KarenJoSeattle

Finished Objects

The Dream in Color socks done two at at time on a magic loop are done.

The cuffs measure about six inches long. I continued the 3x1 rib for two inches, then switched to a 1x1 rib which ended up one and a half inches deep. I bound off loosely in pattern using the same needles. My bind-off is just loose enough.

I hand washed them in warm water, towel rolled and squished, and popped them in a low dryer with the towel for 15 minutes. They're still damp, but they feel dense but soft.

I'll write a yarn review in a couple of days, once I see how they turn out from the washing.

Note how little yarn I have left from these. I like the ability to try them on as I go and to make them longer like I prefer with the toe-up method. I'm not wild about the Dutch heel -- too prone to small holes at the top corner of the gusset for me. I will try the figure eight cast-on again. I think with practice I may like it.

Today I bought this deep red sock yarn. It's manufactured in Italy for a Swiss company. Fiber content includes 75% superwash wool, 18% nylon and 7% acrylic. The band calls for 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 mm needles to get 7.5 sts per inch. I've got US1s and will swatch first.

This is to be an airplane project, so I have a crochet hook and dental floss in my project bag plus an SASE just in case. I fly out of the old terminal in Sacramento, which is fairly easy security and line-wise.

I'm headed back to Seattle for seven workshops with Sally Melville in four days. My homework swatches are done and waiting for me. I'm really looking forward to this. Now I just have to get there.

Cross your fingers for no more kidney stone problems with Spousal-Equivalent. There have been threats today.

4 Inches Times 2

I worked on my 2-socks-at-once-toe-up-on-magic-loop Dream in Color socks today.

For the first half of the day I seemed to make very slow progress. It felt like I moved only an inch in over two hours.

Then I realized that I was knitting two socks at once. One inch was actually two. And I'd actually done more than an inch.

Things sped up a lot after that. As I moved away from the ankle, where I was trying to keep my stitches tighter, I could loosen up.

By midnight I had four inches of cuff -- three of stockinette and one of 3x1 ribbing --  times two for a total of 8 inches. I'm jazzed. I almost feel like the Harlot or Wendy (check out her completed projects list) whipping out socks like they're goin' out of style.

Speaking of Wendy of Wendy Knits!, I'm also jazzed on her account. She quoted my comment answering another commenter's question. Quoted me with an "I agree." On a knitting question -- swatches to be exact. And we all know how close to my heart swatches are.

Well, actually, there are probably a lot of 'us' who don't know that right now, since my page views have more than quadrupled due to the link she included. Thanks, Wendy.

And thank you all for stopping by. Make yourselves at home.

A Tisket a Tasket...

...Two kitties in a basket. 

Today I went to the second class on two socks at once on a magic loop. We turned the heels. I had a couple of anomalies in numbers of stitches and where they were, but could manipulate things so they worked. I need to do another pair of these soon so I remember the techniques.

We made a Dutch heel. After building a gusset by increasing with make 1s, a few stitches in the middle are used to knit a flap. Pick up stitches around the flap and decrease the gusset back down.

I found the construction interesting. The heel turn makes little pleats.

My foot came out a hair longer than I expected based on trying on while knitting up to the heel. As a result, the heel doesn't lie flat against my foot. Since I planned these as Pilates Lesson socks rather than shoe-and-sock socks they'll be fine. The next pair I'll need to be more conservative in my length estimates. 

I'll take nice pictures of the figure 8 cast-on when I do it again. The ones on line don't have some of the details I was looking for.

I'll use this class pattern for house socks in some off-white Rowan Wool Silk I have. The pattern involves less yarn torture than the others I've done and I don't think this yarn will stand up to much.

Another shot of cute. Is this actually comfortable? They spent hours there.

Ta Da!

The color on this yarn really is much lighter than it photographs.

If I go straight to bed, and Spousal-Equivalent's parents don't wake me with their normal early routine, I can get 3 hours of sleep before I go learn to do a heel flap from the toe up. Fortunately, I'm meeting my neighbor Karen, who's in the class, for coffee first.

Randomness

JINX ON YOU

The Green Sock #2 Jinx continues.

While at Churchmouse Yarns yesterday, I grabbed another skein of green yarn. It was the wrong green.

The label tells me this is 017. The bands from my used yarn read 016. It's definitely darker. I can't exchange it until Monday.

The heel also has several small holes along the short-rowing edge.

NEEDLES IN A HAYSTACK

I was at Churchmouse for a class given by Karen Alfke titled Confessions of an Organized Knitter. We share our organizational obsession.

One of the tips I learned will be very helpful as I'm one of those knitters with so many needles that I never know where all of them are. They end up in various projects and project bags rather than their file box home.

Karen uses a system similar to a classic library card system to keep track of her needles. She notes on an index card what needles she has removed from storage to put with which project. The card stays where the needles normally live until they return.

When I set up this system I'll talk more about the details.

TWO TOES

My 2-at-once socks look pretty good and fit well. However, I need about 3 1/2 more inches of foot plus gussets by 9AM Sunday.

Spousal-Equivalent's parents arrive for an overnight visit sometime tomorrow. I must get groceries before they get here.

At least S-E's family are all knitters or former knitters, so I have hope they'll tolerate my mad push to get the socks to where they need to be.

I've made some progress on the Small Not-Pink Thing.

3RD Time's a ...

After one more false start I now have a very nice pair of toes on one circular needle.

Unfortunately, if I stop at the number of stitches given in the class pattern the socks will turn out too small. I have a 9 1/2 foot.

I'll call William tomorrow to ask if the heel structure used accomodates another round of increases. He uses a Dutch heel -- not one I've done in my vast experience of two previous pair.

I also plan to ask for a review of the figure-eight wrap that starts this toe at the next class. I'm pretty sure I wrapped differently than we did in class. None of my wrap stitches needed to be reseated.

Still the toes look good so maybe the wrap technique isn't a precise thing. This could explain why none of the directions I found gave precise instructions on the wrapping.

Based on my experience, here are a few tips I have for working the toes when knitting two socks at once, toe-up, on a magic loop.

You need a way to keep track of where you are while alternating knit rows and increase rows. The piece starts out so small and loose that 'reading' your knitting is very difficult.

On the back of my pattern I made columns of 
K        K
M1     M1
K        K
M1     M1
covering all rounds needed to get to the correct number of stitches. Each time I finished a side I marked off its symbol. I needed to use this to figure out where I was 3 or 4 times.

Designate one ball of yarn #1 and one ball #2. On the first side of your first row, the yarn used for the far right (first worked) toe is #1. From there on you know if the working yarn coming off of the back needle for the toe on the right is from ball #1 you are ready to work the first side of a round.

If the yarn coming off the right-hand toe is from ball #2, you are ready to work the second side of a round. If you have the same number of stitches for each toe on the first side as you do on the second side you're about to work, you're doing a knit row. If the are 2 more stitches per toe on the previous side, you're working an increase row.

Do not let your cast-on tail flop down between the needles at one side of a toe and then knit it into your work before you have gone back and tightened your cast-on stitches using the tail. It's probably best to avoid that even after you've tightened your stitches but I only know about the before situation.

Tomorrow I want to start the swatches for the Sally Melville workshops I'm taking in May in addition to sock knitting and meeting a non-knitting friend for coffee.

I've Got Two Toes

It was a lovely day in the neighborhood, so I walked across downtown Seattle to my 10 AM class at So Much Yarn; Two Socks at Once, Toe Up, using Magic Loop (one long needle). Thrilling and terrifying title. I ordered my latte caffeinated.

The 4 of us around the table were all fairly practiced knitters in general but not in either socks or magic loop. I thinks my 1 1/2 pair may have been the most sock experience. Everyone had done magic loop for projects other than socks. We all preferred 2 circulars to double points.

Still, when we started two figure-8 cast-ons side-by-side, suddenly we became beginners who could hardly hold the needles much less get the yarn where we wanted it to go. Apparently our experience was pretty typical.

But here they are: 2 separate things that are decidely sock toes on the same circular needle. The many mistakes and malformed stitches don't even show much, either.

The figure-8 cast-on is a whole new set of movements that my hands and brain need time to assimilate.  Knitty has a toe-up sock article from Winter '02 with photos and instructions on 3 toe styles, including the figure-8, on 5 double-point needles. They call it tricky.

William encouraged us to rip out and redo once or twice for the practice before next class. I'm one of two of us who developed laddering between the first and last stitches on our leading edge, so I want to  deconstruct what caused that. I have extra needles and yarn to play with and 2 weeks to get to the heel turn.

Oh, and I definitely need to rewind into 2 balls of yarn. Working from 2 ends of one ball is not a good thing. Another universal experience for our small group. Statistically significant despite the small sample size.

Walked home, packed the essential knitting projects and perishable food in the car, and caught a ferry to our place on Bainbridge Island. Once here I recovered from the rigors of the morning with a cat on my lap and a simple 2x2 ribbed sock leg on my needles.

Tomorrow I conquer weeds and a stretchy bind-off. Reassault of the figure-8 will wait 'til Tuesday.