One sock down! And, my Kitchener stitch was the best one yet I think. Yeah! I’ll share a pic next week. But, that is one sock in a week. Whew!
Ok, granted it is a worsted weight, 48-stch sock. But, still record time I think.
I hope you all have a safe and enjoyable New Year’s celebration and that 2005 proves to be a real knitful year for you!
All of you who love knitting socks, check out this kewl design a friend of mine came up with! He has put it on shirts, sweatshirts, mugs, magnets, a tote bag and more!
Check it out at…
http://www.cafepress.com/fracturedwear and tell him Kristi sent you!
Since my grandmother used to knit and occassionaly picks up dropped stitches for my blind mother I requested that my family open their gifts from us at her house on Christmas Eve. Grandma was excited to hear that and was really looking forward to their opening the gifts there (it’s become a quite small celebration now with only my mom, dad, sister and grandma and grandpa). But I hadn’t told her there were any knit gifts in the pile.
Well, I spoke to mom on Christmas Eve later in the evening and she said Grandma was very impressed and planned on calling me when our company left. They all laughed really hard at dad’s socks. I guess he was wearing a sweater that he only wears to Christmas and they were a perfect match, LOL! Mom loves her hat and they all decided that the hat band was a good thing so grandma is tacking that down for her. I didn’t hear the verdict on the hat band for Amber’s hat. But, she loved the scarf - yeah! And, mom’s convertible mittens are a perfect fit!
After Christmas I talked to mom and again and she said Dad wore his socks to his family’s gather on Christmas night and mom had him showing them off. I had a big laugh because this grandmother’s house is a small ranch that gets packed with 50 or more people and I was thinking how hot he must have been with wool socks on. Then, I find out that not only was he wearing wool socks, but also lined jeans and a heavy sweater, LOL!
I also got to talk to Grandma on Sunday and she said she was looking at the hats looking for mistakes and couldn’t find any 
You suppose that has anything to do with the fact that they were felted?? LOL! But, she said the next time I’m home that we’ll have to go to the yarn show in New London and I told I had already planned that because they carry some yarns there that no one too near here carries. So, there is a field trip planned the next time I’m home. I love how proud she is of my knitting. She’s been proud of all my artsy stuff (she asked for a second wedding invite because she carried the original in her purse for 6 months showing all her church friends and such what a classy set of invites I made, LOL), but with the knitting it’s different because she knows what it takes to do it I guess.
So, all in all it was a very satisfying gift giving season!
I did get the 2005 Pattern - A - Day calendar from MIL & FIL, but that was the only knitting gift I got. I had a $30 gift certificate that I was waiting to spend until Christmas was over and I knew what, if any of the books I had asked for were bought. So, yesterday I ordered ColorWorks by Deb Menz and Folk Socks by Nancy Bush. I went with free shipping so I won’t have them until the end of next week, or even early the following week. But, I’m excited!
I know it’s late for this year and extremely early for next year’s holiday season, but I completed the pattern for my non-traditional Christmas Stocking. Of course, you could make it more traditional by choosing different colors This is a bit more advanced than my other pattern. You need to know how to pick up stitches, yarn-over, purl, knit wrapped short rows, SSK, and K2tog. This stocking requires 5 balls of Berroco Softwist, 3 for MC and 2 for AC.
Click here to download the PDF file.
To share the pattern with others, please link only to this post and not directly to the PDF file, as there may be trouble downloading it that way. Thanks!
Please reply here as well if you knit the stocking and have pics on your blog! I’d love to see everyone’s stockings!
The original pattern is in IK Winter 2004. Because I just can’t follow a pattern as written, LOL, I’m doing the retro rib socks with Lamb’s Pride Superwash (Northern Lights, #SW90) which I consider a light worsted weight. I’m also continuing the pattern onto the heel to make them clog socks. So, the adjustments I’ve made include:
+ Using Sz 5 (3.75 mm) Needles
+ CO 48 sts for a total of 6 pattern repeats
+ I repeated the cuff pattern only 4 times
+ I repeated the leg pattern 12 times
+ I rotated the heel around so I could maintain the pattern down the heel, so it takes place in the first 24 stitches of a round, instead of the join being the center of the heel
+ I repeated the pattern in a flat format 4 times for the heel
+ To prevent any holes, I picked up 15 stitches along each side of the heel flap
Since the pic above was taken yesterday morning I’ve nearly completed the gusset section. I can’t believe how fast this sock is going. I suppose that is because it’s worsted weight. But I think back on my dad’s pine socks and that didn’t go that fast, though that first sock took forever because the magic loop doesn’t agree with me and I guess the second sock really flew.
It’s good it is flying though because DH is pouting that I haven’t made him any socks and he’s requesting a multi-directional scarf for himself - though he hasn’t chosen his yarn for that yet. I sent links for him to view the colors for Silk Garden, Kureyon and Diadomina, but he hasn’t gotten back to me yet.
Soon to come are the reports from home on the knit gifties…
Bernat Softwist in 9442 (Fig) and 9445 (Fern)
Sz US 8, 7, 5 and 2
16-inch Circumfrence, 14-inches top to center heel and 13 inches center heel to toe
I finished it just in time. It was about 11pm or so on the 23rd! All of DH’s family was impressed except SIL2, but SIL2 rarely has anything nice to say so that doesn’t really count.
I’m hoping to get a pattern written up for this soon, though I don’t suppose anyone will really be itching to knit it until next fall… LOL! My plan is to work on patterns here today and perhaps tomorrow.
I did rip and restart the Retro Rib socks from IK on Christmas Eve because I needed something to do while visiting with the in-laws. I’ll post more about them tomorrow.
Yes, your eyes do not deceive you - that is indeed a successful heel! Wheeeee! It is a garter stitch short row heel ala Lucy Neatby’s Cool Socks Warm Feet.
That only begs the question, for a well balanced looking stocking do I then also need to do the garter stitch common wedge toe or will the plain stockinette stitch toe look okay? I’m leaning towards the garter stitch. That way all of the purple is in garter - the lace, the heel and then the toe…
I’m really, really happy with this stocking. I’ll be even more so if I have it done by Christmas Eve! But the proportions seem just perfect so far. When DH saw the strings on the lace bit that I used to help me pick up stitches evenly he thought I was attaching jingle bells. That gave me an idea and I just might attach jingle bells to the points of the lace. Though I don’t think I have any on hand and am not sure if I want to brave any crowds or not… Plus there is the whole time crunch. I still have the entire instep to do. Though, thank goodness Christmas stockings are not in proportion to regular socks!
I’m going to buckle down and do cleaning this morning (while listening to The Stupidest Angel: A Heartwarming Tale of Christmas Terror by Christopher Moore) in preparation for our last minute overnight house guests this weekend (long story short, FIL was hospitalized the end of last week so they aren’t bringing the RV and that means three house guests who were not going to be staying with us). Then, mid-afternoon I’m going to head over to Textiles-A-Mano and knit there until supper time. Then, it’s game night tonight and if my hands are up to it and they aren’t playing games that sounds too tempting I’ll knit there as well and hopefully be done. DH is taking off tomorrow to help me get ready so I don’t anticipate a lot of knitting time tomorrow. So, ideally I’ll complete the stocking yet today. But, I’m not sure if that is realistic or not.
I now have NO heel on my stocking! Yikes!
Despite a two hour Stitch ‘n Bitch session and more knitting once I got home I now have no heel. I pulled back three or four times and still was running into troubles. Finally, I decided to pull it all back, thinking the part of the yarn that had been knit so many times was looking bad. So, I must start again.
I’m thinking since I’ve successfully completed wrapped short rows with no problems whatsoever that I shall use a wrapped short row heel. In the book I got from my SP3 there is a garter stitch short row heel. I’m thinking I might opt for that. It’ll tie in the garter stitch lace at the top and should go a bit faster with no purl rows.
Wish me luck - puhleeeeze. . .
I should have known better than to hope to have a nearly completed instep on the Christmas stocking. I think I jinxed myself by putting that goal out into the world. I also should have known better than to try learn a new heel in the car in terrible traffic. I should have followed my natural instinct and waiting until Stitch ‘n Bitch tonight to get some guidance from Amanda who had turned me onto the no-wrap short row heel.
Instead, I have a big mess. A really pointy portion of heel - I obviously worked down to too few stitches and a holes at various points in the heel as well…
See it there? Kind of hard to miss, isn’t it?
I had no troubles with the first half of the heel - other than working it for far too long. However, when it came to closing the gaps I found the instructions a bit vague. “Pick up the yarn leading the next stitch and knit it, then pass slipped stitch over?” I understand the PSSO. What I’m a bit lost on is which bit of yarn do I pick up to knit? And, what I was picking up, it seemed like I should have knit through the back loop (I’m thinking if I had done that I wouldn’t have holes). But, I’m not sure. I was following the directions for the heel used in the Simple Sock Pattern from Oz Yarn (sometimes called an hourglass heel I understand). Can anyone shed any light on the directions for the second half of the heel? Also, I’m working the heel over 60% of my stitches, which happens to be 58 stitches - how many stitches would you leave in the center w/o gaps do you figure?
Here is view of the full stocking. Though I still haven’t removed the strings to help me in picking up stitches… LOL!
I’m sure you’re on pins and needles for another picture of much stockinette stitch, right?
Yeah, I thought so, LOL!
I’m at about 8 inches of green as of last night, but this weekend involves a bit of a road trip so I should have about 6 hours of knitting time between today’s departure and tomorrow’s return! So, I hope to have a no wrap short row heel in place and perhaps a good chunk of the instep done for your viewing pleasure on Monday.
Have a great weekend!
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