The second sock... for the second time!

I finished my second sock about a week or two ago, and I was excited, of course, especially as it had gone so quickly. So I eagerly tried it on, and it was HUGE. Realized I forgot to do two decreases in the gusset. Are you kidding?? Haha, what a stupid mistake. The pattern explicitly says "make sure you have 12 stitches on each needle", and I definitely counted, but I finished up the foot with 14 stitches on two of the needles. Boy, oh boy.

It was way too big for me to wear. How annoying, right?? So I asked Elizabeth what I should do. Her words of wisdom: "I was reading this book about knitting one time and it said that part of making projects you like is being willing to rip out and redo them over and over until they're right." Well, I listened to my wise, patient knitting partner and unraveled the foot of my sock. Redoing it really took me no time, and I am very glad I did it because now I can actually wear them.

I like them!! And see? They fit! Actually, though, they don't fit perfectly. I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm definitely pleased with how they came out, but here's the deal. The smaller sock (on my right foot) seems to fit better, but the heel seems to slide up as if the length of the bottom of the sock is too short. But the top looks perfect.

The sock on my left foot kind of looks big on the top, but the heel sits in the right place on my foot. E, do you have this problem? I think next time I'll try adding a row or two to the bottom of the sock and THEN start the toe. Oh, but that might not work on second thought. Hmm. I can't quite picture it. Maybe I'll ask the people at the Knit Nook what they think. I wish I were working there this summer.. sigh.

Now, the stripes (see pic to left). I think they turned out better this sock around, at least by the end. I know I messed up a few times and forgot to slip a stitch or something, but when I did it right, the diagonal line was much less noticeable this time. I guess it was just practice that helped. But I'm still going to see if I can find a better way to do stripes. Oh, and I wish I had thought to make the diagonal line go down the SIDE of the sock instead of right smack dab in the middle of the front.

I love these socks. I really do. They were a fun, quick project and I think they're adorable. The yarn I used (Lion Brand Microspun in Mango and Purple) is comfy and it was nice to knit with because it is pretty soft.

Now I'll leave you with a picture of my socks matching oh so well with my orange slippers. It just makes me so happy. Aren't they cheery?


Love, T

PS- Do you like my white sheet and natural lighting?

The Knitty Gritty

Yes, I know. I am a GUY posting on a knitting blog showcasing my handiwork. For all you guys out there that skeptical, knitting as two advantages that you should realize: 1) Knitting increases your manual dexterity (which is actually why I asked Teresa to teach me, since apparently dental schools like this) and 2) DA WIMMINZ realize just how good with your hands you really are. I was actually skeptical with the whole thing at first, but it really did turn out to be fun. It's a mindless activity that keeps you from not being bored. Plus, knitting really isn't that different from making lanyards, which I used to do all the time at Boy Scout and church camp.

Before this project, I did not know ANYTHING about knitting. Teresa bought me the yarn and the needles and even casted on for me (if you need to know how to cast on, visit the Knit Witch. She is our go-to woman). I remember the day quite well--I went over to her dorm room one Thursday night and she taught me how to knit whilst we watch Lost. I started with something easy--a scarf--which is essentially just row after row of stitches. The scarf is thirteen stitches across (unlucky, I know), and I just ended up knitting until the yarn was gone.

This was the start of my scarf. If you notice, the width of the scarf gets smaller as my knitting progressed. Though I must tell you, there are some phantom knitters around University of Notre Dame that you really have to look out for, but I will explain about that later. I advise any beginner knitters out there to pull on the loose yarn after every stitch in order to keep everything tight. You will definitely get better as you get more practice.

I don't know if you can see it, but the middle portion of the scarf in this picture is EXPERTLY knitted. The stitches are pulled tight and the width of the scarf is even. Like I said, it's those phantom knitters! So heres the story: I kept my knitting in Teresa's and Elizabeth's room and during the school year, I really didn't work on it that much. Apparently, Elizabeth, who is absolutely amazing, wanted to work with bigger needles than the ones she was using and just decided to knit a bit on my scarf. Whenever I started again, I could NOT figure out why that part was so good. I just thought that I must have been on fire during that particular knitting session. It wasn't until I was closer to finishing that Teresa let me in on the secret! I was sooooo angry, but since I learned on her birthday, I decided to forgive her. It was one of my better moments.

It was a bit scary whenever I came to the end of the yarn. First of all, I was not at school anymore and did not have the expertise of Elizabeth and Teresa to help. Thankfully, the Knit Witch came to my rescue (God bless her), as she showed me how to bind off (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0plhuwVF4j0). As it turns out, the scarf wasn't long enough, but I was sort of ready to be done with it and anyways, I didn't have any more yarn that color and wouldn't really have known what to do with it if I had had the yarn. It's not too bad though, since it reaches a little bit above my waist whenever I have it around my neck. I am kind of tall though, so if someone who is a little more wee than me wants, please let me know!


Well guys, tt took me a while, but by the end of my scarf, my knitting was getting to be quite good, if I don't say so myself. I was definitely proud of what I had done, and now I'm gonna move on to bigger and better things. Perhaps I will learn how to purl or maybe I'll just learn how to do different colors.

With that, I have officially entered into the blogosphere. Whodathunk that it'd be with a post about knitting? It sure is crazy how the world works.

Knittaliciously,

Joe

Summer of Knitting, Coffee, and Chris Brown.

That's right, I said coffee. This is the summer I'm going to like coffee, I decided. And it's already 2:30, and I'm still awake, so I'm guessing it's due to the coffee I had this evening. Oops. I'm still a novice. Aren't the beans pretty though? My mom makes delicious coffee. I still make mine with plenty of cream and sugar, and it's yum.


Anyway, down to business. I felted a purse! It didn't take long, but I was pretty bored knitting such a straight-forward pattern especially in yarn that I had already used before, so I made the purse on the small side. The top edges kept curling outward, so I crocheted a border (double crochet stitch - The knitwitch on youtube taught me how), but it didn't really help much. In the end it didn't matter. After I ran it through the wash, it was pretty firm and still a little wet, so I could shape it. Not on a blocking board, or whatev, because I am too lazy to ever block anything I have made to date.

I put it through the washer THREE TIMES, with increasing heat (warm, then very warm, then hot) because, God, I was so impatient. You aren't supposed to have to run it through that many times. I was scared, though, of shrinking it too much too quickly (once you shrink, you can't stretch it out again). Next time I will just run it through once or twice in hot water. I put it in a zippered pillowcase like this website said to (wonderful tips) with a pair of jeans that I didn't mind if they shrunk and a towel. I didn't run it through the dryer because it was pretty dry already when I got it out of the wash. It came out pretty good, but it did felt kind of unevenly, partly because the purse folded up incidentally inside the washer. So in certain areas there is more stitch definition than in others. I think it looks fine overall. I'd probably like it more if I weren't so sick of this yarn. Jeez, I get sick of yarn so fast. That's probably bad.

Measurements. I was really annoyed because I wanted to know how much to expect my purse to shrink after felting, and I couldn't find any definite answer on the web. It was all "it depends". Everywhere I looked told me to do a swatch, but I have never done a swatch to obtain a gauge or anything, mainly because I'm lazy. So I didn't do a swatch and just assumed it would shrink about 1/3 - 1/2 its size, which was the general range given on the web. And it shrinks more in length than width. It was about right. Before and after pictures to help explain my point:

Before
Width: 9.25"
Length: 8"
Pom-pom diameter (I was curious, alright?): 1.5"

After
Width: 7.5"
Length: 5"
Pom-pom: 1"







I made a cute little pom-pom and did an I-cord connecting it to the back of the purse and then made a little I-cord hole to put it through to make a clasp of sorts. I-cord handle too. I was very curious what a felted pom-pom would look like. Now that I see it, it looks familiar. I think I've seen felted pom-poms before but I never made the connection. Interessstinng... the secrets of life that knitting reveals.













OK, now for the final pictures to just give you the feel of the general size before/after. Now, I know the purse clashes with my dress (ISN'T IT CUTE? I JUST GOT IT!), but it gives you an idea of the size. It's pretty small, and it's probably more of a fall purse, and I really don't know if I'm going to use it, and the pom-pom fits snugly under my armpit (HAHA, awk), but at least I got to use up that yarn that had been nagging me from my yarn bag for months now. And now I have felting experience. Cool.



















I'm going to bed now. Hopefully I can fall asleep. Before I go, though, I want to tell you all to listen to that song "No Air" by Jordin Sparks feat. Chris Brown (LOVE). Miriam says the lyrics suck (true), so it's not worth listening to (NOT true). The song is so good, and soo fun to sing along to. It's the only thing I've listened to all day long. I love it.

-T

One Down...

I finished the first of my 2nd pair of socks, and I love blogging, and it doesn't happen often enough (come on, people, let's get knitting!!), so I thought I'd blog. This is my first experiment with different colors. I just did stripes of different widths with purple and orange yarn. The colors are a little shocking, but I think with the pattern it works alright. Aaaand, look how adorable the colors are with my orange slippers!!

The yarn I used is really soft so it was fun to knit, and this sock went pretty quickly, which is nice. I used one of the patterns from E's book. I forget which one it is.. the most simple one, 48 stitches, a little ribbing at the top, stockinette the rest of the way. Same ol', same ol'. I used the same toe I used on the second sock last time. I love that toe. My kitchener's stitch turned out almost flawless this time (picture to the left). I'm so pumped. I followed the instructions here, which I assume is the way I tried doing kitchener's last time, but for some reason it worked a lot better this time. There is a little bump in the middle, but for the most part the seam is unnoticeable.


Now, the colors deal. It wasn't as easy as I thought it'd be. Or, rather, just not as perfect as I'd hoped. I found two methods here to do "jogless stripes" because when you knit in the round, the stripes end up being one stitch off. My pictures and that website probably explain it better than I could. I tried both methods while knitting. The first one (stationary jogless stripes) didn't look very good. It was just really obvious that one of the columns was getting shorter and shorter. It was weird. Ick.

The second method (traveling jogless stripes) was better, but still noticeable. The website warns that a spiral will start to be seen, and it is. That's annoying. But it is less obvious than the first way. I don't know, I'll keep surfing the web and see if I can find anything else. If I do I'll try it out on my second sock and let you all know.

Well I think that's all I've got for now.

OH ! NO. I lied. So there's this sweet online network called Ravelry. It is a bunch of knitters, and you can get a profile and upload patterns and pictures of stuff you've knitted for everyone to look at. I just joined, and have surfed around on it a little bit, and it seems pretty cool and useful. They have a waiting list or something to register with the website, but it only takes a week or two for you to get the email to go join, and it's completely free! I recommend.

Happy summer. Finally lots of time to knit!