The Monkeys have Landed!

The Monkey socks I mailed to my sock pal have arrived. And they fit! See?

Which reminds me that I need to take better pictures of my socks (and figure out exactly who sent me my socks... her name was on the package, but I can't tell which Gina she is on the sockapalooza list).

ISO Socks

I've liked the look of this tuck stitch (from Vogue Knitting) for years. I used it to make my sister a pair of worsted weight socks years ago, and they went on forever... the purl side is the right side, and for socks, that meant I had to purl the entire pair. Good thing it was worsted weight, huh?


Mom's Feet

Anyway, I thought about it on and off and finally (just this December...) realized I could make them inside out (knitting!), then turn them at the end. I made a pair and gave them to my mom for Christmas. Those are her feet up there, and my toes below. The tuck stitch pattern is worked over 4 stitches, so it's easy to memorize, and that the circumference is easy to adjust: just work the toe increases a few times more or less, keeping a multiple of four.


My Feet


Details
Pattern: three-page PDF (after you purchase the pattern, you'll receive an email with a link to download it)
Cost: $4.00
Yarn required: 350 yarns of light fingering weight
Gauge: 9 sts/in
Needles: I used size 1s
Sample: Anne, from Schaefer Yarn. I used about 2/3 of the skein, with enough left over to make a pair of footlets.

Pattern: See the sidebar for details.

Convertible Yarn Info

Every month I get a couple of emails from people who are thinking about knitting Convertible asking about the yarn (Bambu, from Blue Moon Fiber Arts). I've been answering them all individually (rewriting the same information each time), because the first few times I didn't realize I might ever want that information again, and then I was lazy. But someone's asked again, so I'm writing it up here (the time I save will allow me to knit more, right?)


Convertible Close Up

So, here's the story. My impression is that BMFA was going to release Bambu widely, but then Socks That Rock took off and Bambu was set aside (or maybe it wasn't, and I'm visiting the wrong yarn stores?). Anyway--it's not as widely available as it might be, and it's not that well known. Not unexpectedly, it's 100% bamboo, with many loosely twisted plies (10 or 12, as I recall). Knit up, it's silky soft and very drapey--the fabric feels almost liquid, and I always want to say it feels heavy but I don't think it actually is, just very drapey.

I've never wet-blocked my Convertible, although I was sure I'd need to. It looked like an egg carton while I was knitting it, but I steam blocked it and it flattened right out (I don't think I even had to pin it--I just steamed and patted). And it's stayed flat. It reminds me of silk in that way--it has memory, because it's stayed blocked, but no elasticity. Maybe?

The ball band said the yarn would knit up at 8 or 9 sts/inch, but that would have been very dense--it looks more like a light worsted weight to me. If you subbed in a sock yarn for the Bambu but knit at the listed gauge, I think the solid areas would be a lot more open, unless it was very fuzzy sock yarn.

The size Convertible I knit (16X56 inches, although it's gotten longer and narrower because as it turns out I mostly wear it as a decorative scarf) too almost all 800 yards in the 2 skeins. The leftover wasn't enough for another repeat and edging--I knit another repeat and had to rib back when I ran out of yarn. A complete skein made a center-pull ball about the size of a large orange, but the leftover bit is noticeably smaller than a golf ball. Maybe two grapes? Anyway--I weighed it, and mathed, and it used a little more than 700 yards (of 800 in the two skeins).

And I think that's everything people have asked. If you've found this because you do have a question and I missed it, ask away! And I'd love to see your finsihed Convertible!

Finished!

I finished knitting the second shawl collared cardigan for Schaefer Yarn last night, and here it is.


Shawl Collared Cardi Pocket

It's too big for me to model successfully, but here's a close up of the pocket, and the great colors. (The picture isn't actually upside down--it just looks that way because of the watch.) And then I woke up in the middle of the night and decided I should finish adding the pocket to the directions (isn't that what you do in the middle of the night?), so I was able to mail it this morning. It used exactly 3 skeins of Esperanza, in the colorway called Indira Gandhi.

And this one is the first sample of the cardigan (which I knit while I was designing it). This one is Esperanza too, but the color is Julia Child. Not that it shows in this picture (which I took with my computer while I was on the phone--multi-tasking is another component of my plan to take terrible pictures), but this one is about inches shorter than the other. I think the plan is to submit them somewhere, but I'm not sure where or for what issue.


Shawl Collared Cardi

Since I had to put my photos into Flickr to add them to Ravelry, I'm going to try using Flickr to put photos into my blog too. If nothing else, it will an easier method of uploading photos I haven't blogged about yet (I'd been adding pictures to a draft post that was essentially a series of pictures, then transferring the code to the real post once it was written). I wasn't thrilled with the way the text wrapped around some of the pictures lately, so I'm going to try pictures all on their own line. The first photos seems kind of tall, huh? Hmmm.

Anyway--with the sample finished, I'm going to work mostly on MS3 and my Tour de France scarf over the weekend, then get started on designing some stuffed animals for Schaefer on Monday (continuing to work on the lace as a break... some break!). Stuffed animals should make for better pictures!

Ravelry!

I signed up for Ravelry in the middle of a huge wave of sign ups, so I felt like it would take forever for the computer to get to my name. But it finally got to me, and I've set up an account and started adding things. (I'm archiknist.) Since I started blogging so recently, I don't have pictures of many of my finished projects (some of which I've long since given away or frogged and reknit), but I do have two thick three-ring binders of information about everything I've ever knitted. It's organized by yarn, with a snippet of yarn, the label, notes about how much yarn I used, what pattern, what needle size, when I started and finished it, and what happened to it... why yes, I did chose a profession where organizing information is very important. Why do you ask?

Anyway--I'll be adding things as I take pictures of them. And maybe it will encourage me to write up more patterns to try to sell, or at least to post here. (Which I will list in my lovely third column over there ------>).

I also entered my stash into Ravelry, which I hadn't planned to do because I already have it in an excel spread sheet on my computer (see: choose career involving organization of information, above). But I started just because I could, and then it seemed like I should finish. Yes, that's all there is, with the caveat that I haven't entered my handspun because it might or might not ever be knitted.

And speaking of stash, several of us had a yarn swap a couple of nights ago. I landed 12 skeins of Elann's Peruvian Baby Silk and Baby Cashmere from Emily. They seem destined to be holiday scarves. Pretend you didn't read that if you think I might be giving you a present in December, okay?

Picot Photos

The new camera has a feature that allows you to take multiple photos in quick succession. I think they mean it for sports and kids, but we've been using it to take action shots of knitting. Here are a couple from lunch--the grey cardigan with the picot edges.

With this done and the picot socks finished, I think I may have just about survived the the picot attack without permanent damage, although I did transmit the disease to another (blogless, I think) SnBer, who's made a picot hem on her current sweater. World domination through picots, one sweater at a time.

But back to the sweater. I'm really happy with it--a good combination of comfortable and interesting (to wear, at least). I'm still thinking about a closure of some kind--you should have seen my annoyed expression in the photos that caught me during a gust of wind! On the other hand, those photos do show how neatly the folded-over picot border hides ends, so maybe they're not all bad!

Ariel

Hey, here's the picture I didn't upload yesterday. To review, it's Ariel from the Natural Dye Studio.

I started clue 4 of the mystery stole last night. I'm not sure why it feel like I'm behind on this--we have an extra week for this clue, and in any case it's not meant to be a race--but it does, and I'm relieve to have started. I'm also making good progress on the sample cardigan for Schaefer Yarns, which has so far escaped photography. It's at least a size too big for me, and without the collar the neck doesn't hold it's shape very well, so I don't think photography would do it justice. But I think the first one (which was the right size) turned out well, so I think this one will be fine too. I'm especially happy with the collar, because most of the shawl collars I've made before were kind of skimpy, as though they didn't have enough extra fabric to stay folded over. This one has short rows all across the back of the neck though, so there's plenty of extra.

And guess what? You know how one of the tires on my bike kept going flat on the long ride Kevin and I did a week ago? When he got home and unloaded the bikes (as I woke up just enough to ask if he needed help and go back to sleep), he discovered that the front tire was completely flat too. Who knows when that happened. We'd checked it initially, but during the ride had barely noticed it because the back tire was going flat so dramatically. But I've heard biking is easier if your tires are properly inflated!