more sock photos

This is the first sock made from Lorna's Laces Shepherd's Sock yarn in the Baltic Sea colorway (size 0 needles):


The green ragg socks from a few weeks ago (size 0 needles):

Yeah it's a lousy photo (too dark), I'll try again later.

Mom's hat photos

Here are photos of mom's hat (her mother's day present). I give up on trying to make these colors look true. The light blue looks too bright on my imac's monitor so I wanted to tone it down. Before I did that I looked at the same photos using my windows computer and the colors are washed out on that screen. Also, the darker color is really a dark blue and not black. So just assume the hat looks better -- and the colors are fantastic -- in person. ;)

Book reviews

Yesterday I checked out 5 books from the library:

Vogue Knitting Socks: There is one gem of a pattern that has a gauge I like (9 sts/in) and a really cool 4 color pattern -- the Zig Zag socks. I wonder if the ragg yarn would look good knit up like this? I'd have to dye some of it 4 different colors and knit a swatch to be sure but I think it'd work and it wouldn't cost anything, I already have the yarn and dyes. I could do something different and make the four colors red, orange, yellow, and purple (instead of my familiar blues/greens). But I liiiiiiike blue and green.

Knitting Around the World, from Threads: I've checked this out before but haven't seen it on the shelf in quite a while so I brought it home again. It's OOP unfortunately. The only low point is an article containing spectacularly UGLY faux Bohus Stickning knitting patterns! However it IS amusing to see someone try to interpret the Swedish Bohus designs, years before Poems of Color was available. The rest of the book is very educational, it contains articles on Shetland lace knitting, Fair Isle tams, seamless argyles, Swedish tvaandsstickning, arans, and more.

Men in Knits: This is new to the library. There are some good patterns but ho-hum, nothing that screams KNIT ME RIGHT NOW. There's no obvious reason to buy it for my bookshelf. The author devotes several pages to the psychology of men and handknit sweaters and how to go about making a sweater that a man will like enough to wear. Kinda strange. It's almost obsessive with all the charts and questions the author expects us to unload on the sweater recipient but if you follow all her instructions you'll probably make something that the recipient will wear. Apparently this is a problem for a lot of knitters, who knew men were so fickle?

Knitting from the Top (Barbara Walker): Someone lost this a couple years ago and the library finally replaced it. It's a Barbara Walker book, of course it's brilliant. I don't need to own it though, I'm content with knowing it's available from the library if I need it for some reason. Well, as long as nobody LOSES it again. If I ever decide to knit pants this is the book to check out.

A Fourth Treasury of Knitting Patterns (Barbara Walker): I need to own all 4 Treasury books, they're worth their weight in gold. I see some reversible stitch patterns that I'd like to turn into a scarf for my mom, to match the dark brown merino gloves I knit her last month. My favorite is Hearts of Oak (p. 194-195), that is very cool and the back looks almost as good as the front (which is important for a two-sided item like a scarf). Floral Mesh (p. 218) is also appealing.

slipper and hat pictures

Hat! This is for my older brother, made with Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride Superwash:




I was concerned he might not like it but he put it on his head and asked if he could have it (and seemed genuinely sad when I lied and said I made it for myself, hee) so I am confident he really likes it. I made a similar hat for myself, only it is blue on white instead of white on blue.

Slippers! On the left is Lamb's Pride Bulky (Seattle Mariners dark blue and teal green, for mom) and on the right is dyed Fisherman's Wool (evening blue and periwinkle, for sister-in-law):

Lily's booties

Here is where I babble about experimenting with the pattern I used to make Lily's booties...

First thing I did was made these in the round instead of flat. I wasn't keen on grafting all that reverse stockinette and K2P2 ribbing and making it look seamless. Why do that when I can make it seamless by working in the round?

The pattern says to end the top of the foot with a K row but that seemed backwards to me (because of how I would have had to pick up the sts on the sides) so I ended on a P row and picked up the 16 sts on each side like I would for the gusset of a sock.

Working the sides of the foot was easy enough, I just changed the pattern's definition of a flat section as "K1 row, P1 row, K1 row" to "P 3 rounds" and "K 3 rounds" (alternating, starting with P3 rounds after picking up the side sts).

I changed the final 3 rows of the foot from K 3 rounds to P 2 rounds -- the kitchener join takes the place of the third round, and I turned the bootie inside out before grafting. I think this makes the sole flow more naturally from the foot's bottom "bumper." Hard to explain but I did it both ways and prefer my way.

I tried 4 different soles before I found one that made me happy. Basically what I was after were soles that would sit flat without any peaks. (The sole as written in the original patterm was practical but ugly.) I tried to do a short row sole in stockinette and it worked OK but it still wasn't perfect and as long as I was in an experimental mood... then I realized I had 84 foot stitches on my needles. I've made so many of those Fiber Trends felted slippers I knew the garter st sole ended up with 85 sts ... couldn't I just make the same sole, skip over a M1 on the final row to come up with 84 sts, and then kitchener it to the completed foot? Yep. I can't say it's FUN to kitchener 168 stitches (x 2 for a pair) off the needles but damn it looks nice, exactly as I envisioned it.

Next time I should try to make the garter st sole in reverse in the round (using K2tog/P2tog instead of M1) to avoid grafting around the outer edge. Might work, might not, I'll save that experiment for later.

There was no gauge given on the pattern so I did them at 10 sts/inch on size 0 needles. I don't think I'd make them any larger in the future, they are already too large for a newborn so she will have to grow into them.

Anyway, here they are. I think they're even cuter in person. I used up the leftover sock yarn from my Trekking socks and the colors don't reproduce well in this photo, the blues and blue-green colors are much prettier. I told my mom I wouldn't make anything for Lily in pink (my least favorite color) and she said that was fine, I should use whatever color I liked ...



Here's my sock made from the same ball of yarn, this gives a better idea of what the colors look like in person:

Photos of felted slippers & blue sock

Well it took a while but I finally felted the first two pairs of slippers. Fortunately I am pleased with how they look so I will finish the remaining 8 pairs for Christmas 2003. I'm making a total of 10 pairs instead of 9, Dee is getting a pair too. She picked out orange and red at the yarn shop which looks pretty cool and nothing I would have thought of putting together, so I really like that.

Oh, these slippers are super comfortable too. Oddly enough I never once thought about how they might FEEL on the foot, so it was a pleasant surprise to slip them on and think "Ooooooh, niiiiiiiice!" The soles are thick and comfy.

I did something wild and crazy, I took a photo of the latest blue sock before its mate is finished. Oh well, it's not like I've ever had a problem with the dreaded "second sock syndrome" so it will definitely be finished sometime soon, I'm almost to the heel on sock #2 already. I can't afford to buy yarn and then not use it.





And here's the pretty blue sock (worked on size 0 needles) from the Trekking sock yarn I bought at the sale last month: