Crusoe socks

Just a quick post about a pair of socks that I have finished
I had some rainbow sock yarn that was purchased in the summer, and I needed a pattern that would do those colours justice.  I remembered that I had sock pattern designed for this - Crusoe Socks.  I looked over the pattern, it called for KPPPM with a cast on of 44 stitches.  I read again, and a second time.  There is no way I am knitting a sock on 44 sts with sock yarn and a) have it fit an adult foot and b) not have so loose a gauge that it wears out quickly.  I decided to size up to 56 sts.  I used the not so scientific method  of "sounds like a good number".

I didn't try the socks on or measure them in any way.  I knit on.
When I was getting near the toes - I tried them on.  Could barely get them past my ankle, and seeing as the intended recipient has larger feet than me this was not going to work.  Surgery was performed above the heel flap, the stitches were picked up and then 4 was added - and the cuff was re knit at 60 sts. 

Lessons learn - if you pick numbers out of the air - check the fit with a foot or tape measure.

Final info
Yarn: Shelridge Farms Handpaint
Needles : 2.25 mm
Cuff: 60 sts, foot 56 sts
Pattern: Crusoe socks

Pooling and a method to fix it

Some people like how multicoloured yarn pools (or stacks), other people detest it and avoid yarns that would tend to do this. I am in the middle - a little bit of pooling on a garment is fine but when it gets too much it drives me crazy.


So when I started the MinO jacket and had knit a couple of inches, I noticed the pooling and decided that I would do something to minimize this. The most common method (and one that Fleece Artist recommends on other patterns of theirs) is to knit from two balls (or opposite ends of the same ball) at once. Knit one row, slide stitches to other end knit a second row with the second ball, turn and purl two rows back. Requires swing needles or circulars.

I decided to utilize this method, I joined the second ball, and knit away. However I didn't pay attention to where I joined the second end. Unfortunately, I had lined up the colours, so I continued to get pooling. I denied the problem figuring that since the colours should be coming in opposite order it would fix it self. I knit on. It soon became apparent that it wasn't going to resolve itself. I didn't want to rip out what I had already knitted.

1. I had two yarns attached to the sweater
2. I didn't want to cut the yarn but I wanted to alter how the yarns were placed
3. I thought of intarsia and fixed the problem
   

What I did:
Green and blue represent the different yarns and the arrows is the direction of knitting.

1. Knit all the way across the sweater in yarn A
2. Knit across until there was about 20 stitches left with B
3. Slipped those 20 stitches to the other needle
4. Purl with A, 20 stitches
5. Twist A and B together and knit with A to end
6. Slip first 20 stitches to left needle
   
7. Purl with B back to beginning
8. Purl entire length of sweater with A
9. Knit as normal

A couple of further thoughts on this method:

1. It is a secondary method - you have to have two balls of yarn on the go (unless you join a second just for this)
2. There is nothing magic about 20 stitches. You don't want 1/2 of stitches and you do have to slide the stitches twice. With this sweater I wouldn't go less than 20 stitches, but sliding 30 or 40 would have worked as well. My cast on was 140 sts, YMMV.
3. You have no extra ends to weave in
4. If pooling develops again, you can repeat this process
   

I was happy with how this technique stopped the pooling in the sweater, and wished I had figured it out sooner. The red arrow shows where I did the maneuvering.

Mismatch

I was going to write a post about the new sweater I am knitting for NB - MinO- which I have been loving. However, last night as I was working on another project I ran into a problem. So my dear readers you get some of my musings.
First the players:
The Yarn : Louet Gems Sport. 2 skeins of 100g/225 yrds merino, ball band gauge 22-24 sts/4"
The Intended: Christmas present for my SIL
Some background

1. When I first bought the yarn I was thinking socks
2. The yarn has been wound in balls for awhile now, since I was always going to cast on for socks with it
3. My SIL saw the yarn and remarked how lovely the colour is, (I love colour as well)
4. I cruised Ravelry and decided on Embossed Leaves - people have knit these socks with this yarn
   
5. I don't know how the above was accomplished. I need size 2.0 mm(US 0) to get gauge and that hurts my hands. With a 16 st repeat I can't cut out a pattern repeat.

The delimina

1. The yarn now is saying scarf/shawl to me - do I listen?
2. Will the recipient wear the red scarf/shawllette? I know she would have worn the socks
3. Do I knit her socks out of another yarn?
4. Do I want to knit another red scarf after I just finished Sugared Pompa?
   

The ideas - feel free to toss others out there (all are Rav links)

1. Boneyard shawl
2. Red Skies at Night
3. Drop Stitch Scarf
4. Flower Basket Shawl
5. Herbivore

Sugared Pompa

I am not done all of my catching up yet, but thought I would pause here to post about a recent FO.
Pompa by Ann Hanson
This is a quick lace knit. The pattern is very intuitive and is easy to memorize. The result though is lovely. The columns of bars are created with YOs, instead of dropped stitches as in Clapotis, so if your yarn is sticky(mohair anyone) it won't be a problem.

The yarn I used is Sugar Rush by Queensland collection. This yarn is made from sugar cane and has a sheen to it. At 125m/50g it is a dense yarn for a sport weight yarn. I wanted a pattern that would be able to handle the weight and I think this project does it. I used most of two skeins (knots near the edges and wanted to finish a pattern repeat). This gave me a scarf that is 15cm x 134 cm. I thought that 4 repeats across would be too wide and I was happy with the size this gave me.


I also got some blocking wires which I will be using more of in the future. Lace blocking is much easier - especially if you want those straight edges.
Complete Rav details here

Update

Just a quick post to show a recent picture of NB in his Tomten jacket.





He was not in the mood to stay still.

Charts.

It is hard to write a dishcloth project up into a blog post but here it goes. Evelyn Clark, the designer of the Flower Basket shawl, designed a dishcloth pattern with a greyhound on it, a few days after seeing the pattern, a request went out for donations for a Greyhound raffle fundraiser. I of course put the two together and volunteered to knit some for charity.

I downloaded the pattern, looked at it and there was no chart. It was written out line by line. I thought about it and went, this isn't going to work I need a chart - isn't that funny how we get set in our ways. However, thanks to Ravelry I had come across a link to a chart generator, I went and dug up the post and checked out the links, created my chart.

After making the chart I proceeded to make 6 dishcloths, not being a big dishcloth knitter I didn't realize how little time it takes to knit these, and ran out of yarn while I was on vacation - so what is a knitter to do but to make an intarsia dish cloth with some of the leftovers.

If you ever need to generate a chart, this is the one I used
Chart Gen.
However, I have also found these tools but have not fully tested them out: Jacqui's Knitting Chart Maker, Chart-A-Rama, and Knit Pro 2.0. Chart Gen, Chart Maker and Chart-A-Rama all translate written instructions into a chart - each one has a slightly different input mechanism and format that it wants. Knit Pro takes a jpg or gif and turns it into a chart (I have not used this site). However I may in the future.

When I was working on the Serenity socks, I went back to Chart Gen and charted the instructions for the leaf on the heel.

More FO or Catch Up Part II

So after I posted the finished socks last week, I thought I should update my side bar with the information that I was currently working on. I realized that those three items listed as my WIP were finished and I didn't even mention they were done, they had been done for so long.
First up,
Tomten Jacket by EZ.

This jacket is part of what made EZ such a great designer. I finished this jacket back in April, it fit NB then and here it is the October and it still fits him - although differently.
This was the first time I had used Shelridge Farms yarn (the blue) and I loved it, it was soft on the hands and holds up great to the washing machine. The black is Merino et Soie and is also a great DK weight yarn. This sweater has gotten lots of wear and will continue to get more wear during the fall.

Next up was the decision to finish the Bianca jacket. I went with the dark brown buttons with flex of gold. I have worn this jacket a few times and I think I will wear it some more know that fall is here.







The Celtic Vest barely got started in the last blog session and now it is done and has been worn. I couldn't figure out the cast on - which turned out to be the long tail cast on but using two balls of yarn instead of a long tail. Easy to figure out once I got past that. This was a quick knit but I wish that I had knit it longer - hard to judge with a sideways knit when the instructions state it will grow with blocking.