Our Sock KAL site - come join us!

We're doing it. Knit-A-Long with us and the "Need A Sock?" book .



Your two KAL guides will be Deb Gemmell and Brenda Harris.






Friday, December 24, 2010

Food and knitting, what could be better than sitting inside while it's snowing outside. It's almost that time so Merry Christmas and a Happy Holiday to everyone. Hope you will be enjoying good food with family and friends and maybe doing a little knitting or appreciating the pleased looks on those you knit for.
Deb

Monday, December 20, 2010

Food and Knitting

Food and knitting is always a good combo. Here, the Grey Heron Sock KAL ladies enjoy a Christmas luncheon courtesy of Karen, the shop owner, shown here wearing the red and grey.

Arlene showed off her completed sock. When she left last week, the toes were only partially decreased. Arlene commented that she would most likely not be able to figure out the grafting at home. She expected she would wait for me to help her at the Christmas luncheon. But look what she did all on her own. Completed, grafted and ready to wear. Well done, Arlene.

Ruth who finished her sock in class last week, showed us her latest scarf. This is not the scarf she started. Her vision for the first scarf didn't work out, so she ripped it, purchased some novelty yarn to tart up the plain red and started over. This one is gorgeous, Ruth.

I'll not mention Diane's poor sock. Diane, remember, went south for a week. That meant last week, she played catch up. At home, she thought she would be able to progress but forgot to decrease through the gusset. Oops! She had a pretty funny, fat sock when she came to class. We let her eat with us anyway.

I can't tell you how proud I am of these knitters. They came to the store in the early fall, non-knitters all. Since then, they have knit scarves, hats, mittens, learned to felt and now to make socks. Well done ladies. What shall we tackle in the new year?

Friday, December 17, 2010

I'm making slow progress but progess none the less. You can see how stripey this wool is now that I've done the Elizabeth Zimmermann's Garter Edged Heel Flap (pg.36). It works really well and makes it so easy to pick up stitches along the side of the heel flap.
I'm not going to put the pattern down the foot since it is quite raised. Now it's clear sailing in stockinette stitch to the toes. I think I'm going to start a second leg with another set of needles while I'm enthusiastic about the pattern and then I can work both socks at the same time, the second sock when I want to work the pattern or the first sock when I want some plain knitting to do. Sounds like a plan.
-Deb

Monday, December 13, 2010

Grey Heron Knitters Finish Their Socks.

Ruth finished her sock in class and learned the Kitchener stitch to close the toes. Proud is too mild a word.
Diane, though forgot her knitting bag at home when she headed off to Southern climes for a week. She was ready to turn her heel this week.


There were promises though to have all socks complete by this Wednesday so they can be worn to our Christmas lunch. I'll keep you posted on that one.

Thursday, December 9, 2010

My 6-stitch slip stitch pattern is working really well. At least I think it is. (Quilted Lattice pattern - see previous post for pattern.)
I put on 66 sts for a ladies sock (about 6 sts extra) and am knitting at about 8 sts = 1" on 2.25mm needles. The slip stitch is going to pull the fabric in but not as much as I thought it might. It's working out well with the striped wool.

As you can see there is quite a bit of variation in the colour but I like that the slipped stitches seem to fade away in spots.
-Deb

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

The Knitting Competition

As you can see, the competition never rests. Mum on second sock of second pair. Tia , the Norfolk Terrier on nursing duty. This is a 101 sock in a lovely yarn
dyed in shades of purple.

James Socks

When last I spoke of these socks, I had failed miserably to do a correct heel flap. Instead of the 28 (50%) stitches required, my mis-count gave me only 26. Of course, I didn't count twice, but proceeded to complete the flap. And the heel turn. Or at least I tried to turn the heel. Without the correct number of stitches, it was quite one-sided.

But done now, here are the details.

Pattern - Sock 101 from Need A Sock? Using 56 sittches to fit a shoe size 5.

Yarn - Waikiwi in dark green. This yarn is by Naturally from New Zealand and contains 10% Possum Fur.

Ribbing - My favourite. A 2 X 2 rib.

Heel Flap & Turn -Again my favourite. The SL 1, K 1 heel flap with a round - start short rowing at two past centre - heel.

Toes - Round toes. Favourites?? You bet. Decrease every other round until 50% of stitches remain, then decrease every round until 25% remain before grafting.

Mods - With 56 stitches, I was able to put an easy, seven-stitch pattern on the leg of K6, P1. It's great how that seven stitch pattern not only flowed nicely from the 2 X 2 ribbing, but also fit into my 56 stitch sock a perfect eight times. Four for the front of the leg,. Four for the back.

All in all, a favourite pattern and a great pair of socks for Grandson James,

Sunday, December 5, 2010

It's not working!
The wool is just too stripey to show the Lace Cable pattern well. That may be why it was abandoned at the bottom of my sock stash box in the first place. I thought maybe it needed a bigger pattern. But then I had another idea, what if I had a pattern on top!!
Yes, this is definitely going to work. And it's a 6 st repeating pattern, yay, which will fit into the Fancy Sock set-up. All I had to do was make the pattern which is written for working back and forth into a pattern for 'in the round'. This is the Quilted Lattice pattern from A Treasury of Knitting Patterns by Barbara G. Walker, pg. 102 (the blue book).
Here it is 'in the round':
R1:  *YO, K5, YO, K1;
R2:  *drop the yo, SL1, K4, drop the yo, SL1;
R3-5:  *SL1, K4, SL1;
R6:  *drop the slipped st to front of work, K2, pick up dropped slipped st and knit it, slip next 2 sts over to Right needle, drop next slipped st to front of work, slip the 2 sts from Right needle back onto Left needle, pick up dropped st and knit it, K2;
R7:  *K2, [YO, K1] twice, K2;
R8:  *K2, [drop yo, SL1] twice, K2;
R9-11:  *K2, SL2, K2;
R12:  *slip next 2 sts over to Right needle, drop next slipped st to front of work, slip 2 sts from Right needle back onto Left needle, pick up dropped st and knit it, K2, drop next slipped st to front of work, K2, pick up dropped st and knit it;

I'm pretty sure I have this written out correctly but let me know if it's not. It's working for me.
You'll feel so adventurous when you drop those stitches and pick them up again. Risky knitting, yikes, but the yo make the slipped stitches very stable. You also have to work a YO at the beginning of each double pointed needle but don't worry if they fall off because you drop them in the next row anyway. Is that just perfect or what?!

I'm so excited to get going on this pattern. It totally fits the hand dyed wool.
-Deb

Thursday, December 2, 2010

You guys are going gang busters at the Grey Heron. Well done. You have encouraged me to get going on another pair of socks. To that end I was scrounging around in my sock wool stash, right to the bottom where I found one sock which I started and for some reason got stalled on. Does this happen to other knitters?
This wool obviously wants to be made into socks and I have failed it miserably. So I'm going to make good now. I'll undo that sock, wet the yarn and hang it up to dry and use the other ball to get started on a new sock. By that time the washed wool will be ready to use too. Now to decide on the pattern I want to knit. Lace, Cable or Sock 101, which one to choose? I'm leaning towards cables.

Sharon, I'm so glad you're joining us. I hope you're mom is doing well with her radiation treatments and I hope the sock knitting will make the waiting time go faster for you. The competition between you and your mom will get you going on your second sock which could be a good thing. For those of you who don't know, Sharon is a fantastic moebius knitter, the word obsessed comes to mind, so I don't know if I should mention that socks can also be addictive too. Beware!
-Deb

As The Heel Turns

The Grey Heron sock KAL group all turned their first heel yesterday. During class time, they went from heel turning virg - - s, to accomplished turners! Diane is on vacation somewhere sunny and warm and we all hope she took her sock and book with her. We'd feel badly, Diane if you were the only 'virg - - - ' left in our crowd!

As last week, the day started as concentration central. 'New' Diane is concentrating hard. The wonderful thing about watching 'new' Diane turn her heel is that she has tried more than once in the past to do this and found the instructions confusing and complicated. To see her accomplish her heel turn so quickly and easily was gratifying!


And here she is later with heel turned amidst expressions of " I can't believe I did this!"

Arlene had problems with her yarn splitting. Every time she did the SSK on her short row. This look on her face? Frustration!
Not a quitter, though. She persevered and before she left for the day the heel was turned and her first round of gusset decreases done.

Ruth, our knitter/comedian, shows her turned heel and you can clearly see the marker for needle number one. Ruth's comment was " No one will believe I can knit socks"!
Well done, ladies! There was laughter and fun and turned heels. What better way to spend Wednesday afternoons.

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Two for the Price of One Invitation

Hi Deb, and Hello Brenda
I am a faithful reader of both Cabin Fever and Brenda Knits. Deb, perhaps you could introduce me to Brenda, as I already follow her blog.
I have finally managed to corral Book, Yarn and Needles and was smugly pleased with myself, until I looked across the room to see my mother finishing a sock. The snugness vanished completely when she gave me a short lecture on the superiority of your book and sock directions.
I am knitting furiously while she sees her doctor and has her radiation treatments- but I have not caught up. I am using the Silk and Silver, and the socks are for my sister. So is she. I am knitting the plain sock, she is knitting the ribbed sock. She is very competitive, I am easily distracted. You can see how this is going to end. She is already planning the next pair she will knit- I am hoping to get a second sock to match the first.
We are both enjoying the book, and the knitting.
I just wanted you to know we are here, and knitting socks.