blog.susannawinter.net

wilwheaton:

Via Reddit

OMG Wil Wheaton posing with a knitted sock, SWOON! (is that Monkey?)

I have a FO to report in: the Midsummer Monkeys are finished — and I’m wearing them right now. :) I’m still not a great fan of the color but it works quite well in the stitch pattern. You should’ve seen my swatches… or maybe not. The socks are a little snug, especially around the calves (that just means I have to work out more, haha). They’re also a bit itchy but I can’t usually wear wool against my skin so that’s normal. But, they haven’t been washed or blocked yet, so I’m hoping I can stretch them out a bit and make ‘em softer.

• Pattern: Monkey (ravelry) by Cookie A. from Winter 2006 Knitty
• Yarn: 100 g of Max Gründl Hot Socks Laola (75% wool, 25% polyamide), colorway #653 (yellow base color with minty green and pink stripes)
• Needles: 2.5 mm aluminum circular
• Mods: Worked toe-up, 15-stitch pattern repeat, Revisited Widdershins heel, calf increases.
• Other: Summer of Socks 2007 pair #1

I also cast on for the second pair of SOS2007 socks. The yarn (Zitron Trekking Pro Natura) is this yummy mix of blueberry, blackberry, and steely blue. It’s a wool/bamboo blend and although it’s not super soft on the ball, it’s got this subtle sheen when knitted up. It’s softer but also thinner than the Hot Socks I used for the Monkeys and the color is so soothing. I’m using sock pattern no. 100-19 from Garnstudio DROPS, which has a cute cable lattice on the instep and three 3-by-3 cables in the back of the foot. The yarn looks like it’s self-striping but it’s pretty tone-on-tone so I’m hoping it won’t completely drown out the cable pattern. We’ll see how it goes.

About those monkey mods: When I mentioned on Flickr that I tweaked the Monkey stitch pattern to fit my feet better, Maia Spins asked me whether I re-wrote it for toe-up. It’s not as much a re-write as me mashing up different patterns as I went along. Here’s what I did:

Toe

Cast on 12 sts on a circular needle using the Turkish Cast-On. Increased to 30 sts on instep and sole (60 sts total), and worked in stockinette until toes were covered (about 6 cm).

Stitch Pattern

I prefer the way the stitch pattern looks when done cuff-down, when the “branches” flow downwards. So, the first thing I did was to try to reverse the stitch pattern to have the same cuff-down look, only doing it toe-up. Didn’t work: it ended up looking like cat yak. The stitch pattern just didn’t have the same flow as Cookie’s original. But, judging by the comments on Wendy’s post on June 25, many, many people have tried it and failed. Sarah has a detailed, analytical post of why it can’t be done. The chart refuses to be reversible.

So, the stitch pattern can’t be reversed. I still had to tweak it, though, since I had 60 sts instead of the 64 in the original pattern. (On hindsight, the socks are slightly snug so I think I could’ve been just fine with the 4 additional stitches. Oh well.) I needed a 15-stitch repeat instead of 16 sts so what I did was take out 1 st on each of the “branches” and added a column of purl stitches in the purl triangles/wedges. The original stitch pattern is symmetrical so my mod is slightly off-kilter. It’s only by 1 st, though, so it’s hardly noticeable.

The chart was created with Jacquie’s Java KnitChart. Kara has created a symmetrical 12-stitch mini-Monkey chart and she didn’t reverse it either.

Heel

Instead of trying to do the heel backwards, I substituted for the Revisited Widdershins heel (which I looooove). Started gusset increases when the sock was about 7.5 cm (3”) less than the length of my foot — that’s about 16 cm for me. Followed the chart numbers on the row for 30 sts and increased to 52 sts total. Then just placed markers, turned the heel, and did the heel flap per instructions.

Cuff

I continued in the lace pattern on instep stitches. The stitch pattern was in mid-repeat after the heel so I did a few rows of stockinette on the heel/back stitches until I hit row 1 again in the pattern. After that, it was pretty straightforward. After 8 repeats in stitch pattern (that’s about 24 cm from the sole), I hit the point where my calves begin. Incresed 2 sts on the back needle on row 1 of the stitch pattern, then worked to the end of the repeat in a slightly wonky pattern. Then increased 2 sts again on row 1 of stitch pattern on back needle — now I had two 17-stitch repeats on the calf that were like the original stitch pattern plus that extra purl column. Worked to the end of that repeat so I had a total of 10 pattern repeats in the cuff. Based on the yarn I had left, I decided I’d better start the twisted rib. I got slightly more than the 1” of ribbing but that was OK. Finished with the Russian bind-off… and almost ran out of yarn on sock #2! The stretchy bind-off uses more yarn so I had to do a regular bind-off on a few stitches to be able to finish. A close call!

These are the socks that wouldn’t end… I’ve been frantically trying to finish my first pair of SOS2007 socks but the yarn just keeps going on and on and on. By now I can do the Monkey in my sleep! People have been turning in finished pairs left and right in the Flickr group, and the blog round-up for the first week is just overwhelming. So much sock-knitting going on! :)

The thing is, I’m determined to finish the entire ball of yarn on these socks. I could just decide that the cuff is long enough and bind off. But I’m not gonna because I’m sort of stubborn that way. I want to use the entire ball because

1. I want to see how much sock I can crank out of 100 grams
2. I hate having leftover sock yarn, especially in this colorway (although it’s growing on me) and
3. I want to make knee-highs someday and I’m curious to know how much yarn I’d need (see #1).

Off to knit some more now. There’s still a couple of hours of knitting time left this weekend.

I must be the last knitter on the planet not to have done Monkeys, Jaywalkers, or a Clapotis. Well, not anymore: my first project for Summer of Socks 2007 is a pair of bright banana-yellow socks that I’ve dubbed Midsummer Monkeys. They’re modded, of course, since I like to work toe-up but Monkeys nonetheless.

This is what I had 12 hours into SOS2007. That’s not 12 hours of knitting — although I would’ve been happy with that. :D The starting time, 5 a.m. EST, was 12 noon for me so I cast on on my lunch break on Thursday.

Here’s the situation 24 hours later, on Friday night. Some progress, sure, but not as much as I’d hoped.

And here’s Sunday afternoon. I got sidetracked with baking. :) Mmm, sock knitting and cake!  My unofficial goal was to finish the first pair over the first weekend but looks like I’m not gonna make it. You can’t really see it in the picture but I’ve already finished the heel on the first sock and I’m currently working on the heel flap of the second one. As far as goals go, I try to…

• Finish at least a pair — hopefully two pairs — per each of the three months of the -along.
• Try different yarns and fibers. I don’t have a big stash, not even sock yarn, so I want to try out stuff I’ve never worked with before. Handpainted stuff, bamboo, soy-protein fibers, stuff like that. And hopefully accrue a decent size sock yarn stash for the winter. ;)
• Knit some of the really popular and famous sock patterns I haven’t tried yet, like Pomatomus, Baudelaire, and yes, those Jaywalkers too. :)
• Knit some intricate cabled socks.
• Enter the design contest! With cabled socks, perhaps?
• Knit for someone else other than myself. I’m a really bad gift knitter so I want to work on that and maybe finish some Christmas presents early. :)

Monkey see, monkey do

For a while now, I’ve had the desire to make knitted monkeys. There are a couple of great monkey patterns online, like Mr. Dangly or Tucker the Monkey. In Kath Dalmeny’s World of Knitted Toys, there are three species of primates, and I have a small amount of burnt orange yarn in my stash that’d make a great orangutan.

But then I saw puchitomato’s crocheted amigurumi tropical monkeys and I just had to make one (and I’m not alone). The pattern is my own concoction with some heavy reverse engineering based on the pics.

This little guy is made of worsted weight yarn with two craft eyes, polyester filling and peas, a pipe cleaner inside the tail, and a pink bead for belly button. He measures about 17 cm (6.5”) sitting down.

(Source: ravelry.com)