Seduction (or is it addiction?) Continues

So here's the sock that seduced me after a little over an hour of knitting. After a little more knitting, here's a French heel all done!


I have to admit to being so obsessed by this pattern (plus I need the socks!) that I finished the first sock last night, but was too tired to take a picture of it. Although I wasn't too tired to cast on the cuff and knit a few rows of ribbing! I'll take a picture later, and you'll see what I did about running out of yarn; 123 yds per sock just is not enough, even doing the cuff and leg on a size 4 then switching to size 3 for the heel flap on. Good thing these will be clog socks and not sandal socks!



Ta da! Yes the toe is purple, well, lilac. Good thing I bought 3 skeins of FdC 501 when I went crazy at Elann.com the other month, and good thing that the 501 goes a bit further, sock-wise. Put it this way - when making the Pretty Comfy socks out of it, all 3 of them, I had nearly enough left from each skein to make a toe. So I won't have a full skein of lilac left. I'll have a full skein of eu de Nil green left though. How does that grab you for a sock color combo? Crazy stripes. And I can add in some papaya-orange as soon as I frog the toe & foot of the failed sock (bind-off the raw edge for the coffee sleeve). Really wild! My DDs will either fight over them or not want to come within 50 ft of them. Maybe I'll run run a poll as to which scenario we get (#1 DD is graduating from college in May; #2 DD is a junior in HS, so you get the ages we're dealing with here).

And no, I have not been neglecting EFA; I need that jacket to wear for spring while it is spring yet! So here is where I am on the back - this part requires working from 4 charts simultaneously. I like to spread them out on my bed in the order worked; it's the easiest way I find. I'm actually about half-way to the armhole, so for being able to work on it only 1 day a week, not bad. Blocking this will be a challenge, as I've mentioned before. I may pin it out on our spare bed.


The sleeves call for multiple increases to the point of sloppiness, imo. I took out extra stitches at each armholes; that should save me about 5 pairs of increases on each sleeve (yay!) and make them more tailored-looking. I want a jacket, rather than a cardigan; more structured-looking and maybe a bit stiffer than a cardi. And I will put pockets in the side seams. Front pockets would definitely ruin the look. Slash pockets would - I can't even begin to think of it. Side seam pockets - perfect.

Skye is whining piteously and I am home alone with him, guess I should walk him now.

And the Winner is ......

The contest for what to do with the failed sock is over. I decided that the cleverest idea is Yvonne's for making coffee-cup sleeves out of the leg. Plus my daughters are big coffee-out-of-the-house fans (they'll just have to fight over it, heh). So Yvonne, would you please e-mail me (click on the link at the left) with your mailing info? I'll send the beaded markers and the 3 cable needles out to you right away. I'll post a pic when I've made the coffee cup sleeve. Yvonne, if you haven't done it, you ought to write up a patent for it, or at least copyright a pattern for one. In a double-knit stitch, it would insulate so well. Thanks to everyone for the ideas.

Seduced by Socks!

See these socks? They caught my eye too, after a Knitter's Review member posted and boasted about them. So I lied, I'm not doing the Twisted Flower socks yet, for I was seduced by these socks of seduction. You can get the pattern here. I had actually started the 2x2 ribbing for the TF socks; instead of frogging and starting again, I increased from the 48 sts I used for ribbing (I'm using this lovely DK-weight King Cole washable merino in Larkspur, so was adjusting pattern to my gauge) to the 56 needed for the pattern, did 2 repeats of the cuff pattern, then started the leg pattern. And was so seduced by it that I'm nearly ready to start the heel flap. Goes to show that the best-laid plans of knitting can also go awry.
You might be wondering, as my DH did aloud last night, why am I knitting wool socks in the spring? Well, for starters, I'm picking lacy patterns (Pretty Comfy Socks, Seduction Socks, TF socks) as a sort of instant air conditioning. Second, I like the stretchiness of wool. I know I won't have it with most cottons or blends. If you know if a stretchy cottony yarn you like for socks, please LMK; I'm open to trying other yarns. Third, when the air conditioning in lab and office are turned to Arctic, my feet freeze in my clogs (forget sandals; I'd have lost my toes to frostbite years ago if I didn't work in a lab where open-toes are unsafe). And so, echoing EZ's words of yore, I'm turning to wool for its temperature-regulating property.

Fangorn Forest

Having to work with charts spread out all over for the back of EFA, I've decided that it's Fangorn Forest (or is it the Mirkwood?) from Lord of the Rings. So I guess I'm either Merry or Pip then. The going is slower now; you don't start the end charts on the 1st stitch or end on the last stitch. I'm now on a part that requires looking at 4 charts (one is pretty easy so maybe we can call it 3 and a half charts). I can't have a family member disturb me at a critical part now, like when I'm changing charts. So to preserve sanity and family, I'm knitting EFA only for a few hours on Sundays, usually to old Westerns or "Law and Order" reruns. Somehow, mindless TV in the background helps me concentrate on knitting better. Do you find it so too?

Contest Prizes

Due to a terrible stomach ache, I didn't get to take the photo yesterday. Here they are, a set of 3 crackle-bead hand-made rings from a fellow Knitswap member. I'm also adding a set of 3 Clover cable needles; these hold onto your stitches well and your can knit back off them.

A More Comfy Sock and a Contest

Learn from one's mistakes. Or as a scientist would have it, change the experimental conditions and redo the experiment. I changed the Pretty Comfy sock in 2 important ways from the first attempt: I made a French heel with a higher gusset:


And finished it with a non-grafted toe:



I still had to take the end of the toe out once and add a little length to it, but now, it fits. Length, check. Heel in correct place, check. Did forget the reinforcing cotton on the heel, but if I wear these with clogs, maybe it won't matter too much in the end. Halfway done on the leg of the second sock now. This is a very nice sock pattern by the way, with an 8-stitch repeat to the pattern. The lace is stretchy too.
Now for the contest: What should I do with the failed sock? Just unravel it and recycle the wool? Make a sock puppet? If so, what character or creature should it be? The cleverest, most original idea will win you a set of beaded stitch markers; they have pretty pink beads dangling down. I'll take a photo of them later and post it here. The contest will end at 11:59 pm on Tuesday March 27.

A Forest on a Sweater Grows

Haven't done any more knitting on EFA, but here's more blocking, now the left front.



You know, I might actually learn to like blocking after all. Maybe even look forward to it. Putting the 2 fronts together:



and there's a look at what the sweater will be. Still need a solution for blocking the back, my weenie blocking board is too small and DH just does not understand why he should sleep under a damp comforter while the back blocks. Just wait until I have to block the Maidenhair shawl! Oh the agony!

A Failed Sock Story

OK, finished the first Pretty Comfy sock and it is an utter failure. Replaced the short-row heel with a Dutch heel, knitted to the length of my foot, shaped the toe with 2 sets of double dec every other row, grafted the end -- too short!! Undid the graft and frogged the toe to the sole and instep, knitted an additional inch, redid toe -- STILL TOO SHORT!! What's more, it's too short for my daughters who have smaller feet, even for the one who wears a size 5.5M. Good thing I bought 3 skeins of the FdC 501 in each color (it took less than a skein for the sock). Rethinking the sock and studying it, I've learned a couple of things. Such as the Dutch heel doesn't fit any of us well (short-row heels were a bit too short too when I worked them on other socks) and doesn't look so nice; the heel flap needs to be longer than 2 1/4"; I should carry the lace pattern down to the toe to make it a bit stretchier. With these observations in mind, I've started another sock and I'm almost done with the leg and cuff. I'll pick another heel, maybe a French heel since that came out so well on the CTH Java socks. And I want to do a non-grafted toe, like a German round toe or something.
Need more sock help big-time so I turned to Monty the Knitting Moose from Montana for guidance. Hope he arrives soon because my next sock project will be THIS.
Are they gorgeous or what? Perfect for clogs (my preferred footwear) with a cute little pattern for a heel flap. I have FdC 501 in eau de Nil green and lilac; which should I choose? Cookiea has written some really nice sock patterns for Knitty like Baudelaire and others; finally she's launched a website for her newest designs. I want to make them all, but one at a time (LOL!). I'll be tweaking the pattern for the FdC; she writes for fingering-weight yarn and FdC 501 is DK weight. Swatching time!

The Wonders of Blocking

To console myself for having to frog the back of EFA (almost to the ribbing!), I wet-blocked the very-distorted right front. Look how nice the trees appear now. The dimensions of the front are 13 1/2" wide, 18" to armhole, and 9 1/2" from armhole to shoulder. This should make a nicely fitting jacket, with room for pockets on the side seams. When this is dry, I'll do the left front. I always used to detest blocking, regarding it as something to be avoided at all costs. But in the past few years I've come to apppreciate the finished look that blocking gives some garments. Not to mention that fact that if pieces bias or distort, it's very difficult to sew together evenly. I used to detest circular knitting and now look at my socks! Just goes to show how open knitters should be to learning new techniques, and applying old ones (if one might call blocking a technique).


So after frogging, I reknit this section of the back, very loosely this time around. I think it was worth it; I'm much happier with the V-stitches and even the bobbles look perkier somehow. I'll be tackling the charts within charts in a much happier mood now.

Surprise Tangerine Socks and EFA Tension

Socks are really beginning to move fast for me. Here's as far as I got on Friday in 1 hour, with casting-on, doing the cuff, and completing 1 pattern repeat.
And here's as far as I got while watching "Hollywoodland" last night. The leg is done and I'm ready to start the heel. These are the Pretty Comfy Socks and the yarn is 100% superwash merino wool Filatura di Crosa 501, color Papaya (looked coral, not tangerine, that's the surprise I had when the yarn came). The pattern has short-row heels, but think I'll do a different one that fits me better. Maybe will do short-row toes, since I like the fit of those. We'll see.


As for EFA, I started the back but I think I shall have to frog part of it. For certain, I'll be frogging because of this part:
That's what I get for knitting while watching a tense episode of "Law and Order." I'm afraid to knit the whole back and hope that blocking will S-T-R-E-T-C-H it out. Nope, better to frog now and avoid tears, regrets, and curses later.

And Speaking of Spring - Look What Came

Twenty, count 'em 20 skeins of Classic Elite Mistral, DK-weight cotton-alpaca blend in the luscious dusty plum color, from a fellow Knitswap member who was kind enough to include the Classic Elite pattern too. In case you can't see it, the patterns are for ganseys in child to adult sizes, and a nice cabled cardi. There's a Norah Gaughan pattern from Knitter's that calls for this yarn. I had made it in Reynold Rio when the pattern first came out, 1994 I think it was, but the Rio cotton blend pilled so much I got disgusted and gave the sweater away. All that work, and you get a pilled sweater - grrr. I 'd rather spend more on the yarn up-front before I invest the time, and get a real quality yarn that won't pill under the arms or where the arms rest along the body, or from friction from a jacket. The Rio was really bad in that regard, but not as bad as other yarn that pilled while I was knitting with it. I won't name names, but when I mentioned what I was using for a pattern to an e-mail group, another member asked right away about how much pilling was I seeing. Sadly, the pilling diminishes my pleasure in wearing that garment, and it is a coat - a lot of money spent on that yarn and a lot of time, too. So I've taken to buying tried-and-true yarns instead of trying out new yarns, for the most part. I don't have a lot of time for knitting and I really do not want to buy single skeins to knit swatches to decide if a yarn will work or not. If major yarn manufacturers don't want to hear from knitters like me, who knits a lot for family and needs hard-wearing yarns for them, I'll keep on haunting the artisanal yarn sites and look for yarn made of sturdy fibers spun tightly enough to suit. If you know of a great yarn, please let me know? I'm dying to find the next Rowan Magpie and the next Classic Elite Tapestry (but like when it first came out; the later stuff falls apart fast).

First Pair of Socks Done Right - Finished!

I feel rather accomplished now, being I mastered the magic loop technique and made this pair of socks for my DH without a real pattern! Rather, I started the leg with a beaded rib pattern I found in an old VK, segue'ed to a French heel pattern for my stitch count, and ended with the toe shaping fronm the Limbo sock pattern on All Tangled Up's blog. And best of all, DH reports that the socks fit him perfectly! The yarn was heavenly to knit with too, Cherry Tree Hill Supersock, and the colorway is a nice masculine one, Java. Nice to have them done just in time for the warm weather headed our way. We were in the deep freeze this week with record lows (wind chills well below zero), but mid-week we are supposed to be in the 60's. But knitting, like Tolkien's road, goes ever on.

Please help an HTML-Challenged Blogger

I'm trying to stick a banner on my blog, and with this version of blogger it ain't easy, so if anyone out there knows exactly where in the html code I should go to tweak the margins, I would be forever indebted. I already tweaked it some, but now I am stuck, stuck stuck. What I did so far: Added the picture I created with Photoshop (and a photo of my knitting; resized to 750 pixels wide) using the Add Page Elements feature. Moved that to the top below the title, then changed the color of the title to match the background (don't want to remove the title so it shows up in search engines and anyway, can't remove it). Changed maxwidgets in header wrapper from 1 to 2 in the html code, and that's where i am. I checked a few forums and no one' directions match the code I see. Maybe I'll just learn to live with the cock-eyed banner.....

Of Copyrights and Knitters

Much has been said on the net about knitting and copyrights (and -wrongs). Much has been said about SWMNBN's approach to the knitting galaxy, many denizens of which admire, nay even love her. It has been chronicled very carefully here. And of course the late-breaking tale of plagiarized patterns: read about it here. Well, tell me what do you think of these?


The photo on the left (please excuse the glare from my flash) is the cover of Patricia Roberts Knitting Book; 1981, W. H. Allen, ISBN: 0-491-02635-8, which I just received today from a fellow Knitswap member. The photo below is the cover of a new knitting book for those allergic to wool or for those who want to explore the world of non-wool fibers for knitting. Both feature nude (or so they want you to think) young women artfully disguised by their knitting (yes the young lady on the PR cover wears socks; I'm sure the floor is quite cold). Both feature nearly 3/4 profiles (not full-face) of the respective models, both feature colorwork knitting (but not Fair Isle!, nor intarsia with bobbins). Is it wild coincidence? Is it a case of imitation being the sincerest form of flattery? Or are we about to see more knitting books featuring nudes on the cover hiding behind their knitting? If so, can we get some variety in the knitting? Daring lace (LOL), really nice Aran cables (would keep the models quite warm), an intriguing Fair Isle?

EFA Right Front Finis

This is what I accomplished over the weekend, this and turning the heel on sock #2 of DH's CTH Supersock merino in Java. Night mode on camera in daylight = yellow cast, have to remember that for the future. Lotsa blocking coming up, maybe I should get started now and avoid the rush (I have only 1 weany blocking board). Now I'm setting the charts for the back, and this is the part that's most challenging. There are charts within charts within charts it seems, and the stitch count for 1 chart varies but the total stitch count for the row does not. Good to have rubber stitch markers, the ones I really like the best by far. They bounce across the room less often (for me anyway) than the hard plastic ones. As for fancy bead and wire markers, all I can say is I won a set and I never use them. Don't get me wrong, they're very pretty, so pretty in fact I should make earrings or hair sticks or a shawl pin out of them. But they just don't work as stitch markers for me.

As if I needed more yarn, I read on Jenna's blog about irresistible Sundara's yarn, and so I clicked on the link to discover this. Of course I ordered a skein (sport merino, thank you very much) to make a to-die-for (to-dye-for?) pair of spring socks, a lacy pattern I should think. I can hear myself explaining to DH about why I spent $22 on 1 skein of yarn for 1 pair of socks: "It's not my fault! The website made me do it!" It's not just knitting socks that's addictive. The very yarn is addictive (and since accumulated sock yarn doesn't count as stash, one can buy and buy, even if one is participating in the stash fast of 2007). Am I participating? I think I need a quantity of yarn that would count as stash first, ahem! Or a fortification of supplies so my knitting muse would be satisfied.

Cabling Without a Needle Makes EFA Go Fast

Now in the thick of the forest (is it really a forest? A fence, just a few trees, more like the edge of a large property maybe...) there's cabling galore. When I lost my favorite cable needle by FibreTech (now discontinued, so no link to it), I had to make do while the last set from Halcyon Yarns was in the mail: I cabled without a needle. Now I am hooked on how fast it is to do this, even though I now have several sets of needles again. I think that's why I was able to get 3/4 of the way to the armhole the other night in only 2 hours.