Lessons learned

They started with this beautiful BFL top from All Spun Up.



I've already posted about spinning it and plying it, which took, frankly, what seemed like forever.

But I think it was worth it.


I've learned that even if your yarn is a bit overspun and crunchy, it's still worthwhile knitting. Knitting will cover a multitude of sins, and you can cut out the worst parts. But next time, don't strangle it.

I've learned that handspun knits up a bit more sturdy than it looks, as the yarn is denser, so you can't just look at it and guess at a needle size. If you do, chances are that you'll have to rip it back and start over.

I've learned that my normal method of making matching socks by matching row counts doesn't really work when the yarn is uneven. I've also learned that I can live with one cuff being slightly shorter than the other. :-)

I've learned that handspun is warmer than commercial yarn. This is a good thing, since it's still the middle of winter.

I've learned that I still LOVE the Fleegle heel -- perhaps more than is healthy.

I've learned that even if it appears that a colour is disappearing when you're spinning it up, it can resurface in subtle ways and enhance the other colours -- witness the beautiful blue that's not apparent at first glance.

I've learned I love spinning sock yarn and knitting up socks with that yarn.

Purple -- it's a good thing

Yummmm, I love blues and browns and greens.

Who knew they were even better with a shot of purple?

Silk Garden 245. This was the first time neither skein had a knot. It was the second time I ran out of yarn at the end. Good thing Noro just keeps using the same colours over again in different combinations and I was able to throw in a scrap from another one to finish off the end.

Totally loving the purple.

Which is a good thing, because I was also working on this.



Impulse of Delight sock yarn in the Crocus colourway. If you don't follow Ruth's blog to watch how how she develops her colourways, you should - it's very cool.

It's also very cool and windy and wintery outside, so my not-very -successful attempt at an outside FO shot lasted about 30 seconds before I chickened out and went back inside. Those white speckles in the photo are snow, not lint. :-)

Apparently I need bigger windowsills.


Simple 6x2 rib, Sherman heel. Totally loving the purples.

Bea's Vs

As I mentioned in my last post, I've been working on a test knit for Bea, and since it's now been released, I can share it with you!

Totally cool! It's called V-stripe, and the Vs are formed by cables that move gently down the cuff and flow into the heel flap and foot. Here's a shot of the cuff and top of the foot.

And here's the back of the leg and the heel flap.

The flap is ribbed, and a detail I particularly liked is the gusset,which is also ribbed.

The pattern is available, in four sizes, either directly from Bea's site or from Ravelry.

I quite like the yarn I used. It's a semi-solid, which slightly striped on the cuff and then softly mottled on the foot.

It's from Tannis Fiber Arts, and the colourway is called Orange Blossom.

She has a lot of very nice semi-solids, and the yarn has a substantially squishy feel to it and wonderful stitch definition. Even though I've put a hiatus on sock yarn buying, I might have gone back to get some more in different colours. :-)

B&W BFF

I'm one of the worst KALers; not only did I do nothing for Socktoberfest, but I didn't even sign up for it. I did sign up for Sock Knitters Anonymous for September and barely scraped up a finish.

One of the options this month was a pattern by Cookie A. I'd wanted to do the BFF pattern for a long time, and this seemed like an opportune time to take it from a "want" to a "done", and "done" they are, on the very last day. Still, done is done; right?

The yarn is Koigu KPPPM in Colour 312. It was, as usual, a joy to work with, and I am quite pleased with how well the colours let the cables show. I would have been even more pleased if I hadn't run out of yarn and had to scrounge up another skein.

I did substitute in a Fleegle heel, though, because I like it.

In the Other News Department, I special ordered a spindle from SpinSanity, and Shannon came through for me with flying colours. It's a bottom whorl, in a rubbed, antique-y blue. It's wonderfully balanced and spins perfectly. The icing on the cake was that Shannon gifted it to me. I think she's trying to feed my budding spindling addiction in payback for causing her a slight case of garterlac obsession. I'm a willing victim.

The fiber is merino from Eagle's Find Fiber in the Leaves and Stones colourway, and it's spinning up into a wonderful, golden-hued single that I'm hoping to Andean ply into lace weight. This is the first time I've tried merino, and it takes a bit of getting used to. It's easy to draft, but not so easy to draft evenly because it's so spongy and stretchy. I keep telling myself it's just part of the learning curve, and I'm not actually minding having to practise at all. :-)

Oh, look -- shiny!

Yeah, I'm a bit behind the trend -- nothing unusual there -- but I finally got around to trying out one of the tencel blends. You know, the ones that make you say, "Oh, look -- shiny!!"

In this case, Shiny also happens to be the name of the yarn. It's from Twisted, in the Angst colourway, 50/50 superwash merino/tencel.

Shiny it is. Also, stripy it is.

I'd started these way back last spring and they sat around for a while. I finally picked them again this fall, ready for a heel. But, hmmm, what heel should I do?

It was about this time that Fleegle returned to the healthy. I took that as a sign that it was time to try her toe-up heel, but top down, of course. Luckily, it works beautifully either way. It's written for two circs, but translates easily to DPNs. Not only is it beautiful, but it is

no fuss, no muss
no flap, no wrap
and
no hole.

A thing of beauty indeed.

Easiest heel I've ever knit. Just a gusset, a very big heel turn and then a little piece of magic that completely eliminates that hole that can sometimes happen at the corner.

And how does it fit?

Perfectly. Thank you, Fleegle!

Unfortunately, I can't really say that I love the yarn. I like the colours, particularly that blue stripe that fades in and out, but the yarn felt kind of hard and plasticky. I'm hoping it softens up in the wash. It had a slight tendency to split, which was much more noticeable when doing increases and decreases. I have more of this blend in stash and will knit it up eventually, but I don't think I'll be getting any more.

In the Other News Department, I continue to practise my spindling, trying to get in 20 or 30 minutes every day. It really does make a difference, and I can see and feel the progress. My consistent spots are happening more, well, consistently.

It's still not as tight as I want it, but the size is right. I've been over-twisting the singles and then balancing when plying. I've received some very helpful advice from Micki (thanks, Micki!) to over-ply as well and then balance when setting the twist, so I'll be giving that a try this weekend. This spinning stuff is like a whole new world that I knew was out there but was successfully ignoring. I'm glad I've opened the door just a little bit, because it's been good for the mind and the hands to try something different.

Math Blues

There are those who would say that one shouldn't mix dots ....

.... with stripes.

To which I would respond, "Pshaw."

I used to be good with numbers. I think that was way back in Grade 4 or something. Once we went from the Imperial system to Metric, I only got worse. Yes, I can add, substract, multiply, divide, figure out percentages, etc., but actually internalizing what those numbers mean in real quantities often eludes me.

I love how the Whatnot sport-weight yarn from Union Center Knits in the Cloak colourway knits up in a great-for-denim stripey-ness. The colours all just meld together so well.

What I don't understand is why I cannot transfer the knowledge that I need 300 grams of DK weight yarn for a pair of socks into needing about the same amount of sport weight yarn. Yup, I ran out just at the start of the second toe. But I liked the stripes so much that I went stash-diving and found something that I thought would go with it, and re-knit the suckers with contrasting cuffs, toes and garter heels.

To further confound my math blues, it seems that 50 grams of DK weight yarn will make two cuffs, two heels, but only one toe. Sigh. Had to break out the second ball.

(Hush, you, I don't want to hear about toe-upped-ness. I'd have had the same problem, because I'd have knit the leg to the same length. And I also don't want to hear about two-at-a-time. I'm ornery that way.)

These stripes, they were worth it.

I did join SOS '08, so it was only fitting that I finish at least one pair over the summer, eh?

So what's keeping me from knitting more socks?

Um, that would be ... this.

I loves me some reversible cables, and when I first saw this pattern, I knew I'd have to make it some day. Well, that day has come. I really want to finish this by September, but my math blues have hit again. It only takes three balls of Smooshy, so I figured that's like three socks' worth of knitting, right? I can do that.

Umm, dude.

That's really six socks, probably seven because they're big balls. And it's all a form of 1x1 ribbing. On both sides, because it's reversible. And it's cables. And as much as I'm enjoying it, and I am enjoying it, it is taking for-freaking-ever.

I know there's such as thing as project monogamy, but I doubt I'm capable of it. Or am I?

Meets and Crosses ... or Just Meets

I still haven't started on my second Ornette sock, but I had a chance to test knit another pattern, so I jumped at it. Oh, by the way, the Ornette pattern is now available -- it's a gorgeous sock, and I'm looking forward to seeing lots more of them out there, besides, you know, another one of mine. :-)



I really should stop knitting with red yarn. It's just about impossible to capture the colour correctly and it throws my cheap little camera into spasms. This is Socks that Rock, Mustang Sally, light weight. I apologize for the craptastic photos. I've tried adjusting the colour a smidge, and that helps, but when I download them into the blog, they seem to look worse again. Sigh.

So, the test pattern. It's really just a basic ribbed sock ... well, sort of.

Two bands of stockinette, delineated by cables, head out from the top front and wind their way down and around.

They meet again in the back at the top of the heel flap, which is ribbed. Meanwhile, four bands of stockinette, delineated with cables, start from a slightly later point at the back of the leg and wind their way around to the front.

When they meet on the side of the leg, they have a little party.

The bands from the back carry on around past the ankle.

... and meet again in the front. The lower one meets itself, but the upper one bounces back off and heads out again, ricochets against the sides of the sole and heads back towards the middle again, where it finally meets itself, just in time for the toe.

Very, very cool. The pattern is called Meets and Crosses, and should be available soon. Luckily, Bea, the designer of these beauties, has some much better and clearer pictures.

There is also a lace version of this pattern that uses YOs and decreases to demarcate the travelling bands instead of cables. Monika test-knit that one, and her picture of red socks is lovely. Sigh.

The astute and observant among you may have noticed that there is no toe on these socks. I assure you that the pattern does indeed call for a toe. These particular socks, however, will not only remain without a toe but will be ripped.

First, it bugs me that I didn't notice there was pooling in the gusset which resulted in that light coloured bit right in the middle of the motif that is right in the middle of the instep that is right in the middle of all the action. It obscures the pattern. If I had noticed it as I was knitting, I would have yanked out a piece of yarn to move the colours along.

Second, and more egregious than that, though, is the fact that although the pattern clearly states the gauge is to be 8 sts/in, I somehow managed to merrily knit away at 9 sts/in, and although the sock looks wonderful on the foot, getting it there is ... an adventure.

Karma? Bad mojo? Just meets? I think my second Ornette has exacted his revenge.

Atomic

After knitting the Reversai socks, I wanted to try a garter stitch short row heel on a regular type sock. Since these ones just happened to be ready for a heel, they became my test.




Turns out that I can indeed wear a garter stitch short row heel knit over half the stitches, with one third of the heel left unworked. I'm a happy knitter.

The yarn is Socks that Rocks, Atomic #6, medium weight. I didn't enjoy knitting with this as much as I did the light weight. It felt kind of ropey and not as squishy. However, the socks are nice and thick and should be good for winter wear. I mis-judged the leg length for this type of heel, though, and the socks are a bit shorter than I would normally prefer, especially for a winter sock. There was lots of yarn left over, so next time I'll know better. Sorry for the dark pictures, but it's really grey out there today.


I got this yarn in a swap a year or two ago, and it's not colours I would normally gravitate towards, but I was glad for the chance to try out the yarn base. Although everyone else seems to be able to get pooling and zigging and zagging, I seem to continue my trend of spiraling stripes. Sigh.

That's the end of SAM 5. I haven't signed up for SAM 6, although I did for Summer of Socks. Although they won't count under the rules for Summer of Socks, I do have a few singles that need mates, so I'll I'll try to finished those this summer, as well as a few other projects that are either waiting or percolating.

It's funny how a change in season seems to renew the knitting agenda. I wonder if I'd get more done if we had six seasons instead of four.

Half an Ornette

It starts at the top and spirals its way down and around ...



... across the front ...

.
.. down to the gusset and stops there. But another one starts at the flap ....



... and flows along the foot, then across top ...




... all the way to the toe.



And now I get to do the other one. Only backwards. :-)

Except I won't be using these. I couldn't figure out why this sock was taking so long, and I seemed to be always fighting with the stitches. Then I stopped and had a good look at the needles.


Can you guess which four of the five Knitpicks needles I'd been using? This is only the third sock I've knit with these.