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July 28, 2008
Reasons
Reason for finishing the socks on the 17th but blogging about them 11 days later: moving. My 386-square foot apartment is crammed with boxes, empty and filled. My furniture is in in every corner and in all states of disassembly. I've been sleeping on my couch for about a week now. Stress levels are through the roof :(.
Reason for blogging about the socks now: moving. Everything must either go into a box, into the trash, into the donation pile, or bust! So, I must pack these up and send them off to grandma!
Pattern: Belle Époque from 2-at-a-time socks
Needles: Initially, there wasn't going to be anything "2-at-a-time" about my version of these socks: each one would be knit, in turn, using my trusty Susan Bates US 1 dpns, set of 5. But wouldn't you know it, somehow the 2-at-a-time theme snuck in! Still not in the spirit of the book, which recommends Magic Loop, but I did have two socks going at once!
Yarn: Colinette JitterBug, 100% merino wool, moss colorway (#75). Such gorgeous yarn, such stinky put-up. The skimpy yardage resulted in two ankle-high socks and a whopping 3.3 grams of yarn left over. Bah.
Reason for not mailing the socks until the blog post went up: I wouldn't mail them until I measured the gauge. And I wouldn't measure the gauge until I was in the process of writing the post, because everything in my apartment is currently under the threat of disposal or being packed away - I'd never find that note ever again.
Gauge: 30 stitches and 42 rounds in circular stockinette stitch.
Reason for intermittent blogging until at least mid-August, if not later: do I even need to say it?
Posted by Kathy at 09:12 PM | Comments (66)July 22, 2008
Nuance
Those of us who dabble in photography consider light both our best friend, and our worst enemy. Truth be told, I have been less than thrilled with my photographs of the 21-25 scarf, or more specifically, the gorgeous yarn from which it's knit: the colors have been coming out too uniform, too flat. The oomph and pop and interest that I see in real life have not materialized very well in two-dimensional images.
While knitting this weekend, I finally realized the issue: I have been blasting the project with too much light! I've been putting the fabric against a light-colored background, and illuminating it with as many lamps as possible. This, I think, creates too much contrast and everything "dark", no matter how many different tones comprise this "darkness", comes out looking uniformly black! The expression "harsh lighting" comes to mind.
But look at what I got when I placed the knitting against black fabric, and snapped a photo on a very overcast night, at dusk:
The image has been cropped slightly, but I didn't find it necessary to do any color corrections with a manual exposure of 1/500 sec, ISO 800.
The color nuances amaze me. Do you see them, too? Grays, purples, browns, blues? So moody and dark! That's talented dyeing, I tell you!
I specifically worked on getting a few shots of the border for you, because that's an area where I've made some changes to the pattern, and I wanted to share them with you.
As you remember, my mild case of tetraphobia combined with a limited supply of yarn resulted in my decision to make the scarf a bit more narrow than prescribed. Specifically, the pattern's 4 border repeats result in 58 stitches in the center of the scarf. In contrast, my 3 border repeats evolved into 44 center stitches, 14 fewer. (Yeah, that's a whole lot of evil fours to battle, I know! Fortunately, 44 stitches are not as immediately obvious as, say, 4 border repeats!)
Where was the nipping 'n tucking? Unfortunately, VLT
The eliminated stitches are highlighted in purple. I nixed a column of eyelets on each side, so that the main pattern is surrounded by 3 columns to the left and right instead of 4 (surprised??). I also ditched the garter stitch border, because I felt the fabric had enough stability from those wedge-shaped indentations (also garter stitch). And at the end, my version looks like this:
Pardon the wrinkles: this scarf is far from complete, and certainly not blocked. Not even pinned, just smoothed out with my hands!
Posted by Kathy at 09:39 PM | Comments (32)July 18, 2008
Eye Candy Friday: relief edition
I don't think I've ever been as happy as I am right now to see two completed sock toes! Two sock toes which belong to two identical socks, I should add, with a little ball of leftover yarn to boot! I really couldn't stomach another frog-a-thon, so let's hear a big "whew!" for the finished Belle Époques!
As you know, the Maths and I are BFF, and once again I was not disappointed with their powers. Miraculously (or is it, predictably?) all the calculations worked out and I got as much fabric out of the JitterBug skein as I possibly could. The little ball of leftover yarn weighs in at 3.3 grams, and each repeat of the pattern takes 2.8 grams, so I couldn't have squeezed in another repeat (for both socks) even if I wanted to.
Not that I would want to! Currently the socks have 13 repeats each, which is an excellent number in my book. If I added one more, that would make 14, which, naturally, sucks. Not as much as 4 because it's tempered with the goodness of 1, but close. It's weird, I know.
I'll show you just how good 13 looks after the socks are blocked! The stitches are a bit wrinkled from all the frogging, so a long soak is in order. Until then, since it's an Eye Candy Friday post, here's the same photo as above, but with a bit of processing to highlight the gorgeous bursts of red in this colorway:
Posted by Kathy at 12:57 AM | Comments (37)
July 10, 2008
Chicken
And after all was weighed, calculated, and planned, I decided to frog the first sock and re-knit it to match the shorter one.
The decision was instantaneous. Well, I first tried to thread a lifeline through the round in question for 15 minutes, but after that, it only took an instant to frog the majority of that first sock!
If you've ever tried to knit (or frog!) something from the "opposite direction" - not from where you were last knitting, but from the cast-on edge - then you know that stockinette loops look the same whether you're working up or down. Ribbing is trickier, because the working loops are between knits and purls - it just looks odd, but functions okay (as long as you aren't trying to knit more ribbing, because it will never match up).
In the case of Belle Époque, however, I was dealing with eyelets and decreases, patterned on every round, which proved to be beyond my level of patience and persistence. Fifteen minutes later, I declared, "not worth it!" and frogged with absolute assurance! As far as I was concerned, this was the one and only solution all along ;).
Every good plan needs a Plan B, right? Can't say the Maths were wasted, since I still would have needed to crunch the numbers to know how much to frog ;).
Yes, I have several sets of those dpns, for situations just like this one, and for multiple WIPS, should the need arise. No, I don't recommend walking around with that getup on your feet. Not because you might trip and fall, or stab yourself... but because the needle will slip right out and you'll lose your stitches!
July 08, 2008
This is not an optical illusion
One of these things... is entirely not like the other!
And sadly, it's not an optical illusion! Here's another visual.
The sock on the right, in addition lacking a toe, is about 2" shorter than the sock on the left!
As I cast-on for the second Belle Époque sock, I noticed that the leftover skein was looking mighty skimpy. Huh, I thought, it's going to be a tight squeeze! I remembered being warned about the scant yardage of Colinette Jitterbug - 320 yards for a pair of socks... For comparison, Lorna's Laces spoils me rotten with 430 yards/pair! But it wasn't until I had fully started the second sock that I finally threw the thing on the scale.
Whaddayouknow... the first, knit with abandon, loving the yarn, better make these generous for grandma, grown-up sized sock had consumed about 60% of the available yardage. And now it... I mean, I, will suffer :(.
The plan is simple: I crunched some numbers and figured out that in order to distribute the yarn equally between the two socks, the first sock had to donate about 3 pattern repeats to the second.
Naturally, this donation will have to come from the cuff of the sock - grandma's feet are not shrinking in length any time soon! Anklets were not my original intent, but I'm going with it - grandma loves all of her socks equally, there are no favorites (so she tells me).
To cannibalize the yarn, I'm going to thread a length of waste yarn through the round in question, snip above, unravel, re-knit the picot edge (or maybe just graft the original? I haven't decided), and use whatever is left for the second sock's toe. I call on the Power of the Maths to make sure the cannibalized amount will be enough!
As for the technique, good thing this is not my first time! Mia shrug, Filati tunic, and the Kristen hat have all paved the way for this next surgery. Wish me luck!
Posted by Kathy at 10:08 PM | Comments (57)July 01, 2008
I'm not a psychic (it's a good thing)
Happy knitaversary to me,
Happy knitaversary to me,
Happy knitaversary, dear Grumpy,
Happy knitaversary to me!
And many more!
Time sure flies! Yes, it was four years ago that I confused knitting with crochet, and accidentally learned the former while aiming for the latter.
On my first and second knitaversaries we looked back and re-visited the first swatches of a novice knitter. On my third knitaversary we looked ahead - just when you think you've tried it all, there's always more to learn.
On this, my fourth, knitaversary I do not intend to give into nostalgia or wistfulness. Instead I'm feeling grateful that our craft is so freaking flexible. What is more amendable, pliable, and modifiable than knitting? Where else can you add stitches, subtract rows, swap colors, insert panels, and change drape either individually or all at once? Knit a lace shawl tonight, and a cotton bath rug tomorrow morning? Whatever your whim, there's a pattern. And if there isn't, you can take the next best thing and modify, or even start from scratch. We knit what we want, when we want to, and in a way that makes us happy.
On this, my fourth knitaversary, I'm delighted to have the ability to get rid of the number four in my latest project ;).
Again I succumb to stupid numbers. Just like the Fir Cone scarf pattern, the 21-25* scarf pattern starts out with four repeats of the border motif.
And I hate four!
Why???
Isn't it immediately obvious?!? Four is a bad number! Some numbers are good, and others, like four, are bad. Duh!
I actually have an entire mental inventory of good and bad numbers, and the distinction doesn't seem to follow any obvious pattern. Sometimes I try to come up with an explanation for the goodness or badness of a particular number, and... it's arbitrary. I'm just arbitrary. I'm so glad I don't make my living as a psychic!
One thing's for sure: four is bad, whereas three and five are fine. So, the very first 21-25 scarf pattern modification was to change the number of border repeats.
When knitting the Fir Cone scarf, I went with 5 repeats instead of 4. In this case, I decided to downsize to 3. My reasons: first and foremost, I only have 500 yards of yarn. If I want this scarf to be 55-65" long (that's a good length for me), it will have to be quite narrow. But not too narrow! After completing 3 border repeats the scarf dry-blocked to 11" wide. That's exactly the width specified in the pattern, and the same width as the Fir Cone scarf.
Which brings me to the second reason: I decided to knit this gorgeous STF Atropos on US 3 circs (these ones). My yarn overs have a little more breathing room (compared to knitting with smaller needles: US 0-1.5 would be my typical choice for such fine yarn), so 3 repeats seems exactly right. Four is out of the question, and 5 would make a scarf too wide and not long enough, I think.
On this, my fourth knitaversary, three repeats it is. I love that knitting allows me to make this modification, just like that ;) [snaps fingers].
*Small, but very important side note: what I'm affectionately calling the 21-25 scarf pattern can be found on page 100 of Victorian Lace Today
