Tag Archives: magic loop

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Albatross Socks

These socks lived on my needles for a looooong time. They felt like quite the albatross around my neck at times. This yarn started out as Copper Penny Socks, but when I picked them up to work on them again there was a tiny hole in the toe area and I wasn’t even to the heel flap yet. I explained this more fully in this post. I cut those socks off from the ball and started anew as stockinette.

I believe the yarn from this particular Etsy vendor was weakened before I got it, since the Monkey Socks I made with her yarn also developed a hole within two wears. I believed this more and more as I was working to finish these socks. I had to repair at least four weak spots. By this I mean that I came to several areas that were frayed down to a tiny strand. I cut these parts out and Russian joined the ends together. This was incredibly frustrating, especially the one that was two rows before I planned to bind off. I don’t know if these socks will hold up at all, but I was determined to finish them anyway. I’m not sure if this is moth damage or just a poor yarn base. I am so terrified of moths. Most of my stash is inside bags inside a plastic container, which also contains little satchets of lavender flowers for good measure. I have little hunters (aka cats) that take down moths on a regular basis as well.

Well, at least they’re done. I still love the colors. I wish I knew they were going to be sturdy.

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Jaywalking in the park

I’m definitely a fan of the Jaywalker socks, as you can see here and here. I made them with Koigu two other times, which was wonderful and delightfully soft. This version is made from Vesper Sock in the colorway Astro.

When helping me pack up my yarn room for my impending doom (I mean move), my friend Missy saw this yarn and remarked on its beauty. It had been sitting in my stash (wound even) for at least 4 years. I decided it was time to make it into something. I have habit of buying a lot of self striping or variegated yarns because I love them, even though they mostly lend themselves to a lot of plain stockinette. I first started knitting these in the Charade pattern, but I wasn’t in love with it, so I started over and made the Jaywalkers to give those colors and stripes the glory they deserved.

Vesper sock yarn comes in some amazing colors. It seems like this colorway is not currently available. I’ve heard she dyes in small batches and they’re snapped up quickly, so if you like the yarn, keep your eyes on the site or subscribe to their mailing list. I was a bit confused by the label. The yarn is 100 percent superwash merino, yet recommends hand washing. I checked with Missy to see if she would be amenable to caring for socks like that, and she said yes with no hesitation, so I forged ahead. If anyone has machine washed Vesper sock with luck, please let me know. Koigu is another yarn is superwash merino, and though the label doesn’t say it is safe to machine wash, I’ve had lots of success doing so. I don’t know Vesper sock well enough to risk it.

This is my first time using an afterthought heel. This kind of heel is mentioned all the time on the Knitmore Girls podcast, which I’ve been obsessed with lately. I didn’t want to interrupt the perfect little stripes in those Jaywalkers to make the heel flap. There are many different tutorials for afterthought heels available online if you’re interested in trying them. I think I will always love the heel flap for its inherent sturdiness a little more than the afterthought, but this heel was easy enough to execute, and it allowed for no color interruptions. It made a nice little bulls-eye with the colors.

Each pair of Jaywalkers I’ve made was knitted from the toe up so I could use the maximum amount of yarn. I find this especially important with yarns like Koigu that come in 175 yard skeins. I cranked these out in about a week. Now I’m on to some Staccato Socks for this week.

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Faux argyle for the fella.

I finished the Sneaky Argyle Socks by Wendy D. Johnson. The yarn is ONLine Linie 33 Cosmo in colors 13 (Teal) and 10 (Black). The yarn feels wonderfully soft, and is 70% Merino, 5% Cashmere, and 25% Nylon.

I altered this pattern slightly by making the toes and heels teal. Matt wanted black socks, and was excited about the argyle, but I wanted to add a little more color to make the foot part interesting. These things flew by on the foot part. I think I got to the heel flap and heel turn in one day. I also did them both at the same time, using the magic loop method, so this was a pretty good feat on the feet. Wah wah wah…

The argyle part on the cuff is done using Fair Isle. There are some long floats (10+ stitches), and I was really surprised that the author didn’t mention weaving in the floats so toes don’t catch on them. I read and reread the pattern to make sure I wasn’t missing it, but it’s never mentioned. She recommends this as a good first project for colorwork, but with no mention of how to do floats, I’d disagree. I started learning colorwork with Endpaper Mitts and I think those were a bit easier to make.

Why weave in your floats? When you are doing Fair Isle and carrying one strand of yarn behind the other (aka the “float”), the longer that strand is, the messier the back can become and the more likely you can catch a finger or toe or miscellaneous body part on that strand as you’re putting the garment on. I designed a hat, called Zooey awhile back, and for that pattern it is also best to weave in floats. You can learn more about how to weave in floats here.

I also think that the cuff sizing has to be done very carefully to make sure it can be pulled over the heel. Luckily, Matt was available to me in person to try these on a few times. I ended up going up an extra needle size by the third repeat of argyle to make sure that it would fit over his heel after I read some of the project comments on Ravelry and noticed that many reported sizing struggles.

All in all, I liked that the pattern uses Fair Isle to make the argyle, because I have yet to attempt intarsia. I suppose this is the part that makes them “sneaky” or “faux” because argyle is usually done with intarsia. If you make this your first colorwork project, study up on weaving the floats first. Definitely try these on as you go when you get to the cuff to make sure they fit over the heels. If you want to know how I modified the heel, you can study my Summer Slice or Tuxedo pattern, since I did the heel exactly in the same way for these socks.

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Weekend “work”

I appreciate all of the great input on the last post about ripping. I think I will ultimately finish it, and if I don’t want it perhaps it will become a gift or I’ll sell it to someone for the cost of the yarn. After switching to the Araucania, there was such a difference in the springiness of the yarn. I’m not sure if I really want to rip and knit anything else out of the Solemate after all. I’m only about 12 rows from being finished when I do pick it back up, so that seems like the better option in the long run. The Araucania Ishbel is finished and gorgeous. It has been blocked and I will post pictures soon, along with the finished Featherweight Cardigan. It’s been hard to find a time of the day to take pics with Matt (the fella) when it’s not sweltering and neither of us have other things going on. What I wouldn’t give for a cloudy 75 degree day right about now…

The socks you see above are what I did for most of the weekend. I’m pretty proud that I got about half done while knitting these just a bit on Friday, a good chunk of Saturday, and more on Sunday. I thought about switching to something else on the heel flap, because, as knitters that knit heel flaps may also attest, that goes so much more SLOWLY than any other part of the sock. I refuse to do short row heels, no matter how cute they look, because I just don’t think they would wear as well and I didn’t particularly enjoy them the one time I knit them. Matt says I was able to get so much done because I “have no life” but I wholeheartedly disagree. On Saturday I spent time hanging out (and sometimes knitting at the same time) with four different sets of friends at different times during the day. And I baked lavender cupcakes. So there.

These socks happen to be for Matt. They’re Wendy D. Johnson’s Sneaky Argyle Socks from Toe Up Socks for Every Body. I have two of her toe-up sock books and this is the first I’ve gotten around to making a pattern in one. I don’t make a lot of patterns from books, but I love owning them. Matt wanted black socks. I refused to make them that boring, and cables don’t have a lot of oomph in black socks. He was ecstatic about the argyle option. I added colored toes and heels to the sock to make them more interesting.

If you’re curious about the lavender cupcakes, I used this recipe, added some homemade lavender extract (1 cup vodka and 1 TBS dried lavender flowers in a jar for about a week), added 3 TBS dried lavender flowers to the batter, and used this recipe for the icing, subbing lavender extract and a little lemon extract too. My lavender extract was not nearly strong enough yet, so after I used some, I added 2 TBS more of dried flowers and I’m giving it more time. I’ll get it right eventually. I think they’re pretty good though, because we can’t stop eating them.

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I might have your shoe size in my phone.

I love socks, believe it or not, since I haven’t posted anything about socks in ages. For awhile they were all that I was knitting, and usually about four pairs at a time at that. If you’re wondering about the socks shown above the yarn is from Gaslight Dyeworks on Etsy and the color is Bikini Bottom. I actually don’t recommend this yarn, because two of the pairs I have knitted with it have gotten holes. I knit these Monkey Socks out of her Bluebird of Happiness colorway many years back, and they had a hole after wearing them just twice (if memory serves).

The second pair (shown on the right above) are the Copper Penny Socks by Nancy Bush. I love the pattern and will knit other socks with this easy lace. If you look at the toe, the red marker shown there is where there is a hole. I was not even finished knitting the socks and they got a hole! To have two yarns from one source get holes that easily seems like more than a coincidence. I just cut the socks from the ball and started a plain stockinette pair, because I didn’t feel like ripping back to that hole and starting all over and I needed a plain pair for mindless sock knitting. Sooooo…these are actually the only pair I have on the needles right now.

I usually knit socks toe-up two-at-a-time with a heel flap using the magic loop method. The first time I did this, I used this pattern, but I’ve made a few of my own tweaks here and there to suit my style.

I have made socks so many times this way (at least 25 or more), though my Ravelry project page will never reveal that because in the past I have been lazy about taking pictures of everything and posting them. I tried them once from the cuff down (my first socks) using double pointed needles (DPNs). It was ok, but I wasn’t in love with them. I tried to knit using two circulars and knitting both at a time. I hated it. I kept knitting onto the wrong needle. Many people love either of these methods I have discarded. I just happen to have my favorite. Magic loop requires only one long needle, so I like it when making hats or things that would otherwise might require the purchase of both DPNs and a circular needle.

Regardless, it is easy to make myself socks. I don’t know if I’ve actually written my own measurements down somewhere, but I just jam them on my feet and see how long they are on the foot to know when to start my heel flap, or heel turn. When I make them for other people, I either have to sneakily investigate how long a foot of that size is, or I have to just measure the recipient’s feet. I measure the widest part of the foot, total length, and length to ankle. The width is to know how many stitches to cast on, I knit until the foot would reach the ankle, and then I start the heel flap and continue until it is .5 inches (1.3 cm) from the total length of the foot. Sometimes I keep this information in my contact info for a person in my phone, so I always have it.

For instance, the fella’s phone contact info includes: CO 32, inc to 72, 19cm then heel flap, 26 heel turn. That’s pretty much all I need to know to make him a pair of socks. That’s why I love socks. I like writing this in centimeters, because it feels more precise by being a smaller unit. This chart is obviously written for top-down socks, but you can still get info about the total foot length if you need to be sneaky. Obviously, everyone has slightly different feet, but this chart can help get you there with a little less guessing.

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Socktober is finito!


Behold the glory of the finished Bacchus Socks. I was flipping through old Interweave magazines a couple of months ago and stumbled upon these. I was shocked to see a pattern I loved that was already toe up, and I couldn’t resist the cables. I’ve been in a picture-forming cable frame of mind for awhile now. When my LYS got Tosh Sock in Twig I felt like it was the perfect yarn for this project. I don’t normally make many neutral colored pairs of socks, but this one called to me.

I changed the pattern slightly. I prefer gusseted heels with nice reinforced heel flaps, so I did this instead of the short row heels. I was happily plugging along with the pattern, until I realized I would have to change the cable to make it look like it should on the sides. I improvised a bit, but since I was doing both socks at once, magic loop, it was easy to mirror them. I also continued the rib as it was throughout most of the body, rather than changing it at the cuff. I liked the continuity of the design better. To be honest, sometimes when given a lace or cable pattern I just use that and stick it into my usual way of making socks. It makes me happy.

The cable pattern was easy to follow and kept me interested. I started these socks a few days into October, but they had to share my hands with about 5 other ongoing or quick projects I knitted on this month. This is the first time I have legitimately participated in a Socktober event. I usually am always knitting on some kind of socks though. I still have 2 pairs on the needles…

Next up is NaKniSweMo! I’m really excited about this because I want to knit more sweaters, and I like the motivation of a KAL to make me finish. I was still trying to decide between this gem and this one. I have the patterns and yarn ready for both. I think I’m going to go with the Still Light Tunic. It’s fingering weight, and miles of stockinette, but lately I’ve found that stockinette is great to study with when I have to read, as long as I have articles/books on a book stand. It helps me stay focused. I also have two other cardigans nearly done and haunting me.

More finished knits to come as well as yarn pics for the NaKniSweMo project after I sleep on it for one more night. Happy Halloween!

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Shy feet

Oh hai.

It’s funny how much emotion we can convey in body language, even in our feet. To me, the toes above, and the following picture look like shy feet. It seems so weird to think that feet convey shyness or timidity, but I think they do. And I guess I think that’s cute. I can’t think of a way of positioning hands that would have a shy-looking effect, so maybe this is exclusive to the feet. Maybe I’m a nutter to be thinking about this. Who knows. I’m pretty fascinated by human behavior.

We're shy.

I finished these socks last year (so this tells you how good I am about posting FOs…). The yarn is Colinette Jitterbug, one of my FAVORITE and very drool worthy sock yarns. It’s as squooshy as Koigu and the colors are amazing in either the almost solids or the multi colors. We just got a bunch in at Hand Held so I *had* to get more. We got some of the Wasabi Squeeze color and I snatched it up. I have made at least 3 pairs of socks from Colinette and it is nice on the hands and stimulating to the eyes. I was surprised at how even most of the stripes on this pair knit up. They call this color Ischia, and I love it.

This is my usual recipe for socks: toe up, two at a time, magic loop. If you live in Northwest Arkansas and want to learn, you can sign up for a class here. I used up all of the yarn down to a few yards on these, so they’re nice and tall. I purled the toes and gussets just for fun. You can see that better in this pic.

Purty purls

We just got some Madeline Tosh Sock too. I think I squealed and immediately snatched up the Twig color for some future pair of amazing socks. Sock love is back.

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Summer Slice

Summer is coming to an end. Many knitters rejoice in this since we get to pull out our delicious wools to knit with or wear. I am a fan of summer, and though it has been an intensely hot one, I’m still sad to part with it. As a Labor Day holiday/end of summer gift, I have a FREE sock pattern! I call this pattern Summer Slice. The lace reminds me of a slice of watermelon, but really it could be any luscious summer fruit.

I used Classic Elite Summer Sox in Seagrass (for the toes and cuff) and Coral for the rest. The fit is customized as you go, so you can use your preferred sock needle size and different yarns as well. I think the lace would look best with other solid or semi-solid yarns. The lace is a 12-row repeat that becomes somewhat intuitive after a few times. The socks are constructed two at a time, using the magic loop method, from the toe up. This is my favorite method of knitting socks. I love the satisfaction of finishing both at a time.

You can find the pattern on Ravelry here. Hope everyone has a wonderful Labor Day weekend!

Photos taken by my awesome bf, Matthew Petty.

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Summering.

This summer has been refreshing. Class is over for another month and the upcoming semester will be less intense than others have been in my PhD program. Though it is sweltering outside, my knitting hasn’t slowed. I’ve been working on a dress for about a month. I’m making it out Amy Butler Belle Organic DK in an indigo color. I have these socks going because I can’t knit monogamously and I usually have some sort of thoughtless stockinette project going in the background.  It’s some Opal self-striping yarn I’ve had in my stash for quite awhile.

Simple stockinette socks.

I’m scheming for my next projects as well. Liesl is soon to come, as well as Howlcat as the weather cools. I have a hat to publish soon. It’s called The Unexpected Hat and I started a class on it yesterday at Hand Held Knitting. The class focuses on learning continental style knitting, so I wanted to have them make a project with an equal amount of knits and purls to get lots of practice. Here is a little sneak peek:

There are nine people in the class. They’re a good group. It’s intense teaching that many at once, but everyone seems patient with the process, which is helpful. I checked the pattern twice myself, making a sample for Hand Held and one for myself. I’ll publish it on Ravelry and link to it from my blog at the end of this class. I want to make sure all of the instructions are clear to other people. I think when providing instructions, I tend to be more wordy than necessary in an attempt to make sure I provide exacting information that is easy to follow, but I might be providing too much information.

Lately, I keep waking up in the middle of the night and I have trouble going back to sleep. Then I think about things I want to knit or design and my heart really starts pumping. Then it’s really hard to go back to sleep. I guess it’s pretty lovely to have this kind of passion for fibers. I have been stashing some Habu A-21 silk and stainless steel yarn, and some A-33 merino since I went to NYC two summers ago. I’ve been dreaming up a project for that lace weight fiber, and I just bought some A-60 linen paper. I’m not sure what I will make with the paper yet, but I’m excited to work with it. I don’t mind having an abundance of future knitted projects waiting to be born.

I just turned 30, and I think it’s going to be a great year.

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The Girl with the Purl Toes

I like simple socks.  I like a quarter mile of stockinette sometimes to subtly soothe my restless fingers and quell my frantic mind.  I like take socks with me everywhere, and I usually am knitting at least two pairs at once.  These particular socks I engineered from the toe-up, both at once, using the magic loop method.  To make them more interesting, I gave them purled toes.  I’m working on writing up a pattern for these socks, even though they are ridiculously simple.  I think the purled toe gives a little more wiggle room and makes the socks just a wee bit more interesting.  These were made using Koigu KPPM. The yarn was a gift from my Canadian friend, Greg.  I’ve had these finished for over 4 months, but had yet to take a picture of them.  It seems I have a lot of projects like that these days.

I am currently in the knitting midst of a sweater, two pairs of socks, two headbands, and probably some other lurking woolen beasts I’ve forgotten about.  School begins next week.  I don’t know if a more rigid schedule or a more lax one makes for more frequent blogging, so we shall see.  I begin my second year as a PhD student in counselor education.  In some ways I’m looking forward to all the activity and people, and bustle, but in others I will miss my often too quiet summer.  I am looking forward to cooler days, outdoor adventures, and reasons to finish cardigans quickly.