Hypercycloid's Fiber Fetish

Sock Lab, Round Four: Sidewinders

2012-02-16T06:55:00.000-08:00

I could not truly say that I have explored alternate sock construction if I hadn't tried turning all parts of a sock on their sides. Sidewinders is my first completely lengthwise sock, and it was a great choice of pattern - well-thought out, simple idea, multiple sizes, excellent instructions, good results!

In order to get gauge I used needles one size larger than I usually do, and I think that was a mistake - the sock fit fine, but maybe a little baggy by the end of the day, and I like my yarn knit up tighter in general. My yarn choice was great - striping yarn whose color changes were long enough to make nice stripes even though each row of my sock was up to 150 stitches long.

My favorite part of this sock is the way the stripe dips down at the heel.

My only difficulty with the pattern was that I ended up with ladders in the two sections that involved paired decreases. I switched from skp to ssk, and thought that was helping, but when I wore the socks it was clear that I just wasn't able to tighten up the area between the two decrease stitches well enough.

I solved the problem by repairing: I threaded a small loop of yarn at the bottom of the ladder, and, with a small crochet hook, created a new stitch between the decreases by looping up the rungs of the ladder, then same way you would pick up a dropped stitch.

This is not the pattern for you if you have a mental block about grafting, as you graft the entire seam from cuff to toe! It took about an hour per sock seam. It was a little unnerving to go along on blind faith, since you can't really try on the sock until the seaming is done, but then - voila! - the moment of trying it on is very satisfying.

My husband says these socks look like lizard skin!

Sock Lab, Round Three: Spread Spectrum

2012-02-13T07:05:00.000-08:00

I once had a therapist who told me that "the last 5% takes 95% of the effort" - who would have guessed that she was talking about a pair of socks I would knit eighteen years later. Almost every part of these socks was knit twice.

This pattern, Spread Spectrum, is designed to be done in one piece with intarsia, an afterthought heel, and a wedge toe worked in the round after picking up stitches at the end of the foot. It took me very little time to realize that intarsia really wasn't very much fun. (I've been spoiled, I guess, by starting intarsia projects with crochet - so much easier.) A delightful brainwave, though, I was able to immediately apply what I had learned from making Stripe Tease socks, changing the method of construction completely but not the actual architecture or end result:

The bands of the cuff were made one at a time, joining as I went by incorporating slipped stitches picked up from the edge of the previous band. Aside from the lace patterned cuff, the only variation in the cuff bands was the number of stitches / width of each band. Don't forget, when you cast on, to add selvedge stitches, one for every seam!

The foot of the cuff was cast on as a separate piece, and joined to the cuff piece using slipped stitches on the instep only. The rest of the cuff and foot edge stitches were left unattached to make a base for an afterthought heel.

Sock #2 defied me over and over. It started when I kitchenered the cuff into a tube and learned at the end that I had two stitches more on one side than the other. Which meant all my bands were misaligned - too egregious to just fudge the extra stitches at the end of the kitchener. At one point making the foot, I discovered my stitch count was off, and found a dropped stitch more than half-way up the piece. Ribbit, ribbit. I accidentally attached the foot and cuff backwards, so the kitchenered seam of the cuff would have been in the front of the sock.

Then the finishing. For some reason the toes turned out different lengths. I adjusted the length of the foot panels because I thought I knew better than the pattern, and the foot came out too long. I tried a standard afterthought heel on one sock and a star heel on the other. Then I put the damn things on, and the fit was terrible. The seam under the toes bothered me. The fit at the heel was too tight. The foot was too long and the toe was too short.

So I photographed them for posterity, and ripped them out up to the cuff. Well, my daughter got to do that part because how often does a four-year-old get to frog an entire sock foot without getting in trouble?

I remade the bottom part of the sock using a Sweet Tomato Heel and the Stripe Tease pattern. Though the stitches go in the normal direction, it still shows off the yarn in an interesting way, and the fit is much better.

The yarn was gifted to me, and is all exactly my favorite sorts of colors except that really bright neon green. I haven't decided yet whether to overdye the socks and leftover yarn to tone that one shade down a bit. The effect of these socks would be ruined if the color variegation weren't visible.

Was glad to do this pattern once, but won't tackle it again. The effect of using variegated yarn in narrow bands to better show the colors can be achieved in Stripe Tease without the fit challenges of a sideways sock. Also the sideways construction of the cuffs makes them slouch.

Sock Lab, Round Two: Stripe Tease

2012-02-12T09:21:00.000-08:00

I was chomping at the bit to start this pattern the moment I discovered it. The brilliant General Hogbuffer has come up with a technique and recipe that is intuitive, easy to modify, and perfect for a variety of uses like finding a good way to show off variegated yarn, or using up leftovers. I didn't do either, choosing yarn very similar to his own choice, and the results were spectacular:

The concept is blessedly simple: work the cuff in your usual stitch count + six. The extra six stitches are selvedge. Knit one stripe in the flat, from cuff to toe, with a slipped stitch edge. Then pick up stitches when you are done with one stripe, and work the next stripe, joining as you go by incorporating the picked-up stitches.

I thought I hated picking up stitches, but with a slipped-stitch edge, it was really simple! This technique opened up all sorts of possibilities in my brain, and the method is a really nice alternative to intarsia or shudder seaming. The pattern Stripe Tease can be found for free on Ravelry. I knitted these in Mary Maxim Step It Up yarn ("Tie-dyed" colorway) on 2.25mm needles. The yarn was a pleasure to work with - splitty, as singles yarn always is, but with consistent thickness and fantastic cheery colors. The label suggests hand-washing but there was no shrinkage (just a bit of fuzzing) when I washed these socks on cold/delicate and dried them on the gentlest setting.

I would totally knit this pattern again! I already have plans for a few more pairs.

First Sweater, finally!

2011-12-15T12:34:00.000-08:00

In January 2010 I set myself a goal of making my first sweater that year. In February 2010, I learned I was pregnant. And in March 2010, I learned I was carrying twins. So I postponed my plan to make a sweater, and concentrated on baby knitting/crocheting, since I had twice as much to make and there was no point trying to size a sweater while I was gaining weight and inches so rapidly.

In fall of 2011, I finally tackled it again. I picked a nice, easy pattern, the beloved Central Park Hoodie, and set to work. Now that I've made one, I think I'm ready to make my next cardigan in one piece. I added two inches to the overall length, and knit the sleeves in the round. I made pockets, using this supplementary pattern, but after sewing one on I decided to go without - they made the front of the sweater pook out. I used a zipper instead of buttons, and made the sleeves nice and long (I hate it when the sleeves of a sweater ride up!)

I envisioned wearing it on rainy days when I got stuck working the outside shift at the nursery school. A few weeks ago, I wore it while watching the kids ride around on tricycles in the fog and drizzle, and I was snug and cozy!

Tour de Sock, November

2011-11-30T11:25:00.000-08:00

I finished! On time! I completed Tour de Sock!

Stage Four Pattern: Technical, by Jeannie Cartmel
Knitted 11/1-11/9

This pattern really built on the skills introduced in the first three stages: traveling stitches, cables everywhere, patterned heel flap. Because this was a toe-up sock, there was some very specific calculation necessary to make sure the back of the cuff pattern matched up with the front. This is perhaps the most complicated sock chart I will ever knit!

Stage Five Pattern: Calpurnia, by Chrissy Gardiner
Knitted 11/10-11/16

I decided pretty early on that these socks would be for my mother. I wanted a nice light color to show off the lace pattern on the front, but lavender isn't so much my color. This sock had a few firsts for me: first picot edge, first bobbles, and first time doing a chart that had a little "exploded view" to chart the leaves, where several stitches were inserted into the space of one stitch.

The lace pattern on the front of the socks is supposed to be angels, but my husband and daughter decided they look more like butterflies.

Stage Six Pattern: Mudslides, by Debbie O'Neill
Knitted 11/19-11/22

Ahhh, what a relief. Six-row cable repeat pattern, easy to memorize, a quick knit. I learned something important from this pair: there are things that can knit up even faster than plain stockinette socks, if they are just complicated enough to keep my interest. These socks are very thick and cozy, and they are yarn-eaters. I finished with about eleven yards left over.

Tour de Sock, October

2011-11-06T23:07:00.000-08:00

My friend Sarah hatched this grand plan to have a knitting competition to benefit Doctors Without Borders. Well, actually, she hatched plans for two knitting competitions: Sock Sniper (like Sock Wars, only this time I got killed off first!) and Tour de Sock, a six-stage race covering two months.

My goal is to complete all six stages on time and get six new pairs of socks out of it. Also work down stash. I am learning tons.

Stage One Pattern: Calable, by Regina Satta

Knitted 10/1-10/8

Stuff I learned / significant firsts: how to repair a miscrossed cable, how to cable without a cable needle, first traveling stitches, first braided cables

Stage Two Pattern: Phellogen by Glenna C.

Knitted: 10/10-10/13

Stuff I learned / significant firsts: ktbl has many advantages, even if it is hard on the hands. Also always double-check that the skein is actually tied before you throw it in the salad spinner to dry it.

Stage Three Pattern: Chain Reaction by Tobi Beck

Knitted: 10/19-10/22

Stuff I learned / significant firsts: first colorwork heel flap/gusset pattern - have always wanted to learn how to make cool gusset patterns. Need to be more careful about laddering in colorwork socks.

This pattern puts gusset decreases in the center of the sole, which makes a really neat sort of tree pattern on the sole of the foot.

The contrast color here is Ty-Dy Sock - it is very soft and smooshy!

I am knitting away on Stage Four, and will post photos in the end of November when I have finished the race!

A Potion for a Punkin

2011-04-14T15:42:00.000-07:00

Every now and then, every knitter or crocheter stumbles upon a pattern she must start. Immediately. So you understand what happened when I found this pattern and knew I must start. Right away. My good friends were due to have a baby this spring so I decided to make a sock yarn version, which would come out the right size and have nice drape. The pattern is called "Jacquard 30 Pattern Sampler" by Renate Kirkpatrick. If you can stomach all the ends that need weaving in, it is lots and lots of fun.

I felt very clever when I figured out how to modify the pattern to eliminate the seaming. Each motif is worked off the one below, and joined along one edge to the motif next-door using slip stitches. Adding two selvedge stitches of black on each side of the design made the join-as-you-go virtually invisible. This took about 1200 yards of black sock yarn and a whole mess o'scraps, hooked up on a size F.

Geek Alert: There is an online Hogwarts. It lives on Ravelry. This project was my first OWL exam, in Potions, completed for Ravenclaw House in Winter 2011 term.

Auction Socks

2011-02-15T10:28:00.000-08:00

The mission: whip out as many pairs of preschooler-sized socks as I can between February 1 and February 12. My daughter's school is having an auction fundraiser. I managed three pairs:

Eye of the Tiger socks

Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock
Size 9-11

Lake Tahoe socks

Bamboo & Ewe
Size 10-12

Spring Garden socks

Red Heart Heart & Sole
Size 8-10

Epic Sock Yarn Bedspread, Sections 2 & 3

2010-12-01T15:38:00.000-08:00

I have been lagging in my blogging but not in my crafting. I made super progress on my sock yarn bedspread this summer, completing two sections before losing momentum in September:

Fiddly intarsia. Love it.

This section is based on a Kaffe Fassett design. A nice chance to get rid of some smaller quantities of yarn. The black yarn was stranded, the colors were intarsia.

Section 4 is in progress, but stalled because the arrival of my twins has made it difficult to put time into complex / big projects. Maybe when I have family in town who can hold the babies!

Sock Therapy

2010-07-20T05:35:00.000-07:00

I bought some yarn on impulse. This is not unusual, for me or for most knitters, I imagine. I found the perfect pattern for it. I ordered the complimentary color I would need. Then I put the whole thing in a ziploc bag and forgot about it.

July seems to be the month when I need to kick-start my crafting bug. Last year July was Scarf Month, in which I was allowed to cast on as many projects as I wanted as long as they were scarves.

This month, I pulled out my little cheer-me-up package and started as a treat to myself, ignoring the other projects I promised I would get done.

The results were spectacular, both in terms of production and mood benefits!

This pattern is Dark Isle by Julia Mueller. The yarn is Patons Kroy FX in Clover and Patons Kroy in black. This was one of those projects that had no lag from start to finish, and I completed them in a week or so. I had to modify the pattern in a few places: to fit my foot length I added six rows to the wavy pattern of the foot (about a half an inch). Also since the yardage of this yarn is a bit short, I was worried about running out of black, so I took six rows out of the topmost pattern of the cuff, and bound off a few rows early.

This was my first stranded colorwork project. I used a knitting thimble to manage my colors. A great pattern for a first-timer - the charts were simple, the pattern itself was well-written, and the sizing was adjusted in all the right places to accommodate the firmer fabric of stranded work. I do think that the foot portion of the sock was pretty snug on my narrow feet; I would imagine many people would need four or eight stitches added to the round of the foot for a better fit.

When making striped socks, I usually put the end of round at the inseam, but this pattern calls for it at the back of the sock, meaning that the contrasting color would normally be cut and restarted after the heel. Rather than making the afterthought heel from the pattern, I decided to use my favorite short-row heel, and just to be sassy and save myself two ends to weave in, I experimented with stranding up the back of the heel as well. It was a little fiddly but very fun and satisfying!

Now I just need to wait for winter so I can wear them!

The Epic Sock Yarn Bedspread, Section 1

2010-07-20T05:15:00.000-07:00

That is, Section 1 is complete. It is just my own Stained Glass Magic pattern, which I published on Ravelry over a year ago. Still finding new uses for it.

Section 2 is going well - messy intarsia!

Sock Yarn Blankies for Thing 1 / Thing 2

2010-06-10T07:50:00.000-07:00

My baby crafting goals included two baby blankies for my upcoming twins. I started one immediately after learning I was pregnant, with sock yarn leftovers, and quickly depleted my supply of scraps. I appealed to my knitting guild and a few groups on Ravelry for help, and was simply overwhelmed with the generous response. Packages started arriving, a few people showed up at my door with scraps, and all of a sudden I was in over my head. I had a terrific time crocheting up two different designs, and they are done.

(I was particularly glad to finish these before I was sidelined with carpal tunnel syndrome, which took me out of the knitting/crochet game for the last three months of my last pregnancy.)

The end result is that I now have 2400 grams (grams! not yards!) of lovingly donated sock yarn scraps to play with. In case you were wondering, this is what 2400 grams of sock yarn looks like.

With a little bit of egging-on from my mother, I have decided to transform these into a bedspread for my older daughter, who, according to her grandmother, will feel left out. (My daughter is getting roller skates for her birthday so it is unlikely she will acknowledge any other gifts presented to her during the entire of the fall and winter. But we do these things for love, and she'll eventually outgrow the skates but have an heirloom blanket to abuse as a teenager.)

Since she just moved into a twin bed, I planned to make her bedspread 66" x 90" according to this online list of afghan and blanket sizes, but as I was getting started, I decided 66" was way too wide and shortened it to 54". After one row of pattern, it became clear that even this was way too wide so I will be frogging and starting completely afresh today.

The Cosmic Joke

2010-04-19T02:49:00.000-07:00

I posted last month that I was having a really tough time with Second Sock Syndrome. I had three beautiful socks done, and no interest in casting on any of their mates. One weekend I decided to give myself a break and knit a Norwegian Sweet Baby Cap. That way, I'd get my sock yarn fix but make something that didn't come in a pair. Shortly after that, I found out I was pregnant with twins. I am not kidding.

So, ironically, I ended up making a pair of hats too. And all the baby knitting I was planning, I'm making two of everything now. Here's my baby knitting checklist:

2 Norwegian Sweet Baby Caps - done
2 Pepitas - may machine-knit most of these
2 Das Monster pants - can't decide whether to use sock yarn or heavier for older babies
2 baby blankies - one half-done

Deadline is the end of September, though with my last pregnancy I had such bad carpal tunnel syndrome in the third trimester that I couldn't crochet at all, so the sooner I get these done the better!

Sock Lab Experiments, Round 1 is complete

2010-04-16T21:24:00.000-07:00

Finally finished the second Rainbow Sock this week:

Knitting the first sock went fine. For the second sock, I decided to do toe-up just to keep things interesting... but since I had waited so long between socks #1 and #2, I forgot an important part of the pattern and inadvertently skipped two rows for every pattern repeat, or, by the time I'd gotten to the heel, sixteen rows. Fail. Frogged it and took my sweet time starting it over. When I did, I got to the heel and stalled again. This weekend I finally busted it out and finished sock #2. The second sock is slightly shorter in the foot because my toe when I do a toe-up sock is fewer rows than when I do decreases top-down. I haven't done the math yet to figure out why this is so, but it sure looked like the toe on the second sock is about 1/2" shorter.

I enjoyed this pattern for the first sock, especially because the yarn I dyed for the pattern looked exactly the way I wanted. But doing two and a half socks with this pattern got to be a drag. Glad I finished them, love how they look and fit, don't need to do them again.

Also I realized that I really should learn to do short rows in a way that is a little neater, especially when I am working in striped yarn. If you look close-up, you can see that the ends of my short rows are marked with little prickles. This is because instead of wrapping a stitch before I turn, I k2tog over the gap when I come back, and then do a lifted increase. This lifted increase pulls the color from the row below into the current row, making the little spikey shapes. I usually slip the first stitch of a short row after I turn, but I stopped doing that to see if it was contributing to the prickliness. I need to do it better when I start my Lizard Ridge Afghan.

Next on deck in the sock laboratory, the famous Skew.

Monster Socks

2010-04-06T05:44:00.000-07:00

After hoarding sock yarn scraps for months and months, I finally made my first pair of scrappy monster socks. My husband claimed all the black/black stripes yarn in the scraps box, and away I went. I wanted to use striped yarn for the heel, but I wanted a bullseye effect so I tried an afterthought heel for the first time. I made up a sort of whirlpool heel that I'm not happy with - J showed me that the socks keep slipping over his heel, and one heel has one row too many in the center and has a funny little flap at the bottom. After they come out of the wash I planned to take the heels apart and redo.

But after a few wearings, my husband told me the heel stretched out fine and the little flap of extra rows at the very base of the heel had resolved. Apparently he loves wearing his odd socks with suits and deliberately showing them off during the work day!

Sock Monogamy

2010-03-28T11:50:00.000-07:00

This week marks my two-year knitting birthday! In March 2008 my friend Jessica sat me down and showed me the basics, and I've been off and running since then.

Having some issues with sock monogamy lately, also known as second sock syndrome:

Sock Wars Update

2010-02-22T21:37:00.000-08:00

I am, remarkably, still alive after 5 weeks. Of the original 203 warriors, the official count is 39 left standing as of this evening. I have logged four kills, with the fifth launched Saturday and arriving at my victim's home any day. I am amassing a great little collection of leftovers from each pair of death socks, which will become a pair of souvenir socks for myself when I do finally meet my warm woolly death.

Sock Wars homepage
An outsider's view of Sock Wars

Sock Lab - Let the Experiments Begin!

2010-02-22T21:29:00.000-08:00

I believe that people tend to fall on a spectrum between color and texture. I am definitely far, far on the color end. What that means, in terms of socks, is that I buy a lot of crazy patterned sock yarn. But I have learned (the hard way) that the crazier the yarn is, the simpler the pattern has to be. So I make plain old stockinette socks that show off my yarn really nicely, but bore me to tears.

To combat ennui, I decided this weekend to suss out as many unusual sock constructions as I could find. So far I have a good list of patterns to try, all with unique or atypical geometry:
Boxcars
Sidewinders
Rainbow Socks
Peppermintoes
Divergent
Target Practice
Hat Heels
Skew
Vice Versa

I cast on a pair of Rainbow Socks this weekend, and so far I am really happy with the look. I dyed the yarn especially for this pattern, after trying it with different yarn and frogging when I didn't like the patterning.

Sock Wars V: Between Missions

2010-02-03T19:06:00.000-08:00

Sock Wars is almost three weeks old, and I am still alive. I have made four kills, the last being a target in Canada whose socks were put in the mail this morning. After the initial intense rush to finish that first and second pair, there have been periods of waiting for the next socks-in-progress to arrive in the mail. I now have this nagging feeling when I am between missions, like there's something I'm supposed to do that I've forgotten about. And I find that I miss having a sock to work on. To counteract this, I started a series of four socks which can pair up multiple ways.

This is fun yarn that I dyed myself. I knit up two long blanks, each long enough for a full pair of socks. I did a color wheel exercise: mixed red, yellow, and blue dye, and made dye mixes that were gradations in between each (so 25% red/75% blue, 50% red/50% blue, 75% red/25% blue, and so forth). I ended up with twelve shades that made a lovely rainbow when blended from end to end.

After the blanks were dyed, rinsed, and dried, I pulled them apart and skeined them into a loop that was ten armlengths around. Since one armlength is about one round of sock knitting, this represents ten rounds. Dyed half of the loop black, and presto! Self-striping yarn.

The only problem is that I had some yarn left over when I made my first pair, so there was no red or purple in the mix. I decided to solve the problem by making a second pair of socks that start with red and purple (but probably won't have much yellow and green in the mix). They can be matched any which way because all four socks will be fraternal twins, but there won't be an identical pair in the bunch. I've done two so far and I'm casting on a third tonight.

Sock Wars V

2010-01-24T12:56:00.000-08:00

Sometime in December: dyed some yarn by throwing all the leftover red dye (four shades) into one pot, ended up with pretty kettled-dyed yarn, thought to myself "hm, looks like bloodstains, better save it for Sock Wars."
Jan. 1-14: made a pair of Barcelonas to train up. First top-down sock, first heel flap, first Kitchener stitch. Adjusted the pattern for magic loop, felt very pleased with myself.
Jan. 9: received dossier on target via email. She requests red - hooray! - which means I have my yarn all ready.
Jan. 13: swatched, determined that 2.5 mm needles would give me required gauge of 8 sts/in.
Jan. 15, 2 PM: folded all the laundry, did the dishes
Jan. 15, 4 PM: showered
Jan. 15, 4:15 PM: took the toddler to the corner store and bought supplies (oreos, candy, coke)
Jan. 15, 5 PM: Sock Wars V begins! Patterns released. Parked toddler in front of the television and started two different patterns before selecting Don't Box Me In.

Jan. 15-16: worked incessantly on death socks, including all-nighter Friday night. Finished socks Saturday night.
Jan. 17: drove 96 miles in pouring rain to deliver death socks to target, came home with her socks-in-progress. Kill #1accomplished. Napped. Worked on death socks for target #2.
Jan. 19: finished death socks for target #2.
Jan. 20: mailed death socks to Illinois.
Jan. 22: death socks received in Illinois. Kill #2 accomplished.
Jan. 23: received word that Kill #2's target in Colorado mailed her socks-in-progress to me.

And here I wait. I expect I may get death socks in the mail from my assassin in New York at any time. She seems to be the silent stealthy type. Target #3 is located in Washington.

Flashing Socks

2010-01-12T08:13:00.000-08:00

Pooling and flashing are terms used to refer to blobs or streaks of color that appear when variegated yarn is worked up. Usually I love to see yarn asserting its independence and getting all rambunctious on me, but as a yarn dyer I needed to better understand when pooling happens so I can control it.

My first foray into an experiencial investigation. When I was knitting Christmas socks, I calculated that it takes roughly an inch of yarn to make two stitches in stockinette. I have also used the rule of thumb that one armlength of yarn makes a row of sock knitting. My armlength is about 28", and my socks are usually 60 stitches around, so this jives pretty well.

My plan was to dye a skein of sock yarn with a 30" repeat, aiming to make a pattern repeat that would correspond to a row of sock knitting. Since it is hard to wind 420 yards of sock yarn into a 30" hank (the hank gets so fat that the yarn wound toward the end of the skein has a slightly longer diameter than the yarn would at the beginning of the skein), I settled for a 60" hank dyed in two pattern repeats. This is what my yarn looked like dyed up:

Each section of yarn is as close to 10 inches as I could get. I used tight ties between the colors to minimize bleeding, thinking that if there were little undyed sections in between then would serve to emphasize the boundaries between the colors.

(The green dye needed to sit for longer before being used - it separated at at the ends which is why you see turquoise there.)

If everything were perfect and consistent, I would end up with socks that had three vertical columns, one of each color. More likely, I thought, would be slow spirally indicating that my pattern repeat is slightly longer or shorter than one round of sock knitting.

I've only knitted up one sock so far but here's how it came out:

Since the rounds at the toe are shorter than the rounds for the body of the sock, the pooling pattern doesn't establish itself until the end of the toe when each round is 60 stitches.

(Details: base yarn is Kraemer Jeannie sock yarn, dyes are Jacquard acid dyes in sapphire, emerald, and silver gray, sock was knitted toe-up on 2.5mm/size US 1.5 needles at 60 stitches per round. The short-row heel was worked with yarn from the free end of the skein so the pooling pattern would not be disrupted.)

As I was working, spiraling to the left would indicate that my pattern repeat is slightly longer than a round of knitting; spiraling to the right would be caused by my pattern repeat being too short. ~~In this photo the sock is orientated upside-down so spiraling to the right means my pattern repeat was slightly too long.~~ (Edited three months later - I just read a post on Ravelry that points out that spiraling looks the same upside-down, so what I wrote above is totally wrong. Spiraling to the right means that my pattern repeat was too short. If you look at my picture upside-down, the green part still travels from upper left to lower right. How embarrassing.)

<---My favorite part is right here when the spiraling reverses itself. When I winding my hank the chairs must have skidded closer together, shortening the diameter of the hank for the rest of the skein. I'm fairly certain the second sock will not do this.

Moral of the story: if you want to avoid pooling when making something in the round, you need to figure out how many inches of yarn are needed to make a complete round in your project. Also you need to measure the length of a pattern repeat in your yarn. This is the length of the hank the dyer wound the yarn in before dyeing. If your pattern repeat is the same as the length of yarn for a round, or if the pattern repeat length divides evenly into your one-round length, or if it's close, you will have pooling.

Best Christmas Present Ever

2010-01-07T07:39:00.000-08:00

My dad made me a swift for Christmas. He dismantled an excellence award he got at work in 2004 (left the plaque on the base - nice touch!), made the rest in his woodshop and stained it all to match. It's just beautiful! I never really needed one until recently, since I mostly use yarns that come in pull-skeins, but as I'm experimenting with different sock yarns to use as a base (for my eventual Etsy store!) I have had to deal with hanks of yarn more and more often. It was tremendous fun setting the swift up in the living room and skeining off all the hanks I had lying around. And very satisfying to have said skeins come out in perfectly tensioned little yarn cakes!

(In case you'd like to make one of your own, or drop a hint to your own dad or favorite handyman, this is where he got the recipe.)

2010 Yarn-related New Year Resolutions

2010-01-04T00:46:00.000-08:00

1) I will make my first sweater
2) I will start (if not finish) the Lizard Ridge afghan
3) I will use more sock yarn than I buy
4) I will get a resale license so I can set up an Etsy shop for my hand-dyed sock yarn
5) I will get through Sock Wars V without embarrassing myself.

Welcome to my fiber den!

2009-12-20T23:53:00.000-08:00

A peek at the "yarn room" in my basement:

My father and I built this cabinet together in spring of 2009. The design came about from a discussion on Ravelry. It took us about a week and a half (most of which was sanding, as I recall) and came in under our budget at $160 for the lumber. The final dimensions are approximately ten feet wide, four feet high, and eight inches deep.

Before the cabinet, I had yarn stashed in the guest bedroom dresser, a closet in the basement, in baskets under the bed and couch, and in two pieces of wicker furniture. And it all fit into my lovely 40-square-foot cabinet of yarn. Except the works-in-progress, which still live in the wicker furniture. And I've kind of gotten addicted to sock yarn, so I need to reallocate space within the cabinet because my stash is starting to leak out.

Having the ability to lie on the couch and look at all my yarn at once has been great for inspiration. If you have stash living in dark or separate places, I highly recommend you consider throwing it all into a big pile once or twice a year to see what ideas pop out!