Trish Knits.com

sock toe in progress

After last week’s fiasco with my cabled baby sweater, I decided to put it down for a few days. So I re-cast on my toe up sock on Sunday, and look how far I’ve gotten already! I’ve decided that I don’t like knitting on size zero needles. I’m going to have to try my next pair on something slightly larger. But for this pair, I think I do need the 0’s, so the yarn overs won’t be any bigger than they already are.

Hopefully I can make some good progress on this sock this week. It would be nice to say that I made something for myself that I can wear. Here it is, almost August, and I’m still working on the toe of my first sock for Summer of Socks 08. Told you… I’m the slowest knitter in the world.

me, knitting a purple sock

Just a Monday night at Trish’s place. I’m tired tonight, so we all had something simple for dinner, then I sat down to do some knitting… and then blog about it! I frogged my purple sock last week, and restarted it on size 0 needles. This time, on smaller needles, 56 stitches around seems to fit me just right. I forget sometimes that my feet are so smal, because I tend to wear shoes two sizes bigger because of my brace.

I kinda gave up on the idea of doing toe-up monkey socks for now, too, because the stitch repeat is so long that getting the right amount of stitches for my size is a bit of a challenge. So for now, I’m doing Wendy Johnson’s sock pattern that she designed for Summer of Socks, 2008. Well, sort of. I’m doing her stitch pattern, but my own heel and my own toe.

And here’s a shot of the baby sweater:

baby sweater in progress

Half an inch til I put the sleeve stitches on holders. I’m finally starting to feel the progress. Yay!

I came to a sad realization last night. My lowly little sock, at even only 56 stitches around, is still too loose for my foot. I think the fabric needs to be firmer, too. So I’m going to frog and try again, this time with the dreaded size 0 needles that I had been oh so desperately hoping to avoid.

Am I just too loose a knitter to make socks? The prospect of size 0 needles is daunting. I think I might lose my mind…

Today I had an unexpected day off, caring for a sick, toothless 6-year-old, who, it turns out, has the strep buggers. So we had a Spongebob marathon, and watched Cars, I got some progress done on my purple sock. Not enough to show you though, so I thought I would talk tonight about my baby sweater. Again.

I played around with a couple of stitch patterns for the front panels, and I think I’m going with a simple plaited cable with vertical eyelets on either side. The entire rest of the sweater will be done in stockinete stitch, but I haven’t yet decided whether to do a garter stitch border at the bottom and cuffs, or some sort of ribbing. I’ll decide when I get there. I also have inserted one eyelet button hole, but it is so tiny you can’t even really see it in the photo. So I need to decide quick how to do the buttons. Maybe I’ll skip the whole thing and just do an i-cord tie. We’ll see.

I also decided to put the sleeve stitches on holders when I get to them and do them in the round at the end. That is what makes the most sense to me at the moment. I’m already wondering if this sweater is ever going to get done. The stitches are so tiny! Next time I use this yarn for such things I think I am going to double it.

Note to self: I stopped on the sock tonight ready to do round 5 of the second pattern repeat. But before I do any more work on it I want to put it on my foot again and make sure I wasn’t kidding myself about the size. It’s small. But I have a teeny foot (size 5, narrow). I often get away with wearing 6’s but I never wear open toe-d shoes so I forget how ridiculously big they really are.

All for now…

Just a quick post so I can make notes on my sock in progress, so I can replicate it for the second one. (No, I’m not into two at once. Most knitting gets done in the car, where it’s too hard to wrangle two balls of yarn in my purse.)

I increased from 8 stitches on each needle to 28 stitches on each needle. I am doing the Toe Up Monkey Sock pattern, and to do two full repeats on the top of the foot I would need at least 32 stitches on each needle. since my foot is so small I’m going to try one repeat up the center of the foot and see how that works, and then increase at the ankle to compensate (my ankles are fatter anyway so my theory is that this should work).

Anyway it is very late here so I had to stop after round 3 of the pattern and will pick up with round 4 tomorrow morning. Hopefully it will look cute when it starts to come together! Wish me luck…

Yes it’s true; I’m a slow knitter. I managed a few more rounds on my sock toe at yesterday’s knitting group, but that’s about it. I could have done more today, but I do have this brown ripple afghan I’m working on. So I did a little on that, too. And I do mean a little. I don’t know what it is with me lately; I have all of these grand intentions of knitting for long stints and then I get distracted. Usually by the computer, of course, which, coincidentally, is where I am now… could blogging be eating into my knitting time? I’m sure there are thousands of knitters out there now who are with me on this conundrum.

Yesterday at knitting group, Shelley gifted me with this:

It’s Socks that Rock Lightweight in the Mystic Kelp colorway. Yum! It’s all purple-y and, and, and… I love it! Thanks, Shelley!

While at the bookstore yesterday I picked up one of these:

It’s a Moleskine Small Sketch Book, and I got it for keeping in my knitting bag, so I can make notes and quick little sketches of my knitting projects along the way. I heard Kelley Petkun talk about these little books once on her podcast, and I didn’t really think I’d need one until the other day, when I found myself needing to do some math related to the baby sweater I’m working on. The sweater is constructed using percentages, and since my gauge and stitch count are different than the original pattern, I wanted to make notes about my own numbers. I didn’t have any paper in my knitting bag (bad me!) and wound up writing in the actual book that the pattern was in. So when I saw this little thing in the store yesterday, I snapped it up. My percentage calculations will be the first thing in the book.

I’m feeling bummed tonight. I’m coming down off of a week off from work and now I have to go back tomorrow. I feel the stress creeping up on me. Ack! Make it stop!

More next time…

Everyone was knitting socks:

Even me!

And the thing is, even though we were all knitting socks, we were all doing it differently. Shelley was knitting top down on DPNs. Lola, who happened to be knitting way cool purple socks, was doing top down on two circulars. Rhoda was doing a second striped sock top down on magic loop. And me? I’m doing one toe up on magic loop. Isn’t it great how the same thing can be done in so many marvelous ways? That’s the coolest thing about knitting to me. I’ve learned that there’s no right or wrong. I don’t have to be concerned that my hands won’t work a certain way to use this certain tool or that certain method. There’s always another way. And that’s cool!

Shelley and Lola both like spinning and had lots to talk about. Lola reported that she just got a new spinning wheel.

Rhoda knits away on her second striped sock. Looks like she’ll be done soon!

I of course could not get out of the store without buying another book. More on that tomorrow.

After hours of yarn sorting and photographing yesterday I was tireder than tired, but the kids and DH wanted to go to the pool. I thought about staying home, but it was such a nice night, I went. And I’m glad I did! The weather was GLORIOUS, and it was built-in knitting time for me.

I managed to finish the yoke of my baby sweater! Now onto the interesting part. I decided to do the sweater in stockinette stitch, all except for the front panels which will have a cable and lace pattern band on each front. I still need to divide the sections of the sweater so I can decide where to place the stitch pattern. I love cables, so this will be good for me. I haven’t had a project with a cable in it for a while. So, I’m doin’ the happy dance.

Show Yer Socks!

Just had to share these new shoes I got from Journeys. I first saw them on the day I went to see the Yarn Harlot in a shop window. But alas, they didn’t have them in my size. I tried to order them online but my size didn’t even show up as available until about a month ago, and then when I ordered, they were out of stock. So, at long last, I got them this week.

Yet another reason to be a sock knitter. Cool shoes to show off your socks. Niiiiiiice.

I so wanted to kick off Summer of Socks 2008 in high fashion while knitting by the pool on Saturday evening. But alas, we were all tired, and I had trouble getting started. Earlier in this evening, I cast on for about the 10th time my first pair of real socks. I don’t know why I have such a hard time getting started, but I can’t seem to do the toes until I’ve started at least half a dozen times. So this is all I have to show. Whoop-dee-do.

I recently bought a Namaste Cali Malibu bag in Hollywood Pink. But I also found a mini sewing kit that nearly matched. I don’t really sew at all, but it’s good to have an extra tape measure, scissors, buttons and thread on hand. It matches the bag, and is SOOO cute. For that reason alone, I had to have it. Shallow? Don’t answer that!

Here are two views, one with the kit closed and one with it open.

Today I finally received the book, 50 Baby Bootees to Knit by Zoe Mellor. I love, love, LOVE the adorable and interesting designs. There is everything from basic booties to Mary Jane shoes, to cute little baby socks. I also love Ann Budd’s Better than Booties Baby Socks and so am trying to come up with some combination of socks, hat, and sweater or jacket. The Baby Kimono from Mason-Dixon Knitting : The Curious Knitters’ Guide: Stories, Patterns, Advice, Opinions, Questions, Answers, Jokes, and Pictures is also on my short list.

Here’s the thing: I’ve managed all this time to be a decent but limited knitter, without having to do a lot of math. I’ve never knit a project that truly required a gauge swatch. Now, though, I have some specific yarns I want to use:

These are Lisa Souza Sock! Merino in the Spumoni, Pumpkin, and Peacock colorways. I don’t know the gender of the baby I’m knitting for, but he or she is due to arrive in the fall, which prompted the pumpkin colors. (The others I just liked for a baby.)

Maybe the big problem for now is that I have too many choices! I’ll give myself a week or so to narrow it down. Then I’ve got to get busy knitting!