Stitches West 2008!

Had a great day yesterday visiting with my cousin who was up from sunny SOCAL. I sewed the last button on my mom's tweed stitch cardigan and she modeled it for the camera, so I will soon have pictures to post. The cardigan was originally for me, but gauge was not my friend once again. It was my first steeked garment, adapted heavily from a pullover in Sally Melville's Color book. My mom loves it, though, so it all worked out well. She's been wearing it with only three buttons all winter long.

I'm busy getting ready to go to Stitches West next week. I have homework to do ahead of time for all three sock classes I'm taking. I may not get much shopping done, which will be good for my budget and my stash. It seems like February is the month for knitting socks, both at home and in classes. I got in from the waiting last for one Cat Bordhi class, and also signed up for a class from Lucy Neatby and a more advanced design class with Cat as well.

I knit a little bit on my Printemps/Primavera socks yesterday as well. This is a really easy pattern that looks hard and makes the best of some of the more muted self striping yarns. I'm trying to get a few pairs of socks to the right point so I can have something to knit at Stitches besides homework. I don't like to bring a sock project out in public while working on the heel. I've finished sock one and started on sock two. I also turned the heel on the second spiral eyelet sock so I can bring them as well, and I just need to finish the top section of the first Cat Bordhi's Salish Sea sock from the last Rockin' Sock club shipment I got. I decided not to sign up again this year, since I haven't finished any of last year's socks. I have too much wonderful yarn and more patterns than I can ever knit now. I'm also working on a pair of hiking socks in DK weight wool for DH. The Thuja pattern from Knitty is another great, simple pattern that adapts well to many weights of yarn, and is really easy to knit.

Spiral Mosaic Socks Nearing the Finish Line

I watched The Good Shepherd tonight and worked on socks. It was very interesting. My dad had a friend from law school who was in the CIA (I think) during the same time period. I wish I could have discussed it with my dad but he's unable to speak at this point in his Alzheimer's dementia.

My spiral mosaic socks are winding down to the finish line, well ahead of the deadline for next week's pair in the 52 pair plunge. I ran out of the navy blue yarn right at this point. Luckily I had a feeling this might happen and ordered another skein from Knitpicks. I'll have most of the second skein left over to use with another solo skein of variegated yarn in grey, blue and a little bit of navy. It'll be much more low key, unlike this pair. I'll have to peruse my new More Sensational Socks book for pattern possibilities. I'm using the star toe in the pinstripe pattern for this sock, a nice variation that I found in the book. There are quite a few great ideas in the book that I want to try with my next pair of socks.

I couldn't start knitting with the second skein because I stupidly stashed it away this morning in the bedroom and DH is asleep. I worked on another sock project for a bit and now I'm going to bed too. Being on vacation this week has not helped my sleeping patterns, which were already messed up from the switch to daylight savings time. UPDATE: Zee socks zey are feeneeshed!

Toning Down Bright Colors

Here's the second pair of socks I made using the slip stitch pattern from the Judy at the knitter. I was so happy with the first pair that I immediately cast on for another pair, but I thought I'd try using just one yarn for each color. They are both variegated. The pink yarn came from Elann and was much brighter than I expected. I used a blue/black Opal yarn as the contrast color and successfully (I think) toned down the hot pink yarn. I also used the slip stitch design on the foot of the sock. This helps with wear and gauge, as well as fitting and looking better, even off the foot. I used a two color eye of partridge stitch on the heel. The toes are plain hot pink. I'm still working on ways to account for the changing number of stitches in the gusset area in the slip stitch design. The most recent pair of socks I finished are the most successful to date at handling this problem.

Slip Stitch Patterned Socks

I thought I would share the first pair of mosaic stitch socks which I made a few years ago. I love using slip stitch patterns, also known as mosaic stitches. They work well in socks for uniting leftover balls of yarn using a 50 gram ball of a solid color as the contrast. and using the leftovers as your contrast color. This does make a striking sock, but there are lots more ends to weave in.

These socks were made with a semi solid vintage Opal yarn and lots of little golf ball sized bits of leftover self striping sock yarn. I used the Peacock pattern from the knitter.com. I like my version much better than the knitter's version, which is all in blues. The second time I made the socks I used the slip stitch pattern on the foot as well as on the instep, so the socks don't look quite as much like canoes. These socks fit fine, they're just a little baggy on the heel. I've found slip stitches are less stretchy and I need to use more stitches. YMMV, and the slip stitch pattern you use also has a lot to do with it. This one was relatively complicated: 32 rounds and a 30 stitch repeat.

Here's the finished spiral mosaic sock. I used 76 stitches for the ribbing and 84 for the pattern, which had a repeat of 14 stitches. 70 stitches would not have fit my ankle, but it would probably fit a normal sized ankle. I used 2.5 mm needles and navy solid Knitpicks Essentials with Regia color. I'm very happy with the look of the heel and gusset on this sock. I've made several mosaic patterned socks and the gusset decreases always wreak havoc with the pattern. I think I solved the dilemma with this design. On to sock #2 after I finish a few more second socks. Edited to add: Sock # 2 is at the toe finished! The toe looks very pointed on this sock but I tried it on and it fits me perfectly.

Slip Stitch O Rama

I watched a great movie from Netflix last night and knit on my new sock. The movie is called "Her Majesty". I thought I was ordering the Helen Mirren movie, and was kind of surprised when she never showed up in this one. After a while I figured it out. It's about a little girl in rural New Zealand in 1952 who idolizes the new queen. She writes her several letters and is thrilled to hear she will be visiting her town on the Dominions Tour. No more spoilers, but I highly recommend you watch it. If you liked "The Squid and the Whale" "Whale Rider!" you will like this one. I cried at the end. Edited to add: What's the matter with me? I HATED "The Squid and The Whale" and it wasn't about New Zealand.

I made great progress on the sock, too. I knit the heel flap on Monday night while watching "What about Brian". I used a two color variation that I might have unvented of the eye of partridge heel stitch. You knit one row that is usually purled. Very distinctive! I'll post more about this later. After finishing the heel turn I picked up stitches in alternating colors to get both strands of yarn to the beginning of the pattern round at the instep, making a checkerboard design. I knit in the slip stitch pattern on the instep, then K1, SL1 around to continue the checkerboard design. Slip stitch designs are hard to use in the gusset decrease area, because the count gets thrown off. I've resorted to stripes or solid areas in the past. One idea I had while knitting this sock was to use a band heel on my next pair. There are no gusset decreases to throw off the pattern then, but there are decreases in the heel flap, so it would have to be a solid color, thus eliminating my intriguing new heel pattern. I could also use a short row heel but, as I've said before, I HATE SHORT ROW HEELS. I did do something different with this sock. I continued the slip stitch pattern on the instep and used a different one on the sole during the decrease rounds. I think this has worked out the best so far. The pattern on the gusset seems to continue the heel pattern, and the pattern on the instep continues uninterrupted.

After I got through the gusset decreases, which took exactly half of the pattern's row repeat, I continued in the instep pattern around the whole sock. When knitting another sock design, I tried to use a slip stitch design on the gusset and a striped pattern on the sole of the sock, but the row gauges were too far off and the sock looked like a boat. It fit okay, but the next pair I tried, with the slip stitch design on instep and sole, fit better and looked nice.

I won't want to stop knitting this sock to start my sock madness design on Thursday.

Sunday VII, Part Seven

This is my delightful niece Sophia, who was born in Brussels, moved to Prague at age 2, and lives in Rangoon, Myanmar right now. I knit her a baby surprise jacket when she was in Brussels. Now that she lives in a hot climate it's hard to find things to knit for her. She's 5 years old, goes to a Japanese kindergarten, and is a tri-lingual bundle of energy. Do you agree with Sophia that she looks like Stitch?

Seven things I'm grateful for this week:
1. My Family
2. Sunny Days
3. Mosaic aka Slip Stitch Knitting Patterns
4. Barbara Walker's Treasury books
5. Fiber Weekends
6. Husbands who do laundry
7. Leftovers (food, yarn, beads)

On the Home Stretch

I've been working on these socks for my DH for a while now. They've been my travel socks, the mindless pattern that I carry around with me to knit in my spare moments. I finally turned the heel on sock two last week and am almost finished with the foot. I'm using the Alternating 2 X 2 Rib basketweave stitch from the SKS book (page 38). I've had this Socka striping tweed yarn in my stash for quite a long time, waiting for the right pattern. It's kind of boring yarn, but everyone who's seen them loves the socks. I want to get this second sock finished so I will have a free needle for the next round of sock madness.

I also started a new sock project with Knit Picks Essentials in navy and a brightly colored Regia. I cast on 76 stitches, ribbed for 1.5 inches, then increased to 84 stitches while I knitted the first round of the pattern stitch. The pattern repeat is 14 stitches and the chart has 44 rounds. I'm using the Double Spiral mosaic (slip stitch) design from Sensational Knitted Socks. The Regia yarn has been ageing in my stash for several years. I got the Knitpicks Essential in a few solid colors last year to use with leftover multicolored yarn in slip stitch patterns like this one.

Slip stitch patterns have very little stretch, so it' s important to swatch, or try on the sock before knitting too much. This pattern repeat will also work if you cast on 64 stitches, then increase to 70 stitches before starting the mosaic pattern.