Patchwork Girl's Rambling Warps

The socks are DONE!

Today I have photos of the socks on their owners' feet...

These are Harrison's socks done in Regia Eskimo...worked cuff down with a flap heel & one foot has piggy toes (which I'll have to show you some other time) and the other has a regular roundish toe. I did k3 p2 for the ribbing, used ribbing all the way down to just before the toes.

Micah's socks are on the left & were done with a Berella Bamff (or something like that) yarn.. aran weight, 100% superwash merino. These socks went fairly quickly & Micah decided he wanted crew length socks. These were worked from the ball of the foot up with a yarn over short row heel (from the Twisted Sisters Sock book) with regular toes...

Evan's socks are on the right & were done with Stahl Fortissima Colori or something like that, I don't know the name of the color. When Gary walked into the house on September 13th with his & Evan's soccer uniform, I knew instantly that this strange orange & black yarn would be great for Evan's socks... Evan was skeptical at first & then he loved the idea. I worked these from the cuff down with a flap heel and regular toes... finishing on these went amazingly fast.. after the last stitch was knit, I did the kitchener stitch in a few short minutes, wove in TWO ends & voila... same with Harrison's regular toe sock... there were over 10 ends to darn in on Harrison's piggy toe sock... eeewww... Micah's socks had a few ends to darn in because of color changes... I didn't think I would have enough of the variegated yarn to make two full socks, so we played around with some striping... I have a LITTLE left of the variegated yarn & most of a ball of the grey & black...

I'm very tempted to cast on another pair of socks for Reuven, but I really need to rest my hands, especially my right wrist. I would have finished Evan's socks sooner, except I couldn't work on his socks during the day on Wednesday because I needed Evan to try the sock on to make sure it was long enough in the foot... so I had to do both toes for his socks after he got back from school...

I'm not sure if I'm going to go back to working with DPNs or continue working with the Addi Turbo with the 2on1c method (aka the magic loop method)... I suspect my hands aren't too super fond of the metal needles, but I'll probably give bamboo circs a try, but I'm not sure of their durability at 2.5mm...

I had to turn Evan's socks around on the circular needles after getting closer to the toe.. that was tricky: I managed it with the help of a DPN or another circular needle (I was trying different things)... I wonder if Icould have just done the toe as is, but I was afraid the toe would stretch if I continued the knitting in that direction...

Time for Reuven's naptime!

socks almost done

Well, I'm almost done with the socks..no photos yet, maybe tomorrow or Friday I'll post some.

I have to do toes on 3 of the fingering weight socks & finish knitting the worsted weight socks in both directions...the worsted weight socks go pretty quickly... Harrison & I decided that his 2nd sock would have a "regular" toe instead of piggy toes & we'll see which he likes better...

I think I'm going to try the Addi Natura needles next time... I'm getting a new one soon, and am a little leery of a US size 1 bamboo needle... will it break? do I have to be super careful?

That's all for now, folks... need to go finish those socks!

Heel & toe & away we go!

Evan's socks:

At first I tried using 2 circular needles... from the instructions from Sheron's cyberclass on socknitters.com... after getting the socks disoriented by picking up the wrong needle point to knit with more than once, I decided to try using one 29" circular & found that I liked working that way better...

(anyone want 2 sets of unused 16" 2.25 inox express needles? I was using two 29" needles when the 16" needles arrived in my mailbox.) Addi Turbo were the only needles in 2.5mm that I could find in the 47 inch length... I like it well enough. I'd prefer wood (which i can get in the size i want), but at that size, I'd be afraid of breaking the needles..

The gussett decreases were tricky at first. I wasn't sure which side of the marker to do them on, and where to do SSK and where to do K2tog... (duhhh, I know now!)

Before I actually got started on the gussett decreases, I needed to get a few things straight in my head. The instructions that I did find for knitting 2 socks on 1 circular didn't make sense to me at the time. I've made a few pairs of socks and never have been able to grok the concept of needle numbers...I don't think in terms of needle 1 2 3 or 1 2 3 and 4...I think of sock parts. Heel, toe & away we go! (and cuff and instep and sock body & gussett & foot) never mind that some patterns/instructions call for 4 needles and sometimes with 5.

After looking through my books containing instructions for making socks, the info in the Socks Socks Socks book got through my skull and I finally got the hang of exactly where i have to make my gussett decreases...

I broke the instep needle down into 2 needles for my purposes since knitting socks on a single circular needle are broken down into 2 parts: half & half...

Here is how my socks are laid out on the needle when I start a round:

sock 2 sock 1

HH 7 G: 25 to 15 sts M HI 15----SC---- HH 7 G: 25 to 15 sts M HI 15---P>
CC
HH 7 G: 25 to 15 sts M HI 15----SC--- HH 7 G: 25 to 15 sts M HI 150---P>

other side of sock 2 other side of sock 1

P: point of needle (there are 2)
HI: half of instep stitches
M: Marker to indicate gussett decreases
G: gussett stitches
HH half of heel stitches
SC: straight cable
CC: curved cable

Now I have it & i have 5 more decreases to go before I can work on the foot of the sock & then the toes & then voila! Someday I'll put together some instructions for knitting 2 socks on 1 circular needle... maybe with photos & definitely with diagrams... with both heel flap & gussett heels & short row heels...

Micah's socks just need the toe & the parts above the ankle. Harrison's only needs the toes on his 2nd sock....

Have a nice weekend & check our website (http://tornadowood.com)

Fotogenic Friday

I had a good mail day today: the Kureyon in color 87 (for a secret project) arrived today & so did my 47" long 2.5mm circular needle...

I put Evan's socks onto the new needle & hopefully the extra cord length will make doing 2 socks on 1 circular needle easier... on the 29" needle, it was a bit of a tight squeeze...

Here's a photo of the socks...almost ready to turn the heel!

Here's the Kureyon... I'll swatch tonite...

We planted some chrysanthemums a few weeks ago:

...and last, but not least, I leave you with a photo of Loveslug sitting proudly outside... doesn't she have amazing eyes??

That was right before our neighbor's puppy chased her up a tree!

Have a nice weekend!

Socks & more socks

The socks are coming along nicely. One of Harrison's toe socks is done except I may re-do the little toe, I'm not sure yet.

Micah's socks are ready for the heel and Evan's socks need 2 more "bands" of knitting before they're ready for the heel. Crazy sock day is 2 weeks from today, so I should get all 3 pairs done & it sure would be nice to get my pink socks done as well...

I had a good mail day today: the Patons Jacquard sock yarn that I ordered came & it's nice... looks like Regia jacquard except the colors are different. If the boys' socks go quickly, I may try one out so that I have a sample sock to put on the website. Also, the yarn a customer ordered was in this package, I'll mail it tomorrow.

If there is enough interest, I'll put together a kit using Jaggerspun zephyr silk-wool yarn with the pattern for "Autumn Stripes" by Joanne Conklin... it's also in the latest Socks! digest... I'm also wanting to put together a kit for awareness socks with Joann's pattern for same... this kit can use either JaggerSpun Heather or Jaggerspun Zephyr yarns...

Tonite's supper is going to be beans with a salsa mix & rice... I got the recipe from my Desperation Dinner cookbook & I'm modifying the recipe by making my own beans & not using an instant rice, so it takes a few hours... no problemo! If I ever want to make the recipe in a hurry, I'll use canned beans & instant rice (or leftover rice) instead of doing it this way! I'm using pintos, great northern & black beans... the beans should be done in about an hour or so...

Beverly Mills & Alicia Ross have their own website now: desperationdinners.com

Socks, twining & other stuff

The socks for the boys are zipping along sort of slowly, but we should get them done. I hope to work on Harrison's toes today, I'm doing piggy toes & if I don't have TOO much trouble with them, I'll make piggy toes for Evan's socks as well.

So far, I think the magic loop method is the most efficient way to make socks: it doesn't have needle ends all over the place, like doing socks on circular needles. Last night, while working on Evan's socks, I switched from a 29 inch needle to a 16 inch needle & somehow managed to get the 2 socks backwards from each other... arrrrrgh! SO I'm thinking that using just one circular needle might be the way to go. I kind of prefer DPNs, but what i like about using circular needles (either method) is that I don't have to worry as much about losing needles & I like the way I can work on 2 socks at the same time & have them both done at the same time...

The other day I made a hot pad for the Fall Festival basket for Harrison's class. I used my small (9 by 12") twining frame that Gary made for me a couple of years ago & it went fast... I didn't get to take a picture of it, but will probably make another one sometime, maybe the same colors, maybe not, I don't know.

I gave Micah one of the shawls for the basket for his class... Gary may make something for Evan's basket. Each class has a theme & Harrison's class theme is cookies so I thought a hot pad would be nice for his class...Micah's class theme is movies, so I thought a lap blanket/shawl would be nice...we were going to sew two triangles together, but we ran out of time, so didn't do that... the theme for Evan's class is organization, and maybe Gary will make a small shelf for it, except we may be out of time & the class mom told Gary that they were NOT going to do a basket because they were out of time...I may have Evan pick out a couple of rocks & paint them for paperweights for the organizational basket... Evan's teacher says they still are doing it, so who knows...talk about organizational (grin)...

Have a nice weekend!

More about the squares & socks on DPNs & 2 socks on 1 circular needle

Last Tuesday, I mailed my squares to the woman organizing the American Aran Afghan project for the Hunt Valley Cashmere booth...the squares are from Knitters & today I finally adjusted the pictures I took for display, so here they are:

This is the Bobbledy Aran square, designed by Ann McCauley:

And this is the square designed by Ginger Smith:

IRONICALLY, these are the photos that I took after Gary took pictures of the squares with a shawl background on the floor from different lighting angles... the squares are in plastic ziplock backs & it's weird that they came out nicely this way instead of "bare" when Gary took them.

I think both of these squares could have used a smaller needle, but I was asked to go down one needle size from the pattern since I was using 4 ply cashmere, which seemed to me to be a DK weight yarn... the squares still came out beautifully & cashmere was a delight to work with.

Crazy socks

I've been working on the boys' socks & Evan & Micah have also been working on their socks, so we're all getting a little done here & there.

We're using the Magic Magic Loop method, with 2 socks on one circular for Evan's socks, but we may switch back to two or DPNs for the heel (which I will do) since I don't have the ML booklet.... We're using Stahl Fortissima, socka colori or something like that, in an orange & grey-black fair isle: We're using a 29" size 1 (2.5mm) needle... it would be nice if the circular was a little longer, at least 32 or maybe a bit longer, but this is workable...

We're doing Micah's socks using Berella Bamff yarn, a variegated black, green & tan... on Double pointed needles from the ball of the foot UP and then will add toes (probably thong toes: I'd do piggy toes for his except the yarn for his socks are too heavy (aran weight)...

Harrison's socks are done, except for the toes, which will be piggy toes from the Twisted Sisters Sock Book...I used Regia Eskimo for his socks.

I may do piggy toes for Evan...I'll see what it's like doing Harrison's piggy toes & go from there.

In case anyone is confused, they're doing some knitting & I'm doing some knitting! I'm not letting them take their sock knitting to school because I want to work on them when they're not home & also, since these socks are for crazy socks day, I think they should wait until they're done to show them off at school on Crazy socks day, which is at the end of the month. It is part of the anti-drug weeek & the theme for Crazy socks day is "sock it to drugs"...

Photos when I get A Round Tuit, as usual! If anyone has any words of wisdom for how to make the photo process less painful, please let me know! I first have to decide where to take the picture (and sometimes clear a kid mess) & then I set it up & take pictures & hope that I get the lighting right. I have room for 121 high resolution photos, so taking tons of pix is not a problem, I try taking them from different angles. Then I plug the camera into the computer cable, upload them & then view them with paint shop pro, pick out the ones I want to use & adjust the gamma & contrast & sometimes color hue, resize & THEN I FTP the ones to the website & then they're ready to be viewed.

For those observing Yom Kippur (as I will be doing as soon as supper is done), an easy fast to y'all!