One Down.....

....any excuse to post a pic of one of my furbabies...

Finally!, my first sock, finished. As I begin work on it's mate it becomes obvious that I did not do such a good job of recording what I did on the first one. I thought it would be nice to add a ribbed (all purl row) periodically down the leg, unfortunately I did not note how many rows between each so I am carrying around the completed one to go by. I do this all the time. I begin working on a pattern and consider altering it a bit, feeling sure I will remember what I did, and if I lay it down for any length of time I forget. But after so many years I doubt I will ever learn and start taking notes, that would be too easy. The purled row part is easy enough to work out, I can't wait until I get to the "turning of the heel"

Catching Up

It has been sometime since I have contributed to this blog, not for lack of want, unfortunately not only is life not always about fibre, but there are even times when we find it difficult to enjoy more than a few minutes of the day with it. Oh well let's not dwell on the unpleasantness of that possibility and move on...

Though life has kept me very busy these past few months I had devoted whatever free time afforded me, when I was not too exhausted from other activities, for fibre.

Since my last post here was about DH socks, let me start where I left off. When May approached I had made some real progress but since it was evident that the weather would not be conducive for sock wearing anytime soon I put them down to work on other projects.

Now, as we prepare to say goodbye to August and even though the temperatures have been consistently in the triple digits, we won't even discuss the heat index, I need to get finished with these socks. It is my hope to have them finished by our 29th wedding anniversary but that only leaves me a couple of weeks. Who knows...miracles do happen.

I am getting ready to start decreasing for the toe. Our new fibre sister Nancy has been so helpful, especially when I faced the dreaded "turning of the heel", EM was right, she told me it would not be as hard as most people fear, but without Nancy's guidance it would have been that much more difficult mainly due to the anxiety of anticipating what lie ahead from listening to others talking about how the heel was the most difficult part. But once shown the proper way, along with the invaluable tips she passed on to me, learned through experience, it all seemed to make sense. I have said it before, one of the greatest gifts anyone can offer is knowledge taken from their experiences.

DH's Socks

My DH enjoys wearing clogs. An "old hippie", they remind him of the early 70's when he used to wear them in Germany, and, more currently, they are conducive to the weather here in the south. Easy to pull on and off if one decides to go barefoot, and it rarely gets cold enough to wear boots during the winter so a pair of socks work fine to keep feet warm in a pair of clogs during the winter months.

This being my first attempt at making socks, who better to practice on....? I decided to try one of those pattern making yarns, instead of spinning my own, for several reasons. The first, being quite obvious, is that trying to create a similar patterned yarn is impossible, and it is fun watching the pattern emerge as you knit, and then durability is a contributing factor. You really need a strong material, unless you want to take up darning as a past-time. Nylon, while synthetic, does lend to wearability<---is that a word?

As with everything else I thought I would teach myself, and felt I was doing ok, but when I met with the guild and showed my progress to EM and another sock expert, I discovered that I did nearly everything wrong from the needles to the pattern I chose. I was following a pattern offered online but with each row completed I began to notice that the stitches were awful loose, so I had a feeling the needles, even though I was using what the pattern called for, were a bit too large. I was using a 3mm and they probably would have gotten the job done but as the accomplished sock knitter from our guild pointed out, the looser the stitch the less support and elasticity they offer.

Working with multiple double pointed needles can be quite cumbersome, as I bet everyone will agree. When I asked EM how she manages all those needles at once she pointed out that a shorter length, makes all the difference, even if only by an inch. So after another fibre sister offered the use of a set she had I was amazed at the difference, still awkward, there no longer seems to be points everywhere while trying to get at my work.

So, now armed with the right tool, size #1 US needles at 6", and a good pattern with a sizing chart that offers more precise sizing; and ribbing options, which I probably don't need to be too concerned with since the colouring in the yarn will delineate the pattern not the ribbing, so much, I feel confident that I will be able to produce a decent sock....we will see.

I added this last picture not for the sake of documenting my project, but rather the nice 'one project bag' I found from Lantern Moon. I really like it. It is just the right size to carry a single project, and though anything from Lantern Moon tends to be a bit beyond my price range, their products are well crafted and absolutely beautiful.... and we know, or at least we should know, that we deserve to buy something for ourselves, ever so often, that we may not normally feel comfortable buying.