The wedding shrug, v.1

Spring is finally here. The breezes are warmer, the flowers are out...and we are all feeling like it's darn tootin time. Everything is soo photogenic, and I couldn't resist taking a bunch of photos to share with you all.

Refreshing my memory of the "correct technique" for picking up stitches along the edges of the stockinette.

Trillions of hours later: picking up the 230 stitches to garter around the shrug.

The side of the shrug.

The back of the shrug, and why I am going to make version 2. The pattern and picot edging will stay, but it will be smaller lengthwise and widthwise and the garter boarder will be knit simultaneously with the lace. The yarn in the current shrug is great (I would use it again for the Abriana cardi), but who can resist a cashmere blend?

Mother's Day & other such goodness

Mother's Day was quiet, yet relaxing. I finished the wedding shrug (to be posted about after this), and quickly added a little (yet very fast) embellishments to my mom's bag. I got her a mother's day necklace that had writing inscribed all over it.

I was stoked that I actually found a LYS. My very own, not 20 minutes away, nor 45...but 8 minutes away. Can you hear the choir now?
Above is some Inca Alpaca yarn that I bought 30% off when the whole "Rummage Sales" thing was going on in the suburban community the shop is located in. I plan to make gloriously soft intarsia mittens out of these. The yarn shop is darling, it's a mixture of arty stuff & a yarn shop, and it had much more than I imagined when I first learned about it on the web. This was from my second visit, when Joe and I went there.

These two skeins of Classic Yarns cashmere blends are from my first visit, with my mom. She was thoughtful enough to treat me to lunch & purchased these two skeins & "It Itches" book! I am planning on knitting up my wedding shrug again, this time a little modified to be smaller, and to have the garter edging knit up while I'm doing the lace. More on those changes later.

My wild flowers are sprouting up! Go miracle grow! That's a few day's worth of germinating.

...and finally, drum-roll please....more BARE YARN!!! Let the dyeing extravaganza begin! I'll have soo many wonderful colorways available in my shop in the near future!

"Bobble Emergency" Tutorial: how to pull a Houdini

I've been working my arse of today finishing up my "Tie-the-Knot" wedding shrug. I have finally completed it, but I would first like to share my little "adventure" or should I say harsh "realization" after I casted off the last picot: 2 bobbles. MIA. For all to see. Freakin monkies...

I should have seen it coming. I mean, I practically did the whole thing perfectly, only frogging a few stitches when I goofed up a bit while paying attention to cooking, or the radio. I had it coming, right? The very last bobbles of the pattern somehow got overlooked, I should say. I blame "FO-itis" enthusiasm. It had to be that. Anyways, the fact of the matter was that I couldn't-and cannot-leave two open spaces where the bobbles should have been. Every ounce of my near-perfectionist attitude screamed for me to fix it. (But of course not frogging it back to the problem area, no, that would be the "right thing" to do.) I'm much too lazy for that. I "Fudged it," I like to call it. And those faux-bobbles look damn near-perfect. Almost identical to the real ones. What a relief.

So here's my "unconventional" MIA bobble technique. Its for knitted bobbles, so you'll have to reverse the "knit" or "purl" instructions if you want yours just gartered (to just purling both sides). You can also change the size of the bobble by knitting/purling less or more. If you want yours bigger, just make more stitches by KF&B into the stitches you pick up. If you want it smaller, don't "M1.

"Okay-dokie. So here is the culprit:

Stare and glare at it. Then make your peace and move on.

Step 1: insert the tip of your needle into the "V" of the stockinette, where the beginning of your bobble needs to be (the smallest point of the bobble). Use the same size needle as your work.

Step 2: attach the yarn, knit into the first stitch, M1 (pick up 1 stitch inbetween the two stitches), knit that stitch and also the last stitch on the needle. You'll have 3 stitches now on that needle.

Step 3: turn your work. Purl the 3 stitches. (knit and purl another row if you'd like yours a lot bigger)

Step 4: turn your work. Knit those 3 stitches together.

Step 5: with your remaining stitch, cut your yarn and secure with a knot.

Step 6: use a darning needle to thread the yarn connected to the last stitch and push it through the middle of a stitch (behind the bobble) on the right side of the work and into the back side of the work. Do this in a spot where you want the top of your bobble to fall flat against. It will keep the bobble nice and secure...and not flapping around. Thread any remaining threads into the back side of the work as well.

Step 7: Secure on the wrong side a knot and weave the remaining strands into the wrong side of the work.

Step 8: breath out & relax. The nightmare is over. You can now go back and enjoy your work. You are the boss of those bobbles...and not the other way around.

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial. I'll post about the actual wedding shawl soon! Stay posted! :)

Progress

I'm back at home, and was pleasantly greeted by blooming flowers and fragrant smells. It's really great sitting outside with a warm breeze blowing on you while you knit. Ahhh.

I've gotten several inches done since Iowa City. The shrug was only half this size, or less. I think it's really coming along, and I'm still trudging through.

Here's a close-up of the shrug. It's about 14'' long right now from the edge of the sleeve. I'll need to knit the main body for 22'' or so. That means I'm around half way done.

I went to two LYS in Iowa while I was visiting Joe this week. At Crazy Girl Yarns, I bought a "just in" 9'' circular needles in size 2 and two sample wool-washes. I'll either love or hate those needles, which I intend to use on knitting socks on-the-go. Right now I'm iffy.

I also bought two beautiful skeins of Miski baby llama yarn in a natural color, brown. They will one day be made into a silky scarf. It's very soft, and doesn't scratch my sensitive neck in the least bit.

Alright kids, back to work. Get those needles clicking...

Startitis

I've been in Iowa City for the past few days, visiting with the beau and making sure everything is on track. I'll be leaving Wednesday morning-ish, so I can get back to all of those piano lessons that I have to teach & make up that are inbetween them. Yicks. In the meantime, I've been knitting a little, and reading a couple of books to keep me busy (like the Yarn Harlots' "Things I learned from Knitting Whether I Wanted to or Not"). My wedding clock says it's one day under 5 months-a really frightening thought, as I have too much left to plan-so I better get cracking on my "Tie-the-knot" shrug I'm designing.

However, Startitis is kicking in, darn it, and is making my hands itch. I've been scouring through Ravelry patterns, and was blown away by a few patterns that I must knit ASAP:

Berroco's "Abrianna," a very nice cardigan with a simple, yet highly textured pattern. It calls for about 7 skeins, or 450 grams of yarn, so I might substitute the recommended yarn for Micro Spun. It seems to have the same silkiness & thickness as the pattern's yarn, albeit the nice colorway. I'm thinking that a layered necklace like in the photo is a MUST. A skirt would be nice too, as well as a cute bag, but i think this cardi would look great with dark denim jeans too.

I'm absolutely in love with Alice Bell's "Bottom's Up" pattern as well. It would work great in the Spring and Summer months, and would look extra spicy with a belt & skirt. I'll need to find some sport weight for this.


Let's see, the other "main" patterns that I hope to cast-on for in the near, near future:
-EZ's Mittered Mits. With Noro yarn.
-Meghan Munro's Replica of the Secret Garden Tam. Red, like in the movie.
-Berroco's Dizzy hat.
-Berroco's Cisco with my own handspun yarn.
-Berroco's Juliana wrap.
-Ysolda's Cloud Bolero, but longer and with buttons.
-Jana Trent's Eloomanator Diagonal Dishcloth. In a darker yellow, like the pattern.
-Vaunda Rae Giberson's Wheatfield Dishcloth.

Yeah, I think you see my problem.

Well, back to some knitting. I'd like to visit the LYS today, inbetween Joe's studying. I'd also like to walk around the mall too, but I'm still on the boot, and it's hard to walk normal (Surprising, I know). I'm officially supposed to start walking without crutches today (although I've been doing that for a while, don't tell the doc), but I don't know if I should push it. It's hard to tell if it's almost healed. It's a pain test, but I'm still unsure whether or not the pain is from unused muscles, inflamed tendons surrounding the fracture, or the fracture itself. Maybe it's all of the above. Who knows. It wouldn't surprise me, having all sorts of health inflictions dumped on me all at once lately...

Star-Edged Socks

Do you ever get tempted to knit a sock in a pattern and literally "skip" the heel because it broke up the pattern? Now you can! (Mostly.) You can save your heel stitches for later. Make the heel your... brother, and not the other way around!

Intriqued? visit my in depth Afterthought Heel Tutorial for this pattern.

For this pair of socks, I decided to go the non-traditional route when it came to afterthought heels. I wanted my heel to look just similar to the traditional toes shaping. You can substitute with any sort of heel method like short row heels, etc, there's a lot out there.

Pattern: Star-edged Socks, by KUAS (yours, truly)

Yarn: approx 385 yds of KUAS' fingering weight yarn in the colorway "Butterfly"

Needles: size 2US dpns, set of 4.

Method: Top-down

Special features: Afterthought heel, Star-Toe decrease on the toes and heel.

Project: April 20th-26th 2009

I like them. They feel very springish. You'll notice one curvy decrease on the heel in the photo below, but if you turn the foot, you'll notice that they are actually decreasing at 4 points. It's kind of tripy with variegated yarn.

I hope you like these socks!

The Complete "Afterthought Heel" Tutorial

AFTERTHOUGHT HEEL TUTORIAL

Pattern example: Star-Edged Socks by Anna Maliszewski

"Oh The Woe!" Sock Knitter Scenarios For Favoring Afterthought Heels:

SCENARIO 1: your trudging through your cable/lace work. You're really hooked on that pattern...cause you're finally getting it down-pat. And after a good 4-6 inches of leg work, you're like, "oh man, now I have to set aside the pattern, knit a 2.5'' heel, turn the heel, deal with picking up stitches on the sides, and working the gusset decreases before I can f-i-n-a-l-l-y get back to the pattern, figure out where I left off (or where I set the pattern and cable needles down at), and try to get into the cable groove? Woe is me!
SCENARIO 2: You're at the movies, or somewhere away from home, and you're knitting your sock in stockinette because you don't have to look down too much, and you finally make it to the heel. Are you honestly telling me that you can fiddle with the heel steps in the dark? If you can, can I please borrow you're super-powers?
SCENARIO 3: You like being unconventional! Oh, snap!



A tutorial on how to do the Afterthought Heel:Special note: I realize that in Part 1, my work is inside-out in the photos. When I knit with dpns, I usually like to knit this way because it's easier on my hands, even though it's non-conventional. Not all of the photos are setup this way.

Part 1: the set-upStep 1: knit up to the point where you would place your heel. A heel traditionally uses 50% of your total stitches. Depending on the sock pattern instructions, you may knit half the round with your working yarn before you knit the heel stitches with waste yarn, or you may be asked to begin the heel round with the waste yarn right off the bat. Jeez, manners!

Note: the stitches are distributed as thus, whether or not you choose to use 3dpns, or 4 dpns for your sock: 50% of sock stitches= front (I usually use just 1 dpn for this) and 50% of sock stitches for the heel (I split these into two dpns, 25% of stitches on each).  

However, for the sake of simplicity, I start my heel right off the bat on the first 50% of my stitches (ex: 32sts) in the round, although it makes no difference if you choose otherwise.

Step 2: You'll need about 20'' of waste yarn in a contrasting color for each sock (with the same thickness, or a tiny bit thicker yarn than your sock yarn). Drop the main working yarn and knit the specified heel stitch amount with waste yarn.

Step 3: After knitting the specified heel stitches, drop the waste yarn, pick up the main working yarn again and continuing working on your current sock pattern in pattern.

Step 4: Upon the following round, you will knit over the waste yarn and will forget all about the heel until after the completion of the sock, so continue on with your merry knitting way, doing whatever you need to do until you have decreased the toes and grafted the remaining toe stitches together. Try to snicker a little bit like you "went around the system" and are doing something scandalous. It's more fun.

Note: when you are supposed to knit a certain amount of inches before the toe shaping, measure from the waste yarn line.

Part 2: Releasing the "live stitches"

Step 1: It's time to unravel those saved stitches, now that you're done knitting the rest of the sock. whether or not your strand is hanging out on the "right side" of your work, or some how found it's way hanging out on the "wrong side," pull at the first part of the stitch on the right side of the sock, and pull the waste yarn strand out to release a stitch (actually, two stitches total per waste yarn stitch--refer to Step 2). The bottom stitch is being released in the photo below.

Figure 1

Step 2: Now pull out the rest of the waste yarn to release the second stitch from that waste yarn (see photo below).

Figure 2

Step 3: Keep following steps 1 and 2, pulling out the waste yarn stitches, and immediately transferring them to dpns- one for the top dpn, one for the bottom dpn.

Figure 3

Figure 4

Step 4: Continue releasing all of the "live" stitches and putting them onto their proper needles. Once you have reached the end, count the stitches. They should be equal in number and should each have 25% of the total sock cast-on amount. Example: for a 64 st sock, you should have transferred 16 stitches onto the bottom dpn and 16 onto the top dpn (for a total of 32 heel stitches)

Figure 5

Part 3: Working the heel decreases
Step 1: Divide your heel stitches evenly among 3 or 4 dpns, depending on your preference (both needle preferences will have instructions for heel decreases.)

3 NEEDLES: This requires a 50%-25%-25% stitch distribution among your needles, and uses a "stitch marker." If you prefer to work only with 3 dpns, arrange your needles so that the heel has two needles (25% each of those total stitches) and the top part of the heel has one needle containing 50% of the total heel stitches, or simple all the stitches originally on it, with a marker in between half of the stitches. Example: If working with a "32st heel," the bottom dpns get 16 each, and the top needle has 32 sts total, but needs a marker after stitch 16.
Needle Numbers: The bottom left needle is needle #1, the top left needle is #2, and the bottom right needle is #3.

Figure 6

4 NEEDLES: divide your stitches up completely. Each needle will have 25% each of the total heel stitches. This means that you will just slide half from both the top & bottom of the heel parts on two two different needles. Use a saftey pin or place marker to indicate needle #1: between the two bottom stitches (where my thumb is).
Needle Numbers: The bottom left needle is needle #1, the top left needle is #2, the top right needle is #3 and the bottom right needle is #4.

Figure 7

Step 2 (for all dpn methods): Attach the yarn before Needle 1, and work the decrease rounds until you have 5 sts left, or 20 stitches total. End with one last knit round. 

For 3 needles:
Rd 1: All needles: knit straight.
Rd 2: Needle 1: knit to last 3sts; k2tog, k1. Needle 2: k1, sl1, k1, psso, knit to the last 3sts; k2tog, k1. Needle 3: K1, sl1, k1, psso, knit to the end.

For 4 needles:
Rd 1: All needles: knit straight.
Rd 2: Needle 1: knit to last 3sts; k2tog, k1. Needle 2: k1, sl1, k1, psso, knit to the end. Needle 3: knit to the last 3sts; k2tog, k1. Needle 4: K1, sl1, k1, psso, knit to the end.

Trouble-shooting:

Closing the gap between the needles: I will use the 4 dpn method example. Refer to figure 7. To avoid big gaping holes at sides of the heel decreases, knit the last stitch of needle 1 with a stitch made in the gap between needles 1 and 2, and ssk a stitch made in the gap between needles 3 and 4 with the first stitch from Needle 4.

Figure 8

Feeling a bit snug? Try on your sock before completing all of the decreases. It's good to do this when you only have several more increases left. If you fear that your heel will not fit, you can slow down the decrease process a bit by adding one more "knit straight" round before the last few decreases. Example: *knit 2 rounds straight, then do a decrease round.* I recommend that you keep trying on the sock though, if you do this. You might not need to slow down the decrease process that much!

And voila! You have a beautiful heel that looks just like the "Basic Toe Decrease." Notice how it goes great with variegated yarns? Neat, huh? The variegated green heel swatch was from my "Irish Spring" colorway. It makes me want to knit up another pair of these socks now.

I bid you good knits! Have fun knitting up Afterthought Heels! I hope this tutorial helps you out!

Check out my pattern "Star-Edged Socks" to make a pair for yourself.