (green) is in my left hand, and I picked it Continental-style. I learned to pick! I'm a picker! It was a bit slow going at first, but then I got better at it. I did discover that my gauge is looser when I pick compared to when I throw, so the green stitches had a tendency to be looser than the brown. I had to be careful to keep the green stitches from being too loose.
A cool thing with colorwork patterns are that if you knit them well, the wrong side should look almost as nice as the right side, with all of the floats making a pretty reverse of the pattern. Here's the right-side photo you saw from my last blog post:
Now here is a picture of it turned inside-out (which is how it looks when I'm knitting it):
Pretty cool, huh? I have to admit, I think I'm just as proud of the wrong side as I am of the right side! :)
Because colorwork socks are all knit stitches (the different yarns create the pattern rather than having the stitches create one), they are pretty quick to knit once you get the holding-the-yarn thing down. I started these on July 26 and finished on August 8, and that's with a road trip to my mother-in-law's in New York for five days in between. I did work on them a little bit while we were there, but most of the time we were geocaching, at Niagra Falls, having a family barbeque, etc.
And here is the final product:
My Norwegian Rose Socks!
Yay! I'm so happy with how they turned out!!! Well, with one exception.
The heel from hell.
I've knit at least 30 pairs of socks, both cuff-down and toe-up, and this was the worst heel pattern of all of them. For those of you familiar with different heel types, it is a short row, wrap & turn heel. Let me start by saying that a wrap & turn heel is not my favorite heel to begin with. All of the picking up of the wraps and the double wraps is a pain, I often have trouble with the double wraps, and using a dark brown yarn makes them even harder to see. That being said, this particular heel had other issues which made me HATE it. I know that's a strong word and I don't often use it, but I HATE this heel.
Problem 1:
The heel pocket was too long and pointy. The pattern says to do your initial wrap & turns until there are 11 live stitches in the center (non-wrapped stitches). That's what I did. And it was too long, making the back bottom of the heel of the sock stick our farther than my actual heel. Annoying. If I knit this heel again, I'll stop at 13 or 15 live stitches, not 11.
Problem 2:
After the short row W&T heel, the pattern has you knit a mini heel flap for several rows, after which is states to start working in the round again. But that mini heel flap is a good half inch longer than the instep (top) of the sock, which means you start working in the round again, the sides of the heel flap aren't connected to anything and leave big gaping holes on both sides of the sock! I talked to another knitter on Ravelry who knit Wendy Johnson's Fair Isle socks which use the exact same heel, and she concurred that the heel construction was bad. However, she was smarter than I was and picked up a couple of gusset stitches on either side of that mini heel-flap so that she didn't have holes. I had questioned it but then decided to trust the pattern even though I knew better. I then had to stitch closed the gaping holes in my socks. Grrr.... If I knit this heel again, I will pick up 3 gusset stitches on either side of the heel flap and then decrease them back to the correct number of stitches on the following rows.
Other than those two things, I love these socks! (I just can't wear them with open-back shoes because of the pointy extra long heel issue.)
Being in a colorwork sort of mode, I then proceeded to ignore my Monkey socks (for the Cookie that Got Away KAL which need to be done by Sept 14) and my 2nd pair of BFF socks (for another entry into the KSL KAL which need to be finished by Aug 30). And I didn't immediately cast on for the KSL August KAL socks - Twisted Flower - even though I had the yarn caked and ready to go.
Instead I cast on another pair of colorwork socks - Butterflies Are Free. Here is the stock photo from the pattern page on Ravelry:
I couldn't resist. First, I had yarn in my stash to use! I had some Knit Picks bare merino/nylon fingering-weight yarn for the light color, plus a 93g hank of Holiday Yarn that I got from the fill-your-hand-for-$20 bin at the MA Sheep & Woolcraft Fair. Second, the cuff has a picot edge instead of the typically ribbed edge, and I wanted to try it. Third, as long as I cast them on by the end of July, I'd have until the end of August to finish them so they'd count as another entry for the SKA KAL. It was July 31st - I had until the end of the day! I figured I'd cast on the first cuff with the cute picot, post my pic, and set them aside until farther into the month. Little did I know that picot edge wasn't cute at all....
The pattern is one size and starts out "cast on 72 stitches with 2.5mm needles." 72? Most of the socks I've made are 64 stitches and ribbed, so they pull in. And 2.5mm is a size 1.5, where my socks have all previous been knit with size 0 or 1's. But hey, I follow directions. I cast one, knit a few rows, switch to the bare yarn, do the picot edge, fold it over, and yes, it's adorable! And freakin' huge! Instead of 8 sts/inch, I was getting 5-6. I had a good 3" or more of extra cuff.
So I frogged it. (Rip it! Rip it!) Started over with size 1 needles.
Knit some rows, picot picot picot, knit more, fold it over. Super cute! And huge!!!
So I frogged it. Again. Grabbed my size 0 needles.
Knit, picot, knit, fold. Cute. Huge. Are you freaking kidding me??? It's now been two and a half hours of knitting what should have taken me 30 minutes.
Frogged for the third time. Emailed the pattern designer saying WTF??? (Okay, I didn't actually say that, and even the acronym makes me feel a little dirty since I really don't swear much and especially not the F word! But I did email her.)
She wrote back saying many people with smaller calves will use 64 sts for the picot cuff, then do 1 row to increase back to 72 before starting the pattern. So I went back to my size 1 needles and cast on for the fourth time - 64 stitches this time. Knit, picot, knit, fold, knit the edges together to finish the cuff, increase back to 72, and two rows starting the colorwork.
Ta-da!
Guess what. It's still a little big. So we'll see if A) these get finished, a B) if they fit or if I'll have to find someone worthy to gift them to. (I know that's not proper English, ending with a preposition, but "to whom I can gift them" sounds so stuffy.)
And.... that's as far as I've gotten on those socks.
I did knit some of my 2nd BFF socks in the car on the way home from NY this past Sunday. But I don't have a picture of their progress so you have to wait for a future blog entry. (Tease alert! Tease alert!)
But I did also cast on Twisted Flower. These are going to be double-dipped in the Solid Socks KAL since their theme color for August is water. Blue is good for water socks, so there you go.
I now have four socks in progress. Here's the list along with their approximate levels of completion and their due dates to qualify for the appropriate KALs:
2nd BFF - 30% done - due Aug 31
Butterfly colorwork - 5% done - due Aug 31
Tree Fort Monkeys - 5% done - due Sept 14
Twisted Flower - 10% done - due Sept 30
And lets not forget that as of September 1st, I'm going to cast on "In and Out" socks for KSL and a pair of red socks (probably "Marlene" by Cookie A. for Solid Socks.)
On June 1st, I cast on the latest Cookie A. sock from Knit Sock Love for the KSL KAL - Stricken. I was excited, fresh for adventure, and just a tad bit naive. Ah, Stricken.... You taxed my knitting mojo like no other sock has, but also pushed my sock knitting further than previous patterns.
I started off great! Cuff was easy breezy! I was even excited about using my custom-made-by-me stitch markers to start sectioning off areas of the pattern in the leg.
In the first 10 days I accomplished a good amount knitting them two at a time. This pattern has a lot of charts, and I was starting my way through chart D.
Then I hit the wall. So many teeny tiny cables every. Single. Row. And the dreaded chart E was looming. What? Why was it dreaded? I knew you'd ask.
Chart E is for the heel flap, which instead of being worked around and around, is worked back and forth. That means instead of knitting, on the back side you purl. It's a piece of cake when a heel is a straight knit on one side and purl on the other, but these socks continue the pattern down into the heel flap. The chart is written for the right side (RS).
You might be saying, "So..???"
So, when working Chart E, the first row is read right to left like you would any other chart, and the stitches are worked as shown. The second row is the wrong side (WS), so it is worked left to right, AND you have to translate all the stitches. Knits become purls and vice versa. Knits through the back loop (ktbl) become ptbl. Slip 1 to cable needle and hold to front, k1 tbl from left needle, ktbl from cable needle becomes slip 1 to cable needle and hold to front, p1 tbl from left needles, p1 tbl from cable needle.
Perhaps you can see why chart E was dreaded.
So I set aside my Stricken socks, telling myself it was just for a day or two. I cast on my Hedera socks - it was now mid-June. Hedera socks were finished on June 30 (see previous blog entries for photos). Stricken got pushed farther to the side.
July 1st I cast on BFF. I worked on these during our trip to PA and on the drive home. BFF socks were finished July 11th. Stricken was gathering dust.
July 14th I cast on Quickie Socks for Chris. They were quick - finished both socks on July 17th. Looked at Stricken and groaned.
Finished up my carrying-around socks - Monkeys that I had started back in April. Bound off and wove in the ends on July 21st.
In the meantime, I had realized the Stricken deadline of July 31st was looming if I wanted them to be eligible for KAL prizes. On July 18th, I forced myself to pick them back up and start working.
Lo and behold, I got some of the original mojo back. I finished Chart G, painstakingly knit through the Chart E heel flap from hell, and the rest of the foot was smooth sailing. The relief and pride I felt when I finished off the toes was incredible! I did it! And with a bind off date of July 26, I had 5 days to spare.
So here they are!
Are you impressed? It doesn't matter - I impressed myself. :)
And with just a few days left until the beginning of August and the new KSL KAL (Twisted Flower), I bet you can guess what I did....
I cast on my very first colorwork sock for the July/Aug Sock Knitters Anonymous (SKA) KAL challenge.
More on that coming soon.....
Oh, and did I mention that I also cast on another pair of BFF socks? Don't worry, I have a good reason. :)
I wanted a quickie. A quickie pair of socks, that is. I had finished my BFF socks for July ahead of schedule, was still procrastinating working on Stricken, and my first pair of Monkeys were dragging. So yes, it was time to cast on a new pair!
I recently got three new sock books thanks to Amazon.com discounts and free 2-day shipping with Amazon Prime: The Joy of Sox by Linda Copp Knitting Socks with Handpainted Yarns by Carol Sulcoski Sock Knitting Master Class by Ann Budd (with a DVD!)
The Joy of Sox has a cute pattern called Quickie Socks that uses - *gasp* - worsted weight yarn! And - *double gasp* - size 5 needles! I immediately made an emergency run to Michael's for some worsted weight wool (my yarn stash may be growing, but it's 98% fingering/sock weight). And because the Solid Socks group on Ravelry was doing a black/white/gray month, I got it in gray to make a pair of socks for my wonderfully appreciative husband.
July 14th - I cast on Quickie Socks after the kids went to bed (around 8 PM).
July 17th - Quickie Socks finished by lunchtime.
Holy crap! Two and half days for a pair of socks! Granted, they are thick, heavy socks, but Chris will thank me when he's shoveling snow this winter. At least he'll have toasty warm feet!
Quickie Socks
Patons Classic Wool in Dark Gray Mix
Is it me, or is the pattern reminiscent of the Leaning Tower of Pisa?
With those done and hours of swimming class with the kids, I had no choice but to put in some serious work on my Monkey socks. Lo and behold, when you actually work on a project, it progresses. Imagine that! And when you work on it enough, you may even finish it! Woahhhh. Dude.
Started in April, but finished in July, here are my Monkeys by the pool! (Wool socks with sandals in the background and wet pool cement makes for an interesting photo, does it not?)
Monkey socks - by Cookie A.
Grant Creek Yarn - Leaves colorway
So let's recap:
BFF - done.
Quickie Socks - done.
Monkeys - done.
What to do? What to do? I know what you're thinking, and yes, I was itching to cast on another new pair. However, in a burst of unprecedented self-restraint, I decided to suck it up, dust of my Stricken socks, and sally forth.
Just got another order from Knit Picks two days ago! Leigh and I went together to get some solid colors for future knit-a-longs, specifically for our "Knit Sock Love" KAL socks. Cookie A's patterns often have a lot of pattern/texture/cables/etc which can be obscured by busy yarn, so solids, semi-solids, and tonals work best.
Here's the order (I'll make the photo large so you can see all of the yummy yarn goodness better):
Top Row: Dove Heather, Gypsy
Middle: Rouge, Fedora (brown), and Majestic
Bottom: Dusk, Pumpkin, and Bare/Natural
The purple Majestic and red Gypsy are Leigh's - the rest is mine. Mine mine mine! All mine! And I have plans for each and every skein.
Fedora will go with Springtime (green tonal from my stash) for Norwegian Rose socks.
Bare/Natural will go with Make Believe (handpainted yarn from stash) for Fair Isle Socks from Wendy Johnson. (The Norwegian Rose are also one of her patterns.)
Dusk is for the August KSL KAL - the pattern is Twisted Flower by Cookie A.
Rouge is for Cusp and is similar to the color actually used for the photo for the pattern in her book.
Dove Heather is for Stalagmite. It was originally going to work for the Solid Socks monthly KAL for black/white/gray socks, but all of the Cookie A. patterns for 2012 shifted out a month since the moderators decided not to do a cast-on for December. December is a busy month but also the socks for October are knee socks so people might be behind for Nov/Dec. But I thought this would look great in the light gray, so I'm not switching my yarn choice. In any case, here's what Stalagmite looks like.
And finally, the Pumpkin sock yarn will work great for Sake socks next July (yes, July 2012) and the SS color that month is orange. Perfecto! Heeeere's Sake!
There are, of course, other socks that I'm going to knit in the next year that aren't mentioned because that yarn was already in my stash. I think I'm pretty much set for yarn for socks for quite a while. Not that I won't buy anymore, but at least I know that I have enough right now that I won't get cold and die. :)
I still haven't blogged about my quickie socks so I'll do that in the next couple of days. In the meantime, I'm working on my Stricken socks and have gotten to the trickiest, most pain-in-the-butt part of the pattern. The heel flap is worked back and forth with a chart which means every other row is read left to right instead of right to left and every stitch & cable have to be reversed. So I've got cables where I purl through the back loop, regular knits instead of purls, more ptbl instead of ktbl, and did I mention all of the cable stitches are flipped and the directions are reversed. I feel like I'm reading the pattern inside out or something. I already had to tink back on the first wrong side heel row. If you've ever tinked back cables and back loop stitches, you'll know what a royal pain it is. Fortunately it was just on the first WS row. Unfortunately that's the only WS row I've done so far. *whimper*
It's been over two weeks since my last blog entry and I've been getting a little flack from a certain friend of mine because I haven't posted in a while. *coughleighcough* But it's summer and that means a bit of craziness. We were away for a week visiting my family in PA, where my mom had planned a plethora of fun things to do - Arts & Crafts festival (with only vendor that had yarn - can you say "lame?"), big family Fourth of July picnic (and all the food & prep that goes with it), Kennywood, the Pittsburgh Zoo, and Idlewild Park. We made it to all of them except Idlewild since it rained on our last day there, thus eliminating the amusement/water park from the schedule. Needless to say, there wasn't a ton of free time for knitting, but I did manage to squeeze in some work on my BFF socks here and there.
The best surprise was during my attempt to knit in the car on our 9-hour drive home. I had created a contraption made up of cardboard blinders and a baseball cap to block my peripheral vision and hopefully allow me to do something in the car other that sit, fidget, stare out the window, and try not to complain that I was bored or that I had restless leg syndrome AGAIN. It not only looked ridiculous, but it made it difficult to look around when I actually wanted to raise my head for a break. So since we were on a fairly straight highway without much scenery near the side of the road, I took a chance, took it off, and tried to knit.
I should let you know that I get completely pukey in the car when I even so much as try to look at anything resembling text or anything in the seat behind me. Look down to check an address? Pukey. Look up a number on my phone. Nauseous. Turn around in answer to the "Mommy! Look at this!" requests from the back seat. Heave-inducing. So I wasn't hopeful about the knitting and was prepared to quickly look up, recline my seat a little, and blow the highest AC setting onto my face should my carsickness rear its ugly head.
Miracle of miracles! I could knit!!! I did it! I turned just slightly towards the center of the car to minimize the trees whooshing by out of the passenger window, made sure to look up as much as possible, and it definitely helped that BFF is an easy pattern that I had memorized so there was no need to look at any charts. (If I had to add reading into the mix, it would have gotten ugly.)
Here's a picture of my progress at our last stop in PA before we crossed into NY.
BFF Sock at Matamoris, PA Welcome Center
We got home from PA on July 9th in the evening, and I finished my BFF socks on the 11th. Less than halfway through the month.
Dominic & BFF Socks
With more than half the month left, I had plenty of time to get back to work on Stricken, which have been in knitting purgatory since mid-June. At least that's what I should have done...
It's June 30th, the last day of the month. No biggie, right? No, no, no! I beg to differ! The end of each month is fraught with stress and knitting peril! Super feats of knitting may sometimes be accomplished! Deadlines loom! Needles stick between sweaty fingers!
Must... finish... monthly.... KAL.... socks!!!
With almost twelve hours to spare, I'm happy to report that I didn't have to push it that far this month. But it was close! My Hedera socks were done at 11:20 AM today.
They turned out even prettier than the picture shows. The Apricot yarn from Grant Creek Yarn has subtle variations in the color ranging from an almost-yellowy pale orange to a darker mid-range orange. In the photo above, it looks like a solid, but it really is a semi-solid with some beautiful gradience of color. This pattern is girlie and lacy and perfect for spring or a cool summer night. And it's my first pair of orange socks, so they look great in my hand-knit sock stack in my closet.
Tomorrow is July 1st. (Gee, Melissa, considering today is June 30th, we never would have guessed that.) Aaaaand.... we all know what that means! (If you don't, then you obviously haven't read many of my earlier blog posts.)
More sock cast-ons!!! (insert happy sock knitting music here)
The next Cookie A. sock for the Knit Sock Love KAL is called BFF. Cookie made up the pattern to knit a sock for her BFF, hence the name. (Not every pattern name needs to have some deep meaning, people.) I originally was going to knit them in a dark, almost-charcoal gray since the Solid Socks group's colors for July are black/gray/white. But gray? In the middle of summer? And black socks are always good but wouldn't show up the pattern as well as I'd like. Plus this pattern does well with some minor color variations, unlike many of the more complex Cookie socks where a straight solid works best. So I did some stash diving.
If you knit or crochet or even sew, did you ever have a time where a pattern and yarn (or fabric) just seemed to be made for each other? It's like the clouds part and a ray of sun shines down in a big ahhhhh moment. I have a yarn in my stash that just called out to me.
Melissa... Melissa... I'm your BFF yarn. Just what you're looking for! I'm right here! Over here. Here. HERE!!! Hello??? Are you even looking at me??? Take all the other darn yarn off me, you sock yarn hoarder!I'm freakin' perfect for those socks!!! No... NO!!! Don't even think about buying more yarn when you have me! I'm right HEEERRREEEEE!!!!
It was subtle, but magical.
Knit Picks Imagination yarn in Looking Glass
So I wound it into cakes and am ready to go!
Once again, I'm ignoring my poor Stricken socks which have sat in knitting purgatory since mid-June. We're traveling to PA for the Fourth of July so I don't want to take anything too complicated. That means that the yarn & needles for the BFFs are coming with me, and Stricken is the little piggy that will be crying wee-wee-wee all the way home.
Four days left to finish my orange socks for the Solid Socks knit-a-long for June! I'm making good progress at the expense of my teal Stricken socks which have been gathering dust for almost three weeks now. Once I finish the orange Hederas, I'm hoping I'll pick Stricken back up with renewed vigor!
Although it will be the beginning of July which as well all know, means more cast-ons for new KALs! But first I need to free up some needles I'm currently using.
I'm past the heel and gusset decreases for my Hedera socks and have started working down the foot. I'd love to get to the toe tomorrow and then finish them up by Tuesday. Ha ha! Yeah, as if. But as long as they are finished by the 30th, I'm good to go.
My orange Hedera socks
Pretty, aren't they? Very springy/summery. Not that I wear socks once the weather goes over 70 degrees, but you never know. I may start a new capris & socks fashion trend. Oh wait, the little old ladies already have the corner on that one. I saw one nice lady yesterday with pale blue capris, a white shirt with a pastel pattern, and black socks pulled up over her calves with black shoes. The poor thing.
On a side note, the news is on right now and they are talking about some asteroid (named 2011MD) that is going to pass very close to Earth tomorrow at 1 PM - only 7,600 miles away. That's the distance from Boston to Shanghai, China. Luckily, it won't hit us. Oh, that's nice. I can keep knitting with wild abandon and not worry about the apocalypse.
Almost as exciting as a near-miss asteroid hit are my socks.
If you look closely at my Hederas, you will notice that there is a pattern repeated around the sock, making little columns of prettiness. You may also notice that one side of each pattern repeat has a holey, lacy look while the other side does not. This... uh, design feature, is due to the types of yarn overs (YOs) and how much yarn is used in each. Unfortunately it wasn't until I had knit over three inches of sock before I questioned the difference. I found a very interesting article explaining the different YOs and how to make them the same holiness. But since I refused to frog and start over, I will use the info the next time I knit these socks. Which, based on the number of other sock patterns in my queue that I want to knit first, will be around 2115. Give or take 10 years.
