Magic Loop

The crayon socks are drying. With luck, I can pack them for my trip this weekend.

And I am in love with the Magic Loop method. Oh, my goodness – it’s so easy and makes so much sense. I’m making the Figure-8 toe right now, and it’s so much easier than short rows. I couldn’t do it at all on dpns, but it’s obvious with ml. I’m using stitch markers to keep count – it’s just easier to count to 6 (I’m going up to 60 stitches for these socks, since they’re of a stretchy lace) than to 30, four stitches every other round. I’m putting the increases one stitch from the end of each needle, right leaning on the right and left on the other, so it should look very pretty.

But that’s not the best part. The best part was knitting on the bus. I wasn’t worried about dropping a dpn, and stashing the sock back into the bag was a matter of making sure all the stitches were on the cable, which took less than a second. No making the needles all even, no jamming a fifth needle into the yarn. I didn’t even need to finish the needle. I just needed to ensure that my ring marker had a stitch on both sides.

So, what do I do with my 1 and 4/5 sets of Clovers and my Brittanys now? (Actually, I can see using them anyway, and there are things I want to play with. But the best part of knitting, besides the simple act and then wearing the creations, is learning new things.)

Not quite finished

I was going to finish the crayon socks (formerly t he clown socks) last night, but I got stalled.

1. When I was in the supermarket to pick up something for dinner, I could smell the rotisseirie chicken, and it was just delicious. So instead of the chicken filets I was going to get, I bought a whole broiler, which means I had to pay attention to the cooking. (I roasted it very plainly – just a light coating of vegetable oil and a few grinds of pepper – but at high heat. I served it with tiny baked potatoes and steamed baby carrots dusted with garam marsala. It was exactly what I wanted. And my husband came home at the *perfect* moment.)

2. I write fanfiction. At present, I’m working on a long-for-me story based on Terry Pratchett’s Discworld. I did some writing during downtime at work and mailed what I thought was the new material back home. Only that didn’t happen. So I had to spend a fair bit of time recreating what I’d written. Since that usually results in a better written scene, I was only mildly bothered.

3. I spent the time I wasn’t writing or cooking researching and practicing my next project – lace socks using Magic Loop. Turns out that I like Magic Loop. It works well for me. Of course, I had to do it to know that.

But I did so much figuring for the lace and the basic mechanics, I forgot to concentrate on the toe using the Figure 8 cast-on (this turns out to be intuitive for Magic Loop and me, but I kinda didn’t read past the initial instructions.) Also, again, charting even very simple lace is just the way to go. It makes it all plain. I’m not surprised – I’m primarily a tactile person (which is why I need to make things – just looking at a chart isn’t enough. I have to make it) but I’m also highly visual, so seeing it right there is important.

So I’m still at the final ribbing for the crayon socks, and again I spent a large portion of the bus ride correcting things, but I hope to be finished tonight. And I’ll be taking the lace socks to my brother-in-law’s wedding. For which he has not considered rain contingencies. This wedding wasn’t so much planned as toss together.

Out of the closet

No, not that.

I wore my first finished socks to work this morning. This is a big deal – I’ve been wearing them on days off and they’ve just been getting more comfortable, but never to work before.

Perhaps if I wore pants, it wouldn’t be a problem, but I don’t. I only wear skirts (other than for martial arts.) So the socks are going to be seen.

But, you know. They’re cute. And they work with what I’m wearing. And, honestly, no one cares – I’m the receptionist in a storefront real estate office. I dress better than the agents on my worst days. No one will care about a pair of socks. Also, it means I can wear the pair I’ll be finishing tonight. And the ones I’ll be starting right afterwards.

On a vaguely different note, I was standing at a bus stop yesterday working on my sock when a woman came up and told me they were gorgeous and that she saw them as she walked up the block (they’re very bright, so that makes sense.) And that I did beautiful work.
(I then spent half the bus trip laddering back to correct mistakes. Beautiful work. Hah!)

Round and round and it comes out here

When I was a little girl, my mother taught me how to wind yarn, and I got very good at it – I made perfectly round balls.  Most of the huge skeins of acrylic my mother used/uses came in pull-skeins, but sometimes it didn’t, and that’s when I wound it.  None of them were center-pull, of course.  We never heard of such a thing.

Now, most of the yarn I’ve been using has come in nice skeins  so I didn’t feel the need to rewind it, except for the yarn I bought in a Park Slope yarn shop, but that was wound in the store and I got these pretty cakes.  And I was satisfied.

Last night, I was ready to change yarn again for my wrap, and on a whim, I wound ithe new skein into a ball, using my thumb to keep the center open.  It took about twenty minutes.  I got a ball that wasn’t as pretty as the one I got using a niddy-noddy and a ball-winder, but it was still fine, and I could squash it so it was flat on the bottom,and the wool pulls easily. It’s been a pleasure to knit from.  I think that if I have the time, I’ll do this again. 

Although winding sock yarn seems rather daunting.

Speaking of that yarn shop – I went there on Friday (I love summer Fridays. There’s just so much *time*) because I lost one of my Clover dpns and I wanted to replace it without waiting for mail-order.  I’ve been using one of my Brittanys but I do prefer the Clovers.

While there, I asked about sock yarn, but she doesn’t carry much.  There isn’t much call for it there and she’s not a sock knitter herself.  Given the profit margin for yarn shops, this makes sense.  I did buy the Vogue Quick Reference Guide and I’ve already found it useful.

This is because I have decided to start a proper knitting notebook.  I don’t know how most people do it, but I went with a tiny signature bound Clairfountaine – just the size to fit in the cosmetic bag I use for my tools.  I wanted somethig with a grid, but since I couldn’t find one, I went with college rule and bought a pad of 6 square/inch graph paper in case I wanted to graph something.  I figured I’d just cut the graph out and paste it in the notebook.

On whim, I did that for the lace wrap, and even though I’ve made a couple dozen repeats, it’s still made the whole thing easier.  And I used the Vogue book for the symbols. See?  Useful.

So, because I wanted sock yarn, I bought a couple of skeins of Koigu from Patternworks and added a book on Magic Loop just to learn it.  I have the Addis.

Oh, and Brittany sent four sock needles.    I might yet use them. 

I also purchased a set of crochet hooks with a case to send to my mother for her birthday.  She’s more of a crocheter than a knitter.  I’d like to send her yarn, too, but I don’t know how much. 

Heel Success!

I’ll post a picture tomorrow (tonight, we’re going to see John Hegeman – the “I’m a PC” guy – in a benefit for writers and I’m at work now), but last night I finally, finally, *finally* made a good heel!

I used the unwrapped short-row heel from Priscilla A. Gibson-Roberts’ Simple Socks: Plain and Fancy, but *this* time I made the yarn-overs correctly and did all the fussy stitch remountings. And it was so worth it. Beautiful solid heel. Now that I’ve conquered this, I might make some adjustments for my narrow heels (and wide toes), but that’s for future socks, and I couldn’t adjust until I knew what I was doing.

It’s still much easier than wrapped short rows. I have the hardest time picking up purled wraps, and that just doesn’t happen here.

And, yes. Still used the stitch markers – split rings to keep track of the yarn-overs and one tiny ring on each side so I knew when I’d made 9 yarn overs on each side.

Lacy wrap

I wanted to show a couple pictures of sock-in-progress, but the camera, freshly back from vacation (and filled with pictures of my adorable future niece – in two weeks, her mother marries my brother-in-law) needs to be recharged, and I didn’t take the time to focus it properly. Besides, it looks like the other one with colors in the opposite direction.

I meant for that to happen.

So. Here are pictures of the wrap.

Here’s the whole thing:

Notice the pretty Inoxes and the lovely curled edge. This is a stockinette lace, with a garter stitch border. Since it does have a garter stitch border, I’m hoping it’ll block out.

Notice the stitch markers – they have to alternate colors or it would be wrong. Just wrong.

The one at the end is a locking stitchmarker so I can keep track of the rows. I knit the wrong rows twice and had to tink back each time. I want to avoid that in future. This has helped.

And here it is, close up.

See? All my little mistakes are practically invisible. Or not.

Wrap and sock musings

I’m still fascinated about how working on one project changes the way things happen on the other. The sock just seems to go so much faster – it’s the difference between working nearly straight stockinette (plus *five* purls) over 64 stitches and lace and cables over 126 stitches. I feel like I’m zooming.

What also makes a difference is that I’ve learned Norwegian purl. Yes, I do hum the Beatles song when I do it. I’m a geek, after all. The new stitch keeps the rhythm of the stockinette going.

As for the wrap- well, it’s a good thing I’m not a perfectionist, because this is less than perfect. Fortunately, perfection is a goal, not a requirement. Most of the cables are fine, but the lace portions – well, I don’t assume they’ll block out. I just hope blocking doesn’t make them more obvious. About the only thing I can say is that I’m making less errors and I’m keeping the stitch count the same. This is because of my beloved stitch markers, of course – one repetition at a time. I’m pretty much assuming that when I wear it, most people won’t even notice the mistakes.

In other news, husband came home on Thursday night and the world was right again.

Missing the husband and switching

My husband is away this week, visiting his parents.  He says, by the way, that it is nicer without me (to sulk and argue and be unhappy) but something is missing.

And I miss him.  So very much. 

He’s coming home tonight.  Yay.  With the camera, so no pictures of current works in progress.

On the other hand, I have done a tremendous amount of knitting.

It’s so odd switching between my two projects.

One is a sock – the sister to the other clown sock.  The yarn for this skein was wound in the opposite direction.  I momentarily thought about rewinding it twice to get a center pull ball in the correct direction,  then decided that it would be cute to have a pair of socks with the stripes in opposite order.    Anyway – sock yarn, size 0/2mm bamboo needles.  Simple pattern – stockinette on the sole, k3p1 rib on the instep.  64 stitches in total to knit around.

The other is a cable/lace wrap.  DK yarn (Knitpicks Classic Merino in Fog),  size 6/4mm Inox Express 16″ circular.

Note – the pattern I’m actually using is from an out-of-print Patons “Wrap it Up” pattern book.  This looks identical, down to the model, but mine calls for 4mm needles and ten skeins of DK.  And I got gauge with those needles.  So.  Shrug. 

I’m making a lot of mistakes, especially with the yarn overs, but I’m having fun and keeping the stitch count more or less.  And the cables are fun.

So I’m going from a relatively complex pattern (for me) with thicker  yarn and bigger, slicker needles to a simple one with thin yarn and pickup sticks.   And, of course, I’m going from pale grey to crayon-bright.   It’s an experience.

Sunday morning and lace

You’d think one of the hardest things about Shabbat is not being able to touch the knitting – especially if you were in the middle of a lace repeat that seemed to be missing stitches and you just couldn’t face frogging again.  But the sun was setting and that was that.

And there was also the second clown sock still on the crocheted cast-on chain, sitting right by the bed.

But, no.  I couldn’t even move them, so they basically didn’t exist. Doesn’t mean I didn’t pounce on the shawl as soon as I could.  And I looked at the repeat and realized I could make stitches and pick up yarnovers and it would work just fine.  So taking 25 hours off made it all work out better.

What also helps is the new needles – I got size 6 (4mm) Inox Express circulars (and, yes, Deb, I also got an Addi Turbo size 0 (2mm) 40 inch circular. You will have teaching to do.)  When I used the Clover bamboo needles, I felt like I was fighting them.  I love the bamboos for sock knitting, and for general knitting in the round, they’re fine, but it didn’t work for lace.

The Inox Express, though – I’d never use them as dpns, and I’d not be happy with them as straights, but as circulars (even working flat), they’re great.  They’re slick and pointy enough to do the lace maneuvers, the cable has very little memory,  and as for the cables…well.  I don’t use a cable needle.  And I was wondering just how much time I was saving while using the bamboos.  Well, with the Inoxes, it was intuitive.  The stitches slid off the needle and back on with almost no effort. 

And they were relatively inexpensive, too. 

I’ve also finished the toe for the second clown sock and it’s safely on four needles, so I can make it my travel project.

One Clown Sock

Regia Mini-Ringel. Wool/nylon blend. The colors are rather bright, but they’re fun to knit.

My gauge is tightening up, but size 0 needles work.

The foot

is plain stockinette on the sole and k3p1 rib on the instep.

The leg

was the same rib all the way round, after increasing four stitches. The cuff is a k2p2 rib, decreased by four stitches and finished with a sewn castoff.