pontoon toe start

With the Bo Diddley Socks off my needles, it’s time for a new beginning.

Thanks to all of you who asked for the pattern. I’ll see what I can do. Being the wonderfully organized designer that I am, ahem, I have absolutely no notes. I did chart the stitch pattern the way I knit it, so at least I have that. But the rest… I’ll have to reverse-engineer it. So don’t hold your breath, ‘K?

But I digress.

Here you see the very beginnings of a pair of Cable And Corrugations socks — that’s the light colored, cabled socks on the right side of the cover of Cat’s new book. Cat calls this the pontoon toe. It starts with the Magic Cast-On, but then you knit back and forth for a few rows on just one needle, so you end up with a little square. Then you pick up stitches on each side of the square. The increases are worked at the edges of the picked-up stitches, so the original square becomes a band that wraps sideways around the toe, and the picked up stitches fan out to become the top and bottom of the foot. It’s rather cool, and I like it a lot. But… it’s not the easiest toe to work in my preferred mode of two-at-a-time on two circs.

So the picture shows how I’ve used a set of DPNs to pick up the stitches along the sides of the little square. Since the toes end up sort of sideways on the needles, I also used the DPNs to help me shift the toes so that all of the instep stitches were on one needle and all of the sole stitches were on the other needles. I really like the way this toe works, but it’s definitely not one to work away from home when I just want to cast on and go, go, go.

Cables And Corrugations instep

But it does make a pretty, pretty toe! And here is the results.

These socks are really a fast knit. They would have been even faster if I’d actually trusted the pattern and knit it as it was written. But nooooooo. I knew better. I was sure that the socks would not be wide enough, even though my feet are skinny and the measurements looked right. Because I was sure that the cables would pull the fabric in too tightly to fit. If I’d bothered to actually read the pattern, I would have seen that Cat thought of that, because Cat thinks of everything. So, after knitting 4″ of toe, I ripped back to the correct place in the toe increases so I had the actual designed number of stitches, and reknit the toe.

Yes, gentle reader, I’m a slow learner. But I can be taught.

I’ve knit up through the first repeat of the cable pattern. I’m really liking these! And… yeah… they fit. 🙄

The yarn is from Pagewood Farm, a small wholesale dyer and spinner. The yarn is a yummy mix of wool, bamboo and nylon, and the colorway is called Really Red. It’s a nice, smooshy yarn to knit with, and the bamboo gives it a pretty sheen. As soon as I saw it, I knew I wanted to knit it into this pattern.

Cables And Corrugations sole

And this is the sole side. The gusset (if you want to call it that) is increased between the markers. I got the cute little lettered markers at Cat’s Magical Moebius Festival in Newport last spring. I believe that a major fiber arts company will be offering some really cool ones for sale soon. I hope. Because I’d really like to get another set. You can see that the first sock increases are between A and B, as instructed by the pattern. But the second sock increases are between… cute-little-sock-marker-with-heart and E. Yeah. It will be nice to have two sets.

Tomorrow a group of local and not-so-local knitters are meeting for a Sock Yarn Crawl — sort of like a pub crawl, except with yarn. The crawl starts at Abundant Yarn And Dyeworks, and Rodger has the itinerary listed on his blog. If you are going to be anywhere in the area. Come and join us! Saturday is also my birthday, and there might be some pastry, or even adult beverages (I hope) involved. But not too much of the last, because driving will also be involved.

Today I got a nice surprise in my mailbox. Or, actually, two surprises. But one I’m holding out on. You will see it later.

The other you might not want to look at, unless you want a spoiler. It’s the Rockin Sock Club August offering, down there below the little clicky link. Me likey!

The Clapotis That… Ended After All

It’s done! It’s done! It’s done! It’s DONE! Oh yeah! Doin’ the happy dance, oh yeah!

Can you tell I’m pleased, gentle reader?

It’s been a long, hard slog over two years during which I was distracted by many bright, shiny new projects. But at last it is finished. The never-ending song has ended. Ah…..

I slogged away all weekend on the thing. All weekend. I kept wondering why I had decided to knit the thing in this rather unbecoming blah gray. I almost didn’t bother to weave the ends in because… meh. But in the end I did. Then I gave it a bit of a wash in my front-loader on handwash cycle, and plopped it in a pile on the rack in my drier on low heat. Because it’s a Clapotis, after all, and really doesn’t need any blocking. And then I realized that, if I wanted a picture I’d better darn well hurry because the light was going. And it still wasn’t dry. So I took the rack out and popped that baby in the drier and gave it a good go-round on medium heat, because really after two years and steady weekend knitting I was a little sick of the thing anyway and if it felted a bit… well… that would not detract from its charm because at the time I was feeling that it didn’t have any, and wasn’t the cotton content high enough to prevent that? And this is in no way to be construed as advice that you pop your Silky Tweed in the drier!

And then I took it out of the drier. Hmmmmm… it’s soft. Oh. It blocked itself perfectly in the drier. And look how nicely it drapes. It’s actually sort of the color of very faded favorite jeans. Not really gray. But blue gray with some flecks of other colors in it. Hmmmm…. And then I hung it over a branch of my cherry tree and watched it ruffle in the breeze as the late afternoon sun slanted through the grapes. And then I tossed it casually around my shoulders as I picked a few fresh strawberries and took a brief turn around the yard to see if the neighbors’ turtle (missing a week now) had decided to pay a visit after all. oooo… it’s just the right size to be big and cozy.

And then I fell in love.

I can’t believe I let this poor thing languish in a bag for two years! It’s slated now to go with me to work, where its destiny is to provide a bit of warmth on cold days (cold because of the weather or the deep-freeze air conditioner).

The particulars:

• Yarn: Elspeth Lavold Silky Tweed (40% Silk, 30% Cotton, 20% Merino Wool, 10% Viscose), color #13 (Cool Blue) (Note: ball band long ago lost, but that’s what I reported in a long-ago post.)
• Needles: Various over the years, ending with Knitpicks circulars, US#6 (4mm)
• Pattern: Clapotis, with a minor modification. I increased through one skein, knit straight until I had one skein left, and decreased through the last skein. It worked, as I used every inch of yarn and had to fudge the last couple of decreases to have enough, but the fudging isn’t noticeable at all.

cute little scissor keeper

In other new, I wasn’t able to attend the Black Sheep Gathering this year in Eugene. I can’t wait to see the reports from those who did. It’s always suck a fabulous fiberly time! Ahhh… all that yarn. It’s a yarn collector’s paradise, it is!

So instead I had to content myself with a little purchase from The Loopy Ewe. Just a little one. Because I needed yarn for my sock pall, you know. Yeah. That’s what it was. It wasn’t to assuage the pain of my BSG-less existence. No shopping therapy here, nosiree!

That’s my story and I’m sticking to it!

I spent some very nice time looking at all of the wonderful things at The Loopy Ewe. Look at these little scissors with the little scissor-keeper on a fob that clips to the handle so it doesn’t get lost when carelessly tossed into a little sock bag and bounced around inside a purse. Isn’t that the cutest thing?

Don’t you agree that I needed to have this? Head over to The Loopy Ewe and look at all of the lovely, fun, bright colors it comes in. You know you want to.

Ack! I’m starting to sound like a pusher! 😆

java leaf swatch

There might have been some yarn involved in this purchase, also. Just a little. This is Cherry Tree Hill in Java.

I haven’t knit with this yarn before, but I now understand why people are raving about it. Lovely, lovely stuff. Fun to knit. This is the second swatch I’ve done. I found that I really need a size US#0 (2mm) to get a nice, dense fabric.

The stitch pattern is a vining leaf design from an old, old book I borrowed from V at Tangle. I don’t know if it’s also in one of Barbara Walkers books or not. I would be surprised if it isn’t. What looks like ribbing on the sides is actually a brioche stitch. I modified the pattern just a little — instead of cabling the stem stitches with the background, I did a m1, k2tog. It looks OK and will be less annoying to work than two-stitch cables every single row.

I’m considering this for my sock pal’s socks. Since I usually work an all-over pattern, and since I usually knit in brighter or lighter colors, this is a departure for me in more than one direction. But I think it will be a fun knit.

What do you think, gentle reader?

I haven’t finished the baby socks yet. Life keeps getting in the way of my knitting. grrrrrrr I’m almost to the heels, though. And they’re so tiny, that it won’t take any time to get those heels turned.

Speaking of heels, Kristina asks:

I am a toe upper, too! I would love to know how you did the Beautiful Plum Cable heel. It turned out absolutely fabulous!

Thanks! As I mentioned when I finished the plum Beehive Cabled Socks, it wasn’t a heel I had much experience with, being a mostly toe-up sock knitter, but I was really pleased with my unvention of it by knitting a top-down heel backwards. It’s similar to some of the toe-up heel flaps that have been featured in knitty.com patterns lately, but mine is a little different.

The heel turn uses increases to fill the gaps left by the short rows, so there are no wraps and yet no holes. You can find the heel construction in my free patterns Tangled Up In Blue socks and Snake River Socks. Both of these patterns use a k2-sl2 pattern on the heel flap, but you can knit the flap in any stitch pattern. The plum socks have a standard k1-sl1 heel stitch on the flap. The latter have a garter-stitch border on the heel flap, so the melding of the heel flap to the gussets is very slightly different. But check those two patterns out, and you’ll know all my secrets.

The reason that I was so pleased to unvent this method is because I hate doing short rows with wraps because my wraps always looked wonky. And, yes, I’ve tried all of the wrap methods. They all looked wonky. So having a way to do a standard heel flap that actually looks exactly like a standard heel flap but without a wrap in sight was, to me, very cool.

At Cat Bordhi’s Magical Moebius Festival this spring, Cat taught me how to do wraps the correct way. So I do know how to do them now and they don’t look wonky at all. And Cat is such a wonderful person! She refrained from adding you idiot — you can invent bizzaro ways to cast on and yet you can’t managed to do a short-row wrap without it looking wonky? She simply showed me how and smiled knowingly and kindly. And the little lightbulb went on over my head 💡 and now I get it. But I’d still rather not, you know. Do short rows with wraps, that is. I’m glad I get it finally.

And it just goes to show you that you can knit for a long, long time and there are still new things to learn.

Look! I’m still here!

I can’t believe how busy I have been this week. I haven’t blogged. I haven’t read blogs. I haven’t even knit much, although the Moosecreek socks progress in tiny increments. Strangely enough, although they are starting to feel like the socks that never end, I still love them and I do feel like I make progress every time I knit them. The pattern is fairly simple, for all it looks relatively complex, and I only have to pay attention once every 4 rounds. So it is good for TV watching, etc. — if I had time to do that. But I do want to get them finished.

This is the April Rockin’ Sock Club yummy. It’s called Walk The Wild Tide, and it’s a brand new Blue Moon yarn called Silkie — both the name of a chicken, and an indication of the fiber content — 81 % superwash merino, 19% silk. And look at the color! Doesn’t it look like it’s blooming amongst my wisteria? The silk and the wool took the dye differently, causing multi-hued light/dark yarn. And the silk gives that nice silky glow.

The inside of the ball band on my skein said bladder fucus. That made me raise my eyebrows a bit — ‘scuse me? Bladder fu. . . ?!?!?!? But, thanks to Wikipedia, I know that bladder fucus is another name for bladder wrack, also known as that cool seaweedy stuff with the bubbles in the stems that you can pop and not, thankfully, either a swear word or a disease (as though the lovely Blue Moon ladies would either swear or toss diseases around willy nilly on their ball bands). Bladder fucus bears no resemblance to this yarn, however. None. I can positively state that I have never had the desire to fondle bladder wrack.

Once again, though, I don’t think I will be knitting the pattern that came with the yarn. It’s a standard toe-up, flap-and-gusset heel sock. But the stitch used is a YO, P2tog lace — a true lace that is worked on all rows. It makes a very nice bumpy netting that I think would look great with a solid-colored yarn. With this yarn, the lovely colors got lost inside the netting. I swatched it on US#2 and was way off on gauge and not loving it. So I swatched it again on US#1 and got gauge, but still didn’t love the stitch. So I frogged it again and knit a swatch in the same track of the turtle faux cable pattern as the Snake River Socks. This time the pattern got lost inside the colors.

Here I’ve swatched a simple basket-weave pattern I am sort of liking this one. It still has the nice bumpy purls, but there is enough smoothness that the colors pop instead of being lost in the netting holes. What do you think of this idea, gentle reader? I’ve knit basket weave socks, and was pretty happy with them.

The Silkie yarn has been wonderful to knit with. It’s very soft and squooshy. It’s not very tightly twisted, and I was concerned that it would be splitty, but that has not been the case. It slides right off the needles and there’s nary a split in sight. Tough, too. The yarn that I swatch and frogged out 4 times still looks like I just wound it off the hank.

The crocheted doily was made by my Great Aunt. It’s probably around 80 or 100 years old, but I don’t have any way to date it definitely. Nor do I know which of my Great Aunts actually made it. Several of them crocheted. I have quite a few doilies — crocheted, knitted and tatted — and I try to find uses for them here and there.

There won’t be much bloggage this coming week, either. I will be very busy at work — so busy that I will not have computer access because I won’t be actually in the office or at home much. #1 Son is off to parts north for a month, on tour again. They have booked a show on a ferry, and I am dying to hear about that one.

The Persistent Illusion blogiversary is coming up this week. I can’t believe I’ve been at this for 3 years. My first blog post was titled So What Do I Do With A Blog. Sometimes I still wonder. 😆 But I can also answer confidently: I make friends, I meet wonderful people, I learn new things, I join an amazing community of knitters all over the world. Blog content may be spotty at times, but I can’t imagine not doing it at all.

When last we saw the moebius from hell that I made way, way too long, it had 11 women inside it. That was really too many, as I’d intended it to be worn around only one (preferably me).

And, yes gentle reader, I realize that moebii have no proper inside or outside, since as the Wiki tells us, a Moebius is a non-orientable surface with only one side and one edge. (But I like this site better, because it has such a cool little animated gif of interlocking, turning gears arranged as a Moebius strip.)

But stuff like that makes my head spin a bit, both with weirdness and with the sheer coolness of the whole thing.

Regardless… the three dimensional representation of a Moebius strip that I knit was way too long.

It was frogged and re-knit. Alice and K of Tangle are modeling it. As you can see, it’s really a bit too tight for two. But it fits one just about right.

In search of some decent light, I looped it over the back of one of my rocking chairs. (I love rocking chairs. My former brother-in-law once asked me why I couldn’t seem to have a chair in my house that didn’t rock or swivel or recline or otherwise move. But why would I?) This chair is one of my favorites. The back is at a slightly strange angle because Moo Cow was occupying the seat, trying to pretend that she didn’t really want to grab the Moebius and start eating the yarn. Not really. Well… maybe just a little.

I love the colors in this yarn. The silk content (30%) gives it such a pretty sheen, and the mohair makes it so soft. Yum. I knit it on larger needles to give a rather loose fabric. I think the drape is just about perfect. I’m very pleased. Now.

Note: I acquired this yarn by purchasing this poncho kit. I’m not a poncho person – just wanted the yarn. Kid Silk has been discontinued by Fleece Artist. The kit included 410yds of Kid Silk. I used less than 1/2 of it on the moebius. The remainder is in the stash with no project in mind yet.

The particulars:

• Yarn: Fleece Artist Kid Silk (70% Kid mohair, 30% silk / 200m; 100g) colorway: Mermaid.
• Needles: Knitpicks circulars – US#10 (6mm) tips, 47″ cable
• Pattern: from Cat Bordhi’s A Treasury of Magical Knitting, with a few minor modifications.
• Techniques used:
  • Moebius cast on.
  • Knit 3 rnds, purl 3 rnds, until it was “wide enough,” ending with 3 rnds of seed stitch
  • Bind off: K2tog.

Next week I’m attending Cat Bordhi’s 3rd Annual Magical Moebius Festival – “Footsteps Along the Moebius Path ” – an ocean side knitting adventure! To say that I’m excited by this is a gross understatement. We will not only be bending geometry with the wonderful moebius, Cat will also be introducing new amazing sock geometry magic. And, I understand, the room we will be meeting in features a whole wall of windows looking out on the (probably stormy) Pacific.

Cat Bordhi. Socks. Ocean waves. Need I say more? I can’t wait!

A couple of days ago I stopped by the website of ColorSong Yarn to make sure that I had the right time/date info. Of course they sent a wonderful packet with all that info in it. Of course it was at home and I was not. So I stopped by their website, and there I saw it:

They have Addi Lace needles. In stock. Right now. I’ve knit with these needles, gentle reader, and they are amazing.

I called Nancy to ask if there would be any needles available at the workshop. Nancy assured me that there would be.

You know, Nancy offered. You don’t live that far away. If I drop some in the mail to tomorrow, you’d have them the day after.

What’s a girl to do?

I bought needles. I showed what I believe is admirable restraint by buying only two US#1 24″ circs. And I have them. And my socks are on them.

Addi really got it right this time. These needles are awesome.

Here you can see the tips. Top to bottom: Addi Lace, Addi Turbo, Knit Picks and my trusty and still-loved Inox Grays.

My take on it:

• Tips:
  • Lace: The clear winner in this category. Sharper than Turbos, not as sharp as Knit Picks. These points get into tight places without drawing blood. The thinnest part of the tip is slightly elongated before swooping up to the body of the needle, giving almost the illusion that the points are convex. Although the tips are shorter than the Knit Picks or Inox tips, the longer point helps the needle get into multiple stitches easily without a lot of splittage.
  • Turbo: OK for larger, bulkier knits without complex patterns. Just too for blunt lace, complex patterns like cables or small items like socks.
  • Knit Picks: Lethal weapons. These are not the needles to use if you like to help your needle along with a finger on the point. Ouch. I like the sharpness for knitting socks and lace, but I did have to get use to it. They are so sharp that splitting can be a problem.
  • Inox: Variable. The pairs I have are just about right. But the quality is not consistent. To find the just right needles, I had to dig around through a lot of other ones that ranged all the way from points I could pierce my ears with to Turbo bluntness. Not the needles to buy online. (For some reason I just could not get a clear picture of this needle.) when good when not good

• Joins:
  • Lace: The clear winner here, too. The joins are absolutely smooth. Interestingly enough, the joins are not exactly round. On two sides there is an almost imperceptible flair from the cable up to the needle. By opening the stitch slightly, this promotes a smooth transition from cable to needle. Love it, love it, love it.
  • Turbo: Very smooth joins. Nothing to complain about here at all.
  • Knit Picks: Also smooth joins. Slightly rougher than the Lace needles, but not anything that’s an issue. Variable quality — I’ve had good luck with mine and by all reports Knit Picks is happy to replace any that aren’t up to standard.
  • Inox: I like the little knobby thing on the cable at the join. I’ve never had a stitch stick on it. Like the slight flair on the Lace cables, the little bump helps to open the stitch so it slides onto the needle.
• Cables:
  • Lace: Very nice cables. Thinner than the Turbo cables, slightly thicker than the Knit Picks cables, and a really lovely transparent red color. Very flexible and do not appear to be subject to any kinking. No steaming or the ilk necessary.
  • Turbo: Thicker than the Lace needles, but very flexible and kink-less. My favorite cable before I met Knit Picks.
  • Knit Picks: The winner in this category. I just love these cables. To me they feel even softer and more flexible than the Lace cables.
  • Inox: Plastic. Stiff. Kinky. Need steaming. What I don’t love about Inox.
• Knitting speed and feel:
  • Lace: Oh, I want to love these needles so much! The feel is slightly stickier than turbos, not as sticky as bamboo or other wood. The yarn glides over the needles very nicely without hanging up or dragging. I’m not the fastest knitter in the world and there is no appreciable slowing of my speed. Very quiet. The needle size is helpfully printed on the cable. That’s such a nice touch! My only beef: To me the feel when the needles touch reminds me of the old, old, old metal needles I knit with 35 years ago. It’s almost like finger nails on a chalk board. (To you youngsters that know only white boards — that is not a pleasant sound). I’m not sure yet if this will end up being a deal breaker. I love everything else about them so much that I’m willing to work with them for awhile and see if I can become inured.
  • Turbo: Very fast. Too fast sometimes for intricate lace or very slippery yarns. Also have the needle size printed on the cable.
  • Knit Picks: I like the way these knit. Fast, but not too fast. Quality, though, is variable. Size is not revealed anywhere, so carry your sizer with you.
  • Inox: The winner. I like the teflon coating. Like the Lace needles, the Inox are smooth without being too slippery. I like the bend in the needle — it fits my hand well. (This is purely subjective as other knitters hate it.) Inox thoughtfully stamps the size on the needle, down near the join.

The overall winner: Definitely the Turbo Lace. Marvelous, wonderful, amazing needles. Except the sound. Stay tuned on that score.

In the comments, Maia helpfully opines (and ~Kristie agrees):

The only thing I notice since you rebuilt is that there isn’t a spell check in the comments section. I thought that was such a lovely gift to the spelling impaired

I know! Believe me I am spelling impaired as well and I miss it too. Unfortunately the spell check plugin I was using does not work with this version of WordPress and it doesn’t appear that the author is going to modify it to work. 😥 I am searching for an alternative. All of the ones that I’ve tried so far have not successfully worked with comments. But I will keep looking! Until then all I can suggest is to use Firefox for your browser. It includes a built-in spell checker.