Category Archives: Toes

Ditto

Posted on by Elka Bolhafner
Ditto Socks

Ditto Socks

 

Last time I believe I mentioned I had cast on some easy peasy tv watching socks.  No pattern referenced.  Despite considering myself a non sock knitter I pretty much have the star toe and short rowed heel memorized by now and a decent idea of how many stitches to cast on using which needles to end up with something suitable for feet.  Done.

So why am I a  pretty monogamous knitter?  Well as soon as I got to the heel of the second sock I pulled out the next project totally ignoring the mitten which is in the exact same shape it was last week.  I am going to have to force myself to finish it or relegate it to the WIP aka will never be completed pile.  I happen to have 2 items in my WIP pile:

  • A sweater awaiting seeming for the past 5 + years.  Every once in a while I consider ripping it out but the actual seeming never crosses my mind.  I decided years ago that it wasn’t worth the bother.  Blackish mohair and all does not lend itself to seems. Or ripping for that matter.
  • A knit circularly sweater awaiting underarm seeming and ribbing at neckband I think. I haven’t looked at it in almost 6 years and decided I hated the fit but ugh hand dyed yarn so two balls alternated and I am sure a pain to rip again.

Perhaps I will work on my WIP pile after I finish inspecting winter woolies:

  • There is the shawl that needs repair.  Because I am trying to downsize my stash aka knit from stash aka slow stash I was hesitant to purchase a brand new hank of the yarn and hit up various places for a yard or two.  Mission success-I received an envelope with some yarn this week.
  • There is my Selbu Modern with a wee hole needing repair.
  • Reef, knitting finished May of 2004,  needs buttons and a repair.  I guess I could consider Reef a WIP since I never sewed on buttons for it and now the intended child is 17 and the next child in family is 13.  The grands are about the right age but boys and the button bands are on the wrong side.  The niece’s mum is allergic to wool and cashmere and alpaca and any other animal fiber.  Still I cannot consider something I have washed and folded up annually a WIP.

Oh and the lovely Strokkur which I knit up twice, or was it thrice, to body join only to find my gauge and shifted downward.  That needs knitting because honestly I want a sweater.  I don’t own a single hand knit sweater and I have been knitting over 40 years.  I am determined to change that situation.  Seriously.

So back to monogamy.  Here I am with a pile of things to finish, or take care of, or sobs reknit and all I am thinking of is what is next on the horizon. Because all those things, bless them, have been set aside while I moved onward ho.

At least I am blessed with a bounty of options.

yarny days and knitterly evenings.

Finit!!

Posted on by Elka Bolhafner
Stonington Shawl designed by Elizabeth Zimmermann

Stonington Shawl designed by Elizabeth Zimmermann

Stonington is done!  I love knitting this shawl and it is the second time I have done so.  In the exact same yarn to boot.  I don’t believe I stretched it as far as last time so it came out a bit smaller.  Last time it stood off of the blocking medium but this time was a gentle stretch.  My daughter said it is big enough to be a cover which a shawl is after all :smiles:

So I asked a woodworking friend if he could build a blocking frame for me and I was thinking of waiting a few months to see if he would build me one before blocking but then I was all nah stop procrastinating–just do a block and stop obsessing about perfection.  Too big to fit on my camera frame even tho I was standing on a stool.  Pictures:

 

corner pinned out quickly

corner pinned out quickly

I didn’t measure or anything like that just pinned as I saw fit.  Thankfully my coverlet does have a checkered pattern so I can generally keep things lined up.  For those of us without blocking boards or frames having a checkered sheet or coverlet is most helpful.  Even blocking wires can bow under pressure {all of mine are permanently curved by now} so having a line in the background to pin to is a necessity.

For a while I collected Doily pattern books.  The Burda magazines with Niebling patterns required a long trip to a particular yarn store that sometimes maybe might have the sought after edition.  Or there was ordering online for the special Kunstricken editions-sometimes from overseas.  Then I realized I had a strong preference for knitting geometric designs instead of organic florals.  Plus doily knitting requires making joins in cotton, linen or silk which is not my forte.  I am a spit splice kinda girl.

the center pattern

the center pattern

I love how it looks like getting lost in a maze.  Admittedly a simple maze but still.  LOVE.  I will try to get better shots once it is dried** but for now-finit!

And I am knitting on two projects.  Generally speaking I am a monogamous knitter.  Despite my KA, or maybe because of it, I find that knitting on one project helps me actually finish stuff.  First there is the nothing else to distract me factor and secondly if I finish this then I can cast on or knit with insert long list of stuff on my to do pile.  This is not to imply I don’t enjoy the process of knitting whatever I am working on but in this case Kokkeluri is not exactly floating my boat.  There are the pattern problems mentioned in last post that are slowing me down and the yarn, despite being dreamy, is also ever so slightly splitty.  I blame the loosely plied nature and the tighter gauge that doesn’t give the yarn room to relax.  My beloved gray aero and the gray yarn also are blending into each other.  That might be due to my poor eyesight.  I am still on the first mitten.  I have pictures of that as well.  The pretty leaves:

Kokkeluri leaves

Kokkeluri leaves

The flower looks like one of those trippy 60’s psychedelic pictures to me:

kapow!

kapow!

I am unable to take the picture from the opposite angle but to me it looks like something you would see in the batman tv show: kapow, right in the kisser.  It makes me smile even tho I doubt I would punch anybody in the face and they will get that coming at them.  And boy does this baby need blocking.  Sorry for the uneven knitting.  Not sure what is going on with this.  Anyways I am almost finished with the first mitten body-minus thumb and icord edging at base- and am not really tied to the chart anymore but the chart requires some attention and I cast on a mindless sock Friday night to go along with TV watching:

projects in the works

projects in the works

I finished the first sock over the weekend.  It is your basic 3/1 rib all the way down to star toe.  I did get adventurous and try garter for my short rowed heel.  I believe Lucy Neatby said something about making the garter portion wider than half the stitches but I took that class oh 10 some years ago and don’t quite remember.  I did my usual half of sock stitches and I love how bloopy it is.  I mean it just juts out there looking all squishy.

The yarn is Ditto purchased at a long ago closed shop and I decided I don’t like it.  I purchased 3 colors of this yarn all at once since the shades are just lovely.  However the socks I knit for my husband always feel gritty to me and the yarn, as I was knitting it up, felt the same, despite my not recalling that thought while knitting his up.  So I was going ugh after about an inch and all ready to rip and donate the yarn when my kidlet says I like socks.  My socks turned into Tyler socks right quick.

Speaking of yarn I also noticed while knitting Stonington that I wasn’t loving the yarn.  Not sure what is up with that.  I recall loving my last Stonington and purposefully bought the same yarn to recreate it. I hope I am not getting all yarn picky because I have quite a stash and it would be a waste.

Probably all a short lived ennui due to knitting the most beauterrific socks ever.

OK yarny days and knitterly evenings~ Elka

** edited to add dried shawl picture at top of post.

One, Two Buckle my Shoe…

Posted on by Elka Bolhafner
Gentleman's Sock in Railway Stitch

Gentleman’s Sock in Railway Stitch

 

Taking pictures of socks in ones feet is difficult.  Plus late night and poor light but look at the loveliness.  Just look.  I knit the mate in 2 days! In part because my MC yarn ball was starting to look smaller and I panicked that I might run out and in part because I wanted them on my feet.  Also, well, it was the weekend.  The two together again poorly modeled:

a pair of beauties

a pair of beauties

I adore the stripes so much.  I have been long admiring striped socks on Ravelry and finally conquered my fear of jog {not applicable in the heel} and multiple ends to weave in when done to take a baby step into the land of striped socks.  Couldn’t be happier.  Some of my absolute favorite pairs are

I also admire the striped shawls that are out there and will probably break down and knit one sooner or later 😉

On the knitting front I pulled out the bag of yarn I received in the 7 skeins yarn club which introduced Kate Davies’ Buachaille and cast on for the mittens last night.  I am making decent progress and really enjoying working with the yarn.  It is sheepy smelling but not the least bit scratchy, has good body without being weighty if that makes sense, and is proving to be a joy.  The pattern not so much.  She suggests that we change color dominance on front and back of mitten which flies against everything I have been told in the past 40 some years of knitting.  That makes for a bit of slow going-switching which hand holds what yarn.  Plus the yarn tangles that way so I need to spend some time untangling.  Furthermore, having now knit something that will end up in my most beautiful knits ever category, I am oddly not loving it.  I suspect it will be a while before I am loving anything I knit.  For the curious the most beautiful knits ever consists of these socks, midnight tam, and my poor shawl that is now awaiting repair.  Interestingly enough all 3 projects have a yarn with reddish purple cast to them.  I might have to find more yarn in those colors and see if my favor is easily garnered by something so superficial….

yarny days and knitterly evenings~ Elka

Knitting ADD

Posted on by Elka Bolhafner
Heel Stripes from Gentleman's Sock in Railway Stitch

Heel Stripes from Gentleman’s Sock in Railway Stitch

Sometimes I believe I have Knitting ADD.  Not only do I suffer from an inflated sense of how much I can knit but I also grapple with what to knit next.  Now admittedly, in my defense, I used to knit professionally and am well aware that I can whip out a sweater in a week.  Back in the day when I didn’t have failing eyesight, bad neck issues, and a full time job outside of the house.  

I have a habit of purchasing the pattern I will knit next, or the yarn I must cast on right away. My latest pattern acquisition is the lovely tam set designed by Lorraine aka Twisted Traditions called The West Wind.  I am fairly certain I have most of the yarns called for in my stack of shetland yarns.  Maybe missing the pink she calls for but I need to look at numbers on my hanks since I do not believe the colors are actually named. Anyway I am on a low to no buy yarn binge at the moment and hope I have everything listed–mainly because the # 1 reason I was drawn to the pattern was the colors she picked.

To get to the shetland yarns I have been wading through boxes and bags of yarn picked up for those small projects such as socks and mitts.  I decided to combat my Knitting ADD {KA from here on out} I would bag up all the sock yarns and put them next to my newly assigned knitting chair.  I also put my bag of Buachaille yarn purchased just when it was being released with the sharing same name booklet. Kate Davies is a lovely designer and writer. Her old blog, Needled, was one of my favorites.  I do admit that the new layout does not appeal to me although I am sure that if I delved closer I would find it equally informative.  But that one or two sentence just doesn’t draw me in at all.

Anyway onto the what am I knitting content.  Currently I am working on what I believe to be the loveliest socks ever knit in the universe.  In large part to Nancy Bush’s pattern and the excellent dye job on the yarns.  Deep stash: one of my precious two hanks of Sundara Sock yarn and Sanguine Gryphon {Verdant Gryphon as of 2012} combined to make the gorgeous stripes pictured above. My youngest, ever honest, told me that they were not the most beautiful socks imaginable since knee socks in those stripes would be lovelier.  boo. Still I believe these will fall into the most gorgeous items I have ever knit category.

I have also talked to a friend about making me a blocking frame.  My back can no longer take the bent over pinning out of shawls which was, as I have mentioned before, not something I enjoyed in the first place.  For this reason my Stonington is still awaiting blocking.  But in the meantime I am going through washing all the woollies, checking for repairs etc, prior to putting them away for summer. I found two holes in my Inky-Dinky Spider Stole which makes me want to cry.  I actually parted with the extra hank I had post knitting so am see sawing between knitting another, helpful in the stashdown goals, or finding a few yards of the yarn I used, not as helpful since asking for a few yards from somebody is trickier.  If you are not one for looking at holes please have a yarny day otherwise witness the sadness:

IMG_0405
Okay that is it for now….

 

yarny days and knitterly evenings~ Elka