Grand Sierra Knee Socks - Rip-it, Rip-it

Just when I thought it was safe to knit away . . .

My Grand Sierra knee socks were fitting well. I planned my lower leg decreases to get down to the number of stitches needed for the heel and instep and knitted away. Two weeks ago, the socks looked like this with the legs more or less complete.

I tried them on one last time before starting the heel. Uh oh! The socks fit my legs nicely, but I can barely pull them over my heel. Not good!

I ripped out 16 rows and reknit 10 rows with no decreases. I try them on again and they go over my heel with persistence and care; not much better than they were. So I frogged 26 rows (rip-it, rip-it) to eliminate more decreases.

With the warming weather, I've not been motivated to reknit very many rows. I'm also concerned about how the fit will change when I end the pattern stitch and work the foot in plain stockinette stitch.

Earlier Posts about these socks: Grand Sierra Knee Socks - Progress, Grand Sierra Knee Socks - 2½ Frogs Later, Grand Sierra Knee Socks - A Frogging We Go, Grand Sierra Knee Socks - Designing

Review: Knitting Circles Around Socks: Knit Two at a Time on Circular Needles

Do you want to learn to knit 2 socks at a time on 2 circular needles? Knitting Circles Around Socks: Knit Two at a Time on Circular Needles by Antje Gillingham has detailed instructions with plenty of pictures.

All the steps needed to knit 2 socks at once on 2 circular needles are detailed using a basic stockinette stitch sock pattern in worsted weight yarn. The 14 well-illustrated pages of the basic sock pattern cover every detail of knitting with 2 circular needles to make 2 socks at once.

Once you've learned the basics, there are 8 sock patterns using different types of yarn and featuring your choice of beads, cables, ruffles or lace. These patterns have instructions for a women's small, medium and large sock size. Most of them accomplish this by varying the stitch count for the different sizes. A couple of the patterns vary the needle size to get the different sock sizes. I am not a fan of using larger needles to get larger socks. The feel of the knitted fabric on the bottom of the foot is different and may not be comfortable.

Two of these patterns are basic stockinette stitch socks made in fingering or sport weight yarn instead of worsted weight. These patterns are useful, if you are not experienced in varying the number of stitches to adjust a sock for a different yarn or don't want to bother figuring it out yourself.

The books covers basic sock terminology and measurements and has a table of typical measurements by shoe size. A Knitting Basics section has illustrated instructions for casting on, various decreases, make a stitch, and kitchner stitch or grafting. Adjusting sock size by changing the number of stitches is mentioned, but no details are given. Two pages near the end of the book are devoted to converting patterns from double-pointed to circular needles, which gives you an endless selection of sock patterns to work on circular needles.

This is a excellent book for learning to knit 2 socks on 2 circular needles. All of the basics are covered in detail and once you know the basics, you can knit any sock pattern on 2 circular needles.

6/22/2008 - Addendum: There is a page of corrections for the book at http://www.theknittingnest.com/antjesbook/patterncorrections.html

Project Linus - Third Sunday Group - April

Our third Sunday Project Linus group met at JoAnns last Sunday and I was there. I'm slow reporting about it, but I was there. However, I did not take my sewing machine. I took my computer. More about that in a minute.

Jodie arrive with a finished blanket. This is a 3 dimensional pinwheel quilt. I think she won the kit as a door prize at one of our big Project Linus events. She finished the top with a flannel back and skipped the batting.

Here's a closeup of a pinwheel block. The points are a square of fabric folded on the diagonal twice. The raw edges are included in the seam between 2 background squares. Some child will love this quilt.

Louise and Lucille had fabric cut for more (not so Amish) Bars quilt tops like we made last month. There was also fabric cut to make super-sized 9 patch quilt tops. Two new volunteers came and sewed along with Lucille, Louise, Anita, Christy and Jodie. Debby brought a crocheted ripple afghan to work on. Our new chapter coordinator arrived with her new Janome sewing machine and worked on layering some tops with backs and batting. Laurie tied quilts, but arrived with none of the youthful helpers she brought last month.

I brought my laptop computer, a revised brochure and some of the granny squares I was coerced into bringing home from National Make a Blanket Day in February. I'm working on a new design for our chapter website and brought the laptop so I could show a mock up of the design and get input.

I got some really good inputs on the website and now I need to create my page templates and start creating the new pages. I've also been revising our old tri-fold brochure and got inputs on that also. There was no way I was dragging both a 10 pound computer and a 25 pound sewing machine to JoAnns, so I took the granny squares to work on when we weren't discussing the website.

We expected some of last month's blanket tying helpers again this month, so I brought 2 quilts ready to tie and one that needed topstitching around the edge to make it ready to tie. Since Laurie arrived with none of the younger helpers, she tied blankets alone. Below are pictures of the blankets I brought to be tied.

This is one of my "Easy X" quilts. 10 inch squares of each fabric are cut on both diagonals to make the triangles. The red print has bears in different outfits and poses.

The bears in this print would have been unrecognizable in an Easy X block, so I only cut the squares once to make this quilt with 4 giant pinwheel blocks.

Another top featuring those squares of large purple and tan floral fabric. I framed the focus fabric with 2 different fabrics for a quick top. I was running low on the coordinating fabrics after making this top, so I went fabric shopping while I was at JoAnns. Conveniently, the calico fabric was on sale, so I got 5 different fabrics, about 17 yards total. I've got a lot of those purple squares left.

Website Updates - April 21, 2008

There are no interesting changes to report this month. I used Total Validator to check all the pages on the website. I edited a few pages to remove links to dead pages and update the links to pages that have moved. When I do this, I also modify some of the HTML code to make it more standards compliant and hopefully reduce unpredictable behavior in web browers. Eventually I plan a redesign of the website and will clean up all the old code.

End of My Sewing Slump?

I confess. Other than our 3rd Sunday Project Linus group meeting last month, I did no sewing or quilting for 7 weeks. This started around the time I brought home a huge stack of library books. But that is not the only cause.

7 weeks ago, I got out the purple and black striped knit that I've planned to make into winter pajamas for 3 years. I laid the fabric on the cutting table, got out the pattern pieces, and determined that I didn't have enough fabric. I've had this problem before and cut the sleeves on the crosswise grain (instead of lengthwise). Not this time.

I cut out the pajama bottoms, the biggest piece, since these are long pajamas. Then I tried to arrange the remaining fabric in the most efficient cutting arrangement, but there was no way to cut all the pieces of the top. Not even piecing the sleeves would solve the problem.

So it lay on the cutting table. And laid and laid. Two weeks ago while visiting my mom, I stopped by the FM Store to browse and noticed some purple knit. I got enough for my pajama sleeves and finally laundered it a couple of days ago.

Yesterday I cut out most of the pajama top. Today I cut the cuffs for the sleeves. Here's the stack of pieces all ready to start sewing/serging. The purple sleeves don't match the rest very well, but it's good enough for sleeping.

I want to get a couple of quilts ready to tie at our Project Linus group next Sunday. We had a large group tying blankets last month and they are expected back. This morning I cut 10 inch squares in half and started stitching half square triangle blocks.

I cut 2 sets of squares. One set is 8 white on white squares and 8 red with bears. The second set is 8 yellow tiny gingham check squares and 8 large bear print squares. I have 4 pairs of triangles left to sew together. The other 28 are trailing out the back of the sewing machine and down into a pile on the floor.

Below is the view from the machine I do most of my quilt piecing on. The arrow points at the TV screen downstairs. My TV is usually on and this works great for watching favorite old TV shows as I piece.

Hats for Charity - The March 4

I finished 4 hats in March for our local AT&T TeleComm Pioneers chapter to give to City Union Mission. That's a total of 13 hats/caps this year toward my goal of 48 hats.

I finished my nemesis. I adapted the teen/adult ribbed cap pattern (see my patterns page) to use a J hook with the pink & black Bernat Super Stripes boucle yarn. The hat is OK, but the pattern really wasn't a good match for the yarn.

Setting aside the remainder of the pink and black boucle, I grabbed some Lion Brand Jiffy yarn for a quick hat. Using a J hook, double crochet, and my Formula Hat pattern, I hooked this hat in less than 2 hours. (Sorry, I still haven't written down the pattern.) The color name for this pastel variegated yarn is Salem.

More Jiffy yarn, this color is El Paso. A Formula Hat in double crochet using a size J hook.

Yet another Formula Hat. Same specs as the last 2. I used the last of the El Paso Jiffy for the top, switched to the grape Jiffy left from one of the February hats and finished off with a couple of rounds of black Jiffy when I ran out of the grape.

I bought 4 skeins of Jiffy at the same time, with a bunch of JoAnns coupons, and tried to get colors that would go together. I bought a skein of pink at Micheals yesterday to go with the rest of the Salem skein.