- Grace Is Great
-
Grace is GREAT, better then chocolate cake
I sent Grace some yarn, which truthfully I was never going to use, and was glad it was going to a good home. In return, Grace surprised me with this.
This is like handing someone a bologna sandwich and they give you the keys to their Porche. It is beautiful, and warm and made with love. I have been waiting for someone to take a glamour shot of me holding the shawl open. No one seems to want to take my picture. And I really wanted to share this with the world. Is so so beautiful. I am shawl impaired. I have started SK’s SunRay three times. It says more about how great Highland Wool is, then my talents as a knitter. The yarn is a lot less frazzled then I am.
Yesterday I had to go for a stress test. Due to the knee problem, it was a chemical test. I know only to well how freezing cold the hospital is. There are morgues that are warmer then the hospital. So I wore wooly socks and took my lovely shawl. I was toasty warm. And the shawl got lots of touches. People couldn’t believe that a real live person knitted it. The technician that did part of the test kept coming back for another touch. She even dragged in the Radiologist in to touch it. Oh Grace I wish you could have been there.
You can see the stitches in this picture, but the color is off. It is more like Tranquil Lagoon
Thank you, hardly seems to cover this gift. I have to go back to the hospital for some more tests. And I will be wrapped up in my beautiful shawl. Even if it is August.
Thank you again Grace, your the greatest - Yarn and Socks
-
Some new yarns. The top on is from The Knittery in Australia. Talk about fast shipping. It was here in under a week. And consider I am as far from Australia as you can get and still be on the same planet. The color is “Orange Blossom” Merino, cashmere and nylon. So soft Bets could roll around naked on this stuff. Super super soft.
The bottom one is from Zen Garden Yarn Canada. Color is “Just Peachy” Merino and tencel also super soft. I undid the skein which is why it looks a bit messy. I will use one of these for my Sockapalooza partner. Ok I am sorely tempted to keep the Knittery one for me. I will strive to overcome my naked greed.I have a skein from Jayne which my daughter has gone off with. I need to get it back and take a picture. Because it is beautiful.
And a gift so beautiful from Grace that I want to devote a complete post to it. Also I need to get someone to take a picture of it.
Bets and I swapped yarn. She sent me a box full of goodies.One of which is this Opal yarn. I love the turquoise color. I decided to do Nancy Bush’s Child’s First Sock from Vintage Knit Socks. The pattern is easy except for the purl YO knit. It is just so counterintuitive to not restore the yarn to the back of the needle after a purl stitch. I expect after I finish these socks, I will be making unplanned Yarn Overs for a long time
- Round Toe
-
Round toe uses decreases over a lot over rows, to create a gently rounded shape. To do this successfully you need to know your row gauge. The decreases are usually worked over a number divided by 8, but can be a number divided by 10 or any number I guess.
I measure from the base of my big to to the tip of the toe. Then divide the inches by my row gauge. You can work less knit rounds if you need a shorter toe. Or start the toe part earlier.
Round toe is part of a family of toes that slowly decrease and end up with a number of stitches that are then drawn closed as opposed to grafting. The decreases can be worked to create a pattern as in the Star toe (toe used so beautifully in the Embossed Leaves sock) Swirl toe creates a decrease that seems to move to the right across the toe. The best source of information for these different toes is either Nancy Bush’s Vintage Socks or Nancy Bush’s Folk Socks.
If the number you are working isn’t divisible by 8 or 10, do a decrease to get to the correct number and then go onto the Round toe action.
To work round toe over a number divided by eight
Knit 6 K2tog repeat around the sock
Knit 6 rows
Knit 5 K2tog repeat around the sock
Knit 5 rows
Knit 4 K2tog repeat around the sock
Knit 4 rows
repeat with one less stitch on each decrease round and one less row on the plain rounds
Until you have just 16 stitches left. cut yarn and run through the stitches on the needles. Draw up and run needle through the stitches again to close up the hole.
The shape produced fits my feet perfectly very tapered. When I grafted toes closed they always looked to blocky and the squared off shape never went away no matter how many times I wore them.
If you have toes that are in more of a straight line across, then the grafted toe is probably perfect for you.
You can see the blocky effect with the grafted toe on these socks I made my daughter.
I have tried all the tricks that are supposed to get rid of the sharp corners, and they haven’t worked for me
I have the same problem with toe up socks. They are too wide across the very tip of the sock. And there is a lot of excess fabric over with would be your smallest toe.
Not to mention that I do crap short row heels :-}
Star Toe from Embossed Leaves Socks
- Nancy Bush’s Evening Stockings
-
One down, one to go.
I didn’t want knee socks so I did a few mods on the pattern. I changed the heel flap to repeat the P1 K 5, pattern repeat. The flap is edged with seed stitch. I will do more rows of seed stitch on sock two. I did three seed stitches on each side. But one row gets eaten up when I picked up the gusset stitches. In effect I just used the lace pattern. I think they turned out pretty well. Of course I need to knit another one.
I did round toe, my favorite. I wanted to keep the P1 K5 pattern going. Due to brain damage I decreases in the purl stitches. This causes the purl row to go wonky. Next sock I will do the decreases in the knit stitches. That way the purl rows should remain true.
Sock without Suzann’s big foot in it :-} I can’t get the color right. But it isn’t a light pink, more a peachy pink. The yarn is soft and cushy
- New KAL
-
If you missed out on Sockapalooza4 here is another sock KAL
It isn’t a swap but a three month KAL, starting with the Summer Solstice (June 21st)and ending with the Autumn Equinox (Sept 21st) Makes me feel all druid. There are contests and other fun stuff. You get to flash your socks and their is a contest for the most socks knit (Jayne) And you can enter designs in a design contest.
I can’t believe I signed up for more socks. But there is no pressure of completing a perfect sock for a partner.Speaking of which I heard from my Sockapalooza swap pal. *Waves Hello* I am waiting for yarn to get started on socks for my pal. The yarn is coming from Canada and is probably sitting in a customs office someplace.
Oh and I would like to thank Jayne for pointing me in the direction of Etsy. Oh good another place to spend hours drooling and spend money. I have no control.
My socks are coming along well. I really really love the yarn and the pattern. I stuck my finger with the damn needle so I am taking a day off to let it heal a bit.
I would take pictures (the socks not the wounded diget) except the most evil line of thunderstorms is heading our way. The radar is a bit frigtening. Cate is probably getting hammered right now, and Kim will be next. Hale winds and lightening. Could we just have some nice normal rain, pleaseeeeeeeee - Stupid Place part II and Socks of course
-
Ladies, I am here to tell you, you can access the Stupid place without a 20 pound cat. All it takes is a double portion of very garlicky Shrimp Scampi and two very large Caribbean Sunset Pina Coladas
My daughter and I went off for the day Saturday shopping. We were high in the way, only woman can be who have stuffed the trunk of the car with BARGAINS. We decided to reward ourselves with lunch. Not some nasty quickie food. We wanted wait staff and food. hehehe. The only place near by was a Red Lobster. As we waited for a seat, we spotted large pictures of Caribbean Sunset Pina Coladas. hmmmmmmmmm, looked good to us. Got seated, ordered our drinks and dived into the menu. We both had double orders of Garlic Shrimp Scampi. Burp!!Burp!!Burp!! Very good. And you know those drinks went down so smoothly, why not another one. It was at this point the portal to The Stupid Place opened. We called home, and in fits of giggles announced we were knocking back Pina Coladas at Red Lobster and forget dinner as we were stuffed. The worried voice on the other end of the phone wondered how we planned to drive home? Ha! had it covered. We were laughing so hard, we were drawing strange looks from other dinners and the wait staff. Wiser minds decided that a third drink might mean spending the night in Hampton. We leave Red Lobster. Go back to the mall, and Macy’s, we are still giggling . The sales help at Macy’s got garlic breath for their trouble. Which for some reason we thought was funny. I was trying on jeans, and Dawn tells me “Mom you have an ass, flaunt it!” I looked over my shoulder to see if I could find it. Must have been someone else’s Mom 
My daughter grabs my hand and drags me out of Macy’s and off to a Starbucks, where she declares we are having a time out. I found this funny. So funny I called home to announce we were in Starbucks, having a time out. All I heard was GAWDS PUT DAWN ON. Mz Schoolteacher advises that she really thinks I NEED A TIMEOUT. Excuse me I am not 11. It was alright in the end. We had coffee and dessert (like we needed that) wandered around for a few hours and made it home safely. Two things that made this work. I bought home dinner for the stay at home and also got him a few new shirts. So he never noticed the huge bag that had my name on it.The yarn for the socks is from Fearless Fibers and indie dyer at Esty Fearless Fibers A thicker fingering weight or a skinny sportsweight. Very soft very cushy. Slight changes in the color don’t compete with the pattern. The pattern is from Nancy Bush’s Vintage Socks. Evening Socks. I didn’t want knee socks, so I just used the lace pattern on the leg over 60 stitches. The cuff is shorter then the pattern, because the leg is shorter. I am repeating the P1, K 5 cuff for the heel flap. With a seed stitch border. The lace pattern is super easy, actually only two rows of lace the rest of the rows are the P1, K5. I made a mistake. My fault knitting and boozing are probably not a good combination. I was going to frog back the two rows to fix it. But I decided to leave the mistake there, as a reminder of when Dawn and I took a trip to the Stupid Place together.
This is closer to the actual color.
The beginning of the heel flap
- Suzann Gets Stuck In The Stupid Place
-
Everyday around 2pm I am off for a nap. I get up at 5:30 am to make breakfast and wave the folks out the door. No problem. But by 2:00pm I am exhausted and need to rest. At first there was a bit of resistance to nap time. Then the quality of the dinners went down the tube, and nap time was reinstalled. So I went off for my rest and something happened. Granted I have a rich inner life this one was over the top.
I found I couldn’t talk. Couldn’t even mouth words. People were talking to me, and I was shaking my head, franticly. Trying to let them know I couldn’t speak. Hands grabbed me and a voice boomed out…”Dawn come quick, your mother is stuck in the Stupid Place again” They began pushing be back and forth and slapping me. Not hard, but like they were trying to wake me up. I was desperately trying to tell them I could talk. It didn’t work. They kept yelling, YOU’RE STUCK IN THE STUPID PLACE AGAIN. At some point I broke away from them and found paper and pencil. I wrote I CAN’T TALK!!! The answer, of course you can’t talk, YOU ARE STUCK IN THE STUPID PLACE.
Then I saw my mother sitting at the kitchen table cutting out grocery coupons (a favorite hobby) I wrote to them I CAN SEE MY MOTHER!!!. They said, yes yes everyone can see dead people, but YOU ARE STUCK IN THE STUPID PLACE.
I woke up. I couldn’t talk. Not sure about the stupid place, but a 20 pound cat had half his body across my neck. He was peacefully sleeping away. I was gasping for air.
Have a good day, and watch out for THE STUPID PLACE or 20 pound cats, whichever comes first :-}
Negative ease a bit later.PS I feel the term, Stuck In The Stupid Place is going to be thrown in my face in future. Ya know, like when I can’t locate my glasses(on my head) or stuff or mumble mumble mumble
- Basic Sock Patterns
-
Here are a few tried and true but interesting to work sock patterns
The first is the famous Blueberry Waffle pattern. Wendy Johnson just did a sock using this pattern. It is the first stitch pattern I ever tried. It looks great in a sock color and breaks up patterned yarns. It has a lot of texture, but is basically ribbing. I have a short attention span for ribbing, but I managed to use this pattern twice, once for a CIC kids sock and once for a pair for my daughter. The pattern is for sports weight yarn, but is easily changed for fingering weight yarn.
The next is Fluted Bannister Socks. This was a Six Sock KAL sock, but is available to anyone now.
I did this with some opal yarn and even as a raw beginner I was able to change the pattern repeats for use with fingering weight yarn. Nice pattern, it is a bit more difficult then Blueberry Waffle, because the number of knits and purls change each row as the banister twists around the sock. Both of these patterns can be used on the instep without causing you pain if you wear you socks in traditional shoes. I would not carry cables down onto the foot. The cables can really cramp your style inside shoes. It is easy to change the cable pattern to ribbing instead. Or just do a plain foot.Next is Dublin Bay socks. I have not knit this one. But it has a lot of play time around the net. Looks pretty
The last one is the Tidal Bay socks I knit for Benne. While not a super simple pattern, it is really interesting pattern to work. It has no tricky parts. Increases and decreases. There are two rows with double decreases that you need to watch for, but other then that it is easy. It is a stretchy pattern, so no fears of not being able to get it over your foot. A fun knit in either solid color yarn or patterned. Jayne I bet this would look brilliant in your hand dyed yarn. Your beautiful blues or the yummy Butterscotch.
As soon as I get to feeling alive again, I will post the pattern for the green socks. I wouldn’t trust any pattern I posted just now. I am beyond fuzzy
And a final word on negative ease and twisted stitch patterns. I look at a lot of sock knitting blogs. And I can’t tell you how many people I see with socks that could pass for compression bandages. The sock is stretched to the screaming point and it is hardly flattering. This happens when you have complex patterns with twist stitches. A pattern repeat of 15 is hard to adjust for a larger foot. Unless you choose to go up a needle size or use a heaver weight of yarn. The twist stitches make the pattern inelastic in the extreme. All you need to do is Google for images of Pomatomus, or Jaywalker and see the problems. The other problem is negative ease. I have a post about negative ease to put up, because unless you have very very skinny legs mostly you can skip this disaster causer.
ramble ramble ramble :-}
I hope the pattern links help people to find something they might want to try. - So Easy So Much Fun
-
Unlike the red lace sock this one is a joy. Well it is a six stitch pattern repeat instead of 13 stitch repeat. Less chance for me to go zombie in the middle of a row. If anyone wants a pattern that is easy to do and just flows, I would be glad to post this one up.
Meilenweit Colortweed 1004 from Astrids
Needle size 2.25mm.
I cast on 64 stitches for the ribbing. Did about 2 inches give or take a bit. Then two rows of plain knitting, while I moved the beginning/ end of the middle of the back of the sock. I only needed 60 stitches for the pattern, so I deleted the extra 4 stitches over the two knit rounds. And started the pattern. I tell you this pattern is like eating potato chips. You just keep going and going. I knit the leg 7 inches before the heel flap. Since I wasn’t going to continue the pattern down the instep, I stop about 4 rows before the heel flap. This was to keep the YO away from the pick up gusset stitches. Did the heel, and gusset reduced down to 64 stitches. To give a bit of ease over the instep. I kept the extra 4 stitches until almost up to the toe.
Knitted the foot and did a round toe. I am half way down the leg of the second sock. Wheeeeeeeeeeee like flying :-}
A word about the yarn. Meilenweit is a commercial yarn that feels like twine when you knit it. Very firm and sort of rough. But wash that puppy and it just puffs up and is smooth and soft. The pattern would show up really nicely in a solid yarn. It is a bit hidden by the stripes. I don’t care. It is fun. And I don’t have any bright green and blue socks. I am trying to get out of my netural “safe” mode and live a little with some color.
stripy feet
If you can K 2tog and SSK and YO you can make these socks. I like SKpsso cause I find it relaxing to do on small needles. But either one works.
I know some of you are doing the sock exchange and I am going to post a list of patterns that are available online. They look good and if you have never done patterned socks these are a good place to start. And fun to do.
I think I am getting a cold or something. I am freezing (it is 82 in the house) I can’t taste anything and I feel a bit tired. Maybe a wee lay down is due.
- Thanks ladies
-
Kathy asked me about the climate in Virginia.
Kathy this is the bad news
So, let’s plop the center of one of these highs right over the island of Bermuda which is about 800 miles east of Charleston South Carolina. The clockwise rotation of the high will cause air to steadily stream northward from the gulf of Mexico, up across the southeastern part of the US and at times on to New England and beyond before curving eastward out into the Northern Atlantic. So air that may be in Portland Maine on one day, was in Virginia the day before and in the subtropics the day before that. The Bermuda High is one of the many meteorological mechanisms that moves heat away from the tropics, to places where it is not always welcome. Completely unwelcome.When I lived in California the summers were hot but dry. I miss the weather.
As for cities, well we have some of everything. Richmond is the state capital and is a traditional city with a downtown and lively night life.
Virgina Beach area is bit time Navy town. Very beachy and we have tourists in the summer.No downtown lots of sprawl. Norfolk is a traditional type city with a downtown
opera house and ballet.
Williamsburg is very traditional. The home of William and Mary College and colonial Willimsburg. Beautiful old houses.
Cape Charles is a beautiful water town on the Easter Shore. It has been taken over by retirees from up north keen on waterfront property.
The western part of the state has many lovely cities. Not sure what you are looking for.Jayne asked of the Red socks were like childbirth, pain forgotten in the joy of the product.
Hahaha, The cuffs were fuzzed up before I finished the foot. I had to wash them 6 times before the color stopped running. They are soft and cushy, I guess this counts for something.Lisa W & Benne. Thank you both so much for the information about the shots. The swelling has really gone down, but the deep pain in the knee was a bear. It was worse then the knee pain I had before the shot. This is the first shot I have ever had. All these years my knee hurt me, I was given the take two whatever and keep your leg up thing. Under the TMI, I can’t seem to stop going to the bathroom. I am guessing this is all the extra fluid in my leg and foot. At least I hope it is
The doctor said that since my knee has never had any treatment, I have gone past anything but knee replacement. I have bone on bone contact. Everything else is gone now. He seemed a bit surprised that my GP had never sent me on for further treatment. I am not surprised as it was this swollen leg that led to the discovery that I had heart failure. If you are a woman, look out for yourself. No one else seems to be paying attention.
This is what the red socks are Supposed to look like, but don’t
Thanks for the kind words Joan, Trish, and Grace.