The Evolving Sock Knitter(TM)

Every once in a while, we are presented with opportunities we can’t pass up. This has happened to me recently. I have been offered an opportunity to participate in a venture that would see me writing several books. And about topics in which I’m interested even!

Even if this opportunity doesn’t work out, or not in the way I hope, I’ve been thinking that I really need to reprioritize and simplify my life. This is the chance to do so. Oh, I’m not abandoning sock knitting. I’m just going to post about it on my blog Knit-a-While. In other words, I’m consolidating blogs.

To welcome you to Knit-a-While, I blogged about a new book/DVD combo: Sock Knitting Master Class. By commenting on that post, you’ll have an opportunity to win a copy!

Thanks to everyone who has supported this blog. I hope to see you on Knit-a-While.

McKittycreek Lily McMunster
2001-2006

Not a day goes by that I don’t think of and miss you, my lovely girl.

Thanks to all of you who sent their support after my last post. I agree that the most important thing in this process was to increase my sock-knitting skills–as well as increase the number of socks in my drawer!

Criminal Sock Investigation

Who knew that crime was so rampant in the sock-knitting world? Crafty Detour did!

For the past several months, Heather Zoppetti has designed sock patterns for Criminal Sock Investigations. I had the pleasure of working with Heather and writing the case studies. These patterns were–and are–available as single patterns. Now, they are available in ebook form through Ravelry. You can order the book or individual patterns here. Please note that you do not have to be a member of Ravelry to order patterns.

Bobbie Strow is the latest CSI subject

Heather is about to embark on a blog tour to promote the ebook. If you’d like to host a stop, please send an e-mail to info@evolvingblogtours.com, and I’ll send you all of the details. Note: If you’ve previously sent me an e-mail indicating your interest in hosting a blog tour stop, well, my e-mail program crashed a few weeks ago. As a result, I lost all of my e-mail and was only able to reconstruct a small portion of it. So please, drop me another note.

Yes, it’s been a year since I embarked on my self-imposed challenge to knit 100 socks in a year. And I didn’t achieve that goal. I didn’t even make it halfway. Now, I know there are some people who will be pleased with that, calling it a failure and even saying they knew I’d never get it done. My answer to them:

Get a life.

Frankly, that’s what led to my not completing my goal. Every time I got on a roll, life interfered. You know what it’s like: first one thing and then another. Of course there’s that “need to earn a living” thing, too. Flare-ups of hand and wrist problems also complicated the matter. Perhaps 100 socks in a year was an unrealistic goal, but it seemed doable at the time.

Do I think I wasted my time? Not at all. After all, I have lots more hand-knit socks. I’ve also several socks ready to donate to charity. I’ve had the opportunity to use many sock yarns. And while I still fall back on my vanilla pattern, my skills have improved appreciably. Unfortunately, I can’t say that for my speed. I still knit as slowly as molasses in January.

When setting goals, it’s important to realize that adjustments may have to be made along the way. That doesn’t mean one has failed. So I’m going to continue my quest to knit 100 socks. And it will take me as long as it takes me to do so.

Progress
After a knitting hiatus, I have made progress on my current sock.

As you can see, I returned to the cuff color for the heel. I am currently thinking I’ll do the heel and foot in that color and return to the leg color for the toe. The color arrangement would likely be reversed for the other sock. Or not. That’s part of the fun of knitting your own socks.

I also want to knit a pair of summer socks, but as usual, I’m having trouble figuring out what yarn I want to use.

Sockupied
Interweave Press, publishers of the interactive online magazine sent me a copy of the spring 2011 issue.

This issue features patterns from such designers as Chrissy Gardiner. She has also written an instructional article about how to change a heel pattern. Since I hate wrap and turn heels, this may be very helpful. Designer Stephanie Van der Linden contributes a Latvian-inspired pattern. While such a pattern often seems intimidating, this one seems achievable for most knitters.

Sockupied also contains a how-to on bind-offs for toe-up socks. This is something many toe-up knitters have difficulty, and I include myself. I try so carefully to make the bind-off loose enough that I often overcompensate. This tutorial includes video, written instructions, and diagrams.

This issue takes a look back at argyle socks. It provides you with a color tool, where you can plan the color scheme for your argyle sock. It will save time and frogging.

For me, this issue of Sockupied is more useful than the first, so I can justify the $14.95 “cover” price–especially since this issue does seem to deal with some of the areas that cause me the most difficulty. If you have the same issues, you may want to check out the spring issue. (FYI: There will be a summer issue.)

I enjoy my weekends. Okay, I know most people do. But, while I enjoy them, they just seem to pass by with little to show for them. I know that’s not necessarily a bad thing, as they are meant to be relaxing. I guess I’ve been doing too much relaxing. My usual weekend consists of watching movies and knitting. For about the past 3 weekends (excluding the most recent), I watched movies, but that was about it.

Happily, this past weekend was different. And, for the first time in probably three weeks, I knitted! The Chroma socks had me so down on socks, that I didn’t knit anything at all. Well, it also had to do with the fact that my hands hurt and I had a lot of work, but I could have knitted had I really wanted to. But I didn’t. Until I got my most recent order from Knit Picks–2 skeins of Felici Matador and 2 of Caprica. I love this yarn, and I always have. It’s soft and I have never had any of the complaints that I had with Chroma. I’ve also found socks knit from it have held up well.

So, I pulled the needles out of the dreaded socks and cast on a sock in Felici. As of a few days ago, here it was:

The in-progress sock is sitting on one of the Caprica skeins.

I knit the cuff in the Matador, which is an orange-based yarn. The cuff is mostly one color; the last row was the first in the next color. I know the toe will be in Matador, and I think I may do the heel in Matador. The rest will be in Caprica. As I’m thinking now, the second sock will have the color selection reversed. They’ll be mismatched, but close.

As all knitters know, yarn can make huge difference in how one feels about the project OTN. And I can tell you that my switch to Felici has certainly renewed my attraction to sock knitting.

Something New for Sock Knitters
Karen Berglund of ilLOOMinated Yarns, home of the Colors from Nature yarn line, has opened her new online shop. Be sure to check out her selection of yarns–including those dyed with things from nature. And, if you’re lucky enough to be going to Sock Summit, Karen will be a vendor!

My latest sock knitting project.

No, your eyes are not deceiving you. I have made exactly zero (0) progress since this photo was taken weeks ago. I’ve mentioned numerous times how I really have issues with the Knit Picks Chroma fingering weight. So, I won’t go into them again here. As I’ve worked on the sock, I kept thinking it would get better. And who knows, maybe the finished sock would surprise me and wear like iron.

Yeh. Right.

As I knit along, I got more and more discouraged about the possibilities for the sock. And, I kept wondering exactly how annoyed I was going to be if my concerns turned out to be true. I don’t know about you, but I don’t relish the idea of spending hours and hours (I’m a slow knitter) working on a pair of socks to have them fall apart after a wearing and washing or two.

It got to the point that I was beginning to think of that project as a “have-to,” not a “want-to.” I kept trying to find excuses not to knit on the sock, and I got rather good at it. Sure, it helped that my hands/wrists have been bothering me a lot, and I’ve been busy with work, but the truth of the matter is that I didn’t want to deal with the yarn.

That’s no way to approach a knitting project. So, I’ve decided to bite the bullet and frog the sock.

There are things about the Knit Picks’ Chroma fingering that I like. Of course, it’s primarily color. The yarn is beautiful. It’s also very soft. It would make a lovely scarf and possibly mittens or gloves–fingerless or otherwise. But, I’m just not sure it’s sock caliber. Now, Knit Picks doesn’t put the yarn under sock yarn; it’s fingering. To me, that’s synonymous with socks, but I guess that really isn’t true (except in my mind).

So, there’s my Chroma story. If you’ve knit socks with it, I’d love to hear what you think of it.

Congratulations to sillylittlelady, the winner of the copy of Toe-Up Techniques! I’ve sent you an e-mail.

Colors from Nature
One of the reasons I really wanted to learn to knit socks was all of the beautiful sock yarns that were available. When DPNs proved to hate me, I was certain those yarns would elude me and my knitting bag.

Well, as you know, I do knit socks, and I do use lots of colorful yarns. I’ve even been known to dye a few myself. As my exposure to available yarns increased, my interest in yarns in general has increased as well. And as my knitting skills improved, I have become increasingly aware of how yarns get their colors. My dyeing experiences have involved only chemical dyes, Kool-Aid, and Wilton food dyes. Most if not all of the yarns I’ve purchased were dyed with chemical dyes. I read about natural dyes, but that’s as far as I got. I figured someone more skilled in that area would eventually come along.

And she has. Karen Berglund recently added the Colors from Nature line to her ilLOOMinated Yarns shop. She uses assorted natural products to create beautiful yarns–many of them perfect for socks.

An example of Colors from Nature

Karen embarks on a blog tour March 4. Be sure to check out her first stop on Knit-a-While and learn about her process and inspiration.

It has taken a while–a long while–but I have finally finished the foot of the sock I’m knitting from Knit Picks’ Chroma.

I’m obviously knitting this toe-up, and I think I prefer top down. But then, I’m fickle that way. Since taking that photo, I started working on the heel. Instead of doing the traditional wrap and turn, I’m using a yarnover for the wrap. I’m finding it a bit confusing, but I’ve not really gotten that far into it. The process does make sense, but I’m having problems keeping track. Hopefully, it will work out all right. If not, at least I will have tried a different method, and learning is always good.

As for the yarn . . . well, I’m kind of ambivalent about it right now. I love the colors and the subtle way they transition as I knit. But, the yarn itself has disappointed me somewhat. As I think I’ve probably mentioned before, some of it is so loosely spun it almost resembles roving (though much thinner). It’s not nearly as pronounced as I found in Noro sock yarn, but it’s still there. I’ve found this skein to be somewhat pilly as well. And then, there are several “doughnuts” circling the strand.

Now, I’m not unused to having one or two of them in a skein, but there have been many more than that in this skein, and I’m probably not even a quarter of the way through it. Okay, those and the pills aren’t the end of the world, but they can be annoying, especially when I’m into a rhythm. I’m also anxious to see how the sock will wear. I know it will be soft, but will it hold up for more than a few launderings? As with all projects, that is the question. I’m hopeful, because the price is good, and many sock patterns can be completed with just one skein.

A Giveaway
Earlier in this blog, I reviewed Janet Rehfeldt’s revised Toe-Up Techniques for Hand-Knit Socks. I have received another copy of the book, and I am going to give it to a randomly selected reader of The Evolving Sock Knitter. You know how it works. Leave a comment on this post by 11 pm EST, Monday, February 28, and you’ll be entered into a drawing for the book. This is a nice little book that will fit into many knitting bags, so you can take it with you.

Good luck!

Happy first day of February. All right, “happy” is a relative term. If you don’t like snow, ice, blizzards, or stupid cold weather, it’s highly unlikely you’d use that word to describe today. It’s been snowing heavily here for some time. Now, however, the snow seems to have stopped, and I have actually seen the sun trying to peek out of the clouds. The second go-round of the storm–and heavier–is supposed to start later this evening. Oy.

Yesterday, I had to have my car inspected. It was pretty painless, except for the fine I’ll have to pay for driving with an expired inspection sticker. While there, I did get the opportunity to stare at some eye candy (the guy doing the inspection was, shall we say, pleasing to the eye). Oh, and I made some progress on the Chroma sock.

I really like how the color changes are more subtle than in most of the self-striping yarns I use.

And Now,
Thanks everyone who entered the drawing for the Chroma Fingering yarn. The handy-dandy random number generator did what it does best this morning and picked the winner.
Congratulations, Rachel Bokma
You’re the winner! I’ve already sent you an e-mail.

Introducing Evolving Blog Tours
As I’ve mentioned before, one of my goals is to bring indie designers, spinners, and dyers to the attention of knitters. One of the ways I hope to do this is through a new venture called Evolving Blog Tours. I’m setting up blog tours for such individuals. Knitters will learn about indie artists working to provide them with the best of patterns, fibers, and yarns through interviews and other formats on blogs. For an idea of how they might appear, check out my post on Stephannie Tallent of Sunset Cat Designs.

Stephannie is currently on a blog tour through Evolving Blog Tours, with 3 more stops scheduled.

February 3: Freshstitches
February 4: Digitalnabi
February 5: Purls Entwined

If you’d like to host a stop for Stephannie, or be considered for other tours, please e-mail info@evolvingblogtours.com. Also, if you’re a designer, spinner, etc., and would like to have a blog tour, just let me know: info@evolvingblogtours.com.

Bev Galeskas died a few weeks ago, a year after being diagnosed with cancer and given just weeks to live.

Bev Galeskas?

I never knew Bev Galeskas, but without her, this blog wouldn’t exist. And my feet would be cold. You see, she is responsible for helping to popularize circular knitting with one long circular needle–Magic Loop. You’ve read my story of how I was finally able to knit socks because of Magic Loop. Bev’s booklet The Magic Loop helped many like me, who felt we’d never be able to knit socks and other items with a small circumference. DPNs didn’t work for us, but we’d no longer be left outside the sock-knitting fervor.

And it wasn’t just those of us for whom DPNs were a mystery that picked up a circular needle to knit a sock. Some DPN experts moved to the circular needle for convenience. No longer did they have to worry about losing a needle when knitting in the round.

Bev’s influence went beyond Magic Loop. Through Fiber Trends, she was one of the first independent designers, self-publishing her patterns. It all seems “old hat” now, but not that long ago, if your pattern wasn’t picked up by a yarn company or magazine or book publisher, it could languish in knitting neverland.

Thank you, Bev Galeskas, for helping me and countless others learn to knit socks and so many other things. And those for whom we’ve knit thank you as well.

On the Knitting Front
Lately, it seems as though I only have one day a week I can knit. So, progress on my Chroma socks is progressing slowly, but it is progressing. And, I have something for you. Well, thanks to Knit Picks, I have something for you. They have generously sent me a ball of Chroma fingering in the Roller Skate colorway to give away to my blog readers.

There’s enough in one ball for most sock patterns.

If you’d like a chance to win, leave a comment on this post by 11:00 p.m. Monday, January 31, 2011. The random number generator will select a winner from those comments.

Good luck!