Knitting

Everything I’m knitting lately seems to use my size US 0/2mm needles. So many things, in fact, that I have to plan carefully the order in which I’m going to work on things so that I have a size 0 needle available when I need it. I’m thinking I should order another KnitPick’s size 0 circular or two – they’re certainly cheap enough to have extras! So what are all these fine-gauge projects?

A teeny-tiny hat and the most ridiculously cute booties ever:

The yarn is some leftover Fortissima Cotton Colori, which is discontinued, but it is the softest cotton sock yarn ever. I have one more skein in these pretty baby colors, and I’ll be so sad when it’s gone. (For the record, one skein yielded a preemie hat, a newborn hat, and a pair of newborn booties, with about 6″ to spare.) And before anyone gets any ideas, these were a gift for a baby shower this past Sunday.

Another Devan sweater:

I didn’t take great notes the first time around, so I actually knit this much on smaller needles, realized it was much too stiff and figured out I had used a different size needle last time. Rrrrrrip-it! But using size 2 needles for the body (it’s still size 0 for the rolled hem) made a huge difference in the drape.

And last, but not least, the doomed entrelac socks:

The pattern, my friends, sucks. If I didn’t know how to knit socks in my sleep, and hadn’t knit entrelac before, there’s no possible way I could knit these socks. The pattern isn’t the problem, though, it’s the yarn. Who could possibly tell, looking at this skein, that the colors changed every single inch?!? This makes it impossible for there to be nice, defined squares, and instead I’m left with this variegated mess. I still want to make this pattern, and I still want to use this yarn, but they are not meant to be together. Better to figure this out now than before any long-term commitments were made…

Lolly posted some questions for the Socktoberfest participants. I would have answered them days ago, except that life keeps getting in the way! So, without further ado:

When did you start making socks? Did you teach yourself or were you taught by a friend or relative? or in a class?
I taught myself how to make socks with the book Socks Soar on Two Circular Needles. I admit I saw the same yarn on someone else’s blog and was overcome by an urge to make myself the same fabulous green stripey socks!

What was your first pair? How have they “held up” over time?
I made these socks in February, 2003. They were a tad bit loose, so they’re not the first handknit socks I reach for in the drawer, and they tend to get a little less wear than the other socks I’ve knit. That being said, they’ve been worn and washed many, many times and they still look great. (And I *gasp* dry them in the dryer…)

What would you have done differently?
Measured better? I’m really picky about socks being too long and bunching up in my shoes. I didn’t know that until after I knit my first pair of socks, though!

What yarns have you particularly enjoyed?
I haven’t really found a sock yarn I haven’t enjoyed. My favorites are probably Austerman Step, with aloe right in the yarn, and (of course) Koigu. I also really like the wool/cotton blends I’ve used, though I haven’t actually made myself a pair of those so I don’t know how they hold up.

Do you like to crochet your socks? or knit them on DPNs, 2 circulars, or using the Magic Loop method?
I knit socks with the Magic Loop method. I used 2 circulars for the first few pairs but found the extra needles hanging off the sock to be annoying. I also didn’t like having to sort out which end I needed to pick up next. (And forget DPNs. I consider them a necessary evil for a very few things, but you won’t catch me using them by choice!)

Which kind of heel do you prefer? (flap? or short-row?)
Um, I have no preference. Short-row is faster, but flaps are more easily customized. I’ve done both types on both toe-up and cuff-down socks, and I think they each have their uses. I tend to use short-row when making socks for other people because I think they fit a wider range of heel shapes.

How many pairs have you made?
Counting the “secret” pairs I haven’t published on my blog yet? How about the tiny baby socks I made for Carrie that she only wore once before she outgrew them? Including all of those, 19 pairs. I think – well, somewhere in the 18-20 range, anyway. Many of those can be seen on my sock page. Note that I’m not counting the (at least) four pair of socks in various states on needles in my craft room…

Tune in tomorrow when I should have a picture of my latest sock-in-progress, which I will then be ripping out mercilessly. It’s a very important lesson in choosing the right yarn for the right pattern, which I did not do. It’s also a very important lesson in trusting your instincts and not continuing to knit when you know it’s not working out!

Yesterday Carrie and I went to a come-and-play class at the recreation center. The recreation center is right next door to the local yarn shop. We walked over, really just to show off her orange cabled sweater (I had bought the yarn for it there).

I came home with some really fabulous sock yarn (isn’t it all fabulous?) and a kit for a felted backpack. No willpower. In my defense, the kit was packaged really temptingly, and it’s all my favorite colors…

I feel a little like my knitting has been floundering. Christmas projects, too – I haven’t worked on those in almost three weeks! But obviously something is getting done when I’m not paying attention:

Behold! The finished Jaywalker socks! I’m very, very happy with how these came out! I have realized, however, that I need a pair of sock blockers desperately. Carrie already promised to buy some for me for my birthday, but since she doesn’t have a credit card I’m hoping her Daddy will help her out…

And then there’s this:

A matching hat to the candy corn sweater. Carrie saw me making the little curlies for the top (I’ve added two more since I took the picture) and insisted on wearing it all morning, unwoven ends sticking out everywhere. I’m glad she likes the things I knit for her – I’m going to take full advantage of that while it lasts! Oh, and I only have a couple of yards left of this fabulous yarn, so that’s the end of the candy corn goodness. I’m not sure what else I could have knit to match the set anyway!

Finally, I’m joining the Warm Hands knit-along, because I’ve been attempting to create my own mitten/glove pattern to go with my so-called scarf & hat set. Since I’m knitting mittens anyway, I may as well join another knit-along, right?

They’re mittens with a fold-back top, but I haven’t decided if they’re going to have fingerless gloves or standard gloves as the lining. I’m using stash Koigu to line them (here’s hoping one skein is enough!) and I think that would be thin enough to have full-length fingers. But it would probably be easier to buckle Carrie into her carseat with fingerless gloves. I’m kind of stalled because I can’t decide – of course, I’m nowhere near the fingers, but that’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it. As always, this would be a much smoother process if I actually had a pattern to follow! (I just hope I can follow my hastily jotted down notes for mitten/glove number 2!)

Because I obviously can’t get enough sock knitting (my jaywalker socks are this -> <- close to being done, I just have to graft the toe of the second sock and weave in those ends) I joined two new groups earlier this week:

Socktoberfest, a month-long celebration of all things sock-y, and Hot Socks Swap, where we will exchange sock yarn and hot drink goodness. Go join up, you know you want to!

Also, this weeks’ Knitter’s Review newsletter had a review of a children’s book about knitting, Knitting Nell (which is already on Carrie’s birthday wish list) and it had a link to a project the author started called the Good Scarf Project. I really want to participate, and since I was going to knit Carrie a scarf this fall, maybe I can use that?

Remember when I started this scarf? Why do I do this? I put it down 2/3 of the way through. It took me two evenings and an afternoon nap (Carrie’s, not mine) to finish that last third. I left the needle in it, though, because I’m knitting a matching hat and if there’s yarn left from that I’d like the scarf to be a little bit longer.

In case anyone is wondering, the pattern for the scarf is here. (The pattern for the hat was here, but apparently it’s been published in a knitting magazine and is no longer available free online.) I’m 2/3 of the way to the hat decreases. (Uh-oh, there’s that magic 2/3 number…)

Anyway, I’m determined to finish these this year. Last year I didn’t have a scarf that matched my coat, so I didn’t wear one at all. Brrrrrrr.

I finished the first Jaywalker sock!

I finished it Wednesday night…technically it might have been Thursday morning when I grafted the toe closed. I was slightly worried about whether I’d have enough yarn to make the second sock, since the skein was feeling a bit lighter than the sock, but I weighed them both (I used the scale at the post office, they must think I’m nuts) and the sock weighed in at 1.5 oz., leaving 2 oz. to knit the second sock. Since I’m actually all lined up at the perfect spot in the color sequence I’ll even have some leftover. Probably not enough to make baby-sized jays though. Now I just have to find the motivation to cast on the second sock.

And remember the garterlac dishcloth I started? I finished that one and made another:

The one on the right was sitting in my dishcloth basket just needing the ends woven in. I think it’s interesting to see how the variegated yarn looks in the two dishcloths – I personally prefer the way it turned out in the entrelac block, but they’re both pretty.

Uh-oh. Apparently, starting my Jaywalker socks on Saturday was a Bad Idea. Now I have a really bad case of start-itis. So far I’ve managed to channel it into just making a dishcloth:

This is a pattern called “garterlac” which I ran across last week and was charmed by. I love entrelac, and garter stitch entrelac is super easy!

In order to make progress on the ever-tedious second sock, I’ve been “bargaining” with myself – as in I can work on the dishcloth or my socks after I knit 15 rows on the gift socks. This is working so far, and I’m only 15 or so rows away from the cuff on that second sock.

And last week I picked up a UFO from my craft room, one I’d never actually documented. Remember the orange laceweight yarn I purchased at Rhinebeck three years ago? Six months later I started making a lace shawl out of that while we were in Italy. Then it ended up in the pile of UFOs when I started all the baby knitting.

(Sorry for the terrible picture. I guess orange knitting on my cedar-colored deck doesn’t work so well!)

I’ve decided that instead of beating myself up over my inability to focus on one project at the moment, I’ll cut myself some slack and keep four projects in my current rotation:

1. one gift project
2. one project for me
3. something small and portable like socks or a dishcloth
4. a UFO from my craft room

(Note that this only applies to knitting. Any sewing projects are over and above this list, and always have been.)

The pink socks from my sock kit are on the needles. So much for waiting until I was finished with the gift socks!

I justified it by telling myself I would just knit a swatch. But the thing is, this yarn is just amazing to work with. I think I mentioned it has aloe in it, and it’s so incredibly soft and wonderful to knit that I couldn’t just stop with the swatch.

The good news is that halfway through the ribbing I gave myself a swift mental kick and vowed to work the other sock at least through the heel turn before I could even look at the other sock again. So far it’s working…

But the fact that I couldn’t even wait 24 hours before casting on is a pretty good explanation as to why there are several unfinished mate-less socks and many, many other UFOs in my craft room. I’m just too fickle!

Oh, I do have to mention one thing, though. I ordered some new KnitPick’s needles for my pal, and a set for myself while I was at it, so I decided to start my new sock on those instead of my Addi’s. That pretty purple cable is the most flexible circular cable I’ve ever used, and the needles themselves are nice and sharp, perfect for the “slip two together, knit the next stitch, pass the two slipped stitches over” part of the pattern. So far I think these are my favorite sock needles. Don’t tell the Addi’s. ;)