Monthly Archives: January, 2006

SHORT ROW HEELS

By kbsalazar on | Leave a comment

Turtlegirl asks what patterns I use for fingering weight socks.  I shamelessly answer – my own.  New readers here (and there appear to be many of them) may not know that I also am the keeper of wiseNeedle.  wiseNeedle is the original yarn review site, active on the web as an all volunteer consumer to consumer, unsponsored service since 1995.  In addition to the yarn review collection and a searchable glossary of knitting terms in 14 languages, I keep some patterns there, too.  Among them is a slew of toe-up, short row heel socks in several yarn weights.  There are three patterns there for fingering weight, and any of them can be used as-is, or by elimination (or substitution) of patterning on the ankle parts, made as simple or as complex as the knitter desires.

And in response to other requests, here’s a close-up of the short row sock heel, showing the mitering you can achieve with a little advance planning and a modicum of luck:

Why do they not match exactly?  Because I didn’t take the time to make my socks identical twins.  I started each sock off its own ball of yarn at the exact start of the ball.  The repeats were slightly skew.  I don’t have a problem with making these self stripers into fraternal rather than identical pairs.

Now, how to finagle this effect using a self striper?  Lots depends on the width of the striped section.  The narrower the stripe, the easier this is to do.  You can better see what I did in the top sock, above.  I knit the foot (on the left, heading up towards the top of the photo), ending it in synch with the completion of a red stripe.  Then I began the back and forth short rowed section with the following section of black.  I ended the decrease section of my short rows roughly half way through the black bit that followed the red, finishing up the black on the part of the short row section that re-awakens dormant stitches.  Then I finished out my heel.  This synch of the pattern to the printed repeat required that I fudge a bit on foot length.  In a sock of this type, a row or two extra in the foot, combined with a heel a row shorter than normal isn’t going to make a major difference in fit.  Since the repeat pattern is so narrow, I can get pretty close to perfect miters.  On wider patterns it’s harder.  In a wider pattern I do still try to end the foot at the completion of a stripe (or if it’s a VERY wide stripe, half way through a repeat).  I let the short rowed section fall out as it may, hoping more for serendipity rather than planned perfection.  Most of the time things work out well enough.

Posted in: Blather, Other

WHAT I’VE BEEN UP TO

By kbsalazar on | Leave a comment

The work crisis has not yet abated (in fact, it’s just settling in for the long haul).  Even if I’m not writing about it, I AM knitting.  Plain, boring, unadventurous, run of the mill, miles of stockinette, unchallenging (but comforting) knitting.

In my case, that usually means socks, and reverting back to the sock style I can do in my sleep – toe up with a figure-8 cast on, and short-rowed heel.   I’ve been averaging completion of a pair every six days or so.  I only knit for an hour or so each evening, so each sock is taking me three evenings to complete.

At the left what we’ve got is a pair of fingering weight socks composed from various leftovers.  The vile mustard is a 100% wool yarn I’ve had forever.  The label still lists the distributor with a pre-zip code address format.  The tweedy green/blue is a partial ball of something (I know not what) I got in trade swapping leftovers with a friend, and the red is some Dale Baby Ull, left over from a sweater knit for the smaller daughter.  This is the pair I was referring to when I wrote that in January my color taste departs, and I feel compelled to mismatch in the most garish ways possible.  Perhaps it’s a seasonal longing for light and color that happens just after the holidays, when the world returns to winter-drab.  In any case, the moire-like patterning of the red tweedy parts isn’t a camera artifact, it actually exists.  For some reason the tweedy red bits worked themselves into swirls on the foot of one sock and the ankle of the other.  I think they moved in and out of synchronicity this way because in this multi-ply yarn (a true 4-ply four ply), each ply was carrying the same set of colors.  While the plies never aligned so that a blob of red hit across all four at the same time, it does appear that if two aligned **just right** I got my swirls.  An unexpected effect to be sure, and one I would have preferred either lasted for the entire duration of both socks, or didn’t appear at all.  Still, the things are garish enough to begin with, so the red striping is just another element of eye offense.

In the center is half a pair of light worsted weight socks.  The other is still on the needles.  In this case I had a skein of Little Lola, a variegated yarn.  I’ve used it twice before to make Kombu scarves, but the colors for those were tamer.  This particular skein presented a problem.  The colors in it are less of a set, and more of a street fight, with fuschia, teal, olive, mustard and navy all scuffling for attention.  I had set the skein aside when I used its two brothers because I didn’t know how exactly to use it.   When I was rummaging through my stash to fuel my holiday knitting I came across two skeins of a yarn I got in a discontinued inventory sale back in 1994 or so, at the late lamented Yarn Shop in College Park Maryland.  It’s Classic Elite Paisley Light, a mix of wool and rayon, and matches the all superwash wool Little Lola exactly in gauge and structure.  In my case the Paisley Light also matched the fuschia in the Little Lola spot on.  By working the toes, heels, and ribbing in Paisley, plus alternating stripes of three rows of Paisley and six of Little Lola, I’ve managed to tone down the discord of the variegated skein a bit.  It’s still a riot, but more of a quiet one.  (Review of Paisley Light coming soon to wiseNeedle).

Finally the pair on the right is standard issue Regia Mini Ringel.  Nothing special here whatsoever.  Due to my bad photography you can’t even see the nifty way the stripes miter on the short-rowed heel.

One last bit of blather, the old fashioned way of doing stripes (actually using two skeins of yarn, alternating between them on some sort of fixed count) is a wonderful way to make socks match in length.  It’s relatively easy to count four or six rows of color A, then some number of color B.  Then when time comes to make sure that the second sock is the same length as the first, all that need be done is count the stripes.  Much more accurate than eyeballing or measuring, and far less tedious than counting rows.  A final hint, sometimes counting even a small number of rows in stockinette can be difficult if you’re using a dark color yarn, or one that’s highly variegated.  Instead of counting on the front side, I take a needle tip and insert it into a column of purl bumps on the reverse side of my stockinette.  It’s easy to count off my rows by counting the purl bumps.

Posted in: Other, Reference Shelf

STILL SWAMPED

By kbsalazar on | Leave a comment

Yes, I’m still alive, but I’m swamped at work and haven’t had a moment to spare for updates here, or even for blog-wandering of my own.  I have been knitting though.  Nice non-challenging things like stockinette stitch socks, mostly in eye popping stash-remnant color combos.  What is it about January that makes me hunger for color, and every year – leads me to make things that would normally cause me to twitch from the jarring contrasts and strange combos used?

In any case, something knitworthy, yet interestingly nerdy crossed my desk this morning.  I present for your delectation a knitting machine made from Legos.  Actually it’s more like a chainette maker, or a super-sized automated knitting Nancy (spool knitter), but it is a bona fide member of the knitting machine family.  And it likes Red Heart. 

Posted in: Blather

LESSONS LEARNED AND ACCOMPLISHMENTS – 2005

By kbsalazar on | Leave a comment

One distinct advantage of cataloging my knitting life here – at year’s end, I can look back over my posts and see how productive (or unproductive) I’ve been.  It doesn’t look like I actually accomplished much this year in the way of actual knitting.  I certainly achieved conservation of un-finished projects, starting as many new ones as old projects that were brought to closure, although I did work on several major efforts.  In any case, here’s a catalog of what I learned and did in 2005:

Projects finished

  • Crazy Raglan.  Knit for the smaller daughter and started in 2004, this was an exercise in the use of DK weight self-striping yarn for something other than socks, scarves and hats.  I had several false starts on this one, ripping back when I didn’t like the patterning that resulted.  I finally hit upon working the piece in several sections, joined Intarsia style.  This allowed the yarn to play better over narrower strips of width.  The project was a modified success, with most of the failure laid to the length of time it took me to get it done.  In the intervening months, target daughter grew, so the final product was a bit smaller on her than I intended.  Oh well.  I get to knit her another sweater now.

  • Fingerless whatevers – (also see patterns, below).   A happy confluence of expedience and need, my hot color combo fingerless mitts made last winter bearable in my drafty house.  I can’t say I learned much from this project besides the fact that not everyone sees the charm in garish, magpie color contrasts.  But it was fun to do, and resulted in a pattern for general consumption plus a rare item made for me.

  • Paisley Shawl – I started with some lovely hand-dyed multicolor lace weight yarn and Sharon Miller’s Birds Eye shawl pattern, but found out that the color variations in the yarn were too fierce and overwhelmed the delicate texture of that design  So I began experimenting and looking around for alternatives.  I found that the simpler the pattern and larger the plain stockinette (or garter) area, the better texture patterns coexist with color riot.  I ended up working a mostly-garter pattern from Spring ’05 Interweave Knits.  It’s an easy project, suitable for folk who are just embarking on lacy knitting.  My Paisley turned out quite nicely, and became a much-appreciated gift.

  • Alcazar – The Hazel Carter pattern.  Fun to knit, but again a lesson learned.  This type of complex lace knitting needs special care if it’s attempted in something other than wool.  Wool’s stretch makes it optimal for the distortions required to span corners and block flat.  My Alcazar turned out beautifully, but the unstretchy nature of the faux-silk rayon made it difficult to work with, and limited the effectiveness of the corners, making them a bit more cupped than they would have been had I used wool.   Became a very much appreciated gift.

  • Small grapevine in long armed cross stitch and double running.  Been sitting around forever.  I finally finished this one off and gave it as a gift (notice the theme, here?)  The next day’s post goes into additional detail.

  • Holiday knitting, including five scarves, seven pairs of socks, three hats, a pair of flip-top mittens, and a pair of fingerless mitts.  Nothing much exciting here (except for Kureopatora’s Snake, see below).  All gifts…

Still in the bag

  • Cursed Socks.  I can’t say why this is still ongoing, but this pair of socks has sat on the sidelines for the past two years.  I could probably finish off the second sock in an evening or two.  I hang my head in disgrace.
  • Dragon Skin Rogue Cardigan – Starting with the excellent Rogue pattern, I introduced some materials substitution, gauge, sizing and texture modifications.  All was going well until a mishap led to the front being pulled off the needles and a tangled mess.  Elder daughter looks at me with cow eyes every time she passes the knitting bag containing it.  My lesson learned here – take better care of projects in process, and don’t let things languish just because I’m frustrated by the prospect of ripping back a mile, and figuring out where I left off.  More chagrin.
  • North Truro Counterpane.  This one is going to take a very long time, even if I pursue it with dogged determination.  Still, I really like the way it’s coming out.  I’m about 20% done (by eyeballed estimate), and will continue plugging along – probably as a perennial summer project.  The cotton motifs are perfect for knitting when it’s too hot to knit anything else.  I’m not embarrassed about this one.
  • One total disaster, actually abandoned – the Mystery Project – a felted bag commission undertaken for Classic Elite.  Try as I might, I could not get the entire thing to full evenly.  My bag ended up a misshapen lump, and the tight deadline I was working under didn’t allow a second try.  Horror in a handbag – that’s the only description I can think of that’s near accurate.  Packed up in a box with the left-overs and mailed back in shame, so I can’ t truly say it’s still in the bag.

Reference articles

In spite of a dearth of personal knitting, I did write quite a few articles for String that I hope have been useful.  So that’s something at least.

Patterns

And some patterns. 

Books reviewed

And I posted reviews of a bunch of knitting books not often written about.  Mostly these are out of print books I got through my local library.  Insert shameless plug for local libraries.  Go.  Look.  Take books out.  If these older knitting books just sit on the shelves, the staff will be tempted to clear them out to make room for other stuff, and chances are the new books won’t be about knitting.

Plus there have been all sorts of other posts here this year, blathering on about knitting, techniques, horrific mistakes I’ve made in my own projects, nifty things I’ve stumbled across, and the like.  Less however since my re-entry into full-time employment, as lengthy notes like this now take a couple of days to complete.  I’ll soldier on into the New Year both blogging and knitting. I’ve already got two more pairs of socks I can rack up against my upcoming 2006 grand total.

Posted in: Reference Shelf

WHERE HAVE I BEEN?

By kbsalazar on | Leave a comment

On vacation.  Actually consumed by pre-holiday preparations and work responsibilities, THEN on vacation.  January as well bodes to be a bit hectic, so postings here may be sporadic in the new year.  We can report these accomplishments:

  • 11 kinds of cookies baked, and distributed or consumed by the family
  • 2 panforte, complete with dried cherries, toasted hazelnuts and almonds prepared, one brought to a group party
  • Sumptuous small Christmas eve dinner prepared for the family, featuring squab in juniper berry sauce
  • 2 bouche de Noel cakes prepared, one filled with hazelnut pastry cream, one with raspberry jam, brought to a group party

cake

  • Latkes, latkes and more latkes
  • Blintzes, too – home made of course (my recipe’s in Elizabeth’s The Knitting Bloggers Cookbook)
  • New Years cassoulet, including the duck confit we put up back in the spring
  • Holiday shopping for friends and family
  • Tree decorating (and un-decorating)
  • Wrapping (and un-wrapping) presents.  Mine included a small silk pouch for knitting accessories, a nifty new driver (too bad I can’t golf until spring), a thermos jug teapot, Yiddish with Dick and Jane, and a hand-made calendar. 

loot

  • Hannukah candles, songs and games duly performed
  • Attending the midwinter Revels performance in Cambridge, MA
  • Kicking off three huge life-consuming projects at work
  • Four additional pairs of socks knit, mostly from very much appreciated gifts of sock yarn I received over the past year (thanks again guys!)
  • Family time spent messing around with the kids, playing PS2games, watching InuYasha DVDs, going to a movie, cooking, doing holiday preparations, and playing games together
  • FINALLY shelving the books that have sat in boxes since we moved in last year, this event triggered by the delivery of our much anticipated library bookcases, and receipt of our Vance Integral Edition
  • Major behind-the-scenes work on a facelift, feature expansion, and functionality upgrade of wiseNeedle

So even if I was away, the whole String family and I weren’t exactly idle.

As far as this year’s gift knitting, I can report an excellent reception all the way around.  Both shawls I knit this year went as gifts, and both very VERY appreciated.  The screaming school bus yellow scarf was loved by it’s recipient – the cheerful and watchful school crossing guard who is in the middle of her 23rd year on our corner.  My annual flock of socks was greeted well.  The luxuriously soft and lush curly mohair scarf and Juliet cap were loved by the person I gave it to – someone for whom texture is paramount.  And my kids’ teachers enjoyed the various scarves I knit for them.

On the sock front, I can report that I don’t really like toe-up socks in self-stripers when they’re done with heel flap variants.  I much prefer the look of a neatly mitered short-row heel with those yarns.  I’ve reverted back to my old stand-by heel for socks for me, especially if I’m using Regia or one of the other auto-patterned sock yarns.  The only exception will be if I make socks for someone who requires the looser fit of the heel flap heel.  In that case should I want to use a self-striper, I’ll pick a complementary solid color for the heels and toes, and reserve the printed yarn for the parts that remain stable in width.

Posted in: Blather