Man I should have left some pictures for today. I got nothing! The last several weeks have been an odyssey of learning new stuff in knitting for me. Simply learning to purl in the round has made me positively giddy. More new stuff, and I am again thrilled, enthralled, captivated. As you may know, I really like toe up construction. I always feel like I have 10 thumbs trying to operate the ribbing doing top down construction. The first inches of ribbing are serious torture for me. I can manage 8-12 stitches on 2 needles, and only the first stitch couple rounds are a wee bit awkward to work. The other part of toe up is that I shouldn't have to worry about running out of yarn. I worry anyway since I have not managed to figure out any but a peasant or afterthought heel. I think I found a gusseted heel (which I do like - there is a coolness to it that is hard to beat) that is designed for toe up socks. There have been more of these showing up the last while on the net, but I could never quite make out enough to really understand. People told me, just work it backward, but I could not quite grasp it still. Last weekend, upon arriving home, I checked out Yarn Harlot and found this link. That really closeup photo of the heel construction made me understand. The pattern on Phreaddes page, Bandwagon Socks, directed me to 'Maia’s unusual and wonderful Toe-up Gusseted heel'. It is a wonderful toe up gusseted heel! And yes, its simply backward. Maia has a great tutorial on the link and as a pdf file for you to work from. She worked out how to use the heel for all socks, not just within a pattern designed for it, using a system of percentages as does Elizabeth Zimmerman. Maia, I salute you. It really is a beautiful heel. In order to try out the heel I had to... umm... start another pair of socks. The green socks will get this heel, but the yarn is so small it will take forever to get down there. I pulled out some more of the Kroy yarn I had in my bag. These slightly heavier yarns do have their place in the scheme of things. It makes for very quick work. In a rush of wanting to get there, I'm halfway up to the foot and will get to begin the new heel later this week. I did work a little on SSs moms socks too, just so that nice yarn wouldn't think I abandoned it. I petted the green socks toe so it wouldn't feel left out. The last thing I need is for all the yarn in the work bag to revolt on me. I also wanted to report how empty my sock yarn cooler is looking. The traveling work, and this most recent pull is leaving a real hole in the stash. I swear I feel a motherly need to plump it up again. Nothing looks so sad as a gaunt yarn stash. I'll leave you with these. Red Bird Knits has this and this . And this. And there is always this too. Plus the left over desire for all her other sock yarns.
You know there should be a line I draw in the sand for myself. Just not yet, OK?
1 comment:
Be warned, this is a very addictive technique. I have not made a sock without it since I tried it and have no plans for change yet.
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