Project Exposition - Knit Wool Pants

Many years ago, I knit EZ’s wool tights for myself, in Cascade Yarns Ecological wool yarn.  I’m sure I kept project notes, but, for the life of me, I cannot find them!  

I would prefer pants/slacks rather than tights, this time around, to, firstly, be more comfortable, and secondly, have a more spacious leg opening that will allow for the wearing of the compression sleeves I need on my legs.  I am now so used to the compression sleeves, I feel naked without them!  They also help to keep the legs warm in colder seasons.  I also found that knit wool tights tend to bag at the knees, looking sloppy, because of their close fit

So, the idea is to have the pants from the waist to about the knees have approximately 1” ease, but from the knees down, an amount of ease that will skirt past the calves and hang straight.

It’s this measurement which has been giving me trouble.  As a guide, I’ve measured the legs of the several fleece pants I wear, but after 2 attempts, I found the legs to be too large.  Then I remembered that these fleece pants are rather old (they do last forever, don’t they!) and hence are much larger than I now need.  I’ve long ago taken in the waist and hips on these pants, but I left the legs as they were, which is to say, loose.

I am now on my 3rd attempt, and thus far, I’m fine with the fit – not tight and not too loose.

I am not working these pants from the waist down, instead, from the ankles up.  Perhaps it’s because I’ve only ever worked clothing bottom up that I cannot wrap my head around wanting to work upside down.  

The tops of sweaters, or pants, are the most fiddly parts – the rest is easy – so I prefer to work all the easy parts first, whilst I cogitate about all the shaping needed for the upper part.  I don’t like to figure out the hard part first.  I just plot enough of the design to get me started knitting!

When working color patterns, I also don’t like the look of upside-down stitches!  To my eye, the bottom of all stitches needs to show as a “v”, not as a “^”.  This preference does cause issues when knitting a color-patterned sweater, but, that’s for another time.

Working from the ankles up also means the project is a good one for summer traveling or just knitting outdoors, at least until both legs are done, and ready to be joined.

Now, the yarn. Preferably, it needs to fill the following criteria:
1) wool or a wool/alpaca or wool/(soft) mohair blend for warmth
2) plied, for sturdiness
3) comfortably soft, but doesn’t need to be merino
4) DK, worsted or heavy worsted weight, so that the knitting won’t be interminable (as I do have a LOT of other things to do, including the knitting of new design samples)
5) completely made in the US
6) the cost of which won’t break the bank, best under $50
7) light in weight for its grist (thickness)

I don’t have enough skeins of a *pants” color in stash, which, for me, would be steel grey, charcoal grey, tan, denim, or navy blue.  

I’m not crazy about black – I find it gives too stark a contrast with the sweaters I would wear, and it’s rather a depressing color, or rather, lack of color!  Black always feels like the easy way out, when, in fact, black isn’t easy to pair with color, it tends to want to be paired with grey or white, but I prefer some color and pattern.

I’ve considered many yarns, but have settled on a few options:

Brown Sheep Lamb’s Pride Worsted.  Have used it *many* times before.  It *is* a single ply, but it’s spun well enough to be strong enough. The mohair helps in this regard, as well, although it could be a bit prickly on the legs.

Brown Sheep Nature Spun Worsted.  US made 3-ply with no mohair, so it would feel more comfortable than LPW, but I’d prefer something a bit softer.

Brown Sheep Prairie Spun DK.  US made, all wool, 3 ply, and gets good reviews, but 6 or 7 skeins would end up over budget.

Drops Alpaca Bouclé.  Not US made, but a boucle would surely make a light in weight pair of pants, and at a reasonable cost.

Sandnes Garn Peer Gynt.  Again, not US made, but this Norwegian yarn is sturdy, and the last thing I want to happen after spending all that time knitting pants is to have them pill or felt from frequent wearing.

Drops Alaska.  I’ve used it before and like the feel of it.  It fills many of the criteria, but it’s not US made.

Drops Nepal.  Also not US-made, but after having knit a sweater sample in it, I find I like it a lot.  It’s inexpensive and soft, so it’s a strong contender!

For the first pair of pants, I decided on 3 colors from 3 different worsted wt. yarns in my stash – 2.5 skeins Nature Spun Worsted in Buckskin (tan), 2.5 skeins Yarn Undyed’s worsted/aran wt. non-superwash extrafine merino, and 1 skein of the new Germantown in pink, which looks more coral pink.

As to the design – I will use stockinette – no texture or color patterns – so, the only details to flesh out will be:

1) Whether the shaping should run along the inner thighs, the outer thighs, or down the front and back, or a mix of these, used at different parts of the construction.  

I decided on the inner thighs - to keep the increases basically out of sight.

2) Whether to have a fold-over waistband with elastic, a waistband with ties, eyelets and ties, a button band with buttons, perhaps in the style of the old sailor’s pants, or ribbing with knit in elastic thread.  As I don’t like bulk at my waist, I won’t be knitting a fold-over waistband.

3) Whether the bum short-rowing should be worked in the bum area, just before the ribbing, or within the ribbing, as with EZ’s tights, or if I should just shape the front to be lower than the back.

The front and back of sweaters and pants are the same in that the back needs to be higher than the front, which we can achieve by either raising the back or lowering the front.

I think this is the hardest decision.  Unless one’s short rows are neat as a pin, and snug, they will show, if worked in the bum area.  If, however, I decide on the sailor styling, the back and front panels will be worked separately, so i may allow for another way of raising the back section, but the sailor-styling looks best with wide legs, which I am not doing, for the lack of enough yarn.  But, perhaps I can find a middle ground, we’ll see.

Designing is always filled with these quandaries, which need appropriate resolutions!

4) Whether I want hemmed cuffs or ribbed cuffs.  If hemmed, then perhaps knit in a thinner yarn, to reduce bulk.  The same could apply to the waistband, whether for elastic or ties.  To keep this simple, I decided on k2, p1 ribbing, which I’ve been preferring over other ribbings for quite some time.

When I knit EZ’s tights, I skipped the under foot tab, and just began with the few rounds of garter stitch.  I otherwise followed her instructions, including having the ribbed waist.  I really wasn’t crazy about the ribbed waist and how the bum and waist fit, but then, my bum was more bodacious back then.  Menopause tends to shift weight around on a woman’s body, and so, it has with me, removing about half my bum.  So, it may turn out that I won’t need much shaping.

As I’m short waisted, I also like all my bottoms to sit mid-rise, below my belly button.  To me, there’s little worse than fabric bunching up at the waist, when I sit!  I also like the waistband to sit in place firmly – no wiggling waistbands!  It’s the little things that annoy us.  But, isn’t that one reason we knit?  To get exactly what we want or need.

Despite having ripped out 2 legs while figuring out this design, the plain knitting-in-the-round is just what I need right now, whilst I deal with hubby being in the hospital twice and in 3 rehab/nursing homes over the past 2 months.  

Mentally, I’ve been in limbo, finding it difficult to focus on my work – woe to the 4 related designs which are only partly knit and barely written up! 

I keep expecting that he should be able to come home soon, when I will then be quite busy all day taking care of him, and the house and cooking.  The reality is that I haven’t a clue how much longer he will need to be in rehab, so I do need to snap out of this mental fog and get done what I can, while I can.  

At least as of the other day, he has his new cell phone connected to his account and his previous phone #, which he naturally didn’t want to give up.  Hopefully, this phone won’t go missing, like his old phone – it’s why when I was in the hospital, I didn’t even bring my contact lenses, knowing how things go missing in hospitals.

I’m just at the point of beginning to increase gently for the thighs.  I’ll post again when both legs have been joined and I’ve decided on the styling for the top of the pants!

Onward, Dawn

Life Update

Hubby has had new health issues since mid-November, which did not improve, so in the beginning of February, he had a major, life-changing surgery, then a couple of followup procedures.  He is now in a great rehab hospital.  For how long, we don’t know, as his other musculoskeletal issues are slowing his rehabilitation.

While he was in the ICU, then acute care, so make it easier on my energy, I needed to slow my design work down to just spinning, so to refill the depleted bins of handspun Falkland yarns for sale on Etsy. 

Now that he’s in rehab, I am inching back into my work – there’s SO much I want to get accomplished this year:  

1) The floor loom needs a day or 2 to get it put back together, then rewarped with the rug warp still on the warp beam, then the remaining 3 weft-faced rugs woven and hemmed (which will take more than a day or 2 to do).

2) I am planning a lighter weight series of woven scarves, for the rigid heddle loom.

3) I’d love to get some RH loom patterns put together and published.

4) The 4 knitting designs on the ndls need to get done, then the patterns, charts, photos, the whole shebang finished.

5)  I’d like to start to offer some of my patterns in other languages besides English,  To this end, I did some analysis of my patterns – which are favorited the most, along with which have sold the most, on Ravelry and Etsy.  There are 6 designs I should start with.  I am thinking of getting them translated into Norwegian, Danish, Swedish, then possibly also French and German.  As this will take investment in translation fees, and as I earn very little each year, I’ll be dipping a toe in, before I dive in.

Swimming around in my head is also thinking about how much medical paraphernalia hubby will need once he’s home, and how much rearranging of the rooms in this house will be needed to accommodate his needs, as well as mine.  This is no small deal.  

If he will need me to be nearby to help with getting out of bed and getting to the bathroom, little will change, except the living room where he has been sleeping will be even more crowded with equipment.

If he won’t need me nearby, he could be moved into the only main floor bedroom - mine.  Then I will need to sleep upstairs, which is no biggee, but my bedroom is also my office and knitting/RH weaving room.  All of this will need to be moved into the living room, which then gives me no privacy or quiet work space, which will SO not be good for me.  My nervous system needs a room with a door, for auditory quiet.  I can’t work with others in my space.

The only other option is that if he doesn’t need me nearby, we can get a stair lift, so he can sleep in his bedroom upstairs, and use the upstairs bathroom when he is up there.

The bathrooms here are small, though, and tight. That could well be yet another problem, if he can’t manage crutches and will need to use a wheelchair, it may not get through the doorways and past the shower end walls, to the toilets.  Which not only means I’ll be emptying commode(s) throughout the day, but his shower access could also be a problem.

Before my brain explodes!, I need to now go lock all the worries and concerns into a large closet, for now, and get back to spinning, then continue knitting on the 2nd design sample, whilst I think about what to cook for my dinner.  Eh, cooking for one stinks.  The usual things I’d cook are too much trouble for just one person.  Maybe a smallish pot of chicken soup…

Onward,
Dawn

The Unavoidable Long Pause

It’s been on my mind to post, as I know it’s been over a month.  Time flies when you’re dealing with a lot!

I have 4 samples done for the next design series (2 hats, 1 tam, and 1 sweater), with a minimum of 6 more to knit.  I’m at that point in the design process where I need to work on the pattern notes and begin getting it all written up.  

Every designer surely has their own way of approaching the process.  I tend to swatch, make basic notes, make working charts, then begin knitting, adding to the notes as I go.  Before beginning further samples, I usually need to pause, as I like to then get much of the pattern written up, and the charts finalized.  Formatting, editing, and proofing continue for quite awhile, whilst I knit up further samples, until I feel the pattern presents all the necessary info as clearly and as organized as possible.  Then, there are the photos to take and edit, then get the whole shebang uploaded to 4 sites, then do the minimal marketing I do.

And therein lies my current situation.  I’m at that pause phase in the process, where I need to get all the details written up, but I can’t get to it right now.  Hubby’s health has thrown us yet more painful curve balls (the poor guy is falling apart at the seams), that began mid-November.  Two months later, the issues are still unresolved, so it’s been stressful, looking after him, and taking up the slack, doing his chores as well as mine, and now I also have the taxes to prep for the accountant.  He does what little he can, but his pain and unsteadiness is very limiting.

Like many, if not most, women I have a lot of responsibilities, leaving not as much calm creative time as I would definitely prefer, esp. at my age!  Although I’ll be 66 in a few months, I don’t think of myself as old and ready to retire to a rocking chair!  I take very good care of this body, as it’s the only one there is!, but this, too, takes time and mindful effort, from waking to bedtime.

All this notwithstanding, I still need to knit, especially in the evening, after dinner and my shower, whilst I de-stress.  And right now, the simpler the better.  So, I pulled out a simple garter stitch shawl with built-in I-cord that I began months ago, then tucked into a drawer whilst I knit on design samples.  

I’ve pulled out 4 stitch dictionaries to find the right edging, but the person I will be giving it to loved the bobble and sawtooth edging on the adaptation I knit of Susan Mills’ ‘Highland Fling’, so I may use it again on this shawl.

Unlike most scarves I’ve seen that begin at one skinny end, which then increases to a wider middle, then decreases down to the other skinny end, this one begins at the center bottom.  If one increases just one st at the beg of each row, it makes a deeper, less wide shawl, unless, of course, one keeps going.  If one increases one st at *both* the beg and end of every row, it creates width more quickly.

I am using 1 strand each of a DK wt. superfine merino with a fingering wt.    100% baby alpaca, on US size 10 (6mm) ndls, so that the garter stitch isn’t too dense.  A bit of drape in a shawl is a good thing!

In case you’d like to knit a similar shawl or scarf, this is how I began, inc’g just at the beg of rows:

 

Long Tail CO 3 sts, turn.
Row 1: (K1, M1) 2x, k1 = 5 sts, turn.
Row 2: (K1, M1)2x, yfwd, slip the last 3 sts purlwise = 7 sts, turn.
Row 3: K3 I-cord sts, M1, k1, yfwd, slip the last 3 sts purlwise = 8 sts, turn.
Row 4: K3 I-cord sts, M1, k2, yfwd, slip the last 3 sts purlwise = 9 sts, turn.
Row 5: K3 I-cord sts, M1, k3, yfwd, slip the last 3 sts purlwise = 10 sts, turn.

Continue until you have your desired width and depth, then BO in Attached I-cord.

If you have more foresight that I, CO with a long enough tail, so you can graft together the 2 I-cord edges at the tip.  I would do this especially if *not* adding an edging.

I plan on then CO sts for the edging and working a perpendicular join at the end of EOR.  I’ll post pics as I progress with it!

Now to go drizzle the orange icing I made onto the orange cake that I baked  today, using freshly juiced and zested oranges!  Good food at least takes his mind off his issues for a bit.

Onward!
Dawn

Free Pattern – Star Tams!

My gift to fellow knitters this holiday – a free pattern available on Ravelry and in my Payhip store – ‘Star Tams'.

The tams need only 1 skein of the tam’s MC with a small amount (approx 1/2 to 1 oz) of the CC color for the brim and I-cord bow.

Sampled in Cascade Yarns Eco Duo and Cloud.  Eco Duo is a beautifully soft merino singles, of which the Zebra colorway is my favorite!

Two samples are size M-L, and use the yarns held singly.  The 3rd sample is size S-M and uses the yarns held double.  As the Eco Duo is a palindrome, it's very easy to line up the colors, for knitting doubled.

Tams are a quick-to-knit gift for a loved one or yourself, and who doesn't love a one skein (ish) project!

Happy Knitting!
Dawn

New Pattern!

It took far longer than I wanted, but pattern #12 for this year (Nordic Kids’ Cardigan) is finally done and published to Ravelry, Etsy, and my website!  The 26 charts is what slowed me down, but I wanted the pattern to be easy enough to follow for almost any knitter.

One sample used Lamb’s Pride Worsted, one of my go-to yarns, and for the 2nd sample I used Garnstudio/Drops Nepal.  

I haven’t used Nepal in many years, the last time I think was for some socks, so I had forgotten how nice this yarn is, as well as inexpensive.  I no longer ask yarn companies for yarn support – I buy all the yarns for my patterns, so cost is definitely important.

I do try to use US grown and processed yarns, but I also love the softness that alpaca lends to yarns, and that means Peru.

Just two more patterns to finish up before the end of December, although ideally I’d like to get them finished in the next 10 days!  That may be over-reaching, but I know that once I begin getting and mailing out Christmas gifts and cards, my mind won’t be up to  writing patterns!  

Knitting, however, continues almost without interruption.  And these days, with hubby’s health throwing us curve balls now and then, having things to knit is imperative.  

This following cardigan design will likely be done in January, as this is the first sample, and I tend to want to knit 2 samples for sweater patterns.  It’s a teaser photo, as it’s showing the WS of the pattern!  I’m really pleased with the design, and the yarn (Valley Yarns Becket) is SO soft and cozy.  As you can see, it's in 2 blues, white, and sand – one of my favorite color groupings.  Can’t wait to wear it!

Personal-use knits tend to be socks – thick, thin, and everything in between!  But, this winter, I am adding a larger, personal-use item to the To-Knit list, and that’s a pair of wool slacks.  Wool pants on eBay tend to be lined and for going to work.  I don't like the former (cold nylon!) and I'm not doing the latter!  I have several patterns saved, which I need to study and, very likely, amend.  

Many years ago, I knit a pair of EZ’s tights/leggings, long ago deconstructed, when they were no longer needed.  If I didn’t need to wear Molnlycke’s Tubigrip from feet to knees to help the legs deal with their inclination towards swelling, I’d just reknit her tights in my now more slender size.  These days, though, I need pant legs with a bit of ease - no skinny legged jeans for me!

There’s still time for me to cogitate about what yarn I want to knit them in – Nepal?  Alaska?  Nature Spun Worsted?  Galway? A strand each extra fine merino and baby alpaca?  I intend on choosing wisely!

If you’re knitting or weaving holiday gifts, may your yarn never tangle, may your stitches be even, and may your selvedges be a thing of beauty!

Onward!
Dawn

The Finish Line

I have been diligently trying to create and release 12 new designs this year, and hopefully, in every year to come, in an effort to make up for far too many years when I couldn’t work on many new designs.

The 2 designs below are #’s 9 and 10 for this year, and as it’s October, it seems I am on track for this year!  At least until the holiday season and hubby’s new batch of upcoming surgeries derails me a bit, as well as the weaving I’d like to get back to, if only for a short time.  

And lest I forget, I still have outdoor garden work to finish, as well as cleaning the rest of the outdoor windows I began a week or so ago!

As I *am* only one person, some things have long ago fallen by the wayside, like the bi-weekly bread baking, or continuing with the bagel-making experiments, or even getting to finish this year’s spring cleaning!

12 patterns may not sound like a lot, but patterns do take a long time.  There’s knitting the samples, making the charts, writing, editing, and proofing the text, taking and adjusting oodles of photos, to get the best ones, then tweaking the layout, so everything logically fits into just as much space as it needs, and no more.  I tend to spend as much time writing the patterns as I do knitting the samples!

Some knitters may wonder if I use test knitters or tech editors.  Short answer: I do not.

Not only have I been designing and publishing my work for over 30 years, but my experience with designing for print publications for many years, as well as being a juried member of the AKD (Association of Knitwear Designers), previously known as PKDG (Professional Knitwear Designers Guild) helped hone these skills.

LOL, now I wouldn't mind having an assistant to take some of the load off, leaving me more time to design.  If said person was also good at creating social media posts and newsletters, all the better!  Like many creatives, I’m not very good at promoting myself.  

Although, to this end, I spent some time recently reinstalling the IOS into the older iPad.  It’s amazing how clogged up that thing got over the years.  Even after deleting everything that the iPad allows one to delete, its entire memory was still full.  

As we no longer depend on it for day-to-day productivity, I just re-installed the IOS from within iTunes on my iMac.  Now, it has under 400 MB memory used up for system, leaving me plenty of space for work. Yay!

I am not one to throw away old technology, willy nilly.  It will serve me to take photos, and hopefully, videos, to upload to instagram.  I do not need a cell phone, and hence do not have one, and although I researched how to upload to IG from a desktop, it was too bothersome to do it that way.  

Now I just need to find time to make IG posts, as well as the FB ones I normally do, and the Mailchimp new product emails, after uploading new designs to 4 websites!  But as the world has long gone visual, instead of written (more’s the pity, as I do love words!), I do need to try and fit into customer’s expectations.  We’ll see how it goes!

Now, those 2 new patterns!

Marina

About the Design:
This is an easy-to-knit and wear triangular scarf / mini shawl. I knit the first one many years ago in aran weight cashmere, although without the I-cord edging, and have used it almost every day! It serves as a scarf, and as a head scarf on cold mornings. It is knit from the center bottom outward, with Applied I-cord, and can be knit to any width.

I’ve sampled it in squishy, soft, undyed 100% superfine merino, as well as in frothy Cascade Yarns Kid Seta in a shimmering aquamarine held with Kraemer Yarns Stotts Ranch Limited in navy.  

Dimensions - before blocking
Width, tip to tip: 50”
Depth, at the center bottom: 12 to 12.5”

Finished Dimensions
Width, tip to tip: 52 to 54.5”  
(The aqua/navy fabric blocks a bit larger than the merino.)
Depth, at the center: 12.5 to 12.75”

Materials:
Natural Sample: YarnUndyed non-superwash merino, 182 yds/100 gr: 2 skeins
Sample weighs 159 gr. (5.6 oz.)

Aqua/Navy Sample: Cascade Yarns Kid Seta, 70% mohair, 30% silk, 230 yd / 25 gm: 3 balls #24 aquamarine; and 
Kraemer Yarns Stotts Ranch Limited, 52% Luxurious Diamond Fiber Kid Mohair / 48% Superfine Merino Wool, 610 yd / 100 gr: 1 skein
Sample weighs 109 gr. (3.85 oz.)

24-32” US size 10.5 (6.5 mm) ckn
2 Size 10.5 dpns

Tapestry ndl

Gauge:
Natural Merino Sample: 18 sts sts & 24 rows = 4” (10 cm) in St st, and 14 sts and 28 rows (7 ridges) = 4” in garter stitch with size 10.5 ndls.


Aqua / Navy Sample: 16 sts sts & 20 rows = 4” (10 cm) in St st, and 13 sts and 28 rows (7 ridges) = 4” in garter stitch with size 10.5 ndls.
To save time, take time to check gauge

Substitute Yarn Weight: Worsted to Aran (WPI = 11.5 to 13)

Skill Level: Beginner

Beach Roses Hat & Mittens

About The Design:
I first used this Fair Isle pattern for a cell phone cover, then immediately planned these women’s mittens and hat.  Most of the color changes are easy to work, only the center motif changes colors frequently.

The roomy mittens are worked Norwegian-style with a back of hand pattern, palm pattern, and 3-st stripes running up each side.  

You can knit the hat first, to get familiar with the patterning, as its only shaping is at the crown. I left the hat pompom-less to show off the flowers circling the top, in between the crown shaping stitches.  

This set would make a special gift!
 
Finished Dimensions
Hat Circ: 21.5”, Hat Depth to Top of Crown: 9”
Mitten Circ: 9”, Total Mitten Length: 10”
Cuff Length: 3”, Hand Length: 7”

Materials - Mittens
Lamb’s Pride Worsted, 85% wool / 15% mohair, 190 yd / 4 oz.:

2.64 oz. / 125 yds. #M10 Creme (MC),

.28 oz. / 13 yds. #M04 Charcoal Heather (A),
1.67 oz. / 79 yds. #M166 Plum Smoke (B),

.51 oz. / 24 yds. #M157 Orchid Blush (C),

.31 oz. / 15 yds. #M159 Deep Coral (E),

.08 oz. / 5 yds. #M03 Grey Heather (F), and
Harborside Aran, 100% wool, 162 yd / 100 gr.: .2 oz. / 10 yds. Sandstone (D).
One pair weighs 4.3 oz.

US size 5 (3.75 mm) dpns, set of 5
Tapestry ndl

4 stitch markers

Stitch holder or waste yarn

Materials - Hat
Lamb’s Pride Worsted:

1.87 oz. / 89 yds. #M10 Creme (MC),

.26 oz. / 13 yds. #M04 Charcoal Heather (A),

.46 oz. / 22 yds. #M166 Plum Smoke (B),

1.17 oz. / 56 yds. #M157 Orchid Blush (C),

.2 oz. / 10 yds. #M159 Deep Coral (E),

.11 oz. / 6 yds. #Mo3 Grey Heather (F), and
Harborside Aran: .19 oz. / 9 yds. Sandstone (D).
One hat weighs 3.88 ozs.

US size 7 (4.5 mm) dpns, set of 5
16-24” size 7 ckn

Tapestry ndl

6 stitch markers

Substitute Yarn Weight: heavy worsted

Gauge:
22 sts and 30 rnds = 4” (10 cm) in St st, and 24 and 26 sts = 4” in color patt with size 5 ndls, or size to give gauge.


20 sts and 28 rnds = 4” (10 cm) in St st, and 22 and 25 sts = 4” in color patt with size 7 ndls, or size to give gauge.

Marina is $3.50, Beach Roses is $6, both on Ravelry, Etsy, my site, and Lovecrafts.

Happy Knitting!
Dawn

This and That

I am nearing the end of the current spate of household projects.  8 of the 10 new LR and DR curtain panels have been shortened and re-hemmed, my bedroom curtains have been turned into Swedish blinds, another Swedish blind was made for the bathroom cabinet, and I revamped some disused curtains for the kitchen.

I still need to finish the last 2 curtains and sew new heat packs. But I needed a break from sewing, to re-knit several pairs of house socks that have worn out, and am knitting a couple/few more pairs, as I must have thick socks to wear around the house, but can run out of time as the holidays draw near.  

The re-knitting of socks seems to taunt me!  I get a pair re-knit, check that off the list, so I can get onto other work, then a week later, another pair needs re-knitting, then another.  It’s like laundry, cleaning, and cooking – they’re never done.

In between, I am trying to focus on knit designs, as I need some of them done, so I can get back to getting the floor loom put together and re-warped for the rest of the rugs I began  before the loom had to be dismantled and moved.

There’s 3 designs in the works with more to CO, which I won’t start until some of these projects are done and published.

After 30+ yrs of knitting socks, they are second nature to me, so sock knitting is a good way to fill the hours when I’m too tired to work on ‘real’ projects.  LOL, with everything I am responsible for, becoming too tired for ‘real’ work can sometimes be the rule, not the exception.  

Digression – I have recently taken notice of a well-known knit designer, who, in just 8 years or so has amassed hundreds of patterns, translated into a handful of languages.  

Granted, most of her work is uncomplicated stockinette, but I don’t know where she finds the time!  I’d love to be able to work full-time on my designs, whether knit, weaving, or spinning, but then nothing would ever get cooked or washed, as well as things done for hubby that he can no longer do.  I’d be lucky to have the time to squeeze in paying the bills and ordering ‘all’ the things we need ordered, and forget about having a garden!

Such production, and her massive popularity, has been making me feel small, like I’m wasting my time.  I don’t normally compare myself to others, eh, until now.  

I realize I am not her, I don’t have her life, and although a plain stockinette sweater or two are welcome additions to any wardrobe, I’d be bored to tears *only* making plain sweaters or plain anything.  I love cables and color patterns, especially the latter.  I need to honor that, and remember that.

Back to socks – the DK, worsted, and heavy worsted wt. socks last longer than the bulky wt. ones as I don’t wear them as often.  The bulky wt. ones give a nice padding underfoot, esp. on hard floors, so they wear out more quickly.

They can either be knit with a bulky wt. yarn or stranding a chunky wt. yarn (around 130 yds/100 gr), which gives the thickness of a bulky to SB wt., with even more squishy padding than when using a single yarn!  As with this latest pair of re-knit socks.  

I pulled out some old Cascade Yarns Pastaza and a skein of their Sitka, both discontinued, both soft singles, which one doesn’t ordinarily think of using in socks, but I thought, What the heck, I’ll try them together.  I chose the smallest possible stranding pattern of K1A, K1B, alternated on the following rnd with K1B, K1A, creating a tiny dice, and used US size 5 (3.75 mm) dpns, if I remember correctly, though it could have been US 4's.  Bad on me, I didn't keep notes.

 

 

Yes, I could have kept the pattern repeating the same rnd for stripes, but, as with heel stitch vs eye of partridge stitch, stranded stripes tend to pull in more than alternating the color placement on each rnd.

Thus far, they are soft, cozy, and warm.  They do pill, but I expected that.  We shall see how long they last.

Onward!
Dawn