Shorn

Today we walked up to Weaving Works, where Al and Lin Schwider from The Pines Farm demonstrated the noble art of sheep shearing. This sheep is a pet of the family, chosen for the demo because of her mild temperament.



She maintained a fairly resigned demeanor through the whole ordeal, with only a few plaintive bleats.



Note the nicely crimped fleece - she is a natural coloured Romney.



Ah! Done at last! We were allowed to pet her after the shearing. Her stubbly hide was very soft, warm and full of lanolin.

Birthday Socks

Oak Ribbed Socks by Nancy Bush from Knitting Vintage Socks, knit for gnr's birthday and finished four days early, even though I've been distracted lately by lacy socks and baby boots and chasing around town hunting down exclusive yarn (Wendee, I'm looking at you).

Stats:

Regia Stretch (70% wool, 30% poly) Color 111, most of 2 skeins
2.25 mm bamboo DPN
15 st / 24 rows per 5 cm (2 inches)
Ravelry project link

Notes:

Knit exactly per the pattern except that I omitted the heel "seam" stitch. The ribbing lets the socks stretch to fit size US 10 men's feet. I love the Regia wool blend as a workhorse practical yarn that can take hard wear and lots of laundering.

Next: something possibly less practical, but definitely more beautiful.

Selvedge Swatch

Garter stitch swatch knit to compare methods of creating a selvedge. Knit using Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran (colour 300102) on 5 mm (US 8) Crystal Palace bamboo DPNs.



1. Slip last stitch purlwise with yarn in front AND knit first stitch through the back loop. This creates a distinctive chain edge with each chain quite open.

2. Slip first stitch purlwise with yarn in front. This also creates a chain along the edge, but the chain is more compact than #1 and the edge is less prominent.



3. Knit last stitch through the back loop AND slip first stitch purlwise without moving the yarn to the front. Makes a clear series of slanted loops around the edge of the fabric.

4. Slip first stitch purlwise without moving the yarn to the front. Looks very much like #3 except the selvedge is flatter (meaning, less bulky).



5. Slip first stitch knitwise. Gives a wrapped edge stitch similar to #4, except the wrap is more horizontal.

6. Just knit. The classic knot-like plain garter selvedge.

Bootees Flat and Round

These bootees, designed by Saartje, are wildly popular on Ravelry (over 2,000 projects) and it's easy to see why. Adorable, quick to knit, and perfect for a baby shower gift. I knit the first of the pair per the pattern, which is written to knit flat.



There were two seams to sew up, and eight ends to weave. Lazy knitter efficiency expert that I am, I decided to try knitting the second one in the round. I also made the straps using a cable cast-on with the existing yarn, rather than adding new yarn for each strap as the pattern stated. In the round, you get one short seam, and four ends.

If you would rather eat a bug than purl, you won't care for the round version, but even with writing the pattern as I knitted, it was faster in the round.



Bootees in the Round

I added one stitch to the original pattern to make it easier to work on 2 or 4 needles. The bootee is knit inside out (i.e. wrong side facing outwards).

Cast on 32, divide over 2 circs or 4 dpn
row 1 P32
row 2 KFB, K14, M1, K2, M1, K14, KFB
row 3 P36
row 4 KFB, K15, M1, K4, M1, K15, KFB
row 5 P40
row 6 KFB, K16, M1, K1, M1, K4, M1, K1, M1, K16, KFB
row 7 P46
row 8 KFB, K18, M1, K1, M1, K6, M1, K1, M1, K18, KFB
row 9, 11, 13, 15, 17 P52
row 10, 12, 14, 16, 18 K52
row 19 change to contrast color and P52
row 20 K15, (SSK) 5 times, K2, (K2TOG) 5 times, K15
row 21 P42
row 22 K42
row 23 P42
row 24 K10, BO 22, K10
row 25 K10, turn the work and cast on 10 using cable cast-on
row 26 K30, turn the work and cast on 10 using cable cast-on
row 27 K40
row 28 BO 20, K20
row 29 BO 20

The bootees above were knit with Hazel Knits Artisan Sock in Beachglass and Natural, on 2.25 mm needles.

Mister Gauge

Dear Reader, today's post is about that perennial favorite topic: knitting gauge. Gauge matters, we are told again and again (and again). Your mileage may vary. Swatch generously, measure twice, and all will be well. Unless you are me.

There's an old, odd, television series that lasted only a few seasons called The Tick, starring Patrick Warburton as the title character, a superhero who dresses in a blue formfitting tick costume. The Big Blue Bug of Justice is muscular, brave, righteous and very, very dumb. One of my favorite lines from the show comes when Tick has done something especially foolish, and expresses his dim awareness that he's not the sharpest knife in the drawer. He says to his sidekick Arthur, "You're on a first-name basis with Lucidity. I have to call him Mister Lucidity, which is no good in a pinch."

I have to call him Mister Gauge.

Lesson One: Needle Size Matters



This Doctor Who scarf is 3.8 meters (12.5 feet, 1128 rows, 56,400 garter stitches) of woolly mohairyness. You can't tell from the artfully arranged photo above, but one section of it is 2 or 3 cm (about an inch) narrower than the rest. Now why would this happen? The thinner section was knitted during a visit to Canada. Right now some of you are puzzled, while others are rolling their eyes. Yes, I borrowed some needles from my hostess, and no, I did not realize that CA/UK pin sizes are different than US ones. A UK size 8 is a US 6, and a US 8 is a UK 6, the point being that they are not the same size.

Lesson Two: Needle Size Really Matters



These socks were designed by Wendy of Wendy Knits, who is the world's most reliable and accurate pattern writer. So why did these socks turn out much too big for me? Shut up, I did TOO swatch! I knit a large swatch in the round and measured it carefully, and adjusted the pattern accurately in accordance with my measured gauge. My math was perfect. The only difference between the swatch and the sock was that I knitted the swatch with circs and the sock with DPNs, but I checked the size of the pins with a needle gauge and they were both US 2s.

Did you know there is more than one size called US #2? Yes indeed, there is. Ditto US 1 and 6. However, many knitting needle gauges have only one hole for each US size. I had knit my swatch with 2.75 mm US2, but knit the sock with 3.00 mm.

I've bought an accurate needle gauge with (I think...) all the sizes. But I wonder what other surprises the cruel mistress that is gauge has waiting for me.

Now with More Socks

This weekend included 8 hours on the train to & from Vancouver BC, and I needed a portable sock (squashable, droppable, interruptible, easily memorized). This one fits the bill perfectly: Nancy Bush's Oak Ribbed Sock from Knitting Vintage Socks. The yarn is Regia Stretch, color 111.

Embossed Leaves Cast-On (and On)

The Embossed Leaves socks pattern (Ravelry link) by Mona Schmidt is published both in Interweave Knits Winter 2005 issue, and in the book Favorite Socks.

In both sources, the pattern calls for a 1x1 rib cast on. I cast on as prescribed, but the edge did not look, to my eye, like the photo in the pattern. It was not very stretchy and had a pointy look, instead of the softly rounded edge in the photo. Research on the Ravelry boards led me to a tutorial on Mona's blog (see links in her sidebar) demonstrating the cast on she intended the socks to have: the tubular cast on from Montse Stanley's Knitters Handbook (p. 78).

I also found an excellent video of this technique, with additional explanation, on Ysolda's site. The photo above is my 2nd start on the sock, with tubular cast on, looking at least closer to what it should be. So this project has begun in my usual fashion: read a bit, knit a bit, read a bit, frog a bit, and repeat.