Sock it to me

Finally I have finished my second pair of socks! It really was a struggle at the end to get there, as I wasn't in love with the colour choices I had made, but thanks to a looming KAL deadline I pushed on.

I ran out of my contrast striping colour just above the ankle, which really didn't matter so much as by then it wasn't contrasting anymore. Lesson learnt, next time I need to check a lot further in to the striping yarn before settling on a contrast!
The mock lace cable stitch I used on the leg is excellent, easy to knit (no cable needle), looks effective and gives a lovely squishy stretchy rib to the sock.
So I'm not in love with them, but I've learnt a lot along the way. The fit is excellent thanks to learning about knitting a gusset to accommodate my fat ankles! The heel fits much better than the afterthought heel I previously tried (although I think again that's mostly down to the gusset). Learnt a great mock cable rib, and a new bind off 'Jenys surprisingly stretchy bind off', which again is easy but so effective.
I've also learnt something about joining a KAL. It worked well for me by having a deadline to meet, I know these would have been cast aside when the striping yarn ran out otherwise. I didn't get any sense of being 'cheered on' as I've seen people comment, conversely I find it hard to ignore those who completely go against the spirit of the thing by entering items they clearly made before the KAL commenced. Not even smart enough to edit the dates on their project pages connected to the entry. Clearly just in it for the prizes, and I'm finding it hard to keep quiet about it, but at this stage, I know better than to stir the crazy when it comes to internet groups!

I've joined the next KAL already, with a Christmas gift theme, although I'm not sure what I'm going to knit on for it! I have been trying out a few Christmas decoration patterns and thinking over what I might do with them, and I still have two shawls on the needles to, so keep knitting!

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Knitvember

Is it the cold weather? Is it lack of other distractions? Is it an addiction? I don't know, but I have gone knitting crazy of late. Which also means I've been spending hours on Ravelry queuing up even more things to knit! Having been home with a cold for a week has provided plenty of Harry Potter watching and knitting time too!

There's the socks from Knitabulls Podcast KAL, these have been a learning experience. I've only made one pair before, and then used an afterthought heel. This time I tried a short row heel, and I tried it over and over, for some reason I kept stuffing it up and ending up with an uneven number of decreases. After a few goes, I settled on good enough and knitted on:

As the colour change progressed in the yarn though I didn't like them, it looked like the foot part and the leg part were two different socks? So I bit the bullet, and have now pulled them back to before the heel. In searching for a new heel style, I discovered 'gussets' so I pulled back a bit more and knitted a gusset and short row heel, making a much neater and better fit. Now I'm continuing on up the leg and including the stripes to try and make the colour blend better - I'm not sure how many more stripes I can squeeze out of the purple yarn though.

Then I cast on a new hat for myself, the Elfunny Beret by FadenStille. The pattern states for an average sized head, of 53.5, mine is 60, which means ‘one size fits all’ sit on top of my head like a fez. I was in need of a new hat for winter, one that properly covered my ears, and use a yarn that I don’t find itchy. I generally don’t have any problems with any yarn mix, until it’s a hat, then my forehead is incredibly itchy!

Using two balls of Patons Click, from my stash (yay), I increased the cast on by 10% to 88, adding a full graph repeat, cast on with 4mm and changed to 5.5mm for the lace work. I kept getting a bit lost on the lace chart and making errors, mostly down to reading it from the iPad, and watching a movie on the same iPad-meaning I read the chart line, then close it to resume movie. It would have been a very quick knit if I hadn't needed to pull back a number of rows to correct an error, I must learn how to use lifelines.

I blocked it using an upturned large soup bowl on a dinner plate! Fits great, I'm really happy with it.

Then an even quicker knit was the Gaptastic Cowl by Jen Geigley. I bought this yarn in Stockholm with the intention of trying a Wellie Warmer pattern out, but I wasn't happy with they way they knitted up. I immediately frogged them and found another use for the yarn so it didn't add to the stash! This will be for a friends birthday. I would definitely knit this again, as it makes for a super quick gift knit, although I don't enjoy knitting on such large needles - I used a 12mm circular. I also found it difficult to successfully hide the join of the two balls of yarn, so next time I would look for single skeins of enough length. This one used two balls of Drops, Andes.

Then more stash matching to my Ravelry queue, and I cast on the Olympic National Park Shawl, by Very busy Monkey. I had three balls of Drops Alpaca in the stash which is so lovely and soft and I think will make a lovely shawl. I have no idea what I originally bought it for!

Just incase that wasn't enough, I went for one more cast on, another shawl. I managed to match up two more balls from the stash to cast on Dream Stripes by Calliau Berangere.

There is kind of a plan in all this casting on though. The socks are a good small portable project, which now the heel is turned, I can work on anywhere, without a pattern and pick up and put down without a problem. The KAL goes until the end of November so that won't be a problem to finish them, and it will make sure they are finished! The National Park Shawl requires constant pattern watching, and is a perfect chance to give something more complex a try while I'm home to focus on it. The Dream Stripes is a really simple increase pattern, which I've cast on ready for the next travel trip, and or when the socks are finished.

I'm trying very hard to resist casting on for Christmas gifts and ending up with panic knitting, like last year! Instead I'm going to focus on chipping away at the stash, and perhaps there will be some finished objects that then become presents.

Enough typing, I've got knitting to get on with!

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A different type of Autumn

This week we are in sunny California, and amazingly, this is what Autumn, or Fall, looks like! This is the view from my hotel room, how very spoilt. It's even been warm enough for people to be swimming in the gorgeous resort pools, in the middle of the day when the sun is overhead anyway. I had to go buy sunblock! I seriously can't wrap my head around the fact this is November (maybe that sounds odd coming from a native Aussie, but I've gotten used to European seasons now).

So it's been rather odd, that I've been sitting out on the cabana by the pool, knitting socks! This month I've joined my first ever KAL (knit a long for the uninitiated). I'm still trying to understand the online knitting world, discussion boards etc on Ravelry, and decided to get into it and give it a try. I have become addicted to watching video podcasts about knitting, which led me to find Knitabulls, who have a group on Ravelry of 4000 members! Knitabulls is the lovely Diane, who appears to have a very laid back approach on the whole KAL rules - some other groups I've previewed seem to have long complicated rules and conditions to even join the group, never mind enter anything.

The November KAL is Socks, something I've tried only two times so far, one pair successful the other a total failure, here's hoping this time around goes well. I had to dig out my Knitting Master class book again to get the Invisible cast on right, so knitted up the toes at home before coming away, then I got this much knitted on the flights!

Wow did I get in a mess though, trying to take yarn from the inside and outside of two balls of wool within one bag. I spent more time unraveling knotted yarn than knitting I think, but loving the effect of the self striping against the solid.

I may have overestimated how much knitting I would need for my trip though, I brought these socks, yarn for a new winter hat, some boot toppers that I've started but want to start over, and my shawl to finish the lace edge! Of course, I've spent more time queuing up even more patterns! Somehow there's just never enough hours to knit is there?

 

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Sock Knitting

When you browse through Ravelry it seems sock knitting is not only alive and well but extremely popular. If you haven't checked out Ravelry yet, and you're interested in knitting or crochet, you absolutely must - be prepared to loose a few hours or days though!

I've made baby size socks in the past, and always muddled my way through picking up the heel stitches, never quite getting it exactly right to the pattern, but fudging it to work and look right. Picking up those stitches though had always put me off attempting adult sized socks, too stressful.

Through Ravelry though I learned sock knitting has come a long way, and although my first pair are far from perfect, the pattern I used was brilliant - as it really taught the 'recipe' of how to make your sock as you go. So the first pair look a bit like Goofy's rejects when they are off my feet, but over a few pairs I'm hoping to improve on that.

hmm, they do not look like a good shape? 

I used 'Simple toe up socks' by Denise Bell, learning the magic loop method - which was mind blowing. For the life of me I couldn't work out how you could knit two socks, in the round, on one circular needle? I thought about it till my brain hurt, and then just decided to cast on and go for it, and then there it was, it's actually really simple. That Sarah Hauschka is one clever knitter to come up with that one.

I also learned Judy Beckers magic cast on (again, reading it was nonsensical, but give it a try, it's easier than it looks). This means you can start the socks at the toes with no cast on seam, so super comfy as well as less of that old fashioned chunky home made look.

The real brilliance of Denise's pattern is that you start from the toe up, and insert the heel after finishing the sock, so you can knit the two socks identical and to the very last bit of yarn. It's appropriately called an afterthought heel. You place a marker row with scrap yarn where the heel will go, and then, a little tricky, you go back and pull this out, put all the stitches back on the circular and knit your heels using decreases - no picking up stitches! This makes it brilliant for a knitting project on the go, as 80% of the sock is just mindless knitting, no pattern checking, and you can put them down at any point and pick them straight back up.

The socks do fit quite well when they're on, much less Goofy. A few changes needed in the next pair though, the foot section should be a little firmer (as home made socks stretch during the day, so they should be quite snug to start with or they'll end up bunched in your shoes). The calf section I'm still confused on. I added some extra stitches to cope with my fat calves, which means they fit, but I'm not sure they will stay up all day. I didn't weave the ends in, and have decided to wash and wear them a couple of times first and see how they go. I was relieved to learn that crispy rough sock wool in the store is much softer after washing.

They fit! well kinda, mostly, near enough

Brimming with confidence, I came home with a nice ball of Italian cotton, thinking I would try and perfect short socks for wearing in my sneakers for the summer, and get back to the longer ones when the weather cools down. This was a rookie error of massive overconfidence. Cotton has no stretch, so I had to keep adjusting the stitch count when I started, thought I was doing okay though and just squeezed out the two stocks from the one ball. I really came unstuck though when I tried to unpick the scrap yarn and insert the heel, one went fine, the other was a total mess, I think the poor hotel lighting I was working under sent me astray, and then my impatience really ruined it! I decided to continue with the one good one and get the heel in and see how it fitted - only to discover due to the lack of cotton stretch, the sock won't stretch around the heel to get it on. So that pair is a bust! 

It was all going so well until it wasn't! 

Then my new found sock knitting addiction hit a hurdle, I blew a shoulder. A month of sleeping in a far too soft hotel bed and I arrived home with my back out, a stiff neck, and problem with my rotator cuff - which meant no knitting, no drawing, no lap top.....what else is there to do in Birmingham? Watching TV without doing something else is so boring!