SCARF-A-RAMA
My holiday knitting. I’m pleased to say the Hannukah socks were graciously received by someone who both knows and appreciates hand knitting.
The scarves aren’t scheduled for distribution until later this month, but as all are to be mailed, should be boxed up as soon as possible. Here they are:
First, the blue one for which I offered up the texture pattern earlier in the week.
Not terribly exciting, but soft and warm. And blue. I’m debating whether or not to fringe this one. Fringes aren’t my favorite edge treatment as they often look ratty too quickly, but I have a feeling that this recipient would like them.
Second, the gray alpaca Kombu scarf is finished. Here’s another blurry photo to prove it:
And finally, after sitting completed (but never used) since earlier this summer, the Spring Lightning scarf joins its siblings in this year’s gift parade:
I love it, but I think the intended target will love it more. Plus, I can always make another. I did however want to take a final good picture of it for use in the pattern I plan on posting on wiseNeedle (which I’m still writing).
Two more hats and two more pairs of socks and I can return to my regularly scheduled knitting.
YARN MANUFACTURER WEBSITES – FEEDBACK
Last week I posted a review of the Debbie Bliss Yarns website. The Blissfolk were kind enough to offer up feedback. You can read it in the comments appended to that day’s entry.
Although I accessed the old site and reviewed it on November 30, 2004, apparently the site I visited had been replaced by a newer one, although redirects from the old to the new URL weren’t working a month after the stated fix was published. That error has been corrected. So in the interests of fairness, I review the site again.
Debbie Bliss Knitwear
The beneficiary of a general look/feel aesthetic overhaul, the new Debbie Bliss website is still divided into three main sections, patterns, yarns, and information. It offers up much the same material as before, with a couple of clarifications and enhancements. As noted before, the site offers limited retail capability, but a clarification has been added in several spots, noting that it sells pattern books direct, but not the yarns. The books are offered to customers world-wide, and there’s an exchange rate tool to see how costs work out in international currencies.
DB now offers a for-fee membership club, similar in concept to Rowan’s. It’s implied that there will be a members-only chat area to support the club, but any password-protected or limited access section of the website isn’t active yet. Personally, I’m not fond of this trend. Even though members get a scarf kit, newsletters, and supplemental patterns for their annual 28? (international cost, about $54.50 US at the current exchange rate) , I don’t like the idea of creating two-tier systems of paid customer support. While it works for appliances, I find the thought of restricting help to an "inner circle" who pay above and beyond the cost of the base books to be antithetical to the concept of publishing in general. Perhaps I’m missing something, and there’s a subculture of designer-devotee knitters out there that work both exclusively and enough from one maker’s line to justify this sort of fee, but I’ve never met one.
The yarns section is the most changed. It’s vastly improved from the previous sketchy offering. Yarns are illustrated by small color chips. Fiber specs, yardage/weight, recommended needle size and gauge are all documented. There are no photographs of yarns in their retail put-ups, nor are there photos of swatches. Yarn appearance has to be deduced from the roughly 2.5cm square color chips alone. There is an on-page link to local UK stockists and international sources on each yarn page, although the international source page lists Knitting Fever, Diamond Yarns, and Woolshack (the US, Canadian and Australian distributors), relying on their resources to provide links to actual retailers. The roster of UK stockists doesn’t appear to be yarn-specific, so even if you call one up from a particular yarn’s page, call before you visit the shops listed because they may or may not carry the entire Debbie Bliss line. There are no links on the yarn pages to patterns made with specific yarns.
The patterns section as before shows the various books available, with thumbnails linking to more detailed pages for the contents of each book. Most but not all contents are shown – especially for the yarn-specific later books – and the layout of the detail pages has been made easier to use. Most patterns now bear a difficulty rating, needle requirements, sizing, yarn requirements per size, and the name of the color(s) used in the accompanying photo. There are links back to the yarn detail pages, and it’s easy to browse all of the designs shown for each book. Navigation among books is also easier, with a nested link history line provided at the top of the patterns page.
There is no explanation of the criteria used to classify the patterns into the various difficulty ratings. Almost everything is "Easy" or "Intermediate." The only "Advanced" patterns were both large Intarsia pieces I’m assuming were worked from big charts. A hover-over pop-up that listing a brief bunch of basic skills that define each level would be a nice touch. (Carefully worded, that list could be the same for every "Easy," "Intermediate," or "Advanced" symbol site-wide.)
There’s an errata section listing corrections for existing books up to and including Simple Living. About the only ease of use link I’d add here would be a link back to the pattern revisions page from the main book page for any item that has associated errata.
There is no historical info provided beyond pattern errata. I am not familiar enough with the DB lines to say whether or not any of the offerings have aged out of current distribution, nor am I familiar enough with the individual books to note which designs are not shown. If there are lines no longer being sold having historical info on them would be of great use, especially if there were contemporary substitutes among the still-active products. Also some of the DB books sold on the site are now of "classic" status – I doubt that the yarns they use are still current. A list of some of the more prevalent with suggestions for substitutions in the current lines would also be a very consumer-friendly touch.
On the information section, aside from a general neatening, little has changed. The news column still discusses the summer/early fall trade shows, and speaks of one offered back in early October as being in the future. There’s not even a mention of the new improvements to the website itself. The workshops heading lists a past offering and no upcoming ones. The contact page lists major distributors of the yarns, but there is still no contact for DB itself – not even on the errata page for those who have found problems and wish to report corrections. T
So to sum up – the clarification that yarn is not offered for sale here, plus remedying the major info lack on the yarns themselves make this set of site improvements very welcome. I still wish for more historical info, a more shelf-recognizable illustration of the yarns themselves, timely oversight of the information pages, and for some sort of direct contact mechanism. Recent fixes pull the Debbie Bliss website mark up to an A-, in spite of the incipient members-only club.
THE BEHINDER I GET
I can’t say I’m going any faster, but I’m in the swim of things with my gift knitting. I have to admit a tinge of guilt this year. In years past, I’d done a fair bit of it far in advance, sometimes using especially mindless gift knitting (like socks or scarves) as bliss-out-on-the-beach pieces during our summer vacation. Or I’ve doodled up little projects between larger ones, while I was waiting for my ideas to set. By this time I’ve usually got a basket of goodies ready for holiday giving. Unfortunately, this year nothing got done ahead of time, and I’ve been forced to do something I detest – knit to deadline.
I hate knitting to deadline because in my professional life, all I do is march to deadlines. I’m a proposal manager, and I’ve lived my career in 30-day increments. Other people will say things like, “Dear, remember ’91 – that was the year little Brunhilde was born,” or “Yeah, 91. Cousin Ildefonse was in Desert Storm.” I say, “Fall ’91. That was that big military IT/hardware support proposal, we had an extension that got eaten up by the sheer bulk of the revised reporting schedule requirements.” From this you can well deduce the heart-stopping excitement of my daily life.
Knitting has always been a blissful interlude, a no-deadline finish-it-whenever sort of pursuit. That’s one of the reasons why I’ve shied away from pursuing commercial publication for my patterns. Squeezing my knitting life into a tight deadline sucks all the joy out of it.
So here I am. Doing frantic knitting on a couple of Hannukah presents (it’s early this year, adding further complications). The Kombu scarf, four hats, and two pairs of socks are done. That leaves three scarves, two more pairs of socks, and possibly couple of kid’s size earwarmer bands to go.
Today I plan on casting on for a very simple scarf done in Sandnes Lime (a mostly cotton, very soft yarn) for a friend who is wool-sensitive. I’ve used and reviewed the stuff before and not been wildly pleased with it, but for a scarf it should work out fine. Although most of the detail will be obscured by the textured yarn, I’ll probably work it in this simple knit/purl pattern – just to give it a bit more interest:
I like this one for scarves because it adds a bit of loft and like all patterns with near equal amounts of knits and purls on each row – it lies nice and flat without curling.
WORKING REPORT – KOMBU SCARF
I’ll try to get a good shot of this one. It’s in a charcoal-grey alpaca, a notoriously difficult color to photograph.
The stuff is sport weight. I mentioned before that I got it at a Maryland Sheep and Wool Show, circa ’95 or ’96. There was a big rainstorm that year, and many of the vendors in outdoor tents were soaked through and/or blown over. The Tess Designer Yarns booth was particularly hard hit. Sunday afternoon as the owner was packing there was still a large pile of sodden yarns laid out on a tarp that were being sold as-is. I bought this one-skein orphan, took it home and dried it out and wound it, and have been trying to figure out what to do with it ever since. There’s a ton of yardage on this 8 oz. ball. I’ve barely scratched the surface and could probably do another three or four scarves with what’s on there.
My gauge over my Kombu is K1, P1 rib is roughly 6spi , on US #4 needles. This gray scarf is about 6 inches wide, measured point to point. I’ve completed about three feet so far, averaging about eight inches per hour. Both the center pattern and lace edges are quick to memorize and knit. Alternate rows of the center are K1, P1 rib; alternate rows of the edgings are all knit. Because the scarf is based entirely on a combo of ribbing and garter stitch it lies absolutely flat, without curling.
I hate to brag, but I really like this pattern – even though it’s one of my own. It’s rare I go back and do another of anything I’ve finished. Even that Dreaded Second Sock can be agony, but this is the fourth Kombu I’ve done. Two were done in Little Lola (including the same photographed on the pattern website) at a slightly smaller gauge (befitting the slightly thinner yarn). The other was done on US #7s and a 4.5 spi in pink/turquoise/yellow/lime green Red Heart variegated, picked out by a (then) 4 year old. Both my eyes and fingers hurt doing that one, but the kidlet was delighted with the all too bright result after she decided that the yarn wasn’t so scratchy that she couldn’t wear it as an "outside the coat" type scarf.
REVIEW – YARN MANUFACTURER WEBSITES VI
First, a recap. I’ve covered these sites so far:
- YMW I – Berroco, Knitting Fever
- YMW II – Karabella, Adriafil
- YMW III – Rowan, Spinrite/Bernat
- YMW IV – Cascade, Classic Elite
- YMW V – Patons, Lion Brand
Today we hop over and look at websites maintained by Debbie Bliss Knitwear, and Estelle.
Debbie Bliss Knitwear
The Debbie Bliss website is divided into three main sections – patterns, yarns, and information. It also has a retail section for direct orders. Starting with the yarns page we find a complete listing of the yarn lines and colors available this season. However, yarn information is rudimentary at best – listing only fiber content. There is no gauge info, no wash info, no recommended needle size, no ball weight or yardage indicated. There are no photos of retail put-ups, labels or swatches, but color is shown by a small chip style photo of the yarn, so you can kind of see the texture of the yarn. Sort of, because the chips are small. In the yarn section are also listings of retail sources. Looking up US sources generates a bounce over to the Knitting Fever website, where there’s a proximity to zip code search function (difficult to spot, in the upper left of the page).
The patterns section is a bit better enabled. Each current book is displayed. Most but not all have a link to view selected contents. These detail pages show a few of the designs from the book. A few of them go on to list the size options, the yarn used and the number of balls needed for each size. Even on pages with additional info, not every item shown is completely detailed. There are no links between the pattern and yarn pages. The patterns section also offers up an errata page with corrections offered for Baby Knits and earlier books. There’s also a free pattern for a button-finished pillow.
The information section provides contact info is listed for the major overseas contributors, but there is no eMail or ground address provided for Debbie Bliss Knitwear itself. (There’s also the caution that DBK is unable to provide help with individual patterns over the Internet.) Other offerings under "information" are pretty cursory. The newsletter mentions a trade show that happened two months ago, and the workshops listing shows classes that were held back in September. I did not attempt a retail purchase.
Overall this site is easy to use, but is sorely lacking yarn info. My guess is that this is done on purpose – to ensure that people making DB patterns use DB yarns and only DB yarns. Still, not offering up so much as care guidance for the yarn lines is an oversight. Major points are taken away for lack of basic yarn info. Some are earned back by having easily found pattern corrections, and for the half-hearted attempt to provide yarn use specs for a minority of the designs in the various books. More points are taken away for lack of direct contact info (What happens if you bought yarn direct from the site, and it was defective? While this is uncommon it can happen. To whom do you then report the problem?) Debbie Bliss Knitwear’s site gets a C-, especially considering that it offers retail capability and as such should be of more help to customers. There’s no way I’d buy anything from it without more complete information.
Estelle Designs and Sales
Estelle is another of the omnibus importer/distributors like Knitting Fever. They’re Canadian, and handle Estelle, Lang, King Cole, GGH, Dale, Tivoli, and Scheepjeswol yarns, plus Rebecca Magazine. Registered and pre-approved retailers can place orders through the website, but I don’t believe that they sell directly to end-user consumers. The site is divided into sections for yarns, books, contact info, a shop finder, and free patterns. Yarn shops have their own section (Customer area).
The yarns section is divided by maker line. Under each maker is a list of current and about-to-be-current yarns. Clicking on items in each maker’s list will pull up a detail page. The data contained on the detail pages varies from yarn maker to yarn maker. Estelle’s include fiber content; yardage/weight; suggested needle size; and suggested stitch and row gauge. There’s a large close-up shot showing the yarn’s appearance, plus color chips of each color and (for some yarns) a close-up photo of a knitted swatch. Each page is dated (a nice touch that provides assurance that the colors listed are current). Wash info is not provided for Estelle yarns. King Cole and the Scheepjeswol pages list fiber content, yardage, suggested gauge/needle size and wash info. All have color chips, but only a few have yarn close-ups. No King Cole pages show swatches. Lang has fiber content, gauge/needle size, yarn close-up and color chips (some of these show link broken); plus wash info for some but not all yarns. Dale is similar, with fiber content, suggested gauge/needle size, wash info, yarn close-up, label graphics, and color cards. GGH’s list is the most cursory. There’s a long roster of names, fiber content, yardage, and suggested needle size. No photos of the yarn or available colors, gauge or wash info.
No yarns on the site are shown in retail put-up, nor is there info on historical products. Yarn info pages list that makers’ booklets for some but not all of the lines.
The Knitting Books section shows covers of the various leaflets and books distributed by Estelle. Except for photo lists for Estelle’s own line of patterns, no effort is made to show the contents of any other book or leaflet, pictured either here or under the individual manufacturer pages. The Estelle pattern lists show leaflet contents. Each design names the yarn used to make it. No info on sizes or yarn quantities is offered. No links are provided back to the yarns themselves. Amusingly, all the Estelle projects (including the blankets) are shown modeled by the same woman, and there don’t appear to be any patterns for children, babies, or men.
The contact page includes eMail, telephone and ground addresses. The free patterns page offers up mostly scarves, but has a smattering of other projects, too. Few of them however are illustrated. (Note: the presence/absence/quality of free patterns do not affect my grade of the site). There’s a shop finder that provides shop names, towns, phone numbers and (if available) web links, but not street addresses. There’s also a "what’s new" page that describes the latest additions to the website.
Estelle has clearly aimed its website at shop owners as its primary customers. End user knitters are given thought in the free patterns and shop finder areas, but those services are secondary. Points are awarded for the availability of current yarn info. Points are taken away for the unevenness and partial completeness of that info, lack of info about the patterns, lack of historical info, and lack of pattern errata. I’ll factor the shop-owner focus into the grading here, as the thing isn’t intended to be a retail site. Even so Estelle emerges with a C+. If the yarn pages were more uniform in info content and included wash instructions, and if a list of historical info was provided I’d bump it up to a B-.
HOLIDAY HANGOVER
The holiday has come and gone, and now only we remain. The good news is that I discovered that:
- Brussels sprouts taste surprisingly good if they’re tossed in olive oil and roasted briefly in a hot oven, then sprinkled with coarse salt.
- I can knit four giant gauge hats in one afternoon.
- If you’re under 10, wearing a princess costume and a rhinestone tiara to a regional theater matinee isn’t considered overdressing.
- This year’s Beaujolais Nouveau is lighter and less banana-riffic than last year’s and as such is more pleasant for afternoon sipping while the bird is being basted. But find something with more backbone to go with the dinner itself.
The bad news is:
- I don’t like Idena Crazy (also and confusingly marked with the Asa Gjestal distributor name), a heavy sport/light DK weight yarn intended for socks. While it knit up fast into an attractive but rather pedestrian striping, it’s relatively scratchy for sock yarn, plus it had knots and uncomfortable sized slubs. Not one I’ll be buying again.
- If your roasting pan is too large and impedes the flow of hot air in your oven, your turkey ends up cooked with a dried out, hard integument instead of a deliciously toothsome skin, even if the meat is juicy perfect.
- There is nothing so kitschy on earth as a bad crafts fair.
The story behind it all. We had a lovely Thanksgiving holiday with my husband’s mother. In spite of the turkey disappointment dinner was quite nice.
Friday we went to a large crafts fair. I was expecting something like the ones I’d gone to in Northern Virginia – a mix of holiday stuff, trite crafty nonsense, but with a nice proportion of pieces displayed by artisans with talent.
Instead what we found was an indoor quarter acre of Polarfleece doll clothes; badly covered footstools tricked out with sports logo prints; cutesypoo faux rustic signs suitable for hanging in (some people’s) bathrooms, dried floral arrangements that looked more like what’s left over after the haystacks are neatened; fuzzy scarves worked up from Lion Fun Fur, marked at $30. each (since they weren’t selling, I’d say the fad has finally passed); cheap silver jewelry imported from China and India; and countrified things with ruffles but without purpose. No decent watercolorists, pewterers, silversmiths, potters, or printmakers. The kicker was one booth that was stocked entirely with beer cans into which someone had put clock hands and mechanism. One fellow had nicely turned wooden bowls. One person was showing not horrific pieced glass ornaments. One outfit had some interesting wooden puzzles and brain teasers. The only thing we ended up buying was a jar of respectably hot horseradish mustard, made in Vermont. Our amusement came mostly from pointing and laughing.
Saturday made up for Friday’s craft fair fiasco. We took the kids and MIL to a regional theater production of Beauty and the Beast. The cast was quite talented, much better than I expected, and there was something refreshing on seeing a play that relied on their talents rather than $10,000. costumes and intense special effects. If you’re local to the Boston metro area and want to bring kids to live theater without breaking the bank on big-production ticket costs, check out this production. It’s well worth it, even if you end up having to borrow the kids.
WHAT’S A 42-STITCH HAT?
Several people wrote to ask about the 42-stitch hats I mentioned yesterday. I attempt to answer.
The pattern (such as it is) is widely available. Cleckheaton has a version that they authorize yarn shops to give away with purchase of Gusto 10 that’s written to be specific to the yardage of that product. I’ve also seen very similar hats in several of the beginners’ books so popular now, distributed as shop patterns by LYSs, and posted other places on the Web. Basically, it’s a hat boiled down to its barest essentials – a very large gauge stockinette tube with a crown formed by simple decreases. The brim is formed by the natural tendency of stockinette to roll.
1. Find at least 55 yards of yarn that knits up to about 9 or 9.25 stitches = 4 inches. I got 9 with Cleckheaton Gusto, and 9.25 with Brown Sheep Bulky Spun. The Bulky Spun hats measure a bit under 18.5 inches around the lower edge, and stretch for a comfy fit on adults. The Gusto hats are just under 18.7 inches around the lower edge.
2. Cast on 42 stitches, and knit stockinette in the round. I used plain old half-hitch cast on to avoid a tight edge, and to conserve yarn. I did the whole thing on a set of four size US #13 DPNs, but if you hate double points you could do it on two circs, or start on one short circ, then move to DPNs.
3. Knit tube until it’s long enough to both cover your ears and reach just under the crest of your head. That’s about 7.5 to 8.5 inches, including the rolled brim (which should be flattened out to measure). If you’ve only got 55 yards of a superbulky, don’t make this part deeper than 8 inches.
4. Divide the stitches into 6 groups of 6. If you’re on DPNs, that means placing a marker (or remembering the spot) in between the two center most stitches of each DPN. Finish the hat by working six consecutive rows of knit with decreases, always working a decrease just before a marker or (if you’re on DPNs), the needle’s end – that’s six decrease points around the hat. You can work either K2tog or SSK, as you prefer, choose one and work it throughout the piece. If you pick K2tog, the decreases should stack up and spiral in counterclockwise to the center. If you pick SSK, the spiral should end up running clockwise. When you’ve got only six stitches left, thread break off the yarn and thread them up on the tail, drawing them up purse style. Darn in ends.
Note that you can make this hat larger or smaller by adding multiples of six stitches. A little kid size hat out of the same weight yarn would start out on 36 stitches.
If you pick a lighter-weight yarn, increase the cast on number by units of six, how many will depend on your yarn. For example, if you’re using a yarn that’s 10 to 10.5 stitches = 4 inches, 42 stitches would probably be a bit small, I’d aim for 48 stitches and hope that the fit wouldn’t be too large.
I wouldn’t attempt this hat with yarn that’s much lighter than 2.75 stitches per inch (11 stitches = 4 inches) for two reasons. First, much of the charm of this rustic-looking funky hat depends on the bulk and body of the yarn used. The silky firmness of dense Gusto is more satisfying than the less-dense Bulky Spun. Lighter weight yarns would be even more floppy. Plus I’d need to do more experimentation to satisfy myself that every-row ratio of crown decreases would work out as nicely as it does on the heavier-yarn hats.
Finally I have to note that I don’t like knitting yarns at these huge gauges. I can knit non-stop for hours on sock weight yarn, but this big stuff tires out my fingers. Also this is the first project I’ve ever worked on DPNs where if you look closely, you can pick out where my DPNS met. Feh.
GIFT STAMPEDE
Caught unawares by the early date for Hannukah, plus the realization that Christmas isn’t far behind, I take a detour into knitting small gifts for friends, family, and other deserving folks.
[Side brag] The Older Daughter just finished her second project – the classic Cleckheaton Gusto 10 42-stitch hat. She learned to knit on DPNs in the round, and I got a great hint for a flock of small presents.
Gusto 10 is a very dense superbulky yarn. It’s not very expensive, but at $9.00 US per hat (55 yards), it can add up quickly. I’m making several of the same hats, but instead I’m using Brown Sheep Burly Spun.? It’s just a tad less dense than the Gusto, but at $14.00 for 132 yards, I can get two hats from each skein with a bit left over. Last night I did the first two in about 45 minutes each. I’ve planned to make four – two deep red and two royal blue. I may get an extra skein in another crayon color and make three more – two more solids, plus one striped one from the leftovers of all three skeins. Or I might make a couple of earwarmer bands from the red and blue leftovers. All in all, not an exciting set of projects, but a satisfying and quick one.
Other gifts in the works – several pairs of socks, knit at sport gauge rather than my standard personal-consumption teeny gauge. (Again the time factor). Plus I think I’ll give the Spring Lightning Scarf as a gift.
On the kid’s knitting, she’s getting too quick to keep feeding her superbulky yarns and giant gauges. I won’t be able to afford both our knitting habits. [grin]? So I’ve started her on a set of wristlets, done in sock yarn in the round on US #2 DPNs. We’re adding purling to her skills set with this ribbed project. Those should keep her out of trouble for a while.
TOE-UP SOCKS, FROM HEEL TO TOE
Something must be in the air, because several people have written to me this week asking if toe-up socks are more difficult than standard cuff-down socks, or if I could venture an opinion on how they fit and wore compared to cuff-down socks. Perhaps this is a product of all the people hoping to knit up one last holiday present before the end of the year. In any case, I’ll try to answer.
Why Toe-Ups?
1. I detest doing that last boring slog from heel to toe, especially because I find all on-foot patterning to be uncomfortable inside my shoes, so my feet are always done in plain old stockinette. If I leave the feet for last I’ll NEVER finish the socks. So I do them first, get them over with, and then have the fun of the patterned ankle part.
2. I’m not particularly fond of grafting. I can do it, but it’s a pain. Toe-ups let me avoid that step.
3. I like being able to pause and slip the growing socks on to make sure the fit is perfect. That’s easy with toe-ups.
4. I like not having to worry about yarn consumption. If I’m using 50g skeins, I knit the ankle part until I run out of yarn. If I’m using a 100g skein, I knit to the same length as another pair of socks, or if I want to eke out every inch, I put Sock #1 aside without binding it off, then knit Sock #2 on another set of needles. Once both are the same length, I’ll finish off the ribbings side by side, one from either end of the ball, making sure that I use every scrap.
5. If I feel like using the two-circ method, my toe-ups with their short-rowed heels adapt with no fuss at all to that method.
Toe-Up Fit
Toe-ups with short rowed heels are narrower at the point where the ankle joins the foot than are standard heel flap/box heel socks. Some people, especially those with high insteps find them confining. I don’t, even though I have BIG feet for a fem (recently remeasured to Euro 42/US 10.5EEE). If you feel this might be a problem, look for a toe-up pattern with an inverted standard heel rather than a short-rowed heel.
Ease of Working
I don’t find toe-ups to be any more difficult than heel flap socks. In fact, I find them easier. Using the short-row heel and five needles, once I’m past the initial toe I ALWAYS have the same number of stitches on each needle – even during heel production. That makes it easy to put down and restart my socks. That’s a good thing because socks are usually my briefcase project and get done in tiny spurts.
Many people complain about my favorite cast-on for toe-ups – the no-sew figure-8 toe. (It’s Judy Gibson’s, I’m just one of her sock disciples). They say it’s too fiddly, or they can’t get it to work, or it’s too loose. To be fair, it IS fiddly, but it’s worth it. The secret is letting that first row be miserably ugly and loose, but taking care not to split the yarn as it is worked. Once a couple of rounds have been established, it’s very easy to go back and use a needle tip to snick up the looseness. A little care will work the looseness past the knot that forms at the base of the tail, and out from the sock to become part of the dangling end.
If you give up or just don’t want to bother with the no-sew figure-8 toe, there are tons of other toe-up sock patterns out there that use different starting methods. Wendy has one. Or you can start with a provisional cast on, then go back and Kitchener darn the toe up later.
Look of Short Rowed Heels
Knitzanknitzanknitz asked about how short-rowed heels in self stripers look. Here are a couple of mine:
With a little care and willingness to make the sock a row or two longer/shorter you can plan your heels to miter on the breaks between the striper’s color changes.
Sources for Toe Up Patterns
To be immodest – there are mine. wiseNeedle has toe up patterns for several gauges.
The toe-up pattern that started me off and running is by no-sew toe guru Judy Gibson. Wendy Johnson has a popular toe-up pattern, and there’s another at Needletrax. There’s a toe up tutorial at the Socknitters website, and Flor’s got one as well. One of the oldest toe up patterns on the web was done by Manny Olds. Google on "toe up socks" for zillions more.
WORKING REPORT – BIRDS EYE SHAWL
It’s growing on me. I like it more now that there is more of it done. I’m still not 100% pleased, but I’m no longer at the edge of the rip back and start all over mindset.
I think I made the right call by not continuing with the birds eye pattern uninterrupted for the entire piece. I’ve switched over to plain garter stitch for the center, ornamented with a coordinating band of eyelets marching up the spine.
For the record, I’ve made a slight change in the Birds Eye pattern that I think looks just a tad better. On the chart provided, on rows 3, 7, 11, 15, 19 (etc.) I work the ssk that forms the right hand corner of the big eyelet as a K2tog. This gives a slightly better definition to that corner of each ring.
I tried to abstract out just one column of eyelets from the main design for my spine, but I didn’t like the look. Because the original does that half-drop translation thing (staggered like brick walls are stacked), the eyelets ended up being spaced too far apart. Instead I used a similar design lifted from one of the edging patterns in Miller’s book. It’s from "Ring Shawl Lace Edging with Spider Insertion." I’m using just the Spider insertion strip. It complements the all-over Birds Eye pattern in that it’s also ring based, but it’s slightly different. Spider is one row shorter than the Birds Eye, and the eyelets stack directly one on top of each other. In BE, the slightly embossed eyelet rings all appear on the same side of the piece. In Spider, they alternate front and back. It’s still good looking and being airy, matches nicely, but the ring units ARE different.
Now I’m looking at my shawl and I’m beginning to think that with this growing plain garter stitch area something interesting floating in it might be quite effective. Or maybe not (that variegated yarn color problem again.) Hmmm…..
String-Or-Nothing 