My stash diving and holiday knitting continue.  Unfortunately, my camera and camera skills are far from the best (plus I'm still having some platform issues left over from my system upgrade), so you'll have to use some imagination on this one.



Believe it or not, there are three strange and blurry objects above.  At the top is a long scarf knit in the loopy mohair previously described.  It's in plain old garter stitch, but the resulting fabric looks a lot like the curly lamb stoles my great aunts wore four decades ago.  It's plush and lush.  It also left precious little left over, but I contrived a simple beanie cap from the leftovers.  That's the shapeless black lump at the bottom of the photo.

In between is a simple knit/purl patterned scarf in screaming yellow.  In this case, yellow is appropriate because the thing is a gift for a crossing guard.  The pattern is a basketweave variant from B. Walker's Fourth Treasury.  The yarn is a well-aged stash resident - Brunswick Bermuda II.  Bermuda is a cotton/acrylic blend, with a maker's gauge of 5 stitches per inch on US #6 needles.  I am not quite sure where I came by the five skeins of screaming taxicab yellow, but I suspect that this is a leftover from a project my mother made years ago.  I can say that I am not fond of working with the stuff.  It combines many of the worst features of both cottons and acrylics.

To start, Bermuda has a loosely twisted multi-strand construction, with about eight constuent plies.  Eight point-trapping nuisances that make this yarn a nominee for "Worst Splitting Yarn I've Ever Used."  The stuff is unstretchy as one would expect, but so much so that knitting evenly with it is a huge challenge.  To keep my stitches uniform, I'm having to knit as tightly as possible, especially on the transitions between knits and purls.  Even so, a knit/purl combo pattern is better than all stockinette for this yarn, as the texture doesn't betray those "I'm knititng with an uncooperative cotton" occasional leggy bits.  But I can go on...  The texture of this stuff is string-like and hard in the fingers, very uncomfortable to use especially given the tightness I'm trying to achieve.   I've knit up three skeins of Bermuda so far.  One more should make the scarf a useable length, and any leftovers will become fringes.  Ending this one off can't come soon enough for me.

I'm not quite sure what stash diving I'll do next, or what the next bit of knitting will be, but I suspect that there will be at least one more pair of socks between now and the holiday, plus some more snowflakes for the tree.

The socks are done, and I'm looking over all the possibilities for gift knitting that can actually be accomplished between now and when needed.  So far I've stockpiled two pairs of socks, two scarves, and a pair of halfie mittens.  This is an excellent opportunity to go through my small quantity stash box and identify things that can be pressed into service.  So far I've found:

• A large ball of heavy loop mohair/wool blend in black, probably bought at a Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival from Tess Yarns.  If I recall correctly the year I went Saturday night and Sunday morning were quite rainy.  The Tess booth had the misfortune of experiencing tarp failure, and the stock got quite wet.  Those of us who chanced by when the inventory was being packed up at the end of the day were treated to sizable discounts on sopping skeins.  When knit up in garter stitch this stuff is a dead ringer for curly lamb or mouton.  Perhaps a scarf and (if there's enough) trim on a matching hat.  Or perhaps if I feel adventurous (and there's enough), a shaped shoulder shrug in imitation of a curly lamb stole of the 1950s.  One drawback - mohair and I don't get along very well.  I'll probably have to knit this wearing gloves, or put up with itchy, red hands for the duration. (I didn't realize how poorly we got along until long after I had bought the stuff.)
  
• Some leftovers of cotton blend and cotton velor yarns - the dribs and drabs of kid sweaters long since completed and outgrown.  Since I often buy yarn in bag quantity I almost always have extra.  This stuff would be good for small seaman style inside the coat type scarves. 
  
• Some sport weight Shetland two-ply yarn in cranberry, olive and muted blue, left over from a linen stitch sweater-suit my mother knit sometime in the mid 1960s and shamelessly stolen from her stash.  The colors look quite good together and are not as out of favor as they have been in the past.  Hats?  Ear warmers?  More halfie mitts, but with stranded patterns?  No decisions yet, but the stuff is still in excellent condition and should be used
• Some fingering weight cotton blend sock yarn.  I am not a fan of cotton socks, I find them cold, clammy and hard textured compared to wool or wool blend socks.  But I have some sock weight cottons.  These should make nice wrist warmers or ear bands.  Or perhaps cell phone or iPod socks for the gadget-blessed who have requested such things.  (Someone please tell me why anyone would want an cozy for a device upon which engineers have lavished man-years of effort to mitigate the problem of heat dissipation inherent in small scale electronics.)
  

And that's just in the top layer of the box.  Stay tuned!

First, an aside.  I finally darned in the ends of my Alcazar shawl.  I only end off ends when the final disposition of a piece has been decided.  In this case it means I've decided that as much as I love my Alcazar, there's someone who deserves it more.  My shawl has now found its way to its new (and very appreciative) owner, and I beam with my own pleasure at  joy with which it was received.. 

My socks continue.  I've finished the first and am only a single evening away from finishing the second.  I've placed the motif on the ankle.  Because I chose to work it as a knit image on a purl ground, and the motif is made up of solid blocks and strips, unstretched the sock looks rather strange.  The motif draws in like ribbing and the purl background puffs out compared to the rest of the stockinette sock.  But when worn, it looks fine.  The purl ground recedes, the proportions of the knit motif correct, and the draw-in so evident in the unstretched item goes away.



The motif on the ankle isn't very visible in this photo, so here is the graph:



Yes, it has a specific meaning.  A work-related meaning that a very small minority of the viewers here will recognize.  And no - I didn't stick to the graph in the absolute.  My final version has the same height to width ratios as this visual, but because there is very little variation row to row, I repeated the center area rows and the upper end rows more times than they are shown here. I did that because my graph was done on square units, but my knit stitches are not 1:1 ratio.   I needed extra rows to achieve these proportions.

In terms of placement, I centered the unit on the ankle bone, and repeated it on both sides of the sock.  The red line marks the centermost point and the whole graph represents half the sock's stitches.  Because I work with four DPNs in the work and one in hand with an equal number of stitches on each of the four DPNs, finding that center point was very easy.  I do admit that once I began the pattern panels I rearranged the stitches so that I held the motif and field stitches (the green ones) on a single DPN, eight stockinette stitches on a second, the other side's motif on a third, and the final eight stitches on the fourth DPN.  I did the reassortment to avoid the possiblity of a loose stitch marring the center of the motif.  While I don't have ladder-itis between DPNs in stockinette, I am less sure of myself in reverse stockinette, so I avoided the issue entirely.   I planned my vertical placement so that the motif would occupy the center third of the sock measured from the bottom of the foot to the bottom of the ribbing.  That means I worked a few rows after completing the heel and before starting the motif, and working my post-motif stockinette to the same depth as the patterned part.

Finally, I finished the sock off with plain old 2x2 ribbing, whick I did until I ran out of yarn in my standard issue Regia 4-ply 50g/210 meter ball.  I'd say the resulting sock should fit from man's shoe size 9.5 wide through 11 (possibly 12) medium width or so. With luck the target recipient has feet in that size range.  If not, I've got an alternative recipient planned, and I'll knit another smaller pair for target #1.

?Thanks to everyone who left recommendations on inverting heel flap heels for toe-up socks. There probably are lots of "official" ways to do it. Leah mentioned one in Gibson-Roberts Ethnic Socks and Stockings. Kathryn says there's one in Church's Sensational Socks. Brigid sends us to the KnitSocks Blog. Emily says just to do a plain old flap heel, as written for cuff-downs, and Rob points out a totally different approach adapted from Rehfeldt's Toe Up Techniques for HandKnit Socks.

You know sometimes there's a reason to bow to the giants who have gone before. And sometimes for no reason other than personal perversity and the joy of fiddling with something on one's own, there's a reason to keep on plugging away despite all the world's advice to the contrary. I've been feeling contrary.

I worked my heel as described in yesterday's post. Here's the result:



I tried it on. It fit, but the sock ended up being too long. Plus I wasn't entirely satisfied with the location of the gusset. it was centered too low on the foot, with too much above. Fabric sort of lumped up on top of the ankle. So in this aspect at least taking a recommendation from Emily, I ripped my sock back to about a half-inch below the heel and reknit the thing on 50% of the total stitches. I ended up picking up 15 stitches on either side of my heel flap.



I like this better. I had thought that not having a heel cup (the turning the heel bit) that I'd end up with little wings at the corners of the heel flap. The sock unworn kind of looks that way, but when worn, everything fills out and no little corners protrude. Perhaps that's because my feet are so wide. This particular pair is a gift, so I'll have to knit another pair using this heel and give them a thorough wear testing. I am keeping this heel. (The color on this second photo is closer to Real Life.)

In any case, I'm now up to the ankle part and am about to place the knit/purl motif I've drafted up. It's a very simple geometric design based on some rectangles. Thinking on the way knit/purl patterning looks, I'll work the foreground in knits, and the background in purls. I'll either place it in a stripe of purl that goes completely around, or box the motif in a purl field. More on this tomorrow...

A couple of people wrote to me yesterday to report on faux chain mail sightings - mostly in movies. With the exception of a couple of very recent mega-budget fantasy and historical pictures, the majority of movie mail is the fake stuff. For example, in Branagh's Henry V, a couple of the leads wear real chain (laughably without the padding that actual use would require), but the majority of the cast including some characters with significant screen time wear knit yarn mail.

On the knitting front, I am finally tinkering with the reverse Dutch heel flap for toe ups thought experiment I wrote about back in March. I'm working a fingering weight sock on US #0s, on 68 stitches around (17 stitches each on four DPNs). The method I wrote about then looks confusing to me, even in retrospect, but trying it out all became (sort of) clear.

I knit my foot until I achieved the length I thought I'd need from toe to hard up on the ankle. Then, taking care to center the pre-heel bottom of the foot stitches on the bottom of the foot - I worked a protruding flap on about 20% of the heel's stitches (more on the figure later). I slipped the first and last stitch of the flap to make picking up along it easier, and knit it about 1.5 inches long. When the flap was that length, and finishing with a knit row, I picked up the stitches along the flap's left side, then knit across the top of the foot, and picked up the stitches on the flap's right side. I then was ready to begin my gusset decreases. I worked along for a while, decreasing at either side of the picked up stitches every other row.

It quickly became clear that this heel - although structurally correct, was flawed. I had a narrow band of stitches along the center bottom of the foot, with two prominent ridges made by picking up on either side of the heel. I had extra depth in the ankle, but the heel itself was too shallow for a comfortable fit. So I ripped back and began the heel again.

Right now I'm inspired by Emily Cartier's suggestion from the blog comment she left on the entry cited above. She suggests working a reverse flap heel on 50% of the available stitches rather than 20%. Bigger is most certainly warranted here, but 50% looked a bit big to me. So (apologies, Emily) I'm going to try a figure closer to 30%. Now I'm at the large rumply yarn clot formed by ripping back, and naked foot stitches just before the heel begins stage, but this is what I'll do, and how I'll go about working the heel on 4 DPNs.

1. I'll look at my toe and identify the center of the bottom of the foot (no point in working a heel akimbo). That point will lie between two of my DPNs, as I work my socks using a set of five.
2. I'll arbitrarily set my bottom of the foot flap at 22 stitches total. Since I'm working with 17 stitches on each needle, I'll slide six stitches from the leftmost bottom of the foot needle left to the one that normally holds only the top of the foot; and I'll slide six stitches from the rightmost bottom of the foot needle right onto the other top of the foot needle. Finally, just to make things a little clearer, I'll consolidate all the heel flap needle onto one needle. I now have three needles in my work: one holding 22 flap stitches, and two I'll ignore for a while, each holding 23 stitches.
   
3. I'll knit back and forth in stockinette on the 22 heel flap stitches, slipping the first and knitting the last stitch on all rows (making chain selvedges on both sides of the flap), until the flap is about 2 inches long. I'm not sure how many rows this will be - I could do the row gauge computation, but the exact number of rows is pretty much immaterial.
4. Once I've decided my flap is long enough (some trying on may be required), I'll make sure I finish at the end of a knit row. Then I'll pick up stitches along the left hand edge of the flap, taking advantage of the chain selvedge to do so. I'll remember this number. Then I'll knit across the top of the foot, back to the base of the flap, and pick up the same number of stitches I picked up before, this time heading up the right side of the flap.
5. While I'm working the pick-up row I'll reallocate my stitches onto four needles. The two needles that hold the top of foot stitches each have six extras. When I finish the pick up row, I should return to having the 17 original stitches on each of the two top of foot needles. The other two needles will each hold half of the remaining stitches. They'll be a bit crowded, but the goal will be to work the gusset decreases until they too have 17 stitches each.
6. I'll begin the gusset decreases by looking at my left-most heel stitch needle, and noting which stitch is the last of the ones I picked up along the heel flap. The stitch after that one - the first stitch of the actual foot is the one that will be the top stitch of the SSK decrease column on this side of the ankle. Likewise, the last stitch of the actual foot will form the top stitch of the K2tog decrease column on the other side of the ankle.
7. I'll work in plain old stockinette until I get to the last picked up stitch, identified above. I'll do my SSK, then work across the top of the foot. I'll continue in stockinette until the last actual foot stitch before the picked up stitches on the other side of the heel flap. I'll do a K2tog with this stitch and the first picked up stitch, then finish out my round by knitting to the center of the heel.
8. I'll work a complete round in plain stockinette with no decreases.
9. I'll repeat the last two steps above until I have 17 stitches on each needle again. At that point the heel should be done.

Now, there's no guarantee that things will actually work out as planned. This is theory only. I have to try it out and see if the heel flap is too narrow (solution - try again with more stitches allocated to it); if the gussets are too shallow (fix - knit the initial flap to be longer); or if the total heel is too deep (fix - rip back a bit of the foot before starting the heel again).

Now - why is there no picture to accompany this grand experiment? Because all I've got is a sock foot knit in solid gray Regia on four needles, sitting next to a rat's nest of rippled yarn. Not exciting in the least. That and I'm still relegated to posting away from my base station because my computer is still in the throes of reassembly.

I'm doing fine, but my base station computer is lying on the dining room table, completely gutted. A new motherboard, new power supply, and a new video card are arrayed nearby. But you didn't come here to read about my digital woes.

I'm working up a follow-on to the charting articles - a set of thumbnail reviews of the knitting pattern books on my shelves. I've got most of the standards, plus a couple of the harder to find items. But that's much easier to do when I'm working in the same room the books are.

In the mean time, I've been working on various small projects - mostly holiday related. I've finished off several more pairs of booties (there must be something in the water, as there appears to be spike up in the local numbers of the gravid). Socks march on, with the latest pair being toe-ups in a very conservative gray, possibly with an inverted flap heel and the placement of a spot motif on the ankle. Those bits may yield something of interest to write about. Plus a quick stitched piece that is destined to be given to an unsung hero at work. More on that tomorrow.

In the mean time, I present with a bit of sadness, the knit fake chain mail coif and hauberk I made for Older Daughter when she was five:



Apologies for the even lousier than normal picture quality. I don't have access to the photo editing tools I normally use.

This is the knight costume that was featured in the note I wrote that ended up in the first volume of KnitLit. I made it for Elder Daughter in 1996, when she was in Kindergarten. The sadness creeps in because Younger Daughter just wore it for Halloween, and it was clear that this is the last year that she will be able to do so. The coif will still figure in fantasy play for or a while, but the mail shirt is ready for The Box of Knitting That No Longer Fits.

In the mean time, if you want to knit up some play armor for your own miniature warrior, the method description is on wiseNeedle.

Computer failure at this end. Please bear with me. I'll return to offering up tangled knitting thoughts ASAP.

A person left a comment on one of the counterpane pages here, asking for help identifying the technique or stitches used in blanket she owns. She neglected to leave an eMail address. I'd be interested in seeing a photo and possibly posting it here for discussion, but without contact info not much can be done.

Yes, in the midst of all the charting stuff I was knitting. I finished up the Harvey Kombu, and I did a pair of plain toe-up socks from Lana Gross Meilenweit. I'm not sure which color variety it is, as I lost the label in an airport. It's not Fantasy, the repeat is too short. It' s not Multieffect, or any of the MultiRingel colors, either. It's possible it was part of last winter's Jacquard color crop.



You'll notice ends dangling off both pieces. I really can't say why I do this (perhaps it's a personal superstition, perhaps it's a reminder not to use the item myself), but when I make gifts in advance, I don't darn in the final ends until I have decided whom the recipient will be. I'm not quite sure who will be receiving these, so the ends are still there. Go figure.

The socks were done on US #0s (2mm) needles - 72 stitches around. That makes them rather large in gauge for me. I used the standard figure-8 toe and short-row heel I use in all the sock patterns on the wiseNeedle pattern page. Nothing fancy here, just miles and miles of plain old stockinette, finished off with a K2P2 ribbing at the top. The pattern for the Kombu scarf is also there. In this case, I used a US #6 (4mm), and used just under two full balls of my ancient stash-aged Lang Harvey yarn.

Finally, one other person asked about how I construct my charts. As I've described at length before, I use Microsoft Visio. I'm sharing my Visio stencils. If you've tried graphing knitting or stitching patterns using them and have feedback or questions, please let me know.