Turtlegirl asks what patterns I use for fingering weight socks.  I shamelessly answer - my own.  New readers here (and there appear to be many of them) may not know that I also am the keeper of wiseNeedle.  wiseNeedle is the original yarn review site, active on the web as an all volunteer consumer to consumer, unsponsored service since 1995.  In addition to the yarn review collection and a searchable glossary of knitting terms in 14 languages, I keep some patterns there, too.  Among them is a slew of toe-up, short row heel socks in several yarn weights.  There are three patterns there for fingering weight, and any of them can be used as-is, or by elimination (or substitution) of patterning on the ankle parts, made as simple or as complex as the knitter desires.

And in response to other requests, here's a close-up of the short row sock heel, showing the mitering you can achieve with a little advance planning and a modicum of luck:



Why do they not match exactly?  Because I didn't take the time to make my socks identical twins.  I started each sock off its own ball of yarn at the exact start of the ball.  The repeats were slightly skew.  I don't have a problem with making these self stripers into fraternal rather than identical pairs.

Now, how to finagle this effect using a self striper?  Lots depends on the width of the striped section.  The narrower the stripe, the easier this is to do.  You can better see what I did in the top sock, above.  I knit the foot (on the left, heading up towards the top of the photo), ending it in synch with the completion of a red stripe.  Then I began the back and forth short rowed section with the following section of black.  I ended the decrease section of my short rows roughly half way through the black bit that followed the red, finishing up the black on the part of the short row section that re-awakens dormant stitches.  Then I finished out my heel.  This synch of the pattern to the printed repeat required that I fudge a bit on foot length.  In a sock of this type, a row or two extra in the foot, combined with a heel a row shorter than normal isn't going to make a major difference in fit.  Since the repeat pattern is so narrow, I can get pretty close to perfect miters.  On wider patterns it's harder.  In a wider pattern I do still try to end the foot at the completion of a stripe (or if it's a VERY wide stripe, half way through a repeat).  I let the short rowed section fall out as it may, hoping more for serendipity rather than planned perfection.  Most of the time things work out well enough.

The work crisis has not yet abated (in fact, it's just settling in for the long haul).  Even if I'm not writing about it, I AM knitting.  Plain, boring, unadventurous, run of the mill, miles of stockinette, unchallenging (but comforting) knitting.

In my case, that usually means socks, and reverting back to the sock style I can do in my sleep - toe up with a figure-8 cast on, and short-rowed heel.   I've been averaging completion of a pair every six days or so.  I only knit for an hour or so each evening, so each sock is taking me three evenings to complete.



At the left what we've got is a pair of fingering weight socks composed from various leftovers.  The vile mustard is a 100% wool yarn I've had forever.  The label still lists the distributor with a pre-zip code address format.  The tweedy green/blue is a partial ball of something (I know not what) I got in trade swapping leftovers with a friend, and the red is some Dale Baby Ull, left over from a sweater knit for the smaller daughter.  This is the pair I was referring to when I wrote that in January my color taste departs, and I feel compelled to mismatch in the most garish ways possible.  Perhaps it's a seasonal longing for light and color that happens just after the holidays, when the world returns to winter-drab.  In any case, the moire-like patterning of the red tweedy parts isn't a camera artifact, it actually exists.  For some reason the tweedy red bits worked themselves into swirls on the foot of one sock and the ankle of the other.  I think they moved in and out of synchronicity this way because in this multi-ply yarn (a true 4-ply four ply), each ply was carrying the same set of colors.  While the plies never aligned so that a blob of red hit across all four at the same time, it does appear that if two aligned **just right** I got my swirls.  An unexpected effect to be sure, and one I would have preferred either lasted for the entire duration of both socks, or didn't appear at all.  Still, the things are garish enough to begin with, so the red striping is just another element of eye offense.

In the center is half a pair of light worsted weight socks.  The other is still on the needles.  In this case I had a skein of Little Lola, a variegated yarn.  I've used it twice before to make Kombu scarves, but the colors for those were tamer.  This particular skein presented a problem.  The colors in it are less of a set, and more of a street fight, with fuschia, teal, olive, mustard and navy all scuffling for attention.  I had set the skein aside when I used its two brothers because I didn't know how exactly to use it.   When I was rummaging through my stash to fuel my holiday knitting I came across two skeins of a yarn I got in a discontinued inventory sale back in 1994 or so, at the late lamented Yarn Shop in College Park Maryland.  It's Classic Elite Paisley Light, a mix of wool and rayon, and matches the all superwash wool Little Lola exactly in gauge and structure.  In my case the Paisley Light also matched the fuschia in the Little Lola spot on.  By working the toes, heels, and ribbing in Paisley, plus alternating stripes of three rows of Paisley and six of Little Lola, I've managed to tone down the discord of the variegated skein a bit.  It's still a riot, but more of a quiet one.  (Review of Paisley Light coming soon to wiseNeedle).

Finally the pair on the right is standard issue Regia Mini Ringel.  Nothing special here whatsoever.  Due to my bad photography you can't even see the nifty way the stripes miter on the short-rowed heel.

One last bit of blather, the old fashioned way of doing stripes (actually using two skeins of yarn, alternating between them on some sort of fixed count) is a wonderful way to make socks match in length.  It's relatively easy to count four or six rows of color A, then some number of color B.  Then when time comes to make sure that the second sock is the same length as the first, all that need be done is count the stripes.  Much more accurate than eyeballing or measuring, and far less tedious than counting rows.  A final hint, sometimes counting even a small number of rows in stockinette can be difficult if you're using a dark color yarn, or one that's highly variegated.  Instead of counting on the front side, I take a needle tip and insert it into a column of purl bumps on the reverse side of my stockinette.  It's easy to count off my rows by counting the purl bumps.

Yes, I'm still alive, but I'm swamped at work and haven't had a moment to spare for updates here, or even for blog-wandering of my own.  I have been knitting though.  Nice non-challenging things like stockinette stitch socks, mostly in eye popping stash-remnant color combos.  What is it about January that makes me hunger for color, and every year - leads me to make things that would normally cause me to twitch from the jarring contrasts and strange combos used?

In any case, something knitworthy, yet interestingly nerdy crossed my desk this morning.  I present for your delectation a knitting machine made from Legos.  Actually it's more like a chainette maker, or a super-sized automated knitting Nancy (spool knitter), but it is a bona fide member of the knitting machine family.  And it likes Red Heart. 

One distinct advantage of cataloging my knitting life here - at year's end, I can look back over my posts and see how productive (or unproductive) I've been.  It doesn't look like I actually accomplished much this year in the way of actual knitting.  I certainly achieved conservation of un-finished projects, starting as many new ones as old projects that were brought to closure, although I did work on several major efforts.  In any case, here's a catalog of what I learned and did in 2005:

Projects finished

• Crazy Raglan.  Knit for the smaller daughter and started in 2004, this was an exercise in the use of DK weight self-striping yarn for something other than socks, scarves and hats.  I had several false starts on this one, ripping back when I didn't like the patterning that resulted.  I finally hit upon working the piece in several sections, joined Intarsia style.  This allowed the yarn to play better over narrower strips of width.  The project was a modified success, with most of the failure laid to the length of time it took me to get it done.  In the intervening months, target daughter grew, so the final product was a bit smaller on her than I intended.  Oh well.  I get to knit her another sweater now.
  

• Fingerless whatevers - (also see patterns, below).   A happy confluence of expedience and need, my hot color combo fingerless mitts made last winter bearable in my drafty house.  I can't say I learned much from this project besides the fact that not everyone sees the charm in garish, magpie color contrasts.  But it was fun to do, and resulted in a pattern for general consumption plus a rare item made for me.

• Paisley Shawl - I started with some lovely hand-dyed multicolor lace weight yarn and Sharon Miller's Birds Eye shawl pattern, but found out that the color variations in the yarn were too fierce and overwhelmed the delicate texture of that design  So I began experimenting and looking around for alternatives.  I found that the simpler the pattern and larger the plain stockinette (or garter) area, the better texture patterns coexist with color riot.  I ended up working a mostly-garter pattern from Spring '05 Interweave Knits.  It's an easy project, suitable for folk who are just embarking on lacy knitting.  My Paisley turned out quite nicely, and became a much-appreciated gift.

• Alcazar - The Hazel Carter pattern.  Fun to knit, but again a lesson learned.  This type of complex lace knitting needs special care if it's attempted in something other than wool.  Wool's stretch makes it optimal for the distortions required to span corners and block flat.  My Alcazar turned out beautifully, but the unstretchy nature of the faux-silk rayon made it difficult to work with, and limited the effectiveness of the corners, making them a bit more cupped than they would have been had I used wool.   Became a very much appreciated gift.

• Small grapevine in long armed cross stitch and double running.  Been sitting around forever.  I finally finished this one off and gave it as a gift (notice the theme, here?)  The next day's post goes into additional detail.

• Holiday knitting, including five scarves, seven pairs of socks, three hats, a pair of flip-top mittens, and a pair of fingerless mitts.  Nothing much exciting here (except for Kureopatora's Snake, see below).  All gifts...
  

Still in the bag

• Cursed Socks.  I can't say why this is still ongoing, but this pair of socks has sat on the sidelines for the past two years.  I could probably finish off the second sock in an evening or two.  I hang my head in disgrace.
• Dragon Skin Rogue Cardigan - Starting with the excellent Rogue pattern, I introduced some materials substitution, gauge, sizing and texture modifications.  All was going well until a mishap led to the front being pulled off the needles and a tangled mess.  Elder daughter looks at me with cow eyes every time she passes the knitting bag containing it.  My lesson learned here - take better care of projects in process, and don't let things languish just because I'm frustrated by the prospect of ripping back a mile, and figuring out where I left off.  More chagrin.
• North Truro Counterpane.  This one is going to take a very long time, even if I pursue it with dogged determination.  Still, I really like the way it's coming out.  I'm about 20% done (by eyeballed estimate), and will continue plugging along - probably as a perennial summer project.  The cotton motifs are perfect for knitting when it's too hot to knit anything else.  I'm not embarrassed about this one.
  
• One total disaster, actually abandoned - the Mystery Project - a felted bag commission undertaken for Classic Elite.  Try as I might, I could not get the entire thing to full evenly.  My bag ended up a misshapen lump, and the tight deadline I was working under didn't allow a second try.  Horror in a handbag - that's the only description I can think of that's near accurate.  Packed up in a box with the left-overs and mailed back in shame, so I can' t truly say it's still in the bag.

Reference articles

In spite of a dearth of personal knitting, I did write quite a few articles for String that I hope have been useful.  So that's something at least.

• Gauge 101
• Vintage yarn substitution suggestions - more are welcome.  If you've got additions for this chart, send them along.
• Lillehammer mythology - The famous sweater, with some musings on possible meanings on its various motifs
• Doing the central double increase - with illustrations
  
• One oversized circ and two-circ methods for knitting in the round
• Two items on two circs, knit side by side - also check out the notes from the following couple of days for more clarifications
  
• Make one left and make one right - two complementary invisible increases
• Some useful web tools
• Musings on Dutch Heels and inverted Dutch heels
• Cast on Round-Up I  and Cast on Round-Up II
• Knitting Needle Roundup, parts I, II, III, IV, V,  VI, and VII - describing many of the most commonly available straight and circular needles, their characteristics, actual diameters and lengths
• Shoe sizes, worldwide
• Winding a center pull ball by hand
• Charting 101, 102, 103, 104, 105 and 106  - a series detailing how to go about taking a prose pattern and turning it into a chart

Patterns

And some patterns. 

• Morgan's Paw Warmers - Pattern for super simple wristies/half-mittens knit in the flat from bulky yarn
  
• Susan's Impressionist Blues Lemonade - method description on making a stole with pockets
• Fingerless Whatevers - Fingering weight yarn half-mittens with a twisted stitch cuff and gusset thumb
• Ann Kreckel's Baby Booties - the pattern is provided as a link (it's Ann's not mine) but I do offer up a photo essay on how the thing is constructed
• Kureopatora's Snake - an entrelac style scarf done in ribbing in a wild yarn
• Kombu in German - a translation of my Kombu pattern from wiseNeedle, graciously provided by a German-speaking knitter

Books reviewed

And I posted reviews of a bunch of knitting books not often written about.  Mostly these are out of print books I got through my local library.  Insert shameless plug for local libraries.  Go.  Look.  Take books out.  If these older knitting books just sit on the shelves, the staff will be tempted to clear them out to make room for other stuff, and chances are the new books won't be about knitting.

• Reversible Two-Color Knitting
• Stitch by Stitch Volume I
• Bantam Step by Step Book of Needlecraft
• Mit Nadel und Faden
• Patchwork Knitting (the other one)
• Design Knitting
• Knitting Stitches and Patterns
• Knit to Fit
• For the Love of Knitting

Plus there have been all sorts of other posts here this year, blathering on about knitting, techniques, horrific mistakes I've made in my own projects, nifty things I've stumbled across, and the like.  Less however since my re-entry into full-time employment, as lengthy notes like this now take a couple of days to complete.  I'll soldier on into the New Year both blogging and knitting. I've already got two more pairs of socks I can rack up against my upcoming 2006 grand total.

On vacation.  Actually consumed by pre-holiday preparations and work responsibilities, THEN on vacation.  January as well bodes to be a bit hectic, so postings here may be sporadic in the new year.  We can report these accomplishments:

• 11 kinds of cookies baked, and distributed or consumed by the family
• 2 panforte, complete with dried cherries, toasted hazelnuts and almonds prepared, one brought to a group party
• Sumptuous small Christmas eve dinner prepared for the family, featuring squab in juniper berry sauce
• 2 bouche de Noel cakes prepared, one filled with hazelnut pastry cream, one with raspberry jam, brought to a group party

• Latkes, latkes and more latkes
• Blintzes, too - home made of course (my recipe's in Elizabeth's The Knitting Bloggers Cookbook)
  
• New Years cassoulet, including the duck confit we put up back in the spring
• Holiday shopping for friends and family
• Tree decorating (and un-decorating)
• Wrapping (and un-wrapping) presents.  Mine included a small silk pouch for knitting accessories, a nifty new driver (too bad I can't golf until spring), a thermos jug teapot, Yiddish with Dick and Jane, and a hand-made calendar. 
  

• Hannukah candles, songs and games duly performed
• Attending the midwinter Revels performance in Cambridge, MA
• Kicking off three huge life-consuming projects at work
• Four additional pairs of socks knit, mostly from very much appreciated gifts of sock yarn I received over the past year (thanks again guys!)
• Family time spent messing around with the kids, playing PS2games, watching InuYasha DVDs, going to a movie, cooking, doing holiday preparations, and playing games together
• FINALLY shelving the books that have sat in boxes since we moved in last year, this event triggered by the delivery of our much anticipated library bookcases, and receipt of our Vance Integral Edition
• Major behind-the-scenes work on a facelift, feature expansion, and functionality upgrade of wiseNeedle

So even if I was away, the whole String family and I weren't exactly idle.

As far as this year's gift knitting, I can report an excellent reception all the way around.  Both shawls I knit this year went as gifts, and both very VERY appreciated.  The screaming school bus yellow scarf was loved by it's recipient - the cheerful and watchful school crossing guard who is in the middle of her 23rd year on our corner.  My annual flock of socks was greeted well.  The luxuriously soft and lush curly mohair scarf and Juliet cap were loved by the person I gave it to - someone for whom texture is paramount.  And my kids' teachers enjoyed the various scarves I knit for them.

On the sock front, I can report that I don't really like toe-up socks in self-stripers when they're done with heel flap variants.  I much prefer the look of a neatly mitered short-row heel with those yarns.  I've reverted back to my old stand-by heel for socks for me, especially if I'm using Regia or one of the other auto-patterned sock yarns.  The only exception will be if I make socks for someone who requires the looser fit of the heel flap heel.  In that case should I want to use a self-striper, I'll pick a complementary solid color for the heels and toes, and reserve the printed yarn for the parts that remain stable in width.

Apparently there are lots of German-speaking knitters out there who would love to have my Kombu scarf pattern in German.  Or so the very gracious Kerstin Michler tells me.  So many in fact that she translated the thing, and asked my permission to post it.  I said I'd put it up on wiseNeedle, but some major overhauls on that site have made the appearance of Kerstin's hard work woefully late. 

I apologize, and for the time being, post the thing here charts and all as one big Acrobat *.pdf.  We will get it up on wiseNeedle as part of the new look/feel/functionality improvement set.  In the mean time, please enjoy and join me in expressing gratitude to Kerstin.

Some questions recently posed:

What happened to the list of recent referrers that used to be on the right?

It's gone.  I had been using a free service to report the places that people had been coming from.  That service is no longer available.  What's there now is the native referral reporting feature offered by Blog City.  Not very informative.

Of minor interest and on sort of a tangent to the where folk come from data point, the single largest thing people visit String to see is the pattern/report/working method for my Waterspun poncho.  That page is the most viewed on the whole site, by an overwhelmingly huge margin.   After that comes Stupid Stitch Marker Tricks.  Lots of other posts from the general reference and pattern headers follow.  All are understandable, as they contain how-tos or other info that  I thought people would find useful.  The only anomaly is the post I did about the name frequency web toy.  For some reason, that post was picked up far and wide, and is in the top ten visited list.

Am I going to change the referrer reporting tool?  Probably not.  We're plotting big things here for both String and wiseNeedle, so there are not a lot of spare moments to spend on redecorating what's in each spot right now.  I will continue to post here though - sporadic as it has become.

So?  How were the fingerless mitts received? 

Tickled!  The recipient was absolutely tickled.  It's always fun to give a gift that's appreciated. 

What's the next gift?

I'm now working on one of those standard issue fancy yarn garter stitch scarves.  While I'm not fond of making them, this new deserving recipient saw one worn by another person and went googly over it.  I was lurking nearby and took notice. 

I'm using US #13s and plain old Eros and ColorLash - an oft-mixed pair to be sure.  While the result is striking looking and no doubt tempting for beginners to knit, I despair at the number of people who have probalby given up knitting because of this stuff.  Others have noted how unruly both yarns are, how they slither off the needle and off the ball; how easy it is to drop or inadvertently increase a stitch; and how annoying it can be when a needle tip snags in the interstices of the railroad ribbon.  I know in my hanging out at the LYS days, I must have rescued a half-dozen of these scarves for distraught beginners, reseating the stitches on the needles after their inevitable escape.  Which brings me to a discussion thread that doesn't have an externally posed question to cue it.  So I supply one just for fun:

What's makes a good beginners' project?

I'm of two minds on this one.  First, the best thing for a beginner to knit is something that a beginner wants to knit. Telling someone that something is beyond them is a "one size fits all" defeatist strategy.  Some people learn better when faced with a challenge.  Others get discouraged if they're told something is hard before they even try it. 

At the same time, not every knitter can leap in and make a complex bit of lace, a fitted Fair Isle or an elaborate Aran sweater as their first-ever piece.  There's a balance here to strike among well-behaved materials in comfortable sizes, project scale that provides the best mix of achievablity and challenge, and skill requirements that stretch the knitter without frustration.  If I have to recommend something as a first project, I tend to look for these factors:

• Smooth, classic finish yarn rather than texture
• Worsted or Aran weight (20 or 19 stitches = 10 cm or 4 inches)
• Size US #6 to #8 needles (depending on yarn weight used)
• Light color to make stitch identification easier
  

What size project and whether it's knit flat or in the round depends on the knitter.  I've started people out on everything from small swatch sized mug rug squares, to scarves, hats, even socks.  Full sweaters (unless they are ultra simple dropped sleeve ones in little kid sizes) I tend to recommend for a second or subsequent project.  But again, desire to knit is the strongest motivator of all.  If someone REALLY wants to use an unruly yarn for a first project, or begin with an adult size cardigan,  hot desire can trump cooler considerations. 

My own first project was a Dr. Who length scarf that started out in garter stitch and quickly took off on a tangent as I tried out all the stitch texture patterns in my book on it.  My second was a Penny Straker trinity stitch baseball jacket. 

Are you someone who started out on the classic track, or are you someone who did the knitting equivalent of jumping off the end of a pier to learn how to swim?  Would you encourage a beginner to embark on what you know will be a challenge, hoping that perseverence will see the newbie through the difficulties ahead?  Or would you try to gently redirect that person to something that's easier, more in line with the classic progression from first swatch through scarf, flat knit drop shoulder pullover, and so on?  Inquiring knitters want to know...

My convertible mittens are done.  I have to admit, the joy of ending off ten fingers wasn't a pleasure of the ages - but they're finished.



The rustic wool I used for these isn't as soft and non-itchy as I would have preferred, but in this case the intended use trumps that problem.  It's my understanding that the recipient would be wearing ultrathin silk gloves inside these.  Liners do away with itch.

If I were to make another pair of these mittens, I'd probably use a shaped thumb gusset instead of the afterthought thumb.  While these do fit nicely, I find a shaped thumb area to be more comfortable.  Award to recipient is this afternoon.  I'm sure he'll be pleased.

Next up in the gift parade is problematic.  I had a Very Strong Hint shared with me yesterday.  I don't have the special materials on hand, so compliance will entail a lunch-time raid on my LYS.  Now not everyone around me can get goodies just by idle hint.  Hints must be 1) shared innocently, with little expectation that they will lead to the desired object; and 2) must be given by the deserving, and I get to decide who's deserving.  If I didn't impose limits, I'd be chest deep in special requests.

Other items on parade include another pair of socks (probably not going to happen), and some ear warmers and hats.  Plus some additional crocheted snowflakes for the tree.  We'll see what further stash excavation expeditions unearth.

Cookie report: 
Rum balls this year turned into Scotch balls, as a last minute dearth of rum foiled my original plans.  I've used bourbon before, but found the result too strong, so we'll see how this year's crop mellows.  Peanut butter cookies are also finished.  I'm happy to say that the spice cookies turned out exceptionally well.  Thin, light, and gently spiced.  A delicate cookie compared to many heavier riffs on the spice cookie theme.