Well, since I skipped posting Knit-a-palooza last week, I have lots to share this week! Finished socks, newly started socks (the last of my `ball-o-yarn-and-a-picture-of-what-it-will-become’ Christmas gifts!), and yarn pr0n for my soon-to-be-new sweater.
First up, CBtY’s finished fraternal twin socks (I’m modeling them `cause he’s at his dad’s today):
Click photos for larger image
And since those sockknitting needles were empty, I cast on the next pair (the aptly named boyfriend socks):
I’ve been working on them every night while the news and debates are on, so here’s what they look like today:
Here’s a close-up of the cable design:
And modeled on smaller feet than those for which they are intended (who says you can have too many sock pictures?):
I’m anxious to get them finished, because the mailman brought me the yarn for my next big project this week, and it’s soft and squishy and a beautiful shade of purple, and I really shouldn’t start one project before I finish the other:
But I can’t wait to make this hooded zip-up cardigan (with pockets!) from it:
Which is why I gave in to the temptation to knit a swatch and check my gauge while CBtE was at his guitar lesson that night. I just grabbed needles and a ball on my way out the door with him…and didn’t notice that I was knitting with 2 slightly different size needles until I got home. D’oh!
And finally, something about politics and knitting…Remember how I was raving about Ravelry last week? Well, I have a funny little story about Keith Olbermann that I came across there. Someone had posted a comment about him comparing the Iowa caucus turnout to that of the Rhinebeck Sheep and Wool Festival on his show one night, and they were wondering if he had a girlfriend who was a knitter. It turned out that mytribe had actually asked him the same thing in his first diary at Dailykos, and out of 1500 comments, it was one of 2 he responded to: Check it out!
Of course, now folks are speculating as to what this comment of his means…I know I’ll be looking for signs of knitted objects while I’m watching the returns come in tonight. I’m such a geek!
So what’s needling you this week?
As boran2 would put it, “Knit me some fabric of your thoughts”
(and why do I imagine hearing that in Bob Ross’ voice?)
I’m not sure these days if my thoughts are unraveling or if they have felted up like wool put in the dryer!
Can see why you’re anxious to get started using it. And you’re becoming the sock pro … how long does it take you to make a pair now? Seems like it’s quite fast.
Thanks for linking to that comment by KO. How funny.
I finally got around to taking pix of some of my projects. These are two crocheted baby blankets. The yellow one is finished, the blue one in progress and almost done. I like the waffle pattern – it makes the blanket a bit stretchy.
And a couple of knitting things on the go. The first is a really chunky wool – the thickest I’ve used (needles are size 13), for a neck warmer thingee.
And this is a scarf using the softest alpaca blend. It feels really good to work with.
The socks take about 2 weeks for a pair; it does seem to be going faster. Of course, I never thought I’d want to knit socks, but they’re fun and the yarn is so fine I get a lot of knitting time for the investment. I just need to get a pair made for myself now…
Your baby blankets look great (that waffle texture is cool), but I REALLY love the colors in your scarf! It must be incredibly soft with the alpaca.
My sweater yarn is merino with silk and a touch of cashmere, to give you an idea how soft and mushy it is.
It’s the softest yarn. And yeah, I love the colours too.
Your yarn sounds wonderful. Having good yarn makes such a difference. I had some really awful acrylic stuff that was just horrible. It kept catching and the tension was all over the place, so I gave up on it.
Wow. That jewel toned alpaca is amazing. I’m spending way too many hours scouring the net for cool wool. I have a sinking feeling that once I really get this craft down, I will be spending way too many dollars buying cool wool!
Nifty work there, CG.
Two snaps up, with a twist!
Thanks, super. You do some pretty fine work yourself, you know. 🙂
I used to run a small business supplying animal fibers to hand-knitters and -weavers. We used to joke that “She who dies with the most yarn wins!” I left all that behind, including a room-sized loom, when I left the US. Although one of these days I’, going to have to start spinning those alpaca fleeces we’re accumulating.
I was thinking of your alpacas when olivia posted her scarf pictures. 🙂
Spinning seems to be a lot more popular/common than it was 10 years ago. I’ve never tried it, but I’m surprised at the number of people who do. Is it hard?
You’ve been working very hard, CG. Thanks for all the photos!
Thanks, b2…I was afraid it was overkill. 🙂
I had no idea this was going on here 🙂 That’s what I get when I step back from the blogs for a while…
Great stuff! I’ll try to post a few pics of a few things I’m working on – mostly tiny stuff for kiddos (more knitting instant gratification for me – I get impatient).
I’d love it if you’d post some pictures! It’s always fun to see what other people are working on.
I agree with you wholeheartedly about the little kid knitting – it’s fun to work on something that goes so fast. Big people stuff is fun too, but definitely a more long-term commitment.
The saga of Kama Learns to Knit continues.
I finished the scarf I pictured last time, but even after blocking, it was totally curled. Yuck.
So, I started a new scarf with a colorful chenille. This time, I attempted to teach myself the seed stitch. All was going well and I was getting a really nice cable pattern. Being a total idiot, I just assumed it was right because I carefully alternated my stitches. What I didn’t realize is that with an odd number of stitches on the row, you do not alternate the beginning stitch of each row. Instead, you k/p/k/p, etc on each row. OK…so I learned how to make a 1×1 rib. Nice, but not what I wanted. I frogged the work and started over, this time being careful to repeat the pattern every row and learning how to tell a knit stitch from a purl stitch. It’s looking pretty good, so I continue to knit like a madwoman. I’ve completed about a third of the scarf now.
Then comes more bad news. I just realized this morning after pondering the Stitch ‘n Bitch book and watching a video online, that I am not doing the purl stitch correctly. Instead of wrapping my yarn counterclockwise, I am wrapping clockwise.
Sigh. Now, do I frog all my work again, or do I continue with my twisted purl stitch? I’m tempted to continue because it looks ok, if a bit weird. But, being a perfectionist, I really want to do it right.
My knitting friend who is helping me learn really liked my rib stitch and couldn’t figure out how I was doing it. Now I know I must have twisted all the purls in that one as well, giving it a slightly different appearance. My friend knits continental style, but I knit english (having learned the basic garter stitch when I was a kid). So, she didn’t notice that I was purling wrong.
On the plus side, I am learning new things all the time and am getting to be a pro at frogging! Even with all my fuck ups, I am enjoying learning and like the process. I will not be daunted! :>)
While your socks are lovely, I am looking forward to seeing that cardigan. Lovely choice of yarn and a great pattern to boot.
I wouldn’t tear out all that work. Just keep working your purl stitches as you have and the scarf will turn out just fine. What you’ve done is the equivalent of a knit stitch worked through the back loop and that’s a legitimate stitch pattern. Wait & wrap the yarn counter-clockwise on your next project.
Is that what they mean when they say “knit through the back”? I was baffled by that this week when perusing some knitting site. After all, don’t you knit from the back to start with? I understood the purl through the back, so I guess it makes sense if you consider the front is the back, on a knit stitch. Knit your purls, purl your knits, knit through the back, which is really the front…Arrrgh…it’s all so confusing! LOL!
Check out knittinghelp.com. If you go to the glossary, there are two videos on how to knit through the back loop (K1b) http://www.knittinghelp.com/videos/knitting-glossary
The site is great for helping to figure out what a pattern is talking about if you’re not familiar with a stitch. If you’re just learning, the Knit Fix book by Lisa Kartus is excellent. I ordered a copy and took it in to let my knitting students look through it and we wound up doing a group order so they could all have their own copy. I ordered mine from KnitPicks
http://www.knitpicks.com/Knit+Fix_BD30803.html
Thanks! I just discovered the videos on KnittingHelp this morning which is where I saw the video on the purl stitch and realized that I was indeed doing it wrong. I bookmarked it and will go look at that video. It’s a really great site since it can be so hard to learn from just descriptions and pictures.
The book recommendation is also very welcome. I’ve been perusing books, but there are so many, it is very hard to know which one (or 2 or 3) to get. I’ll put it on my list.
I’ve always loved to make things and have explored a variety of crafts. Learning to knit is just perfect for me. It’s small and portable, easily picked up and put down, and relatively inexpensive. Before, whenever I thought of knitting, I pictured my grandmother’s horrid acrylic afghans and sweaters from the 70’s. It’s been great to see that knitting is not horrible yarns in horrible colors. :>)
I just got this book for a friend’s daughter who’s learning to knit, and wound up using some new techniques from it before giving it away. I think I might have to buy a second copy for myself. It’s also available at Barnes and Noble and probably Powells, as well.
“The book recommendation is also very welcome. I’ve been perusing books, but there are so many, it is very hard to know which one (or 2 or 3) to get. I’ll put it on my list.”
Check out your local library including the Inter-Library Loan program to get a look at books before you spend your money on them. I’d recommend borrowing Elizabeth Zimmerman’s books and reading through them even if you never knit one of her patterns. Her “EZ Percentage System” for designing your own sweaters is great and her rather irreverent approach to knitting is refreshing and gives you the courage to take off and knit without fear {g}.. Another book I like because it gives you ideas rather than set patterns is Knitting In The Old Way by Priscilla Gibson-Roberts and Deborah Robson. I’ve been knitting for over half a century and I’m still learning new techniques thanks to books and the Internet.
Which of the EZ books do you recommend?
I have another question for you too: what is the easiest way to teach a left-hander to knit? Is there any big difference to it, and is it easier to teach them English or Continental?
Most libraries seem to have at least one of the Zimmerman books in their collection. Knitting Almanac was her first one, Knitting Around is a fun read and I just purchased The Opinionated Knitter (which she was {g})..
To teach a left-handed person to knit or crochet, set a large hand mirror in your lap and have them sit opposite to you and watch the mirror. It will turn everything around so it appears that you’re knitting left-handed and they can follow the movements.
ROFLMAO!!!!!!
I am such a doofus. I just looked at the link and discovered that I have been knitting through the back stitch the whole time!!! I started knitting through the front like I should have been, but my friend told me I was doing it wrong (stupid continental knitters!). So, my knits were wrong, and my purls were wrong…I wonder what the hell I created! :>)
Wow…leave it to Kama to get everything totally backwards! :>)
Just as an update, I took the scarf onto a stitch holder and started over with my second ball. Wow. Now that I’m actually doing the stitches right, it is pretty darn easy and I can see the pattern coming through. At least I hope I’m doing it right this time! :>) Seriously, the videos made it totally simple for me and I’m sure it is going well now. I just have to learn to tighten up now, since before I was fighting each stitch, so I learned to be real loose.
Yay! How did we ever manage to get along without it?
(uh, that would be the internet that I was referring to up there..I’m blogging, making dinner, and writing an outline for a paper all at once…something had to give, I guess)
Somebody once told me that en expert was someone who had already made lots of mistakes and learned from them. S just think, you’re well on your way to expertitude! You already figured out 1×1 rib and a twisted rib stitch all on your own.
I’m with Denim Blue on going ahead and finishing. It’s a legitimate stitch, it looks fine, and it’s all part of the learning process.
I’m looking forward to starting the cardigan too. Socks are fun, but I think I’m ready for a break from knitting on toothpicks with thread. 🙂
LOL. That is so true. As I’m sitting here knitting, I got to wondering how anyone could have figured out how to make cloth with a piece of string and two sticks. Then after perusing the multitude of different stitches, it occurred to me that many were probably created when some genius like me messed up, but liked it anyway.
I guess you and DB are right and I will go ahead and finish the scarf. It has a nice texture and it drapes well, so what the hell. I’ll just convince myself that it what I intended to do from the beginning! :>)
I think about that too Kama, how all this first got started, I think it came from fisherman, nets, and then hey do that a little closer and you have cloth or something solid. I think too that people just tried different things or made mistakes like you said and voila you got something new. In any case I think it’s all very facinating..
I grew up with a knitting mother and so rebelled against it I guess, you never saw her sit without knitting in her lap. So I am a late knitter but hooked on it now.
I’ve finished this sock and am working my way up the lace cuff of sock #2. Those are size 2 Harmony DPs from KnitPicks and I love them. Much easier on my slightly arthritic hands than metal DPs.
Very pretty! What kind of yarn are you using?
BTW, I’m glad to hear you like the Harmonys, because I needed circulars for my sweater, and decided to give the KnitPicks Options a try, and had them throw in a set of the harmony DPs just to give them a try.
I have no idea what the yarn is other than wool. I bought it at a garage sale – $5 for a 4 oz skein that didn’t have a ball band. I really like the color. My first pair of socks were made with Sassy Stripes in red, pink, grey, white & magenta (on sale for $1.99 a ball). I wanted to try making a sock without investing a lot of money in the yarn but they’re awfully bright. I used short row heels on that pair and they turned out ok, but I don’t like working short rows, so this pair has a toe-up heel flap. I don’t really have a pattern for either pair as I found working the first sock that the standard every other row increases for the toe made it too wide too fast. I do every other row about four times and then switch to increasing on every third row until I get up to 64 stitches.
The color is really nice.
I did my first toe-up socks with a short row heel, but I think I like the heel flap better too (picking up wrapped stitches is a total pain). Do yo do it the same way you would from the top down?
When I got about 3″ from the heel, I worked only on the stitches for the sole to make a heel bed until it was just about the same length overall as my foot, slipping the first stitch of every row. Then I turned the heel just like I was going top down, picked up the slipped stitches along the side of the heel bed and worked across the instep. On this one, I decreased every other row on each side of the heel turn, but next time, I’m going to work the decreases where the instep & heel bed stitches meet to make it look more “normal”. I’m using a lace design for the legs on this pair that’s fairly stretchy like ribbing and when I cast off, I use a needle two sizes bigger (a 4 in this case) so the cuff doesn’t get too tight.
I want to buy some cable needles and read some good comments on the Harmony interchangeable set. Anyone here use interchangeable cable needles? Do you think they are a good investment?
I’ve never used them, but they seem to get a lot of good feedback from people who do. I love the look of the colored wood.
I was given a full set of straight metal needles when I started knitting, so I never had to think about investing in them. Then when I started using circulars, I just bought what I needed as I went along, sometimes plastic, sometimes metal (Addi turbos), sometimes bamboo (Clover). When it comes to choosing what type of needles you like, it’s really a personally preference thing. The smooth metal ones can sometimes be too slippery with smoother yarns; sometimes the wood ones aren’t quite slippery enough with certain wools. Whether you knit tightly or loosely probably affects your preference too.
I tend to like the slipperiness of the addi turbo needles, so I just ordered the Options metal interchangeable circular set from KnitPicks (I’m tired of always needing some size or length of circular needle that I don’t have), and I’m looking forward to giving them a try with my new sweater. I’ll let you know what I think after I get them.
Those are some fine socks and they match your name too!
My latest project with crochet, the bobble stitch, I just love it….these are going to be baby blankets.
They’re really pretty too. Is that bobble stitch hard to do?
I know you’ve had new babies in the family pretty recently, but remind me again, are new ones coming this year too?
I just learned to crochet this week, the bobble is easy so is the shell, which I also learned….I am crocheting up a storm, to the point I got a severe neck and shoulder pain last night, they were already bad areas, so it just exacerbated it, but I am back crocheting as I write this…lol. I always thought they would be hard to learn but they weren’t if you have a picture of steps to go by and it’s very fast…I would make an afghan, but I like shorter projects.. The plain blue bobble one, is going to be a cover for baby in car seat, that way it’s smaller.
My sister is having a great grandchild due in Mar.he has the intentines outside the body and will require operation at birth…the mother has a 15 mo. old as well so she will have some hard time with two small ones.
Wow, you’re rocketing along, especially for just having learned how to do it. But remember to take breaks so your shoulder doesn’t act up too much.
I’m sorry that the new baby is going to have some tough times ahead of him when he arrives. I can’t imagine how hard that’s going to be with another baby to care for on top of it. Do they live close enough for family to be able to help them out easily?
This isn’t all, I have made half a poncho that I am going to give to Shirlstars, using double crochet stitch. Plus I tore out a 5 ft. by 8 inch start on an afghan that I realized I didn’t have enough of the one colored yarn for…my sister has been sending me all of this yarn, you should see, I have a little yarn store here. She is a knitter, made 126 blankets for home for mothers where she lives, I just got her started on crocheting and she loves it.
She also gave me a tatter, that I am going to try to learn eventually.
The mom to be has lots of family around her they are in Lincoln,Ne. but still it will take teams of them to help out, baby will be in hospital for several weeks, and mom will have cesarean.
WOW! You’ve been really busy! lol
One of my childhood friends did tatting; I still have one of the snowflake Christmas ornaments she made when we were about 10 years old.
I hope everything goes as well as possible with mom and the new baby when he comes.
You are an inspiration Diane! I’m sticking to knitting for the moment, but I have full intention of learning crochet this year too.
When I had KamaKid, no one knitted me anything, but I would have loved it. I see so many cute baby items, but sadly, I see no children in my future for quite some time (that is friends’ or family kids). Maybe I will just knit some for charity since they look like fun to make.
Thanks Kama, I have a vision of all of us knitting and crocheting madly while we read this and then stop for a mintue to write….kind of the 2008 version of the sewing bee, we have a knitting bee going on here…
You can make afghan, you know, with crocheting and lots of other projects. Neck scarves or course, with either one…I want to learn to make sweaters later this year for gifts. Also caps and gloves, I want to make it all….of course I am obsessive whenever I do anything…as soon as my son saw all of this he said, oh no, another obsession…I then said obsession is good, obsessive people get lots of stuff done.
I wonder if there is a resurgence of knitting and crocheting going on in US,,,that would be nice.
My friend who is teaching me knitting came into work the other day with a beautiful hat she crocheted over the weekend. She learned crochet before knitting and has promised to teach it to me.
I am sure that there is a resurgence of knitting and crocheting going on. Knitting was once a necessity, but it is now a craft, like weaving or jewelry making. I have been amazed at the number of blogs and websites devoted to knitting/crocheting. Knitting used to be seen as something we old folk do, but in reality, more and more young people are knitting and creating really interesting and wearable art.
Kudos to CG for starting this thread. It’s inspiring, educational, and just plain fun. Something we all need in these troubled times! :>)