Spinner’s Giveaway

Susan at Martha Vineyard Fiber Farm is having a spinner’s giveawy until October 11th in honor of her impending move. Go share you tales of moving joys and woes and win fibery goodness:

 www.fiberfarm.com/2009/10/spinners-giveaway

The Lace is On (the loom)!

Over on Ravelry, the Beginner’s Lace knitting group has just started to work on Saskia (http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/saskia).  I have my homespun yarn to use up, so, what the heck!  I though I’d give it a try on the loom.  There are just single and double decreases and YO’s to deal with.  I think it’s a pretty managable pattern on a knitting loom. 

lace swatch-half gauge

The question is which loom to use.  So I grabbed some similar weight wool from stash and knit up a bit of the pattern on my half gauge Markman Farm loom. This block just a hair lacier than I wanted, but definitely doable.

 

 

lace swatch-small gauge

 

Then I did anothe swatch on a small gauge loom.  Not a huge difference, but I think this is more what I want.  My project yarn is slightly finer that the red stuff.  Of course, i’ve never done a big lace project before, so I could be wrong, but that’s how you learn!

 

Here’s the project so far:

saskia lace-about 2 repeats in

I’m pretty much following the needle knit pattern, except for reversing the knits/purls on the wrongs side (easy enough, there’s no lace worked on those rows).  I also added an extra knit row between my CO and row 1 of the pattern.  This is partially because I’ve been noticing that my BO edge seems thicker than my CO edge (This is noticeable in the neckline of the Ruana I’m currnetly working on–more on that another day).  It’s also because I always cast on right to left unless I consciously make myself CO left to right.  Apparently, I wasn’t very conscious when I when I cast on this project.  I was about to start row 1 when I realized that I was on the left.  So I could start over (after all my swatching, that option wasn’t feeling very attractive), I could convert all the decreases from left to right leaning and visa versa (that was bound to lead to confusion) or I could make a design “improvement.” 

Easy choice!

I’ve also decided to just do ssk instead of trying to figure out s/1 k1 psso.  It seems to me that they work out about the same anyway.

Any loomers out there want to join along?

I made yarn!

I’ve been learning to use a drop spindle this past year or so.  Here’s my latest effort:

I Made Yarn!

I think I’ll call it Clouds and Iris.  This is my first yarn that has a good bit of yardage– about 600 yards.  It’s about a sport weight (averaging 12 wpi) and has longish (maybe 20-25 yd) runs of white, interspresed with colored sections of varying intensity.  Fiber is from a grab bag of mill end rovings from the Sheep Shed that I dyed myself. 

I think it needs to be a rectangular shawl of some sort–maybe lace.  If anyone knows an easy loomable lace that would work with the wide color changes, I love to hear from you.

Here’s the baby picture’s:

# Singles ready to ply

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A very full spindle!

They grow up so fast!

Missteps Lead to New Designs?

When I started my sweater, I knew that I wanted to add border stitches to lessen rolling.  So I knit 10 rows of moss stitch along the bottom of the body panel and 3 rows of moss stitch on the sleeve edge.  The top of the sleeve, which forms the neckline, got 5 rows of single ribbing. 

Well, the edges didn’t roll, but they poofed terribly and turned under.  And I really just didn’t like the ribbing.  What to do?

I decided to try an experiment.  What would happen if I alternated 5-6 stitches of moss with 5-6 of stockinette?  Well the stockinette and the moss sections seem to counter-balance each other.  So no rolling OR turning under.  And much less poofiness since half the stitches are still stockinette.  I think  I like the look.

Of course everything needed to be ripped out and re-stitched first.  Do you know it’s a lot harder to rip knitting out from the cast on edge?  Well I do, NOW anyway.  For the sleeve top, I put a lifeline in a couple rows back from the sleeve top, rehung the piece on the loom, and reknit the sleeve top border backward.  The body edge was just frogged and reknit normally and I decided that blocking would take care of the 3 rows on the sleeve edge, so left that be.

So all the panels are done.  Yeah!  Time to seam.  My inspirations stitched the sleeve selvages to the body, starting at the center.  That made an impossibly low and loose vee neckline (front and back).  I thought about picking up some stitches in the back and adding some sort of gusset, but still it would have been a serious, frogworthy UGH LEE thing.

So I unstitched the sleeves from the body (and back a few inches more).  I counted 15 rows in from the top sleeve edges and put markers there.  Then I found the center of the body pieces and marked them.  I stitched the sleeve pieces to the body, lining the markers up with the center markers.  It ended up crisscrossing in the front and back.  That solved the too deep vee and I think I like the design element.  Don’t you love accidental design?

Finally finished!

So I started a sweater for myself LAST summer.  I had found five matching skeins of worsted weight wool in a thrift shop grab bag.  Okay, it was a fairly hideous variated from Red Heart, so I wouldn’t feel too bad if the project didn’t turn out, but at least it was 100% wool.  I just don’t like wearing synthetics.

I knew I didn’t want to double strand it, since I’m pretty hot blooded.  So my knifty knitters were out.  Lucky for me, I have a lovely half gauge loom from Markman Farm that has about 120 pegs.  Now I need something easy and pretty simple.  So I find this vee neck sweater by Clella Gustin: http://www.provocraft.com/projects/projects.php?prdindex=kniftyknitter&dsp=project&idnum=34

It uses bulky or doubled yarn, though, and I really need sleeves.  Still, I like the simple rectangle construction.

Then I find this picture of a sweater by Denise layman: http://www.flickr.com/photos/84044692@N00/2177079216

Same idea, but with long sleeves and the yarn is just as hideous as mine.  Unfortunately the pattern isn’t available at this time.

So, I was on my own.  I swatched (shudder) and figured I’d need to CO with 96 pegs for all four panels.  For the body panels I did 90 rows of stockinette and 10 rows of border stitching (more on that latter) and bound off.  For the sleeves, I started with 5 rows of border (this will eventually frame the neckline), then 35 rows of stockinette.  At this point, I started decreasing.  On each third row I deceased a stiched on each end (well actually one stitch in from the end to make seaming easier).  I countinued decreasing for 84 rows (row 124 of sleeve). I probably should have stopped a couple decreases sooner.  The sleeve is just slightly snug on the forearm, but not too bad.  Then I did 15 more stitches of stockinette and three rows of border stitches and bound off.  With maybe 10 yards of yarn to spare!

Sizing  notes:  My gauge is generally pretty tight, so your mileage will vary.  This fit pretty well. I’m 5′2″ and a size large to extra large.

So this is what went right.  Next up: everything that went wrong first!

Loomy Fun with Bethany

There’s lots of loomy fun going on at Gettin’ It Pegged, all in celebration of Bethany’s blogaversary.  I’d write more, but I’m off on a scavenger hunt there myself.  Come join the fun:

http://gettinitpegged.com/

What’s the Flap About, part 3 (my sock has no top!)

So, at this point we have a heel flap and a gusset and a little problem:

The sock has no top.   It’s time to put those stitches from the scrap yarn back onto their now empty pegs.

Then there is just closing up the gap along the top of the gusset.  To do that I knit  just the top/instep pegs, picking up a gusset stitch as I went along.

 To do the instep, start a new working yarn.  Go ahead and cut the old one, leaving enough tail for weaving in later.  Put the instep stitches back on the loom.  To set up each row, pick up the closest  loop (or pair of loops if you slipped your gusset edges) from each gusset edge stitch and place them on the peg with the first and last instep pegs (Normally that would be pegs 25 and 48, but for my sock it was 24 and 47).  For this first row, you’ll notice that there is a pretty big gap between the edge of the instep and the first gusset edge stitch.  For at least the first row I picked up loops from the gap instead to minimize holes.  Actually, I must have done this for at least three rows before I began to pick up gusset stitches.  That was definitely excessive and I think it showed a bit. I think either two rows or maybe picking up two separate loops on the first instep row will be enough.  If anyone experiments with that let me know.

Here the top stitches are back on the loom and you can see the gusset stitches that need to be joined.  I think the first picked up loop is already on peg 47.

With the new yarn, knit across just those 24 loops that were just replaced, knitting the picked up loops along with the original loops.  This seemed VERY bulky on the loom—knitting 3 over 1 on the first and last stitches.  I thought it might make an annoyingly stiff or uncomfortable  join, but it really wasn’t too bad.  I do wonder how it would look if you knit the bottom loop over the picked up ones before knitting the row.

After the first row, pick up another loop (the next closest one to the instep) from each side of the gusset edge and put it on the outermost top/instep peg.  Knit back across those pegs.  Just keep doing that until you run out of gusset, and you can start knitting in the round again.

You can see the finished closed up gusset after a few more rows.

Next time I think I’ll try a very plain sock so I can really see any holes and joins.  I think I’ll also try not slipping the gusset edges so I can just pick up one edge loop.  I am afraid that I’ll have trouble seeing which loop to grab, though.  I usually do.   It’s so much easier for me to see a slipped edge. 

Thanks for taking a look at my experiment.  This is clearly more complicated than doing a heel flap on needles, but it is certainly do-able and the socks do fit me a bit better than short row heels.  So that’s a functional success, but still a design in progress.

What’s the Flap About, part 2 (heel turn and gusset)

So now we have a gusset of 21 rows (up to 24 or the same number of rows as there were stitches put on scrap yarn should work easily).  It’s time to turn the heel.  I’m not going into much detail here.  Just work short row decreases however you like as if you were turning a heel.  DON’T do the increases.  I decreased until there were 8 pegs on either side with 2 loops (turning pegs) and 8 with one loop between them.                                                                                  

Note working yarn is just to the right of the last turning peg.   

 

 

Here’s the 1/2 heel cup from the inside. 

 

 

 

 

Now the sock needs a gusset.

Pick up stitches along the edge of the heel flap.  Since the edges were slipped, It’s pretty easy to see the 2 loops forming the nice chain edge.  I put each pair on one of the empty pegs.  First the stitches from the left of the heel flap get picked up onto empty pegs.

 

It turned out that there were 11 loop pairs to pick up for this sock.

 

 

 

 

Then the stitches from the right edge of the heel flap get picked up.

 

 

 

 

 

See all the double loops.  The one on the left is actually a turning peg from the heel.  Remember, I did my heel on pegs 48 + 1 to 23 to preserve symmetry on this stitch pattern on this particular sock.  The other pegs are heel flap edge stitches.

 

Keep picking up edge stitches from the heel flap until all are on the loom.  I got 11 from this side too.  If the flap had been 24 stitches, all the pegs would be full now.  I had 2 empties.

The short row decreases left the working yarn back at the final turning peg. 

Complete that turn and knit the 8 center heel stitches and continue to the left, knitting the double loops on the turning pegs and the double loops from the heel flap as one.  WY ends up on the left edge.

 

I slipped the first stitch in this section just like for the heel flap.  It might be better not to, for the gusset at least.  That will be the next experiment.

Knit back to the right, again treating any double loops as one.       

 

To complete the gusset, for each row, slip1 then knit until 3 stitches remain.  Move the last 2 loops in one peg to decrease.

 

Knit last 2 stitches treating the doubled loops as one.

Continue decreasing one stitch on each row until there are stitches only on the original 24 pegs of the heel flap.

 

 

 

Next: My sock has no top!

What’s the Flap About, part 1

For this sock I used the Tulip Sock pattern at dalooms.com as the base pattern.  I cast on 48 pegs on a FG mini wonderloom with a cotton wool blend (60/40 Serpendipity Tweed, striped coral root for those who care about such things).  After doing 4 pattern repeats I had this:

The actual color is closer to this one.

                                                                                                                                                                 

It’s time to start knitting the heel flap.  Eventually it will be a bother to have the instep (top) stitches on the loom, so now is a great time to slip the loops on pegs 25-48 onto a piece of scrap yarn and prepare to knit on just pegs 1-24.  That would cause an asymetrical break in the pattern I was using, so I slipped pegs 24-47 onto scrap yarn and would knit peg 48 and pegs 1-23 as my heel flap.

 Half of the stitches have been removed and we’re ready to knit the heel flap.  Knit the flap as a flat panel. Just continue  working in pattern (or you could try a heel flap stitch like R1: *k1 s1*; R2: k all.  I believe that I slipped the first stitch in each row, but I didn’t write that in my notes, so possibly not.  I did NOT slip the     stitches in my 2nd test heel (at least that’s what my notes say, lol). 

You will probably want to knit about the same number of rows as you have stitches on pegs.  Three more pattern repeats was 24 rows, so I went with that.

 

 

Here’s the back of the heel flap.  You can see the edges stitches.  One side looks like the edges were slipped, the other maybe.  Hmm….I thought they were slipped.

 

 

 

Next: Turning the Heel

Heel Flap Progress

So, I’ve finally downloaded some photos from my camera.  I did a couple of test heels with chunky yarn on a knifty knitter.  I’ll post the full instructions next time, but wanted to get a couple photos out until then.  The idea still needs some tweaking, but I’ve definitely ended up with something that resembles a heel flap and gusset.                                                                                                    

KK heel flap test 1

The first test was done with about 24 pegs, I think, and it looked pretty pretty holey on the foot.  I decreased at the heel turn rather than doing short rows. 

see all the not so pretty holes

 Heel flap test 2.  For the second test I did a smaller heel (because I’m lazy, lol)–just 18 pegs.  The heel was decrease with short rows and the result was much better.  This one doesn’t fit anyone in my house, so no “on the foot” shots!

 

 

 

 

 

And here’s the full sock along with the sock that made me try this madness. 

same sock/two heels

On the left is the original short row heel.  (Pattern is Isela Phelp’s Tulip Sock from the daloom site and adapted for FG.)  It was much too snug in the instep and the 80/20 cotton/wool blend yarn isn’t very forgiving of a poor fit.  On the right is the same stitch pattern done with my attempt at aheel flap and gusset.  It did give a bit, although not a huge amount, of extra ease and does look  pretty close to a needle knit heel flap, but I need to work on my stitch picking up technique.  I haven’t done a lot of that and sometimes I’m not quite sure exactly which loop I’m supposed to pick up.

Well, I need to edit my step by step photos and write out the instructions.  Hope to get the first part up by the week end.