Cabled socks

This is a cross between easy and hard. I didn't want some plain Jane stockinette socks because the yarn is a solid color. A cable runs up both sides of each sock which made these more masculine, don't you think?

Pattern: cabled socks
Yarn: Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock Solid
Needles: US #2

A recent finish

So I've been knitting from my stash. A lot. In fact, after this pair of socks, I only have enough yarn for three more pairs and I have already cast on another pair.

This doesn't mean that I have no other yarn. Oh no. I have lots of yarn for shawls and sweaters of which I am glad because, frankly, I am getting a bit burned out knitting socks. There, I've said it.

And so, once I have used up the sock yarn, I am moving on to items that take more quantity of yarn. :)

Cosy Toes

I have a finish! I made a pair of red socks for my sister as a Christmas gift and I liked them a lot, so I knitted a pair for myself. Her's were more lacy and mine are just a 3x1 rib but both pairs are cosy. And of course I have already cast on another pair.

Hey! do you see the yarn there in the basket? That is a discontinued Lion Brand Amazing colorway called Constellations. I found this wonderful pattern called The Prudence Crowley Vest that I know will look wonderful in this yarn. The gauge in the pattern is the same gauge that I get with this yarn, although they are two different yarns using different size needles. I know this will work. Pretty cool vest, huh?

I want to take this opportunity to wish everyone a very Happy New Year!

One Down & One to Go

On The Needles September 12, 2014

These socks actually were finished several weeks ago, but I haven't had time to post about them. I call these the Plain Jane socks. It's a simple pattern of K3, P1 ribbing with a common heel. These are larger than I can wear so they will go into the bin. I keep extra knitted items on hand for gift giving opportunities. Do you?

I went to visit my new Grand-bebé last weekend and unfortunately left my knitting bag there. I guess I'll just have to go back to retrieve it. Plus get more baby time. ;-)

In the meantime, I had to start a new project. More socks. This is a simple 2 stitch cable. Why the toothpick? It is my cable needle. Since my favorite needles and row marker are in another town, I had to pull out a different set of needles, row marker and even knitting bag. 

What are you knitting? I'm linking to Judy's linky.

On the Needles Today

There are two different projects on the needles today.

I have made progress on the hand-to-hand sweater for my sister. The first sleeve is knit and I am working on the shoulder. Progress, progress. I am lovin' that cable.

And then there are the socks. These are the trail socks; the pattern is Diana’s Trail Socks from Mountain Colors). Scroll down on the page a bit to find the sock pattern.

 

The pattern has you knit a cuff and then change to a twisted rib. At 4" you turn the sock inside out and knit a rib. The sock is worn with the 4" cuff turned down toward the ankle. 

What's on your needles? 

Not Friday, Saturday OTN.

Are you ready for a photo heavy post? I have a lot of finishes this week. Do you remember me talking about the Hapi Coat I was knitting? You know, the one that had so much dye on the yarn that it stained the knitting needles AND my hands? I washed the dye off my hands after every knitting session. Well, it is finished! And just in time to wear it for the last storm of the season, hopefully

I tried to mitigate some of the dye crocking. Crocking is the term for the dye rubbing off on, say, the needles or your hands or a white shirt. I soaked it in a soapy water bath for about 20 minutes or so. The yarn needed to absorb that water and plump up.

The funny thing is, that dye didn't really bleed out in the bath water. It did, however, just keep running out in the rinse water. I COULD NOT get that water to run clear. Maybe someday? In the meantime, I will have to wear dark shirts under it.

The perfect spot in my house for blocking knitted items is on the guest bed. It will be undisturbed under the overhead fan.

The short row shawl collar is very cozy around my neck.

The dye pattern on the yarn knitted up into spirals on the sleeves.

The body was knit using a moss stitch: k1p1 for two rows and the p1k1 for two rows. I have 700 yards of this yarn left, should I knit a scarf or shawl? It's a puzzlement.

And there is more! I finally finished the mobile project. I usually carry the sock knitting with me in my bag because it is so very portable. Here is the latest pair and they are for ME! Yes, I finally made a pair of socks for myself. I used Brown Sheep Yarn Wildefoote Luxury Sock yarn and they are soft and warm. Believe me on this, would I lie?

And if you can stand just one more photo, here are two pair of infant socks. Oh the cuteness! It is hard to tell from the photo, but the foot of these socks is only 2" long. I made a short row heel before continuing up the leg. They looked just a bit small to me, but it has been a long time since I have been around an infant. So I took the first sock with me to my local coffee shop because there is always a new mommy or two there. Luck! One came in pushing a stroller with a sweet little 6 week old. I held the sock up and asked here if this would fit an infant. "Let's see!" she said and proceeded to whip the little one's current sock off and put on this one. YES! Score one for Grandma!

Want more knitting? Visit JudyL.

Friday Knits

Some progress has been made on the sweater. No photo because it is still a pile of purplish yarny goodness. But it is probably about one-third completed.

Remember the little red fleece hat from the last post? I decided that it needed ties so it would stay on that wiggly person's head.

If you are not familiar with this item it is called a Knitting Knobby. This is one I have had since a teenager. It is good for making laces and ties. Since this photo was taken, the ties have been added to the earflaps of the little hat. It is so darling I can't stand it.

Another pair of socks are blocking on the sock blockers. These are pink, aren't they?

Yarn: S.R. Kertzer On Your Toes 4 Ply with Aloe Vera
Needles: US #2

More On The Needles can be found here.

OTN: Friday the Thirteenth

I've seen fire and I've seen rain.

That phrase from James Taylor's song just keeps circling in my head. A total earworm. I live in Colorado and in case you haven't heard we have been having horrible, catastrophic flash flooding. My town is split in half: north or south of the Big Thompson River. As a matter of fact, the whole county is split into north of the Poudre River, between the Poudre and Big Thompson Rivers (that's where I am), between the Big Thompson and Little Thompson. And we won't even mention the rivers and creeks even further south. We have lots of infrastructure damage to roads, highways and bridges. Train tracks and trestles have been damaged as well as private homes and farms.

All this excess water and the resultant news coverage has resulted in a lot of knitting and quilting. Today, I'll show the finished knitted items.

Let's start with the ever present socks, shall we?

Don't you love the zig zaggy stripes? There was a knot in the yarn on the second sock (don't you just hate that?) and that is why they don't match up there on the feet.
Yarn:S.R. Kertzer On Your Toes 4 Ply with Aloe Vera
Needles: US2 circulars

Mindless knitting for the hat. I tried out a different pattern that started from the top so that I could just knit and knit and knit. I'm not sure I like the pointy effect of top down. Anyway, here it is...

It looks big, but my second head here is small, almost child size. This hat will fit an adult male.
Yarn: Quillay by Araucania
Needles: US8 circular

And with the wee bit of yarn left from the hat, I whipped out this Seed Stitch Headband.

What's on your needles? Vist JudyL for more On The Needles Friday.

And another pair of socks

Can you stand to look at another pair of socks? This pair is made from the leftover yarn of another pair that was recently finished. The photo in the other post has truer color.

Needles: US 2 (2 circulars)
Yarn: On Your Toes 4-Ply with Aloe by S.R. Kertzer
Color: Denim Print

In other news, the water line on the ice maker got pinched and started leaking. I pulled out the fridge and cleaned up the mess, but I was too late to keep the laminate floor from buckling. Can we say new flooring?
I pulled the pinched portion of the line into the (unfinished) basement and I know I need to turn the water off to this line before I can splice it for the repair. The problem is that I am too short to reach the value. And so it continued to leak. I wrapped a hand towel around it and placed it into a bucket to contain the water, while I went to the garage for a ladder; got the saddle valve turned off so the water stopped spraying everywhere. (Thank goodness for Google, it showed me what to do.) The ice maker is still not making ice even though everything is fixed, so something else is wrong. I dug out the old ice cube trays. Thank goodness I still had them. 

Hopefully, the drama around here has stopped for a while.

Linking to Judy's OTN Friday.

Garter Stitch Short Row Heel and Toe

Garter Stitch Short Row Heel and Toe

Are you ready for another heel and toe episode? This post will be photo heavy and like always, the photos are clickable.

I must confess that I have made this heel and toe before and I DO like it.

It surprised me that I was actually able to match up the stripes. I usually don't get that effect and don't strive to make it happen. Serendipity.

This is a nice short row heel that uses a different strand of yarn for the heel than what was used in the rest of the sock. If you have someone who wears out a heel, then use this heel so you can easily remove the it, pick up the live stitches and knit another one.

To start, drop the main yarn used for the sock. Don't cut it because you will be using it after you finish the heel. I usually stick the whole skein inside the shaft of the sock leg to keep it out of the way. This is an opportunity to use another color like, say, black or red for the heel if you want. To make a nice fitting heel I usually knit this heel over 60% of the stitches. In this case, I had 36 stitches on the heel needle.

Link the tail of the new yarn around the working yarn. I will then knit the next three stitches using both strands of the new yarn so it gets anchored. Then drop the actual tail and continue to knit until there is one stitch left on the left needle.

At this point slip that last stitch onto the right needle, bring the yarn around to front wrapping that stitch. Now turn the work around and once again knit until there is one stitch left on the left needle. Slip that stitch, wrap the yarn, turn and start knitting again.

Knit until one stitch before the wrapped stitch. (You can tell the wrapped stitch because it will be wearing a little necklace of yarn.) Slip the stitch before the wrapped stitch, put the yarn between the needles and turn your work.

Start knitting until you once again are at the stitch before the wrapped stitch. Keep up this rhythm until you have approximately 8 unwrapped stitches in the middle of your work. You should have an equal number of wrapped stitches on each side of these unwrapped ones.

Now it's just a matter of increasing the stitches again. Knit the 8 unwrapped stitches and then knit one previously wrapped stitch, slip the next wrapped stitch, put the yarn between the two needles, replace the slipped stitch onto the left needle, turn.

Knit until you get to the next wrapped stitch, knit it, slip the next wrapped stitch, put the yarn between the two needles, replace the stitch, turn.

Lather, rinse, repeat.

This makes a wonderful fitting heel albeit fiddly to do.

The toe is worked as follows:
Rnd1: K1, ssk, knit to 3 stitches before the end, k2tog, k1
Rnd2: purl
Rnd3: knit
Rnd4: purl
Repeat these four rows once more.

Now repeat rnds 1 and 2 for 4-8 rows.

Do the following two rounds until you have your desired number of toe stitches left. I like a very rounded toe, so I usually leave 10-12 stitches on each needle (20-24 stitches total).
Rnd 1A: K1, ssk, knit to 3 stitches before the end, k2tog, k1
Rnd 1B: p1, ssp, purl to 3 stitches before the end, p2tog, p1

Whew! It was a difficult thing to take photos in the middle of turning a heel. This is probably clear as mud, huh?

For more On The Needles, visit JudyL.

Afterthought Heel

If you knit with self striping yarn, you will know that a fancy texture will not show up. In an effort to use up the self striping yarn, I have launched an endeavor to learn new techniques for heels and toes. Sounds like a dance, doesn't it? This green pair is the first pair finished using a new (to me) technique. It is an afterthought heel also known as the Turkish or Peasant heel. I've linked to Melody Johnson's tutorial.

This technique works for top down or toe up socks and is totally replaceable if the heel ever shows wear. The way the heel is worked does not alter the number of stitches in the basic tube of the sock. On the other hand, the heel depth is shorter than usual on a short row heel, but if the wearer has a small, delicate heel this won't be a problem. The corners where the heel has been added is a bit ragged and will need a bit of tweaking when everything is done. Do you like to do the Kitchener stitch? This heel is grafted close using the Kitchener stitch, so be forewarned.

My verdict on this technique is a thumbs down. The socks seem to be a bit loose at the front of the ankle. I don't know about you, but I like a tight fitting sock. Like Elvis, these socks have already left the building. A co-worker saw them and expressed an interest in them.

The sock yarn bin seems to be self-leveling: in and out, out and in. But who can refuse the offer of free yarn? I know I can't, so a big "THANK YOU" shout out to Susan for gifting me with these two sock yarns.

For more knitted goodness visit Judy's blog at Patchwork Times.
Happy knitting!

Wool Sock Weather

Can you stand more knitting?

I am almost finished with the 'for sale' knitting. Really. The socks are the last of the hired knitting. The cowl is made from yarn sent to me from McIrish Annie. Whew! One more pair of mitts for the same friend I gave the strippie quilt to and then I can get back to quilting.

The socks are knit from KnitPicks.com yarn called Stroll. It is a very hard-wearing yarn.

Sock Knitting

Even the summer heat can't stop an intrepid sock knitter! In an effort to knit down the sock yarn stash, I have been concentrating on socks. Papa bear socks, mama bear socks and soon to come off the needles some baby bear socks. Here are the latest pairs.

This pair puddled atrociously. I finally figured out in an "aha" moment that I needed to make larger socks and that yarn would start behaving. The next pair was knit after I realized that thought.

Socktoberfest- TTL Mystery Sock 2010

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This section of the mystery took several days to knit up. It is really textured, isn't it? I am knitting two socks at a time on one long circular needle and the pattern calls for dpns. There was one row in the last section where I had to take one sock off the circ and knit it on dpns because of the pattern. I had to do that three different times because the pattern repeated three times. But they came out okay.

Waiting Room Knitting

Knitting this sock kept my attention focused. But when the hospital stay was over, I frogged the sock because there was going to one large problem: not enough yarn. The needles I used were too small (2.75mm) and should have been 3.25mm, which in itself made for a very dense fabric. Will I do the cables again? Probably, but not with this yarn. I think a solid color would show them off better. In fact, a totally different pair of socks have been cast on using the larger sized needles and a smaller sized sock. Should work, I hope.

For you knitters out there, see the yellow row marker? Do you see what I did? I made it into a fob and can clip it right to the knitted fabric or use it as a marker. I got tired of chasing that silly thing across the room and this was an aha! moment.

I want to thank everyone for their well wishes to hubby. It is very appreciated. He is doing well and I will be able to return to work next week.

Socks for Joey

The weather is getting a bit too warm for knitting with wool so these are probably the last socks until fall. One of the 'boys' at work really likes the socks I make so I will be gifting these to him. The second pair vaguely resemble boa constrictors in color don't they?

Socktoberfest Cometh

Socktoberfest is on it's way. What is Socktoberfest? It is a month-long festival starting October 1 for sock knitters to celebrate sock knitting. It's been about 3 years since I joined in on the festivities but since my current knitting of choice is socks, here I am. I just finished up one sock and the other needs to be cast on. Nothing new there. What is new, is that I am going to take the opportunity of Soctoberfest to learn something new sock knitting-wise.

Did you know there is a Flickr group and a Ravelry Socktoberfest Board . There was even a Sock Summit held recently in Portland, Oregon that was 3 days of socks and sock related items. (propane and propane accessories, as Hank Hill would say). *snort, giggle, smile* I digress, but then I get so easily sidetracked. Anyway. Socks. Yes, that is where I was.

Hi, I'm Paula and I knit socks.

A Great Big Thank You to Cat Bordhi

I want to publicly thank Cat Bordhi for helping me change the way I knit socks. This woman is a genius! I first ran across references to her sock knitting on Ravelry. Then I found her website and then I found her Youtube videos. I bought her book New Pathways for Sock Knitters Book One.

Let me back up a bit. I basically taught myself to knit socks by reading sock patterns. I used double pointed needles because that is what the pattern told me to do. I also learned to knit 2 socks at the same time on one really long circular needle and then learned how to knit 2 socks at the same time on 2 circular needles. All three of these techniques structure the sock the same way at the heel gusset. On one side, the gusset always had a string of eyelets after the first knit stitch. Trying different things to eliminate the eyelets has resulted in frustration. I was resigned to possibly adding the eyelets to the other side of the gusset as well. One good thing is that non-knitters don't even notice them, but I know they are there.

Back to Cat. I bought another of her books: Socks Soar on Two Circular Needles and my sock knitting life changed! Unlike knitting 2 at a time on two circulars, this is one sock on two circulars and the gussets are worked in profile! Those pesky decreases are nestled in the center of a batch of stitches! It turns out that my problem was caused by the combination of two things: the decreases landing at the end of a needle and that my knitting tends to be a bit looser at the end of a needle. With the decreases surrounded by more stitches the tension is kept even and the eyelets are history. Yay!

Thank you Cat Bordhi.