Mayberry socks

Uh, hi there. Well, let's see, it's only been about 10 months since I posted. This is a little awkward...

It's like this: I lost my knitting mojo there for a bit. I had a couple of disappointing projects and then got distracted by all kinds of other things and I didn't knit a whole lot for a while. But I'm back on it now - Fall helps.

And now that I'm back, I brought socks with me.

Mayberry Socks

(Click to enlarge pictures)

I adapted the stitch pattern from one in Gisela Klopper's Beautiful Knitting Patterns (obviously I'm a fan of this book) - it's a combo of cables and brioche that's easy and really beautiful. The squishy-ness of the brioche makes them super comfortable and great for lounging.

Size/Finished Measurements:
One size
Length: 7 inches from cuff to beginning of heel flap
Leg circumference: 7 inches unstretched before blocking
Foot circumference: 6 ¾ inches unstretched before blocking

The length of the foot can be adjusted to fit your feet (as instructed in the pattern) and the brioche stitch is quite stretchy. These socks comfortably fit up to a 12 inch lower calf and a 9 inch instep.

Materials
Louet Gems Pearl Fingering Weight, 2 balls; or approximately 350 yards of fingering (sock) weight yarn
US size 1 dpns, set of 5 OR size needed to obtain gauge
Cable needle, if desired - I recommend cabling without a needle, a tutorial can be found here
Tapestry needle for grafting toe

Gauge
35 sts X 48 rows = 4” in stockinette st

Pattern: $5.00

2008: Year in review

Since I love numbers, some stats:

• According to the Ravelry notebook, I finished over 28 thing in 2008. There are probably more, since I don't put small, quick stuff on Ravelry.

• The first was the Koolhaas hat. I have yet to wear it out of the house. The only time I have put it on recently was right after the cat attacked my head (long, weird story). It ruins curls, so it has to be worn on select occasions, none of which has come up yet.

Yarn: Berroco Comfort, 1 ball in some sagey color
Needles: US size 7
Pattern: Koolhaas Hat by Jared Flood from Interweave Knits Holiday 2007

• The last completed knit of 2008 was a Cobblestone for me, finished Christmas Day. Funny that the first and the last are both Jared Flood patterns. The dude is pretty talented.

Yarn: Manos del Uruguay Silk Blend, 6 skeins of 3110 (I think that's the color) - early X-Mas gift from my MIL
Needles: US size 5 and 6
Pattern: Cobblestone Pullover by Jared Flood
Modifications: Made the smallest size which turned out about 32" at the chest. Added a little waist shaping. Started the sleeves with 40 sts instead of 52, but worked up to the same number. Reduced the number of stitches decreased over the yoke to end up with...shit, can't remember now. I think it was something like 90. Had to leave off the last pair of short rows, for fear of running out of yarn, but worked even for an extra inch or so after the last decrease round. I ended up using every bit of yarn except what was used for the swatch.

That yarn is soooo soft and light. It is a very comfortable sweater.

• Project that took the longest: Venezia, at approx. 6.5 months (see below)

• There were tons of short projects, including some white baby socks - great for using up leftover sock yarn so you don't go on a bender at the yarn shop (well, you can delay it at least). The socks are now being worn (I hope) by a friend's baby.
  

Pattern: Better-than-Booties baby socks by Ann Budd.

• Most expensive project: Venezia again. It wasn't very expensive, maybe $60 for both yarn and needles, I'm just really cheap when it comes to knitting. If you are going to make 28+ things per year on my salary, you have to be cheap. And I didn't pay for the yarn for my cobblestone, which would have come out at around $70.

Yarn: Knit Picks Gloss in Woodland Sage (3.5 balls) and Dolphin (2.5 balls)
Needles: US size 2 and 2.5 (3mm)
Pattern: Venezia by Eunny Jang from Interweave Knits Winter 2006
Modifications: Scoop neck.

The truth: I'm not sure I'm that fond of it - still has big shoulders, which I'm very self conscious about. I'll give it one more blocking before it gets tossed in the back of the closet.

• Most expensive on a per inch basis (I guessed, I'm not that much of a number lover): Cherry Tree Hill Socks. But they are really lovely.

• It's too hard to pick a favorite knit of the year, but I do know my least favorite:

I hate you, Surplice Bodice Top

Let's face it: I hate Cotton Classic. No drape, very stiff, and this stuff is an absolutely awful virginal white (I think the bleaching, done by Tahki not me, contributes to the stiffness). This is the second sweater I have made with this same yarn - I hated the last one too, so I took it apart and made this thing. When will I learn.

Count:
6 pairs of socks (1 baby pair)
5 pullovers
3 pairs of bootees
3 shawls
2 bags
2 tanks
2 toys
1 adult cardigan
1 baby cardigan
1 shrug
1 scarf
1 hat
1 beret
1 pair of gloves
1 hankie

• Amount spent on yarn and needles in 2008: $442 (not including use of leftovers), or less than 2% of my gross earnings in 2008. Not bad.
  

The challenge continues

So a while ago, I decided to do some things by the end of the year. Mind you - this was before I started working full time again, so I haven't accomplished quite as much as I had hoped. But here are the strides so far.

1. Toe-up socks.

No Name Socks

Toe up socks are not bad. I have come to the conclusion that they are not really any better than cuff-down socks though. It's still a bit tricky to try them on, though it would be helpful if you wanted to use up all the yarn.


2.2. Steeks.

Venezia

Um, yeah, steeks are stupidly bulky on shoulders. Curiosity satisfied, don't feel the need to do that ever again.

5. Gloves.

Knotty Gloves

Pattern: Knotty Gloves by Julia Mueller
Yarn: Lana Grossa Seta Cashmere sock yarn, 1.5 balls, silver
Needles: US size 0 dpns
Modifications: Just reversed the cables so the wrists are mirror images. Really nice pattern.

These are great, I have been wearing them for a few weeks now. Quite practical.


6. A bag.

Damask bag

I still need to felt it, and put a handle on it, but it is currently in bag form. I'm waiting to buy the handle until I see how well it turns out - then I will know how much $ I want to throw at a handle. I did not particularly enjoy knitting this thing; it was a weird combo of fair-isle and intarsia, and required looking at a chart all the time. I'm hoping it will be functional though.

7. Entrelac.

Entrelac socks

Does a half of a sock count? I did try Entrelac, and I liked it - it just didn't fit my foot.

***************************************************

Still to go:

2.1. A large fair-isle project. With more than two colors.

Possibilities:
Road to Golden
Fair-isle U-Neck (Ravelry link)
Mirepoix Bodice (Ravelry link)


3. Writing up a pattern with multiple sizes that involves set-in sleeves.

I think I could do it, but the garment I was planning to write a pattern for turned out to be much too complicated for anyone else to ever want to make. Trust me. There was a lot of complaining about the twisted rib on Honeycomb, so I can imagine the hate e-mails from knitters on the current sweater already. (Remember, I'm a product knitter, not a process knitter.) It is still in progress, but I will show it to you at some point.


4. A Shirley Paden project.

I'm now leaning toward Cable Chic. Not using Noro though.


8. Double Knitting, as in reversible.

I think this might be a fun intro project.

What a difference a neckband makes

Neckband #1:

Yuck

Pretty frumpy. (The sweater, I mean - though I'm not much better. I blame the head cold.) It took me a little while to realize that the real problem was too many stitches in the neckband. At first I thought it was the narrow armscye, which to be honest, is too narrow. If you look for it, you can see it in the original photos and in most of the photos on Ravelry - it shows up as the chest of the sweater pushing over onto the upper arms.

Neckband #2 looks much better - I just cast on a lot fewer stitches. I will show it to you as soon as I fix the "quarterback shoulders". Anyone have suggestions about how to get steeks to lie a little flatter?

Sleeve setting already

Almost a week (two days back from Sac) and still no sleeves? I'm such a slacker. I will now take a break from the two new sweaters I have going (I'm a knitting tramp ("harlot" is taken)) and sew in Venezia's sleeves - stay tuned.

Getting close

Now that the election is over (aw yeah, my fellow Americans!), I shall reveal the progress on Venezia.

I finished the body a while ago (stupid standard time prevents picture taking on week nights which is why you haven't seen it yet). I did decide to go with a scoop neck, which I had to do twice because it was too square the first time.

Front neckline

I did only 8 stripe stitches on the neck instead of the 10 on the sleeve to keep it from being bulky under the neck band. I did secure the steeks with crochet, although they haven't been secured yet in these photos.

I ended up knitting the sleeve three and a half times: half of first sleeve on dps before realizing I had started on the wrong row; first sleeve on dpns; second sleeve using Magic Loop; then first sleeve again, using Magic Loop because it came out much less lumpy than on dpns. Once I had the colorwork pattern memorized, it went pretty quickly. The upper part of the body was also done using Magic Loop rather than dpns or shorter circular needles. I definitely recommend it.

With crochet secured steeks

Snip snip

It looks like a sleeve!

I will admit I was skeptical that the crocheting would hold the steeks, but they did, even through a gentle wash and block.

Can I digress? I don't understand why, if the related article on steeks only talked about steeks with an odd numbers of stitches, the sweater has steeks with 10 stitches. It was a problem when it came to securing. Lame. Anyway...

You can see the folded neckband I picked up around the neckline. The shape of the neck turned out pretty well. I tried it on at the stage you see above and noticed 2 things. First, it made me look fat. I'm hoping that was the dorkiness associated with no sleeves. Second, the neck band gaped at the back. I'm hoping a good blocking fixes that problem. Otherwise, I will be undoing and redoing.

Currently the sleeves are done blocking, but the body is still a bit damp. I will take up the task of setting in the sleeves when I return from a short trip to Sacramento. Hasta la vista (baby)!

I hope y'all voted

I did - you know I wouldn't miss this one. It sure feels good to vote. Sometimes, like today, it feels even better than knitting.

Bzzzzzz... *Hiccup* Bzzzzzz....

I need to clean the mirror

Got totally paranoid that I would finish the body and it would not fit. (I haven't checked my gauge since I started the sleeve.) So I chucked it on a couple of long needles and tried it on. I still have three waist increases to go.

Dude

Venezia colorwork chart memorized. 36sts x 26 rows in my head. OK, it's more like I can guess pretty well where I am and then look a couple of rows down to verify. And it only took me one full sleeve and 20% of the body. Almost done with the waist decreases.

In other knitting news: my wonderful mother-in-law bought me 6 hanks of Manos Silk Blend in Stellar (3110) as an early Christmas present when we were in Wisconsin. I'm lucky lucky lucky to have a MIL who likes to go to yarn stores and buy me yarn. I think the Manos may become a ladies version of the Cobblestone pullover.

And I started a pair of Drunken Bees. And I bought some yarn from Knit Picks. And Yarn Garden. I am on a knitting bender.