Heels for Jill!

I like simple things and though I am sure I have posted the hows and whys before, I will do it again.  You can never say enough about simple socks.  

I love afterthought heels.  You can just sit and knit, without that need for the concentration that a heel turns needs.  There is none of the counting and wraps that an average short row heel needs. Have a bunch of time to knit, and want to get ahead start of holiday sock knitting? Just knit a tube, make a toe at one end and you are good.  

You can knit these sock blanks without needing to know the size of foot you are knitting for.  You don't need that till you start the heel.    If you have a basket of these sock blanks at hand, you can give anybody a pair of decently fitting handknit socks with just a few hours notice. (Of course if the foot is particularly chunky, or longer than about 12 inches, this is going to take some knowledge of said foot.  Or for kids.  All bets are off for small kids. )

So here it is.  How Needles Knits Socks:  An Afterthought Heel Toe-torial as requested!

First you will knit a tube with a toe at one end.  For feet up to a size 9 or 10, you can knit and use the same 12 inch (from the toe) blank for all sizes.  After 12 inches of stockinette, knit whatever cuff treatment you wish till you have just a nice big walnut in the shell sized ball of yarn left.  It does not matter if you start cuff down or toe up, just knit, reserving about a good walnut size.  Knit the second sock.

(In a pinch you can now actually give away the socks.  They will  not wear so well as a sock with a fitted heel but a tube sock works too.  )

Measure your foot from heel to toe.  Deduct two inches from that number and mark that number of inches or centimetres on your sock, measuring  from the toe, by picking up one leg of a single stitch, in the middle of a side.  For instance, my foot is about 9 inches long.  Deducting two inches leaves me about 7 inches.  I actually use 6 3/4 inches.    

Snip one leg of the stitch.  

Pull one end of the snipped stitch out, back to the side of the sock.  As you can see, when you pull out this one thread, suddenly and magically, there appears a row of live stitches on both sides of the hole. 

 Pick them up with a needles.  Keep pulling back that thread, revealing live stitches till you are 3 or 4 stitches around the side of the flat half sock.  Pick up and repeat for the other half of the sock, carefully weaving , and picking.

Now, you see the stitches all pulled back, picked up and you are ready to go, but for one thing.  You are going to knit across a set of  the live stitches with your walnut of reserved yarn.  When you get to that gaping hole along the sides, you must pick up 3 to 5 stitches to help lessen any tension that forms as you knit across the stitches to the other side.  Then, knit across the stitches on the other side, pick up gap stitches, and knit 1 complete round  across all 4 needles. 

In the first round, as I knit over the gap stitches, I usually move them so that the heel has 3 of 5 and the cuff has 2 of the 5 gap stitches.  

From here on in, you are knitting a toes as if you were doing a normal top down toe.  Yes, the toe shape and heel shape are the same.  When you are down to 16 stitches (the total on all needles), you can graft it closed, weave the ends in and there you are, a pair of socks.  

And that is that.

A heel toe-torial! 

198 Yards of Heaven

The other day, I was scrolling around Ravelry, when I saw a post about 198 Yards of Heaven.

With a name like that, how could I not follow it?

198 Yards of Heaven is a really nice small shawlette. More of a kerchief than a full shawl, but it is sweet, and cute and well, small. I intend to make one just so I can say its name.

But more than that. It lead to this amazing group on Ravelry, called Small Shawls. The sweet moderator, and its ardent adherents, have colllected the finest of the small shawls on Ravelry, both knitted and crocheted.

So go there and look. Just a word of caution. Make sure your coffee cup is full before you do. You are going to be there a while.

Attention pattern writers

Dear Pattern writers,

I was helping a lady with a pattern yesterday. She should have been able to get gauge with the yarn she had and the needles she was using, but it was elusive. Finally, I took the book and was reading the pattern details one more time. The gauge in the book is not over the standard 4 inches in pattern, it is over 5.

Who writes things over 5 inches? Why would you write over 5 inches. Who do you think you are to be messing with a principle tenet of pattern writing? Are you out of your mind?

I know exactly why it was done. It was to make the stitch count a nice round number, but for heavens sake, this couldn't have been edited by anyone who regularly edits knitting patterns. Seriously, who ever heard of a gauge swatch being 13.75 cm. I mean really.

10 stitches over 4 inches is a whole lot different than 10 stitches over 5.

There ought to be a law. Or something. Harrumph.

It's Not a Rootbeer Baby

Sigh.

Ever been so pleased with a thing that all you can do is sigh? Yeah.

That is exactly how I feel about this. It is everything I wanted to get out of this spur of the moment project and everything I wanted it to be in the end. I still have to bind off the hem (I'll be doing a sewn type bind off) and a few snaggly ends to weave in, and a decent blocking to do, but the bulk of it is done.

I am going to write the project up for the store (there will be a few changes to this prototype) and it will be available there. It may be available here too, but that will be up to my bosses. My blankie plan, but everything else is theirs. The need to find something to do with a few balls of a yarn in discontinued colours, (they like to make kits of these bit and ends) and chatting about what the yarn would be great for, how much would it take to do something decent sized, some colour guidance and voila, cute little baby blanket. Without being surrounded by the stimulating conversation and the amazing yarns, these little things would never come off my needles.

I still think the Root bear baby thing would work though. Imagine a warm deep carmel-ly brown instead of the blue. Nice huh? Or what I like to call the Neapolitan Ice Cream colours of pink standing in for the yellow, cream for the orange, and that carmel brown for the blue. The 'Neapolitan' ice cream sunday sort of colour combination is what set this whole adventure off, if I recall correctly.

Anyway, I am pleased the knitting is done, I am very pleased with the colours, and I am absolutely pleased with the way hemmed edging looks on the outside.

So sigh, just sigh. Its all very good.

The Bride's Memory Bag

Bride's Memory Bag

We had 3 family weddings this summer, and I really needed to find a nice acceptable way to knit. I'm not much of a partier and I am always the designated driver and I really need to keep my hands busy till its time to go.

After watching a prayer shawl workshop this spring, the idea came to me. Wouldn't it be lovely to pass along my joy for each of these lovely couples? It had to be something I could complete quickly, with minimal finishing so that it could be given to the bride before the end of the evening. The makings had to fit inside my hand bag. It had to be simple enough to knit without using a pattern, and it had to be easy enough that I could knit it while sipping my lone glass of wine.

Following the inspiration and example of the prayer shawl ladies, I knit each project solely on the day of their wedding, from beading the string to tying the tie, capturing my good wishes and the spirit and joy of the entire assembly.

Yarn: Lang Silk Dream (any dk or 3 weight yarn will work well)
Beads: 10-15 drop beads, and 30-40 smaller beads
Needles: 4mm dpn
Gauge: Not critical

Time to complete: approximately 4 hours.

String beads onto a sturdy string (I used pearl cotton size 8 for all the bags). Pearl beads were used for the first two Bride's Memory Bags, and Swarovski crystals for this last. They were usually strung so that each drop bead was separated by 3 to 5 round beads (depending on the size of the bead and the yarn you are using).

Using Judy's magic cast on, cast on 30 stitches on each of two needles for a total of 60 stitches.

Row 1: Knit 1, Pick up bead string and knit it along with your yarn for the next stitch. Knit 2 or 3 stitches, picking up the bead strand just past the second drop bead, knit 1. The goal is to have a swag of little beads between the drop beads. Continue knitting the beaded strand in every 2 or 3 stitches across the first 30 stitches. Knit the remaining 30 stitches.

Row 2: Knit all stitches

If you are using dpns, slip your stitches onto 4 needles as follows: The last 5 stitches from needle 2 and the first 5 stitches from needle 1 onto one needle. 20 stitches from needle one onto another needle. The last 5 stitches from needle one and the first 5 stitches from needles 2 onto a third needle. 20 stitches from needle 2 onto a 4th needle. If you are using circular needles, place stitch markers at these positions.

Continue working in stockinette till the bag bottom is about an inch from the cast on row. Then begin to work the lace panels on the 20 stitch sections of the bag. Each 10 stitch section forms the side of the bag, framing the lace panel. Continue working these stitches in stockinette.

Lace Panel

Row 1: Knit 1, *knit 2 together, yarn over* Repeat from * across till you have only 1 stitch remaining, knit 1.

Row 2: Knit all stitches.

Row 3 Knit 1, *yarn over, knit 2 together*Repeat from * across till you have 1 stitch remaining, knit 1.

Row 4: Knit

Repeat row 1 to 4 rows to form the lace panel until the lace panel is roughly square. End on a row 4, and continue to work around all stitches in stockinette until the top is about an inch and a half long.

Tie section

Work 3 repeats of the first 2 rows of the lace pattern above. Do this across all stitches on all needles.

Then knit in stockinette on all stitches for an inch and a half. Work 1 repeat of the lace pattern made by row 1 and 2 of the lace panel, and bind off.

Knit a 3 stitch I cord, or crochet a foundation single crochet chain about 18inches long.

Lace the tie through the center of the 3 repeats in the tie section. Weave in all ends.

Present to your bride and groom.

Other technical stuff

I began by stringing the beads, first thing in the morning, and worked each bag till the lace section was established. The rest of the knitting was between service and reception, after dinner while the speeches are going on, during the general cheer of each party. I finished each in ample time.

Your lace may look a bit different than mine. For my own ease, I knit the 2 stitches together always through the back loop. This means my decrease will lean the other way, but for this bag it is not important which way your decrease leans. You could, if you wish work the centre doing an entirely different lace design.

The bag could be made out of any size yarn. You could use it instead of wrapping paper for a baby gift or shower gift. Have fun with it.

As always, please respect my copyright, and do not use the bag for commercial purposes.

(the original, worked flat and seamed up the side, with a base worked in garter stitch)

©D Renneberg 2008