Knit-Along, Sock-Along

Hello again, and sorry for the brief hiatus.   I do not yet have a working laptop, but a friend has been kind enough to lend me his old netbook until my laptop is fixed. The laptop technician is hopefully coming on Tuesday.

In more knitting-related news, the cowl KAL is done, and I did not finish.  I got about half-way done.

But, I am loving how it's turning out.

I did get the needles I ordered from EatSleepKnit, but I realized that I wanted the HiyaHiya Sharps.  I'd ordered the standard HiyaHiya circulars.  It's my own fault for not paying more attention.

That's ok, you can never have too many circular needles in various sizes and lengths.  At this point I've gotten used to the Aero needles for this cowl, so I'll just keep it on those, I think.


As for the Sock-Along, it's progressing pretty well.  I did my first toe-up cast on with the Elementary Socks, and it wasn't nearly as hard as I thought.

The Froot Loops Socks have just been started again after I had to frog them.  But they're coming along ok.

They are coming along and I'm quite liking the colour.  This photo turned out pretty true-to-life for the colour, which makes them one of my more vibrant pairs of socks, but hey, I can live with that. 

Laptop Woes and beginning the Sock-Along

So for those of you who saw this post earlier, I apologize for the weirdness, Blogger and a tablet don't work so well together.

Yes, my laptop went sputch.

It's back running for now, with a priviso from the techs that "lets see if this happens again," basically.  They're going to call back tomorrow after I run some tests and see how well this thing works out over the next few days, and if their fix holds or if they need a new fix.

In the mean time, my yarn came for the ESK Sock-Along.  The poor postman actually came to the door while I was on the phone with the laptop tech, so I feel rather bad for him.

Anyway:  Tanis Fiber Arts Blue Label in 'Natural'

and in 'Peacock'

(and yes, my hair got in the way of the camera on that second pic!)

I've done a lot of knitting with having a non-functioning laptop, but not actually a lot to show for it, since my primary knitting has been on the Evening Star Cowl KAL, which while pretty, doesn't knit up very fast at all.

Tubular Cast-Off Tutorial

Hello all!

When it comes to casting off, I usually have the problem of my cast-off being -way- too tight for my project.   This is ok, or at least tolerable, on a sleeve, or something that will be seamed.

It -sucks- for any edge that needs the elasticity.  The only reason my Freestyle Shawl (an older project) didn't suffer from this is because it was knit on a bigger needle size, and even then, the cast off edge is far tighter then I would like.

So, since the Fall Lake Slippers are knit toe-up, and I was really worrying about that cuff.  Would my cast-off make the cuff just too darn tight?

But then I learned about a technique called Tubular Cast-Off. It's a touch more time-consuming, but it's worth it if you don't want a tight bind-off edge.  The pattern actually contains a really nice tutorial on this. 

From my internet research, there seem to be several ways of doing this, but I'm going to show you the one I like -- and the one that the pattern specifies.

(P. S.:  I'm still perfecting taking camera pictures of my work in a way that doesn't come out blurry.  I'd like to think I'm getting better, but I do know they're still not the greatest pictures.)



 Start by doing at least one row of k1 p1 ribbing before your bind off row.

Then, measure across your work (or around if you're working in the round), and cut a tail of yarn four times longer then your measurement.  Thread that through a tapestry needle.

 In this photo, I've already done part of the cast off, but that's ok, there's no set-up required for this, other then the previous row of ribbing.



Step one is to pass the tapestry needle through the first stitch on your needle as if to knit, slip the first stitch off of the needle.

Now, pass the tapestry needle through the second stitch on your needle as if to purl.  Leave this stitch on the needle.

Next, keeping the yarn in front, pass the tapestry needle through the first stitch on the needle as if to purl and slip this stitch off of the needle.

Now, bring the yarn behind (not over the needle, you don't want a yarn-over here), and insert the tapestry needle between the first and second stitches on the needle, going from back to front.

The last step is to pass the needle, once again, through the second stitch on the needle as if to knit.

And that is that!  Repeat this until all the stitches have been cast off, pull the tail through the last stitch, if necessary, and weave in the end.

As a note, this is actually a variant on grafting (aka kitchener stitch), so you'll see a lot of online tutorials asking you to split your work onto two needles.  I like this method because you don't have to do that, but if you find that works better for you, then by all means.

This is a slower method then the typical cable cast-off, and it does mean that if you don't cut a long enough tail of yarn you could be in trouble.  Also, because it does use the k1 p1 ribbing, it might not work for something like a shawl edge.  But for things like cuffs (I'm betting this will see a lot of use when I try out toe-up socks!), it's actually really nice.

Treasure Finds at Knit-O-Matic

My apologies, I meant to get this post up earlier!  But I was distracted by knitting. Can I be forgiven?

Ok.

Anyway.

Due to scheduling between my volunteer work and choir practice, there is the occasional day where I don't have enough time to go home, but I still have time to kill.  And Knit-O-Matic is basically right along my travel path.

So I decided to stick my head in there (I'd only been briefly, once before), and hang out and knit.

It was actually really awesome.  They've got a good selection of yarn (and for the more budget conscious, their sale bins usually have something awesome in them), and the woman I met (whom I'm assuming is the store's owner, and I'm sadly blanking on her name), had a real live lovebird on her shoulder, which is amazing!

I am the type that if I'm in a new yarn store and I've spent a good bit of time knitting, I find it polite to buy something.  I've taken up their time, used their space; I don't mind supporting them. (If I'm a regular, I won't buy something every time I'm there, but I do still try and buy something occassionally, even it's just a snack, tea, or a new set of needles).

So I walked away with three things:

1) Two skeins of Dream in Colour Classy from their Sale Bin:

"Some Summer Sky"

and "Midnight Derby".

I have plans for both skeins already, both are, hopefully, going to become heavy socks.

Speaking of socks, though, the far more exciting find, though, was a copy of "Knit.Sock.Love"

While the e-book on Ravelry isn't too badly priced, the physical book is out of print, and, due to oddities (or should that be stupidities?) in Amazon's pricing algorithms, is currently priced at around 300 dollars for a new copy and starts at 60 for a used copy. My copy was 35 dollars and change, which is far more reasonable. 

When I saw that on the shelf, I just knew I -had- to pick it up while I had the chance.  Though I'm not a sock-knitting addict, socks make wonderful portable projects, and great gifts.  You can never have too many sock patterns, I figure, since you will almost always need more socks.

Project Update -- September 27th, 2013

No pictures (it's dark now, so pictures don't turn out as well), but some news.

1)  I've determined that yes, I -will- need more yarn to finish my Mariah Cabled Cardigan. It's been an interesting adventure, knitting this, because I started when I knew a lot less then I know now.

So, I've put 1 more skein of the Dream In Colour Smooshy with Cashmere on my wishlist at EatSleepKnit.  (It's not in stock there right now).    Where I originally got the yarn, back in 2012, is no longer carrying Dream in Colour yarns, in fact, I haven't found a local place that carries the Smooshy with Cashmere.  Knit-O-Matic could order a bag of the Smooshy with Cashmere, I've been told, but I don't need a bag, just one more skein.  And though yes, I could use the other skeins in luxurious socks, I don't like the cashmere content in socks, because I want my socks to be machine washable.

However, this means that my new skein, like most hand-dyed yarns, won't be an exact match.  So, my plan is to finish up the sleeve with the skein I have now, then alternate the new skein with the ends from my various old skeins, and hope that hides the worst of the dye lot variation.

2) My Cowl KAL is progressing. . . slowly.  I just sat down with Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan (can I say that I love the original series far more then the JJ Abrams reboot?)  and knit through that, which got me to the second pattern repeat (the pattern repeats 6 times).   When I'm done here, I'm going to stick on the Star Trek original series episode "Space Seed" and see if I can't get more knitting done tonight before my roommate gets home from work.

3) My Christmas Entrelac Scarf is getting closer to completion.  It's become my take-along brainless knitting for the moment, because it really is.  Entrelac looks complicated, but so long as you don't knit too many stitches in a section, you're fine.  I'm going to use three balls of the Liberty Wool Light, and then I'll see how much longer I think it needs to be.  I'm also going to add some fringe to it -- I think it would look better.

Knitting In Public Trials

So, there have been a few things that happened in my knitting life, but this one is kind of sad.

I do volunteer work, and I often knit something brainless through the meetings.  They can get quite long, and while I do totally appreciate making sure that everyone is heard, it does mean that the meetings can drag sometimes.

So, I knit.  It helps me pay attention, and it keeps me from fidgeting or going stir-crazy during the long meetings.

Apparently someone took objection to that.  It's probably the assumption that I'm being disrespectful to the speakers, or that I'm not paying attention (despite the fact that I tend to be pretty vocal during these meetings).   I can understand that, it's a common assumption, and I can totally see why someone who doesn't knit could think that my attention is not on the speakers or the meeting.

The sad part of it is, they didn't come to me.  They wrote a note to the person running the meeting, who then had to talk to me.  Now, the person running the meeting doesn't mind my knitting at all, (and hadn't even noticed until it was pointed out) so as long as I am still actually paying attention, and am not distracting the people next to me, it's not a problem in their mind.

Fair enough.

I just wish that whoever felt that my knitting was disruptive for some reason could have come to me directly.   I would have happily explained.   I'd have to find the links again, (and if someone is curious, I can go digging for them) but there are actual studies showing that knitting actually increases your absorption of information.

Anyway, I did agree to bring a smaller project (I was working on my scarf, and it's getting kind of long), in case it was just the size that was distracting -- if it's a much smaller 'in hand' kind of project, maybe it won't bug others as much. I don't mind compromising at all, I really just wish I could have had this sort of discussion with whoever it is that is bothered by my knitting.  

Gox Sock the first is done!

Well, the post title pretty much says it all.  I finished up the first of the Gox Socks at about 11:30 tonight.

I could have waited to get a better picture tomorrow morning in sunlight, but I'm impatient!  (That and I have lots to do tomorrow, so I didn't want to have these languishing without a picture for too long).

Since the test-knit only asked for one sock, this means that they can be back-burnered for a while while I focus on holiday knitting and my various KALs.

They're actually -really- comfy.  The arch shaping felt a little odd when I first tried it on, but it works out well.  Don't let the odd look of this sock deceive you, it really does work.