20/10 Sock Update: Color Theory Lessons

The 20/10 sock challenge is still in full swing at Hemmeke Headquarters. 2 pairs are complete (one sock has been LOST!), and now I find myself with 2 more socks on the needles. Somehow, I got it into my brain to attempt to knit KNEE socks this month, BEADED, LACE knee socks. There is one beautiful, pale blue lace sock half finished on one set of needles, and a different, very stripy knee sock from a different pair-in-progress half-finished on another set of needles (yes, I have LOTS of knitting needles. I recently added over 30 sets from my grandmother's collection).

This stripy pair is a good lesson in color theory. I had one skein of self-striping yarn that covered the whole gamut of the rainbow. My initial idea was to alternate ends of the yarn creatine a eye-busting dual-colored stripe sequence. It didn't work because too many of the colors were so similar in hue that the stripe affect was lost.

Enter a neutral. A neutral color would not only stretch my yarn yardage and enable me to make knee socks (love!), but it would make the colors stand out and separate them a bit, so my brain told me. My brain has been out of school awhile, because it forgot about VALUE!! See that lovely neutral gray and how it doesn't pop against the other colors (try squinting your eyes at the image). That is because the grey and blue and red (and most of the other colors in the skein) are very close in value. Hmm. Black or white or a lighter grey (or I think just the right light aqua) would've been a better choice. Now I have nearly a full length knee sock knit up that might possibly hit the frog pond (rip it, rip it). So will it be "Sassy Stripes Surprise Sara"? or "Undo the Uglies"?

Stay tuned for the conclusion of this thrilling saga....

20/10 in 2010 Update

Here's pair #2 for my goal of knitting 20 socks/10 pairs in 2010:

Cast on March 1, bound off March 28. They are made from Regia yarn, 100% superwash (machine washable) wool. Knit 64 stitches per round on 1.5mm diameter needles (US1). I think I used about 320-350 yards of wool, to put things in perspective.

I've *misplaced* one of my socks from the last pair, so I technically have 3 of the 20 socks I need to meet my goal. (sheepish grin)

European "S" words for 800, please

Move over "serenschnitte", here comes "smygmaskvirkning!" I'm not even going to attempt to pronounce that one.

Smygmaskvirkning is a Swedish word referring to a type of slipstitch crochet called Bosnian crochet or shepherd's knitting (even though it's not really knitting.)

At our last church I remember an older Dutch member talking about my knitting and calling the needles "pins" or "pens" (it's really hard to differentiate when she'd say it). I never asked her why she used that term, but she might have picked up the word from this old form of crochet. It uses a flat hook with a large oval-shaped handle sometimes called a "pen."

In order to preserve our fiber-related past, I must attempt this! Perhaps I'll find a grassy field and some sheep to really get the right context. :)

If you really want to know more, visit this website for a brief intro and more links.

10 in 2010

The Olympic knitting is over and now it's back to my goal of 10 pairs of socks in 2010.

Cast on pair #2 yesterday with some lovely March green yarn. The familiarity of sock yarn and itty bitty needles is wonderful.

Lace that Never Disappoints

Lace knitting is sooo rewarding, I have yet to find a lace pattern I don't like. Here are my two latest lace projects, the first I can finally reveal because it was a surprise birthday gift for Grandma.

Monteverde Scarf

US 4 needles, KnitPicks "Gloss" wool/silk yarn

10" x 62"

This grey scarf is made with skinny, skinny yarn, a bit heavier than thread. It seems a bit intimidating to work with fine yarn at first, but you quickly get the hang of it. I love the delicate, floating nature of this scarf...I confess I nearly kept it for myself!!

Instead I ripped out an old project that was *UGH* and made this fat, squishy capelet instead. The biggest challenge here was deciphering a Japanese pattern, but luckily it was charted fairly well and I could "wing it" on the unknown parts. The yarn here is no skimpy yarn, it's about the diameter of a fat crayon! That makes the lace motifs super-sized, in your face kind of lace. There's a chunky ribbed fold-over collar and a hefty crocheted edging to finish it off. Sorry the picture doesn't show it very well, this is the best I could get by handing the 7 yr old the camera.

My favorite part of this cape is the baby alpaca yarn. Mmmmm. It is like butter against the skin. No, better than that. It's so soft and lofty, I can hardly describe it. If this was food, it'd be the most velvety chocolate mousse you ever tasted.

Retro Cape (ravelry link)

US 13 & US 11 needles (big ol' fat ones!)

Plymouth Baby Alpaca Grande yarn

A friend saw me working on this and ran after her pretty leather heart pin - perfect for Valentine's Day!

20 Socks/10 Pairs in 2010

Pair number 1 is finished! Pattern: "Kai-Mei" from the book "Sock Innovation", designed by Cookie A.

Began: Jan 16, 2010; Finished: Jan 31, 2010

These socks are unique because they introduce a lace "heart" pattern on the gusset (side of heel). The gusset is usually a sock "no man's land" that is purely functional and never considered as design space. This sock designer, however, breaks the rules and starts the lace pattern here, then moves it across the top of the foot. This is accomplished by decreasing on one side of the lace panel and increasing on the opposite side. It's an elegant solution resulting in a lovely sock! And yes, there is a "right" and "left" sock since the design is assymmetrical.

Easter like no other

It's Easter today, but I've got a Christmas song running through my head. I've modified it to fit my day:

... 4 nights - no sleep
3 barfing boys
2 knitting needles
and an endless load of laundry...

You can imagine the rest. All these lethargic bodies laying around and napping the days away have actually given me a bit of free time. When Grace and I aren't busy staffing the in-house ER, we've played a lot of Yahtzee together and I was able to finish my knitted blanket.

42" square, US13 circular needles, 6 skeins of Lion Brand wool-ease Thick & Quick.

Two-year olds are the funniest when sick. One moment he's tossing his cookies, then the next he's wearing the barf bucket on this head (clean!), laying upside down on the sofa, or spinning in circles in the living room. That's proof enough that God has a sense of humor.

Reverse Engineering

There are a lot of engineers in our family. Lots. My grandpa and father are both inventers of sorts. You could say figuring out how things are put together kind of runs in my blood. Usually this means taking things apart (how fun!) in order to understand how they're put together in the first place. I even had a summer job as a teen where I spent all my time taking apart the armrest/floor console units you find between the front seats of cars.

I'm still love a good creative challenge, especially figuring out how something was done. A friend asked if I could reproduce a knitted bunny she saw. Look at a 3D object, then figure out how to make it 2 dimensionally and sew it up so it's a recognizable 3D form. Hmmm. So far, so good, but the feet are stumping me. I thank my Mechanical Drawing teacher in high school very much (he even had a mechanical arm with a CLAW! I've never seen a room full of high school football jocks show such respect - and fear).
Then I saw a blanket I liked, so I went home and wrote down what I remembered. Here it is, in progress, about 98% accurate to the orginial.

Yarnbombing

I seem to be on a roll for stumbling across crazy knitting objects. Apparently a new trend is emerging on the streets around the world: Yarnbombing. Guerilla knitters secretly stitch their wool creations to all kinds of public fixtures, often under the cover of night - streetlights, garden sheds, busses. Yup, even busses have cozes now.

photo: BNPS

Read more about this trend here. The gal interviewed shares my name and age... I assure you it is NOT me undercover!

Kitchen Cotton Keeps Time

The knitting world is getting more and more creative - we have long gone past toilet paper covers and cardigans. I've seen knitted food, knitted body parts, even a knitted dissected frog complete with removeable organs. Now this.

A knitted clock cover! I love the cables as numbers! This was designed by gnr8 and can be found for sale here for over $400.

I know the price of cotton yarn, and I think I could cook this up for nearly 1/100th the cost. Reverse engineering this would be a priceless fun time - something to do while hubby reads the "Institutes" aloud at night. I'm sure Idelette did the same thing while Jean was writing.

January = Craft "Plan-uary"

Instead of being quite random and impulsive about my small amount of free time for crafting, I have a plan! I hope this will help me to get things finished, instead of just started (I am a compulsive project starter; problem solving is much more intriguing to me than carrying out the solution.)

Here's the January goals:

KNITTING
finish Steve's birthday socks (his b-day was a month ago!)
finish Hemlock Ring cardigan (the season for wearing sparkly red garments is nearing an end)

SEWING
flannel nightgown for daughter
flannel PJs for boys #2 & #3
canvas log carrier
ironing board cover (not very inspiring, but much needed)
baby gift for new hobbit nephew (born on Tolkien's birthday, Jan 3)

Honestly tired of crafting

Now that (almost) all the gifts have been given, here's the run-down of what I made this year for gifts:

1 footprint reindeer shirt
1 handprint necktie
2 knitted button-on neckwarmers

1 knitted pair kid mittens
1 potholder (from felted sweater)
1 "Margaret" sling bag
15 felt cardinal ornaments
1 felt penguin ornament
2 canvas tote bags
1.25 pairs knitted socks
1 knitted balaclava
2 pairs pajama pants (from old plaid flannel shirts)

1 cork board

and best of all... I finished the quilt I started 10 years ago! King size, hand-quilted, machine pieced on my grandma-in-law's antique Singer that only did straight stitches. Whew!

I honestly hope not to see another needle, thread, or skein of yarn for a while!

A Knitter is born

"In the front door
Out the back
Around the tree
Off pops Jack"



Something made this girl decide she *needed* to learn to knit so she could make a scarf. No looking back, just "Where's the needles and yarn, Mom?" She is a real natural, perhaps from watching it done so often. See the concentration in her face? Warms a mother's heart.

Fiber arts will live on into the next generation.

Undone

Sometimes in order to go forwards, you really need to go backwards first. I've been experiencing this in a few of my pasttimes lately, namely knitting.

I've been working on a lace scarf/stole and am FINALLY attaching the final edging. I got 1/3 done and realized I messed up the spacing of it in proportion to the scarf body. Sigh. So it was promptly ripped out (no looking back!). Backwards by mistake, backwards by necessity.

My next project is a more exciting, PURPOSEFUL kind of moving backwards. Oh, hang on for this! I picked up a sweater at a thrift store that'sa trifle too small in the arms, so I am in the process of removing the sleeves (there was a tidy crochet seam that easily unzipped the sleeves from the body). Then I will unravel the sleeves and wind up the yarn, reusing some of it to knit an edging around the armholes. It'll be a fun challenge to match the guage and style of the sweater. There's a zipper down the front 1/4 of the sweater, but I'm considering steeking the front to make it a full zip-up vest. Please pause to consider the thrill of steeking: you stabilize the knitting with a machine sewn line up both sides of where you'll cut, then (deep breath) SNIP THROUGH THE SWEATER, cutting it in two. The stitching will hold the knit stitches from unraveling (in theory), allowing me to pick up and knit a new zipper band on each side with the yarn from the sleeves. If it all fails miserably, I'm out a few bucks and gain about 800 yds of fine cotton yarn.

Hmmm, what else can I destroy and then "fix up"?

I'm still knitting - here's proof!

Haven't put up many knitting-related posts lately, so I thought I'd share this photo of the Bianca's Jacket from Interweave Knits I knit for my Mom as a Christmas gift. My sister was the only one I could get to model it for the camera. This was a fast, easy, fun knitting project, although I think I would've put a weightier edging on the keep the front pieces from curling. I did lengthen the arms and body by an inch or so.

Currently I'm working on a pair of Jaywalker socks, Bayerische socks, bi-color brioche rib legwarmers, and plugging away on my Ella shawl. And I've started a scarf from "Victorian Lace Today." I've been tempted to start something else, like another large lace shawl, but decided I've got enough on the needles to occupy me for awhile! My goal was to do one pair of socks each month this year, but so far 3 months have passed and I've started 3 pairs (if you count legwarmers!) and finished ZERO! Jaywalkers will be finished this weekend. Promise.