Just a quick entry to say that I have updated my sock page. Some friends were discussing socks and sharing pictures and I found some old pictures that I didn’t have online, so I added them to the end of the page, with brief descriptions.
As for current craft work, I finally dug out my Icarus-in-progress, after putting it aside for Christmas and other gift knitting, and I’m still knitting the Opal socks for myself … more on those later.
My last entry showed a replaced toe and a patched heel. On the other pair of Fortissima socks, there were larger thin areas on the heels so instead of duplicate stitching to strengthen them I decided to cut the affected areas right out and replace them. As there was interest in the earlier post, I thought I’d show this process here. It looks complicated, but as long as you are comfortable grafting two rows together, it is easier than it looks.
[Note: these socks were knitted toe-up, so the gusset stitches were on needles and as I knit back and forth across the flap, I ‘ate up’ one gusset stitch at each turn, using ssk and p2tog. This makes it easy to reknit the heel flap. For top-down socks with the gusset stitches picked up from the side of the heel flap, it isn’t quite as simple. If I were repairing that type of heel, I would probably cut the whole heel out, including the shaping at the bottom, repair as shown here but starting at the top of the flap, continue with the original heel shaping and graft across the bottom of the heel.]
So, the first (and possibly most difficult) step is to snip the yarn a few rows away from one edge of the area to be repaired and start unpicking the yarn. It may be quite felted, so be careful. When you get to the edge, store the freed gusset stitch on a dpn or waste yarn. Continue doing this till you have only one row to go, then carefully tink the stitches one by one, putting them onto another dpn or piece of waste yarn. As you cut off the reclaimed yarn, remember to leave a long enough end to sew in later. The repair is slightly easier if you start and end at an edge, but I find that makes it bulkier where the ends are sewn in so I prefer to stop the unpicking mid-row. Repeat the process in the opposite direction.
You now have a sock with a big hole, but no loose stitches. I have left the top edge of the hole on waste yarn as I find it gets in the way less that way. The next task is to knit the missing part of the flap, ending one row early ready for grafting.
Note the gusset stitch still on a needle (later replaced by waste yarn as the needle fell out) at the right of the picture. The last stitch on the left side has already been used up. The new stitch that did that is the slipped edge stitch, which needs to be linked to the row above. Pull the free end out of the stitch below, and use it to graft to the slipped stitch on the row above, then back into its original stitch. Now you can graft the flap to the row above. If you are starting and stopping at an edge, that’s all you need to do - you can just sew in the ends. If you are starting and stopping in the middle of a row, you will get to a point where thre are two missing rows, not just one, so you have to stop grafting.
After completing the last full stitch on the bottom row, use the yarn end to continue knitting (or in my case purling) across the row, turn as you did at the other side and then graft back to fill the remaining gap. Sew in the ends and you now have a fully repaired heel.
Now I have a confession to make. When I tried to do the final piece of grafting, I found I was one stitch short at the top. After some close inspection, I realised I had aligned the stitches wrongly at the start of the grafted row. Now any sensible knitter would say “It’s only a heel flap, no-one will see it, so just fudge it to make it work.” I repeat that … NO ONE WILL SEE IT!!!! But I couldn’t do that. I did try to convince myself, really I did, but I ended up grafting across the whole of that second row, unpicking the original yarn ahead of me, till I reached the other side and corrected the mistake, then turned the corner and did a few more stitches so I could join in mid-row again. Yes, I’m crazy!!! But at least I can look at my repaired heel and feel real satisfaction.
I noticed yeserday that the top of the heel flap of one of my favourite socks had worn very thin, with only the nylon remaining in some places. I checked the other 3 similar socks (I’d knitted 2 identical pairs around the same time) and found 2 of them had the same problem. I also checked the toes and found the two right socks were both badly worn over the top of the big toe nail.
I checked my notes and realised they are over 10 years old. That’s not bad for socks which have been worn a lot, but as I said, these are my favourite socks, in Fortissima Cotton Colori, and I wasn’t ready to give up on them yet.
As the nylon was holding the shape of the stitches, I decided to duplicate stitch over the thin area, working from the inside of the flap so it wouldn’t show much on the outside:
The patched area felt much thicker than the rest, quite lumpy, so I was afraid it might rub against my heel, but I wore the first sock yesterday when I visited my mother in hospital. That was quite a bit of walking and I couldn’t feel any lumpiness at all, and it will soon flatten out with wear. I’ll do the other thin heel areas over the next few days
This morning I tackled one of the toes. It seemed easier to reknit the toe than to patch it. I snipped just below the toe shaping, then ripped back to the first non-shaping round, putting the stitches onto dpns as I carefully tinked the final round. These socks were knitted toe-up, but converting increases to decreases so I could knit the replacement toe top-down was no problem. You can see the change in colour and texture of the yarn at the top of the shaping, but after a few washes the difference won’t show.
I decided to try some long-repeat dyeing for socks for a friend, and here it is ….
Bright, isn’t it? Not my colours but I hope she will like it.
In case someone is curious as to how I did it, I wound the yarn into a long skein on my warping board (5 yard path, so 10 yard repeat), then dip dyed it. Here is a picture of it in the first colour bath …
So, how did the stripes work out? Well, like this …
No pictures today, but I might get some taken over the weekend as I have a lot of things that need to be photographed. However, we have to go new-to-us car hunting urgently this weekend as our current one died this week.
My most urgent current project, other than the car, is to get at least two more pairs of slippers knitted for my mother by her birthday (less than 4 weeks). The old ones wore out too quickly, so I am going to use the same yarn I used for her socks, as that seems to be lasting better. It’s Paton’s Diploma Gold DK, and I picked up 4 balls each of navy and denim so I can make at least 3 pairs of slippers and one more pair of socks, maybe a second pair of socks too. That’s how many she requested for her birthday, but she doesn’t expect me to get them all done in time.
I’ve been swatching for other projects - the Mystery Stole 2 KAL and the Icarus shawl from the latest Interweave Knits. I haven’t joined the Icarus KAL yet but I might. The Icarus is for me, and I have a cone of 2/16 cashmere from ColourMart UK. I can’t stop fondling the swatches as they feel so wonderful.
I’m doing the Mystery Stole in Skacel Merino Lace, which is almost cobweb weight, so it will actually be a scarf. I’ll probably end up giving that one away, unless I totally fall in love with the pattern when I finally see it complete.
Before I start either of those, I’m trying to finish the edging on the fan stitch half circle shawl from Waterman’s shawl book.
I’ve also been washing and dyeing free (yes, free) BFL fleece. I got 4 fleeces for just a contribution to the petrol (gas) costs of the friend who collected them. They aren’t bad, even though they were sheared by the farmer’s neighbour and were going to be burnt as it wasn’t worth him sending them to the Wool Board. They have quite a bit of VM, but mostly straw and not too difficult to pick out,
Well, that’s all the fibre news from Chez Jenny for today. I hope I’ll manage to do the next update a bit more promptly than this one.
I’ve been working on a gift for a friend. In case she looks at my blog before she receives the gift, I’m putting the details and pictures in the extended entry. If you think it might be for you, don’t click!!!
[… and for anyone reading this from the archives, when they are filed the main and extended entries are combined into a single entry, so you’ll see it all without clicking anything.]
(more…)
The only fibre-related present I got this birthday is a Bosworth Moosie, but I’m not complaining as if I’m going to get only one, a Moosie is a good choice!
Mine is 28g (1 oz) and has a Cochin rosewood shaft. It isn’t easy to get pictures that show the markings well. Click on the side views for larger pictures.
Most of my other presents were paperback novels, plus one DVD set, but Rys also gave me this beautiful little fossil, only 1.2″ across:
Lastly, I have a better picture of the mini-socks, which shows the colours better. I’m still trying to decide whether to make them into earrings or just add cords to make them into ornaments.
Earlier this month, I finished a pair of socks for a friend, but I didn’t want to post pictures here until she had received them. She has them now, so here they are (pictured before washing, and not on Ann’s feet):
Here is a close-up of the faux plaited cable, actually a slipped stitch ‘cable’ from Barbara Walker’s first Treasury, p108:
The yarn is Super Sport Strumpf wool/nylon, given to me long ago by a kind Knitlister living in Germany. It has been maturing in my stash waiting for the perfect recipient.
My current small project is Sanquhar gloves, similar to these but with a different traditional stitch pattern. The SWRI has patterns for 4 versions of these gloves. I am swatching J&S laceweight. I have done a swatch on 2 mm needles which is too loose for the gloves to fit my narrow hands, so I started another on 1.75 mm (promising!) and I’ve just changed to 1.5 mm. I’ll post photos later.
My other WIPS are socks for me in Opal and 2 Faroese shawls, both from Heartstrings. Pendants is for a friend, and ALF (All-Over Lace Faroese) will probably be for me unless I decide I haven’t time to knit another shawl for an exchange with a May deadline.
I’ve been busy dyeing sample skeins of cotton. I am trying to match the colours in some source pictures. Once I get them right, I’ll be dyeing the warps for a weaving design workshop. The only(?) problem is that the workshop is on Saturday and I’m still at the sampling stage. If the ones currently ‘cooking’ fill the last few gaps, I’ll dye the actual warps tomorrow and Rys and I will warp up both table looms on Friday. Wish me (no, us) luck!!!!
Anyway, this morning I had a lovely surprise when a small padded envelope dropped through the letter box, and inside were …
They were handknitted for me by the wonderful Gina, who used to host this blog on her site. they are less than 2″ top to toe. I don’ tknow whether the yarn was handspun and/or home-dyed but neither would surprise me.
Aren’t I lucky?!?