SOCK LIFE

Do socks have a life? A friend of mine, who shares my enthusiasm for knitting socks, once expressed the desire to live in her sock drawer. We both think of our knitted socks as children of sorts who grow up, maybe move away, and have a productive life. I am confident that they don't have to pay taxes. But do they die?

My daughter acquired some parakeets as a young girl. She was quite fascinated and charmed with the budgies. To humor her, I dyed some wool yarn in parakeet colors and knit up some parakeet socks, shown above. She wore them for many years. They weren't made out of very good yarn to start with, and they didn't hold up well. They felted, they became permanently dingy. At least the dye didn't fade much. One of them even wandered off somewhere, as socks do sometimes. Possibly it even fled. Then the moths found the remaining one, and turned it into Parakeet Swiss Cheese (photo below, click to enlarge).


This sock has used up its useful life. It will no longer keep any feet warm or snuggly, but I cherish the memories. I can't bear to toss it in the trash. I guess it will have to go in the attic along with my favorite baby outfits that the kids outgrew (in a week). The first born of those babies is about to go far, far away, off to college, to begin his own life. It will be even harder to let him go.

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CHINESE LACE

It has taken me several years to figure out that the adjective "Chinese" does not always refer to a country in Asia, but is often used as a synonym for "weird". This charming stitch pattern in Barbara Walker's Second Treasury of Knitting Patterns (page 285) has always intrigued me with its unusual little wiggle from side to side.

For this reason the pattern does not lend itself well to flat, straight garments such as scarves or dishcloths, unless the resulting zig zags are part of the design. It works best for garments knit in the round, so that the wiggles mesh together into a whole. It looks best with a light yarn so that the little holes (yarn overs) stand out well.

I must have been slightly insane, therefore, when I chose a fingering weight cotton ribbon to make myself a top with this pattern. Ribbon just doesn't work very well for lace. And to make matters worse, I held two strands together! I can only justify myself by explaining that I got the cotton ribbon very cheaply, and it came on a spool of FIVE POUNDS!

The pattern itself is an original design. I am pleased with the way it looks. I even added some very clever shaping to fit my, ahem, rather triangular shape.

The yarn was stiff, slippery, and hard on the hands. I realized early on that my choice of yarns wasn't ideal. It was not my favorite project. I put it down for long periods of time, so that it took me about three years to get it done. And the most incredible thing happened after I finished and blocked it... I GOT AWAY WITH IT! Click the photos to enlarge.



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MISTAKE STITCH

Ribbing. It's made by knitting one or two stitches, and alternating with purling one or two stitches. You make it at the cuff of hats, sleeves, socks, or mittens. It is very elastic, and helps to keep them snug. Ribbing is also fully reversible- the fabric looks the same on both sides. The photo above shows ribbing made by alternating knit two, purl two over a multiple of four stitches.

What happens if you make a mistake, and accidently or on purpose leave out a stitch so that you have a multiple of four plus three stitches? You can still knit two purl two across, but you have to end up with a purl 1 stitch. The result is called mistake stitch, and looks like this:



This is one of my favorite stitches for dishcloths like the ones shown above. They are just nubby enough to scrub well, knit up very fast, and are reversible. These were also made at a critical width so that the colors in the yarn bounce back and forth joyfully. I used Peaches & Creme cotton yarn, size #6 knitting needles, and 35 stitches.


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HARUNI AGAIN

This is my second Haruni. It's a really fun pattern. Might not be my last. The first can be viewed in a previous post HERE. This one is knit from Jojoland "Melody", which does all the color changes for you.

It looked rather like a large leaf of lettuce before I blocked it:



It's finished just in time to model at my oldest son's graduation from high school. Unfortunately it's too warm to wear it!




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THROUGH A GLASS DARKLY

This is the reverse side of a stocking I made for our local yarn shop, Knit. I guess you can tell that the pattern is a Santa, but some of the details are rather obscure.

For the most part this stocking was made with intarsia technique (see previous post), but I reverted to Fair Isle technique for the green areas at upper left and upper right. In retrospect I'm not sure that was a good idea. Fair Isle knitting pulls the stitches together, so they are much more crowded in the patches where I used this method. It looks messy. If I had to do it again, I think I'd go with duplicate stitch (see previous post HERE).

The photo at left shows the chimney section of the stocking knitted with Fair Isle technique. On the right, I knit simple black horizontal stripes by switching yarns, and then duplicate stitched in the vertical lines. Much better!

Can you guess what the green areas are from the wrong side (top photo)?

At one time in my life I was exceedingly angry with God because it seemed like He allowed something really awful to happen in my life. I was obsessed with WHY? A wise friend suggested to me that God weaves our lives like a tapestry, and at present we can see only the tangly, colorful, and confusing wrong side of the fabric. God sees the right side- a glorious, beautiful work of art. We'll get to see it too, when we see Him face to face.

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CHRISTMAS IN APRIL

Fall is always such a crazy time because I am frantically knitting Christmas stockings for people who want their children or grandchildren to have one (this process is described in a previous post HERE). When our local yarn shop owner asked me to make a stocking or two to sell in the shop (Knit of Charleston SC), I just laughed. But now that we are well into spring, I can stand the sight of red, white, and green again. It's time to make some stockings for the shop, now that I can make them at my leisure.

I chose a pattern of my own design, the Chrismas argyle. I have to confess that while my children were small I was a bit of a scrooge about promoting the Santa myth, and I refused to make stockings (at least for my own family) with Santas on them (HOW could I LIE to my CHILDREN????). Hence the argyle design. I also used evergreen, snowflake, and poinsettia patterns. Now that the kids are nearly grown my views have perhaps softened a bit.

Most Christmas stockings, including the argyle patterns, are made using the intarsia technique (for a tutorial video click HERE). By this I mean that the stocking is made flat, and later seamed up. Each patch of color in the section is knitted with its own separate yarn, and the other colors are not carried across the row. If you have five patches of color (the argyle diamond shapes) across the row, then you have five strands of yarn connected to those shapes. This inevitably results in some very big tangles! Try as I might to avoid it, I generally have to stop to untangle yarn about every 6-8 rows.

The other technique for color knitting is called fair isle (for a tutorial video click HERE). In this method two colors are carried together around, and the unused color is carried (stranded) behind the work. This double thickness of yarn adds to the warmth of the final garment. Shown at right is a lovely Christmas stocking knitted with this method. While fair isle is definitely less tangly, there are also some significant disadvantages. Of course no one needs a Christmas stocking to be warm, and a lot of yarn gets wasted on the inside. I discovered though that the worst feature of a stranded stocking is that when you are trying to cram gifts into it, or children are pulling them out, the little corners and bits of tape get caught on those strands and snag, frustrate the impatient children, distort the fabric, and eventually make holes!

The stocking I am making for the shop will look very much like these at left, which my sister commissioned me to make for her family. The tangles will be tamed, and the inside of the stocking will be smooth and flat, so some lucky child in the future can whip those goodies out with cheerful abandon!

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HARUNI

Just finished a "shawlette" in lace weight mohair (Knitpicks "Aloft"). The pattern is called "Haruni", and can be downloaded HERE (free!). If the photo looks a bit fuzzy, it should- the yarn is quite fuzzy too. I loved making the shawl, and I love the way it came out. I am making the same shawl in Jojoland "Melody", but it is not quite ready for photography yet- melody is a very elastic wool, so it will look like a scrunchy mess until I block it. Below are some more photos of the "Aloft" shawl (click to enlarge). Do you like the lovely garbage can in the background, along with those feed sacks full of composted horse manure for the garden? Such a lovely touch!

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