socks!: 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.

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.