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February 28, 2004

Finished my second pair of socks and now am on to my third

Everyone who said that socks are addictive was absolutely right. Especially baby socks - instant reward! I still need to work on making the heel turn less noticeable though. If I don't get gaps then I get hard knotty bumps. I used this awful acrylic mohair like yarn for Eli's socks (his choice) that was so thick that I made them into slippers instead. They fit his feet like a dream, only problem is that they are hazardous to walk in and the baby is already sporting a bruise on his head from falling in them (he has a shoe fetish).

Anyway here are the slippers (modeled by Eli)
<img src=http://debcodding.com/elisocks.jpg></a><br>

And here is Seth knitting like his mama (he says NIH, NIH)

<img src=http://debcodding.com/sethknits.jpg></a><br>

Go take a look at <a href="http://zibibboisgood.port5.com/knittingisgood/index.html">Wendy's knitting blog</a>. She is really good (love that felted bag) and the real bonus is that she lives RIGHT NEAR ME! Woohoo! Finally someone to talk knitting shop with in real life. I told her I would call her but yesterday but then was not able to get her the single time I tried LOL. I am hoping she will share her little yarn guy with me (If I were her, I would not hahahahahahaa).

Posted by DebC at 10:21 AM

February 14, 2004

Exactly Twenty Days

That is how long it took me to complete the socks (minus a couple of days I wasn't able to work on them)! Now don't laugh, for me that is probably some sort of speed record.

Anyhow. Hate them. I should say - love how they feel, hate the colors. This is nothing new for me. By the time I finish a project, I am usually so sick of looking at it that I no longer even like it. It is definitely proportionate to how much frogging I had to do and how many mistakes I pretended not to see. They do feel VERY cozy though. Maybe I will just wear them in bed.
<img src=http://debcodding.com/sockfront.jpg></a><br>
<img src=http://debcodding.com/sockside2.jpg></a><br>

Ah well, now for Eli's socks. These will go MUCH faster - I am using a worsted weight with size 4 DPN's.

Posted by DebC at 11:21 PM | Comments (1)

February 01, 2004

One Down, One To Go

I finished the first sock.




It certainly wouldn't win first prize at the county fair but it's not bad for the first sock. I changed the pattern a little bit. The directions call for casting on sixteen stitches and then splitting them, every other one, onto two needles (actually, she does the toe cast on totally different than me but I like my way better). This makes for a weird ballet point toe, so I changed it to cast on thirty two and split so there are sixteen on two needles. I started these socks out for my nine year old, so had they been for an adult, I would have made the cast on even larger to give a flat edge to the sock rather than pointed. Then, I did the increases until it fit snugly around the ball of my foot. I was supposed to decrease a few stitches to make the sock more fitted but I overlooked those directions accidently. I am not unhappy with the way the body of the sock turned out though.

Then, the pattern calls for the heel to be in garter stitch (the rest of the sock is stockinette) which makes the heel stand out. Not sure I like that for a regular sock. It is fine for a novelty slipper type sock, but looks a little too homemade for other purposes. Got through all the wraps without any problems. Okay. That is a lie. I missed a few wraps here and there, so I kept having to obsessively count the stitches to figure out where I was. There must be some easy way to figure out what you have already done! In picking the wraps back up, the pattern calls for the stitch AND the wrap part to be knit together. This is genius. This completely eliminated those annoying holes that I had with the elf booties. The very last wrap on either side was still a bugger but I simply dipped a little further down and picked up enough to close the gap.

After that, I decided to make the socks a little slouchy and do a bit of ribbing at the top for stability. Halfway through, my toddler helpfully took out ALL THE NEEDLES. ARGH! It was miserable picking the stitches back up because the yarn is super fine. The other bad nasty that happened was that the yarn suddenly started coming out of the skein split and ravelled looking. I slogged through it but then the yarn was super, super thin and worn looking before finally going back to normal. Ugh. I can feel the difference with my fingers. I hope it was a rare happening and not repeated with the rest of this skein or its three sisters. Anyway, I really must find a way to bind off so that the sock is elastic at the top but doesn't end up looking all stretched out after the first wearing. I think I have seen other people knit some elastic thread in with the yarn at the top of socks. I am going to look into that.

Anyone want to place bets on how many years it takes to actually complete the second sock? The first one took about six hours (give or take) over about five days and the second one will surely be afflicted with UFO disease (UnFinished Object).

Posted by DebC at 10:11 PM | Comments (3)