Progress at Last!

Some bloggable progress at last! Clown Jr socks for K now finished:

And now my guilty conscience can rest -- these are the socks she really wanted, and the pattern suits the yarn. To get the ankles to fit, I used a wide rib (3 and 4 knit st's x 1 purl) down to the end of the gusset. Then it was straight stockinette to the toes.

Specifics: Marks & Kattens "Clown" yarn, 45% cotton, 40% superwash wool, 15% nylon. Knit on 2.5mm addi turbos. Pattern -- basic sock pattern from Ann Budd's The Knitter's Handy Book of Patterns.

About the yarn: like many cotton/wool yarns, it was rather splitty. It feels a little hard and scratchy while knitting and in the finished sock, but I'm expecting it will soften up when it gets washed. The colors are printed on this particular yarn, so aren't rich and saturated like I'd prefer, but then again I didn't pick this yarn, my daughter did. The yardage seems good -- I bought two balls, made two pairs of socks for a youth size 2 foot, and have about a half a ball left over. Would I use it again? If asked, but I wouldn't seek it out.

On other fronts, my second shipment from the Loopy Ewe arrived yesterday. In it, E's "camo sock yarn", a.k.a. Panda Cotton in the Fern colorway:


And, to my immense and continuing delight, some Cherry Tree Hill Supersock in the Champlain Sunset colorway:
The colors just take my breath away, and I can't wait to start knitting it! But since we still have 2 months of very hot weather here, I will work off the Panda Cotton first.

And speaking of Panda Cotton, I did some swatching with the Roses colorway. I knit stockinette with US and metric sizes from 2mm to US size 3 -- 5 different needle sizes. I got everywhere from 8-1/2 sts/in on 2.0mm addis to a little less than 7 sts/in on size 3 bamboo. The yarn looks good in all the gages, but I thought at 2mm it was tad stiff and at US 3 it was too loose for socks (but great for other garments.)

I opted for 2.25mm needles, and have cast on for my first pair of Monkeys. This isn't great yarn for the pattern, but it is a very good pattern for the yarn. And I quickly realized why so many people are hooked on this pattern -- it is completely addictive! It looks complex, but it is actually very simple, and it has a great rythym. And of course, it shows off variegated yarn very well. The Panda Cotton is knitting up great -- very silky and cool-feeling, and the pattern flies.

Where am I?

I know I've been delinquent about posting. I'm not sure what my excuse is. I'm not spending long hours at work. I haven't been reading the new Harry Potter book. I haven't been living at the piano. I haven't been going to extra Taekwondo classes. Heck, I haven't been grocery shopping or cooking or cleaning either. What I have been doing doesn't seem like it should take up that much time:

• getting oldest son equipped, packed, and on his plane to a SCUBA camp
• watching the Tour de France
• oggling sock yarns on-line

I have been spending a fair amount of time knitting -- about as much time as I'm spending watching the Tour. None of it is photo-worthy...yet. I'm working again on Josephine, but the front is progressing very much as the back did. I've knit a few inches on the Dunes socks, but since it's a dark yarn you can't see the pattern unless I put them on something, which I don't dare do again because a whole bunch of stitches fell off the DPN's last time I tried. And I am working a simple pair of ankle socks for K out of the leftover Clown yarn -- my "goes everywhere" project.

Since the sock-yarn oggling seemed rather pointless, I bought some Panda Cotton from the Loopy Ewe (who delivered faster than I thought possible):

The blue (Blueberry Grape) is for K. I've been playing with the other ball of the Roses colorway, and I have to say the yarn is kind of strange to work with. It feels very cool to the touch and is silky smooth, but it looks pretty heavy even though the ball band says you can get 7 sts/in. I've tried it with 3 mm needles (looks almost sport weight) and with 2mm needles (too tight for my taste, but amazingly it was still supple and stretchy.) I need something in-between, but my in-between needle sizes have the above mentioned socks on them. Back to Loopy Ewe for some more needles and another 2 balls. My 10YO son insists he wants a pair of socks in the Fern colorway.

And speaking of my middle child, he is still working on his finger weaving occasionally:

But this week's Hot New Crafts are bead animals and "coasters" (or what I called God's Eyes back in my Girl Scout days.) Here is the batch of finished goods he emptied from his pockets just before dinner yesterday -- a fair day's effort, eh? He's leaving piles of them around the house, but he is consuming large quantities of acrylic...

Glacier Rib Socks Done!

Another FO!

I did most of the knitting on these socks while we were on vacation in Glacier, hence the name. I wore them to work yesterday, and they're very comfortable.

When I first started swatching this yarn, I was disappointed to see it was self-striping. Stripes, ick! Check out the sole -- I'm just not an even stripes sort of gal:

Zig-zaggy patterns are the way to deal, I know, but after the Jaywalkers and K's Clown socks I was ready for something different. Since Charlene Schurch's book was the only one I took with me, and I took a fresh look at all her stitch patterns, and finally opted to use the slip-stitch rib pattern she recommends for breaking up pooling colors:


I loved the way it worked out. Still striped, but so much more interesting than plain stockinette or plain rib.

I used these socks to learn three new (for me) techniques: a short row heel, a tubular bind-off, and Ms. Schurch's "easy toe." I'm glad I learned the short-row heel -- it's fast and easy, if a little flimsy. I'll use it on kids socks, which will be outgrown before they can get worn out.

The tubular bind-off worked very well. I was surpised to realize it is really just kitchner stitch. But it should not be attempted while watching the Tour de France. I got off a stitch somewhere, and ended up with a slanty bind off on one half of one sock. I did not EVEN attempt to fix it (rip out kitchner stitch? are you mad?)

I will definitely use the easy toe technique again -- it is very easy, fits well, and it preserves the pattern on self-patterning yarns. Here it is on these socks (that's a tennis ball in there):



And yes, I know the socks don't match. The yarn came in a single ball and had no repeat that I could discern on the first sock. I'm still not convinced there's a repeat, but it makes no difference -- I've become very attached to the mismatched stripes.

Particulars:
Plymouth Sockotta yarn (45% cotton, 40% SW wool, 15% nylon). Knit on 2.5mm addi circs. Pattern assembled from Charlene Schurch's Sensational Knitted Socks.

I like the yarn, even though it's not as fine as I'd prefer. It's very durable -- I knit two other pairs with it about 4 years ago, and they've worn like iron. And it is not at all splitty like other cotton/wool yarns I've used. It seems to be spun very tight.

Fixed My Ribbing!

As I mentioned in the last post, I've been working on ways to fix my ribbing. Specifically, fixing the last knit/first purl stitch. They always come our looser than the other stitches, and the column seems to wobble because the stitches aren't consistently the same looseness. The sloppy appearance annoys me so much that I avoid ribbed patterns at all -- a serious problem for my sock knitting, since I love the way ribbed socks fit. And there are so many lovely variations of ribbing that I have to avoid!

For 1x1 ribbing, I generally cheat and use twisted rib. But for 2x2, 3x3, etc, the best I could think of was putting good firm YANK on the offending stitches. This approach has several obvious problems; it's tiring, and it makes my wrist hurt; "yanks" are highly inconsistent in and of themselves; it makes ribbing something I have to concentrate on instead of something that is, and should be, nearly mindless; and finally, it only addresses the looseness, not the wobble.

This is an issue for both flat and circular knitting, since when you work the wrong side the first purl becomes hte last knit. I recently re-read the first few chapters of Montse Stanley's Knitter's Handbook. She had a wonderful tip for fixing the loose knit stitch: on the right side of the work, knit through the back of the loop; on the wrong side, purl but wrap the yarn under the needle. In essence, purling with yarn under puts the stitch on the needle backwards, and KTB puts it right. On both sides, there's a bit less yarn in the throw and the stitches tighten up nicely.

But, how to adapt it to circular ribbing? Miss Stanley offers no advice.

After a couple of false starts, I think I've got it.

Here is a sample of circular 3x3 ribbing with my normal tension, no yanking or other techniques for the loose stitches:


I cast on too tight for this sample, masking the problem in the first few rows. But the sample still clearly shows the relative looseness of the last k/first p. The purl stitches seem to cringe to the left, as though there's something repulsive about the last knit stitch. And the last k stitch does form a wobbly column, even though this particular yarn is exceptionally forgiving.


Flip the blocker over, and here is the other side with the improved rib technique:



Not perfect, but vastly improved. When it's not stretched, the unevenness isn't noticeable.



So, here's how I did it.



On the first round (set-up round):

• last k: knit by wrapping yarn in front of the right needle


• first p: knit by wrapping yarn under the right needle
  

On all subsequent rounds:

• last k: knit through back of loop, wrapping yarn in front of right needle


• first p: purl through back of loop, wrapping yarn under the right needle

Here's how the last knit stitch will appear on the left needle after set-up -- the loop is backwards on the needle:

Wrapping the yarn in front of the right needle:

The first purl stitch as it appears on the left needle -- again, the stitch is hanging backwards:

Wrapping the yarn under the left needle:

I'm sure I'm not the only one out there who has this problem, and I'm equally sure I'm not the first one to fix it. But I wanted to share what I've learned so that I might help one of my fellow knitters (as so many of you have helped me through your web posts and podcasts.)

Out with it, then

I think I've finally realized why I've been so reluctant to blog about the knitting I did on vacation. I mean, I did finish a pair of socks before we even finished driving to the cabin!

The FO:

K's Clown socks.

But here's the honest to God truth: I don't like them.

They were fun to knit -- feather stitches are always fun, especially with shaded yarns, because you never know where the pattern will land. And I like the yarn. I just don't like the socks.

The good news is I have half the yarn left over, so I can make K the ankle socks she really wanted in a simple stockinette. With a ruffled cuff or picot cuff? Hmmm.

On to more pleasant topics. While on vacation, I also knit about a sock and a half for myself in my last ball of cotton/wool yarn:

I was able to make amazing progress on these with odd bits of time -- an inch while we ordered and waited at a restaurant, a couple of inches while everyone else still slept in, a couple of inches under a tree while the kids skipped rocks and I talked to the locals. A whole foot while we drove back to Spokane to fly home.

I am now about 3 stripes shy of being ready to bind off both socks (I waited on binding off the 1st until I got home and could look up suitable bind-offs for toe-up socks.) I'll probably power through it this weekend, because I can't wait to wear them And since I can't be without socks to knit...

I'm swatching for Dipsy's Dunes socks. I swatched the main stitch pattern last night, and today I've been fiddling around to see if I can do better than my usual on the 2x2 rib cuff. I've found the right trick, which I will share later -- too late to write it up tonight. For now, one last picture, Dunes at Midnight:

Back from Vacation, and moving slow...

Now that we're back from vacation, I am having a very tough time motivating myself to do "fun" things. Like knitting. Listening to my i-Pod. Blogging. It seems really strange -- I want to...work. Is this why they give us paid time off?

Glacier National Park was amazing. I thought mountains like that only existed in National Geographic and the Lord of the Rings movies. Despite the lines at the entrance gates, it felt like we were among a very small handful of people and a very large number of wildlife. We were clearly outnumbered.

I did do some knitting, but I ended up doing far less porch-sitting than I expected. This was mainly due to the very long daylight hours -- we ended up staying in the park until very late most evenings, and returning to the cabin only for a very late dinner (9 or 10pm) and bed. I haven't taken pictures of knitting progress yet, so for now I'll post just vacation pictures.

Early in the trip, M and oldest son R were suffering a light version of the bug that took down my daughter earlier in June. So our first hike was an "easy" one -- to Avalanche Lake:

I think it is so-called because the creek running down from it is snow white from minerals and agitation, and looks like an avalanche.

The second day was a visit to a remote village (was it big enough to call it that?) on the north west border of the park, Polebridge. It is accessible only by dirt road, and is not on the electric grid (though the buildings in town have generators.) Some shots of downtown Polebridge:

The third day was the absolute high-point -- a 12 mile hike along the Highline Trail. The first 8 miles are cut into the side of a mountain that varied from "cliff" to merely "breathtakingly steep." Fine terrain for bighorn sheep (not close enough for good pictures), more mountain goats than we could count, a marmot under every bush and rock, and a wolverine in one of the less-steep rock-covered areas. No pictures of him -- he ducked away into some bushes before we could even think to be scared. R and I looked at each other -- "was that really a...wolverine?" We weren't convinced ourselves until we got home that night and checked the wildlife guide -- right facial markings, right size, right habitat, and we saw him from about 30 feet in bright daylight. We're sure.

So, some goat pictures first, because they are not camera-shy:




Note that this first photo was not zoomed.

We encountered the baby (left) and his mama (not shown) about 3 miles in. Mama was absolutely determined to stay on the very narrow trail. M and I herded our bunch into a slightly-wide spot against the cliff wall and shushed them while they argued about whether we should "make the goat move." Mama, in the mean time, stood 3 feet away glaring at us in that threatening way universal to all mothers. My kids finally shut up, and Mama decided to pass us. Junior, in the mean time, had been goofing off around a corner and had forgotten there were people. As he ran to catch up with Mama, he was startled to see us and skidded to a stop at our feet. He stared at us wide-eyed for a moment, then dashed after Mama as fast as he could go.

But the real star of the Highline hike was the views:

The next day was river rafting, which likely would have been enjoyable if the Whiners and their two small boys weren't on our raft. No photos for obvious reasons.

The last day there son #2 and I came down with...something. Immodium, that elixir for all travelers, got us through but we weren't going to tempt fate with another long hike. So no Iceberg Lake, no Grinnell Glacier. Just an easy hike along a chain of small lakes. Nothing of note until we were almost back to the parking lot, then this guy and his harem:

Mr. Moose chose a particularly picturesque spot to stand. His two cows and their babies were at the far end of this small lake, and pictures of them were shot into the sun, sad to say.

The next day we loaded up and drove to the airport just as the heatwave hit -- 105 degrees, according to the car thermometer.

I promise pictures of knitting in the next post. (It will probably be a let-down...)