Test knitting

I learned a new way to make short-row toes and heels, with double wraps a la Wendy this time (top in photo). This photo shows what I think is the uglier side of the wrapping method. The two sides of the YO method (bottom) look pretty similar to one another.

I started these socks but had to redo them because they were coming out too big (at 72 stitches cast on). So the Zen Yarn Garden cotton/lycra sock yarn is a bit thicker than the Greenwood Fiberworks. I'm trying 64 stitches now and it seems to be good. I took a photo of the new attempt but my camera ate it.

No food this time

Three entries in a row about food. It's time for some knitting. The socks are coming along nicely. I still don't know what's going to happen with the heels and the striping. It's fun to try on toe-up socks for a change.

I'll get back to my peekaboo mitts soon because those are my "normal" project for knitting get-togethers.

Erised

I'm excited! I will have to wait and see how the striping works out once I need to do the heel, but it's possible I'll decide top-down is better after all. Unfortunately because of the striping needing to be maintained I had to separate the yarn into balls of different sizes. One is about 10% bigger than the other. Eek!

Melissa, I think it's pretty safe to say these socks will stay with me. Dem's the breaks when you admit to hardly ever wearing socks. And you said I could keep them. And you know I will love them. But when you look in the Mirror of Erised, will you see the same thing Dumbledore did?

Short Rows + Picot Cuff = Toe-Up Socks!

GreewoodFiberworks sock yarn showed up at my door recently, and I thought that yarn in particular would be good for toe-up socks. I realized that I probably already knew everything I needed to know to make socks from the toe up: short-row toes/heels and the "provisional" cast-on also used in making the picot cuff. Here's my test toe. Now the trick will be knitting two socks at once, from both ends of the ball of yarn, so I can be sure to use it all without going over. I expect this will make me a bit crazy. I am contemplating using the scales at the lab to make two balls of equal weight so I can avoid a tangled mess.

Short-row heels

Lolly, head of Socktoberfest, has linked to two short-row heel tutorials, both of which use wraps. I've never done it that way. I've used YO's a la the "Better than Booties Baby Socks" pattern (PDF). I tried to post a comment to her post with this link but it didn't take, so I'm posting it here, where no one will see it. Here are my first short-row heels. Yes, there's a hole in the right sock, but it was my first time, and I sometimes get holes on my flap heels, too. They don't bother me too much.

Gift Socks

I made socks for my friend Tasha after this yarn caught my eye. I thought it was perfect for her because it's cotton and brown and blue, the colors her wedding party wore one year ago this coming Sunday.

I'm embarrassed to say how long these have been almost finished. I pretty much only had one toe to knit for a couple of months, and I finally did it last night while watching an episode of Midsomer Murders that's overdue at the library. I was planning on grafting the toes instead of doing the visible zig-zag close seen here, but I hate grafting when it's just a few stitches. This would be 144 stitches. I'm wondering if these are too small, but they're stretchy so I think they'll be OK. And I so don't feel like making them longer.

One step closer

I forgot to mention that my ability to knit short-row heels brings me that much closer to someday replicating my favorite pair of socks:

And it's the longest day of the year

Here are cotton/ lycra socks I made for my mother.

Yarn: Greenwood Fiberworks in Genola Sunset
Pattern: Came with the yarn
Needles: Size 1 DPNs

This was my first time doing a short-row heel. I had wanted to learn how for a while and I didn't think I had much choice with this yarn, because of the lycra. I thought it would be too difficult to pick up stitches for the gusset if I did the flap.

I think this heel is more mental work than the flap/ pickup heel, and I am not sure I could ever do it without a cheat sheet. And there's the sometimes-awful purl 3 together through the back maneuver. But it does look nice and now I know two ways to make a heel. (This heel uses YOs and reverse YOs, not wrapping.)