Bramblestitches

Too many knitting needles

I'm not really sure what to do about this problem. I have too many--far too many--knitting needles. And I love them all. I'm willing to give some of them up, but how? I have short, long, straight, fixed-tip circular, interchangeable circular, and double pointed American, Canadian, and metric numbered needles. There must be hundreds of them. Pictured are the needles I'm prepared to part with (and a few crochet hooks, too)--and there are still plenty more that I'm keeping for my greedy self.

I've thought about making needle rolls and selling them with a few pairs of needles as a little starter kit. I need to make myself a couple needle rolls anyway, so making a few extras should be no big deal, right? Some of them are damaged or rusting, so they'll just make a short trip to the garbage. Others are missing their mates, and some are sticky with tape from the thrift store from whence they came (an easy fix that I simply haven't taken the time for). Some double pointed sets only have two or three needles, or are crooked. For the most part, though, there's nothing wrong with them. I just don't need five sets of number 7s, all the same length. (I may need three sets, but not five.) I've thought about trading them away for things I need, but I can't think of anything at all that I "need" besides a good lesson in organization and clutter-proofing. I've even thought about just flat out giving them away, but I have this mental block about that. (It's the same with all that fabric I have that I know I'll never use... there's nothing wrong with it, so I can't get rid of it.) For now I'm keeping these segregated from my "keeper" needles and hooks while I figure out exactly what to do with them. I know it shouldn't be so hard, but we're talking about a borderline hoarder here, so bear with me. If you have any ideas, or if you want some, leave me a comment and we can probably work something out.

*22 May update!

The needles have found a new home with Cosy, who teaches people to knit in her community! How cool is that? She also makes and sells some really delicious knit goods over at her shop, Cosy Knits Literally. You should all go check her out, as she is saving me from my stash and increasing the knitting population at the same time. Yay!

Personal Training

I'm taking a teeny break this morning to work on my knitting. It's not the project I showed you last week (I haven't finished that yet, either), this time I'm working on my TKGA class "Basics, Basics, Basics."

(Note: if you scroll back far enough in my archives, you'll find that I already have done a lot of work on the "Master Knitter Level One" course. Why, then, the regression to "Basics?" The truth is, after knitting, blocking, and analyzing all of the swatches, I realized I'm still missing some foundation skills, like how to make my ribbing and edge stitches straight and the right way to increase in ribbing.) This time the class is a three-lesson correspondence course, so I'll be getting some good feedback on my knitting over the next few months.

Oh, and for my boss (hi Dad!)--don't worry--I'm only taking a little time off this morning. I think the one you need to worry about is that business manager of yours. I have it right from the source that she'll "put it off til the bitter end like usual." ;)

New hats

We're taking a quick trip to visit my mom this week, and since the weather in Utah still resembles Winter more than Spring, I thought I'd knit the kids a couple new hats.

Miss O's hat is knit in Old Shale pattern, with hand painted, hand spun Merino yarn. I bought the roving in Arizona while I was pregnant with Big G, and I've been hemming and hawing over what to make with it. I spun the yarn into fingering/sport weight singles. It really turned out beautiful.

Big G's hat uses Brown Sheep Company's Top of the Lamb and Lamb's Pride. The red is leftover from a vest I knit for Erik several years ago. The three shades of gray are a gift from Erik's step-mom, Susan. They're all delightfully soft. Even Big G, who generally rips hats right off his head as soon as he realizes he has one on, kept touching his hat, then leaving it on. He wore it for at least two hours straight inside the house. Erik has requested a grownup version if this hat for himself, so I've already cast on for that.

On a roll!

I’m so proud of myself. I’m finishing projects! (Hey, Mom! Did you hear that? I’m FINISHING stuff! Isn’t that exciting?)

This week I:

 Finished two custom-ordered baby girl sweaters. They came out beautiful! I couldn’t find suitable buttons for them, so I decided to knit some buttons, and they are just perfect. Blocked them, made pretty tags, and packaged them up for two very special January babies.

 Made a custom-ordered pair of baby shoes.

 Knit a few dishcloths (including the “ball-band dishcloth” featured in Mason-Dixon Knitting), and crocheted three new potholders for us. I was given a lovely set of these potholders as a bridal shower gift, and always intended to figure out the pattern. Finally did! Used up about one pound of Peaches & Crème yarn. (Still have almost two pounds to go.)

 Reattached a button to my favorite dress, which has been languishing on the mending pile for two years. (TWO years—for ONE button… sigh.)

 Undid the crocheted seams of a baby sweater I knit before I was married, then re-did them properly using mattress stitch. Removed the too-small buttons, and replaced them with a larger set. Now the sweater is blocking on the ironing board.

 Finished frogging a handknit thrifted sweater. The yarn is beautiful peach mercerized cotton, about dk or light worsted weight.

 Also frogged a half-knitted garter stitch blanket, after I realized I had mixed dyelots. I never really liked it anyway.

 Finished two “heartbreakingly cute” baby sweaters featured in Mason-Dixon Knitting. I started them sometime in the fall. Both are cotton (one knit from the above mentioned cotton). Knit a little hat to go with one.

 Crocheted a fluffy scarf using the biggest crochet hook I’ve ever seen in my life. Used up several odd-ball skeins of Lion Brand “Jiffy” yarn that I’ve had for ages. Some of it was leftover from a lap blanket I made for The Man when we were dating, some was my Baba’s, and one skein I recognize as the leftovers from a sweater Grandma Kathy knit for my middle brother.

 Made 14 cloth menstrual pads using the incredibly excellent pattern and directions from Adahy (http://shewhorunsintheforest.googlepages.com), and by so doing, reduced my flannel stash a bit. Also gave the snap press a little exercise. These are great! I love them. And anyone who is suffering under the delusion of ickyness--I've been cloth diapering for almost three years, now. This is way less gross.

Boxed up a bunch of hand-knitted hats to send to the Dulaan Project. More about that here: http://www.fireprojects.org/dulaan.htm

Cut out a bunch of new shoes for the shop. Look how cute!

Whew! Time for a hot tea break. :)

Father's Day Happiness

These are my daddy's feet, in the socks I knit for them. They fit, he loves them, I'm happy. :)

Olga colored a card for Daddy, and one for Grampa, and Olga and Gavin bought their daddy some wonderful manly-scented shaving soap. It smells delicious, so of course he smells delicious. We're all happy.

Duplicate stitch seam tutorial

Cast off edges are together, right sides up. We will call the lower piece "front," since it will be closest to you while you work, and the other "back."

On front, bring your yarn needle up thru the center of a "V".

On back, insert needle to side of "V" and come out the other side.

On front insert needle thru the same hole you started in, and come out thru the center of the next "V."

Continue alternating the last two steps...

...and you'll get this. I worked the second half of the row in a matching color so you can see how well it blends.

And from the back it looks like this.

Invisible bind off

This is the best ribbing bind off, but it only works for 1 x 1 rib. You will almost certainly need to click on the photos for a better view.

Top of the sock, still on four needles. I like to put the sock on two needles, before I work this bind off, but it's really a matter of personal preference. Leave a tail of yarn long enough to go around the sock at least four times. Thread your blunt needle.

Begin with a knit stitch. Insert your needle as if to purl (from back to front) thru the knit stitch.

(A different view of the step above.)

Next, insert your needle as if to knit (front to back) thru the next stitch, which should be a purl stitch.

(A closer view of the step above.)

* Go back to the first knit stitch (the one you "purled" thru) and run your needle front to back thru this stitch, then slip it off the needle.

Next take your yarn in front of the purl stitch you've already worked, and insert it back to front thru the next knit stitch. Snug up your yarn.

Go back to the purl stitch and insert your needle back to front and slip it off the knitting needle.

Next is the tricky part. Take your needle behind the knit stitch, then between the knit stitch and purl stitch...

... so you can insert it front to back in the purl stitch, like this.

Repeat from * After binding of a few stitches, this is what it will look like.

After binding off all the stitches, this is what it will look like.

15720 stitches

Well I just did a little quick math, and I've invested over 15720 stitches in these socks, and counting. Yep. I have 60 working stitches around the sock, 61 rows of stockinette in the foot, another 10 rows of stockinette after the heel, and 70 rows of ribbing. Add in the toe and heel stitches (which I'm way too tired to calculate right now... ) and that puts me well over 7860 stitches each. I'm nearly done with the cuffs, and tomorrow I'll show you how to do the invisible bind off up close.

Two socks, one skein

Lookie! I'm still working on the same project. Those who know me know I am easily sidetracked. As you can see, sock two has caught up to sock one. You can't really tell in this picture, but I'm still using both ends of that one ball of yarn for both socks. The yellow yarn is a row marker; I placed it after the 25th row of ribbing on the cuff, and when I get to 50 rows, I'll place another one. That way I don't have to keep counting over and over and over again. Well, I guess I still have to count, but at least I don't have to count more than 25 at a time. :)

Oh, by the way, those are US size 1 needles. I probably should be using size 2 or 3 with this yarn, but I only have one set of each of those, and I have two sets of size 1, which means it's a lot easier for me to knit both socks at the same time, since I don't have to constantly slide my stitches on and off of a holder.

Here's another view of that clever heel I told you about that can also be a toe, depending on where you work it. You can see the color of the socks a little better. I'm trying to decide if I should do the last few rows of ribbing on the cuff in blue.

One sock on, one sock... on

Socks on the needles today. These are for a certain father in my life (and if you are that certain father, you should not look at these pictures!). It is a little hard to tell in the photos, but the main sock yarn (and the large ball on the left) is heathered grey, and the heel and toe yarn (the smaller ball on the right and the butterfly skein) is heathered denim blue. I spun these from pencil roving last year, and couldn't figure out what to make with them. Duh!

I happen to know that the father whom these socks are intended for is particular about how high he likes his sock cuffs (nice and high) so I'm leaving sock one on the needles while I get sock two going, then I can knit the cuffs at the same time. I'm using both ends of the grey yarn at the same time. Oh, did you notice? I'm knitting these from the toe up. This is probably the only way I will ever knit plain socks again. You start at the toe, then you can make the cuff as long or short as you need. Never again will I run out of yarn two inches from the toe, or have 15 feet of leftover self-patterning yarn that could have gone into the cuffs.

I discovered at long last how to make the hourglass heel properly. Look how nice that one is! The Knitting Fiend has some fabulous photo tutorials that made it all clear.  Also check out her wonderful Sock-u-lators. I just finished knitting a pair of socks before discovering her site, and just for chuckles I punched in my foot measurements and yarn gauge, just to see what the pattern would be, and whaddayaknow? Spot on with my own calculations. An added SUPER-benefit of her calculators is if you don't have someone's foot measurements, just plug in their shoe size, and the sock-u-lator calculates approximate measurements for you.

For the last several socks I've knit, I've used this toe, called the hourglass toe, or short-row toe. It is worked the same as an hourglass heel. It's so comfy, stretches really well, and the sheer novelty of it makes it a clear winner.

The toe from the tip.