Saturday, June 15, 2013

Simple Socks

With some simple self-striping yarn, I made two pairs of almost-instant-gratification stockinette socks. Or at least, they would have been almost-instant-gratification had I gone directly from sock #1 to sock #2 for each pair.


Yarn: Green - ONline Supersocke 100
Purple - Universal Yarn Ditto in Purple Cascade
Needles: US1.5/2.5mm
Timeframe: Green - January 14 - June 8, 2013
Purple - February 21 - May 19, 2013
Mods: Shortened the leg on both socks, on the first sock to be sure I would have enough yarn (didn't need to), and on the second because I realized that I much prefer a shorter sock leg or additional calf shaping. It's easier to shorten the leg than to figure out the shaping, especially when you barely have enough brainpower left at the end of the day to figure out dinner. Yay grad school!
Problems: None with the patterns, had to rip back and re-knit the purple sock toes due to haste.


Both pairs were part of February Frenzy. I'm not sure if I like the yarn yet. It seems a bit scratchy and I don't know if that will be a problem. I usually don't mind scratchy yarns, so it shouldn't be. I'm just happy to have two more pairs of socks in the sock drawer - just in time for summer, when I typically don't wear socks at all!

Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Steotch-Along Halfway Point

Hooray, 50% of the clues are completed!

Now with 100% more cat!
Now he looks like some kind of soul-less demon coming to suck out my soul. Or something. I hope that the next clues fill in his face better so he doesn't continue to scare me while I'm working on him. Evil satan-spawn.

In sock news, I have made all of the fixes, though for the tall sock that means I have ripped back the entire foot and need to re-knit the foot. No more mistakes, but no real progress. The other socks are all fixed, toes ripped, lengthened, and re-knit, and I found the extra yarn I had from Absinthe (all < 1 yards) and duplicate-stitched around all the nail hole. Hopefully that holds. I love those socks!

Sunday, June 9, 2013

99 Problems...

Toe with well-hidden yarn end
...mostly socks. I was going to photograph and post my two most recent socks, but realized that in my excitement to finish, I had started the toe too early on one pair. To make matters worse, I am having difficulty finding the woven in end to un-pick the toe, rip it back, and add the 5-ish rows on one sock and 2 - 3 rows on the other. They technically fit, needing less than 1/2" of adjustment, but if I'm going to spend the time making my own socks, I may as well take the time to be sure they fit!

More toes to rip back
I figured that since I was going to be ripping back some toes to fix sock length problems, I should probably fix my Cusp as well. These were a test knit and in my haste, I apparently stopped about 1/2" too short on the foot, making the second one to perfectly match the first. Logically, taking my time to be sure the project is perfect is one of the great things about knitting. Emotionally, sometimes you just want to be done with the project, and that apparently happens around 6 rows before I should start the toe, at least if I'm making socks for me!

A couple of years ago, I made Absinthe, gorgeous socks out of a gorgeous (hand-wash only) yarn. These socks and I had some problems, the major problem being it's toe-up and I have a large instep, something that just doesn't work well for typical as-written socks.
Evil nail damage
It's easily fixed through extending heel flaps, something that isn't often a part of toe-up socks, and isn't part of Absinthe (it has a "fake" heel flap, looking like a top-down heel flap without offering the ability to customize). I had to rip back, recalculate, and re-do that sock to make it the luscious, well-fitting, amazing sock it is today. I don't wear them often due to the handwash-only nature of the sock. You can probably see where this is going. While wearing these socks, I found a nail that decided it no longer wanted to hold down the floorboards. Instead, it wanted to make a hole in my sock, my precious, precious sock!

See how the gusset squishes the flap?
Finally, I made the same mistake on my tall socks as on my toe socks. I followed the pattern to make a stockinette heel and because I always ignore the directions on how many stitches to pick up along the heel flap and just pick up one per slipped stitch and one in the corner, I did just that. For a plain stockinette heel flap, the size is different and that stitch ratio just doesn't work. With the toe socks, I really couldn't rip back without completely messing up the sock given the cutting and matching I did with the toe colors. With this one, I luckily can rip back to the heel flap and re-do the foot before moving on to the second sock. It is the next sock up on the needles, but the first one took quite some time so don't expect a finished object post anytime soon!



Friday, June 7, 2013

Clue #3

Chugging right along and keeping up with the schedule, I finished Clue #3 Tuesday night:


I'm still going with my earlier guess, and still questioning what exactly the text will be. Only time will tell, and only five more clues 'til it's done!

Wednesday, June 5, 2013

Victorian Rose Hotness Top

This is a cute, rather fast knit that is both work-appropriate and, in a different color, would be excellent with jeans to go out in. The only problem is that you need to select your bra carefully; it will show through the bottom of the lace panel!

Pattern: Hotness Top (Ravelry, mine)
Yarn: Caron Simply Soft in Victorian Rose, 2 skeins.
Needles: US7/4.5mm
Timeframe: May 21 - June 5, 2013
Mods: Added 1" to the body.
Problems: None really.
Next time (I do believe there will be a next time), I plan to use US5 or 6 needles for the ribbing. It's not bad at all one needle, but a smaller needle would be better. I would keep the US7 for the neck though, any smaller and it would be too tight. I had considered smaller needles when I was knitting it this time, but was already into the body and didn't want to start over again, and I'm kind of glad I didn't switch because I would not have realized the neck would be too tight with the smaller ribbing.

Sunday, June 2, 2013

Steotch Clue #2


I normally cross stitch from kits. Or I suppose I should really say that I used to cross stitch from kits - everything I've actually finished and shown off recently hasn't been from a kit. Anyway, stitching exclusively from kits means I always got a needle with my kits and have been lucky enough to have never lost or broken more needles than the number of kits I've stitched. Until now. I broke the small needle that came with my (unfinished) Santa Ornaments kit, the only needle open suitable for smaller than Aida 14 ct. fabrics. I purchased some new needles and stitched up Clue #2, and let me tell you (if you didn't already know), the quality difference between cheap in-the-kit needles and needles purchased for stitching is very, very noticeable! I thought it was just a little piece of metal, no way there'd be any difference in type of needle, and I was wrong. Higher quality tools are always better, even if it's just a small sliver of metal. But you probably already knew that.

If you didn't, the purchased needle is shorter, allowing for slightly more economical use of thread, and smoother, going through the fabric much faster and easier and therefore allowing me to work faster. I would recommend buying needles rather than using the ones that come with kits in the future, and now I'm wondering if there are different brands or styles (like gold-plated) that really are better and worth the extra cost. Any input from more experienced stitchers who may be reading this?

Completed Clue #2:


Saturday, June 1, 2013

Abysmal

Time ran away from me this past week. Everything is so close, and yet, so far, apparently. I can't even blame it (much) on the cross-stitching, since my needle broke and I haven't replaced it so haven't done the second clue yet. Yarn count went up:



It is now June. A year ago, I had just over 41 miles of yarn, hitting the lowest point, under 40 miles at the end of the month. Today I have just over 46 miles. I don't think I'll be making a new record low! This month, I hope to:

1. Finish the Camp Loopy Project 1, the Brandywine Shawl.
2. Buy yarn for Camp Loopy Project 2 (as yet unknown).
3. Knit one mile more than I purchase. That should be even easier this month with 1900 yards of almost-done projects I intended to finish last month.
4. Keep up with the Steotch-Along.

Now off to read about case study research while finishing a ~600 yard project!