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Sunday, November 2. 2008

Toe-up socks

Judging by the number of sock-knitting reports, blogs, clubs, etc. on the Internet I don‘t seem to be the only one who is enthusiastic about socks. I think that I can safely say that I always have a least one pair that I am working on. Nothing fancy, just 2-2 ribbing around the ankle and stockinette stitch foot. And with double-pointed needles (I don‘t quite understand the rage for knitting socks on circular needles, but oh well...maybe I‘m just old fashioned). Socks are my all-time favorite take-along project – on the train or plane, at the Dr.‘s office, while the grandkids are doing their homework, etc., etc. I always grab a sock-in-progress before going almost anywhere. Just imagine, the car might break down and I would have hours of time by the side of the road, at the garage, etc. and not have a sock along to fill the time – unthinkable!

 

 

One result of all of my sock knitting (aside from lots of socks for me, family, and friends, of course) is that bits and pieces of various sock yarns accumulate. Every once in a while I knit a pair of “garbage” socks to use up all the accumulated bits. I knit them helter-skelter, without worrying about them matching – they will still keep my feet warm. The only thing I make sure of is that all the yarn left-overs are of the same type so they “behave” the same way (for example when washed).

 

Now I have accumulated enough bits of various colors of a cotton/wool sock yarn, that I think I have enough for a pair of socks. I weighed the last pair of socks that I knit with this yarn and weighed all the left-overs and I‘m sure I have enough, but I don‘t know for sure how far I will get with half of the yarn (= one sock), how long to make the ribbed top, etc.

And I certainly don‘t want to end up with left-overs from my left-overs! So I decided that this would be a good time to try knitting socks from the toe up. I‘m sure I have enough for the feet of two socks. I‘ll knit two socks in parallel and knit the ribbed tops the same lengths, until I run out of my left-over yarn. 

 

Here are half of my left-overs. I know the colors don‘t go together well at all, but that doesn‘t matter. I‘m not planning on wearing the finished socks to the opera!

 

 

 

I have never knit socks from the toe up, but I have Internet access and that is the same as having a whole treasure trove of knitting information – there are instructions, tutorials, even short videos of all sorts of knitting techniques. I found two good descriptions to help me get started – both, it turned out from Wendy D. Johnson (here and here).

 

I won‘t repeat Wendy‘s very good instructions. I‘ll just say that with this technique, you start by knitting the toe cap. There seem to be several ways to do this, I used the short row method, starting with a length of crocheted chain stitches – that‘s the dark blue yarn in the photo of my toe, below.

 

 

Then you knit the foot in the round (I prefer using 3 double-pointed needles) until you get to the heel, which you also work with short rows (just like the toe).

 

Then you continue in the round to work the top of the sock as high as you like....or until the yarn runs out. I like to work the entire top of the sock in ribbing (I think I read that Elisabeth Zimmerman liked to do this also), so they stay up better.

 

Here are my finished socks. As the Germans say, “Nicht schön aber selten.” (Not pretty, but unusual.)

 

 

Knitting from the toe-up was perfect for using up left-over yarns evenly – and it did impress many of my friends who had never heard of doing such a thing before – but I don‘t think that I will be using this method much for normal sock knitting....

Written by Mary at 20:44 in Knitting
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Sunday, July 13. 2008

Sisters and sweaters

I have two daughters – grown women with families of their own. They are (and always have been) about as different as two sisters can be. If you didn‘t know that they are sisters, you might not even suspect that they are in the same family. 

 

They both grew up in the town where I am still living, but the older daughter left right after her “Abitur” (German equivalent to high school diploma, but actually closer to an AA degree). She studied in three different countries (none of them Germany) and has lived and worked in five or six different countries aftering finishing the university. Visiting her at all the different stages of her life has certainly helped me see more of the world than I might have seen otherwise!

 

The younger daughter has always stayed in our town – did an apprenticeship here, worked, here, met and married her husband here, went to university here, had her children here....you get the idea.

 

So... that was the introduction.

 

A couple of years ago when I was in the US, I found (I must admit I don‘t remember exactly how) instructions for what I thought was a very attractive cardigan and it looked like it would be interesting to knit. It‘s the Sunrise Circle Jacket, designed by Kate Gilbert. When I first discovered it, instructions could be downloaded at the Interweave Press website, but it doesn‘t seem to be available any more. 

 

I ordered the yarn while I was still in the US and began knitting the jacket and it was as much of a pleasure to knit as I had hoped. I must admit that the whole time I was knitting I suspected that it might not actually be the most flattering style for me, but it was such fun to knit and I still was really intrigued with the design. When I was finished, I tried it on and sure enough, I might just as well have included neon arrows and flashing “fat hips” signs in the design. Oh well, I have two daughters, both younger and with better figures, whom might enjoy having a new cardigan.

 

I asked the daughter who lives here in town – just because she was closest and easiest to ask. She tried the cardigan on (it looked great!), agreed that it was a nice design and that it wasn‘t the best style for me....but no thanks, she didn‘t think she would wear it much. Ok. No problem. I‘ll ask my other daughter.

 

The next time the other daughter came to visit (several months after I had asked the first daughter), she tried the sweater on. Again it looked great....and she was sure that she would wear it a lot (she works in international relations so she needs lots of suits, jackets, nice sweaters, etc.). It was cool during her visit, so she already started wearing the sweater here. When her sister saw it, she said, “Oh, maybe I would like to have a sweater like that after all!” She was a little sheepish about it – she did remember that she had already turned down the offer once. I don‘t think it was so much that she was envious of her sister, it was just that she saw how nice the sweater was and realized that it would be a good style to have.

 

OK. Fine. I had fun knitting it the first time, so it would probably be a pleasure to knit the second time also. I ordered more yarn (Karabella “Soft Tweed”, a lovely soft yarn – the one given in the instructions for the sweater – the same yarn that I had used the first time, but a different color) and started in knitting again. I was right, it was still fun to knit and paying attention to the increases in every row seems to make it go relatively rapidly. I even had it finished (including seaming and hemming) in time for my daughter‘s birthday.

 

She was very pleased....except when she tried it on, it was a little too big! The first sweater had fit her perfectly. Oh dear. I‘m not quite sure why. I followed exactly the same instructions (for the same size) as the first time I knit it and I know that my knitting tension hasn‘t changed. The only thing I can think of is that I possibly used needles a half-size smaller the first time and forgot to make a note of it – and then didn‘t think I needed to make a swatch first, because I had already knit it once!

 

 

 

I think the sweater looks ok, but she thought that it was a little big.

 

 

 OK, from the back it does look a little big, but you can see how the knit shaping makes a little peplum.

 

 

 

In ths close-up you can see what makes this sweater such fun to knit. All the shaping – like the front curve – is created while you knit. Such a clever idea! 

 

I gave her the option to knit it for her again (!), a little smaller, and she decided that she would get more use out of a slightly smaller size. So....here we go again! I have ordered the yarn (same yarn, different color) and will definitely make swatches first this time. Oh well, it was fun the first two times....why shouldn‘t it be as much fun the third time?

 

In the mean time, I have discovered that this sweater is very popular with other knitters. There are over 300 examples on one knitting website that I looked at! I have also read other people‘s experiences with the sweater and many feel that the sleeves are too long – I agree. So next time, slightly shorter sleeves...and I will probably be shortening the sleeves on the second sweater (first sweater also, if my daughter wants me to).

 

The slightly larger size is also slightly longer, so it looks better on me! And if we ever decided to form a mother-daughter group, we already have matching sweaters! 

 

Written by Mary at 21:31 in Knitting
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Thursday, May 1. 2008

The pyschology of knitting

I finished my latest pair of socks. Here they are. 

 

They were fun to knit. And they even seemed like they knit up faster than my normal stocking-stitch socks – which can‘t be really true because the little pattern slowed me down. After all, instead of working k2, p2 for the ribbing or just straight k for the foot area, I was slowing down to work yo‘s, working k3, p2 or working a slip stitch and then passing the slip stitch over – and that all 15 times per round around the ankle and 7 times per round across the arch. So they must have taken longer. But the fun of working the little pattern made them seem to go faster. And somehow, the knitting of units make things go faster. Knitting rounds and rounds of stocking stitch are sort of like walking long distances in flat, empty countryside. You know that you‘re getting somewhere, but there isn‘t much to measure your progress by. But working small, countable units is like walking to the top of the hill, then to the top of the next hill, etc. You can physically see that you‘re actually moving forward. It might alse be that it‘s like giving yourself a small reward every time a small unit is completed. I have noticed the same effect when using the self-striping sock yarn that we have available today (like they yarn these new socks were made from). 

 

I have a pattern for socks with a considerably more complicated lace pattern. They look lovely, but the pattern requires much more thought and concentration than these last socks did. I should probably give them a try and see if my theory of sock knitting also applies for them. If I do....I‘ll let you know.

Written by Mary at 02:24 in Knitting
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Sunday, April 13. 2008

Ufo's, socks, and coffee beans

 

 

Like everyone else who sews or does needlework, I have quite a collection of ufo's (un-finished objects) – and for all sorts of reasons. Some I got stuck on, some got boring, some I wasn't pleased with, etc. On some I ran out of time so they got put aside and then it is always very difficult to pick up an already started, old job and get back in the swing of things...it‘s easier to start something new.

One thing that almost never ends up becoming an ufo is socks. I love to knit socks. They are relatively quick to make and when they are finished, they are ready to use – no blocking, no seams, just hide a few thread ends. They are my favorite take-along project because they are never too big and because they can easily be started and stopped without having to worry about “what do I do next?” (Having said this I must admit that I recently forgot to turn the heel on a sock I was making. I just knit the heel flap, picked up stitches along the side of the flap and proceeded to shape the ankle. The sock still fits ok, which makes me wonder why we bother to turn heels. I knit the partner sock the correct way and now I can compare how they both are to wear and how well each of them wears. Maybe I can comment on the results of this “study” in a couple of years....hand knit socks last a long time.) But I digress.... 

I (of course) have plenty of ufo‘s that I should be working on, but this weekend I finished one pair of socks and decided that I would try something new, sock-wise. A couple of months ago I found a nice knit pattern for socks in a Dutch needlecraft magazine that I subscribe to. It‘s a traditional Dutch pattern called “coffee beans” (“koffieboontje” in Dutch). A small pattern over 4 stitches and 4 rows. Perfect for socks, and a nice change from my standard 2k, 2p ribbing. I started the first sock and I really enjoy the pattern. Since it‘s so small, it‘s easy to memorize, easy to start up again after you have laid it down for a while, and easy to find and repair mistakes (guess how I know this!).

Here‘s a picture of the start of my sock. Serendipitously the color change of the yarn more or less corresponds to the pattern unit (dumb luck).

 

For anyone who is interested, here is the pattern:

Row 1: *k2, p2, rep from * continuously 

Row 2: *k1, yo, k1, p2, rep from * continuously

Row 3: *k3, p2, rep from * continuously

Row 4: *slip 1 k-wise, k2, pass slipped stitch over, p2, rep from * continuously

Repeat these four rows as often as needed/desired.

 

 

 

Written by Mary at 23:50 in Knitting
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