on bandwagons and gauge

At one point in time I think there were over 700 people knitting the Monkey sock pattern on Ravelry, currently there are over 5000 projects. I always thought they were cute, but never had any real desire to knit them and kind of stayed away since they seemed so popular. I have that tendency, to want to be anti-whatever is popular at the moment. Remnant of my rebellious teen years? Maybe, maybe not…

Anyhow, that was how I felt until I saw this Cherry Tree Hill sock yarn in “Tropical Storm“. I saw it and the Monkey immediately sprung to mind as a great pattern to knit with it. It looks lovely so far and it’s heavenly to knit with.

After I finished the first sock I ran into a problem. I had been knitting the socks with my 5” Brittany Birch size 1 dpns. I’ve never been a huge fan of them, as they are bendy and break easily, however I like the 5″ size. Unfortunately, one of them broke when I was about halfway through the foot, so I was left with only 4 needles, doable, but not my favorite way to knit. (Note: I have already written them for replacements once before, and this was my replacement set. Luckily they sent me a full set of 5 needles. Unfortunately, this is the 6th needle I’ve broken.)  At the same time I lost my 7″ Bamboo size 1 dpns AND my friend who borrowed my size 1 circs has not returned them yet. So I sucked it up and knit on 4 needles for the cuff. I couldn’t stand it though so I finally broke down and bought the Lantern Moon Sock Stix. They were $20, but worth every penny. I LOVE them. They are so smooth and sturdy. It’s such fun to knit with them. However, changing needles resulted in a change in gauge. And this is what the result looked like:

Do you see how the yarn is pooling and flashing on the second sock? I was not happy with that at all. It was also smaller than the first sock. I tried a couple of different remedies. I frogged and switched back to the Brittany dpns using only one Lantern Moon. Still too small and pooling. I frogged again and tried consciously knitting more loosely. Still more pooling. I frogged and tried knitting tightly on 2s. No pooling, same size as the first sock, but the stitches were visibly bigger. I gave up, frogged for the third fourth time, reskeined it and let the yarn sit for a day. It was bizarre, I’ve never had problems like that before with socks. Sometimes the second sock is a little tighter, but nothing that visible. I was so frustrated. I decided to take a break and started working on a hiking sock from recycled yarn.

Last night I was worried that I would end up with second sock syndrome so I balled the yarn and started knitting again. I decided to just us the Lantern Moons and try just knitting loosely. I don’t want to jinx myself, but so far so good. I’m about one pattern repeat into it and no pooling, flashing, and it’s about the same size. I’m not sure exactly what the difference is, but we shall see with the final product! No more frogging for me!

Read Full Post »

Sock toe suggestions?

I rarely do cuff down socks and now I’m at the toe of the Chevron Socks, which I started way back in July and I’m not sure which toe to do. Here are a few pics. I’ve ruled out the French toe and am leaning toward just a standard grafted toe-any suggestions?

(apologies for the camera phone pics, my camera is kaput at the moment)

Read Full Post »

WIP: Syncopated Caps

My first fair isle endeavor has been tons of fun, unfortunately, I forgot to check with my friend gauge before casting on.

It’s just really too big.

So it’s back to the beginning!

Read Full Post »

WIP Wednesday-a day late!

I had this whole big plan to do a WIP Wednesday post, but that was shot to hell by my lovely migraine and then I got really into knitting my Rooibos Tea Raglan and did not want to put it down!

Here it is before I picked it up yesterday:

As you can see, I’ve added some significant waist shaping. I’ve decided that all my sweaters should have waist shaping from now on, it’s just so much more flattering! Since this picture was taken I have joined the sleeves to the body and started the raglan decreases. I don’t have a picture of it now, but hopefully I’ll be finished sometime this weekend and will share it in a FO post!

And here we have the Chevron Socks, which were previously being knit with 55sts. I frogged that one because it was just too snug and I didn’t like the way the patterning looked. I like the 66 stitch socks much better.

You can see a few more photos here.

In case you’re wondering about the Print o’ the Wave stole, I’ve knit one pattern repeat on it and I’m loving the pattern. However, the yarn I’m using is coned and it still has a lot of grease on it and I’m not loving that. I’m considering skeining 600 yards or so and washing it. I could hang it outside to dry and in this heat it would probably be dry in an hour.

I’ve also heard that there is some sort of mistake in the edging chart, but no official errata. Google has helped a bit, but if anyone has any advice, please let me know!

Read Full Post »

Progress!

I’ve been diligently working on my Shallowtail Shawl and I am so happy with how it’s turning out. I finally mastered the nupps and cruised through the last few sections of the pattern.

Here’s what it looked like on 7/25

Detail of the nupps

And tonight!

I am going to block it tomorrow since I have to sleep on my bed tonight. I’m so excited. I’ve already got my next lace project planned out.

Read Full Post »

some sock work

Is it time to turn the heel?

I think I’m about ready to turn the heel on this baby, but a second repeat of the orange just appeared and I feel the need to have more orange on the cuff, so I’m going to sleep on it. Not to mention that my brain currently can’t handle trying to figure out where to put the pattern on the foot of socks with 5 repeats of 11.

Oh, and here’s a little teaser of my most recent FO in SWTC’s Tofutsies. I blogged about it back in May after frogging a first attempt. I am currently in love with these socks, it’s too hot to wear them right now, but they are so soft and the yarn has a lovely drape. I almost bought more on my visit to Asheville, but I ended up with some Koigu instead.
Anyone care to guess what pattern this is? I would have a contest, but I don’t really have a prize for the winner, so we’ll just have to go with my undying awe of your knowledge of sock patterns. (No fair guessing if you’ve seen them IRL!)

Read Full Post »

Are you keeping score?

Thanks to Vanessa and Blogless Kate, I think I’ve gathered together enough Mission Falls 1824 Cotton in Merlot to cast on for the Green Tea Raglan from the Spring 2007 (or is it Summer?) Interweave. At least I hope I have enough because I’ve already did done it.

Let’s see how things are going.

First I knit two swatches:

Swatch #1: size 7 needles
26 rows=4.25″ (6.1 rows/1″)
25 sts=7″ (3.5 sts/1″)

Swatch #2: size 6 needles
27 rows=4.25″ (6.4 rows/1″)
25 sts=7″ (3.5 sts/1″)

Wait, what?

That’s right! They’re practically identical.

Swatches: 1
Amy: 0

I decide to cast on using the size 7 needles, giving myself that extra row of wiggle room. I redo the calculations of the sweater for knitting in the round and my gauge since it’s pretty off from what the pattern calls for.

See my pretty little diagram and all the math? Let’s assume I did all my calculations correctly.
Amy: 1
Math: 0
Swatches: 1

I’m knitting merrily along doing my decreases every 8th row and just enjoying the seed stitch when I notice something odd on my needle cable. It’s the #6, um, what’s a 6 doing on my size 7 needle? Shit.
Amy:1
Everything else: 2

I decide that it should all be okay, since you know, the gauge swatches were practically identical and decide to double check the swatches and the gauge of the sweater and then write this post. I decide to be more detailed and draw little squares to visually represent the swatches and put the numbers on them.

Then I do the math again and I get this:
5.88 sts/in.
Wait, what? How can I be getting almost 6 stitches to the inch? I can’t believe this? What’s going on? I KNEW that it wasn’t right that I was 1424 with Mission Falls 1824 Cotton! What an idiot!?!

Oh, woops! I suppose I should divide the number of rows by the height of the swatch and the number of stitches by the width.
Amy: 1
Everything else: 3

After I recovered from my minor panic attack and feeling like an idiot I did the math for the gauge on the sweater. 14.5 sts=4″ or 6.11 sts/in, like on the size 7 needles. Okay, whatever I give up!
Amy: 1
Everything else: 4

Read Full Post »

I’m all out of yarn, I’m so lost without you…(tomten update)

heh, what can I say, I got Air Supply stuck in my head as I started writing this post.

See that sleeve? Does it look long enough to you? Yeah, me neither. I’m all out of the allocated yarn for that sleeve. A friend from SnB offered me some cotton fleece from her stash, but it’s not any of the other colorways, so it looks like frogging is inevitable. Either incorporate the new yarn or cast on fewer stitches.

We shall see.

Read Full Post »

A first, a WIP, and an explanation

I embarked on my first real lace project this evening. I’ve done simple openwork patterns on socks and scarves before, but this feels like real lace.

It’s the Swallowtail Shawl by Evelyn Clark from the Fall 2006 Interweave Knits. I’m using the recommended yarn, Misti Alpaca Lace, in Lilac. So far I’m enjoying it, I had to stop myself before it got too late, I didn’t want to make any too-tired-shouldn’t-really-be-knitting mistakes.

I’ve been diligently gartering along on my Tomten as well. The problem with stash busting projects is that you are very likely to run out of yarn before you’re done. I’m hoping that I’ll have enough for the sleeves. I wound the skeins up on my niddy noddy and then divided them up and wound them into equal balls. I’m a little short on the hot pink, but I think it will work out.
*crosses fingers*

And finally, I’ve been having a little trouble sleeping lately, and I think I’ve discovered part of the problem:

Look at him, he’s taking up half the bed! How can a 9 lb cat take up THAT much room!?! I didn’t get the one of Peanut on the pillow. You think they’d be happy with their own couches.

Read Full Post »

Tomten in progress

I’ve been working on EZ’s Tomten for a few weeks now and so far so good. The only problem is that I’m knitting it for a 6 month old…she’s a big baby, but not that big…

Right now it’s measuring about 24″ around

and 16.5″ long

Luckily babies grow!

I’m using the leftover cotton fleece from my Wave Skirt. I should have enough to finish, but might have to omit the bright pink from the sleeves. We shall see, so far I am really enjoying the pattern.

Read Full Post »