July 2005 Archives

At work lately I've been doing mostly proposals, sales pitches, powerpoint presentations and marketing materials. It got me to thinking about all the cheesy things people say and all the silly abbreviations they make up when trying to sell something, and well, since I haven't had much time to knit I thought I'd make up this post instead.

In our busy world we're always striving to find time savers and shortcuts. As a value-added service to my readers I've compiled this short list of suggestions.

Use them in good health.

Ahhh the open road. The fresh air. The blue skies. The radio tuned to your favorite station. The peaceful hum of the engine motoring along.

I'm sure many of you have taken road trips and knitted while someone else drives. It's a great, relaxing way to spend the time. Small projects like socks and mittens are portable, lightweight, and afford you with plenty of opportunity for conversation and sight-seeing.

But it doesn't have to end there. With just a few simple steps you too can expand your Knitting on the Road opportunities to include times when you don't have someone else to take on the driving responsibility.

Yarn storage and placement A clear zip-top bag is recommended for safe transport and to maximize placement opportunities. We recommend placing the bag by simply dropping it on the floor of the driver's side to allow for the yarn to feed in from the left side.

Keeping the project in waiting on the passenger seat ensures a rapid implementation opportunity (RIO).

Traffic Jams be Damned Beginning KOTRers will often start with the simplest form of KOTR -- knitting while in a traffic jam. Once reserved for only the major accident or weather event, we recommend expanding your knitting time by considering KOTR while at a traffic light, waiting for school kids to cross the road, or anytime you find yourself approaching 0 mph.

  

Implementing these opportunities afford you with the chance to learn new ways to hold your knitting. When unexpectedly faced with moving traffic mid-row, simply slip the needles toward the center (2 inches per needle is advised), criss cross the needles, and secure them with your thumb and forefinger. If you don't have time to gingerly place the item on the passenger seat, simply steer with your middle, ring and pinky fingers, as depicted above.

You may be asking yourself if this is a safe practice. We here at savannahchikKnits ask you -- is this any less safe than driving over the speed limit?

   

Endless Ingenious Exploration of Impactful Opportunities (EIEIO) Think out of the box! Filling up at the pump and waiting in a drive thru line provide seconds -- if not minutes -- of knitting time per event.

Manual Transmission Woes? No more! With a few simple steps we'll have you KOTR to your full potential in no time.

While waiting at a red light always keep it in first gear so you can react at a moment's notice.

And, while driving in stop-and-go traffic, avoid shifting when at all possible. Ride the clutch, and even start in second gear.

As an added bonus, your left leg muscles will develop more, and you'll be better at starting the car on snow.

And for the true road warrior, there's K70. That's right, with a little practice you too can be knitting while driving over the speed limit. We recommend proper following distance and being able to knit while not looking at or touching the yarn. With concentrated effort you should be able to master this skill in a matter of moments a day.

Safety is always our primary concern here at savannahchik knits. We recommend you briefly put down the needles and speed past any vehicles exhibiting signs such as the ones above.

We're excited to share this opportunity with you and look forward to hearing your great progress.

Knit on!

In yesterday's comments, Melanie asked what an afterthought heel was.

Rather than just respond to her, I thought I'd post it here in case anyone else was curious too.

An afterthought heel is a heel that's knitted into the sock after the sock has been knitted.

OK, I know the sock that I posted yesterday isn't done. Bear with me and all will be revealed.

Basically, you knit the sock to the point where the heel should begin. Then, instead of knitting the heel, you take some waste yarn (preferably in the same weight and different color as the sock) and knit half a row in the waste yarn.

Then, you go back to where you started knitting in the waste yarn, and just continue on knitting like normal, with the actual sock yarn. Meaning, the next half row will be knitted directly ON TOP OF the waste yarn you just knitted.

Now, traditionally you'd just knit the rest of the sock first, and then come back and do the heel. I only knit a couple of inches of the leg before going back. I wanted to be able to continue to try on my sock since I'm making knee highs and fit is important.

In other words, I can't fit myself with a heel-less knee high tube sock.

So, after knitting a couple inches on the leg, I went back to that waste yarn.

I took 2 needles and pulled the waste yarn out 1 stitch at a time. You actually need to thread the yarn back out of the stitches. The yarn comes out of a leg stitch, then out of a foot stitch, and continues doing this until you've reached the end of the waste yarn. As each stitch is revealed, I put it on one of the needles. When I was done I had the same number of stitches on each of the 2 needles, and the total number (adding up the stitches on both needles)was equal to the total number of leg stitches.

Now that I had all my stitches on my needles I knit a plain row first for setup. Then I began knitting a basic decrease every other row toe. Yes, I said toe.

I knit this way until I had decreased half the total number of stitches.

Following me? OK, that's a lot of math without any real numbers, so here are the specifics for my sock.

The foot has a total of 64 stitches.

I knit 32 stitches in waste yarn

When I went back and pulled the yarn out, I had picked up 32 stitches on each of the 2 needles.

I then knit a plain row.

Then I began knitting a decrease every 2 rows toe.

When I had 16 stitches left on each needle (meaning I had knit a total of 16 rows -- 8 plain, and 8 decrease), I grafted the remaining stitches together.

It was a very fast heel and as a bonus, if the heel ever wears out I can easily take it out and replace it. And since these are big honkin' knee highs, that's a good thing.

In case my description wasn't helpful (and I didn't post pics since I didn't take any while knitting it because I was too obsessed with watching Alias on DVD), socknitters has a good article on afterthought heels (with pics no less!) as well. Go check it out.

Added later: Susan suggested a star heel as a better alternative because it more closely resembles the actual shape of a heel. She left a link to Dawn Brocco's site for instructions.

Thanks, Susan!

I need to join another KAL like I need a hole in my head. But I couldn't resist joining the new Knitting on the Road KAL.

I've had the book for quite a while and I've yet to make a pair of socks from it. I'd knit almost any pair out of that book (with a couple of exceptions) so I thought it was safe enough to join.

The way it works -- we'll be knitting a pair of socks from the book every 2 months, with the first sock starting August 1st. A poll has been setup for us to vote on a sock and on August 1st the poll will close and we'll have our pattern picked for us. Right now Whitby and Friday Harbor are winning.

So come join us!

Oh, and thanks to Jessica for pointing this out.

Although I spent most of my weekend working on the house (more to come on this in a later post) I was able to get in some knitting time on Sunday afternoon.

This is my pretty basic sock, but I did an afterthought heel instead of a short row heel. I wanted the colors to form a nice circle instead of awkwardly butting up against each other.

Changing up the heel got me thinking about all the different ways one can knit a simple pair of socks. Here are my preferences:

Toe-up or Cuff-down: Hands down it's toe-up

Needles: 2 24" Addi Turbos. I love the feeling of bamboo but I prefer the way my knitting looks with 2 circs (and I think it's easier to try them on with the circs too).

Length: I've been doing the leg as long as my foot, but lately I've been thinking I'd like to go higher. Doing that will require me to do a few increases though -- my big calves short legs won't let me go any longer without widening the cuff as well.

Toe: Figure 8 without a slip knot. This lets me go back and tighten up the cast on after I've knit the toe.

Heel: Short row. I used to prefer a no-wrap short row, but I've recently noticed that my short rows look better with the wraps. I'm not saying this is the case for everyone, but it does seem true for me.

Cast-off: I typically go for the Sewn cast off but it is S-L-O-W. I'm definitely open to other possibilities here (and no, Margene, knitting them cuff-down is not a possibility!)

Peeves: Spiraling (Lorna's Laces and others), knitting the yarn too loosely so it doesn't fit well and doesn't wear well, and anklets. I know I won't win any popularity contests about the anklets, but I hate em! They remind me of this awkward time in grammar school and I just can't wear them because of that. Silly, yes. But keep those damn anklets away from me.

Ahh, I feel better now.

So, what do you like to do?

Feel free to share whatever comes to mind -- great techniques...favorite yarns...wonderful patterns...horror stories. And don't be shy! De-lurkers are encouraged to comment (so yeah, that means you!). Include links if you have them and if there are enough I'll pull them together into a follow up post for all of us to use.

too big	too much

On the left is the beginning of a knee high sock. Inspired by Pioggia's wonderful knee highs (link to the knee highs themselves to come -- I can't seem to find them on her site right now). added later Here are Pioggia's knee highs. Aren't they great?

Anyway, I bought 5 skeins of sock yarn while in Cape May in April to make myself a pair. I cast on a few weeks back and made them too narrow. I cast on earlier this week and made them entirely too big.

Just to keep things interesting, when I rip them this time I'm also going to go up a needle size (the fabric was just too tight). Plus, it'd be too easy to figure out just the right number of stitches this go round if I keep the needle size the same. And there's no fun in that.

On the right is my Trinidad shawl. I was knitting along all nice and happy when I realized I made a mistake a few rows back. I thought -- no biggie, I'll just tink back.

Makes it sound easy, no? Try it with me:

I'll just...

...knit a few more rows before I make dinner.
...buy a couple balls of sock yarn.
...throw in a few more decreases so my stitch count matches the pattern's.
...block the hell out of it.

But c'mon, it doesn't need to end with knitting

I'll just...

...buy the smaller sized skirt since I'll be losing weight anyway.
...leave those dishes in the sink until morning.
...weed/mow the lawn/water the grass when I get home from work.
...clean the parts of the house other people see.
...put all my junk I can't bear to part with collectibles and memorabilia in the attic/basement/garage.

And more apropos for this post -- I'll just...

...frog the sock
...knit them with a bigger needle
...rip back a few rows of the shawl.

See. Simple!

I was inspired by Carrie's Trinity Shawl (secret project number 3). I've been looking for a project to match up with my Millefili Fine and that shawl looked like a great fit.

I knit up a swatch and I loved the look, but the pattern was a bit of a pain to knit. Similar to ribbing, the yarn was going in front and behind the needles with just about every stitch, and then the wrong side rows were purled.

So I played with the stitches and came up with a way that was easier for me to knit.

Here's where I am (about 6 inches tall)

I love it! I had a couple of false starts getting the increases right, and then finding a good needle size so it would stay airy.

I want to add beads to the edge, attached with a simple edging (maybe a crochet chain?).

I love love love this little sock! The pattern is the perfect blend of "not-just-boring-ribbing" yet "easy-enough-to-memorize" to keep it interesting.

The Lorna's Laces is such a pleasure to knit up. I wish their multi-colored hanks didn't pool like they do. My brain just can't handle all that uncontrollable color!

As for the length, I decided to keep it at the length suggested in the pattern. If I made them any longer they would have hit part of my calf where they'd need to be increased. I know I'm short but I don't know my sock pal's height so I figured better be safe than sorry.

The mods I made are simple:

• Toe-up with a figure 8 cast on. I increased every row until I hit 85% of the total stitches, and then switched to every other row.
• Classic wrap short row heel. Yes, you read that correctly. I didn't do the no-wrap heel. The problem I have with picking up the wraps is finding them in darker colors, which clearly isn't a problem in lavender colored socks. And I have to admit that I think the wraps are just a tad tighter than the other methods.
• I did the wavy top and all I needed to do was turn the chart upside down and follow it that way. I bound off with EZ's sewn cast off. Not only is it stretchy but it's the cleanest way I know to join the last row and make it look smooth. If you're scared of the sewn cast off -- don't be. It's as easy as p2tog, k1. Seriously. Give it a try.

I still have to wash the sock but I'm going to hold off until I finish the second one. I don't want to try and match up unwashed measurements against washed measurements.

As for the stitch pattern, I don't think this is the end of this pattern for me. I'm considering making a scarf out of it. The back side -- while completely different -- is also pretty, so it would work well for a reversible scarf. And once it's blocked out I think it looks a bit like flowing water. I'm considering using the blue silk I bought at MDSW even though I've already started this scarf with it.

The blue color always said water to me, but I searched and searched my stitch pattern books and couldn't find the right one for it. I wanted something to go longways but I didn't want to knit it longways. This waving lace pattern may be the way to go after all.

Waving Lace Socks from IK Summer 2004

Well this is it! Third try was definitely _the_ one.

Now that I'm knitting these I'm surprised I didn't see this pattern make the blog rounds last year. The pattern is a simple repeat and makes a lovely sock! I love the little ripple effect it makes on the edges (click on the pics above to see them enlarged).

I have modified the pattern to be toe-up and to use a short row heel. I'm just a couple rows above the heel now and I'll be starting the pattern on the full leg soon. I have 2/3rds of a hank left (based on my handy-dandy scale) so I'm not sure if I'll be able to use up a full hank for each sock. We'll see. I'm enjoying the knitting on these enough that I'll knit until it seems like they're the right length.

There are 2 variations for the cuff. A basic ribbed cuff and a wavy cuff. I'm going to give the wavy cuff a go but I haven't checked to see what I'll need to change since I'll be knitting them in the opposite direction.

Oh, and for those of you who haven't kept up with my experimentation, I'm using Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock in the Lilac colorway. And lemme tell ya, there will definitely be more solid-colored LL in my sock future!

Going through the stash over the weekend got me started on Fall and Winter projects. When I wrote up my list of projects that I'm interested in I realized that the yarn just doesn't mesh with the projects.

Hence that stash sale.

Since I love to make lists and jot things down, but am terrible at keeping track of them, I'm putting them up here so I can refer back to them (and laugh at myself when come December I haven't knit a single one of them!).

Airy Cardi from IK Winter 2004

I can dress it up for work and play it down with jeans and a T for the weekend. It calls for GGH Kid Soft. Has anyone used Kid Soft? What's a good alternative? Kid Silk Haze? La Gran?

Elfin from Rowan 34

I still love her! Lately I've been thinking it'd be great in a deep purple or green. I might need to play down the ruffle along the front though -- I'm not sure how that would look on someone who's busty. Any opinions here?

Lacy Pullover from Family Circle Fall 2005

Klaralund gone classy. It would be a quick knit and be something dressier than I've considered making in a while.

Ruffled Wrap from Family Circle Fall 2005

Yup, that makes three mohair sweaters on the list. But I still think it'd be a lovely top to knit and wear.

Ava from Rowan 34

You either love her or you hate her. I think the lace up front is fun. Intarsia -- not so fun. I would probably embroider the design on rather than all that fiddly multi-color crap. Plus the curves would be curvier, and that makes me happy.

Martha from Rowan 37

I love the design but it's just not going to happen for this summer. So I'm considering making it a cool weather cardi. Maybe out of Baby Ull?

Raglan

The swatches are in Silky Wool. I'm thinking of a top with different colored sleeves. I haven't ironed out any of the details yet. The colors above are claret (darker one for the body) and deep pink (sleeves). I also LOVE LOVE LOVE some of the Silky Tweed colors so I might change my mind.

Wrap Up

When I look at all the images and yarns types a couple of things strike me:

• None are less than 5spi, and one is even 7spi. I've learned over the past year that I just don't like heavier gauge garments. Accessories, sure. But I just don't want to wear an aran gauged sweater very often.
• Where'd the cables go? I've been cable-crazy the past few years, but I'm taking a simpler approach lately. I have a confession to make. I'm even considering packing away St Brigid until next winter. I love the sweater but it's not enticing me to knit it right now.
• I'm trying to branch out color-wise. I always go for dark colors because I'm self-conscious of wearing light colors on my chest. I want to break out of that. I'm considering a light green for the Airy Cardi, and the purple I mentioned for Elfin is pretty different for me as well.

I came across this yarn on Sunday and decided to sell it off in the stash sale. The colors are not me and the extra bulky gauge isn't usually my thing either. Plus, it would piss me off every time I came across it in the stash.

Why?

OK, here's the story. Someone asked me if I could check a few LYSs near my job. She was in desperate need of 3 balls of the yarn and the only store in the area that carried the yarn was all out. Lo and behold, my LYS had it. I emailed her, let her know I was picking it up, and brought it to her the next day.

I take it out of my bag to hand it to her, and what does she say? Oh no, nevermind. The LYS by me just got a new shipment so I don't need it any more.

WTF?

I was so stunned I didn't say anything, but boy was I mad. To make matters worse, I lost the receipt and couldn't return it. So it's been aimlessly sitting in the stash for a good year and a half.

When I took it out on Sunday I just couldn't stop thinking about dyeing it up. By Sunday night no one had offered to buy it so I took out one of the balls, wrapped it around the back of a chair, tied it together, and soaked it in a vinegar water bath. I broke out the food coloring and played with shades of pink until it got what seemed to be dark enough.

After that one was done I did the same thing with another ball, this time dyeing it up purple.

I love the way the colors turned out! The variations in the yarn colors come through even when they're dyed. The purple has more variation in it in person.

I'm mulling over a few ideas for what to make out of it. I think it'll be a scarf of some sort. I still need to dye the third ball and I'm considering orange. What do you think?

* I'm hoping my next post on this subject will be Lemonade. Get it?

7/4: I just added another Silk Garden colorway, some Donegal Tweed and Dale Sisik

I've put up a bunch of new things for sale -- Noro, Rowan, Lamb's Pride and Jamieson's just to name a few.

Go to my stash blog for pics.

Sale Rules:

If you see something you like, leave me a comment ON THE STASH POST.

I'll accept paypal (preferred) or checks. Checks will need to clear before being shipped.

Once you tell me you want something I'll mark it as pending until I receive payment.

All prices include shipping within the continental US, but insurance (if you want it) is on you.

Thanks for looking!

Wow! Finally a month where I feel like I made something of my time. I did alot of ripping to get my raglan right, but it's almost done and the top fits fabulously!

So here's where things stand with my year-long knittng plans:

1. Clapotis est fini!
2. A pair of gloves.
3. St. Brigid
4. Mariah Still not sure what I want to use for this one. I know the inspiration will hit me one day, just when I'm not expecting it.
5. Start Complete 4 other sweaters for me.
6. A tank/sleeveless top that fits well. My red raglan is almost done.
7. An aran sampler throw blanket for my Mom. This one isn't very intriguing any more. Still sounds pretty boring to me. I'll give it one more month and if it's still a no-go, off the list it will go!
8. 6 4 pairs of socks. house socks, sockapalooza socks, and 1 sock for me out of Plymouth Encore, and another single sock for me out of Trekking XXL. (it's not done in the pic but it is indeed done)
9. Some lavender-filled lace sachets for my Mom and Aunt Mary. I'll knit these up some lazy weekend.
10. 6 4 other small items (hats, scarves, mitts, etc.) natalya and a little bag that still needs its picture taken. And a couple weeks back I casted on for a pair of gauntlets out of sock yarn.
11. Something nice in lace. hanging vines scarf
12. No 2004 UFOs remaining at the end of 2005. I'm hoping to work on this goal some more this month.
13. At the end of 2005 I will have a smaller stash than I started with. Net change for June to the stash -- 6 balls less. I did buy a few for swatching but that's it. Stashbusters has been great. I'm still thinking about what my July project will be.