Knitting in the Big City

Done and ready for its new home!

Yarn - Tofutti by Southwest Trading colorway 723 (light greens, a bit of blue and purple – some solid, most tweedy)
Needles - Size 1 – Combined Magic Loop using Addi Lace circulars and Clover DPNs.
Pattern - Peak Experience sock pattern by Fiber Trends

Comments-

1 - One skein of Tofutti is plenty - 100 grams (appx 467 yds) – there's about 25 grams that remain from the socks so I feel confident that a pair of knee-his can be made from one skein.

2 - The Tofutti was wonderful to knit with except for a bit of splitting. The socks are really soft and warm!

3 – I used dpns until I got past shaping, then I Magic Looped all the way to the toe. I found it difficult to Magic Loop the cuff given the way the pattern called for yarnovers near the end of the rows.

4 – This is the first non stockinette sock pattern I’ve knit – and it wasn’t difficult. The pattern actually works well with the heavy variegation going on with the Tofutti.

5 – I will definitely used Tofutti again – in fact, I looking for tee shirt patterns used this gauge. The yarn is that soft that I want to wear it on top rather than on the bottom!

What did Alyson send me?

Sockapalooza Socks!
Leftover yarn – for mending and stuff.
Small Lantern Moon project bag (love it!)
Stitchmarkers
Notecards
Great smelling soap
Chocolate
More chocolate (dark)

The yarn is from Dave and Lulu’s store and it’s so soft. And even though Dave roots for the arch enemy he did name the lovely blue and white colorway “Yankees”.

Here they are on my feet:

Here is a closer shot of the cable running through the back of the cuff (the sock is ribbed except for this)

Here they are on my sock blockers:

And here’s a closer shot of the cable.

Again thank a bunch Alyson!

Peak-a-boo for my Sockapalooooza pal

Yes I have started my Sockapaloooza socks-

The pattern is Fiber Trends "Peak Experience" in the smaller of the two lace patterns - Angel. And who's helping model the sox?

It's one of the white tigers from Siegfried and Roy's Las Vegas show! Well, when we were in Vegas I didn't get to see Siegfried or Roy and I continually missed the white tiger exhibit (must be the only thing that closed at 5pm!). However it didn't stop me from buying a little tiger of my own.

Lucy sox complete

Complete and delivered to new owner! She put them on and showed them off to everyone at the salon. This is the positive side of knitting for a fellow craftster.

Project Notes

Needles – size 2 Addis
Method – Magic Loop
Pattern – my favorite, Simple Socks by Fiber Trend
Yarn - Mini Ringel by Regia, colorway 5209-49382 (blue, gray, and tan)
Source – The Lion and the Lamb (closed 2006)

Comments-
1 - After checking out some of the other sock yarn out there the Regia feels a little scratchy but it’ll soften up after a few washes.
2 – I have two small balls of yarn left, weighing apprx 10 grams total. I probably had enough to incorporate cable or lace stitches – now I know for future knitting.
3 - I made the smaller size using 64 stitches and found out that they fit my feet! I’ve always used 72 stitches since my foot is 3 sizes larger. I may be able to use the smaller size as long as I compensate in length. Or use 72 sttiches be go down a needle size for a really stiff sock. The things you learn!

Lucy socks

These socks are the last of my 2006 ( yes, 2006) Christmas knitting:

(for my own Lucy, not Wendy’s feline Lucy)

These are the 5209-49382 color of Mini Ringel by Regia. Out of my stash no less.
And they have to been done by Saturday ‘cause that’s when I’m seeing Lucy!

Inside Out, step by step

I took a couple of pics when I started the second Inside Out sock:

1 - This is what the sock looks like if you move the wrapped stitches to other needles and knit off the middle needle:

2 – However this is what the piece looks like if you keep on the stitches on one needle. I imagine it looks like this using either two circulars or magic loop.

3 - And when you start the “second” side and start knitting the wrapped stitches you see this short row effect:

I haven’t gotten to the heel but I imagine it’s the same technique.

I love the way the sock is knitting up - however I am worried that they may end up as footsies on my size 11 feet! I'm following the direction that say to use size 1 needles and then switch over to size 2.

Pardon my Inside Out socks

I started the Inside Out socks from the Socks that Rock Club. The medium weight yarn feels marvelous and the colorway, Monsoon, is growing on me. I only hope that the socks fit and have a decent length cuff.

I was very happy to see that Inside Out is a toe up pattern. It made me reach back and recall all the stuff I learned in the Advanced Sock class I took at Downtown Yarns last summer. As I read the club blog, I could see how toe-up beginners would be confused by the cast on instructions and the “wrap and turn”. The “w and t” makes a fake purl stitch, eliminating potential holes made by increasing and decreasing.

It would have been helpful if the pattern encouraged knitters to slide the wrapped stitches onto separate needles, resulting in 3 needles with stitches and a 4th for knitting. I think most knitters would have visually seen what was going happening on the left and right sides. It was easy to knit off the middle needle until there were 8 stitches for the toe. The knitted piece is one side of your toe (Let’s say this is the “top”). As you continue to knit you create the other side of the toe by picking up the wrapped stitch when you knit the “active” middle needle. (This is the “bottom”).

Sorry, that probably wasn’t a good explanation! I think folks wanted some clearer explanation of the pattern. However the STR club provides the pattern, which is different from providing sock knitting instructions.

The moral of the story is...

Well, I'm working on the last 2006 Christmas gift - yes, 2006. However the giftee know she is getting a pair of handknit socks and is very excited. She's a crocheter and knows the time involved in making gifts. However my Add Turbos aren't cooperating!

I opened up my packet of 24 inch #2 circulars and was happily knitting away until I was reading to pick up stitches for the heel. Now at this point I usually start the second sock and get them up to the same point. FOr the second sock I decided to use one of the Bates circulars I bought at P&S Fabric a couple of months ago. I knitted about 3 inches of the cuff and compare against the first sock. THE FIRST SOCK IS ABOUT HALF AN INCH WIDER! What the heck is going on? I finally looked at the needles and see that my Addi Turbos are marked "3", not 2.

I would think this is me but I hadn't opened the Addis before. And last year I came home with Addi that were marked 9 ion the needles but the packet said 10.

Moral of this story - it's extra work but CHECK YOUR ADDI's BEFORE YOU PAY FOR THEM! Me? I'm starting to luv my cheapie Bates circulars which ironically cannot be found at the NY yarn shops!

And for those of you when don't care about the needles but want to know about the yarn - Regia Mini Ringel stripes, Blue, Tan and Gray. I'm loving the mini-ringels and of course this has been sitting in my stash, is probably discontinued, and the only place the stock Regia on a regular basis, Lion and the Lamb, went out of business last May. I"m telling ya- the fates conspire against me!

PS - I've finished the baby log cabin blanket - I want to figure out a nice trim (crochet perhaps) and then weave all those ends in. Shower is in 3 weeks so I better get going.

A toe, a heel and a dog (Socks, part 3)

I tried to get a picture of Frankie, the resident Golden retriever at Downtown Yarns. However, she was looking forward to going home after a long day of greeting yarn-buyers:

Frankie with her stuff dog in her mouth - she was too tired to give me a happy face!

For this last session we were slated to learn a toe method and a heel method. However we didn’t get assigned any homework after class #2. That was good and bad.

The mint green yarn is waste yarn - and it where you start your toe.

Good since we could start a sock using the Short Row Toe method from “Simple Socks, Plain and Fancy” by Priscilla Gibson-Roberts. Bad because there no way the 3 of us could even finish knitting a child’s sock in the allotted time. Heck we even went past the end time by 30 minutes (10pm!) and I had just gotten to start the Dutch heel flap from Cat Bordhi’s “Socks Soar” book. I even switched to thick yarn (Frog Tree Alpaca) to speed up the process (sorry, Trekking!).

In the reddish portion, I'm increasing to accomodate for the instep.

However I usually run into Diane, the instructor, at the store so I promised to finish the sock using the Dutch heel and bring it in to show her the finished product.

This was a great experience and I enjoyed learning the some of the different methods to constructing socks. I may take the class again if Rita decides to offer it. Diane is an accomplished and patient teacher; I highly recommend taking any class she is teaching.

Toe Up class II

Our homework was to knit 2 inches of the foot – to the point where we would start the heel. We learned the Short Row Heel method from the Magic Loop booklet. So we were slipping stitches and doing many yarn forwards and yarn backs. On my own I would have had trouble figure this one out, it was good to have someone show me how to do it.

Once we completed the heel we knited a 2x2 rib cuff.

Then we were encouraged to try knitting with 2 circulars as well as the magic loop method. My opinion is if you get comfortable with this technique then you are 2 seconds away from using the magic loop method. My own thing is to use magic loop for the cuff and the body of the foot – the heel and toe go back on the dpns. And I’m not one to use magic loop and make two socks on the same needle. I have started a pair of socks and alternated between them (finished the cuff on sock 1, keep knitting the cuff on sock 2) but making them on the same needle is too cumbersome for me.

The final technique of the night was the provisional cast-on using the figure 8 method. I’ve done this with Wendy’s toe-up sock pattern but I never got further than the toe. It takes a little getting used to but is make a nice seamless toe.