Knee Socks

Do you remember this train wreck?

It is the Basket Weave Stitch, in progress, using the 72 needle cylinder on the Verdun 47 sock machine. (My previous efforts with this stitch were only on the 54 needle cylinder.)

This is for part of my newest proto type:

These are a pair of Kilt-Hose-ish Knee Socks, in size Medium, knit with my own one ply lite fingering weight 70/30 wool/nylon, in Natural.

Recall that I usually knit size Medium on the 54 needle cylinder, but in order to accommodate the dimension necessary for the calf, I'm using the larger cylinder. Then, I'm taking some needles out when I get to the pre-heel, to size down appropriately for the foot.

Here's a close up of the hem top, which is 82 rows (before hemming). The basket weave portion, only on the outside, is three repeats of the 12 row pattern.

On the inside of the hem top, I've done a mock rib to provide the elasticity to hold the sock up.

Watch Point
Hanging an 82 row hem can be fraught with difficulty - when you reach down to pull up that much work through the cylinder it is easy to pop your work off the needles by accident, particularly with my substantial man hands. (And you KNOW how I know this!)

The solution...two heel forks with a single weight each on opposite sides of the work, placed an inch or so down from the top. This will hold the work down on the needles while you are pulling the work up through the centre.

The sock is basically the same design as my Cat in the Hat socks, substituting the Basket Weave top, and working in Natural instead of stripes.

I begin with my tension TWO FULL TURNS looser than my normal setting for a size Medium sock in fingering weight, and I gradually increase the tension, 1/2 turn at a time as I knit down from the hem top to the pre-heel. This makes a good fit on an average size calf. (DW=average).

My photos are a bit nasty. Hard to photo texture in Natural. I've dulled down the contrast to show the texture better....honest, my wool isn't that dull!

Celebrating

The sock machines were idle for the weekend as the Soxophone Player travelled to the Big Smoke for the Confirmation of GK#1.

Nary a grandparent, parent, aunt, uncle, cousin, or sibling was missing for the occasion.

Great feasting and merriment at DS's home followed the anointing.

Ay karumba.....they grow so fast!

Man in Black

And by 'in' black, I mean up to my ying yang. I realize this is a boring picture, but as a production knitter sometimes I have to 'do boring'.

Although I did take a black-breather and knit 3/5 of a mile of Austermann Step, colour #0030 Mint.

These are all size Medium. I finished up the bag with 4 larger pair which are resting on the sock machine waiting for their toes to be closed.

And with some good slogging done, I started another bit of fun work - the second Over The Knee Sock. I still haven't confirmed my final measurements, but whatever else may change, the sock still needs a top.

This is the part that goes OVER the knee and is knit on the 100 needle cylinder. It starts with a double hem of 80 rows (40 finished) and another 40 rows with two half-turn tension reductions so the final gauge will match the beginning gauge when I rehang this top on the 72 needle cylinder.

This top is unwashed. When washed and blocked it will be ~ 1" wider.

I knit a large amount of 'scrap' on the end. Much more than I need. But as I was using a baby yarn for scrap I decided to swatch it and get a gauge on it for future reference. (It worked out to 10 stitches and 12 rows per inch at this tension setting.)

When I begin to knit the rest of the sock I will simply drop this top into the 72 cylinder and rehang my last row of stitches directly onto the needles. You can see that this job will be infinitely easier because of using white scrap against bright coloured sock yarn. A little easier on the eyes!

My 100 needle cylinder was made by NZAK and goes on my Legare 400.

So, that means I had to take off my (workhorse) 54 cylinder.

Which reminded me of the question someone asked a while back about how often I clean my sock machines.

Probably not often enough!

Lite Tides

From this:

To this:

To these:

Recall that this batch of sock yarn, 75/25 Wool/Nylon employs the same colours as my Rising Tides batch, but with lower (paler) values, and 4 colours instead of five.

Quite a difference in colour presentation:

In patterning... the 54 stitch sock gives a more striped look in 4 colours than 5, and this replicates from sock to sock.

And in the 72 stitch sock the colours pool irregularly in 4 colours as in the 5 colour, with the former pooling in broader bands.

Personally, you know I like the 54 stitch presentation much better. And I have to say, I think this colour way ROCKS!

Remember these:

They were a trial pair of knee socks in a Cat in the Hat theme, knit on the Verdun 47, 72 needle cylinder.

As it happens they fit DW to a tee....the top of the hem was about three fingers below her knee. The foot was a perfect fit, and the leg was snug enough to stay reliably up, but not so as to stretch the stitches which looked quite uniform top to bottom. DW is an 'average size' W and wears size M, which is what I knit.

I am very pleased that using tension control allowed me to vary the stitch size sufficiently to accommodate the calf section of the socks.

DD is a size Small, and when she tried on the socks I was able to measure and see what adjustments I need to make to my pattern to get that size happening.

But all that put another idea in my head.

A New Proto Type

This is an Over The Knee Sock.

I only knit one sock. and will see what it does on DW.

On the Knee Socks, the hem top was a comfortable fit and look on DW, but it was apparent I would need more stitches in the circumference if I was to take the sock over the knee. True, I could have loosened the tension even more, but I think the stitches would have looked baggy/loose rather than a nice crisp knit.

The solution.

I knit the top of the sock on the 100 needle cylinder. I started with a 9:1 mock rib for the hem top, and then put the rest of the needles in just before hanging the hem. After that I carried on knitting until I had about 8" in length. I tied on scrap yarn and knit a bunch of rows and then ran the partial sock right off the machine.

Then..... I took that part sock and rehung it on the 72 cylinder (talk about going blind!). To reduce the 100 stitches to 72 I doubled up every third and fourth stitch from the 100 onto a single needle on the 72. I had to double up a few extras which I spread evenly around, with a final result that 28 stitches were doubled.

To make this as smooth a transition as possible I planned my tension settings so that the Stitches and Rows per Inch were the same at the END of the 100 cylinder knitting and the BEGINNING of the 72 cylinder knitting. (Thanks to anal note keeping I was able to simply look that up!)

I've marked an Arrow on the photo to show where the two parts of the sock joined. I was a bit nervous that reducing 28 stitches on one row would be a problem, but calculating the tension ahead of time worked its magic and the seam is fairly smooth.

The yarn in Opal Neon, colour # 1930. And the one sock took the Lion's share of the 100 g ball.

You can see my tension adjustments as the sock heads from knee to toe...I tightened the tension 1/2 turn every 40 rows and it was interesting to note how it changed the patterning of the colours.

Austermann Step Mint

This is Austermann Step, colour #0030 Mint.

This pair of socks is size Medium, knit on the Legare 400, 54 needle cylinder.

As usual, the Step yarns are a treat to knit with on the sock machine. Flows like butter!

The colour name is Mint, and I like the colour, but I would say its a little closer to a turquoise, or at least to the blue edge of Mint. It makes a nice combination with the pale slate blue and caramel/toffee.

In the Dye Room

This is the pale Sky Blue sock yarn I vat dyed last week. I'm going to turn it into a 4 colour handpaint, using Lilac, Slate Blue, and Spearmint over-painted on the skeins.

Here I've painted 3 skeins of the yarn in more or less equal quarters.

And here, just to see what happens in the knitting....I did the second batch of 3 skeins differently - leaving one half of the skein as Sky Blue, and then dividing the remaining half amongst the three painting colours.

And that other project:

This is 3 skeins of sock yarn that are 50 feet in circumference.

50 feet!

I'm trying to work this out on the fly, so it may be a crash and burn project.
My plan is to paint the yarn as it hangs. But then I need to be able to get it off the rack, wrap it in 50 feet of saran wrap such that no two colours touch each other, roll it up, heat set the dye in my usual pickle pot, unwrap the yarn after cooling and somehow get the 50 foot skeins back on the frame without making a colossal mess.

I'm not sure I know how to pull this off. I may have to stare at it for a few months days.

I'm taking some inspiration from this book:

Lighter Shades of Pale

A lot of things on the farm look like a dead lamb or a dead sheep. I've mistaken almost every rock on the farm (and there are a lot of them) for either one or the other.

This wasn't a dead bloated lamb. It was a live sleeping Canada Goose. One of two who've taken up residency at the front pond.

Every spring, as far back as I can remember, there has been a pair of Mallard Ducks in the pond. And numerous Killdeer nearby. But this year there is only the pair of geese. I expect they have chased the other birds away.

I've been busy in the dye room this week.

Each of these batches is my own 75/25 Wool/Nylon fingering weight sock yarn. The colours are Lemon Drop, Sky Blue, and Rhodemine Red.

Lemon Drop was one of the colours in my Sun Baked Earth batch, and Sky Blue was one of the colours in my Rising Tides batch.

I'm going to do two similar series, but this time I'm going to start with one pale colour undercoat, and paint on three additional colours to the Sky Blue, and two additional colours to the Lemon Drop.

Recall that previously I had a total of 6 colours in one batch and 5 in the other. So this time I'm heading for a total of 4 and 3, to see if/how the pattern varies in knitting.

I'll select the colours from the same ones I used in the two previous series, but at a lighter value. Of course the colours will change when I paint them on top of the under dyed yarn and it will be interesting to see if the resulting tones bear any resemblance at all to the picture I have in my head!

The Rhodemine Red, which is really like a hot pink, is for another project I've dreamed up. It will be paired with another batch that I've yet to dye.

And, while I'm dreaming up more sock projects... here's another one I've started on:

This is a section of wall in the dye room. I've taken apart a Warp frame and screwed two sections of the frame to the wall, eight feet apart.

Hmmm...

Resurrections

Easter wrought more than one resurrection this year. Winter enjoyed more than a passing return to the farm.

Even with several warm days in a row, the snow is reluctant to leave. The daffodils have decided to bud anyway.

And the crocus don't seem bothered by the snow either.

For me, the week after Easter is more about wilting than blooming. Choir and canting is very intense (for me) and when Holy Week wraps up its all very anti-climatic for a time. A time that I reacquaint myself with 'the couch'.

However.... slowly I extract myself from post Easter sloth, and resurrect my knitting.

This is Patons Cotton Stretch, colour Mineral, in size Large, knit on the Verdun 47, 72 needle cylinder. 41% Cotton 39% Wool 7% Elastic.

And this is also Patons Cotton Stretch in a size Large, this time in colour Taffy.

The elastic content really draws the socks in. Coming off the blockers they look more like a size Medium, yet on the blockers they easily return to Large without over-stretching.

One of the PLEASURES of working with this yarn.... when I wind the yarn on my ball winder there are virtually no tangles or snags and I can whip up a stack of sock machine ready balls in no time at all. (As compared to Noro Kureyon which takes longer to wind than to knit!)

So far I've been lucky with the cotton stretch yarn. It is quite fine, so perish the thought of trying to pick up dropped stitches.

Touch wood.

A Closer Look

Here is a comparative look at my recent hand paint, Sun Baked Earth; 75/25 Wool/Nylon 400 yds/4 oz; 6 colours painted on 60" skein.

The sock on the left if size Medium, knit on the Legare 400, 54 needle cylinder.

The sock on the right is size Large, knit on the Verdun 47, 72 needle cylinder.

After knitting a bunch of these... the pattern behaviour on the 54 stitch sock replicated fairly well, while the patterning on the 72 stitch sock is all over the map and no two socks come out the same.

And here is my hand paint Rising Tides, same yarn as above but painted with 5 colours on a 60" skein.

Like the Sun Baked Earth, Rising tides gives a fairly consistent pattern on the 54 stitch sock (left) and a fairly erratic pattern on the 72 stitch sock (right). And also like the Sun Baked Earth, the pattern replicated quite well in a group of 54 stitch socks, but varied greatly amongst a group of 72 stitch socks.

(An interesting note - at least to me - this is the opposite behaviour to Schaeffer Anne, where I find the 72 stitch socks are more evenly patterned and replicate well, while the 54 stitch socks are all over the map.)

Weirded Out
I dunno. Maybe its because its Holy Week. Am I the only one weirded out this week by:

The second worst snow storm of the winter coming in April (and just after watching The Day After Tomorrow on DVD).

Bush Obama going on about Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq North Korea.

A middle aged rock star - Madonna - trotting about with a boy toy -less than half her age - named Jesus.

It Ain't Over Til It's Over

It's always nice to look out the window in the morning and see what's new on the farm.

That is what it looked like out of every window this morning!

Looking for a spot to do his business without dragging bottom was a challenge for Jesse.

Bounding through the snow like a deer is the only way to get around!

I'm glad Jesse can bound.

But for me, my bounding days are pretty much done.

Stomping and slogging are about the best I could muster today.

Snow tires are still on the truck, but weren't a lot of use when the roads (and driveway) aren't ploughed.

There was a thing on the radio the other day....statistically (in my area), most people over 50 don't take their snow tires off until well into April; folks in their 40's....in March; and young'uns....end of February.

With age comes wisdom ;o)

Fortissima Browns

Fortissima Socka #2412

Fortissima Mexiko #9066

Fortissima Mexiko #9068

That's the end of my brown binge for a while. I've got a nice batch to take to my 'likes brown' friend to select for his spring/summer excitement.

All of the above are size Large, and knit on the Verdun 47, 72 needle cylinder.

Personally, I like the top pair the best. (Although I did encounter one knot in that ball and you can see where it is... where the colours change abruptly in one spot rather than gradually as intended.) Still, I love the constant shifting of colours in this yarn and I may need to get a skid few more balls of it.

Sock Distractions
My knitting has slowed a tad lately.

Despite annual resolutions to keep the farm bookkeeping up to date, I was in yet another scramble this year to do the entire year's books in one swoop as the accountant pestered away.

And part of doing the books is taking Inventory.

And part of Inventory includes counting 'the stash'.

#@%!^#%$*(*$&$#!

And with that tax finally out of the way, its time to sift through the first quarter of 2009 GST (like VAT) filing. Only to find that I forgot to file the last quarter of 2008.

Holy !@#^^$%#@#@$ I may qualify for a spot in Obama's cabinet.

Maybe Secretary of Knitting. Monsieur LaFarge? Now THAT would be change you can believe in ;o).

And with Easter on the horizon, replete with many music rehearsals and the marathon music of Holy Week, it seems my knitting may coast a little longer.

There is a lady in my choir who can knit half a sweater during rehearsal, and never once seems to look at her needles.

But I guess it would be pushing it to take my sock machine...

Hand Paint Reveal

This is Sun Baked Earth; my own 75/25 Wool/Nylon fingering weight; approximately 400y/100g. Hand painted in shades of Lemon, Key Lime, Apricot, Terra Cotta, Caramel, and Chestnut. Dyes all Washfast Acid Dye from Prochem in Boston (check out their new web site if you haven't already!).

Here is a pair of socks knit up on the Legare 400, 54 needle cylinder - Size Medium.

And this is Rising Tides, also my own 75/25 Wool/Nylon.

This batch hand painted in shades of Sky Blue, Lilac, Spearmint, Slate Blue and Reddish Brown. (Also Washfast Acid Dyes from Prochem.)

And here is a pair of Size Medium, knit on the same machine and same tension settings as the Sun Baked Earth pair.

The Sun Baked Earth has 6 colours and the Rising Tides has 5 colours, both painted on 60" skeins. I don't see a huge difference in how one patterns vs the other.