The Knitting Pirate

The first time I saw "Nothing Says Screw You Like a Rainbow" from White Birch Fiber Arts, I swore that I'd buy it if I ever got the chance. (It's currently out of stock, but there are other rainbow and self-striping colourways available!) Even though I usually waffle over adding to my already-overflowing stash, back in July when I heard that there was some of this gorgeous yarn available, I hit "buy" without a second thought.

Self-striping yarn like this doesn't need any textures or patterns, which is ideal for the mindless knitting that I prefer for my traveling socks. I cast on at the end of December, and then I knit while Michael drove up and down the east coast - to and from a snowboarding trip to Vermont...

...then to and from my inlaws' for Christmas, and back down to Virginia for Chanukah and New Year's, and then I knit on the airplane (link is to a video on instagram) to and from our vacation in Utah...

And now they're done!

I started each sock at the beginning of the sky blue stripe, then knit 2x2 ribbing until the start of the rainbow. The heel flap also begins at the start of the rainbow stripe. I'm amazed at how well this worked out; apparently my feet are *just the right size* and the socks' toes end right at the end of the rainbow.

The two-ply yarn is slightly thinner than I'm used to. I started with 64 stitches on US size 1 (2.25mm) needles but thought the fabric was a little loose for hard-wearing socks, so after the heel flap I switched to US 0 (2mm) for the foot. That 0.25mm really made the difference, especially in row gauge. When it came to the toe decreases, I worked two plain rounds between each decrease round (usually it's only one) for a more gradually angled toe, ending with 16 stitches on each side before grafting.

Each new pair of socks is my favourite, but these might hold the position for a while.

After some months of ignoring them, I've finished the green stripy socks! I'm so pleased that the stripes line up perfectly from sock to sock. (I mean, I did that on purpose, but I'm still pretty pleased at how well it worked out.) This is about as plain a sock as it gets: twenty rounds of k2, p2 ribbing, followed by an awful lot of stockinette interrupted by a regular ol' flap heel, and a star toe with four points. The yarn is Austermann Step in colourway 96 Forest Green.

My original intention with these socks had been to try the Flexi-Flip needles with them, but that totally didn't work for reasons... primarily that while everyone else seems to agree that a US size 1 needle is 2.25 mm, Addi's size 1 Flexi-Flips are 2.5 mm. Since then, I've acquired a set in 2.25 mm, and as soon as the green socks were done I cast on for a new sock with this Silkie Socks that Rock in the "Walking on the Wild Tide" colourway, which was from their sock club some years ago. I got this yarn only a few months ago, from someone at our local knitting night. (Thanks!)

I'm planning to do something fairly simple again, but with columns of slipped stitches to attempt to break up the pooling a little bit, and an eye of partridge heel for a change. A review on the Flexi-Flips will be forthcoming once I get a little more used to them, too.

This year's Maryland Sheep and Wool was a whole new kind of experience - the plan had been to go with Mom, but Dad and Michael joined us for the day too. Nothing really jumped out at me as something I needed to buy, but I did drop off the fleece that Carrie and I bought some years ago with a processor who said she'll have it back to us by mid-October. The only thing I brought home was this picture of the alpacas:

Five and a half years ago, I bought this green Austermann Step yarn at The Mannings (which, sadly, closed a few years ago. Ah well.) It's going to make be my next traveling sock, perfect for hauling around with me to work on while waiting for mechanics and flying across the country. As a winterholiday gift, I got a set of Addi FlexiFlips, and thought that this would be a great time to test them out. I've heard both good and bad things about them, and I've been curious to see if I'll love or hate them.

I already had several inches of sock knitted on my trusty old DPNs, which meant that I'd be working from them onto the new FlexiFlips.

But when I went to make the first stitch, something seemed off. The new needle seemed subtly thicker. Maybe it was just my imagination? I got my gauge ruler.

It wasn't my imagination.

I almost always knit socks on US 1 (2.25mm) Susan Bates DPNs, which I buy at Joann in a multi-pack of sock-sized DPNs for a small amount of money. (They're $10, but then everything at Joann is at least 40% off.) So I'd asked for the FlexiFlips in size 1 as well... without realizing that while Addi do sell a size 2.25mm set of FlexiFlips, their size 1 is actually 2.5mm.

Well, heck. Everyone else calls a 2.5mm needle a US size 1½, not a 1. And Addi's other needle sizes match up with the usual US to mm conversions. Harrumph!

I guess I'll just keep going on the DPNs, because even a .25mm difference in needle size can make an obvious difference in gauge, but... do I spend the money for a set of 2.25mm FlexiFlips, when I'm not even sure I'll like knitting with them? Do I try a different sock on these 2.5mm ones first, despite my concern that they'll be too loose? Do I write to Addi and complain about their non-conventional sizing? How disappointing.

The "obvious" solution, I guess, is to hang onto them and spin some more sock yarn, which tends to come out a little thicker than the commercial yarn (at least it does when I spin it) so that I can finally try these.

Woohoo! Finished socks!

These socks were knit toe-up with Kroy Socks in the "Blue Striped Ragg" colourway, and the contrast cuffs/heels/toes are knit in Premier Serenity in navy blue. I... was kind of displeased with both yarns, actually. The Kroy was all right, but every other colourway of Kroy socks I've knit has been thick and squishy on US 2 (3 mm) needles, and this was just thinner than a standard sock yarn. It was fine, just not what I was looking for. The Serenity, on the other hand, was thin and slippery and splitty and I don't like it at all. Hrmph.

That said, I'm pretty pleased with the finished socks. I had to do some duplicate stitch reinforcing around the corners of the heels, but the extra short rows in these heels make them fit better than the other afterthought heels I've done before. And I *love* the stripes! I do wish I'd thought of knitting the first round of the cuff to prevent those little purl blips, but they're kinda cute so I guess it's okay.

So... what's next? I'm still working on the handspun sock, but that's not great at traveling because the yarn-cake collapses when I put it in my bag. I need a sock that I can carry around with me, and a pattern that's interesting, memorizable, and doesn't take too much concentration to knit. Maybe I'll pull out the stitch dictionaries and put something together!

As I made progress on the handspun sock, I started to think (as you do) about heels. What kind of heel would I use? Would it be deep enough? A typical short-row heel would definitely not fit, unless I did some increases first. So I did some research and decided to try the Banded Expanded Heel technique, which is a modification of Cat Bordhi's Sweet Tomato Heel. I measured my foot, checked my gauge, did some maths, and knit the heel...

No. (I didn't even take any pictures.) It's not that the heel was poorly designed; it's actually great. It's that my calculations were off in pretty much every way. I'd started too late, so the foot of the sock was too big. And I'd increased to too many stitches, so it was also baggy. I ripped back to just after my initial increases and did some more research.

Eventually I decided to try the straight-up Sweet Tomato Heel without modifications. I don't have the book with all the sock patterns, but Cat was kind enough to upload a detailed tutorial video for just the heel itself, which I was able to follow well enough to knit the heel without wondering if I was doing it right. (I was.)

It's difficult to try on a sock at this point but I did wriggle it onto my foot, and it seems to fit just right. It's *impossible* to take a photo of a half-knit sock with DPNs sticking out everywhere while it's on your own foot, so I slid it onto one of the blockers for a photo op.

So far I like the Sweet Tomato Heel *way* better than the standard short-row sock heel, and I definitely want to use it in more socks! I'm going to have to try it with regular sock yarn to see if it still needs the pre-heel increases, at least. One thing I *really* like about the Sweet Tomato Heel is that I'd feel comfortable just knitting it from memory, which is a lot of points in its favour for whatever sock-in-progress is traveling around with me.

It's taken a concentrated effort, but over the weekend I finally finished the combospin that I started for last year's Tour de France. It's all spun up, plied, and skeined off - The Woolee Winder on the Sonata makes plying so much faster and easier! I ended up with roughly 700 yards of three-ply yarn from two pounds of a variety of fibre. I'm sure it will poof up and lose some yardage once it's washed, which I'll do later today.

Now the question is, what to do with it? My original plan was to spin for a sweater, but I don't think I have enough yardage to make that work. Probably I should have gone for a two-ply rather than three, if I wanted sweater yardage. And, if I'm being honest, I'm not 100% thrilled with the overall colour. I put the yellow in for a pop, thinking it would be too dull without it... but it's too much contrast, too much of a barber-pole effect.

Maybe I'll like it better once it's knit up? I'm considering making some treadle covers for the spinning wheels. I often spin barefoot, and wouldn't that be nice and soft and squishy!

Meanwhile, I started knitting toe-up socks from a different handspun yarn, this chain-plied merino that I spun a few years ago. First I tried knitting on US 2 (2.75mm) needles, which gave me a fabric that was slightly too loose. Then I switched to US 1 (2.25 mm), and I'm getting a very firm and stiff sock... but that's okay, these will be hiking/boot socks. And since the yarn isn't superwash, I expect it to get softer and stretchier with wear and time.

Because they're so firm, though, I'm trying a new kind of heel. I started working increases about an inch and a half before where the heel should start to make a small gusset, and then more increases will get worked into the short-row heel wedges. This should be interesting at the very least, and if it doesn't fit right... well, maybe this yarn wasn't meant to be socks after all. I have 500 yards or so of it, so there are lots of possibilities.

Last weekend I went to Maryland Sheep and Wool with my mom! It was a really fun day and I'm glad we made it work out so we could go together. She got a skein of sock yarn in a rich brown, and I got two ounces of this tussah sliver from Little Barn. My plan is to spin it fairly fine and then use it as a lining for my next pair of Fleeps to make them warmer and more wind-blocking.

There were so many pretty yarns and fibres there, as usual, and I was tempted to buy some things that I eventually decided to put back. We took quite some time digging through one of the bargain bins and found a bag of sock yarn we liked, but... it was nine 50g balls. That's 4.5 pair of identical socks? Mehhh. I don't want two pair of socks from the same yarn, even if it's nice colours.

I also ooh'd and ahh'd over several braids of fibre, but... I have enough as it is. The merino/silk Ashland Bay was tempting as usual, but I think I can get a better price for it online - and if I'm going to do that, I'd better do it soon, as it's been discontinued (sniffle, wah) and won't be available for much longer. (So now, of course, I'm looking at dyed top on Etsy, as if refraining from buying things I don't need at MDSW gives me license to buy things I don't need once I get home again?)

Meanwhile, I've finished the majority of the rainbow striped socks! Here they are, with the ends woven in, and the waste yarn indicating where the heel will be knit in. I'm using the instructions from this blog post at Knit Better Socks, and trying the trick of a few short rows to get a little more room in the heel.

Here I've tried on the sock with a partially knit heel to make sure that it's in the right place (it is) and you can see the little half-moon of short rows in the corner. The solid dark blue yarn is Serenity Sock and honestly I'm not quite happy with it; it's a little thin and a little splitty. Ah well - if the heel wears through, I can pick it out and add another! That's a definite plus to the afterthought heel method.

Michael indicated an interest in seeing the process of getting from waste yarn to actual heel, so I'll be saving the second sock to finish the next time he's visiting. He's up to the heel flap of his own second sock, and I'm curious whether he'll want to start another pair after he finishes his first.

I've knit four pair of socks (pics: one | two | three | four) with Patons Kroy before, and I really like that the yarn is slightly thicker than the usual sock yarn I get. It makes thick cushy socks that still don't feel like they take up too much space in my shoes. As with all the other Kroy socks I've made, I started this new pair on US 2 (2.75mm) needles and... it was way too loose. Floppy fabric doesn't make good socks at all!

What? What is going on! A little internet research affirmed my suspicion that the ragg shades really are a little thinner, more like a standard sock yarn. (Hrmph.) So I ripped out the start of the toe that I had, and began again on US 1 (2.25mm) needles, this time with a navy yarn for the toe. That feels like a much better fabric, for sure, and I like the contrasting colour in the toe better too.

The sock starts with a figure eight cast-on with fourteen loops, and I increased on every other round until I had 64 stitches total. It's now about two inches shorter than my foot, so at this point I'll put in waste yarn across half the stitches and then go on knitting the leg of the sock. Later, I'll pull out the waste yarn and pick up those live stitches to knit an afterthought heel. (Or is it a "forethought" heel, since I'm planning exactly where it will be?)

This blogpost has some interesting details about the construction of afterthought heels, as well as some hints about improving the fit. Since there's no gusset in this kind of sock, it can sometimes be a little too tight over the ankle. I'm going to try the short-row suggestion and see how well it works for my own foot.

I really wanted to get this pair off the needles before going on vacation, and here it is! Tiger-Striped Socks for Michael, which look exactly like mine except for the white trim at the cuff and the duplicate stitch "claws".

I'd just started the toe when I noticed a split stitch quite a way down. It didn't seem like it would be too troublesome to fix, so I got out my tiny crochet hook, dropped the stitch down to the split, caught it properly, and picked all the stitches up again. You can barely tell where the repair was made, and once the socks have been through the wash, any looseness remaining in that column will all work out.

Then I miscounted on the toe stitches and had to rip back four rounds to start the toe over. Of course.

Figuring out how to duplicate stitch the "toes" was pretty easy, but figuring out the "claws" took me a little longer. Eventually I went for a slightly thicker yarn and embroidered them on, rather than duplicate stitching. Hopefully they aren't too thick.

Now, here's the weird thing. These are plain stockinette socks. The only purl stitches are in the cuff's ribbing and in the heel. So what was I thinking here? What even happened?

Anyway, they're done and they look really cool. Next up... a new pair for myself!

I started these socks back in January, and worked on them here and there without too much dedication. Although they came with me to many places, I neglected them in favour of other things. But then I had to attend a few long and boring meetings in an auditorium, and no one on the stage could see what I was doing, so I knit and knit and knit... and by late October I'd finished the first sock.

Then, I got a short-notice call that there would be a showing at my house, so I had to clear out for an hour. The yarn came with me, and I'd gotten halfway through the ribbing at the cuff before going home. A weekend of train rides followed, and with nothing else to do but knit, I charged through the leg of the second sock.

Several work-meetings and one long drive up to Vermont later, and I grafted the toe of the second sock just in time to get this project onto the 2015 list!