Pre-Halloween Projects

An Overview of October Chaos

A little bit of this and that is one way to talk about the second half of September and the first five days of October but "scattered" is a more accurate description. I have several projects in the works right now and folks are volunteering new ideas daily. My biggest problem is how to tell this one or that one, "No, I can't devote a week to knitting you a pair socks for free. Sorry." I do need to figure out how to do that though, without offending. The only thing I can think of would be to start up a knitting class and make people pay me to teach them how to do what they'd like me to do -- I just don't have the time or the credentials. I swear. If you want to breathe these days you better have a certificate from an accredited junior college proving that you've been instructed on how to pull a breath in and blow a breath out.

On the Needle-Felting Front

I've finally decided what to do with a hat I knit and felted a couple of years ago. I used some of my bulky black hand spun and added a novelty yarn of sparse white fringes and gold flecks to the brim but wasn't happy with the result . I've pulled the hat out of the mothballs and I'm in the process of making a snowman bas-relief above the fake-fur snow. I'll post a picture when the tableau is complete and the hat is named.

Below the hat is a sock-monkey Halloween mask set. I'll have the pattern for this below, in case you have a little sock monkey in the house or are interested in dressing up a friend as something that should adorn a lady's bed.



Fairies and Angels

When I mentioned to a friend of mine that I was playing around with needle-felting brooches, she mentioned that while the market for vampire bat brooches is understandably small, there are always people willing to plop down 5 or 10 bucks for an Angel or a Fairy. And what luck ... they're basically made the same way with the exception that the latter is usually more colorful than the former. Using some silk I picked up at the Wisconsin Sheep and Wool Festival and some alpaca roving I bought on eBay I spun a single of each to make a two-ply. I happen to have the Hazel Rose Tiny Weaver triangle and square looms and from her Nativity Tutorial it occurred to me that I had just the right tools. I'm not sure if I'll be using the triangles and a pompom for the body, or needle felting something to attach to the wings when I've spritzed them with enough fabric stiffener. I may also try to make some wings solely from the silk singles.

The hand-dyed silk hankies were from Kindred Threads. I had a lot of fun learning how to spin the pink and gold silk on the high-whorl bobbin I bought from Nels Wiberg, inventor of my favorite spinning wheel - The Babe. Yes, he was at the WS&WF too.

Suri Alpacas

I finally had a chance to visit PaceSetters, a local Alpaca Ranch, and then go back to buy some of their rovings and raw fiber. In the past I've always purchased low quality fiber on eBay. The alpaca that I'm using on the Fairy/Angels was one such buy -- scratchy and full of VM -- Not something you'd really want to put next to your body. Dennis & Christy Pace, on the other hand, have incredibly superior Suri Alpacas on their ranch and there is something other-worldly and regal about those camelids.

I have a couple of ounces each from the Alpaca named Privateer and also from Loca Mocha. I purchased their fiber raw and there is so little VM in them that they will be a delight to spin. In addition I picked up 4 oz each of processed roving in white and black. It is so soft it's like touching a baby's hair. The black and white are destined to become a modular black and white scarf. Though the roving is made up in pencil roving width, I'm hoping to be able to spin it woolen. We'll see. All of the Llama Locks will not end up in yarn either. Part of that will be adorning felted Brownies.

Prodigal Socks for the Face

The whole sock-monkey mask and face sock explosion you see to the left, is a direct result of my year long battle with the short-row heel. Since I hand spin I'm never quite sure exactly how much yarn I have. I regularly spin a yarn till I get bored with it and then cast it aside to start spinning something new. That means I have vague idea of how long I can make my socks and that idea is usually treacherously incorrect.

Knitting both socks at once, from both ends of the ball, toe up, is the logical way to deal with any skein of yarn I spin. Knitting in this fashion, I stop knitting the cuffs when I run out of yarn or they are as tall as I want them to be or I get tired of knitting them.

My major problem was the heel. I was having a lot of trouble finding a backwards Dutch Heel, or more precisely, a formula for figuring and completing a backwards Dutch Heel. Instead I kept running into blogs singing the praises of the short-row heel.

I Googled short-row, sock heels, toe up heels, etc. ad nauseum and read and read and read and tried and tried and tried and still could not knit a short-row heel without holes. I finally gave up and found a pattern for a toe-up gusset heel that I really like, and have been using for my personal socks.

And that would have been the end of that if it hadn't been for a Harriet Carter catalogue and my love of walking in the winter. The biggest problem I have with winter walking is lung freeze when it gets really cold. You can layer your body against sub-zero temps, but the whole scarf rigmarole to protect your lungs from the nose-hair freezing air is always faulty. And the need to have several scarves available because of pesky frozen snot was also a major impediment for me. I balked at allotting that much time to making that many acrylic (machine washable) scarves.

One day, paging through ta catalogue I saw a face mask touted as the perfect thing for winter outdoor exercise. I realized it was nothing more than a short-row heel translated into a polar fleece sewing project for slave labor manufacture in the far-east to be sold to us to sabotage our economy.

The face sock was born.

I can knock-out a face sock in a couple of hours from left-over machine-washable yarn. Since it attaches to the face via a couple of crocheted ear-loops, there are no infuriating attempts to adjust and re-adjust a scarf while wearing two pairs of mittens. The face-sock does its job. Once home, into the clothes hamper it goes.

The sock monkey mask pattern below is for a Child Size Stocking Cap and an Adult size Face Sock. I'd double the number of stitches for an (adult size cap) and halve the number of stitches and short rows on the Face Sock for a (child size). The numbers in parenthesis are approximations. I leave it up to you to stop and check the size of your piece as you go, and make necessary adjustments.

You will need one skein each of Lion Brand Jiffy yarn (or any 5/Bulky machine washable yarn) in White, Brown and Red. One size 11 circular needle suitable for magic loop (or double-pointed needles size 10.5 to 11) for the hat. I used 10.5 straight knitting needles for the Face Sock. A darning needle for finishing.

Sock Monkey Hat - Child

Approximate Adult size in ()

Using size 10 magic loop circular knitting needle and with brown cast on 48 (96) stitches -- or any multiple of 4 stitches you prefer.
Join.
Knit 2 Purl 2 for 2 (3 or 4) inches.
Change to stockinette stitch and knit for 1 inch.
Change to White yarn and continue knitting in stockinette 2 (4) more inches.

Place stitch markers every 8 stitches on next round for child size. (Divide number of stitches by 6 and place markers appropriately for adult sizes. If you have 'extra' stitches, as in [9,9,9,9,9,12], parse the extras out as evenly as possible between the markers [10,9,10,9,10,9] and eliminate the extras via K2Tog in the first row after the marking row.

K2Tog before each marker, each round, until you are left with 6 live stitches. Leaving a long tail, break yarn, thread darning needle. Dropping the stitch markers as you go, run the yarn tail through live stitches twice to bind off. Cinch up the 6 stitches and sew the yarn through the cinch a couple of times to secure.

Make one large pompom from Red yarn and sew to pinnacle of the cap.

Sock Monkey Face Sock - Adult

On 10-1/2 single point knitting needles cast on 30 (15) stitches in brown.
Row:
1. K1P1 to end.
2. K1P1 to end.
3. K to end
4. Change to White and Purl to end
5. Knit up to the last stitch (knit 29). Yarn to front, slip 30th stitch, yarn to back, turn work, slip first purl stitch. This completes the first wrap.
6. Purl across to the last stitch and wrap it (yarn to back, slip, yarn to front, turn work, slip wrapped stitch). *Please check online tutorials regarding short row heels if this is confusing.*

Continue working short-row heel in white for 7 WRAPS EACH SIDE.

Begin picking up wraps, the first left and right wrap in white.

Join Red and work the 6th through the 2nd wrap portion of the heel in the red color. Break red and rejoin white and work the final two wraps in white.

Break and join brown.
Knit one row
Purl one row
Work two rows of k1p1.
Bind off. Weave in ends.

If you try on the face sock now, you will see that the heel turn fits over your jaw, with one side of the heel covering your throat and the other covering you face up to and over your nose. The raw sides of the heel go up and over your jaw joint and should nearly touch the lobes of your ears.

With size 10/G crochet hook and brown, single crochet 9 stitches around the raw right 'ear' side, chain 9, slip stitch back into first single crochet to make an ear loop. Repeat with the left 'ear' side. Weave in ends.


Approximate Child Size

I'd cast on 15, and follow the 2 row ribbing and 1 row stockinette in brown, one row stockinette in white described above. I'd then only do 3 rows of short-row in white. At the turn, I'd change to red immediately and work all short-row increases in red. Change to white for 2 rows stockinette, then brown for one row of stockinette before the top 2 rows of ribbing would finish the mask.

The ear loops might be problematic for a small child, in which case chain stitching Surgeon's mask ties to bow tie at the back of the head under the cap might be the answer.

That's it for today! If you have questions or suggestions, post or email!