Socks: November 2004 Archives
Fortunately, my trip back to Chicago was less eventful than our trip to Houston. Even so, I was able to achieve the one goal I set for myself for the trip: completion of the crenellated stripey socks. I am not sure whether these socks count as identical or fraternal. I thought they were going to be pretty close to identical until I got to the top of the sock. The measurements are all the same, but there must have been enough variation in the yarn (or my tension) to shift the colors a bit. Nonetheless, I still think they are pretty adorable.
These socks were made out of Steinbach Wolle Strapaz Ringel Color (on clearance at KnitPicks right now) in colorway #4 (no longer available from KnitPicks...I checked). They are worked at 8 stitches/inch on size 0 needles. The fabric is pretty dense, but it should loosen a bit when washed, and the density will provide better durability. The pattern is Lucy Neatby's Crenellated Sock pattern from her Cool Socks, Warm Feet book. This pattern is a toe-up pattern, which was a perfect fit with this yarn, since I just barely had enough to do this pair of socks with two skeins of yarn.
This was also my first full pair of socks knit on double points, and I gotta say, in fact, I am surprised to find myself saying, that I think I like my little double points better than I like either knitting in the round on either one or two needles. I haven't been able to quite put my finger on why. Perhaps it is because the project is more portable without one or more big circular needles flopping around? Maybe it's the nice warm feel of the bamboo instead of metal. It could be that I don't have to deal with sliding loops over the circular needle joins. I'm really not sure.
What I do know is that the first set of needles I grabbed when getting ready to start my husband's next pair of socks was that set of warped little size 0 double points. It must be love.
My flight to Houston and the subsequent drive to Corpus Christi proved to be quite an adventure. Take one airplane and one rental car, mix liberally with bad weather, et voila! an adventure guaranteed to help you get more knitting done than you really wanted to.
We left Chicago at 11:45 -- about half an hour later than we were supposed to because of bad weather in Houston, where the plane was coming from. Continental did an admirable job of getting things turned around and getting us off the ground quickly, so we were still supposed to arrive close to our original arrival time, around 2:30 pm.
Around 2, the pilot came on the microphone to tell us that because of bad weather in Houston, we would be a little delayed getting on the ground because there were a bunch of planes queued up waiting to get on the ground. Next announcement, some planes had tried coming in, but there was bad wind shear, the planes hadn't been able to land. Then the weather deteriorated even further and they shut Houston down to all landings. No problem, we had fuel to circle for a while. And circle we did, until about 3:45, at which point the airport still wasn't open and we now needed more fuel. We were diverted to Baton Rouge where we sat until almost 5 pm. Once again, we had clearance to land at Houston. Once again, there were delays due to other planes, followed by wind shear delays. By the time we got on the ground, it was 6:30pm -- we'd been on one 737 for almost 7 hours -- and we still had a three and a half hour drive through terrible rainy conditions befor we got to our final destination.
Is it any wonder that my poor double pointed sock needles looked like this by the end of the trip?
Actually, I probably can't blame this plane ride for the curvature in my needles. I had no idea bamboo was so easy to shape! I guess this is more evidence that I am something of a tight knitter.
All that time in the air meant that I actually got the first of two Crenellated Socks a la Lucy Neatby done (including weaving in all the ends) right as we were landing in Baton Rouge. I followed her pattern almost exactly: Bosnian toe, Turkish heel, garter stitch cuff with picot cast off edge. I finished this sock with just a couple of yards of yarn to spare. Good thing the ultimate recipient doesn't have very big feet!
I'm so smitten with that little picot edging, that I just have to post a close up. How cute is this?
I like the toe and the cuff on this sock a great deal -- the garter stitch gives it a little extra stretchiness just where it needs to be. I modified her heel instructions -- I didn't want to graft, so I just decreased down to 6 stitches and whipped the yarn through them all to close the hole.
And I'm feeling quite proud of myself. I've already got the toe for it's (hopefully) identical twin underway and am starting on the trip up the instep. Hopefully I can keep that forward momentum going for the rest of my vacation and my trip home.
Happy Thanksgiving to Everyone Celebrating the Holiday!
I'm rather pleased with how productive I was this weekend. Not only did I finish up Butterfly (thank you to everyone who left me nice comments -- after wearing her for a whole day at work, I just have to report that I am still in love, and definitely encourage anyone out there who likes her to add your own copy to your wardrobe) but I also got everything but the heel of John's second Pin Strip sock completed as well. Tonight, while listening to the news I got the heel taken care of and they were ready for him when he got home from work. I'm afraid black and grey striped socks don't model very well.
I was a little worried that he might not like them because they are mostly fraternal. But we had a discussion of hand-dyed yarn on Sunday, and that seemed to help the acceptance process -- that and the fact that they are nice and soft and warm at a time when the weather is getting a little colder here in Chicago. I'm not sure why, but it gives me such great satisfaction to see John try on his socks. Hopefully these will wear as well as the Opal and Bearfoot socks that I made him last year.
My goal is to make it so that John has a pair of socks for every day of the week. This is his third pair, so I've got 4 more to go! I brought out all my "manly" sock yarn (I think I've found almost every grey sock yarn on the market!) and let him pick out what he wanted next. I got a pleasant surprise when he picked this skein:
This may not seem like a big deal, but the presence of orange, green and brown all in the same sock yarn (that might actually stripe) is a radical departure for John. It also, by some magical co-incidence, was the skein I was hoping he would pick since I am very curious as to how it will knit up.
I am not quite sure what pattern I am going to use for John's next pair of socks. I'm thinking of going back to a sock with a Dutch heel, since that seemed to fit his foot better than the afterthought heel does (which is not to say that the afterthought doesn't fit well, just that it doesn't seem as snug on his heel as the Dutch heel on the pair of Opal socks). I'm also going back down to a tighter gauge. The fabric of these new socks seems just a bit too slack for me, and I am worried that they won't hold up as well as they could -- a real concern, because if he wears them like he wears his other two pair, they'll get worn at least once a week for some time to come.
