More 2 on 2 socks

With Sock Wars on the horizon, I was still curious if I could knit a pair of socks faster by doing 2 socks at the same time on 2 circulars instead of one at a time on DPNs. So, I cast on the practice pattern and soon realized that it wasn't a friendly pattern for a beginner of the 2 socks on 2 circulars method. Immediately after the cuff ribbing I had to transfer one sock to DPNs for a set-up round that required moving some stitches between needles, which is something you really can't do easily when doing 2 socks at a time this way. The rest of the leg went smoothly and I thought I might be set for the rest of the socks, but then I ran into a similar problem again when starting the heel.

The heel set-up for this pattern is quite different from others that I've knit so far. It doesn't just use the half stitches that are already on the needle for the heel - instead it has you knit just over half of the heel stitches you'll need, then turn and grab the others from another needle. While that wouldn't be a problem with DPNs, it did require shifting one sock off of the circulars again. So this time I just knit the heel flap and turn for each sock separately - one on the circulars and one on the DPNs. Once I picked up the gusset stitches I transferred the other sock back to the circulars to do 2 at a time, but of course I got confused somewhere and goofed it up a bit. Once sock ended up with 19 gusset stitches while the other only had 18. This is where it becomes obvious that I'm not a perfectionist knitter because I didn't bother to go back and fix it but rather did 2 decrease rows on the larger gusset just to get them in sync. Then I noticed that instead of starting the gusset reducing rows on the K2Tog side, I'm now starting them on the SSK side. Again, I'm hoping that's not too obviously ugly because I just didn't have it in me to tink back far enough to fix it.

I wonder if the official Sock Wars pattern will be this unusual? I'm still tempted to try it with the 2 on 2 method and now I have practice with moving a sock off to DPNs when needed. I've also mastered the tangling of the yarn somewhat in that I rarely get it caught between the needles and it's feeling less fiddly that it did for my first 2 on 2 attempt. Of course, I probably won't be able to get away with the screw-ups when it's war.

Oh, and I must mention that this is some of the first yarn that has really surprised me - I had no idea that yarn from this skein was going to knit up like it has. Nifty!

Falling Behind...

So, I have a lot of sock yarn stash. I love this about me, but it makes me sad that I don’t get to use more of it. So this year I decided to do something about it. I gathered all of my sock yarn stash in one place.

I chose 4 of my favorite sock yarns, and I had each of my two kids choose their four favorites. This was the results are below. From left to right, it's Xander's, then mine, then Maya's.


I then pulled out all of the patterns that I had printed off of the internet and all of my knitting magazines, and I paired up all 12 sock yarns with a pattern. I now had 12 sock kits so that I could knit a pair of socks a month from my stash, like my own “Amy’s Stash” sock club.

However, I also joined the Rockin’ Sock Club and the Woolgirl Sock Club. These both ship every other month and alternate with each other, which means one pair of socks per month from a sock club. Two pair per month. 24 pair total. I can knit that, if not much else. So why am I behind???

January: I have a baby shower to go to, and (of course) I am knitting gifts for it. So I knit up the circular baby blanket, finished on January 17th. I start an adorable baby sweater the same day, which I finished on January 30th (JUST in time for the shower the next day!) Awesome of me, but it sucked up the month of January in terms of knitting.

My self stash January socks were a Basic Sock Yarn Pattern by Ann Budd, and I used Sunshine Yarns in Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes, a sock yarn that I have loved since I bought it and hadn’t had a chance to use it yet although I had owned it for over a year (this is what I’m talking about!) So I started it January 27th, after I finished knitting the baby sweater but before assembling it. These socks were interrupted by the January shipment of the Rockin’ Sock Club! All of my sock club shipments so far have been at the very end of the month in question. I decided that sock clubs take priority over personal stash socks, so I started Queen of Beads on January 28th.

February: Finished Queen of Beads on February 18th. These are knit in STR lightweight in My Blue Heaven. Continued working on Basic Socks.

March: Finished my Basic Socks on March 1st. Go me! Unfortunately, I’m behind on my personal stash socks and my February sock club because it hasn’t even gotten here yet! Also on March 1st: started my February personal stash socks, Cookie A’s Monkeys using Artyarns Ultramarino in turquoise and brown (another of my favorites!) March 4th : started my February Woolgirl Sock Club kit! These were complicated with much cabling and took me waaaay too long to finish.

April: April 6th: Finished Majestic by Elizabeth Warner knit in Zen Yarn Garden Serenity in Gold Dynasty. Very pretty. April 7th : started Rogue Roses by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee in STR Mediumweight Gertrude Skein. These are still on the needle. One is done and the other is halfway down the leg.

So my current status is: January and February sock clubs complete, March sock club in process (will probably be done before April is over!) and April sock club should be at my door any day now. I am trying to knit like the wind and have my March sock done before April arrives! Personal stash socks: January is complete, February has ¾ of one sock complete. So I am behind and falling farther behind all of the time! However, my goal is still to knit 24 pairs of socks this year! Really, I’m just trying to make up for the whole month of January that wasn’t spent on socks, and the huge amount of time that the Majestic socks took!

Sorry for the huge blog, but I guess what I lack in quantity I make up for in volume!

And the Mystery Project was...

... Sariebeth's Nutkin socks! I was worried that they might not fit since they're the first socks I've completed without ever having the intended recipient try them on, but it seems they were a success. I also didn't expect them to do the candy stripe thing, but then the purchase of that particular yarn never went as expected anyway.

Now the pattern itself was fun and simple, but I had a random mental block when it came to the directions for the short row heels with yarn overs. I found short row heels with wraps much easier, but I also followed a tutorial with pictures. So, when I hit the wall with the textual description of the yarn over version, I got my brain back in gear by using the picture tutorial here. The part that tripped me up was knowing what was intended by "On the right/knit side, yarn over and knit to the first yo and K3Tog (knit 2 yarn overs and knit stitch in the following stitch together). Turn." As you can see in the tutorial, once you have the yarn overs on the needles the stitches tend to group up so you see them in little pairs. Now, when you get to that particular step you have a pattern of stitches that looks something like this on the left needle:

X  XX  XX  XX  X  XX

For some reason I had a hard time deciding which part of that pair that was separated to the right counted as a stitch and which counted as a yarn over for knitting "to the first yo". The trick for me was to remember that I had to get it to look something like this each time before the K3Tog or SSSP:

X  XX  XX  XX  X  X

So you actually knit part of that stranded pair as a stitch before starting that step. Then the K3Tog or SSSP includes only the right stitch of the pair farthest to the right and the two single stitches a the end of the needle. Obviously the tutorial is clearer than my little text diagrams so I didn't bother taking additional pictures to explain my particular brain fart. But, now that I have that little diagram in my head I don't have problems remembering how to do this version of a short row heel.

Now I just have to remember to compare the two short row heel techniques sometime to try to decide which I like better or if they're fairly equivalent. After a fair bit of practice with the SSSPs I think they may be easier for me to pick up than the multiple wraps, but I also haven't tried those lately and I've had more knitting practice than I had when I first learned the wrapped short row heels.

So there you go, a link to the helpful tutorial as promised and the first reveal of a Mystery Project. Now that sariebeth has a pair of socks with short row heels she can start weighing in on how they fit versus the other heel styles, too.

It should've been done by now

One of my mystery projects should have been off the needles by now. I don't even have a good explanation for why I've had such problems with it, but it very much reminded me of something The Yarn Harlot posted on her blog:

Every once in a while I get into a thing with my knitting. I don't know what happens, but it's like I knit like an idiot and can't pull my head out of my arse, and I either make mistake after mistake or generate problem after problem and I can't seem to stop.

Now, she was making a complicated lacy shawl and my project is much, much simpler. And I don't generally use the word arse. But otherwise, that seems an incredibly fitting description of one of my recent knitting nights.

The majority of the project has been going along just fine. There's just this one part where my brain just will not cooperate. There's even something about the way the directions are written that even if I stare at them I just don't process it correctly. I went through it the first time I came to that part, struggled for a bit and then figured it out. Then, probably all of a week later when I got to that part again... whammo! Whatever memories I had of how I'd solved my brain fart before had been magically erased.

I would get started easily enough and then find out I somehow ended on a purl row instead of a knit row. I'd magically end up with one too many or one too few stitches. I would get part way in, find out it looked wrong, rip out a ways, vow to try it again in a different way, then notice that I didn't actually do it a different way. Rip back again. Knit to about the same point, still wrong. Try something that didn't really seem to match the instructions but might look OK, no, still ugly. After a couple hours of struggling and having re-knit the same 10-15 rows at least 9 times I finally just put the project down and switched to my other project for a few rows just so that I wouldn't be too disgusted with myself to get to sleep.

Luckily I woke up the next day with determination to search for better explanations of the technique online. I found a pictorial version that really helped and then quickly got past that part in one simple try that night. Phew! So, once I finish up the knitting and give the mystery project to its intended recipient I'll make sure to link to the page that helped my feeble brain get past the hiccups that reading text just didn't fix.

Lesson learned.

I'm sitting at work (7pm) in between conference calls. Got another one starting in an hour. Realizing that I really should have brought my other sock with me. The toe on sock number one got stitched up last night while I had a glass of wine and the Amazing Race. Ready for the cast on of number two.

I have to stay at work tonight because I have this other call till 9:30 and then back at it at 7 am tomorrow. Which is fine but I forgot the knitting! It's official, my hands do not know what to do without some needles.

Glee.

It's the only word for the emotion.

I do love them. I'm absurdly proud of them. Not because they are fancy or anything, but because these just took some personal grit to finish.
























Aaaaaaaaand...I have a little something else to show you.

A very sariebeth sock, if I do say so myself. They are really fun to knit and I am loving how they feel. They fit like a glove. I need to do the toe and then I get to make one more.
























Now, I have an issue where I need help. It has to do with gauge for Sock Wars. After doing a gauge swatch, I think I am getting 8 stitches to the inch but 11 rows per inch. Gauge said 8 spi and 10 rpi. How do I solve this issue?

Also, I'm way excited about the yarn for my Sock Wars socks. Hope I can figure out how to get gauge. Should I try with a thicker yarn?

Not every project is a Mystery Project

I added a new project this week and didn't mark it as a Mystery Project, even though I'm planning it as a small Easter gift for this weekend. Xandermommy was kind enough to give me the small ball of yarn leftover from some of her socks and it was just enough to turn into some booties for my future niece or nephew. I even knit them two at a time with my circular needles so I could monitor my yarn usage and I'm going to use practically every last scrap to finish them. I know she wanted at least one Work In Progress that wasn't shrouded in mystery, so there you go!

I was also met with a flattering Ravelry milestone this week when the pattern designer for my Wavy Ron Socks chose one of my photos as an example picture for her pattern page! Xandermommy was already chosen for such an honor for her Maya's Fabulous Halloween Sweater and although it's partly because we both used patterns that don't have many projects associated with them yet, it's still neat. Sariebeth, you're next!

I hope everyone has a happy Easter weekend!

Sock Wars

Did we confirm that ludistitcher joined Sock Wars? What is your name in the game if so? I went with plain old sariebeth.

Oh no, she didn't!

Yes, I used an exclamation point. These are used to convey loudness. As was my shriek when I saw ravelry tonight. Allow me to set the scene (dreamy waves flash across the screen):

sitting here at the computer, basking in the glow that we here at the sariebeth house have finished our taxes (really, Mr. sariebeth's doing, but good on him) and I thought "I could go update the status on my projects! Tra la la!" In my "tra la la" mindset, I update my project progress (boom!) and go to check on my darling friends. That's when I notice this:

Stash Count
xandermommy 36
sariebeth 39
ludistitcher 27

Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa?! Am I losing it?! Is it time to up the meds?! Do I have more yarn than xandermommy?! How did it come to this?!

And then I start thinking...is my yarn just dense? Really dense? Like black hole dense? Because I know how big MY yarn storage is, and I know how big xandermommy's yarn storage is...

It's like trying to divide a big number by 13 in your head. Puzzling.

Woolgirl Sock Club #1

Okay, I was so excited about getting my first Woolgirl sock club kit back at the end of February that I took tons of pictures, planning on blogging about it right away. Well, I'm finally ready to write that blog! First of all, here's the box and the happy helper ready to participate in the opening of said box:

Wow! Now that I know how long it takes to upload pictures on free wireless internet from a Ramada Inn, I'll have to instruct you to check out my Majestic socks project in Ravelry, where I've uploaded photos of the kit and my socks. I've been knitting on them while on vacation this week, so the second sock is about halfway done now.

The club kit included a large silk project bag from Lantern Moon (love!), a stitch marker from Mama Llama, some body lotion, a hand decorated card, a Soak sample, a pen that says "Queen of Knitting" (the theme of the kit was Cleopatra!), and a decorated origami box that contained two chocolates. One was silver dusted, one was gold dusted. The kids ate those :). And of course, the yarn and pattern. Two patterns, actually. One for a scarf and one for socks. I opted for the socks, which are cableicious and very time consuming! The yarn is Zen Yarn Garden in Gold Dynasty, a color unique to the 2009 Woolgirl sock club. The yarn is yummy to work with. I don't love the color, which is why I opted for the socks-- I knew I wouldn't wear a gold scarf. Okay, I'll add one photo of the kit, but then I'm going to bed. I have to drive back to Indiana tomorrow!

What's that on your head?

Here's a little April Fool's Day fun pulled from the Ravelry forums!

sariebeth:


xandermommy:


ludistitcher: