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

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?

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

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.

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

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,