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.