Kiss My Knits!

Pattern: Rainbow Socks by Susanne Kitzmann
Needles: Size 1 / 2.25mm (size 0 / 2.0 for heels)
Yarn: Regia Design Line Kaffe Fassett Colorway 4251
Time elapsed: begun March 30 2008, finished June 14 2008

What an enjoyable pattern! I loved these colors and wanted to do something with the yarn besides a straight stockinette, but didn’t want a complex stitch pattern to get lost in the colorway. This little gem seemed perfect. Short rows beginning and ending on each side of the leg create a neat zig-zag pattern. I got it from MagKnits, and thank goodness I printed out a copy before that site went kerflooey. The pattern is again available in both English and German from the designer’s site.

I knitted these toe-up instead of the called for toe-down. The striping matched up nearly perfectly on the feet, but by the time I turned the heel and moved up the ankle, there had been enough little changes in gauge, etc., that the striping was off, as you can see. Also, I meant to put the heel on the second one on the opposite side of where it actually is, so that the striping wouldn’t be parallel on the foot and then mirror-imaged on the leg. Oh well. That’s okay, I didn’t really care if they were perfectly in sync. They’re a little crazy and that’s as it should be.

I made them just a hair too long, both in the foot and in the leg. The foot isn’t so bad, I can live with it, but the leg comes up onto my calf and binds a bit. If I fold the cuff down, as pictured to the right, it’s no problem. Fine by me, because I’m definitely not ripping it out. I did the heels on size 0 instead of size 1 because heels are always the first things to go in my socks. I I’m going to have to go back and reinforce the gap at the heel turn. Oops.

I’m really happy with these socks. They were engaging, but didn’t demand a lot of attention. And I got a lot of “how’d you make those triangles? Did the yarn do that?” from both knitters and non-knitters alike, so it was kind of a logic-puzzle conversation starter. It’s a neat use of short rows and of self-striping yarn. I’d do it again!

“Hello Heather,
I’m sorry for what happened to your needles we will be more than
happy to replace them for you all you would have to do is send us your
broken ones and we will ship out new ones if you have further questions
please feel free to contact us at www.clover-usa.com Thank You!!!

(name)
Customer Service”

YAY! I owe you one, !

Just pulled this out of my purse.

Nuts.

I’ve got a long to-do list today, and more than half of it involves getting packages ready to mail out. Non-Jayne packages, too, although I’m really excited that the http://www.wearwithstyle.com waiting list is very close to coming down under 20, which would mean the wait would be more like 4-5 weeks. I like having a little breathing room.

I’d like to use that breathing room do work on other things, like figuring out WordPress. I have a new and catchy little domain name that I’d like to move my blog over to, but I don’t feel like I can publicize it until it looks better. Part of the reason for the move is that I have a few simple free patterns I’d like to put up on a sidebar. I can’t do that easily on LiveJournal. just got her knitblog set up over at JetsyKnits and it looks spiffy. I, meanwhile, can’t even upload a two-column theme. I need some time. And possibly a “For Dummies” book. And maybe a screwdriver. The kind with orange juice or the kind you take things apart with, take your pick.

But before I launch into boxing things up and running all over town, here’s the progress on the Rainbow Socks. Normally I’d link to the MagKnits pattern there, but MagKnits is no more and I don’t know if the author has put up another copy somewhere. Thank goodness I printed the pattern out before I started.

There’s visible laddering on the front, but I find it kind of interesting since it shows the meandering path that the stitches take as the short rows are knit. Turtlegirl, I know you can’t see Flickr pictures, so I stuck an extra pic here.

Some who have seen the sock in person say that it looks better than it did in that poll with the post and have switched their votes from “Meh” to liking it. I didn’t show them this fishing net gap at the heel. Serves me right for not paying attention. I’ll have to go back and reinforce it, since the heels are always the first thing to go in my handmade socks (did I mention the striped socks got their heel caught on a nail sticking up from our floor last week?) and I don’t want these to suffer that fate. Note to self: buy darning egg.

Next time, we’ll talk about the weird medical mystery involving my mouth. Insert your own joke here.

Later!

On a less serious note, I had a lot of time to knit in waiting rooms today and didn’t bring enough Jayne hat yarn with me to get more than one done, so I did a lot of knitting on the sock. I loved it at the toe, but now… well… I’m loving it less. I want a second opinion.
So, bearing in mind that the line of red at the toe is a lifeline and not part of the yarn, question!

I had a customer ask if there was anything I could do to make his hat look more rustic. I explained that at this point, my fingers just kind of do what they do, and it’s very difficult for me to make my stitches uneven. I told him there was no guarantee that his hat would look any different than the one in the photo on the site, but that I would do my best.

So here’s what we have! It is indeed more rustic, although the detail doesn’t show up well in the photo. I periodically pulled my stitches extremely tight to make for a more uneven fabric. I used a longtail cast on instead of a cable cast on. But there was one thing I did that I think made a subtle but significant difference.

A while back, I was trying to get some local folks to knit this hat for me in hopes of farming out some work. (Note: if you are reading this and have knit a hat for me, I am not referring to you.) It didn’t quite pan out. It just wasn’t quite the way I did it, and I really wanted to have a level of control over what went out that I couldn’t get from hiring a contractor, as it were. However, I did keep a couple of these, even though I didn’t feel I could send them out. So for this guy’s hat, instead of yarn nice and new from the cone or skein, I unravelled an existing hat and re-knit the new hat with the old, kinky yarn. It gave it different textural quality, particularly along the cast on edge and on the ribbing at the base.

Obviously, this isn’t something I can do for every hat, since I don’t have a supply of spares to unravel just lying around. If I were to do this again for someone, I’d charge significantly more, because MAN did it slow me down to have to consciously think about my stitches. I can knit a Jayne hat in my sleep. Literally. I’ve half-nodded off and woken up a minute later to realize that I’ve knitted another row. But it required more thought to make my stitches look amateurish. Oddly, knitting this Jayne hat was an interesting break from Jayne hats.



Another nice knitting break is this. Sure enough, the Firestarter socks were unpleasant with all the knitting through the back loop, so I switched to another pattern I’d been eyeing. These are Susanne Kitzmann’s Rainbow Socks, from the Oct ’07 MagKnits. The pattern uses show row shaping along the foot and leg to make zig-zagging triangles. This is a great use for self-striping yarn. I’m knitting these toe-up, which may be a little tricky since if your foot length is different than a repeat length, you can’t really cut out in the middle of a short row. I may have to do a little math and rejigger the repeats if the length doesn’t work quite right.

I wasn’t paying very close attention to the pattern for the first short row section, and as a result, the foot actually runs diagonal to the toe at about a five to ten degree angle. Fortunately, yarn stretches, so it’s not really noticeable when it’s on. Once you’ve done one section, it’s easy to remember what to do, so this is a good pattern for keeping a certain amount of your attention without having to refer to a chart. It’s going quickly and I’m really enjoying it.

Emily, stars and new socks.

My camera’s back, so let’s get caught up!

Pattern: “Fuzzyfeet” by Theresa Vinson Stenersen from Knitty.com
Yarn: Lamb’s Pride Worsted in M05 Onyx and Noro Kureyon in colorway 52
Needles: size 10 1/2 (6.5mm) 16″ circular (2 circs for toe decreases)

Notes: Well, I’ll say this: I got a lot of knitting done in the hospital waiting room. The Jayne hats flew by with no problem. I can do those in my sleep. But I was distracted by family and concern and fouled up the toe on these not once but twice. The first time, I carried the body of the foot too long before decreasing, so I un-knitted back to the proper point. The second time, I forgot that I’d made the toe on the first one strictly in black, so I striped the second one up to the end. I ripped back and re-knitted it to match the first.

However, these did give us something to talk about. One aunt liked the way these looked so much she asked about commissioning some for Christmas gifts for relatives. Unfortunately, this pattern cannot be used for profit. She’s dear family, though, so I’ll see what I can do for her as a gift.

Everyone who saw me knitting these said, “you know, the stripes aren’t the same color.” I know, it’s deliberate. I think it adds some nice visual interest. I was more concerned with how the Kureyon and Lamb’s Pride were going to felt. LP felts much faster than Kureyon. However, it only took one trip through the washing machine for these to felt to exactly the point I wanted. They fit perfectly.

I’ve made many of these for others, but this is the first pair I’ve made for myself. I’m very happy with how they turned out.

Pattern: Vinnland from the AntiCraft by Becca Compton, also known as
Yarn: Fleece Artist Merino 2/6 from a swap with
Needles: Size 1 US (2.25mm)

Notes: Made 9″ circumference foot, decreasing to 8″ leg. It’s easy to adapt sizing in this pattern. This works well in the Fleece Artist. I think a yarn with greater color variation would hide the pattern, and the pattern’s just too pretty to hide. The sock doesn’t look like much when it’s all folded up, as all that ribbing pulls in on itself. When it’s on, though, it’s very pretty.



The yarn is quite soft and easy to work with. I wore them for a day and got some light fuzzing from my jeans rubbing on the legs and some moderate fuzzing on the heel. I’m also a loose knitter, so fuzz is a consistent issue for me. Handwashed these this morning and some green bled into the water, but not an alarming amount.

The picture at the left shows how much yarn I had leftover afterwards. The Merino 2/6 has generous yardage. There’s definitely enough for a small project – kid socks? wrist warmers? Hmm.

I’m pleased with how these turned out, and I’d make this pattern again.

The week in mail.