ADHD Knitting

 Just when you say something silly like 'I'll have these socks finished before the end of the month' your brain says, 'let's start a new project'. I'm still working on the Sheepicorn socks but I pointed out the two different colors of Kroy Socks yarn that I was gifted and asked my other half which one he preferred and he pointed to the 'Tourmaline Stripes', aka, dark neutrals from hell. I sighed and thought, well since I'm still traveling might as well give this ago in bright sunlight when I can.

I rewound both balls to make them center pull because neither of them were doing that easily. They both fit very snug in a zip lock bag luckily so woohoo! I didn't rewind one and should have so they might have matched better but oh well. So the very tippy toe part with the increases is the same brown/black mix then one decided to go off with some grey stripes. I discovered that this indeed is much easier when in bright sunlight or with a very good lamp over my shoulder. I started initially with a 2.5 size for casting on then realized it might be a bit too loose, took them off and snagged the size 1 from the Wookie socks that are going to be restarted. I finished the increases and then snagged the size 2 from the other sock and knit onto that so they will have the rest of the project on the correct size needle. I also increased up to 68 sts instead of 64 since the toe was so tight and had thought I would be using the size 1 all the way through. So this is an experiment in sizing. I think it will all turn out just fine and am not going to do any fancy stitches on them. Maybe a wide rib, 3x1 or something, maybe a slip stitch rib on the leg but that's about it.

And then I decided to use the Broken Seed Stitch on an actual project a bit bigger than socks. A hat. Two chunky weight yarns that seemed to pair nicely in my mind at least, Rose brown and Moss Mix. The rose/pink is Bernat Softee Chunky and the green is Lion brand Woolspun, of course both are discontinued and I have two balls of the pink and three balls of the green. So it's a chunky semi slouchy hat that was fun, easy and quick to make. I am down to closing the top right now and still have plenty of the pink and some of the green left on the one ball I have used. The idea was to do this as a donation to the cancer center but now it's likely going to just languish in a box somewhere until I get more hats made that aren't so chunky and bulky. 

 

I had a rather complicated idea of taking the green and separating the six strands because they are all various greens along each strand. Same colors just different sequences hence the name 'Moss Mix'. The stands individually are sock weight so the pros and cons of this are; it's kind of 'kinky' yarn and not smooth at all, which could work for socks, it is wool and acrylic which is washable, wonderful green color mix. Cons: I would have to figure out how to unply the ball onto my swift then wind from there, each individual strand. I need to go read articles if other people have attempted to do this as well with other yarns. I would even be happy with it reduced to two three strand yarns for DK/ Light worsted weight.

My hands are killing me from doing all this knitting, especially when I'm doing a sock toe. Having a large yarn project to work on gives my tight grip a rest for a bit.  

 

Brain fuzzy, arms are buzzy, time to give it a rest. 

 

Progress and discovery

 The Sheepicorn socks have found a new pattern for the leg. I wanted to do something with a rainbow yarn that wasn't big enough to do two full pairs. I thought maybe two color cables, or color background with white cables, knew the wrangling of the yarn and floats would be a pain in the butt .... What to do, what to do... then I saw another sock pattern using Broken Seed Stitch.

 

That is perfect! I saw other patterns as well as just the instructions for doing the stitch. The person who posted the stitch instructions raved about how easy it was and how much they wanted to use it in other projects. So I went there with the yarn.

I was deciding between two yarns and realized that there would be a lot of white 'gaps' with the smaller ball. Going with the larger rainbow was the right choice. The stitch really is very simple in the round with the main color  (the white) being only knit and the contrast color doing the seed stitch. I love the coloring and the only problem so far is that it is a more spread out stitch. I did some slip stitch on the back of the ankle (technically the Achille's heel area) for a short distance before deciding on starting the leg.

The pattern in the round is this:

Row 1 MC (white) knit

Row 2 CC (rainbow) k1p1

Row 3 MC knit

Row 4 CC p1k1

Easy peasy simple as pie. 

 My first mistake was being too eager to start this and did not divide the rainbow yarn into two balls. Hoooboy was that ever a tangle!  

I figured it out though using a technique from an other sock project. When you get past the heel the balls should be small enough to just tuck into the sock while you work on the other one. Well this worked out perfectly so I put the colored yarn in the baggie and the two balls in the socks they belong to.

Current progress on it and couldn't be happier. Well could be happier if I had divided the second color but it's working out. I then saw the same person post the 'flat' version of the stitch and just glancing at it the first time it seemed like the same method. That's not right. The only difference was marking one row wrong side but no other directions.  This did not work. There were a few others that were confused about that also because you're working with two colors.

 

Here is what I tried to do. I had seen a hat pattern using three different colors of yarn with one main for the contrast for all of them. Cool idea.

 What I have is two colors of Vanna's Choice in brick and rust and one Basic stitch in saffron yellow. Ohoh... do a stripe of each but with each one do the color of the next row as the contrast and work it that way. Sweet! I could see it in my head. Now here's the problem, wanted to do it flat as a blanket, only stopped at 74 stitches so it's a test pattern.

 So, here's the problem with doing it flat. The colors end up at opposite ends of the row after adding in the contrast color. It will work just not as easily as in the round. So, once you get that first contrast row done in knit, you go back to the other end where the main color is waiting and work the k1p1to the end, both colors are now on the same end and ready to work a wrong side row. Pick up the contrast color and Purl the next row (which would normally be a knit row in the round). Go back to the other end and pick up the brick and do k1p1 to the end and both colors are waiting again on the right side. Note: you are on the wrong side for the seed stitch, make sure to check if you need to reverse to p1k1 in order to be opposite of the previous working row.

 

Long tail CO using circular needle 70 sts in Brick. #10.5 needles

WS Row 1: Knit

RS Row 2: Knit 

WS Row 3  K1P1

Attach C1 at end of Row 3

RS Row 4: C1 Knit

RS Row 5 Slide stitches to other end of needle, pick up Brick and k1p1 to end

WS Row 6: C1 Purl to end (both colors should be on the same end of the work

(I didn't start writing down what I was doing until I had already done one repeat so apologies if it isn't right)

 

So you see it actually has to be worked with two right side or two wrong side rows done concurrently. Much like doing knit one below with two colors it'll turn out okay just a lot of moving back and forth and keeping track of whether to do knit or purl first on the 'working' row. Contrast or lighter color is always the knit row. The 'main' color is the one that creates the V and bump stitches in the contrast. 

 

So doing it in the round is so incredibly easy, flat not so much. It also looks much better when using a tighter yarn like a cotton or mixed yarn. The fluffiness of the acrylic buries some of the stitches so it loses some of the definition in the contrast. 

 I will be using this stitch in future projects as long as I can find a suitable solid contrast. I have more than enough random pieces of yarn could just do some crazy socks or hats. So, many, ends, to, weave, in.....

Hope to have socks finished by November at least.

So, more things on the move

 I've been able to do more knitting having to take public transit for travels to doctor visits. So about 2 and a half hours of travel time twice a week for one more week. That means socks are progressing and...regressing on one project.

Remember the Sheepicorn socks? After turning the heel and working a few rounds I decided to try one of the socks on (being still on the needles). Fit was good for circumference and then pulled it all the way up... something didn't line up. I realized that the gusset line was not in the right spot so pulled it down and adjusted the position. My hand is gripping just at the tip of my big toe and there is a good inch of sock beyond my toe. No bueno at all.

So I measured and sure enough, little over an inch too long from toe to beginning of gusset. This meant I had already been too long when I had to stop knitting due to technical failure from needles. You can see how far beyond the 9 inch mark I had had knitted....so.....frogging happened.

Since I  had already rewound one ball that was falling apart I got the brilliant idea to use the ball winder to more efficiently frog. Marked where 8 inches was visually and with a stitch marker because trying to pick up a straight row of stitches with a pattern was not working with my eyesight. 

Ball winder trick worked to a certain degree but didn't go exactly as planned as kinked yarn will tend to twist on itself. Took about an hour or two per sock to rewind and frog then checked to see where I was. Due to the slanted rib pattern on the front of the sock I could match both socks to be at the same repeat sequence. Day and a half, put the one sock back on the original needles and all done. 

While those languished I wanted to really dig in with the Sheepbacca socks and finally got those started, same pattern on front as the Sheepicorn but using the padded/ribbed sole.

I'm working on those while traveling and am mentally working out if I should change the stitch pattern on the leg part to be more long and wavy. Will figure that out when I come to it.

So on one of my bus rides, I get on sitting in one of the side facing seats and pull out my knitting as it's a 35 to 40 minute ride and I hear an exclamation to my right. I look over and a wonderful abuelita is holding up her crocheting. We chat for a little, showing our projects to each other and she asks if I'm going on the shop hop this month. I told her no, I don't have the money and she agreed but also she has more than enough yarn. She had a yarn shop in town before the pandemic and when that happened, she had to close her shop and then completely shut it down. So she has all her stock from having the shop and as she says, 'best yarn is wool'. Never got her name and she told me the name of her shop but it was hard to hear it with the bus noise due to it being a Spanish name, likely hers. So that was a bright spot on the commute which helped my remember yarn enthusiasts are everywhere.

Another side project which I will likely restart is a wave and fan stitch scarf. I got this skein in the bag of random yarn that was given to me by another resident in our complex. Just one skein. I thought the wavy stitch would be perfect for showing off the stripes as it's a 'Jacquard' style and the sample project for a sweater on the label in a different colorway was not flattering. Knowing a little about planned pooling I took a guess at a good width for a scarf and the stitch count worked really well. Not perfect but close enough. My guess on the sequence from what I see coming up is after the green fleck will be a white space then the grey fleck will start again for the color pattern.

All the scarves I've seen done in this stitch ends up with the mirror of the wave. My plan... is to guess where the halfway point is and change to sailors rib or regular rib for one color then reverse the stitch. Right now it's kfb x3 then k2tog x 6, then kfb x 3. To reverse this on the other side it would have to be k2tog x 3, kfb x 6, k2tog x 3. In 'theory' it should make the other side of the scarf look like that, will see what happens. I will not be stopping and grafting at the middle that I've seen other patterns do. If this turns out  I'll have to show it off to the knitting world. Test swatch is definitely called for.

Many updates and new stuff!

 Since I've been physically occupied with surgery haven't done much knitting until now. Thanks to a very good enabler friend who took me shopping at Michael's, I found a book and some yarn.

Now most of those projects I will never get to but it does serve as inspiration and at least one project caught my eye. Oh and most of the yarns were not your run-of-the-mill type of yarns of course but substitutes are not hard to find.

Case in point: The Starbird Shawl. Brown and blue paired together is my weakness and this being a shawl got my attention immediately. Well, the yarn they used is a high end eco friendly type yarn that sells for $40 a skein. You need two just for the gradient, don't remember if the solid was the same price but even so, that's way too high even if someone else is giving me money for it. Frugal as always.   I remembered the yarn company Hobbii that has incredibly beautiful gradient yarns out of cotton blends mostly but that's fine.

The closest I found was Twister in 'Nordic Winter' that wasn't blue and brown but close enough  and they dye match the solids in a list of colors right on the product page. So just have to look for what color you need then go find the solid to match. They even have a little paper tab on the center pull! For a lot cheaper by the way, and the yarn is the same composition as well. Very soft 55 cotton/45 acrylic and the gradient is over 1000yds! Solid is almost half that and half the price of the gradient which was just under $40. More yardage for less cost, yes please! So that's in a 'future project' bag at the moment because I got other projects to finish.

The green 'Faux Braid Pad Foot Sock' is finished! With only a tiny bit of yarn left by choice  in case of needing to patch a hole. It also fits but, it is only one sock. This was a pattern test so not critical to get the second one done. I loved how the colors striped at the heel and I can see how it stripes through the lace as well. The other ball is waiting in the box...

I was able to find a set of 'sock' circular needles on Amazon for cheap, which is a danger I know, but I have been itching to get these Sheepicorn socks finished! The set 6 sizes from zero to 4 and all of them 47 inches long! Now having gotten excited about them and did check reviews,  I decided to get them.

They're from KnitPal and yes, an off brand that specializes in bulk collections and stuff but when there's a need and want, you go with what you can afford.
Firstly, they are not a straight needle tip, they have a bend toward the cable, not a bad thing, I've knitted with needles like that before but the tips are really long as well. The cables are a bit stiffer than I am used to working with but are nylon covered silver cable but they're workable. The join is smooth just have to allow for the bend in the needle which is 5.5" which is fine. So size 0, 1, 1.5, 2, 3, and 4. I  needed the size 2, I have yarn that calls for size 4 (the shawl) and another sock yarn that calls for a 2 or 3. So I'm set! One downside is having to size the needles and figure out how to mark them accordingly but that's an easy thing because I also got a new needle/hook sizer while at Michael's. I would say these are on par with the original Twist cables from ChiaoGoo that have the metal cable core.

A friend bought me the black/grey Kroy socks a while ago and then when in Michael's I picked up the green/turquoise. Now with the new needles I split the big ball of Sheepbacca from Laser Sheep yarns I've had for years and then looked at the black/grey, looked at the brown... slightly different gauge but there's a pattern waiting to be made with those two I know it. 

One other yarn I don't have a picture of yet is from Premier that has a collection of sock yarns in different themes and one is Fruits. Because I had just visited another friend who has all manner of fruit trees and Dragonfruit growing... I  had to get the one in Dragonfruit.

Socks are very hard to get right and even though this looks stunning, I'm going to be making a pair of long fingerless gloves instead. The other reason is this is acrylic and 'PBT' which I had to look up and is basically polyester. So not so much for comfy socks that need to breath. As per AI overview: "PBT yarn, derived from the polymer Polybutylene Terephthalate, is a type of polyester yarn known for its excellent elasticity, durability, and resistance to chemicals and UV radiation. It offers a comfortable and breathable feel in fabrics and is often used in sportswear, swimwear, and other applications requiring stretch and recovery. " So yes, it's stretchy but I'd rather have wool/cotton on my feet or variations of that. Besides I owe her a new set of gloves.

I'm happy I get to work on the Sheepicorn socks again and the cable will accomodate both socks all the way through the heel turn. Now to decide on what to pick up next....

Blue socks are done!!!

 Still other projects on the needles, hoping to get replacement needles for the Sheepicorn socks. Let me tell you these were a pain to keep going. I don't mind the pattern but the yarn doesn't show it very well.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These fit alright but are tough to get on over the heel so the reknit of the green/yellow socks has begun and those are going to be a bit roomier. This yarn does not stretch a whole lot so it acts more like cotton than wool (Interesting pooling on those heels right?)

I dropped way too many stitches at the beginning of the cuff and had to separate them so I could work on the mistake, took the cuff completely down and was able to knit it back up again. I did about four rounds of half twisted rib (only knit through the back on the knit stitches) and then gave up on that because I timed myself and it was taking almost ten minutes to do one round. Counted the rounds and was able to make them match. You can see the snug heel fit so if anyone knows someone with long narrow feet, let me know.

An unexpected find on our community table. Someone was cleaning out old purses and I found this one. Magnetic snaps, pockets inside and out, adjustable strap and a zipper to close the top, VOILA! New project bag! Then I was rifling through a storage cupboard and discovered an old lunch bag that would also work for a small project bag. Front two pockets on this one can hold stitch marker containers, small scissors, small tape measure and whatever else. Inside there's a pocket big enough for crochet hooks and gauge ruler, back zipper pocket is good for maybe the same thing or a paper pattern. Not quite big enough for my ipad but close. So small project bag and fashionable too!

Since I don't have a good set of long needles in the size I need, the green/blue/yellow 'Faux Braid' socks will be done one at a time. Writing notes on the pattern as I go for stitch counts and might use a different type of heel for this set. Wish I had some blue or green for the heel but oh well, Tofootsies isn't produced anymore and last time I asked in a yarn group if anyone had some I actually had someone laugh react to my request so.... not happening.

That's all the news for now, once a month something happens, happy knitting!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Frustrations of finding needles

 So I was hoping to buy a replacement needle for the one that broke on the Sheepicorn socks. LYS doesn't have the size and length of the type I need, Knit Picks is expensive if I wanted to get two sizes that I need it would be about $25. They have 'some' needles on sale, and in the nickle plated don't have the size and length I need. Grrumble. Going through Amazon for Chiao Goo is on hold due to choosing to boycott for ordering online (not going to go into details here but if you've been following the news, explanation isn't necessary). So I'm stuck with working on the gloves still, and decided to pick up the crochet project that was going to be a blanket. I am using a dark royal blue as a border on the multi color piece that's been languishing. Decided it will be a good mat for Rocky to lay on in the kitchen window.

I have decided that these socks will not be fitting any natural foot so when I get the courage I'll be taking it off the needles and rewinding the yarn to start again. It's still sitting in the corner, banished from activity until I decide to do that. I love the Faux Braid pattern, just the sole will be standard knit with a padded heel I think. 

I just spent most of my 'hobby money' on some soil and fertilzer for the garden instead. Priorities I suppose are determined by the constraints of commerce.

That's all I've got for now, just plugging along.

Gloves are shaping up and a demo sock

 The gloves are working out much better by not increasing as rapidly halfway up the thumb and then I didn't write down how often I increased every other and every three rows but it's turning out better.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

No puckering and a lot closer to the thumb. I decided to increase every other row once then every third row twice and at this point going to increase every other row. I'm liking it.

The green experimental 'Faux Braid Pad Foot' sock is... a work in progress and will be frogged and re-designed.

 

The issue is the braid pattern is a lot looser than the sole of the sock making it fit oddly and the slip stich fits too small. I looked at the slip stitch sole pattern and... they only do it on the ball and heel not the entire length. Which makes a lot more sense.  I wrote addendums to the pattern for adding in extra stitches on the sides so will see how that works out. Will also look at the pattern again more closely, the reason why I only got the idea is because that is a top down pattern not toe up.  It's a demo sock, now I know it doesn't work in this configuration and will try again.

That braid pattern though is really nice, I like it, does need some attention but it works well for a sock, just not this pattern. The slip stitch works really cool with the color pattern but maybe not in this configuration.

 

I will frog it all back to the toe and do the braid pattern and just knit on the sole. Also make it a bit wider as well. 

That's been my knitting adventures for the week. More pictures and updates when there's more progress.

Sigh.