A Curious Statistical Anomaly

Finally, I finished my purple socks. The yarn is a variegated that made strips when knit. I didn’t know that when I started as the swatch in the yarn shop wasn’t striped. So, nice surprise, since the pattern is a plain jane just knit’em one. The best kind of knitting when one’s brain is not working on all thrusters.

Besides, I figured it’s about time to post an update on my knitting and fiber. I’ve been working on finishing things. So far since the start of the year, I’ve finished a sweater, these socks, and have about half another sweater done. I’ll post a picture of the work in progress soon.

I bought sock yarn at Maryland Sheep and Wool and have been itching to get a new pair on the needles but decided to finish some of what I’d already started. Currently, that’s another pair of socks in a heavier yarn, the sweater (of cotton yarn for summer wear), and a sweater I started last year of acrylic.

It’s been raining for days with bits of scattered sunshine so the purple yarn made me happy and the knitting was very simple so it was a way to relax and imagine flowers and sunshine. Today, I walked through all the puddles to the mailbox. I haven’t done that in a while and found myself really tired when I reached the mailbox. Of course, suspecting that I’d be wiped with so little exertion, I’d had Paul call me when he was a few minutes out so I could ride the rest of the way back with him. The mailbox is quite a hike from the house (a quarter mile–a breeze of a walk most days for me).

Got a lot done today because I had a lot of little things to do. I keep saying that I’ll do the little things as soon as they come up in email, but somehow I end up with an In Box full of small tasks to do. At least when you get them done, you feel like you accomplished something–in this case reducing the messages in my In Box by down to a third of what it was. Yeah, me! I take my successes where I can. Now it’s off to read for a while and to sleep…perchance to dream…unless insomnia bops me over the head again.

In between all the other things I’ve been doing lately, I’ve been working on these socks. I turned the heel last night. I was going to knit plain until one inch from top but just switched to 2×2 ribbing since I want to make them a bit higher and I hope the ribbing will help them stay up.

But, alas I’m not a one project kind of person so I have a pair of traveler socks in the bedroom that I’ve done the top pattern and just started the second pattern. The pattern is by Nancy Bush in her book, Knitting on the Road. I’ve made a couple of pair of socks from this books and I just love the simple clear directions.

I’ve also finished the body of my sweater I was working on. Now I just have to pick up for the sleeves and knit down to the wrist. No finishing required since it’s top down and I used an i-cord for the bottom. Hopefully, that one will show up here in the blog with a week or two. Depends on my knitting time. I’ve about finished the follow up to all the zines going live — now it’s gearing up for the 1st of April — and that means lots of reading time. I found one of my book holders and I bought a weighted bookmark so I’m going to try reading and knitting (at least the plain knitting).

I’ve spun up a bobbin of wool/angora mix that I bought a few years ago. I’m not caring for the color as much as I did when I bought it but it spins up nice. I’m hoping to get a cardigan from it when I’m done. It’s sort of scratchy so I’m thinking outer garment not next to the skin.

Lots of plan. Little time. But full of joy at the thought that soon spring will be here.

I was thrashing my brain trying to think of a post and someone asked me how I did my socks without a pattern. So, thought I’d try to explain. When I first started with socks I followed patterns and then I sort of got the hang of it. Eventually, after reading several book and blogs I found that there wasn’t any real trick to it.

Toe UP:

First I use a figure 8 cast on. Actually when I first did it I didn’t really know what it was called but it seemed to make sense to me after doing all those kitchener stitch toes when doing top down. Knitty.com has a great explanation with pictures of the figure 8 cast on. They call it the figure 8 toe. After trial and error I more or less do it this way now.

Once I have used the figure 8 to cast on 16-18 stitches (8-9 on each needle), I knit one row — this row is usually the most difficult. Then on the next row, knit one, M1, knit to next to last stitch, M1, K1 (for each needle) on the next row I usually split the stitch over 4 needles with an same number of stitch on each needle.

Next row knit all stitches.

Now on first needle, Knit 1, M1, knit to end of needle. 2nd needle you knit to next to last stitch and then M1, knit 1. 3rd needle: Knit 1, M1, knit to end. 4th needle: Knit to next to last stitch, M1, Knit 1. (You’ve increased 4 stitches in this row. All increased are on the outside of the toe.

Repeat until you have enough stitches to get to the widest part of your foot by the upper toes. This is where I usually start a pattern if I’m going to or ribbing if I want a ribbed sock. If you do a lace pattern keep the stitches that will be the bottom of the foot plain. If you’re doing ribbing you can do the whole foot as ribbing (sort of makes the sock fit snugger — if that’s a word).

When you’re within two inches of the heel you need to decide on a heel type. You can do a regular heel (follow any pattern and don’t worry that you’re going in the opposite direction), a short row heel, an afterthought heel, whatever you’re comfortable with. There’s an article on heels on Wool Works website, a great website with lots of photos on heels and other sock knitting tips, the directions for an afterthought heel on Sockknitters, and the Knitting Fiend has lots of good sock links.

Once you’ve done the heel, well you’re home free. Knit up as high on the leg as you want though if you’re going to go mid-calf you may have a problem with slipping down. I usually go either 8-9 inches or keep to a 2×2 or 1×1 ribbing so it holds up a bit better.

Well, that’s my fuzzy method of knitting a sock. On my next pair I’m planning an hour-glass (or short-row heel). I just loved the way it looked on the vintage socks that the Yarn Harlot just finished knitting. I don’t think I’d ever have the patients for those tiny leaves but I really like the looks of the heel.

Meanwhile, I’ve started a top down sweater and I don’t have a pattern so I’m sort of hyped to get it going. Only got 3 rows so far so it will be a while before a photo shows up here. Why doesn’t work, chores, errands, and loved ones just fade into the background when there’s a new project on the needles — it will only take me a day or three before the newness wears off and I won’t mind being interrupted so much.

Today I sewed in the ends and finished a pair of UFO socks. These socks were the ones that I found moths had eaten a couple of holes in. I frogged until I got below the eaten holes, clipped out the bad yarn, reattached and started knitting again. I also had a brain storm and decided to do upside down heels — the socks were toe-up but I put in a regular heel making no changes for doing them from bottom up so the thicker bit is under the heel.

The yarn was a variegated in wild orange and blues. But, even as I began the second sock I noticed that the sock looked like I was making it from a different colorway. It’s not. I bought one skein, split it in half so I could have half for one sock and half for the other. It’s all a matter of how the colors pooled. Since I wasn’t using a pattern but knitting on the fly I did notice when I finished that one sock was a bit wider from the ankles up than the other so that might account for the difference in color pools.

Anyway, I’m glad to be done with this pair. I’m wearing them now and they fit pretty well. The bind off doesn’t pull in and it stretches a bit more than usual because every 10th stitch I did an extra knit of the stitch before binding off so give a looser binding. It does fit better.

Oh, and those who read yesterday’s blog. I did watch all the Super Bowl ads online and not one of them is memorable. I remember some of them were really funny as I watched them but right now I only remember that I watched them. So, I guess nothing replaces my all time favorite — EDS’s Herding Cats.

Well, I unknit the sock down past where the moths had eaten it, clipped out the ends of the eaten bits, and rewound the ball. Then it was a matter of figuring out where I was in the process and continuing on.

This project originally stalled because I didn’t want to do the usual short row heel and I was trying to figure out how to do a normal heel but from the bottom to the top– if that makes any sense. Then I was reading the Yarn Harlot’s blog and she talked about the afterthought heel and how it was just another toe. It was like a light bulb went off. I got out a pair of socks that I’d made last year (top down) and looked at the heel. I thought that if from the toe up I just made a normal heel then the thicker bit usually running along the back of the heel would be under the heel, where it actually would do the most good, and the thinner bit would be at the back of the heel and since I wear clogs mostly, this would be fine (no rubbing on the shoe’s back edge).

The trick was realizing that a heel was a heel was a heel — whether toe up or top down it works and fits the foot the same way. Of course, until I finish and wear them a while I won’t know if this works as well as I think it will but it does make a nice looking heel for a toe up sock.

I think I’ll have a cuppa and admire it for a while. At least don’t tell me 40 billion other knitters already knew this and it’s an old technique until I’ve had a chance to enjoy my cleverness for a few minutes at least.

Well, I tried my hardest — those Zinc thingys, lots of juice, lots of water, staying warm but it hit and hit hard. This flu-ish/cold thingy looks like it’s here for a while. Since I’m not, as my son says, working with full thrusters at the moment, I decided to dig out some sock yarn I’d recently purchased and start a pair while watching Pride & Prejudice.

The first attempt with size two needles had a far too loose fabric. So, out it all came and now with size 1 needles, it’s looking much better. These are basic socks. Toe up increasing 4 stitches every other round until it looks big enough when I try it on my foot then knit until two inches from the end of the foot, do a short row heel (this time I might try something different), and then a 2×2 ribbing until I run out of yarn and bind off. That’s it; not much thinking because I’ve done this lots of times but I can at least feel productive while sniffing, coughing, and feeling like an undead who didn’t get it right.

Well, denial — it’s not just a river in Egypt. Finally, my knitterly denial couldn’t be maintained and I had to admit to myself that the Honeycomb sock is just way, way, too misshapen and big for anyone for any reason. Maybe deep inside, I knew I was only fooling myself since I couldn’t bring myself to start the second sock. It wasn’t SSS (second sock syndrome). No, it was my heart telling my head what it didn’t want to believe — the sock had to go to the frog pond.

I think that’s why I didn’t take a picture with the sock on my foot. I knew it wasn’t going to work so, if I didn’t try it on, I could continue to kid myself. I’ve been knitting long enough to know a mistake when I make one. Why oh why did I continue knitting even when it became hard to ignore the fact of the monstrosity that was staring me in the face. I put it in my project basket and I’ve let it sit — maybe I thought it would miraculously trans-mutate into a sock that resembled the photo on the pattern.

So, now it’s back to its yarny state and I’ll find another project for the yarn. The sock I’ll try again with a more fitting yarn for this pattern.

Well, having laryngitis does limit some of the things you can do and the cold that goes with it sort of implies that one should stay inside and not do all the yard work that’s been piling up. So, it was time to finish up the first of the pair of Honeycomb socks. However, once I got one repeat of the honeycomb pattern I got a shock…

The problem resulted from a number of things. First, I’m using a much heavier yarn because these are socks to kick around the house and/or sleep with during the cold winter months. That means they need to be warm and loose. So, I’d had to adjust the pattern for fewer stitches which still gave me a sock that fit but loosely (not to cut off circulation when sleeping but snug enough not to come off during the night under blankets). Well, when I finished the heel and got to the start of the pattern it said to increase and that the honeycomb pattern was a 12 stitch repeat. Okay, says I, I’ll make sure I add enough to be a multiple of 12 and off I go.

I’m sure most if not all of you knitters are just shaking your heads in disbelief… You’re right. The pattern pulls in, as you can see in the photo, since there are too few stitches to accommodate the reduction in circumference caused by the pattern which causes the stitches to pull in as it makes the honeycombs. The top of the sock is now smaller in circumference than the sock body below it — too tight by far.

So, it was back to the pattern (written for regular sock yarn) — check the stitch count, check how many additional stitches were added for the honeycomb section and then doing some math (ratios do come in handy eventually). Once I frogged back to the beginning of the increase section and picked up the appropriate number of stitches things looked a lot better.

As you can see the honeycomb section no longer pulls in the top of the sock — giving it a textured look and flaring above the body of the sock. When I got to the next section, I chose to decrease some, but not all, of the stitches, letting it flare a bit because now it’s up the calf of the leg and the person these socks are destined for (currently not on the internet) likes to tuck the legs of her PJs into her sleep socks. So these should be perfect. Now I just have to remember what I did and start that second sock.

Unexpectedly, I learned that doing the honeycomb pattern on four needles is quite painful for my hands when trying to get the yarn tight on the joins. I think for this next sock, I’ll move to circulars for this section. Hopefully that should make it a lot easier to keep an even tension without straining my thumbs and fingers.