A little of this . . .

More bits and pieces today.

First I need to remove my foot from my mouth (too common an occurrence if you ask me).  I referred to my sister-in-law, Deb, as my favorite and only sister-in-law.  Roger reminded me that his brother's wife is my sister-in-law too.  Yikes!  I guess she is really my sister-in-law by marriage.  Whew!  I will go as far as saying that she is my favorite (and only) sister-in-law by marriage.  Please, if you are also my sister-in-law (heretofore unknown), you are my favorite too.  'Nough said.

Let's get back to knitting.  I know I said I was going to knit Roger's Merlin sock next.  And, I meant it.  Until I remembered the Knitty Gritty episode waiting on my TiVo showing Cat Bordhi and her Coriolis Sock (from her upcoming sock book). 

It's not my fault.  Really.  I couldn't help myself. 

(Click any picture for bigitdeness)  It starts with a garter square.  You pick-up stitches on all sides and start knitting in the round.  I used a small needle to make it easier to pick-up stitches.

Here it is looking like a regular sock.  Just you wait . . . 

(And, while you are waiting, no snippy comments about using double pointed needles on a sock designed by the Queen of Socks on Two Circulars).

About halfway up, you start increasing.  The cool trick is that since you are knitting with a double strand (oh, yeah, did I mention that it is knit double stranded at a DK to sport weight?), you can knit into each strand of a single stitch to increase.  It looks very odd.

But in the end, everything sorts itself out.

The increases make a shape that forms a heel without a flap or short-rows.  There is a bit of a heel turn and incorporating stitches to form the heel.

Pretty cool.  And quick.  I am at the heel turn of the second sock already.

Speaking of Socks

My modification of Nona's Sidewinders has garnered some interest.  I will write up a more thorough accounting of how I did it. 

Darn!  Now, I have to knit that wonderful pattern again to get all the appropriate pictures. I sure hope I have something in the stash and I don't have to go shopping at the yarn store.  That would be awful!

Bits and Pieces

I was asked about the knitting coasters that Ronni gave me.  She bought them on our yarn crawl at Commuknity.  They are available for Martingale Press in sets of 8.

I am still trying to catch up on my Bloglines.  Time sitting at the computer is limited.  I have grown to really appreciate blogs in foreign tongues (and they are all foreign to me, a typical American, I only speak English).  This one, Luinelenin, is a great example.  It is in Finnish.  I feel no obligation to read anything, because, well, I can't.  It is just fabulous eye candy.

Speaking of Bloglines, my feeds aren't always showing up in a timely manner.  I emailed them about it and they gave me a canned answer about posts occurring during upgrades, blah, blah, blah.  I must have an uncanny ability to post during upgrades.  The problem is worst on the feed that has 95% of my wonderful subscribers.  Argh!

Speaking of links to great eye candy, check out the knee socks at Diva Knitting.  Are those incredible or what?  It doesn't hurt that she used my Toe-Up Gusseted Heel either.

</speaking for today> (Yes, html humor.  I know, bad joke, but I am punchy today.  It's a theme.  Maybe.  I hope.  ??? )

Comments

[elizabeth]

I'm still catching up on bloglines after a week of vacation. If you want eye candy and can't read french, check out
http://aufildesmailles.canalblog.com/
Beautiful stuff. Fair isle galore!

[AuntieAnn]

I believe that Emily Post would say that Roger's brother's wife is actually not your SIL, but no relation at all. No slight intended to Roger's brother's wife, I'm sure. I forget why we looked this up once, but we did, in an old etiquette book. Maybe the rules have been updated since.

I love that Coriolis sock, but I'm not keen on making a sock with yarn held double. I'm not at all sure I want that thick a sock. However, increasing that way is a cool idea. And I would have to Magic Loop it, because I always do.

[Liz]

The construction on that sock looks really interesting, but I'm afraid I can't quite understand how it's done. Guess I'll have to do it myself one of these days.

For the last 2 months or so Bloglines hasn't been updating my Livejournal blogs regularly. The rest seem pretty timely, but all my IRL friends use Livejournal and I'm forever behind on their news.

[Tina]

I'm fascinated and intrigued by that sock's construction. So cool!

Btw, I'm new here (from Summer of Socks), so this is out of turn, but I love your handspun!!

[Chante]

You are officially my sock knitting idol. I have all the knitty gritty's tapes so I'll have to go home and search for that episode.

I'm plannign on swatchign for my sport weight sidewinders tomorrow. I've read your interpretation about 5 times over and I think I understand what you did. Do you think I can use the magic cast on instead of the turkish one when starting out?

By the way, how's your spinning coming along?

[ck]

I wanted to do the Coriolis too, but wasn't really in the mood for knitting with two strands. I'm sure I'll get around to trying it eventually!

[Julie]

I have to try the Coriolis now, too. Another thing to add to the list :0

[Ronni]

You point out an awful lot of interesting things on this blog you know. Now I've got to remember to look for that book when it comes out. I better start a list.

[Lisa]

Wow that was fast and such a cute sock! Thanks for the link to the coasters. ;)

[Sonya]

I am catching up on bloglines tight now (type faster, read faster!) Love the pattern modification, although the little toe hatch was amusing in it's half-constructed state, doing without it - genius!