Completion May 17, 2011

Ooh lookit, lookit, I actually finished making something!

It’s the second pair of socks I’ve made as part of ORASH (Operation Replace All Socks with Handmade. Still not sure why it’s not ORAWSH but then I am an enormous pedant and it’s not my invention! And ORASH sounds like Oh, rash, which in hindsight signing up to knit a lot of handmade socks while being …ahem… snuggled by 3 small people, 2 cats, a husband and a handcrafting business may have been. Also, did I mention I am completely sleep deprived? Hence this very long run[on sentence filled aside! Roll on the caffeine, people. *twitches*)

Strange cloven hoof style toes

The pattern I chose was Hedera by Cookie A. I really like it. You get these lovely, almost architectural, columns of twisted stitches and lacy holes. Very graceful feeling.

Obligatory sideways pointy toe shot

I altered the toe somewhat, opting for a round toe construction rather than a wedge toe as written in the pattern. I’ve been wanting to try one out for ages because my socks always wear out at the side of the toe, where all the decrease stitches are. Round toes don’t have that little line of decrease stitches so I want to see if these wear out less quickly.

They look a little strange, slightly like I’m hiding a pair of cloven hooves in there.

But they’re very comfy, no pressure on my toes at all and I would probably use a round toe again.

I definitely recommend the book and this pattern in particular.

And now, bring me the caffeine, people. BRING IT.

Sarah

Clubbing May 1, 2011

You may remember from this post a while ago that I have a bit of a sock yarn problem.  Although it’s only a problem if you feel it’s a problem. I see it as my own little private art collection. And insulation.

In any case, I decided it was time to do something about it, after the discovery that I seem to have over 70 skeins of sock yarn kicking around. Inspired by my friend Suzanne, who was, in turn, inspired by this, I resolved to make myself a sock club aimed at using up what’s in my stash.

In the intervening period I got a little distracted by tiny things, like finishing off custom orders and having a baby. You know, the little, every day things that suddenly crop up and absorb every minute of your waking life.

But then this week I had a little time to myself so I ordered a big parcel of brown paper bags and today I went stash diving.

Snorkel is optional. But probably useful.

Stash diving is So.Much.Fun.

If you haven’t done it recently, you really should.Every so often, even if I’m not actually planning on making anything I like to dig through mine and roll around in it remind myself of what’s in there.

There's no yellow in my rainbow.

In my case, a surprising amount of purple and green. But no yellow.

One of the things I love about indie yarn is the way each dyer can take a particular colour and produce their own totally unique spin on it. (No pun intended. Genuinely sorry.)

Here’s some examples I retrieved from my heap this afternoon.

Sweet Clement, Enchanted Knoll, Knitting Goddess and Yarn To Knit.

All nominally green. All totally different. The Sweet Clement is incredibly intense, almost glowing. The Yarn To Knit is intense too, but it has a really grassy feel.

Another good example is purple. True purple, or so I understand from dabbling and much reading, is really hard to dye. Something to do with the different uptake times of red and blue dyes. It is also one of my favourite colours, as evidenced by the fact that I have a HUGE amount of purple yarn in my stash. I like purple because there’s such enormous variety and subtlety of shade in there. And it can be so rich.

Check it out:

Knitting Goddess, Sweet Clement, Old Maiden Aunt

Again, all purple, all semi solids but the differences between each dyer is incredible.

And then you have all the variegated and striping yarns. And again, no two dyers will do the exact same thing with the same colour palette.

Viz:

Fyberspates, Solstice Yarns

The yarn on the left is some Fyberspates I got in a 12 month sock club a few years ago. It was the February skein, as I recall. The yarn on the right is a skein of Solstice Yarn I picked up just before Christmas. They use a similar colour palette but each dyer has done something different and striking with those colours.

Anyway, I digress.

I’ve spent a very happy morning and afternoon going through my books, paper print outs and Ravelry.

Yes, yes I do have a slight penchant for Cookie A's patterns. How could you tell?

I’ve picked 30 or 40 patterns and matched them up with appropriate yarns.

Make sure you work out whether the pattern will suit variegated or semi solid yarns best.

Knitting Goddess, Paintbox

The end result of the exercise: a massive pile of brown paper parcels:

Not *quite* as attractive as before. But intriguing!

I’m really looking forward to dipping into these. I figure with approximately 40 odd packages, there should be enough to keep me occupied for a good long while. You know, in those dull moments between changing nappies, feeding and generally stimulating the older kids, breastfeeding, making stuff for the shop and sleeping.

Sarah

S.A.B.L.E. February 19, 2011

I was supposed to be writing a post about the beautiful bag I’m making for myself but due to the whims of fate and the fact that I live with two crazy making whirlwinds of destruction, I haven’t finished it.

Instead I have gratuitous pictures of yarn and a promise to make.

A friend of ours is organising a yarn/craft supplies swishing afternoon and in preparation for it, this afternoon I took a deep breath and plunged myself into my Stash.

I’ve been acquiring yarn like it was going out of style for the last six years. The pictures above don’t look too bad, until you realise that every single one of those bags and post packs is crammed full.

The jumper side of things is not so bad. I have one tub that is full of DK-ish weight yarn. Some of it is absolutely gorgeous:

Fyberspates, Scrumptious DK

Beautiful natural colours.

Artesano alpaca

Some of it was bought because I was high on yarn fumes. I have about a million balls of this stuff:

I have an entire bag of the stuff. Plus a half knitted jumper in a bizarre yellowish colour.

I really have no idea what I was thinking when I bought it. I don’t know what I was planning to knit with it or why it is still in my stash, five years later. It’s definitely going. I will never ever use it, someone else might.

But on the whole, the jumper weight box is not too bad. A few screaming mistakes and impulse buys here and there but really, not too bad at all.

But, oh you guys, the shame of the other box. The sock yarn box.

I made a couple of important discoveries this afternoon.

1. I own a hell of a lot of sock yarn.

2. The rule about sock yarn not counting as stash? That only works if you actually KNIT the sock yarn you own, before you buy more of it.

3. I need to knit a lot of socks to justify ever buying any more yarn. EVER.

The problem with sock yarn is that it is easy to justify.

One skein will usually be enough to knit a decent sized pair of socks, with some left over for darning purposes. Even for my ginormous boat feet.

SMOOOOOSHY

Just one skein can be used for other projects like baby jackets or shawls or scarves or hats.

SQUOOSHY

It’s a great way of spoiling yourself a little bit or buying a colourway you wouldn’t normally try.because it’s only one skein.

Loads of wonderful indie hand dyers make beautiful beautiful things and by buying one little skein or two you can feel like you’re supporting independent craftspeople.

It’s only one skein. Four simple little words that have led to me having well and truly achieved SABLE. Stash Acquired Beyond Life Expectancy.

Glorious!

This is just what I’ve acquired in the last 12 months. Most of it just in the last 6 months. I haven’t photographed the other stuff. The stuff that I’ve been hoarding for the last few years. I have another 2 or 3 bags of yarn cakes and skeins tucked away out of sight.

I didn’t count it all but I am fairly sure I probably have enough skeins to knit between 50 and 100 pairs of socks. I am really very ashamed of myself.

So the way I see it there are only two solutions to this problem:

1. I cut my own feet off so I am never ever tempted to buy another skein of sock yarn again. This has various impracticalities to it and would be fairly painful and inconvenient.

2. I learn to exercise some restraint. Yes, it’s only one skein but if I add to all the other ‘only one skeins’ I will soon no longer be able to fit inside my house. And yes, I could make some large bean bags to contain it all but that really doesn’t solve the root problem which is that I am buying too much stuff and not using it.

I am opting for number 2. Feel free to remind me of this next time you see me pawing through baskets in a frenzy at one of the big shows.

To aid me in my restraint I’m thinking of joining the other ladies from the Foxpin Knitters’ Group and taking part in this, if they’ll have me. I love to knit socks anyway and I really need some new ones.

The other great suggestion I picked up from my friends Suzanne and Aliyah is a paper bag yarn club. (I believe they may have picked it up, in turn, from a knitting guru beginning with Y and H but don’t quote me.)

Rather than signing up to a new sock club to get the thrill of new and unexpected yarn surprises, I grab a bunch of paper bags. I pick out a bunch of skeins of yarn, match them to patterns I’ve been meaning to try for a while, then tape them up in a paper bag and put them in a box. Each time I finish a project, I get to pick out a new paper bag. Fun and surprises!

Feel free to point me in the direction of favourite sock patterns or shawls. I can use all the inspiration I can get.

Meanwhile, I have weeded out a bunch of stuff to send to new homes at this swishing party. I even managed to persuade myself to part with some of my sock yarn. It’s a small step in the right direction…

Sarah

Edited to Add:

After some teasing from Alex as to my gigantic swollen sock yarn stash, I bit the bullet and did the counting thing and am pleased to say it’s not _quite_ as out of control as I’d suspected. In case you’re curious, the sum total of my sock stash is 69 skeins, 70 including the skein I’m currently knitting from. That doesn’t include partial skein left over from other projects, but they don’t count as stash… (Oh dear.)

Shop Update November 7, 2010

Those of you who’ve been paying attention over the last 6 months might have noticed we were in a bit of a frenzy, getting ready for Knit Nation, IKnit Weekender and Fibre Flurry. We worked our wingtips to the bone, making pouches, bags, stitch markers and needle storage bits galore. It’s our first year, we had no idea whatsoever what to expect from 3 such different events, especially when two of them were brand spanking new ventures. So, we may have gone a little bit overboard in our preparations.

Which is all good because it means with our current ongoing updates for the shop, you have a whole heap of things to choose from!

I thought I’d just put in a quick plug for the update I’m currently in the middle of – the sock needle envelopes.

As far as I know we’re the only people who make them. They’re designed specifically to accomodate 15 cm DPNs, mainly because they seem to be the most common size that people use. That works out as 6 inches (and believe me, I am NEVER typing the phrase “15 cm converted to inches” into Google ever again. Good Lord, people!)

I do have some old aluminium needles I bought when I first started knitting again which are much longer, but I never use thembecause I find the sizing is awkward. Reading around on Rav, I keep hearing similar things from other knitters. Hence we went with 15 cm / 6 inches.

You can easily fit a full set of DPNs in each pocket, most of them will actually fit 2 or even 3 sets of needles in each separate pocket. So with one neat little envelope you can store all your sock needles.Or alternatively, you can do what our mate Gary does and use them to store pens. They’ll easily hold sharpies or biros.

Right, plug over. I’m going back to uploading these babies. I’ve got 20 odd listed already and I’ve still got more to go. And as ever with our items, if you like the idea but you’d like it in a different size or a different fabric, then drop us a line and we’ll see what we can do for you.

Sarah

How to knit a new heel on a hand-knitted sock August 30, 2010

I love knitting, particularly socks but I freely admit that I am not exactly an expert. I think, so far, I’ve probably knitted more socks than anything else – maybe a dozen pairs over the last few years.

I love the way they feel on your feet. They take a little getting used to if you normally wear shop bought cotton socks. They’re thicker and because of the way they’re constructed (ie knitted tubes) they can feel a little bumpy under your feet at first. But I find that after a few days of wear, they begin to smooth out and you get used to having that little bit of extra padding. And nothing is better in Winter then a pair of snuggly socks on your feet. I’ve not gotten a single blister from wearing my Winter boots and shoes since I started wearing handknitted socks.

The only problem is that they do wear out, especially if like me you wear them All. The. Time. I am also a complete heathen and tend to wear them on their own without shoes or slippers around the house which causes them to wear out even faster.

The first place most socks tend to wear out is the toe, just under your toes, the padded bit. It hits the ground constantly, causing friction and thus the wool/whatever wears faster than the rest of the sock. But toes are relatively easy to replace. You can darn them fairly easily. Or if you’re feeling particularly cunning, knit a new toe! Unpick the cast off end of the toe, unravel past the worn out place, put the live stitches back on the needles, knit a new toe. Ta-dah.

(No, I don’t have photos. Sorry. But trust me, it’s easy.)

The other place that ALL my socks wear out is the heel. Just underneath my heel to be precise.  Always the left sock first, always in the same place.

Is there any sadder sight for the sock knitter?

Knitting your own socks is an interesting exercise in learning about how you tend to walk. I obviously put most of my weight on my heels and walk with an emphasis on my left foot.

But, I digress.

If you are smarter than me, you’ve probably long since figured out what I’m going to show you, or given up doing heel flap socks in favour of something fancy like an afterthought heel. But for us poor schmoes still beavering away on heel flaps and gussets, here is how I managed to knit a new heel on my very favourite pair of socks, thus saving them from the bin and preserving them to warm my toes for another winter, at least.

Assemble your kit

First thing you need to do is grab yourself a copy of Mary Thomas’s Knitting Book. My copy says first published in 1938, so you have to make allowances for style and some of the little cartoons in it are definitely.. of their time, shall we say? But the text is invaluable for its history of knitting, particularly with reference to the British Isles. Plus she has a wealth of technical information to impart. Including how to knit a wide variety of sock heels, and how to re-heel a worn out flap and gusset heel.

Slightly frightening diagram

Second thing you will need is a small ball of wool, if possible leftovers from making your sock, if not, get something that will make a nice contrast. Remember, you are knitting a whole new heel, so you need enough to do about 40 – 50  rows of knitting, depending on the size of your heel flap.  My heel flap worked out at about 36 rows, before I turned the heel.

You will also need a crochet hook and a set of 4 double pointed needles. And a blunt tapestry needle for grafting and darning in the ends of your wool. I used a set of 2.5 mm needles because that’s what I used when I knit the sock in the first place. (If you want your sock heel to last longer, using a smaller set of needles is a good idea as it makes for a tighter fabric, apparently.)

Step One

In the book she talks about cutting away the heel stitches completely, but I was too cowardly to do that. So instead, I grabbed a crochet hook and my ball of mending yarn and began picking up stitches at the place where the sock leg ends and the heel flap begins.

I made a long tail of yarn, which I threaded through to the inside of my sock, leaving the main ball on the outside.

This is REALLY important because otherwise when you finish picking up your stitches, your ball of working yarn will be trapped inside your sock, rendering it totally useless.

Take your crochet hook and insert it into the first stitch in your heel flap.

Right side

Wrong side

Wrap the tail of yarn around to make a stich and pull the stitch back through, making a loop on the crochet hook.

Looping the wool round the hook

Nice neat loop, ready to become a stitch

Leave the loop on there, and move onto the next stitch in the heel flap. Repeat until you have a nice neat row of loops on your crochet hook.

These will become the stitches for your new heel flap. You want to try to match the number of stitches in your original heel flap, if possible. I ended up with 38 stitches which seemed to match up with the measurements of my original heel flap.

Now, transfer the stitches from your crochet hook to a DPN:

You now have live stitches but we’re not quite ready to get started. You could start knitting now but you’d end up with a flap that was only attached to your sock at one end, and you then have to stitch/graft it toyour sock on 3 sides.

Boring! Especially when there’s a sneaky and fairly easy way to knit so that your heel flap is joined to your sock at the sides.

If you look back at the diagram from MT’s book, you’ll notice that she has 3 needles in play, 2 holding gusset stitches.  Basically, you need to pick up stitches for the gussets. You can use the same method I used above with a long tail of yarn and a crochet hook. Or you can do as I did and find the existing gusset stitches and just slide your needle through them.

It’s not as pretty but it’s quick and gets the job done. When I was finished I had: 38 stitches on the first needle (the heel flap stitches) and 16 stitches on EACH of the gusset needles. Remember you have TWO gussets, one on each side of the heel flap.

You now should have all the stitches you need to start knitting.

Step Two

Now comes the easy bit. You’re going to re-knit the heel flap – the bit that comes down over your Achilles tendon – joining it to the sock at the sides as you go.

Look back at the pattern you used to knit your sock in the first place. In my case Froot Loops from Knitty. If it uses a fancy stitch for the heel, double check your numbers to make sure they fit any special requirements for that stitch.  E.g. my pattern calls for a repeat of 7 stitchs repeated 4 times (28 stitches) plus 1 slipped stitch at the start (29 stitches) plus 2 extra stitches on the end (31). I had 38 stitches on my needle, which works out beautifully, just adding in an extra repeat of the main pattern. Does that make sense?

Once you’re happy with your numbers, just start knitting the heel flap as per your pattern instructions, up until the last stitch.

When you get to the last stitch on your main needle, you’re going to knit (or purl) it together with the next gusset stitch.

I was purling through the back of the loop in this shot. I am SMRT.

You are basically going to be working back and forth across your main needle, combining in one stitch from the gusset at the end, each time.

This is about 6 rows in. See the way it joins at the side?

This has the effect of keeping the numbers of stitches on your main needle the same, while binding your heel flap to the sock.

See the nice new row of gusset stitches forming at the side?

Keep working back and forth like this until you have integrated ALL your gusset stitches on both sides. What you end up with at this point should look like this:

And the side stitches again

Step Three

Now, you’re going to turn the heel. Use the instructions from your pattern. That’s all you have to do, you have no gusset stitches left to combine, you just need to make the little roundy pocket for your heel. Do whatever it says in your pattern.

I used Sock Innovation to calculate my numbers for my short rows – Cookie A. includes a very handy chart in the introductory chapters which gives you the magic numbers you need.

I love this bit, it's one of my favourite parts of sock knitting!

Step Four

You’re now ready to bind your new heel to the sole of your sock. There are a number of methods you COULD use to do this. Kitchener’s stitch would work well, you could pick up stitches across the sole of the foot and do a three needle bind off.

Or you could do what I did and cast off your stitches and just sew the flap down.

Just weave back and forth to join them together.

Bish, bosh, done.

Weave in any loose ends and check the rest of your sock for holes or weak places. I’ve learned the hard way that once the wool starts to thin it won’t be long before it will just dissolve, leaving you sad and holey.

Once all your mending is done, put on your new old socks and dance around, feeling smug and thrifty! With your slippers on, obviously.

Note to self: must buy slippers

And there you have it.

I hope that was reasonably clear and at least a little bit useful. MT’s condenses all this into about two sentences and it took me ages to figure out the hows and wherefores of it all and I thought there may well be someone else out there facing the heart break of trying to figure out how to salvage the wreckage of a pair of beloved socks.

Do please let me know if it’s useful or not, or if there’s anything that is completely bamboozling. I’ve never written a knitting tutorial before and have found it a lot more difficult than the sewing ones.

Sarah

A general round up of the weekend’s crafty goodness. September 13, 2009

For starters, Friday was the iKnit Weekender.

We headed over to West London-  heady climes for us Southerners. (Hey, we live here, we’re allowed to claim it for our own. And anyway, you can’t get much further South than where we’re really from.) Wandered around for a while trying to find the Horticultural Halls and eventually succumbed and asked for directions, which we then passed on to the other equally confused looking ladies we saw in the streets, avidly clutching their bright yellow tickets.

Once inside we stroked all the pretties. And I have to say, the pretties were many. The range of stalls was amazing, loads of independant dyers, small sellers, notions people etc. Lovely to see so many creative people all in one place. BUt sad to say, we came away largely empty handed, apart from these little guys:

BUTTONS!

We spent about half an hour lurking around the stall of the lovely people from Textile Garden. They just had so many gorgeous buttons. In the end the teeny wee owls sold it for us. Well, for me. The scotty dogs and bee hives got Alex.

They are intended to find their way onto some new bits for the shop, so I guess they may find their way to one of you, one of these days. I thought they’d be perfect for bibs or for gloves or wrist cuffs. All manner of fine applications.

But that was it for us. No other purchases. We wandered about, said hi to some people we knew, pawed a few cute bits and bobs (like the sheepy banks at the Herdy stall. Baa.) and then left. Unfettered by giant bags of yarn.

It felt odd leaving with out yarn. I don’t think I’ve ever left a knitting show without at least one random mildly insane purchase. But there was just nothing there that I had to have. Plus, what I didn’t spend on yarn, I can now spend on fabric.

I don’t think it’s that our love of all things yarny is waning. The socks, mittens, jumper and cardigan that I’m working on at the moment all attest to that, as does Alex’s giant sock yarn blanket of doom. It’s just, we’ve learned restraint. And I think that’s a good thing.

Now, as to crafting, I have had a little mini-hiatus over the weekend as I have had relatives visiting. But Alex informs me she has been busily chopping up various pieces of fabric, ready for me to quilt together as baby blankets. She kidnapped my bib template on Friday and a whole sackload of cute material, so there’ll be bibs galore at some point.I love making bibs. The moment when you turn them inside out and iron them is just super satisfying.

The only crafting I did over the weekend was a few rows on my extremely lurid pink and green socks. I’ve been working on them for a while, but with all the sewing I’ve been doing I just haven’t had time to knit. I completed the first sock the other day and am just rounding the third pattern repeat on the second. It was nice to have a little knitting time last night, instead of feeling like I need to be busting my needles and pins out and tacking things together. I don’t want crafting to feel like a chore. That kind of defeats the object.

Speaking of objects, this evening I’ve been stitching together a few of these:

I really enjoy making them. You cut tear drops of coordinating material and stitch them together to make  a pinwheel flower shape.

They have quite a few applications. You can stitch them onto things like pillow cases, bags, tshirts and so forth. Or you can make them into potholders – use plenty of wadding if you’re going to do that and DO NOT use acrylic, it will melt because – and I can’t stress this enough – it is PLASTIC and therefore not heat resistant.

I will probably turn them into toys of some kind. Either balls or maybe some more mobiles. I made a cute one a while back, with a Japanese doll (sarubobo) parachuting from it.

Whatever I do with them, it’s fun just tinkering about with them, playing with colours, size, number of patches. Not thinking too hard about the purpose, just enjoying the making.