Knits

As in crazy, not angry.

I finished the memorial scarf, but don’t have a finished picture since 1. It’s a scarf so it’s rather boring to photograph again and 2. I just don’t, okay? It’s nice and thick. I haven’t actually washed it yet as there really is nowhere for me to lay it out to dry without it being totally in the way (my flat is that small).

I have started on some new socks - the Kansas harvest socks (Ravelry link) using the MadelineTosh sock yarn I got in a trade. As I’m knitting them toe up I hope the wheat sheaf bits don’t look too funky being upside down.

I want to start a larger project and I even swatched! I washed the swatch and then realised I don’t know where my pins and what not are to properly block it and measure. My guess is is that everything would be fine if I were to just get on and knit (based on how the yarn behaved post-bath and the difference in my gauge pre-wash), but I want to be sure before diving head first into this one because I really want to finish a larger project!

Other than that not a lot going on. I looked into moving out of my flat early and it really wouldn’t be financially feasible because of the rental market right now. I would be responsible for rent, bills, and marketing fees until the end of my tenancy agreement or until a new renter could be found. Considering half of this building is still empty it’s pretty clear I’d be obvious for all the above. Oh well. At least I tried, right? I am keeping my eye out for new places to live as things are starting to show up that are available in a couple months time. I have actually toyed with the idea of buying, but right now I’m mostly leaning towards “not a good idea”.

As always I am way behind with blog reading. I have been doing as my body says and getting lots of sleep including naps after work and lots of them at the weekend. I’ll go catch up a bit while my dinner is cooking…

I could have surprised myself by truly finishing these before the end of the 3-day weekend. I mean it would have been a skin-of-the-teeth sort of finish, but still. However, I did not because that would have meant not having any knitting to do on the commute as I totally didn’t expect to get to the point of finishing so I saved some ribbing, the binding off, and perhaps even the weaving in of ends for the commute.

Now unless you do two socks at once or are extremely meticulous, socks one and two are never quite the same.

Sock one:

• Did my normal toe-up cast on instead of the crochet cast on as indicated in the pattern; this means it sits a bit funny since the pattern twists.
• Foot came out about a quarter inch too long so it’s actually a bit baggy.
• Remarkably I “made up” the bind off, thinking I was doing it as I have done before, but not so… I thought I was doing the Russian bind off, but what I did was k2, slip first stitch over, move remaining stitch back to left needle, rinse and repeat.
• I only got in 11 rounds of ribbing at the top of the cuff.
• I used 56g of yarn.

Sock two:

• Still didn’t do the crochet cast on, but did a provisional cast on and more or less did as the pattern stated. The toe is too pointy…
• Foot is nearly perfect (sans pointy toe)
• Actually did the Russian bind off
• Did 16 or so rounds of ribbing and could have done several more before binding off (probably due to savings in the foot length department).
• Usd 52g of yarn.

On both socks I used 2.25mm needles for the toe and switched to 2.5mm once the pattern started yet one pooled the whole way up and the other did different things on the foot and cuff. After the last pair of socks that required ripping back quite a bit, I did try these on to determine how many stitches to reduce back down to after the gussets. Since I’m not clever enough to figure out how to actually incorporate decreases into patterns, I just reduced the needle size back to 2.25mm and it worked like a charm once I was sure the sock would get over my instep and ankle and not be restricting.

I definitely could’ve done a better job of picking up the stitches on the second sock heel flap so I might go and reinforce those somehow. Not sure why this happened, the only explanation is because I was in the pub.

As for what’s next, well I think I will work on some of those other socks that need a mate or need working on in general and start on a scarf.

Finally, something done! I’m mixed about these… glad they are done, not so happy with the pattern as it biased for me (and looking at Ravelry it’s definitely not my technique as a good portion of the other finished ones also biased). Looking at the sole of the sock, maybe I should’ve done a plain ol’ stockinette sock (I’ve yet to do one of those) because both the colourway and the pattern seem lost in this sock. And, no, I’m not that heartbroken about it that I’ll rip and re-knit.

The yarn is Claudia Handpainted in Eat Your Veggies. There was only one knot and it was very close to the end of the second skein. I thought I might get away with not having to even worry about it, but you know where it was? Within the very last row before bind off! Argh. So I tinked back a round and added in the new piece which was only a few yards long. The two skeins were slightly different lengths, but not markedly so.

A few things I learned with this sock…

1. While I think I’ve got the right number of stitches down to cast on to do a toe up sock so it’s neither too pointy nor too baggy, I need to not start the pattern once I reach the total number of stitches needed. As you can see in the first and third pictures above (as well as the main picture) the toe is really, really short and I think this is causing the sock to twist a bit on my foot. I’m not bothered that it looks a bit funny since my toes are generally in my shoes, but it seems to make a difference to how socks stay on the feet.
2. I’ve still got a bit of work to do to figure out the right proportions for a toe up heel flap and the heel cup. The second sock came out a little better and again I knit more stockinette on the back of the second sock once I reduced down since I think perhaps the pattern is more likely to break down with rubbing on the shoe.
3. And probably the biggest thing… depending on the yarn and pattern, it may just be that I need to keep far more stitches for around the ankle than reducing back down to the original number or stitches. For this sock I had 64 stitches around the foot and ended up having 90 around the ankle and then reducing down to 72 for the remainder of the cuff. The sock fits well barring the minor problems caused by 1 & 2.

FYI the pattern is from Sensational Knitted Socks and is in the 5-stitch repeat section.

Hello! Well, I’ve been in bright and sunny California for a week now. It’s actually been pretty nice — generally it’s really foggy for half the day and it’s not been bad really. I’ve sat outside a few times and knit and enjoyed the warmth. I even had to go out and buy a tank top (vest) and shorts today because I didn’t bring anything suitable for lounging in the sun.

Things are going as well as they can. The first few days were really hard — very emotional. Now it’s just hard because I can’t really leave her on her own for too long (mostly because I have to keep my eye on her so she doesn’t fall or something and make sure she takes her meds on time). I’ve completely changed my body clock although about 3 or 4 I feel like I need a nap and then I get tired and ready for bed by 10 or so which is early for me.

So anyway - several things to show you. The first picture is only a fraction of the amazing gift Jillian sent me. It includes a nice grass bag, two skeins of Claudia Handpainted in Blue Fields, a set of Rosewood DPNs, some hand lotion and chapstick, and that cool “blooming” tea. She also sent the Kittyville hat she knit for my sister (which she has worn most days since it arrived last Wednesday) and a thing of coffee and biscuits. Mmmm.

 
Claudia Handpainted in Blue Fields

I’m so impressed not only with the generosity of knitters, but people in general, whether you know them or not, whether you’ve talked to them every week or only exchange Christmas cards. I’m generally pretty grumpy about people, but it’s good to know that most people are kind and have heart; I need to remember that more often, not only when there are bad times.

I also started the Neighbourhood Tunnels sock from the Socktopus sock club so I could knit it on the airplane. I’ve just started the heel flap (I actually haven’t done much knitting since the plane ride). The picture shows the yarn a bit brighter than it is. To me the pattern seems to be obscured by the yarn, but maybe that’s down to my technique. My yarn overs don’t seem to be creating very large holes (and I’m not knitting through the back loop). I think maybe I’ve changed how I do yarn overs although I can’t figure out how they might be different. I was going to follow the pattern as written, but because I was in a rush to get these started to take on the plane, I didn’t do the toe as stated so it’s probably going to be a bit wonky.

Oh the Laburnum socks are still going (starting the cuff on sock two) and I saw other people also had problems with them biasing so it’s something with the way the pattern pulls.

Time to go do some more knitting and relaxing before bed… I’ll be back soon with an actual finished object.

I cannot believe how long it has taken me to knit this ONE sock. I have worked on nothing else this week. Last weekend I was convinced I would get it done, or at least very close to it, since the foot flew by. No luck there. If I was able to continue knitting on 64 stitches (or close to it) that probably would’ve been a reality. However, I ended up knitting on NINETY, NINE-ZERO, 90, stitches for a few inches before reducing down to 72 stitches. That reduction of 18 stitches definitely made a difference in the speed I could knit. It was still too many hours for one sock. I know the second sock will take almost as long, but at least I’ve now got the maths bit worked out.

For the second sock I won’t change anything other than doing fewer heel wraps as this one was a little too narrow. In future though, I will actually not start the pattern so soon after finishing the toe increases as it is just too short (doing this now would mess up all the maths I’ve worked out).

Oh and can you see how the pattern seems to twist around the cuff? Can someone explain this to me? The pattern is not one that shifts, the YOs are stacked one on top of the other, I kept the same stitches on the same needles the whole time, yet there is this very visible twist. As I’ve only put the sock on briefly, I don’t know if it will continue twisting around while it’s on my foot. Can this be due to the twist of the yarn itself?

As much as I’d like to try out that Arcade Fire yarn and the accompanying pattern, I’m going to cast on for the second sock as I don’t need yet another solo sock.

The other week you may recall that I posted a couple of bad photos of some pink silk and pink/yellow/orange/ sock yarn and claimed how it was okay that I bought yarn because it wasn’t really for me. Well, that is all true, because after those pictures I put them right back in the post and they took a trip across the ocean and landed in Ava’s mailbox. She took much nicer pictures. It’s always fun to surprise people.

I’m off the next two days. I was going to go up north, but I just don’t have the time to do that so I’ve put another offer in on an apartment I’ve not seen in person for a shorter lease (6-month). It’s in a good location, good price, and looks nice (it’s new). If it turns out to be a good thing, then I’ll extend the lease, if not well then it will at least be easier for me to see places! No, the next two days are about me beginning to pack and actually have a mental break from work right now as it’s getting even crazier since people are really beginning to panic about my departure and I might snap if I don’t take this time right now. I might sneak some knitting in. ;)

I’ve been listening to My Neighborhood in Last.fm and have heard some very good things, but also some very bad things like Fall Out Boy and Eric Clapton (I don’t care if he is a Legend, I don’t like him).

Last night I turned the heel on my sock. Then this morning I ripped it out and did it again. *shrug* I slept badly last night and have been wanting to go take a nap for awhile now, but I just can’t put the damn sock down. I am progressing very quickly on this sock for me and my tortoise-like knitting speed. However, I have now reached a point where I am in a dilemma.

My gauge in stockinette is 9.5 stitches/inch (we won’t talk about row gauge). After I did my toe, I increased to 64 stitches and used the centre 30 for the 5-stitch repeat pattern. The foot fits great — snug, but not tight. I turned the heel, picked up a bunch of stitches and have been decreasing down. I knew I would decrease down to perhaps 70 stitches or so and not the original 64 since things always end up too tight around my ankle. Right now there are the 30 stitches in pattern and another 56 in stockinette. I tried on the sock. It fits, but it seems crazy to have TWENTY TWO more stitches in the cuff than the foot. I feel like I should decrease a bit more, another 6 stitches or so to 80 (even though that still seems crazy).

The sock is essentially 4×2 rib and I’m getting about 16 stitches/inch unstretched (12 or so stretched) so if I do go down to 80 (still 16 stitches more than the foot) is that going to be too big and slide down my leg? I’ve never knit any great length of ribbing ’cause I hate it so I have no experience here. I am obviously trying to avoid doing extraneous amounts of knitting that then needs ripping. Hints? The measurement at the skinniest bit of my ankle is 8″ (shut up). The maths says that I would need 96 stitches (that’s the stretched stitches) to fit my ankle which means I’m actually four shy of that right now. What to do? What to do?

I’m going for that nap while you all solve my dilemma.

Last night the rest of my daffodils opened.

This week has been a rollercoaster of a week. I am glad it is over.

Today I managed to sleep in, something I desperately needed, and do a load of laundry although I’ve yet to manage to get it hung up to dry. I also cleaned my oven! It needs another cleaning though which tells you that it might not have been all that clean. Other than that, I’ve done a bit of knitting on a new sock even though I currently have two other socks in progress and one I’ve sort of pushed aside ’cause it bores me (I do like the look so I will eventually finish it).

I think I’ll get the heel turned on new sock tonight. I want to be able to do short row heels, but my high instep doesn’t like these — anyone else with a high instep find success with a short row heel? What’s the secret?

New sock is from Sensational Knitted Socks — it’s the Laburnum sock (Ravelry link). Even though the pattern is obscured because of the variegated yarn, I like that the yarn is still visible and the pattern gives it some texture versus plain ol’ stockinette. I am beginning to think that while there are some variegated yarns I drawn to because of the combination of colours, most patterns look shit in them.

The pattern moves pretty quickly, but the k3tog does slow me down. I start my socks toe up on a very long Addi Turbo and have found that I like to actually knit the foot the whole way with magic loop (I haven’t sat down and figured out how the heck you do the heel turn if you have to do a heel flap like I’ve been doing using magic loop), but because of the k3tog I had to change right over to the very pointy Knit Picks DPNs. I tried to find a suitable substitute for k3tog, but no joy. Suggestions?

Oh I am (finally) beginning to catch up on putting together the finished object pages. And I didn’t get the place I wanted up north so I am going up again in a week to look at a handful of places. Hopefully one will suit my needs and that will be sorted because time is moving along very swiftly.

Hmm, no I’m not going to Vienna, nor have I been recently (ever), and I have nothing to say about the sausages…

Anyway…

I’ve spent the last two days at home, occasionally checking my work email and replying or doing things as needed. I’ve been laid up with some serious migraines. I spent the majority of yesterday in bed with earplugs and a pillow on my face — one of those buckwheat filled ones ’cause I like the weight of it on my face (note, however, that I do not like the weight of my cat on my back when I am in a horizontal position). The only reason I got out of the bed was due to hunger and the fact that my body was beginning to ache. I tried to do some knitting, but ending up ripping said knitting out no less than three times because it was too big, too wonky, and then it turned out the pattern really wasn’t showing up like I expected.

Which leads me to slip stitch patterns like the Eye of Partridge (EoP just because I can) heel that can look oh so nice on socks. Essentially that is what the Aquaphobia sock is w/ a little cable up either side. I thought my Claudia Handpainted would look fantastic, but the pattern just wasn’t showing up. The two times I have done an EoP heel, they’ve looked, well not so great as in I didn’t think the patterning popped like I’d seen it on so many others. Is there something to my technique? I’m slipping a stitch and knitting it the next round, how hard can this be? I’m slipping purlwise, maybe I should slip knitwise, but I don’t want twisted stitches. Is it just me?

In other news, I’m still homeless for my move in roughly five weeks (sweet Jesus that’s approaching fast). Other things are falling into place although I’ve been met with a bit of a surprise regarding my work permit. Nothing big, just thought it was something I could put off until the summer. I’ve also had more trips to the post office in the last week than I’d generally like to make. That said, for the most part it was painless which was nice for once. My doorstep has also been busy with the receiving of great things (including the above picture of the Zen Garden Sock Club instalment 2 — colour Aubergine):

 
Both from Natural Dye Studio: BFL DK sock yarn in Ruby Fire — Ariel lace weigh silk flamme in Sweetness

I know, it’s a lot of pink goin’ on for someone who doesn’t like pink really (I have a pink t-shirt). The Zen Garden is a pretty dusty coloured pinky/purple and I quite like it. The other two lots of yarn aren’t really for me so it’s fine, right? The BFL sock yarn I had a really hard time photographing — it’s pretty much a wholly unrepresentative picture hahaha.

However, the Thin Mints? ALL FOR ME. I have already eaten a sleeve of them. I am a pig.

Ava is a goddess. Not only did she sent me TWO boxes of Thin Mints at my request, she’s a knitter so she had to include something knitterly. You might recall that last year she gave me a sock book she was going to toss and two beautiful skeins of yarn (in exchange I sent her a bunch of chocolate bars and uh, lip gloss). Well this time she sent me a supercute cardigan pattern - the Rockstar Jacket from Alchemy Yarns. So cute! Now I’ll have to find yarn for that. Hmmm…

It’s time for another headache tablet and a lie down. Fun times.

PS There was an earthquake in the north of England early this morning. I didn’t feel it. I’m slightly sad about this, but then the news stories do provide a lot of really amusing quotes from English people who are always being very decent and stumbling out of their homes in their dressing gowns.

Just poking my head in to let you know I’m alive. I went up north last week on Wednesday, went into my new job on Thursday and trained a new person and met a number of my new colleagues. THEY ARE SO NICE! It’s such a change (not that most of my current coworkers aren’t nice, but they weren’t so open and helpful right off the bat). As far as the other goal of finding a place to live… I may be found a place. I’m trying to decide right now, otherwise it’s another trip north very soon.

On the train ride up I knit a good bit of my mosaic sock. I waited too long to try it on and ended up having to rip out over an inch of it. I’ll be going up a needle size. I then continued to work on the baby chevron sock and got a lot of it done. I even put it on waste yarn and tried it on after I’d started the cuff. And last night I finished it off and bound off w/ (literally) a centimetre of yarn left. And I went to put it on in all it’s gloriousness to find out… it doesn’t fit! How can this be?! I tried it on well after the decreases and cuff were started. If you have a US 8/8.5 foot and ankles skinnier than mine (fat chance) you can have a sock. Otherwise I suppose I’ll rip it out and go up a needle size there too.

And finally, I am tackling Shedir again (third time lucky?) — this time in Rowan Calmer Kiwi. My cables look awful. I hope they straighten themselves out once it’s all stretched out on a head.

I don’t have a lot to show or say right now despite many evenings of knitting.

First I think I am going to blatantly rip off Two Black Sheep and use song titles for post titles because I really hate trying to think up post titles. I am also going to blatantly rip off Sknitty (and many others) by using the title FO: [project name here] when I have finished objects to post. This will all start with the next post.

I do have one finished object… the Lake Park hat which I mentioned back at the end of September. Knowing I was going to run out of yarn, I set it aside until I decided what to do with it. Turns out a very kind person in the US had quite a bit of leftovers in the same dye lot and sent them to me for nothing but good karma. Now I have a little over one ball to use on something else! The hat came out a bit snug, but it’s nice and warm. You can’t see the “leaves” as well as I’d hope, but oh well…

Next, I’ve made some progress on my Stepped Fret socks - I’ve turned the heel and am decreasing the gusset. I also started a pair of socks using some yarn I was trying to destash - Regia Crazy Color 6-ply. I had originally bought it for some gloves/mittens, but then decided I couldn’t be bothered hence the destash. I decided to actually knit some socks with this because I thought the heavier weight might mean a finished object faster. I’m using a baby chevron pattern and having some technical problems so it’s not progressed as fast as I would’ve liked.

I don’t know if you can see it in this picture (click to make supersize), but the knitted column that falls between the two yarn overs (middle of the sock), is coming out in a zigzag. It’s not as apparent when the sock is stretched on the foot which is good (because I generally don’t care what a sock looks like off the foot), but I’m wondering why this is happening as I can’t think of it really happening before. Is it the yarn? Is it something with my technique? I’ve tried a number of things to correct it —
twisting the stich when I knit it,
if I knit it normally then on the following round, I twist that stitch
twisting the yarn overs

and nothing seems to actually help. It seems the best to just knit as normal on all rounds.

There are mirrored decreases too — a k2tog followed by a ssk. The ssk was looking very wonky too so I’ve cleaned it up immensely by doing my usual slip 1 knitwise, put it back on the left needle and then k2tog through the back loop; on the following round I then knit the decreased stitch through the backloop.

These socks have lots of little experiments in technique in them.

The other thing I tried was slightly different short row techniques for the heel turn. Since I knit the backwards heel flap because of my high instep, I just use the short row to get the heel cup. I used the double wraps as chronicled by misocrafty and Cosmicpluto — the difference being misocrafty passes the wrapped stitches over the knitted stitch while Cosmicpluto actually knits the wraps. [Click for big.]

Again, it may be hard to tell from the picture, but I certainly found a difference in the techniques in my knitting — especially when picking up the stitches on the knit side. On the left, the baby chevron sock, the knit side pick ups and subsequent psso came out loose every single time (I re-knit this turn 3x) with very visible holes — the exact thing this technique was to help remove! On the right, the stepped fret sock, the wraps on both sides are much tighter. I did find it difficult with both techniques to actually pick up and put the last set of wraps on the needle.

Anyway, I’ve re-knit the baby chevron heel cup again and it’s much better.

I’m away again this week for work and house hunting! Fingers crossed I find something so I don’t have to make another trip north. It will be another item to tick off the list and make me feel less crazy. As for Trigger, I spoke to soon last weekend. She was still sick through most of this week, but is now on some medication and will hopefully be back to normal very soon. I think the long course of antibiotics may have wrecked havoc on her intestinal fauna and she needed some probiotics to get things rebalanced. Fingers crossed there too.