If You Can Knit a Hat

You can knit these

Concept:

I chapped my shins last week while waiting for the bus in subzero weather.  I decided I needed legwarmers and googled around for a simple and free pattern.  Let me just say this.  There's altogether too much cabling and eyelets and other filigree lace patterns going on out there.  I understand there are people who are willing to lose a leg for fashion, but that's not me.

That said, there are some really fine fair isle leg warmers out there that have the same advantage as Norwegian Knitting in that there are two strands of yarn at a time that trade places front and back to create a pattern.  And yes, I have mittens knitted that way that prove it's excellent winter wear.  But I'll be wearing these over leggings and I want them now.

Couldn't find a pattern I liked for free, so I just started knitting.

I rooted around in my stash and found a couple of skeins of Lion Brand Wool Yarn in the Brown Heather color.  I had picked it up for a scarf, but once I got it home I realized it was much too rough for next to the skin.  It's not too rough to put over leggings though.

Gauge:

I cast on about 30 stitches and knit stockinette, on size 8 needles for about 3-1/2 to 4 inches.  

Gauge for me was 4 stitches per inch, 5 rows per inch.  Now I did take gauge from a flat piece and I am knitting these in the round, so that's a no-no, but it works for me.  I'm using a 40" skacel addi Turbo magic-loop needle so I could be knitting both legwarmers at once, but I decided one disaster at a time was a better idea.

Measure:

Decide how high up your leg you want the top of the legwarmer to sit and get circumference.  I chose just above my knee, and since it's a chubby thigh, I got 17" so I added ease of 1/4 inch.  I want the leggings to stay up, but not cut off the blood flow.  That means positive ease.  

Thigh above knee = 17.25" x 4 = 69

I'd already decided that I wanted to use a knit-on cast on and a rib pattern that would also be easy to decrease slowly.  Knit 2, Perl 2 seemed like a good idea.  It's a little more elastic than K1P1, and not as floppy as k3p3.  So, the basic ribbing number is 4 stitches, k2p2. While 68 is divisible by 4, it makes the band tighter.  So I changed it to 72 st or 18 groups of 4.

Widest part of calf = 15" x 4 = 60 stitches.  That's good right there, but I'm also going to need to decrease a bit more from the thigh size to the calf size in order to make the legwarmer able to hold itself up with more than just the thigh ribbing.   That means some negative ease. I hate perling so that's where the decrease is going to happen. And I'll decrease incrementally once the knee ribbing is done.  

72*.75=54, 3X18=54 ... so we have a 6 stitch negative ease.

To decrease slowly, I decided to perl 2 together one time per round. That means, the first trough of P2 will be P2tog, and I will knit the rest of the row K2P2.  Next row is K2P1, K2P2tog, K2P2 ... and so on. 

I used two plastic safety pins to mark my place.  The first was a general pin to mark the side I was decreasing on and the second to mark the latest P2tog.  The decreases then spiraled down from the knee to the calf.

From then on it's K2P1 down to the ankle or at least a couple of inches below the boot top.

In knitspeak that would be..

• Get gauge.
• Measure thigh above knee cap.
• Cast On  (Thigh Circumference x Gauge) + enough stitches to be divisible by 4.  K2P2 for 2.25" (or the space from your starting point to the top of your kneecap).
• Begin decrease:

1. K2 P2tog, K2P2 around.
2. K2P1, K2P2tog, K2P2 around.
3. K2P1, K2P1, K2P2tog, K2P2 around

• Continue row 3, perling 2 together, one at a time, until all but the last three K2P2 groups are worked.
• Try it on.  

1. If the legging is a bit loose continue the decrease rounds.
2. If the legging is already just fine, mark off the k2p2 group with stitch markers, and wait to work those decreases until after the curve of the calf.
3. If the legging is too tight, frog up another couple of rows and mark off the ribbing groups that you will hold at k2p2 until you've past the widest part of your calf.

• Continue K2P1 until the legwarmer is the length you want.  Bind off using E.Zimmerman's sewn bindoff to make that ribbing flexible.

I'm hoping to get both done before I have stand in the snow, shivering, waiting for that bus.  Will post the picture of legwarmers in action when that happens.

Fleegle Heels

A Better Sock Heel

It's not often that I find a new way to do an old thing that actually is as wonderful as it claims.  The Fleegle Heel is one of those things.

http://fleeglesblog.blogspot.com/2006/11/leegles-toe-up-no-flap-no-hassle-sock.html

Some of the links are no longer active, BUT, you can easily google those techniques on YouTube.  And frankly I am happy to finally run across this because I love house socks.

After learning how to knit continental style, I started having trouble with my left thumb when purling. I solved that problem by learning how to "knit backwards".  It's amazing at how much this speeds up Fleegle. And here's a fun video on that from KNITFreedom.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0h72xZoGp6o

When you live where it snows and when you can't sleep when your feet are cold, these do the trick.  They are also handy if you need something between you and the tiles first thing in the morning.

Next Hank Begun

Much Thinner

The Montadale Wool in the "Girl Power" colorway is spinning up thinner than I expected. It's running between carpet sewing thread and size 8 crochet thread in size. That means that I should be able to chain ply it to preserve the color changes and still end up with a fingering or sport weight, felting resistant 3 ply yarn. 

I'm a little disappointed with the hand. It's a bit harsh, but nothing a little hair conditioner won't fix.  Unfortunately it also has second cuts.

Second cuts happen when the sheep is sheared.  When the short fibers left by the first pass of the shearer's clippers are cut along with the next pass of full length wool, you get neps.  Like the short hairs that fall down the collar of your shirt when the barber clips your hairline, neps can be annoying.  

I don't mind the little grape-seed sized bumps in the yarn that 2nd cuts add.  I won't be weaving with it, so the neps won't catch and fray in a heddle.  They'll provide texture.  I hope.
 
There is the possibility that this yarn would make a nice beret if it turns out to be too course for next to the skin.  And if it's too course for a beret, well then there's a locker hooked pillbox hat I have in mind. We'll see.

Skeined & Ready

One theory on decay

It's a funny thing about crafting.  Often the raw fleece is absolutely beautiful.  After it's washed and dyed and rinsed again it loses some of the sheen or the suppleness it had.  Then, no matter how carefully I card and spin it, more of the beauty is somehow lost.  The color changes I thought would be fabulous have turned tedious.

But sometimes it takes a turn during the plying stage, like this Purple Haze color way did.

Tomorrow I squoosh some water laced with eucalan wool wash through the yarn and hang it to dry to fluff it up and set the twist.

For now, I start carding the "Girl Power" colorway.

Update on the Spinning

Plying the Purples

About 2-1/2 Babe Fiber Garden bobbins later and I'm plying the wool.  This plying bobbin is not quite through the first filled-to-the-brim hand-spun bobbin.  I still have a good bit left of the first alpaca ball.  When I'm done plying, I'll skein the yarn and wash it.  Once it's dry, I'll niddynoddy measure and report.

It's fingering/lace weight now, but it could move up to baby/sport once set.

Spinning Last Weekend's Goodies...

I'm very happy with the Rambouillet combed top that I bought at the WS&WF at the Green Pastures booth.   It's 4 oz. of wool in the colorway 'Purple Haze' (periwinkle & eggplant variegated). 

It looks like I'll get two bobbins plus a bit, of lace weight singles from that hank. When I've finished the rest of the rolags, I'll be plying it with a commercial periwinkle lace weight from Alpaca Warehouse.  I bought a several 50 gram skeins from AW during a sale but haven't been able to find a project for it until now.  The yarn is a blend of wool, acrylic and alpaca in a periwinkle color that is so close to the lighter color of the roving it's spooky. 

I carded the roving into rolags because, as often happens with acid dyes, the over-dyed eggplant color became a little spongy and uncooperative when it came to spinning.  I wanted a woolen yarn and tried spinning form the fold, but it wasn't cooperating.  Instead, I'm working long-draw on the lighter yarn and devolving to inch-worm when I get to spongy bits.  

The finished yarn should make a nice scarf with big dramatic blocks of periwinkle separated by smaller marled yarn stripes of eggplant/periwinkle.

Perless Scarf

I knit 'continental' style, which means that perling can be painful.  Pain can teach you to hate things very quickly.  Finding E. Zimmerman's patterns for sweaters and other items that are either worked in the round or don't require perling brought me back to knitting.

But there are times when knitting a scarf in garter stitch can get awfully boring.  Even garter stitch can curl or stretch without a border of some sort, and the seed or moss stitch borders that I considered would still cause enough pain to force me to put the work down after a few rows, and forget to pick it up again.

This weekend I remembered the Idiot Washcloth.  It's a simple pattern to teach children how to knit, increase, and decrease while also making a useful thing.  It's called an Idiot Washcloth because it's extremely difficult to screw it up (though I always do, at least once).  It's a yarn-over increase at the beginning of the row then knit to the end and turn.  You continue that until the piece is as large as you want then you k2Tog, YO, K2Tog decrease at the beginning of the row and knit to the end until you're down to 4 stitches and can cast off.

This makes lovely squares to swab the dishes.  Altering it to make a large rectangle (scarf shape) is just a matter of working an increase on one side and a decrease on the other until the scarf is the length you want and then decreasing both sides.

I've marked the decrease side with a plastic safety pink to make it even more foolproof.  The yarn I'm using is the "Sea" colorway of Deborah Norville Collection Serenity Garden Yarn, a 2/fine yarn made of Dralon Microfiber, and not 'itchy' at all.  So yes, it's a great way to make a scarf with variegated yarn that has a tendency to pool and splot when knit stockinette.  I have 2-3/4 skeins of this colorway and think it may only need 2 skeins.  I'm not doing a Dr. Who here... just watching it while I knit.

Pattern for the I-Scarf is:


1.  Cast on 4 stitches
2.  Slip one, Knit 3 and turn
3.  Slip one, knit 1, yarn over, knit to end
       
Repeat Row 3, the increase row, until the scarf is as wide as you like (6" to 14" is good).

Place a marker on one side near the edge as shown above, to indicate a decrease stitch is needed.

4.  Slip one, knit 2 together, yarn over, knit 2 together, knit to end.

Repeat rows 3 and 4 until the scarf is as long as you wish.  Remove marker and work row 4 until there are 4 stitches left.  Cast off and weave in ends.

Tatting Follow Up

Here's a closer view of the edge tatting.  The double stitch is just a couple of half-hitches that are mirror image.



The picots are formed by leaving a length of thread between double stitches.  Then when the chain is cinched up and knotted you have a frilly arch of thread.



And here's a fuzzy view of the bead tests I did, where the bead covers the bit of thread that would be the picot.

In addition to frilliness, picots create loops for attaching a second level of tatting to the piece.    

A plain, bleached linen handkerchief with a few levels of black tatting was a required accessory at most Victorian funerals.  To me a cloth hanky is a much nicer, and more comforting thing to slip into a mourning friend's hand than a box of paper tissues.

If you'd like to see some lovely, well crafted versions, Google will provide images -- mourning handkerchief .

A gentleman's handkerchief should have a plain black piece of cloth, a plain ribbon attached to the outside edge of a white piece of cloth, or a conservative crochet stitch, like crab stitch, worked on the outside edges.

Tatted Hanky Edges

I bought a handful of chopsticks, wrapped in 'napkins' with little elastic napkin rings holding them together at a dollar store a year ago.  They were cheap and I was in a hurry so I really didn't look at them I just grabbed and paid.   Once I got them home, I was afraid to use them because the paint on them was chipping and I really didn't want any of it to drop into my food.

The cloth napkin the chopsticks were wrapped in on the other hand, had possibilities.  Too thin and too small for a napkin, but just the right size and weight for hankies.  They're turning out to be a great way to practice simple edgings.

I strung the 10/0 beads Sz. 20 tatting thread using a GUM Eez-Thru Floss Threader (dental floss), then moved the beads down to the 'ball' side.  When I got to a place where I'd normally put a picot, I slid a bead up tight to the needle and made a Double Stitch to hold the bead in place.


Each of the little arches is made up of Double stitches  (ds) and Picots (p).

Simple pattern:

3ds, P ds,  P ds,  P,  3ds.  Tie a knot and using tatting needle, pierce the hem and tie another knot.  Repeat.

I also used 10/0 seed beads in place of the full loop picots on some of the arches.  The beads made a much neater and sparklier chain.

The 10/0s will be better on earrings and such.  Well see how they stand up to a laundromat washing machine.

Practice Makes Passable

I found the pattern for these little 3-D snowflakes on the Lace-lovin' Librarian's blog and have spent the last couple of tatting months spitting and cussing and throwing little knotted disappointments into the trash.  I finally seem to have figured it out, though they aren't of the quality or craftsmanship of many tatters on the web.

I did learn something important though.  Whenever I approach a pattern, even when a pattern is well written with instructive images, I need to make a demo piece with a large tatting needle (or a locker hook) and yarn.  And I need to do that first.   I wasted two months creating tiny delicate little knots from hell while trying to find the best way to approach the second layer of rings.  Right now, I don't have the dexterity to make something on size 20 thread with a size 7 needle.

A size 5 needle?  Well that's a snowflake of a different color.

From the Seed

After watching a couple of YouTube videos I bought an ounce of Pima S7 cotton from Vreseis LTD in California.  It arrived in the mail today. Decided to see if I could spin from the seed and yes I can. In the picture --

lower left: cotton fiber stretched lightly out, away from the seed.
upper left: more cotton w/bugs (it's organic cotton) waiting to be teased.
upper right: three cotton seeds on a piece of white paper.
center: a small Destiny turkish spindle made by Scott Snyder. The weights on the outside of the 4 arms make a very fast spin.

As soon as I finish what's left of a merino/silk mix on the Babe spinning wheel, I'll try spinning cotton from the seed there as well.  The turkish spindle will be great for travel, but I think I'd rather try punis with it and spin from seed on the wheel.

House Sock Pattern

This is a magic loop house sock/bed sock pattern.  First a sketch with the idea of the general size of the sock and some important numbers.

In working my way to a quick sock that fits, I still cast on 8 stitches in classic Turkish Cast-On.

 


As I mentioned in previous blog posts, I misunderstood what the Turkish Cast-On should look like and so had to refresh myself from various tutorals online. 

 It's really basic.  I just wrap the yarn around both needles as many times as I need stitches on one needle.  I need 8 stitches on each needle and so wrap 8 times. 

I then knit around once to secure the cast-on.

There are no increases on this first round.  The diagonal stitches in the center are the original wraps.  I keep the tail to show me, when the tail is to the left, that I am at the beginning of a round..

The next three rounds are increase rows. 

I like to knit the first stitch, then knit in the front and back of the next stitch to increase one.  I then knit to the next to the last stitch and increase there as well.  Repeat on the backside.

Once I've finished the first 3 increase rounds, I work a plain knit round.  Then I alternate increase rounds with plain knit rounds until I have a total of 20 stitches on each needle. 

Time to turn on the TV and just start knitting.  For the first few socks I would slip the sock on from time to time to check the length.  I like to knit up to the pad of my heel.  That is the point where my heel actually touches ground.  At first I measured with a tape measure and decided 6-1/4 inches was good.  And it was in theory,  but in practice it was loose.  Deciding to take advantage of the elastic quality of knitting I reduced that to 6".  When I hit 6 inches, I decide which side of the sock will be the sole of the foot and ...

... thread in a lifeline.  While I have used #10 crochet cotton as a lifeline, a thin fingering or sport weight yarn works better.  This is where the thinner cord of the circular needle is handy.  Slide the sport weight in along the cord through the sole stitches.  Begin knitting again.

When I'm back to the sole stitches I stop and look around in my little balls of left-overs and find a color that will stand out as waste yarn.  Waste is a bit that I use once and throw away.  I'm using it to hold a place in my knitting while I finish the body of the sock.   I pick up that waste yarn and knit across the sole.  

Then instead of continuing around, I slip those waste stitches back onto my left knitting needle, pick up my main yarn and knit across again.

Finally, I run a second life-line through the new main color yarn row.

I knit in rounds for another 2 to 4 inches and add some ribbing then cast-off using a loose stitch.  A straight needle at least 2 sizes larger than the one I'm working with is good for a cast-off then I weave in loose ends.

I use a smaller circular needle to pick up the lifeline stitches, but you could just as easily use a couple of size 1 or 2 straight knitting needles for this. 

If you look at the lifelines closely, you'll see that the yarn goes over one leg of each stitch, and under the second. I slide my thinner needle along the same path the yarn takes, over one leg and under the next. 

I learned the hard way to be particularly careful on the ends.  Those last couple of stitches on both sides have a tendency to sink to the back.  I use the tails of my life-lines to pull those stitches up. 

I count to make sure I have 20 stitches on each of the needles before cutting and pulling out the lifeline yarn.  The waste yarn goes now too.

I chose yellow for the heel, knitting the stitches off the needles and picking up two on each side to help avoid holes.  I usually end up duplicate stitching in the ankle area to close those holes anyway, but I keep hoping one day I'll have seamless hole-less socks.

For the Heel Stitch I add a single stitch to both needles so that I have 21 and 21 stitches.  If I'm not knitting a patterned heel that requires a specific number I leave it at 20 on each needle.  After knitting up the first row and putting away the skinny needles I knit another couple of rounds.

Now for the heel:

Reduce row:  K1, K2tog, K to last 3 st., SSK, K1.  Repeat for back side.
Heal Stitch row:  K1, S1 across, end K1.  Repeat for back side.

I continue the two rows until I get down to about 9 stitches on both sides.  I end on a reduce row and Kitchener stitch closed.

I'm on a binge, but if you like the simplicity of this pattern, repeat until you've finished a pair of socks or until there's no more room in the sock drawer.

House Socks - Take Two

I spent about five hours last night trying variations on the Japanese Short-Row, No Wrap Short-Row, Wrapped Short-Row, and 'Heel Stitch' turned heel.


What I've discovered is this: 

• I don't like any of those heels.
• Red Heart Super Saver Yarn is hard wearing, but it's also hard on my hands and not suitable for my socks.
• No sock needs to be part of a pair, because it only takes one.
• I know how to make a toe, so I can knit Elizabeth Zimmerman's after-thought heel using the fore-thought option.

Back in November, I bought a Caron Cake with the thought that I'd make some brightly colored scarves on the loom or a cardigan or some hats, but screw that. 

I'm about to make a bunch of socks that do not perfectly match any of the others but ultimately match each other perfectly because they come from the same ball of yarn.  They transcend matching.

Yes.  Take that Sock Monster.

I probably need a nap, but I'm going to have more coffee.

And yes, I did avoid the Magic Loop Cast-On war between, Judy's Magic Cast-On, European Knit-On, and the Crochet-Base-I-Don't-Know-But-It-Must-Work-Provisional-Cast-On.   I chose what I call the Herring Bone Cast-On. 

I think HB Cast-On may have happened to me a few years ago when I misunderstood how Turkish Cast-On works.  I kept using it because once you figure out how to tighten it up, it's a cinch.

If you know the real name of this type of cast-on, please let me know.

House Socks - Take One

Knitting house and bed socks are a great post Holiday/TV activity.  It's a quick way to use up all that loud yarn that didn't make it into gifts.  This pair, for instance, worked up over three evenings ... and I wasn't actually knitting like a daemon. 

After a few years of use and some dispirited and faulty darning, I have two pairs of wearable bed socks left . The major problem with those old socks was the short-row heel.  They just don't stand up.  snicker  I don't have a well defined Achilles tendon so it could be that I have a type of heel that doesn't work well with delicate esthetically pleasing sole denouements. 

I turned to Elizabeth Zimmerman's book, Knitting Without Tears, where two types of heel turns are described; the Conventional and the German Heel.  Both are based on a percentage of stitches and either begin work at the dead center where the heel stitches hit the floor, or on the center third.  When you're working on a 20 stitch heel, that means you end up with a lot of decrease bumps and holes smack dab on the bottom of the foot. 

Not only does it let cold floor touch warm heel, it increases the probability that the heel will wear out very quickly.

What I do like about the Zimmerman socks is the idea of knitting Garter Stitch along the edges of the heel flap so that you can physically count the number of rows you've completed (two per ridge), without keeping a running count in your head while you work.  I have other things, like lascivious fantasies, to think about while knitting.  On the other hand, I don't like the four stitch width of that garter stitch on both sides of the Zimmerman heel, and I really prefer using Heel Stitch (knit 1, slip 1 across, purl back) for greater durability.

So I'm going to combine a 2 stitch garter stitch border on the edges of the heel flap with Terri Lee Royea's The Super Simple Knitwit Sock Pattern heel turn, in another pair of cuff-down left-over yarn bed socks.

If you have a favorite toe-up turned-heel sock pattern, please let me know.

Socks!! Socks!! Socks!!

I just saw an ad for $35 fleece lined socks.

I'm at the beginning of a sock knitting binge and thinking about ways to do this. Here's my first thought though: Norwegian tvebandsstrikking using 100% wool, lol, as in real fleece.  I've done mittens with this technique before, and while it's a little difficult to get the hang of, once you're in the groove it flies.

Theresa Vinson Stenersen at Knitty has a marvelous discussion of tvebandsstrikking ... just google the word to get there quickly or better yet tvåändsstickning.

I hold both yarns continental and pick the color I'm using with the knitting needle as I go. If I'm running one color for a larger space, I first pick the yarn up normally, and on the second stitch pick it up behind the unused color and continue, every other stitch picking under and then picking over. 

I've also been known to hold one color on my Continental finger and one on my English, and just cross the yarns every 3, in order to anchor the carried yarn (and also perhaps to anger Zuul).

And OOOOOOOh. Just remembered I have some lovely, if fragile, alpaca/acrylic blend yarns in pistachio and purple. 

And here are the promised pictures! On the left, both socks on an Addi Sock Rocket 2.25 (size 1) 40" circular needle.  I like using the Magic Loop method of knitting socks -- though I did move to single point size 1 needles for the heels.  On the right a finished sock.