I finished the shawl except for blocking and sewing in an end or two. Pictures of that tomorrow. Until then here is the beginning of NE to make a pair. This is a shot of the back pattern. I figure that if I knit one sock after every item I knit I should easily have 7 pairs by years end. I do worry that work schedule may thwart this grand plan. After all I usually have 3 or 4 work projects at any given time during trade show knitting period. End one begin the other with no rest between. Not even an overnight. Still thats the plan. Since trade show knitting is starting soon we shall see how deadlines influence the sock knitting. Have a great one you guys
Category Archives: Toes
Weekend Knitting
The extreem coupledom of past weekend is thanks to dropping the kidlets off at Todd’s aunt’s for an overnighter. An overnighter is almost always followed by Sunday dinner at said aunties. And Auntie dinners require travel knitting. 2 hours of sitting while Todd gossips with his aunt, the children play outdoors, and Grandma watches channel 2[the local Christian channel featuring 30 min vignettes of various moral delimas all aparently filmed in the 50’s&60’s] Socks, as anybody who knows me is well aware, are not my fave and would never fall under travel knitting. Nor was Reef with its multitudes of colors to be changed every row. Shawls, on the other hand, are the ultimate travel projects. Mostly made up of air they take little to no room and those requiring chart checking need only a quick glance to check how the long row should be worked. Ok for me a quick glance but then I have only been knitting simple shawls on large needles lately. So here it is: a brand spanking new and improved shawl WIP. Meadow Flowers Shawl from Knitters Stash pgs 22-25. The yarn is Lorna’s Laces Heaven in Rock Hill. I had asked for the color called for ‘Gold Hill’ and was told there was no such color[per Beth who now owns Lorna’s] but my shawl is ending up to look the same as the one pictured so I vote it a typo on pattern. I also think I have found an error probably already reported elsewhere: the pattern says to work to desired length ending with row 26 making sure you have a multiple of 6 holes per side. The pictured model ends with 181 sts which happens at the end of row 32. Ending at row 32 also [I think] gives you the multiple of 6 holes called for. My progress so far? I am at 109sts with 72 more rows to work. Not bad for a few hours of avoiding life lessons. Oh and for the Lint Police yes my dears this yarn comes from the to be knit shelf pictured earlier.
Spring Has Sprung
Happy Spring! Kinda chilly here and I believe others are suffering from cold weather but still its spring. My favorite season-flowers, sun, and usually warming temps. Not much knitting to report over the weekend. Last weds[yes St Patrick’s Day] was my 9th anniversary so we spent Saturday and Sunday being couple-y. I did manage to just finish my sock. Yes its true. I am 1/14th the way through the annual 7 pairs goal. Actually I am not really through since I still need to sew in many many yarn ends and wash. But hey its picturable. The reason I had so many yarn ends is: my Koigu had 4, yes 4, very weak areas where only a few fibers were holding everything together. So far I am not overly impressed with Koigu quality controls. Still I hold out hope that this was a fluke. The sock took just under 1 hank of yarn. Just a foot or so left over. Mind you I have very short and wide feet. The pattern is New England Socks from Nancy Bush’s Knitting on the Road. I modified it slightly: short row heels and toes ala PGR. I am thinking that short rowing the heel requires one to knit less foot length. Any sock pros out there know the answer? The pattern calls for 7 diamonds, which I dutifully knit, but my feet only needed 5.5 diamonds. I was ripping out the weekends knitting at 1 am and did the toe this morning. Anyway back to my short row causing less in the round post heel knitting required theory. I checked Folk Socks by NB and she states that for the peasant heel[the closest possible one listed being done post sock knitting and using a contrasting yarn knit in accross heel sts] that the avg foot requires 4″ between contrasting thread and toe shaping. Since the avg foot, per her patterns, seems to be 7.5″ and one starts the toe 2″ prior to that…? Has anybody fallen so in love with a pattern that they knit it using a regular heel flap and then again with the short rowed heel? If so speak up.
Whites
My darlingest upgraded my computer this weekend and didn’t get it up again til 1 am! So two days worth of stuff combined. Above you see the center of Siberian Winter Shawl designed by the Wool You Order aka Two Old Bags design team. I purchased my kit fromCatherine Knits in NY but you can find the patterns and kits at Blackberry Ridge. The center strikes me as the same one they use in ‘Faux Orenberg Shawl’ in Gathering Of Lace but I haven’t actually compared the charts. Want more pics?
The edging:
The Full Shawl[kinda]:
Again not the worlds best blocking job but eh–I do have a baby so time is at a premium. Also this weekend I worked on my sock. Thank heavens it wasn’t stained by the coke incident. Big overexposed pic:
Now what am I trying to show you in this picture other than my nifty marker and extra shawl shot? Well its a very elegant heel turning with the ‘heel st’ turning to flow down onto bottom of sock. But whats this? Is that my finger filling up the heel? Why yes thank you for noticing. I measured it and the base of the heel, the bottom part at least, is not quite an inch accross. Now I know my feet are wide but does anybody in the world have a heel that measures less than an inch accross? I seem to recall knitting booties, not so long ago, that were that wide accross bottom at heel area. My gauge is right on–9spi so its not that and I quadrupal checked the written instructions. So my big questions are, should any sock knitting pros be checking in; Why knit a special reinforcing stitch at heel area if your gonna stretch it out the wazoo just to cup the heel?, Surely the heel flap post turning is supposed to cup the heel–right?, and lastly Who wants to whimper rip so that I can do my handy dandy short row heel?
Have a great one you guys.