Breathing and Knitting
FINALLY, the big work crush is over. This was a particularly bad year, so I survived mainly by knitting every chance I got. I feel like I can breathe again now, and It Is Good.
Since I finished up the Serendipity red socks so quickly (apparently, stress knitting is also fast knitting!), I went right on and pulled another project out of my Bag O' Sock Kits and started on the next one. I was really psyched about the pattern - it's from a new book that explores entirely new constructions for socks. Miraculous. Amazing. Truly cutting-edge Sock Science. OK, possibly not so exciting to the uninitiated.
Anyway, I started on the Spiraling Coriolis socks. Instead of a traditional gusset on each side, the sock expands from toe to instep by increasing along this strip which spirals across the foot and around the ankle. It's lovely and a truly elegant way to shape the sock. The thing is - I have kind of odd feet. My mother always used to make a fuss about finding shoes that fit properly because I have very low arches and narrow feet. Well, they were much narrower when I was younger and thinner. So your average socks tend to be pretty loose on my feet, to the point where sometimes they'll twist right around. Handknitting my socks, I've compensated for this in different ways - if I made up the pattern, I'd make it to my measurements. With the red socks, I followed their pattern but added ribbing on the sole to make it fit better. That worked, except - when I've had them on for a while, the ribbing relaxes a bit and they get a little loose. Going forward, I have to invest the time to figure out a good fix for this problem. With a plainer sock, that's easy - I just didn't want to take the time to figure out how to work around the pattern on the top of the foot on these socks. Plus, I wasn't sure how much to take out, since I wasn't sure how much extra there'd be. Memo to self - going forward, install a lifeline after turning the heel.
The good news is that the Coriolis pattern, like all the patterns in this book (Cat Bordhi's New Pathways for Sock Knitters) has built-in instructions to make custom-fitted socks. Cool. The bad thing is, because it wants you to customize your socks, the pattern refers to about 3 or 4 other pages to cover those specifics, and there are no numbers in the pattern. It has letters that refer to the numbers you pulled from a chart in the back of the book based on your stitches-per-inch and foot measurement. Since I didn't want to cart the book around with me everywhere, this was a really big PITA for me. Also, I believe because of my foot peculiarity, my spiral band crossed into the heel flap a little bit. I worked it out, and the first sock is kinda finished. "Kinda" because I had a brilliant plan which, like most of my brilliant plans, didn't work out the way I thought it would.
These socks are made from the toe up, and the pattern says you can just keep going as long as you want, and the spiral just goes on and on, around and around, and I thought that was just really cool. So I figured, I usually have lots of yarn left after I make a pair of socks, and this particular yarn took 2 skeins for the pair, so I'll just do 1 sock from each skein, and knit till I run out. Sounds good, right? Well. First, apparently, there is not so much yardage on this yarn, because I got to the end just above the ankle, which bums me out. I went to the yarn store and had a whole debate there about whether I should let it be or buy another skein, and how tall do I want them anyway? (My LYS is owned by a living saint, Margaret, who is always cheerful about dealing with questions just like this. And worse, actually. I once saw her spend an hour or more, patiently working with an 8-year-old to fix all their mistakes that were going to make holes later.
loosecanonand
bonitapitawill bear me out on this subject - "nice" is truly insufficient to describe the woman.)
The yarn also worked up thicker than I expected for some reason (which is to say, I should have expected it, but wasn't thinking clearly because of work stress), so I decided to leave it short. When I got near the end of the ball, I measured off about how much I expect it to take to finish the top border, then tied a bow in it at that point. When I got to the bow, I put the sock on stitch holders and started the second. Since the spiral is the only real pattern on the socks, I want them to end in the same place, and if one skein had a couple yards more than the other, the socks would not match, in an obvious way. I'd rather unravel a few live rows than take apart the cast-off and border, so this is where I am. I'd post a picture, but thanks to my funny feet, the sock looks kind of misshapen on its own, and with the stitches on a stitchholder shaped like a giant safety pin, I can't put my foot in it now. It does fit really well, though. Working on sock #2, I'm still debating the height. I may yet buy another skein and make them taller. I'm kinda waiting until I can try them both on and see if I'd want to wear taller socks this thick. They'd be great in winter under a skirt. The spiral is WAY COOL. I really love it, and it worked really well with the yarn I used - it's mostly dark blue with little flashes of bright turquoise, hot pink, light blue and purply tones. Because these lighter colors just show up in little horizontal bands here and there, they highlight the spiral strip nicely, without overpowering it. The end result is neither plain/serious nor loud/obnoxious. The pair is on schedule to be finished in the next few days, depending on whether I add the extra or not.
Since I finished up the Serendipity red socks so quickly (apparently, stress knitting is also fast knitting!), I went right on and pulled another project out of my Bag O' Sock Kits and started on the next one. I was really psyched about the pattern - it's from a new book that explores entirely new constructions for socks. Miraculous. Amazing. Truly cutting-edge Sock Science. OK, possibly not so exciting to the uninitiated.
Anyway, I started on the Spiraling Coriolis socks. Instead of a traditional gusset on each side, the sock expands from toe to instep by increasing along this strip which spirals across the foot and around the ankle. It's lovely and a truly elegant way to shape the sock. The thing is - I have kind of odd feet. My mother always used to make a fuss about finding shoes that fit properly because I have very low arches and narrow feet. Well, they were much narrower when I was younger and thinner. So your average socks tend to be pretty loose on my feet, to the point where sometimes they'll twist right around. Handknitting my socks, I've compensated for this in different ways - if I made up the pattern, I'd make it to my measurements. With the red socks, I followed their pattern but added ribbing on the sole to make it fit better. That worked, except - when I've had them on for a while, the ribbing relaxes a bit and they get a little loose. Going forward, I have to invest the time to figure out a good fix for this problem. With a plainer sock, that's easy - I just didn't want to take the time to figure out how to work around the pattern on the top of the foot on these socks. Plus, I wasn't sure how much to take out, since I wasn't sure how much extra there'd be. Memo to self - going forward, install a lifeline after turning the heel.
The good news is that the Coriolis pattern, like all the patterns in this book (Cat Bordhi's New Pathways for Sock Knitters) has built-in instructions to make custom-fitted socks. Cool. The bad thing is, because it wants you to customize your socks, the pattern refers to about 3 or 4 other pages to cover those specifics, and there are no numbers in the pattern. It has letters that refer to the numbers you pulled from a chart in the back of the book based on your stitches-per-inch and foot measurement. Since I didn't want to cart the book around with me everywhere, this was a really big PITA for me. Also, I believe because of my foot peculiarity, my spiral band crossed into the heel flap a little bit. I worked it out, and the first sock is kinda finished. "Kinda" because I had a brilliant plan which, like most of my brilliant plans, didn't work out the way I thought it would.
These socks are made from the toe up, and the pattern says you can just keep going as long as you want, and the spiral just goes on and on, around and around, and I thought that was just really cool. So I figured, I usually have lots of yarn left after I make a pair of socks, and this particular yarn took 2 skeins for the pair, so I'll just do 1 sock from each skein, and knit till I run out. Sounds good, right? Well. First, apparently, there is not so much yardage on this yarn, because I got to the end just above the ankle, which bums me out. I went to the yarn store and had a whole debate there about whether I should let it be or buy another skein, and how tall do I want them anyway? (My LYS is owned by a living saint, Margaret, who is always cheerful about dealing with questions just like this. And worse, actually. I once saw her spend an hour or more, patiently working with an 8-year-old to fix all their mistakes that were going to make holes later.
loosecanonand
bonitapitawill bear me out on this subject - "nice" is truly insufficient to describe the woman.)
The yarn also worked up thicker than I expected for some reason (which is to say, I should have expected it, but wasn't thinking clearly because of work stress), so I decided to leave it short. When I got near the end of the ball, I measured off about how much I expect it to take to finish the top border, then tied a bow in it at that point. When I got to the bow, I put the sock on stitch holders and started the second. Since the spiral is the only real pattern on the socks, I want them to end in the same place, and if one skein had a couple yards more than the other, the socks would not match, in an obvious way. I'd rather unravel a few live rows than take apart the cast-off and border, so this is where I am. I'd post a picture, but thanks to my funny feet, the sock looks kind of misshapen on its own, and with the stitches on a stitchholder shaped like a giant safety pin, I can't put my foot in it now. It does fit really well, though. Working on sock #2, I'm still debating the height. I may yet buy another skein and make them taller. I'm kinda waiting until I can try them both on and see if I'd want to wear taller socks this thick. They'd be great in winter under a skirt. The spiral is WAY COOL. I really love it, and it worked really well with the yarn I used - it's mostly dark blue with little flashes of bright turquoise, hot pink, light blue and purply tones. Because these lighter colors just show up in little horizontal bands here and there, they highlight the spiral strip nicely, without overpowering it. The end result is neither plain/serious nor loud/obnoxious. The pair is on schedule to be finished in the next few days, depending on whether I add the extra or not.