Kri sent me some handmade knitting markers!
I’m so happy and excited. I need to knit something that needs markers now… hmm, perhaps it’s time to have a spine, unravel the bpt sweater, and make something better :) Thanks, Kri!
Yesterday we went to the fair again! Henry went with Kirsten and Marcos in the afternoon, and I followed a bit later. We met up with Sally, Susan, Jack, Chloe, Bob, Celia, and Julie and wandered around a bit. It’s not easy to get that many people moving. Got a photo of my prizewinning socks in the display case:
And Julie took one of us all together, Keeping America Beautiful:
Very fun day :)
Henry and I went to the Fair tonight. Got there about 7, stayed till 9:30, had a GREAT time. My Child’s First Socks in Shell Pattern won first prize! I didn’t have my camera but we’re going again tomorrow and I’ll get a photo then.
A few days ago while we were sick and just hanging around home, Henry and I tidied up the Sitting Room (which is more of a craft/sewing room), made a pattern for a new messenger bag for him, dug up cloth out of the scrap boxes, and made his bag. It’s blue corduroy with a striped interior. It’s got two deep regular pockets inside, plus a fancy zipper pocket with an inset zipper — never tried that before! Henry had the idea to put the Triforce on the front flap, and luckily we had enough yellow scraps to make a good one. Photos!
Interior view:
Fancy zipper pocket:
I’ve just finished the first mini-monkey sock. Thought I’d better jot down some notes while I still remember what I did, so the second sock will match (more or less).
48-st toe (12 st each needle), then 7 reps mini-monkey pattern. Inc. every other round for gussets to 24 st. on each heel needle (72 st total at this point). Heel flap is 12×12 (6 edge chains)
When heel is done, four more reps of pattern, then 5 rounds plain, picot row, then one round plain, then dec to 40 st and work 3 or four rows, turn sock inside out and attach loops to inside of hem.
Photos soon.
I have skinny feet. Not short, just really REALLY skinny. Also, I knit relatively loosely. Also, I hate baggy socks. Also, I don’t like to knit with needles smaller than US 0 (2.0mm). Add these facts together and you will see that I have problems following other people’s sock patterns.
I usually get about 8st/inch with fingering yarn on my 2.0mm needles, which is a typical sock gauge — but my I need my socks to be an inch or two smaller around than the pattern size. Therefore, I must re-write every pattern. This is not a problem with a pattern that has a small repeat, say, a 6, 8, or 10 stitch repeat. I just figure out how many repeats I need to leave out, and go from there. But there are a lot of cute socks with larger repeats — Cookie’s “Monkey”, for instance. It’s got four repeats of a 16-st lace pattern, so 64 stitches around — far too big for me.
So last night I scaled down and re-charted the lace pattern to be a 12-st repeat, made a 48-st toe, and tried out my scaled-down pattern. So far it’s looking REALLY good, and it should fit properly. Not all lace patterns can be successfully scaled down, but Monkey can!
Photo of original chart vs. scaled-down version:
And the toe of the first sock:
I whipped up another pair of socks from the rest of the Marra. Four-round stripes, the misocrafty short-row heel, and, as an experiment, 8 stitches added evenly in one round before the heel and then taken away after:
I think they’re very cute with my Crocs:
And last night I started my Wavy Triangles Scarf while we were watching Rome:
I charted the pattern first:
It made me really happy to start working on this scarf because it reminded me of going with Christine to the Yarn store in Montreal! I skipped the fancy tubular cast-on because I tried it out and it’s icky, it stretches out but doesn’t stretch back which is bad thing for a scarf if you don’t want splayed ends.
Wishbone Socks, by Kara
Yarn: Regia Cotton (wool/cotton/nylon) (Two balls)
Needles: Brittany Birch 2.0mm
Gauge: 8st/inch in stockinette
To fit a very slender foot and leg. (If you need to make them bigger, buy another ball of yarn. For an extra inch of width, increase toe to 64 stitches, then remember that you’ve got 4 extra stitches on bottom of foot; the other 4 on the top of foot, one in each purl column, so purl columns are 4, 3, 3, 4. You might also want to inc 8 stitches at calf instead of 4. Distribute stitches logically.)
Cast on 16 st. using Judy’s Magic Cast-on. (8 st. on each needle)
Make a toe.
(if you need more specific instructions:
Divide evenly onto four needles.
Needle 1: k1, m1, k to end of needle.
Needle 2: k to last st, m1, k1.
Needle 3: k1, m1, k to end.
Needle 4: k to last st, m1, k1.)
Continue increasing every round until you have 32 stitches, then alternate plain rounds and inc. rounds until you have 56 st.
Rounds begin at needle 1 (side leg).
Needles 1 & 2 (28 st. total): p1, work 3 reps Wishbone Cable, p3
Needles 3 & 4 (28 st. total): k across.
(Blodges represent purl sts, blank squares are knit. Cable crossing occurs on row four — diagram should make it obvious what to do)
18 reps of cable pattern, then make short-row heel. For the first sock, I used the short-row heel from Summer 2007 Interweave Knits, but I’m not very happy with it. I think the No-Holes one might be better: No-Holes Short Row Heels
When you’re working in the round again, add a single rep of the cable pattern on the back of the leg.
So 56 st. total on four needles:
Front of leg: Needles 1 & 2: p1, 3 reps cable pattern, p3 (divide somewhere convenient)(28st)
Back of leg: Needles 3 & 4: k9, cable pattern, p2, k9 (divide somewhere convenient)(28st)
Work 9 reps of cable pattern.
******
Calf increase:
M1 on either side of both 9-st columns of stockinette as follows: When you reach the first 9-st column of stockinette, k1, m1, k7, m1, k1. Repeat when you reach the second 9-stitch column of stockinette. (4 new st – 60st total)
******
Work 9 more reps of cable pattern, then work 18 rounds k1p1 ribbing and finish off with a stretchy cast-off. I used a grafted cast-off.
“Child’s First Sock in Shell Pattern” from Knitting Vintage Socks, by Nancy Bush. Jawoll sock yarn, skinny little needles (maybe 1.25mm?), 64st around, my size. I’m going to enter these in the Fair this summer. I finished the knitting months ago and hid them away in my drawer so they’d still be in good condition for the Fair. Finally blocked them yesterday :) When the Fair is over (July 5) I’ll finally get to wear them.
Two pairs of socks and an almost done Tubey!
Henry’s bamboo socks:
Yarn: Regia 45% bamboo, 40% wool, 15% nylon
Needles: 2.0mm brittany birch
Worked on 56 st in k4,p4 ribbing
Toe-up, starting with Judy’s Cast-on
Henry LOVES his bamboo socks. They’re light and comfy, and he can tell everyone that his socks are made of bamboo. I would choose this yarn again in an instant if anyone around here carried it!
My Marra socks:
Marra 70% merino 30% baby alpaca — very felty, wash by hand only!
Needles: 2.75mm brittany birch
Worked on 36 stitches (really — I have very thin feet and I hate baggy socks)
Toe-up, starting with Judy’s Cast-on. Near the top of the leg I increased 4 stitches evenly around one round. I like this method of leg increasing (rather than doing increases up the back of the leg over several rounds). Also used a nice jogless join up the back of the leg.
Tubey progress:
Nearly done! Just need to decide on sleeve length and stripes (or not).
Ok, so here’s the beginning of my “Tubey” sweater!
It took a long time to get the top shrug part right. My arms are so skinny that making the shrug the width of my upper arm measurement didn’t work, and I had to rip the whole thing out and add a lot more width, but I think it’s finally fitting ok. I knitted a couple of inches of each sleeve and wore it around for a while, and it’s not too tight under the arms anymore. So I picked up stitches all around and have started knitting the body tube, as you can see in the pictures.
The yarn is Debbie Bliss Cashmerino, in a rusty-orangey-reddish-brown color.
Also these photos show my cute hair!
Photo time!
The finished Dark Green Socks:
The finished Scarf:
(Seed-stitch, Baby Alpaca Grande)
Both together:
The first Light-Green Sock:
(The “Child’s First Sock in Shell Pattern” from Knitting Vintage Socks, by Nancy Bush. It’s an 8-stitch, 10-round lace pattern that works up very quickly and is easy to memorize.)
The beginning of the second Light-Green Sock:
I’ve been borrowing Henry’s scarf all winter, but when we go to Canada I’ll need my own, so I splurged at Noble Knits on Thursday and bought two skeins of Baby Alpaca Grande. It’s the Softest Wool Ever. I started my scarf in a fancy lace-and-cable pattern, but I ripped it out and decided to go for a simple and elegant seed-stitch. The seed-stitch pattern shows off the sheen of the yarn very nicely. Here’s my progress as of yesterday:
And I’m nearly done with my dark-green toe-up socks, after changing my mind and re-starting them four times! Just working up the leg of sock #2:
No, they don’t really match perfectly but it doesn’t bother me. I promise to write down my round/stitch counts at I go next time! :)
Why yes, I am rather fond of green.
I’m seriously considering ripping my red BPT sweater out entirely, instead of just removing the hood and knitting a new neck, and making a new and completely different sweater out of the yarn. I’d like something longer and slightly looser with better neck-shaping. But first I need to make socks, mittens, and scarves for Canada!
Now that there are no surprises to spoil, here’s a round-up of a bunch of stuff I made for people for Christmas:
A knotwork bookmark in cross-stitch, for Henry. I drew the knot, translated it into chart-form (using Andy Sloss’s awesome book) and worked it while watching two movies and a couple of episodes of Seinfeld one night when I was home alone:
I drew and embroidered this knot onto a pillowcase for Dan (and I gave him a new pillow to put in the pillowcase):
I designed and made this hooded cloak for Henry. He chose the fabric — a green linen blend for one side, and a soft brown plaid flannel for the other side. The cloak reverses from Elven to Celtic. I put a silver knotwork button at the throat. It’s cut in gores so it flows and hangs nicely:
Henry and I were driving around, planning presents for people. I suggested a Dark Side of the Moon T-shirt for Sally, and Henry said he thought we could MAKE one for her. So I bought a plain black T-shirt, blew up the Dark Side logo nice and large, and traced it off my laptop screen onto thin paper (carefully!), then transferred it to the fabric. I backed the design area with a scrap of woven cotton to keep the stretching and puckering under control, and worked the design in a quilting hoop. It’s outline stitch with split-stitch filling the colored areas.
I made the knitty.com “bpt” sweater a couple of years ago. I wear it constantly, but the hood kind of bothers me. I almost never use it (’cause I’ve made myself an assortment of cute warm hats) and it’s lumpy when I lean back in my seat. So today I RIPPED it off while listening to LibriVox’s lovely free audiobook of The Awakening. Ripped it all the way back to the neckline, picked the neck stitches back up and started knitting a little standup collar. The sweater is rather poorly designed at the neck — the front is as high as the back, so it rides down in back and is too high in front. In an attempt to make it fit better, I’m doing the collar with short rows in back to make the back higher. Let’s hope its a success! I took a “before” picture which maybe I’ll post tomorrow.
Oh, and here’s an old photo of the sweater in its still hooded state:
I’d also like to make it longer and less tapered, so I might be doing some more alterations after I fix the neck.
Here are photos of a little hat I made, of blue and white cotton yarn. The pattern is horseshoe lace, which has an 8-row repeat so I worked four rows in each color. MY dentist’s receptionist asked for one just like it in navy blue, so when I make that one I’ll write down the pattern for you.
Finally, photos of Henry’s Dragon costume:
It was constructed on a pair of navy-blue sweats. Henry bought the purple-and-green latex dragon head at Costume Castle. We made spines of green felt, stuffed them, and sewed them to the back of the shirt. The tail is purple felt, stuffed, with spines inserted into the top seam, and attached to a belt around Henry’s waist. The wings are leftover pool-cover material, which is basically blue bubble-wrap. We cut the wings out and just stitched them to the sleeves and sides of the shirt. Voila! A dragon!
Karate in the morning — Henry helped with the little kids’ class. I ripped out my green sock (for the fourth time) and started over in a pattern that is more fun to work. (k2, p2 around for 8 rows, then k 2 rows plain, then p2, k2 around for 8 rows, then k 2 rows plain. Cute!) The pretzel cable was beautiful, but the pattern was too complex to memorize and I got tired of needing constantly to refer to my chart. Not good if you want to knit while having a conversation or watching a movie.
Then bank, then hardware store for glue and things for Dan, then fabric store so Henry could choose cloth for a cloak for Christmas. He chose a lovely leaf-green linen blend for the outside, and a tasteful brown plaid flannel for the inside. I’ll make it reversible so he can switch it around as the mood strikes him. He says he wants a round hood, not a pointed one. Good to know.
Then home, chores, laundry, email, food, LibriVox. Then out to Bayshore for Mythology and Musical Theater. I dropped H off and went to the far-away hobby store to get more glue for Dan. A man needs the right kind of glue! And then I drove back to Bayshore and knitted my sock and listened to Loveline during Henry’s classes. Ice T and his wife were the guests. He seemed quite intelligent, actually, and I enjoyed the episode a lot. Usually I can’t listen to the rapper-guests because they say “y’know’m’say’n’?” every other word and it drives me nuts.
So — then home again. Henry played with young Colin and I taught a piano lesson. Then we looked at all the fun Geometry stuff that Lyndy sent home with us and did a couple of five-minute room rescues, and then I tried to whip Henry’s iPod into shape. It complained about being full and I had to struggle with it quite a bit to get it to empty some things out, and load on the things Henry wanted. Its behaviour was vexing and puzzling — but at the VERY end I think I figured it out — Henry had accidentally pasted his entire library, or nearly all of it, into a Harry Potter book playlist. So of course it was loading the whole library onto his iPod even though we didn’t THINK we were telling it to. Then Henry’s dad came to pick him up and I threw together some dinner and then Dan came home and ate and then we drove down to Chloe’s house to listen to a band rehearsal and hang out a bit. Very fun!!! I worked on the Tale of Two Cities project the whole time — resampling and re-encoding several files, and fixing up all the id3 tags, and adding the reader names into the validator. I still need to do a quick listen to the beginning and ending of each of the 45 files, to make sure none are truncated. Andy, the wonderful volunteer who took over the project (the original BC disappeared without a trace) and I are worried that some files might not be complete. But we’ll get it figured out.
Then home late and to bed.
Green Jawoll sock yarn, needles size 1.25mm (0000). Toe up. Cable pattern “Pretzel Braid” from Barbara Walker’s 3rd treasury of knitting patterns.
64 st. Round toe done from temporary cast on. White strings mark round 1 of 32-round cable rep. Instep gusset starts beginning of 3rd rep.
Notes to self, so the second sock is the same: Work instep gusset to round 20 of cable chart. Then work little heel flap on 12 stitches, for 12 rows. Pick up stitches on both sides of heel flap and work in rows, decreasing gusset stitches with ssk on right-side rows and p2tog on wrong side rows. Dec to 72 st. total — I think I’ll need these extra 8 stitches in the leg. Start working in rounds again on round 21 of cable chart.
I finished these socks a couple of weeks ago. They’re toe-up socks, and for fun I worked two different kinds of backwards heels, which is why they don’t match exactly.
Close-up of heels:
The left sock shows an ordinary Dutch/German heel (my favorite heel) worked just as usual, but of course starting on the bottom of the foot. You can see how the heel flap ends up under the heel.
The right sock shows a much more elegant solution — “Denise’s Reverse Dutch Heel” — a heel worked literally backwards. First, work instep INCREASES, then work a tiny flap which represents the bit you get when you turn a heel, then pick up stitches around the sides of the little flap and work the heel flap, getting rid of a foot stitch at the end of every row. Then meet up with the rest of the foot stitches and continue the leg. Sweet! Better instructions here: http://www.socknitters.com/toe-up/lessonfour.htm
I probably won’t make cotton socks again. I prefer the resiliency of wool, and when it’s barely cool enough to wear socks at all, thin wool socks are more comfy than cotton anyway.
