Sock Math Success

It's such an awesome feeling when math actually works - no wonder how convoluted you may think it is.  In my last post I went through the math for two different sites that help you calculate how many stitches you need based on foot measurements and knitting gauge.  I went through the calculations for both and once I made an adjustment based on understanding what resting weight meant, they both agreed.  For US2 size needles, I need a sock pattern that requires 64 stitches. Yea!!!  *knitterhappydance*  You have no idea how relieved I am.  There are way to many choices for sock needles from US000 to US3 and unlike larger garments which can be fidged sizeways in may different locations - sock construction doesn't allow to much fidging.

All the while I was knitting these, I kept trying them on - At first I thought they were to snug, then to loose - the to loose feeling kept on until I turned the heel.  I kept telling myself - don't make any judgments or decisions until you turn the heel.  That will pull the sock into shape and let it cover my foot properly rather than just pulled on over the toes.  It was a pretty agonizing and tenseful knit until I finally got to the heel turn.

I was looking for alternative heel turn methods, for several reasons - I kept having gaps because my first stitches on the needle were generally pulled and stretched that created gaps, and I like to learn new methods.  I tripped over a heel that didn't involve wraps.  It's called Shadow wrap heel turn.  That really peaked my interest.  It's done all at once so to speak, no wraps (yes, no wraps), and looked really easy to do.  I don't mind wraps, but if I'm using a dark yarn, it's difficult to see them to pick them up.  I've been super excited to try this method.  In the picture to the left this is where I've got it set up and am ready to start the rest of the heel turn.  If you notice, my stitches aren't pulled at the beginning, so I had high hopes that I would have no unsightly holes - yes I was getting super excited!  And since there are no wraps, there are no stitches to pick up - just knitting the 'twins' together and making a triplet for the next row.

I could barely wait to try them on, and I use my left foot as that is my larger foot - If it fits on that foot, it will definitely fit on the right.  And O M G - it fits!  No unsightly gaps - there is a hole at the top where I joined back with my knitting, but I'm thinking it was based on having an extra row before I joined back in the round again - easy fix.  I'm SUPER pleased with this heel - I mean .. look at that - and it's the same on the other side too!  I totally recommend this heel and I used the tutorial from Eddie's Room where the Super Sock Calculator lives.

I've gotten up past the top of my ankle and will do one more pattern repeat then start my ribbing.  I'm super pleased with these socks and am beyond tickled that I have my sweet spot for needles and stitch count.  I'm telling you it really gives you a huge boost of confidence knowing that I can cast on my stitches and my socks will fit - I'll do another knit in a Patons sock yarn to use it up and then I'll get into my 'fun' yarn, if I can wait  if not - I'm thinking the Debbie Bliss yarn I won, or Knitpicks Freemont in the Hawthorne Kettle Dyed - I might just have to do the blind reach and grab.

Now I have to find the to that speaks toe me - the wedge type toe isn't my favourite, I'm thinking I might do that spiral cast on - we'll see where my sock journey continues to lead me.

Pattern Info:
US2 (2.75mm)
Dumbledore's Christmas Stockings with
Super Sock Calculator
Patons North America Kroy Socks FX - Celestial Colours
KALs these socks are in - #selfishmeKAL #BoxoSox2017 #23HPKAL2017 #ANADIOMENA 

First KAL Finished YAY me!

Well for my first KAL, I think I did alright!  I had a lot of fun doing this and enjoyed the discussion boards.  The project was a small one and knit level - intermediate - I didn't want to overwhelm myself on my first KAL and go to far outside of my experience level.  I look at each pattern as an opportunity to learn something new, within reason of course LOL

The first mitt went pretty quick, while the right mitt took me a bit longer.  Not entirely sure why, And of course the rounds I tinked back for the left mitt stands out in neon lights to me. Might have been better off frogging it back and doing it again, but this is acceptable and isn't making my OCD twitch to bad - just a quick tick here and there,

There is a shawl KAL and this fingerless mitts KAL to choose from. A friend of mine has been knitting them up lately and they are beautiful and tweaked my interest, Shawls require more yarn than mitts.  I've decided that new projects need to come from my stash whenever and where ever possible, and there just wasn't enough for the shawl.  Least with the fingerless mitts, I've made mitts before, even wrote my own pattern - so there is a base to work from there.  AND I had more than enough of this yarn for the project  I didn't even use the whole skein for these mitts

The cuff is really unusual and unique.  There are a gazillion 1x1 cable stitches in there - drove me a bit batty to do that many itty bitty cable stitches.  It creates a comfortable fit around the wrists that goes further up the arm and covers more area.  Also goes down the fingers just to the knuckles.  One thing I did not do was change needle sizes for the ribbing at the top and for the thumb.  I would rather it be larger than way to tight - larger is easy to fix with a bit of elastic

I do have smaller hands than most adults.  I can wear children's gloves and mitts comfortably.  I made these in the size that it was written for with no modifications.  Shocking right? I actually did not make one modification LOL    You can see how the mitts are a bit long for my hand as the pattern gets a bit lost fitting my hand - they do not feel overly large or loose - quite comfy actually.   The decision to use US2 for the thumb was ideal.  I believe that if I had changed needle size, it would be way to snug around the thumb



The pattern is very delicate and feminine without being girly.  I've been finding myself drawn towards lacy and cable patterns lately.  Gives you just enough of a challenge without it to much over the top or boring.

The designer Qianer Huang has some beautiful patterns and I'll be keeping my eyes open for other KALs that she has going on.  First I want to finish the socks I stopped half way through and get back to my blanket.  Starting to feel a bit guilty about that, although having more and more socks speaks louder than my guilt LOL

Blossomlace KAL Progress

Have you ever had one of those days (weeks .. months) where it seemed nothing worked - not even a smidge??  It's rather been like that for me for the past 2 weeks.  I've been battling a bug.  This critter has my throat so swollen my Dr thought I had tonsils!!!  Good Grief!  Well ibuprofen, cepecal, neo citron and sleep - LOTS of sleep got me to the point where I can at least concentrate again.  Still feeling ick, but better.

I was tinking more than I was knitting while dealing with this critter at it's height - so I put it down and just gave into the inevitable and slept for two days LOL  No I don't feel totally rested, still tired, but not fighting to stay awake at least.

I wasn't in the mood to watch tv or a movie, so I found an app that reads epub (digital format for books) outloud, loaded up my book, grabbed my project and got to work.  I'm very proud of my self as I only tinked back twice and managed to get 10 rounds done :S  YAY me!!!!

It was a total win-win for me!!  Got to 'read' my book and got some rounds done on the left mitt.  The pattern is starting to show  - not quite enough as to be totally visible, but enough so you get the idea.  Another 15 rows and I start the thumb!  That is my goal for today - the thumb - and if I get further along then kudos to me ;D

Ravelry link - 1st KAL
KAL Group - HiyaHiya Patterns

1st KAL - fingerless mitts

I'm so giddy!! I've been wanting to participate in a KAL for so long, but I kept managing to miss them. For once I checked my ravelry messages in time and got the invite to participate in HiyaHiya Patterns KAL - There was two choices for the KAL - A shawl (which is absolutely gorgeous) or a cable lace fingerless mitt pattern.

The pattern is free as long as you finish the project by December 31, 2016.  So based on project size and the fact that I need to use my stash for new projects, I opted for the fingerless mitts.

I've been spoilt working with sock yarn for the past few months,  Going back to 100% acrylic was an adjustment of sorts LOL  I was hoping there was enough sock yarn left over from my projects for these mitts, but no -  I was close with one, but still short about 50 yards and didn't have enough of a contrasting yarn for the cuff area etc to take the chance.  I really don't want to frog this project at all.  Even though it's a running joke of sorts that I seem to frog each project at least twice. So not having 161 yards of sock yarn left over, I dug into my stash and pulled out Bernat Baby Solids in Blue - I've 2 skeins and will likley only use half of one.  I'll have enough yarn left over to do up a pair of ankle socks with the remains.

The first clue contained rows of 1x1 cables on every other row that created a beautiful basket weave pattern for the cuff - it's harder to see in this picture - the first picture (shown top) shows the pattern better.

I got the second clue earlier today - this part seems to complete the body of the left mitt, the thumb and the cuff for top and thumb - I'm going to assume that Clue 3 will cover the shaping etc for the right mitt.

This KAL offers prizes too and discounts if you use certain products  I've got Hiyahiya needles so I'm using those :)  I'm just tickled that I was able to join in a KAL.

TozUp Enya - It's begun

Going from fingering weight yarn on US2 bamboo needles to light fingering weight yarn on US1 metal needles has been an adjustment.  Bamboo which have a certain stickiness to them; the metal are super slippery and I've done the battle of dropped stitches and not being able to find them more than once LOL  It's proven especially tricky doing the magic toe cast on with those itty bitty stitches ... Definitely a learning curve going on here, but I'm still having fun and am learning quite a bit - foremost - bamboo needles rock and I've got a few sizes on order.

I was surprising to me that there wasn't a lot of light fingering weight sock patterns that appealed to me - there is a difference (enough of a difference) between fingering and light fingering that would have made the size all messy - Finally I decided on Enya and so far I'm not disappointed - I just have to get my fingers doing this weight and needle size with no thought - it'll come :)

There's only 3 sets of cables so far in the lace pattern for the foot - not sure if there are more in the leg part.  The pattern is pretty easy for the most part; there's 2 rows I'm struggling with - I'm thinking it's because of the way I'm doing YO between purl stitches - of course I've frogged it a few times  - bloody dropped stitches!  That should be my battle cry.

There will be enough of this yarn left and the pink skein that I might be able to do a pair of colour work socks .. we'll just have to see

Notes on Threes

There is truth in The third times the charm. Took me three patterns before I found one that worked well with this yarn. I've found several gorgeous ones for solid colours and they are on my list for the solid colours I've got. And of course there is the green kettle dyed yarn I've got which needs the perfect pattern. But this one, had me scratching my head. The stripes in the yarn made it tricky for a texture pattern and cable patterns do not work well with any sort of multicolour yarn. I found Sunset Scales on Ravelry that spoke to me and spoke with this yarn very well.  Easy to memorize - another increase and decrease pattern that is very easy to do that looks stunning and way more complicated than it actually is.

This is a Toe Up pattern.  I tried three (2nd set of three) different  ways to do start the pattern and finally settled on (and fell in love with), Judy's Magic Cast On shown in video - I use the Thumb Long Tail Cast On so this method is in my wheelhouse!  This is by far the easiest way to cast on for a Toe Up sock!  I love the challenging patterns cause it means that I learn something new / different each time!

My next set of three (hopefully the last three) attempts is my short turn heel row.  Yes, it actually took me three attempts to get it to the point where I am somewhat satisfied with the result.  I know I can do a better job on the heel; it's just going to take a bit more practice.  The reason I let it be is that the 'holes' fall in line with the lacey holes in the pattern.  Part of my issue with the heel this time is that the multicolour yarn made it difficult to see the bumps that are created when the yarn is wrapped.  I finally fell back on using stitch markers to keep track of where I last wrapped and turned.  That solved the issue, but doesn't look all that great - just going to take a bit of practice.  And less abused yarn LOL  The things I do yarn while I knit and screw up patterns haha

One thing that I'm surprised and very pleased about is these actually fit nicely with only 58 sts cast on!  I'm using size US2 bamboo needles - even with my wide foot, you can see that this fits me just right.  I'm not a huge fan of super tight socks at all - Just a wee bit snug.  The toe looks a bit wonky, I have read there's a way to get it right or left slanting.  That will be a step in the future for perfecting a toe up sock pattern

I like these!  I'm pleased with the progress and what I've learned :)  Yea Me!!

Ravelry Link - Sunset Toes Up