Knitting Sutra

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

The Good

Progress. Progress.

My step-mother-in-law's socks are well on their way to donedom. They'd be done already if I hadn't poked a teeny hole in my right index finger. I took one for the team, yo!

I've also spent a few hours here and there slogging through the Ogee Skirt. It's about 70 percent-ish done. Ta da!

I'll go on record saying that I don't like all this lacey knitting on floppy circular needles stuff. If I didn't want the final object so badly, I'd have ditched this long ago. And what a mess it is! With the provisional cast-on, the lifeline, all those ends... ugh.

Anyway, it's getting there. Slowly, but surely.

The Bad

Addi needle makers, I dunno how you did it. You sly devils, geniuses of marketing, you.

There I was lamenting the splittyness of a certain Panda Cotton, when it dawned on me, "The new Addi lace needles are supposed to be pointier. I'll get me some of those."

I ordered. They came. I went to cast on, and uhm...

The one on top is my regular 2.5mm circular. The one on the bottom is the new 2.5mm lace needle. Do you see a difference? Aside from the color, I mean.

I don't either. The lace needles are no pointier than the regular ones. That is, unless you consider that the lace one tapers just a hair more than the regular one. But the tippy-tips, they are not sharper.

I they aren't any pointier, then do their other claims (suppler chord, lighter weight) ring true? I decided that I needed to conduct some more experiments.

Supple chord test: I squeezed, squished and flippy-flopped both chords. Conclusion: I don't find the lace chord to be any suppler than the regular one.

Weightlessness test: I also held one needle in each hand and made a scale-balancing gesture. Conclusion: The lace needles are not noticeably lighter than the regular ones. They might actually be, but then the difference would be so slight as to be not worth mentioning.

Shame on you, Addi. Shame.

The Ugly

I couldn't help myself. I cast on another pair of socks. No I haven't finished anything else. You gotta problem with that? You wanna take it outside?

This is that old pooling Colinette Jitterbug. You'll see that the pattern, Belatrix, isn't doing much to combat the pooling. And let's face it, this is ugly yarn. However, the overall affect seems to be working so far. I'm going for a heroine chiq/cat fight in the alley behind CBGB's kinda look.

Don't ask me where I'll wear this pair of socks. My punk rawk days are long gone. I'm making them anyway because, all together, I knit what I want! And for some reason, I really want these ugly socks.

FO: Lemon-Lime Socks

Yarn: Schachenmayr nomotta Catania Color, #0076
Pattern: Swirl Socks by sulafaye
Size: Women's Medium, 64 stitches
Needles: Addi 3 mm
Mods: I used sport-weight yarn, a gusset heel, and worked ribbing at the cuff.

You'll see that I'm not really showing you what these look like, though any of you in Ravelry can have a gander. I want Mom (who reads the ole blog now) to be a bit surprised (or at least not dread having to tell me she likes them when she doesn't).

I'm not super happy with how these turned out mainly because I have deep anxiety that they're too big. My feet are so small that even normal-sized feet seem like giant paws. I have no frame of reference as to whether these are the right size or not. They measure OK, but are they too loose because there doesn't appear to be any negative ease??

Also, I added ribbing instead of the picot cuff b/c I was worried that the lack of negative ease would mean that they won't stay up. But, I also know that mom likes to turn her cuffs down, which makes more sense with ribbing. However, the cotton doesn't draw in like wool does, so I'm not sure if the ribbing is going to help anyway. I might have gone down a needle size, but since she can't try them on I hesitated on that.

*inhale*

In retrospect, I should have gone with a short-row heel to keep the swirls lined up. I was so obsessed with my heel that I didn't factor whether it would look nice. I didn't really have a look until I was just about to bind off.

All in all, this project illustrates my new-found anxiety of knitting fitted objects for people who can't try them on. I can't see myself ever joining a sock swap. Too stressful. I'd feel differently if I had normal-sized feet, but I don't so oh well.

Rather than frog them, I've decided to send them to Mom anyway. I trust she'll love them even if they're just house socks. But mainly, I just need to learn something useful from this experience. Even if she never wears them again, I want her to try them on and then give me some feedback on the fit.

Sorry they're not the best present, Mom. I'm sending along some other items to sweeten the deal a bit. :)

Summer of Socks Prize and Idiocy

My Summer of Socks 2007 stitch markers arrived! They're handmade by Jessica from Alabama Fiber Dreams. They're just so cute. I love them. As soon as I ever have the time to concentrate on the Ogee Skirt, I'll swap them in for the homely Clover markers.

In addition to just winning something, I'm thrilled about these because I've been reading Jessica's blog this summer, and I just love her easy-going, Southern nature. And she's really funny. I feel certain we'd get along famously, especially since it sounds like she lives near where I grew up.

So these are like a present from two friends. Many thanks to Zarzuela for organizing Summer of Socks 2007! Many thanks to Alabama Fiber Dreams for donating prizes!

And in other, completely remedial, Summer of Socks 2007 news, I have a shamefully stupid and embarrassing thing to tell you. For all my hoarding of traveling socks photos, I missed the deadline to submit photos for the contest!

Baaaaah! I knew that the deadline was before the end of the event, but I didn't realize it was in August. Bugger!!

I'll post a retrospective of my socks' European jaunts next week or so. Maybe I'll have you vote on which photo you like, and then give myself a prize anyway. heh

New on the Needles

Just before heading to Bavaria, I cast on some Wollmeise for my step-mother-in-law's socks. She selected the Baby Cable Rib from Sensational Knitted Socks. So far it's going well, if I'm to trust Charlene's formula for figuring out stitch count. My SMIL has big feet, so much so that I think B might be able to try them on for me. At least I have that.

I'll post about Bavaria soon. I've got an OCD thing going on where I must put the photos in Flickr first, annotate them, and only then can I post them on the blog. Don't ask. Just go with it. There is yarn and knitting content in there, so I promise it won't just be a boring slide show.

Oh and one other thing. B got his Green Card yesterday! Sing it, Neil, baby! "We're coming to America!." I used to be such a europhile, and now I'm pretty sure I've become the worst kind of jingoist. I might need one of those Ralph Lauren flag afghans or something. Smack me.

The Summer of Socks Heats Up

Well folks, we're four weeks into Summer of Socks, and the competition is really heating up. We caught up with front-runner Jeannie of Sewing, Knitting and Beyond to find out exactly what it takes to knit so many pairs of socks. Constance Fitzperky has this report.

"Thanks, John. I'm here with the amazing Jeannie who has already completed 12 pairs of socks for the Summer of Socks 2007. As you mentioned, she's currently the front-runner in the "Most Socks Knit" contest."

Constance: Thank you, Jeannie, for giving up some of your sock knitting time to chat with us today.

Jeannie: Thank you.

Constance: So, Jeannie why did you join SOS 2007?

Jeannie: I've wanted to join some sort of sock-a long and this one showed up at the right time. I've been on a sock yarn shopping spree earlier this year, and SOS gives me the opportunity to focus on socks and use up some of that stash.

Constance: Did you have any goals going into the competition?

Jeannie: The initial goal was at least one pair of socks a week. I have blown by that goal. Now, my goal is two pairs a week.

Constance: Amazing! Do you normally knit this quickly or have you stepped it up for the Most Socks Knit competition?

Jeannie: I am competitive (ask my husband), but this is how fast I normally knit socks.

Constance: Haha! So, what is the fastest pair of socks you've ever knit then?

Jeannie: My Fiesta Boomerang socks were the fastest. They took slightly over a day while we were camping. If it weren't for having to hike to visit the bathroom and limited day light in a wooded area, I would have finished them in a day.

Constance: Wow! Funny how nature gets in the way. haha! Get it? Nature?

(silence)

Constance: OK, so... you mentioned that you went on a shopping spree earlier this year. You must have a big stash? Watcha got in there?

Jeannie: We won't speak numbers, but yes there is a stash. Perchance to Knit, Vesper, Yarn Pirate, Cherry Tree Hill, Lime & Violet, Cider Moon, Fleece Artist, Regia, Knit Picks, Zen String, Jojoland, and more.

Constance: Any favorites?

Jeannie: My favorite for wild colors is Perchance to Knit. For something subtle, I like Scarlet Fleece.

Constance: Would you say that any lend themselves to speed knitting?

Jeannie: Sport weight socks knit with a pattern are the fastest to knit. It's too bad that I don't have that many sport weight yarns in my stash.

Constance: Ooh, true... Now you've already completed 12 pairs or socks, and you told me earlier that you usually knit two socks at once using (looks down and reads from notes) the... magic... loop... (looks back up) That sounds efficient. Can you tell our audience what you're doing to pace yourself for the event?

Jeannie: I'm trying to use different patterns that will keep my interest. My first sock was stockinette, but I'm not doing anymore of those during SOS.

Constance: And you have two kids that you homeschool? Are they on "do not disturb" orders?

Jeannie: Our homeschooling year is finished and that has freed up a lot of my time for knitting. We'll see how it goes when school starts back in September and SOS is still going.

Constance: Some people are wondering if you have super-human powers to be able to knit so fast? How do you do it?

Jeannie: I'm a Mom. All Moms must have super-human abilities just to keep sane. Knitting also helps keep that sanity too, so knitting is a necessity for me. ;-) It also helps to know your feet and know your gauge. I've knit enough socks that by looking at a sock or pattern, I know how many stitches I'll need in circumference. Most fingering weights -- that's a 72 stitch sock in stockinette or a 64 stitch sock in a lacey pattern. After that, it's just a matter of memorizing the pattern. You can't knit fast if you have to check the chart on every row.

Constance: Oh good information for our viewers. You must have a lot of socks. Do you knit mostly for yourself?

Jeannie: Most of my socks are for myself, but lately I've been making more for others. When you have surpassed owning 40+ socks, it's time to share the hand knit socks love. ;-) Other recipients are my kids, my husband, my mother-in-law, my Mom, and my sister.

Constance: Oh I bet it's great to have so many hand knit socks. Do you knit anything else?

Jeannie: I like lace. I like stoles the best, but I do have some triangular shawls too. I do occasionally knit for the kids -- sweaters, hats, scarves, bags, etc. Their feet are perfect to use up my leftover sock yarn. My daughter has a few socks that match mine.

Constance: Oh cute! So, I'm sure a lot of people are wondering how long you've been knitting, and specifically how long you've been knitting socks.

Jeannie: I started knitting in September 2005 because of socks.

Constance: Excellent, the socks started it all! Then did you do anything special to train for Summer of Socks?

Jeannie: I trained by knitting socks and more socks. I messed around with various stitches and found my favorites during training. I didn't learn any new techniques, but sometime during SOS I want to try the toe-up gussett heel.

Constance: What are you going to do if you win the most socks contest?

Jeannie: I'm going to visit LACE! I miss it and there are several things that I want to do there.

Constance: If your socks are any indication, I'm sure your lace will be divine. I think that's about all the time we have. Do you have any parting words for aspiring SOS competitors or current contenders?

Jeannie: Know your feet, know your gauge, memorize the pattern, and GO!!!

"Well there you have it: the secret to sock success. Back to you, John."

Thank you, Constance. The Summer of Socks organizers want to remind everyone to enter their pairs as they are knitted. They suspect that there are others who have also knit an astonishing number of socks but have simply not registered them. Get your socks in there, folks!

FO: Sun King Footies

Surprise! I finished a pair of socks. Granted, they are footies, but what are you gonna do? I needed to get my sock mojo back. And it's back, baby, yeah!

Yarn: Regia Cotton Top Color, #4075
Pattern: Stockinette toe-up with short row heels
Size: Women's Small, 52 stitches
Needles: Addi 2.5 mm

I started these on the platform while I waited for my train to France. The colors of the yarn made me happy, and I also wanted to try out some different cotton yarn. They're not as soft as Panda Cotton socks, but they're way softer than normal Regia. Not surprised.

I needed a quick and easy knit to get my head back on the right track after frogging so much of my mom's socks (they're not gone, btw), and coping with the Colinette Tapis (I'll trade that, btw) debacle. I knew when I started these that I was going to make footies, so they were very low pressure. I just needed to finish something fun, and these were "it." I even have enough yarn left over to make a matching pair for B, which I'm sure he wants. heh

King Louis

So, I call these the Sun King Footies because they were also my traveling companions to Versaille. You betcha I knit them standing in not one, but two lines to get in, much to the amusement of everyone around me. I also had no shame as I posed them with historical treasures.

The socks visit the world famous Hall of Mirrors.

Socks with throne. A real throne! Kinda small, actually... people were Jen-size back then.

Socks with Louis XVI's bed.

Socks with the Queen's gardens. The colors match! See!

Now I'm back to work on my Mom's socks because she asked me when I was ever going to finish them. I will endeavor to finish them this week. I may need some extra finger crossing on this one. :)

If In Doubt, Pull It Out

Yup, I frogged the heels of my mom's socks. The gussets were just too big. And b/c of the stitch pattern, I actually had to frog back quite a lot before the heels in order to recapture all the stitches properly.

I tried pretty hard to ignore the bigness of the gussets, but my consultation with the engineer about the math made it impossible to overlook. It was a hard decision, but a necessary one.

The truth is, now that I've started frogging I want to rip it all out, and just make her some Monkey socks. I'm on the fence, and I might still do it. Today. By time you wake up and read this post, the Yarn Over Cables could be gone. My reasons are true:

1. The Panda Cotton is really splitty. I'd have a hard time recommending it because of its splittness. It's only saving grace is that it is incredibly soft. However, the splittiness greatly interferes with producing the psso in the pattern. I keep picking up a thread from another stitch.
2. Stitch definition is very bad. I think the cables looks mashed and messy, especially with the stray strands here and there. The overall result looks worn out to me, and I'm not talking shabby chic. They kinda look used.
3. The project feels like the biggest chore ever. There is no love going into these stitches, only "have to." The socks are supposed to be a gift that I promised to make her on Mother's Day. I don't want to end up resenting her by time I'm done.
4. I want to finish them quickly, and Monkeys are fast knits. And let's face it, it's a superb pattern. She'll love them. The only reason I didn't just knit Monkeys in the first place was this serial learning thing I do.

What would you do?

At the moment, the remnants are stewing on some Profi needles, which freed up my Addis for this.

A Little Sniffle; A Little Progress

I've been a tad sick. It hit me last Saturday, and is still hanging around. It's probably not the ridiculously smokey, Dutch bar that gave me the cold, but that probably didn't help. I'm not on my deathbed or anything, but my head feels like it weighs 20lbs more than usual. The couch and I are well acquainted now. Not that we weren't before, mind you.

There has been some knitting progress.

My Sweet Jemima

I've generally been too sniffly, sneezy to work on sewing Jemima up since last week, but I've made a little progress. I did some more research on raglan seaming, and I pretty much came up emtpy-handed. Well, except one thing that's a bit of "too little, too late." Word to the wise: do the raglan shaping a couple of stitches in from the edges, and cleaner seams you shall have.

Yesterday I managed to sew about three inches over the course of two hours. One step forward, two steps back. I'm not going to win a ribbon at the 4H fair with this one, but I think I will be able to wear Jemima out in public sans shame.

Socks On The Edge

I've worked the gussets on my Mom's socks, and I'll turn the heel as soon as I wrap up this post. You can kinda sorta see how the gussets work in the sock on the right. You work M1s every other round, and *woosh* gussets appear.

The heels are turned by working decreases. You'll see. I can't say enough good things about how this heel looks and feels, but dang if the math isn't a big turn off. I'm trying to work out a formula, but I have to channel my old high school self, the one that was in the Math Honor Society, to do this. That girl's been asleep for a long, long time.

As extra incentive to push through, I wound the hank of the red Colinette Jitterbug into balls last night. The needles I need are tied up in my Mom's socks. You see. I'm so keen to knit with the Jitterbug; the colors are so vivid and the yarn so well plied. *Swoon*

Oh Gee!

I've finished the first 28 rows of the Ogee Lace Skirt. Along the bottom you can see the bits of waste yarn I used for the provisional crochet cast on. I haven't crocheted since I was 9 years old. Thankfully it'll be ripped out later because those are some wonky chain stitches.

You can also see little bits of additional waste yarn along the top. I recently read about "lifelines" on a couple of blogs, and what light bulb moments those were! Dude. This is a gift from the knitting gods for lacy projects: Thread some waste yarn through your work so that if you have to frog back, you don't have to rip the whole bloody thing out. Brilliant.

This project is revealing interesting insight into why I knit. For me, it's probably 8 parts end result, 2 parts process. I'm really not enjoying it because the fear of messing it up is stressing me out a too much. Even with the lifeline, I just don't want to frog. At all. So I'm obsessively counting each pattern repeat, slowing myself way, way down. If I didn't want the end product so badly, and I really do, then I'd have given this up after the swatches.

I'd like to give special thanks to everyone who posted comments to get me through the swatching. Silly me, I didn't know you were supposed to follow the chart in both directions. That made a huge difference. Also, mad props to Jean who suggested using post-it notes to keep track of where you are in the chart. This helps immeasurably.

Socken in Berlin

Hey Gang! So sorry I dropped off the planet for a bit. Once B got into town, the vacation portion of my week in Berlin kicked in. I'd have been pretty unpopular with the husband if I blogged on holiday.

The socks really got around, and they especially liked the local Berliner Weisse beer.

This young wheat beer is a bit raw without the help of green or red syrup. The green tasted a bit like sour apple lip gloss, and yes it came with a straw. You can see from my (lack of) progress that beer drinking interferes with sock knitting.

I'm going to hold on to the rest of my socks in Berlin photos so they're still a surprise for the Summer of Socks vacation photo contest. I know I'm allowed to post photos on my blog, but I'd rather not give anyone any good ideas. There's real sock yarn at stake here, people. ;)

I'll give you a teeny, tiny hint. Mad props to anyone who can guess where the socks went.

Coming up later this week, Ogee swatches and the final Jemima sleeve. Maybe I'll even turn a sock heel or two.

Shots from the Test Photo Shoot

Post edited at 11:06 PM CET to correct embarrassing bad grammar and type-os. That'll teach me to blog too quickly.

As promised, the following are my first crack at photographing "Socks on Vacation." Strictly speaking, these weren't taken on vacation, and so I will not submit them for the Summer of Socks 2007 photo contest. They kinda suck anyway.

Here we have a scary close up of my hand. I'm no hand model. I inherited my Dad's stubby, wrinkly fingers, so they need to be de-emphasized. Also note the jarring, "fun house" composition. Terrible.

This one is better, but the background is blurry. Given the physics of optics and photography, not sure this can be remedied.

This time with the background in focus, which causes the knitting to be blurry. I guess it depends on the what the subject really is. This one also loses points for just being an outstretched hand holding knitting. Who'd actually knit like that?

Moving on to iconic scenery, let's see how I do in front of the Leiden's Windmill Museum?

I started out trying to line up the needle points with the blades of the windmill. All I got was a shadowy, blurry hand and barely any windmill. Terrible exposure. Blah!

And another lame, outstretched hand. And look at my death grip - like I'm stabbing the windmill. Look at me, I'm crushing you. Dark and moody knitting in front of cheery, blurry windmill. Meh.

What I've learned so far is that an outstretched hand holding knitting in front of cool subject makes for ho hum photos of questionable quality. I need to step up the creativity a bit, or get an assistant. Me thinks both.

I'm off to Berlin in a few hours. I'll check in later in the week. I've got my line on the yarn shops. What I need is a good deal on some Addi circs. Heather, did you use 3.25mm needles for the Jitterbug?? I swear that's what my ball band says.

For One Competitor, SOS 2007 Gets Off to a Slow Start

A cold drizzle fell on the crowd assembling for Summer of Socks 2007. The knitters and crocheters organized their supplies and settled into their favorite chairs, their faces betraying a mix of nervousness and excitement. Meanwhile a buzz moved through the spectators' bleachers as several celebrity knitters took their places.

The competitors raised their needles and hooks, yarn dangling off their fingers. The announcer's voice boomed through the loud speakers.

"Ladies and Gentlemen! On your mark! Get Set! Cast on!"

A warm breeze blew over the crowd as 506 knitters and crocheters cast on. The diversity of methods (toe-up, toe-down, one sock or two) was eclipsed only by variations in yarn gauge and colors. Sock knitting and crocheting is a true panoply of choice and expression, all for the humble sock.

We caught up with one contestant this morning to find out how things are going after just one day of sock knitting. Janneke van Dijk is standing by in Holland. Janneke?

Thanks, John. I'm here in The Hague with Akaijen, of the Knitting Sutra blog, who's preparing for day two. Akaijen, tell us how it's going so far.

"Things started out really well. I'd been training for a few days, working out my pattern and honing my technique. And I was feeling really good yesterday morning. Since I'm in Europe, I had plenty of time to eat and get hydrated. We couldn't cast on until 11am, so I even worked a few rows of the last sleeve of Jemima to get my fingers warmed up. I had my skeins organized in my Smurfy Bag, you know the one I felted a couple of weeks ago. I thought it was a good sign that I found a use for that bag.

"My cast on went well too. I worked my usual figure eight cast on, which I think is the best way to get started on a pair of socks quickly. There's no fluffing around with waste yarn and provisional cast ons. No wasted stitches because you start working on the socks right away. But something wasn't right, and I couldn't quite put my finger on what it was."

What happened next?

"Well, every few rounds I usually count my stitches just to make sure that I'm working the increases correctly. So there I am counting, 'two, four, six ... 34, 36,' and then I realized what was wrong. I'd cast on the wrong number of stitches. I was on my way to knitting oven mits!"

So what did you do?

"I did the only thing I could do. I ripped it all out and cast on again."

With the correct number of stitches, right? *insincere laughter*

"Right."

Do you think this set back will affect your overall performance in Summer of Socks 2007?

"Not really. There are a lot of great competitors in this year's competition. For me, this is really a warm up to next year. I have a lot of skills to learn before I could really be in the running for 'Most Socks.' All I can do is show up and give it 110%."

What's up for today?

"Today I'll be doing some travel knitting. I'm heading up to Leiden on the train, and I'll bring the socks with me. This is a good opportunity to work on my "Socks on Vacation" photography techniques. It's just a day trip, but Holland's pretty scenic. I think I have a shot at the photography competition. Still, there are a lot of great photographers in the mix. I need to be on my toes."

How did you feel after the first day?

"A bit drained, actually. And I noticed that my long-distance vision was a little blurry after staring at small stitches much of the day. It was a lot of sock knitting. So, I switched back to Jemima's sleeve to watch the Daily Show with my husband, B."

Really, you put the socks down?

"Yeah. I really wanted to finish Jemima before SOS started. It's easy stockinette, so I can almost work on it without looking at my needles. It was a good cool down too. I won't do very well if I push myself and get finger cramps. It's all about the pacing for a long event like this. The last thing you want to do is burn out in a month. I could see that happening to me if I'm not careful."

Well, good luck, Akaijen.

"Thanks, Janneke."

Back to you, John.

SOS: Meet My Group

My Summer of Socks group is the best. I'm guessing we'll see winners in the Socks on Vacation, Most Socks and maybe even a Pattern Designer (Jessica, I'm looking at you with your badass Northern Lights victory behind you) categories.

Check out my peeps:

Jaya.
Jean (Golden Purl)
Jeanie, the traveling knitter
Jeanne Knits
Jeannie
Jen
Jen
Jen
Jen S
Jenna
Jenneke
Jennie
Jennifer
Jennifer
Jennifer MW
jennsquared
Jenny.
Jenny Raye
Jeri
Jess
Jess, of the Bugs
JessaLu.
Jessica
Jessica E.
Jessica S.
Jo Ann (shamrockknits)
Jo at Celtic Memory Yarns
Joan
Joanna
Jodie