Maia Spins

The Enchanted Sole

When Janel Laidman asked me to review her new book, The Enchanted Sole, I agreed without hesitation.  I am a big fan of her creativity and style.  Her first book, The Eclectic Sole, set a high standard.  I am very happy to report that The Enchanted Sole does not disappoint. 

The first thing I noticed is the range of pattern styles included in this book.  There are simple socks and complex socks.  Like ankles socks? knee-high socks?  You are covered.  Beginning knitters and experienced knitters alike will find socks to tempt them. 

I also appreciate the range of construction.  Some are worked toe up and some top down. I especially love that she included four socks that are knit sideways.

Pixie: sweet sideways knit socks.

Traveler: clever cabled socks with a pocket!

Atlantis: lace and texture evoking water and waves

Galadriel: romance and ribbons

Tree of Life: gorgeously detailed colorwork

As a designer, I feel that every detail is important.  Clearly Janel feels this way as well.  Ribbing flows into the leg, taller socks include carefully crafted calf shaping, and stranded socks are patterned from top to toe.  The Tree of Life socks pictured above have a beautiful leaf pattern across the heel.

As a spinner, I appreciate that each sock pattern gives the wraps per inch (wpi) for the yarn.  Very helpful for matching the grist of my handspun to the pattern requirements.  As Janel points out, it is also the best way to pick a substitute yarn.

There are many reasons to love this book: the 20 gorgeous sock patterns, the attention to detail, the beautiful photographs, and the variety of styles and techniques.  

Now, which sock to cast-on first?

Stripes & What I Learned

Roger's Stripey Socks are done. 

I learned a few things along the way and thought I'd share them with you.

Not All Stripe Joins Are Created Equal

As you can clearly see in the photo below.

The sock on the left I just picked up the new yarn and dropped the old one.  The sock on the right I wrapped the yarns as I changed colors.  Big difference!  And, the difference is greater in person.

Here is what I did (click on any picture to make it larger):
At a color change, loop the old color (here it is the purple) over the new color (the grey).  Tug on the new color (grey) to tighten the last stitch in the grey stripe below. 

You are doing two things to minimize the jog at the color change.  Looping the yarns around each other snugs them together horizontally.  Tightening up the last stitch makes it appear less tall minimizing the vertical jog.  Both give a flatter and smoother join.

Repeat this at every color change.

So you may ask why I didn't use the jogless join.  It is a lovely technique.  The answer is that I didn't want to have a traveling join especially on the foot.  To work the heel, I really need the join to be at the beginning of the round.  I could have stacked the join using jogless join but I didn't want the dip that comes with frequent row changes.

The other thing I did was to loop the yarns once at the join point (beginning of a round).  Say once after round 2 or 3 (I made 5 round stripes).  This doesn't help the join, but it will keep toes from snagging a loop when putting the socks on. 

Looping the yarns may make it harder to pull the last stitch snug (as described above).  You can use the point of your needle to pull on the loops and the yarn carried up across the contrast stripe.  I pull on the yarn from the inside while watching the outside to see how it looks and how much to tug.

A riskier method is to bring the carried yarn out after a couple of rounds.  After one round put the carried yarn back in.  The risk comes with forgetting to put the yarn back in.  One round and it just covers one strand of yarn (sometimes called the running thread).  Two rounds and it is a visible blip.  More than two rounds and it is an obvious mistake.

Why tempt fate?  Because it makes pulling the first stitch of the new color possible without using a knitting needle to tug on various stitches and loops.  Minutia!  I hear you saying!  Yes, it definitely is a minor detail.  It is the littlest bits that keep me entertained.

I made these pictures smaller so you would have to click on them and make a conscious choice to live with mistakes or flirt with frogging when you forget.

Striping The Ribbing

My best trick on these socks is an old favorite.  I like the clean and simple lines of the stripes and didn't want to muddy it with contrasting purl bumps at color change rows in the ribbing.  The solution is so easy.  Knit the first row of the new color.  Return to ribbing on all other rows (I used k2, p2). 

For my 5 round stripes that means:

R1 in Main Color (MC): knit
R2-5 in MC: k2, p2
R6 in Contrast Color (CC): knit
R7-10 in CC: k2, p2

The stripes look great and you can't tell that the knit row is in there.  The knit row doesn't change the look of the ribbing when it is relaxed nor does it diminish its elasticity.

The wrong side looks pretty cool too.  I may use this as the right side someday.  Sometimes the purl bumps add instead of detracting.  The simple act of putting the purl bumps on the knit stitches (the forward portion of the ribbing), makes them a feature.

A couple more shots of Roger's feet:

 

Today I am taking pictures of my blocked Aeolian!  That will be the next post.

Mando un saludo a los amigos de Marcela en Lima, Peru.  Hola!

Been Knitting

A busy fall is behind me now and I have returned to a more normal schedule at home.  We (Tactile) went to California Wool & Fiber Festival and Oregon Flock & Fiber Festival in September; SOAR, Color Fiber Festival, and the Yolo Mill-In in October; and then a trunk show at Knit One One and a slew of classes to teach in November.  While I love it all, it is nice to have time to knit and spin again.

The Viking scarf is nearing completion.  There is just the last bit that is 100% purple.
I like it now that it has progressed into the strongly purple range.  No more reluctance about giving it to my friend the Minnesota Vikings fan.

The color changes are easier to see when the scarf is rolled up.

I have been teaching a sock class at Knit One One.  It is a toe-up short row heel sock on 2 circulars.  Not my usual style. 

Photographic evidence:
I am using Tactile Superwash Merino Fingering sock yarn in the Birch colorway.  This is just before casting off.  This is my first time knitting the birch colorway and I am loving it. 

I am not a huge fan of knitting on 2 circulars though I did get into a groove and it is nice to finish both socks at the same time.  My tension is a little less even too.  This need a washing and blocking.  Then some proper pictures that show the colorway accurantely.

Last, but certainly not least, I have started a shawl:

I am using Tactile Alpaca Lace in the Tangerine colorway.  I adore orange.  This one never got to the store.  My excuse reasoning is that we need knit samples to show off the yarn.  Right?

I am trying to battle my startitis disease by starting at the most tedious point.  I knit over 9 feet (3 meters!) of edging and then picked up stitches to knit up to the back of the neck.  Every right side row gets 4 stitches shorter!  Yay!

I am creating my own design.  The pattern stitches are from various sources modified to work together.

Here is the border pattern (a bit washed out in this photo).

Next time I will show you the lovely fleeces I have acquired recently.

Launched!

Where do I start?  It has been a busy month since I last posted!  Brooke and I went to a week long conference in Seattle to study natural dyeing with our fabulous dye supplier, Earthues.  I finished some deadline sock knitting for publication in a book.  I went to Golden Gate Fiber Institute's retreat in the Marin headlands.  And, we finally launched our online store.

I want to shout it from the tree tops!

The online store for Tactile is up and running!

I am so excited.  It has been in the works for months.  We (Brooke and I) launched yesterday with 3 fibers and 2 yarns.  The 1st, 19th, and 23rd customers get a nice thank you gift (my birthday is on the 19th, Brooke's is on he 23rd, and the 1st is, well, first).

Folks who have seen Tactile at shows know that we dye much more than that.  We will update every Thursday night by 12 midnight Pacific time.  Sometimes it will be more of a product already in the store, sometimes it will be a brand new product to the store.  Or a pattern, I am working on sock patterns right now.  Or maybe spinning products, we sell Schacht and Louet spinning wheels.  I am bursting at the seams with excitement and anticipation!

A big shout out to our webmystress Gretchen!  She has been fabulous, dependable, and so very patient with us.  We can't say enough good about her and her work.  We love you Gretchen!

I promise not to turn my blog into a pimp-fest for Tactile.  We have a Tactile blog for that.  This will remain my personal knitting and spinning blog.  Some Tactile content will appear here, of course, but I will try to keep it to a dull roar.  I figured I am allowed to gush here during our launch party.  Yay!  We are launched!  The Tactile blog will be where we post information on products, customer appreciation specials, patterns, tutorials, and such.

Here is what I've been working on.

Patterns for all will be available through Tactile soon.

Yay! Did I mention that we launched the Tactile online store?

ETA: I forgot to mention hat we started a Tactile Ravelry group.  Come join us if you are on Ravelry.

There Be Knitting and a Contest

The lace bug is still with me. 

The Lovely Lace Shawl (a.k.a. Heirloom Shawl) is starting to look like something.
I am a bit further than this now (5 full sets of leaves), but it looks quite similar. 

Did I mention there is a Ravelry KAL group for the Lovely Lace Shawl (Ravelry link)?  Quite helpful considering the pattern is known to have errors and it is written (and charted) in an unusual way. 

Patons has now made the charted version available for free on their website.  You need to register (free and easy from what I hear).  A big thank you to them for doing this.  I'd like to think that our KAL helped spur this decision.

My Goddess Knits Anniversary Mystery Shawl is coming along. (yes, my pinning is wonky)  The blue is clue 2 and the dark purple is clue three.  For those of you playing along, I used charts 1A, 2C, and 3C.

Based on the size it is now, I will probably do the optional 48 round clue 5 after the 48 round clue 4 due out on Saturday.  That means I have some color choices to make.

Here are the colors I plan to use (pardon the shadows).  My 5 clue plan is to do the blue again for clue 4 and the green for clue 5.  There isn't enough of either one based on my calculations.  I plan on putting a bit of the dark teal in to extend the yardage of each one.  I'll decide how once I see the clues.

My original plan was to do the 4 clue version and use the green.  If I had known I'd be using 5 clues, I wouldn't have saved a contrast color for the end clue.  Oh well.  It will still be nice and it is a fun stash buster.

Speaking of stash busting, I had to order another skein in order to finish my Amaryllis.  It arrived and it is so WRONG!

See what I mean?  Sigh.  Back to the stash.

Here are the options I have.  I think I will go for the orange(ish) one.  Again, if I had known, I probably would have knit the colors in a different order. 

My hope is that the color changes won't distract from the lace pattern too much.  Here is the grayscale test, cousin of the squint test, as my justification.

The orange looks okay in grayscale and in real life.  Not as good as the red and brown together, but . . .   We shall see.  I'll spit-splice it in and start today.

Lest you think it is all lace all the time around here, there is progress on my BFL handspun socks.  Remember them?  It has been a while.

The yarn turned out nicely except that I got a little zealous about putting extra twist into the singles.  The resulting yarn is not as soft as it should be.  Live and learn.  The upside is that the socks should wear well and my feet are not especially sensitive.

The first sock is mostly done and waiting for the second sock (just a toe) to catch up.  I like to knit about 40-45% of the yarn (by weight), put that on hold, and knit the second sock.  I can maximize sock length that way.  The is a travel/waiting room project so progress is sporadic.

Speaking of OP patterns (well I will be speaking about OP patterns below - the price I pay for writing a post out of order), I found a creative designer via a link on luneray's blog.  I never knew that I needed a knitting pattern for a dissected lab rat or a dissected frog.  Sounds kinda gross, but they are really cute.  In a morbid kind of  way.  The designer is Crafty Hedgehog.  She has lots of sweet patterns for stuffed animals and dolls on her Etsy site.

After buying the lab rat pattern on Etsy, I discovered that I could have bought it through Ravelry and saved it in my pattern library there.  A reminder to always go to Ravelry first.

I am feeling a lot of love for Ravelry (as can probably tell).  Today is my one year anniversary on Ravelry.  I can't begin to imagine knitting without it any more.  It is such a tremendous resource and a wonderful way to find knitting community, far and near.  Blogs have connected me with fabulous and interesting spinners and knitters around the world.  Ravelry gives me tools to meet fabulous and interesting spinners and knitters in my area and my travel destinations. 

And the pattern database!  How great is that?  I might never have learned about Herbert Niebling otherwise.  Most of the OP (other people's) patterns I knit now are found using the experimental search function (Ravelry link).

Ravelry is changing the knitting world.  At Black Sheep I heard so many people referring to it or wearing Rav buttons.  A Ravelry meet-up is a given now at all fibery events. 

Viva Ravelry!!!  Big love to Casey, Jess, and Mary-Heather for all they do to make it so wonderful.

Contest:

To celebrate my Ravelry love, I am having a contest for some of my unloved stash.  There is so much in my stash, for spinning and knitting, that I won't get around to using.  I'll let the winner pick from a selection of yumminess to be determined.  I promise it will be good.

To enter, tell me your favorite Ravelry feature.  If you aren't on Ravelry (gasp!), tell me why not.  Actually, I'm easy (in this respect - get your mind out of the gutter!).  Leave a comment on this post about anything (your favorite beer, your next travel locale, why bald men shouldn't wear toupees, you get the idea, bonus points for non sequiturs) and you'll be entered to win.  Contest ends July 7th at 7pm Pacific Daylight Time.  Maybe 7:07.

Out of Shape

I am so out of blogging shape.  It feels like a muscle that hasn't been exercised in a while.  Why yes, it is a muscle that hasn't been used in a while!  What's my excuse?  Busy.  I know, it is a rather flabby excuse (but thematic!).

I have been so bad that I never told you about my NYC trip in *cough, cough* October.  I went to six NYC yarn stores!  Would it be too late?  For those of you who are Lyle Lovett fans, it is not too late, I can make it a cheeseburger.  For the rest of you, please pardon my free association brain.

While I have been slacking, Lilli in Finland has been busy!  She came across my Toe-up Gusseted Heel Tutorial and used it liberally in her holiday knitting.  Just look at all those lovely socks!  She has even done a Finnish translation of my tutorial!  Check it out even if you don't speak Finnish; she made a great chart of the heel turn that is very handy.  Thank you Lilli! 

I have been doing a bit of knitting.  There are several sock patterns waiting in the wings including a pair I made for my grandmother.  Sweet little cables in a fingering weight yarn that I indigo dyed.  More details soon when I post the pattern.

It is a good thing I have been making new socks.  Half of my socks have turned up with holes in them lately.  Here is my big ole stack of sadness.  One of my all time favorites, my BFL handspun socks are in there.  They have just one hole on the ball of my foot where most of my socks fail first.  Anyone have a brilliant idea for recycling old socks or sock darning resources?  I want to try to salvage some of them.  I'd hate to use Stephanie's method of standing over the garbage can and loudly exclaiming "darn socks!".

Speaking of asking for advice, I have decided what I will do with my 2-ply Morehouse Merino yarn.  Thank you for the votes and great ideas.  As some of you suggested, I am playing with modular patterns.  I think I know what I want to do; I just need the right size double pointed needles.  I like the cheap metal ones available at chain craft stores.  Unfortunately, my local chain craft store doesn't believe in maintaining stock.  Grrr!  More on that project soon.

In recent news regarding knitting and social events, I went to Becca's New Year, New Project Knit-in.  We were required to bring and start a new project.  I learned that I am not good at starting new projects in public.  I wanted to start a new pair of socks based on a sock pattern I'd already knit (called Hudson Line, it is one of my new patterns coming soon).  This pair was in a different yarn at a slightly different gauge.  I spent time fiddling with formatting the pattern stitch for the new yarn, plinking around in my laptop (my master spreadsheet of socky goodness), and swatching.  Finally, a toe was created.  It is a great to except that the gauge is too loose.  I need a needle size that I didn't have on me.  Sad.  That is the downfall of liking cheap needles, you have no qualms about leaving sets in abandoned WIPs indefinitely.  It is easier to go buy more.  Maybe. 

Bad blogger that I am, I didn't take any pictures to blog.  (Recall the flabby blog muscle syndrome mentioned aove.)  Hopefully our lovely host will fill in the details soon.  I did get to see the Knit Picks metal sock needle set in person.  Celia had one and I had to use all my restraint to not steal it.  It has US sizes 0-3 in both metric versions of size 1 & 2.  Huh?  Yup, that means 2.25mm AND 2.5mm, both referred to as size 1 and 2.75mm AND 3mm, both referred to as size 2!  Best of all, they have nice pointy points.  Love that!  My set is already in the mail.

It must be time for a nap after this blog work-out.  Or maybe a strong cup of tea. 

Is It Spinning?

It has been crazy since I got back from New York.  I have managed to do a bit with some of my Rhinebeck loot.

Here is the pile of lace weight yarn from Morehouse Merino.  All 19 skeins!  I bought it without a plan, just an impulse.

At dinner that night Brooke made a comment that sparked an idea.  She suggested adding more twist to the yarn (all singles yarn) and plying it together.  Great idea!  Two things came to my mind.  If you guessed socks, you are partly right (and I am that predictable). 

The first task was adding twist to all 19 skeins and winding them into little mini center-pull balls (pause a moment here because that was a big and boring task).  Then I set them out in oder by color and started making a 3-ply sock yarn.  Self-striping yarn capitalized on the large number of colors and the fact that I already had a lot of bits and pieces.  The colors seemed to have a beginning and an end so I started at one end and plied AAA, AAB, ABB, BBB, BBC, BCC, CCC, and so on.  When I got to the last color, I reversed and went back down the colors.  I scientifically determined that a full bobbin was the perfect amount for socks. The result?  4.6 oz of self-striping sock yarn in a worsted weight.

Wanna see the socks?

One is knit (toe-up of course!) from the center of the ball and one from the outside.  When I ran out of yarn the socks were done.  The remaining yarn (1 yard, maybe) is in the upper left corner.

They are knit tight at 5.75 sts/in.  I want thick cushy house socks for the cold weather.  The leg is knit in a 6x2 rib after the heel turn which shifts into a 2x2 rib.

The ends aren't woven in yet.  I was trying to get a picture taken before the light faded completely.  That darn sun goes down so early these days.

But that can't be all of the Morehouse Merino?  The pile was large.  True. 

There was enough for three large hanks of 2-ply for a total of 1300 yards of sport weight yarn.  There is also an annoyingly small hank (not shown) that just wouldn't fit onto the bobbing no matter how hard I tried.  Ironically, the harder I tried the more I was able to fit onto the bobbin and therefore the more annoying it was that it didn't all fit.  I don't really mind joining and weaving in the ends; it just vexed me that it was so small.  It is like having a small bit of leftover food at a restaurant.  Not enough to take home, but too much to leave on your plate.

The question is: what kind of shawl do I make?  A triangle?  Rectangle?  Parallelogram?  A triangle could be problematic since the stripe widths will vary depending on the length of the row.  Each stripe will be fairly short as I didn't make them really long.  Maybe a rectangle or parallelogram is more logical?  I can't decide.  What does one do when one can't decide?  A poll!

It hasn't all been about the Morehouse Merino around here.  My father-in-law's dog, Pancho was visiting.  He is a sweet boy and Sammie loves having a canine companion.  The boyz get along quite well.

Most of the time.

Roger had to break up one fight.  Both of them were squabbling over something, but we couldn't tell what it was.  We thought it was a toy as they had been playing with something a moment before.  After prying them apart, Sammie ran after the coveted object and snatched it up with a snarl and an "I dare you" look at Pancho.  Obviously, this toy could not remain "in play" and Roger removed it from Sammie's clenched teeth.

What was it?  This highly coveted object worthy of a fight with your best friend?

A cheap plastic spoon from Thai take-out food.

Leaving On A Jet Plane

I leave in the morning for New York.  I can't wait!  I have been dreaming of this day for six months!  I will meet up with my fiber partners in crime, Brooke and Rachael, for a few days in NYC and then we head up to Rhinebeck!  Are you sick of hearing about it yet?

Today we had our spinning group (without Brooke who is at SOAR, I am so jealous!)  I found a foot that is perfectly sized for the cable socks.  Thank you Marlowe for modeling.  The lighting wasn't right so the sock looks much bluer than in real life. 

I've started the next one in my quest for avoiding knitting my sweater.  You know, the one I intend to wear at Rhinebeck.  Sigh.  I will take it with me and try to force myself to knit it.

My friend Linda brought her Mystery Sock!  I didn't even know she was knitting it.  She is knitting it in yarn I dyed too.  You may recognize it as the same colorway I'm using for my Charlie Socks.  She got it at the last Sunday Spin & Knit group.  It was very cool to see my dyeing on my sock design, knit by someone else.

There are other Mystery Sock sitings.  I will post them soon.

Speaking of hand-dyed sock yarn, our friend Kristine, of A Verb For Keeping Warm, came with her beautiful yarns and spinning fibers.  She has Bluefaced Leicester sock yarn.  You know I couldn't pass that up!

Yummy, soft, and smooshy!  I took this picture in the fading light, but the colors are pretty close.  I've already wound it to pack for my trip to Rhinebeck.  What to make?

On a doggie note, we discovered something new about our little Sam.  I don't want to disparage my sweet boy, but he isn't exactly bright.  I was doing laundry the other day.  We have a front loader and I usually sit on a small plastic stool to load the machine.  The washing machine is in the kitchen next to the back door which has a doggie door.  Apparently, I left the stool and laundry basket so they blocked access to the door.   Roger had let Sam out of a different door.  Sam came around to the doggie door and came into the kitchen trapping himself.  An hour passed before we realized that Sam was not just hanging out in the kitchen.  He had remained in the "trap". 

Yes, he could have gone back out the doggie door and come to the other door.  Yes, he could have stepped onto the stool or jumped over it.  Did he?  Nope.  Sweet, cute boy.

Makes it a lot easier to keep him and his dirty paw prints off of a wet kitchen floor!

Rain, Rain, Go Away

It is raining and very wet here lately.  It is always an awkward transition for me.  This is a semi-arid climate.  Typically, we have no rainfall from late spring into October sometime.  You get used to the outdoors being a part of your living space and leave stuff lying around outside.  You know the rains will come at some point, but, you still get quite peeved when the rain starts soaking your stuff.  It was a mad scramble to bring it drying fleece and sweaters.

Notice anything in this picture besides overgrown shrubs and dying tomato plants?

Does this help? 

We estimate it to be about 4 feet tall with its neck stretched out and a wingspan of 6 feet!  Great googly moogly!

Every year we get visitors.  They are scoping out the pond and our sweet little fishies.  I know this is the circle of life, blah, blah, blah.  Those are my sweet little fishies!  Yes, I do have more babies every year and there are more fish in there than a small pond can support (anyone want cute multi-color goldfish?), but those are my sweet little fishies! 

Sigh.  At least someone doesn't mind the rain.

Let's move on to a cheerier topic shall we?  I have sockiness to show.

Charlie Socks

They are my own design.  It has been kicking around in my head for almost a year.  The yarn is naturally dyed by me using osage orange and logwood grey.  The two dyes together make that wonderful olive green.  I love me some olive green.  (Hmm, olives! a la Homer Simpson popped into my head.  Does that make me 8?)

The second one is a variation on the pattern stitch that makes diamonds instead of chevrons.  I can't decide which I like better.  With one of each, I won't have to!

I am also working with more of that yummy Shetland fingering weight yarn from Elemental Affects.  I love this yarn!  It has the grab you expect from a true Shetland wool and a wonderful heathery quality to it.  What you might not expect is how smooshy it is.  Yummy!

I am designing several socks for them; this is the cabled one.  I want to use different techniques for each one, so this sock is knit from the cuff down.  Quite a departure for me.  I can't remember the last time I designed a top-down sock.  In this case I think it will feel like the sock zooms at the end.  The sole will be stockinette on fewer stitches to make the differing gauges work.

Please excuse the craptastic picture.  I can't use my usual brackdrop as it is rather sodden at the moment.  This is just before the heel flap starts.

I am experiencing my usual naming skills.  So far I call it, wait for it, . . . . .  Cable Socks.  Anti-climactic isn't it?  Brilliant naming ideas are welcome.  Er, any naming ideas are welcome.

Have I mentioned that I am going to Rhinebeck, Rhinebeck, Rhinebeck?  I just found out that they have fried pickles there!  I am so going to have one!  Hubby doesn't believe me.  I'll get photographic evidence.  Maybe he is just getting tired of hearing me talk about it.  Who would tire of hearing FRIED PICKLES! exclaimed at random moments?  Sheesh, he's got to lighten up.

Mystery Sock part 4

Have you forgotten about my mystery sock?  I hope not!

It is all about transitioning to the ribbing and making the back of the leg pretty.  You can make the ribbing shorter or longer to suit your style or the amount of yarn remaining.

If you want to make a shorter version, you can start the ribbing at round 59 on chart 2.  Yes, that is on the foot before the heel is turned.  You could also do another cable and then start the ribbing after round 75.

Tomorrow, I'll show you a fun felting project made with a new friend.