Vogue Knitting - The Ultimate Sock Book - review

Ok, I know it is sort of hilarious for me to be reviewing a sock book, when I have never a) knit a sock b)even tried c)learned to use DPNs. This book has the feel of many other Vogue knitting books--beautiful illustrations--high price tag--lots of ideas, but it's a little bit weird. I like lists, so here goes:
1. The techniques illustrations are useless. The attempt to make small, artistic little drawings fails.
2. Gorgeous photography makes you want to try everything.
3. Brief history of knitting socks is interesting. I am not generally a big fan of history, so that's saying something.
4. Uses a variety of yarns--always a plus in my book.
5. There is a fairly nice sock yarn chart by weight, but of course it covers the high-end brands only.
6. Many techniques are covered: toe up, cabled top, ribbed, lace, argyles, etc.

Recommended for the advanced knitter, or sock lover. Check it out at the library first--$29.95 is a lot for a book unless you really love it!

Sherbet Socks, finally an update

I have never gotten around to taking and/or posting a photo of the socks I finished in July. I can't believe it's October! Ah well, better late than never, right?

Pattern: Mrs. Hunter's Socks from "Steppin' Out" by Rowan
Yarn: Plymouth Sockotta Fair Isle Effect, #6670
Needles: US size 2 (2.75 mm)
Began: June 18, 2007;
Finished: July 30, 2007 (While on vacation)

Sherbet Socks

Pattern: Mrs. Hunter's Socks from "Steppin' Out" by Rowan
Yarn: Plymouth Sockotta Fair Isle Effect, #6670
Needles: US size 2 (2.75 mm)
Began: June 18, 2007;
Finished: July 30, 2007 (While on vacation)

I bought this yarn at a really nice knitting store in Atlanta, Ga. in February. The store's name is Why Not Knit and it's on 314 Buckhead Ave. When I found the pattern in the leaflet by Rowan, I decided to try knitting a lacy sock with patterned yarn. So far I like it, and it the colors remind me of sherbet! Yum.

Sock news

Well, TL wore his Breathe, Relax socks for all three days of his End-of-Grade (EOG) testing. They held up well, even with being washed 3 days in a row. I'll have to closely examine the toes because he wore them with sandals yesterday. Apparently the socks are "hot and sweaty" on the playground in sneakers. I won't be surprised to find holes in the toes, the playground is mostly hard-packed dirt and he goes full tilt during recess.

He did say that he felt very good about the tests and that the socks did help him remember not to get stressed. Mission Accomplished!

I know Sari thinks I should make a bunch and sell them, but I don't think I have the energy right now. Plus, it would mean really doing the same thing twice, and I doubt I have it in me. Maybe in a different set of yarns would be OK to do.

Breathe and Relax --Done!

Pattern: Relax and Breathe from Knit Socks! by Betsy McCarthy
Yarn: Plymouth Yarn Encore D.K. in 4 colors (217-black, 1383-orange, 3335-green, 517-blue)
75% Acrylic, 25% wool
Needles: US size 2 (2.75 mm)
Began: April 20, 2007;
Finished: May 3, 2007 at around 6 pm

Woo Hoo! I am finished with the Breathe, Relax socks and they have been happily tried on, modeled, and approved of by TL. He didn't want to try them on until I got the ends worked in, but I guess that's alright. As you can probably tell, his actual feet fit into the actual socks (whew!) and he seems to enjoy them.

If you look closely, you can see that the heels and the turning of the heels are two different colors. Getting tired one evening, I did try to convince TL that both of these areas could be either the same color as the body of the sock (highest hope) or at least be the same color as one another. But there was no negotiating, I should have known not to show him the photo in the book. Lesson learned! You can probably also make out most of the words, I didn't want to post more than two photos of the same socks, just to prove that I spelled both words correctly on each sock. You'll have to trust me.

The banding was kind of fun to do, but I was worried that I would increase the tension too much and make it pucker, but that didn't happen. I did knit Continental style and English style at the same time on those areas in order to even out the tension when changing color, and to be more efficient. I did end up regularly making the stitches face the wrong way from the yarn in the left hand, but it got a lot better with practice and not knitting late at night. I simply turned those stitches the right way as I went along the next row, so it wasn't disastrous.

Breathe and Relax??

I stayed up to midnight last night and finished the knitting on the Breathe, Relax socks for TL. I still need to sew in the ends and have him try them on, but I think I can guarantee that I'll have them ready for him to wear at the end of grade tests that start on the 21st of this month. Do you know the little rotter had the nerve to ask me if I thought they'd be done in time on Tuesday?

The reason I stayed up getting them done was not pressure from TL, however. I had to get them to at least their current state before I could let myself cast on the sweater I'm making. Since class is in the morning (yikes!) and I'm supposed to at least get a couple of inches knit before then, I was pushing myself. It seems as though I may be staying up late tonight and getting up early even though I don't need to be anywhere until class starts at 9:30.

I'll take a photo of the socks on a willing model tonight and try to post about them tomorrow after class. I suppose I should have time to breathe and relax sometime after the baby blanket is finished. I'm 1/2 -way there and it's deadline isn't until May 20!

Knitting in Las Vegas, Socks, and BBBB#3

So, I have been in Las Vegas for 3 days, but haven't had the chance to find a knitting store. There are plenty according to a quick Google search I did, so there are some, but since we haven't left "the strip," I'm thinking I won't see one just wandering down the street. I'll keep my eye out, though. An interesting thing I learned here, the slot machines don't have slots for coins. I suppose that proves I don't ever gamble, and "they" probably removed the slots from the nickel and quarter slot machines ages ago, who knew?

Pattern: Relax and Breathe from Knit Socks! by Betsy McCarthy
Yarn: Plymouth Yarn Encore D.K. in 4 colors (217-black, 1383-orange, 3335-green, 517-blue) 75% Acrylic, 25% wool
Needles: US size 2 (2.75 mm)
Began: April 20, 2007; Finished: TBD

Before I left home, I started in on a pair of socks for Tortuga Lad to wear on days when he has tests. He might not wear them then, but that's my incentive. I got the pattern from Knit Socks! by Betsy McCarthy. I changed some of the colors that the pattern calls for, but I'm basically following the pattern for the smallest size. This is the first time I've done any kind of Fair Isle style knitting, and it's been a challenge to use two yarns at once, but I'm getting better at holding one color yarn in each hand to improve tension. It's working pretty well, as long as I can remember which hand throws the yarn clockwise and which counter clockwise. I'm almost up to normal speed, though! I took these photos before I start in with a third color, but the socks are starting to look striped as you can barely make out in this photo:

I think that it will be even more challenging as I start to include the pattern for the words in the sock. I mapped it out on graph paper, one sock will say "Breathe, Relax" and the other will say "Relax, Breathe." I may have to make another pair with less acrylic in them. As you both know, acrylic and other man-made fibers are difficult for me to handle very much. I am making a big sacrifice here to get TL the socks he wants! He is very excited that I'm making him something again, though. I haven't knitted for him in about a year.

BBBB#3 Update Number 3

I've been working at BBBB#3 for a while now and have taken another photo of it while here in LV. The blanket measures about 28" by about 12", so I'm nearly 1/2 way there. At the 1/2 way point, I'll switch to doing each row in knit and then purl stitches to the other way around, purl then knit. You can see what I mean in the photo, I think.

Pattern: Big Bad Baby Blanket from Stitch 'N Bitch
Yarn: Filatura di Crosa Baby Pom Pom (41% cotton, 49% acrylic, 10% Polymid)
Needles: US size 5
Alterations: I cast on 164 stitches to account for the difference in the yarn gauge.
Began: March 24, 2007; Finished: TBD

Another Sock Project - Finished!

I finished the baby socks tonight. I don't have a suitably-sized model on which to show off my knitting (unlike some co-bloggers!), so I stuffed these with a tissue each so they'd stand up and look nicer. I need to make things for people who live in the same house so I can have models for my stuff! Who knew?

Anyhow, it took me longer than I anticipated because I didn't knit everyday since my last post. So I suppose they took about the same number of hours I expected them to, but it took me more days to get those hours in. These are the first pair of socks I have knitted any kind of a pattern into, and I think they came out pretty well. They have a very nicely even scalloped edge at the top, which I like.

I enjoyed making them and have learned that knitting socks (or probably anything else) with a pattern/lace doesn't seem to have to be as terrifying as I initially thought it would be. I took one photo of the cute little socks with a quarter, so you can get an idea of the scale.

I do have some pretty darn crooked size 1 double-pointed-needles to show for my work, though. Since this is the first project I've used them on, I fear for their lives. I do tend to make even the sturdiest looking embroidery needles curve, but somehow I didn't expect it from bamboo. Do you both end up with curvy needles? Am I just being obsessive about tension, perhaps I need to relax in order to save my poor needles?

Another Sock Project

Last night I decided to get a start on knitting infant socks to match the Fuzzy Wuzzy Baby Hat I made on Monday. I am using a pattern from Knit Socks! by Betsy Lee McCarthy. This is the first pattern of hers I've attempted, but the directions seem very clear and easy to follow. Good since this is the first time I'm attempting to make any kind of lace, besides making tiny socks. I cast on 36 stitches on size 1 (2.25mm) needles, using Tweedy Cotton Classic 100% mercerized cotton #420 (blue). This is the left overs from the hat yarn. If all turns out as planned, the socks will be about 3 3/4" long when done and fit a 0-9 month old baby. I decided to try to knit both socks at once, so I got a second set of needles and I'm working each part of the sock on one, then doing the same part on the other sock.

I've officially wandered down the path of having two unfinished projects in my bag at once. (Evil!) I usually refuse to start a second project until the current one is complete. All these babies coming near the same time is making me adjust my normal working principals. Probably for the good ...

JQ's First Socks

Pair #1
Well, I thought I should also jump in and post about some recently finished projects of mine. In the last two months I've finished two pair of socks, using very different yarns and patterns. We don't really need to get into how long ago I started either of these pair of socks.

On my very first sock, which I affectionately call Sock #1, I used Regia sock yarn (Regia Cotton Color), which is made in Italy, but the label is in German. I got it at my local yarn store, so it didn't seem all that exotic until I tried to read the label. I'm not sure what convinced me to start with "good" yarn on my first try, but I believe it had something to do with the option to knit no patterns into the sock, but to rely on the self-striping properties of the yarn to give them some uniqueness and beauty. Since it was also my first adventure on double-pointed needles, I was hoping that the stripes might hide any deficiencies. I used a Regia pattern leaflet called "Inspiration: Kreative Strickideen, socks with the whole Regia family, which was recommended to me at the yarn store as a good set of beginner patterns.

Since I didn't actually have to follow any of the charts, or pay close attention to any pattern since I'd decided to only knit, it worked out well for me. The chart on sizing was good, told me how many stitches for the height, width and turning the heel, how many stitches to pick up, etc. And it gives all the details for each type of yarn available from the company. The instructions on how to work the sock seemed crystal clear for Sock #1, but somehow were a little murkier for Sock #2, but since I had a model to work from, I think the pair turned out OK.

It took me a while, and a different pair of socks completed, for me to get back to getting Sock #2 started and finished. Sock #2 is a misnomer, I realize, since it's technically Sock #4, but I had to have it match up with Sock #1. This is a known problem for me. Anyhow, I'm about to ship these off to Mom, so I wanted to write about them while I could.

Pair #2

For this pair of socks I used a really nice and easy pattern from Jacqueline Fee's The Sweater Workshop, 2nd edition. The materials I used were a set of 5 double-pointed size 4 needles and Sugar'n Cream 100% cotton yarn from Lily Cotton. I started these as a quick project to show a friend how to knit. She is now pregnant (and not knitting yet) hence the aforementioned baby blanket. As you can see by looking closely at the toes, I somehow managed to knit them purl side out. I have decided that I won't be working any more socks in yarn this heavy. I prefer the finer yarns, to be sure. They are very cushy and cozy, though.

WK has already done lots of cool things with patterns in her socks, and I'll likely give it a try after I'm done with the baby blanket I'm working on now. She and I went to a yarn store together recently and she FORCED me to buy lots of cool sock yarns, so I'm hoping to increase the sophistication of my socks.