Will this work x 2?

Today I have questions about two of my current projects: Fannigan and brother Amos', sorry there is still no final pretty photo of my finished hedgerow socks, new-old yarn so not adding to the stash at all, and Curley Bear is modeling that Guernsey,

So here is Fannigan, I'm working away on the yoke, maybe a third of the way up? I wanted Fannigan to have a square neckline, so cast off stitches across the front, and have cast on a second steek and continued to knit the yoke. I decided to cast off as I would be picking up stitches down the front and around the upright neck edge, so leaving the stitches live would look different there. I am thinking of either a finish simillar to that used on my recent baby blanket, or a garter border. The blanket finish would conceal the steek edges neatly but with some bulk, the garter boarder would make button holes easier, but then I would have to neaten the steek ... I could use grosgrain ribbon, if I can find some to match. I had planned to bind the edges in knit or woven wool - but again can't find an exact match. Decisions, decisions, some deciding to do.

I'm assuming that continuing with the yoke shaping will work, that it won't look to odd. I know my steeks are way to big, at 10 stitches, but will put in a double row of machine stitching to hold them secure and trim them back.


Here is a better view of what Elizabeth Zimmerman calls the Kangaroo pouch.




And details of how I have managed to work the colour work repeat into the raglan shapping. In every colour work row, I made sure I place a contrasting stitch in the middle of a K2 tog, k1, ssk raglan decrease. Pretty, no?


I've cast on the next socks, this is the now frogged Julies magic toe up cast on and sherman toe. Oh those techniques worked just fine, in fact the cast on is just plain brilliant, but I wasn't happy with the gauge. Brother Amos is intended to be knit on 2.5mm circs, two of them. I'm ok with that, about time i knit two socks at once on two circs, instead of my favored dpns. But I like a firm sock, for lotsa reasons, first it feels better, smoother, and second it has more resilience (pomatomus was knit on 2.75mm and while nice tends to bag out by the end of the day), and Hedgerow was knit on 2.25mm, which is bigger than I would have done - but works. the rib keeps it snug. But this trekking is fine, for a sock yarn, and I'm thinking of 2mm or 2.25mm but really have not got up the confidence to resize lace socks yet. In the past I have resized quite happily lots of plainish ribbed socks and the whole pattern widdershins to fit every one from my then 4 year old to my hubby, but resizing lace - thats a whole different story.

So I have frogged this start and am thinking of kniting one sock on 2.25mm, in the ladies size L (66 stitches) or one sock on 2mm mens size L (72 stitches). I am tending towards the mens size knit on needles 2 sizes smaller, then i could end up with the ladies size? If I knit one until it fits the ball of my foot, then I could knit the other to match and finish both knitting two-at-the-same-time. If it didn't fit, I could decide it was a prezzie for some one else and keep going or frog it and re-knit with adjustments to the stitches used or the guage (is that knit-knit?)


And here is the finished Gansey, all washed, which made it a much whiter shade of natural yarn and much much softer. Curley has short arms and no neck to speak of, so the neck gussets were eliminated and the sleeves shortened. Curley also has short legs, these were 'commercial' teddy bear clothes, and I ended up taking up the hems! I don't even do that for my hubby! That is one lucky bear.


And yes I have been playing with the left over dyes, and that never ending cone of yarn from the Milton wool mill. I wound off 300m and tried dilute dye. Shirley, just north of here, mentioned in a comment that food dyes produce strong colour for her also. Which made me think, WHY? So this time I really diluted the left over dye, put a tiny squirt into a bowl and added lots of vinegar water, and used a clean pastry brush to stoke it on soaked and wrung out yarn. Look - much softer, Chris suggested it be called Willow, I was thinking Summer Garden, what do you think? And what can I make with 300m of fine fingering? And Tania - this was already in my stash - so its not really adding is it?

Warm, warmer, warmest mittens and Surprise me baby

Today, fish report, no frog report, but a baby surprise, some naturally coloured yarn introduces itself, and how I made a custom sized pattern for mohair lined mittens.

Four fish on a blanket, I admit my fish production has slowed somewhat. Probably my interest and fascination for them has waned a tad, as would be expected to occur naturally. However at only 87 fish, when at least 13 more are required, all plain - I do need to commit to this. I think I will set a quota of 5 fish a week min. No fun knitting allowed if fish are not knitted. These most recent fish are sitting on a brown garter ribbed swatch. Many many years ago while completing my doctoral thesis, in a clothing and textile department of a university, I had P.grad colleagues, one was Tara. Tara's masters was to develop a workable system for sorting wool from coloured sheep. The wool mostly came from a local farm that specialised in wool and yarn from coloured flocks. I knew this, I also remember being amazed at the huge variety of naturally occurring wool colours she collected, white, silver grey, dark grey, brown, reddish brown, cream, yellow white, ... an amazing variety. At that time my knitting was not as 'developed' as it is now - subtext "I followed patterns", so while interested the info did not stick.

Skip to 2007, when I meet local knitters who ask if I get yarn from Clifton Wool n things? The very same farm producers who specialise in naturally coloured sheep! This source had completely skipped my mind. However a visit last weekend resulted in four skeins of dk 2 ply sport weight rich brown yarn. The price, el-cheapo, $NZ8.50 a skein (that's $US6.20 for a skein of 400 yards!). The yarn is slightly sticky and stiff to knit with, but softens and fluffs up wonderfully in the first wash/block. This swatch made its www debut in the last post "the ribbing video", but in the real world the yarn is for Kate Kuckro's Interweaves Charcoal ribbed cardigan for Bear. A project sorted and now sitting in stash. I can now return to planning my own Fana cardigan in silk merino.

Surprise me baby! Well I have made a start on the Elizabeth Zimmermans classic Baby surprise jacket. See side bar for links. A little disappointment, in that what I thought was pure wool is not. The Green/Blue has in fact got 10% acrylic, which is ok I suppose, maybe, well not really but its only 10%. Why do I have an major aversion to acrylic? Well it usually wears out fast, Pills and does not keep its good looks through many washes , but with only 10% those features should be subservient to the dominant proportion of wool. So far it is fast and fun. I am having to track rows and decreases on paper, but expect if knitted a second time - it would be cruisy, I'd know where it was going. I have also lately discovered the shared EZ fan blog - which is worth visiting, if just to see how many knitters she has liberated from the tyranny of the pattern.


Here are what might possible be the warmest hand knit mittens in Dunedin. Knitted 'with love' for my Toby, aged 7.5, using the yarn he dyed last week. I knitted these from the cuff down, and made it up as I went using a tracing of his hand for a guide. I did read some mitten suggestions by my Knit Guru EZ who suggested a looser gauge was more comfortable. But when finished they seemed thin, open, and not substantial enough to keep small hands warm. I decided to line them, and know most recommendations are for angora, but could only find a fine gauge natural fluffy yarn in kid mohair, Black.


To line them I picked up stitches from above the rib using needles one size finner, and just knitted the same mitten. I kitchenered the fingertips and thumb tips together - and made sure to catch the stitches of the stripe knitting to secure the two layers together. I had not planned to line them, so should probably have added more ease, but they fit and work and are squishy warm and soft.


But I am proud of the mitten pattern, my own workings with gusset thumb.
Here is How I worked out the pattern, aka EZ or others 'down and dirty instructions'. I drew around Toby's hand and used this outline to calculate my size. In this case the gauge was 8spi, and the palm outline measured 2 3/4, I doubled this to get 5 1/2 inches around the hand. This gave a K =48 stitches. I made the ribbing on needles one size smaller, and around 25% less so cast on 36 stitches (I rounded out to two for the rib). I ribbed for 3", following ez's instruction to make the ribbing long enough to prevent draughts. I decided hands are not really 'thick' so did not allow anything for depth, assuming the stretch of the knit fabric would accommodate the depth of the hand. It worked out fine.

The thumb measured 3/4 across, so 1 1/2 around, meaning I needed 12 stitches. I used the standard raglan increase, increasing one on each side of the thumb line every 2nd row, until I had the extra 12 stitches and it worked out to be the right length - nearly. I added 6 straight rows to make sure the rib wouldn't pull up onto the hand. I put the central10 thumb stitches on a holder and cast on an extra 8 stitches to bride the gap, and worked the mitten straight until 1 1/2 inches from the finger tips, then used a sock decrease, every 2nd row, decreasing 1 stitch in from the start of the first dpn, the end of the 2nd, the start of the 3rd, and the end of the 4th dpn. When I had 8 stitches remaining - I wove them together. I picked up the thumb stitches from the waste yarn, and an additional 7 from around the thumb hole. I decreased over the next few rows until I had 15 stitches and knit straight to nearly the length of the thumb, before 2 decrease rounds of k1 dec1, and weaving the remaining stitches together. I realise the mitten decrease for the ribbing, increase for the thumb gusset and the thumb itself are ll 25% of K - K being the gauge x palm width doubled. The magic number for children's mittens appears to be 25%. Will test for an adult sometime.

I then used a smaller needle, picked up 36 stitches around the top of ribbing, and knit another mitten inside the first as described above. Here is my workbook with workings, calculations, hand tracing and finished mittens. One page wonder! Toby of course likes to wear these inside out, with the soft side showing so he can snuggle them into his face. I'm going to have to knit and line some simillar mittens for me.

Sock size theory - testing

Valantines day, and little red heart lollies served with breakfast, yesterday was our 19th Wedding anniversary ( I swear I must have been a child bride - it can not have been that long - I am not that old) so that had priority in this house. Good bubbly and a really nice meal.



I finished Poppy's toe up gusset heel socks, based on the Widdershins pattern (see earlier blogs). My children are well used to me asking for them to pose in knitted items by now. And Poppy is at that age when she hams it up for the camera. Very different to my near adult students who avoid the lens side of a camera at all costs.
Mini widdershins sock details - to fit a 4 and a half year old girl, with a little ease in the length. By age five these should be perfect, but are wearable now.
I am posting brief instructions here as i have searched in the past for sock instructions for children, and not found much.
2.5 mm dpns, set of 5 Brittany Birch 5", 1 ball of Cedifra fashion trend sportive 70% wool, 23% polymid, 7% Polyester. 50 g ball divided into 2 equal parts yeilds 2 socks/one pair. it has a ball band tension of 28 stitches and 38 rows over 10 cm, so any simillar specd yarn should work.
Cast on 16 for toe - figure eight cast on, increase for 4 rows, one stitch in from begining of : needle 1, end needle 2, begining needle 3, end needle 4, then increase every 2nd row until 48 stitches(K=48).
Work straight until 2.5 inches less than foot length, in this case 4 3/8th inchs. Increase for gusset, start of 3rd and end of 4th needle, every 2nd row 10 times. A 40% increase of K
shape heel round,
knit to start of needle 4, k6 m1 k1 wrap and turn,
purl to start needle 3, p6 m1 p1 wrap and turn,
knit to start needle 4, k4 m1 k1 wrap and turn
continue until you have decreased to purl 2 m1 p1 wrap and turn.
knit one round, pick up and knit wraps as they are reached. If any one knows how to knit a wrap created on a purl row and make it look good - please let me know.
Heel flap, worked over central 24 stitches, or 50% of K. in the toe up gusset sock the heel flap is worked as the gusset stitches are consumed.
Knit to 12 stitches before end of 3rd needle, s1 k1 till first 11 stitches on to 4th needle, then ssk, turn.
purl to first 11 stitches on 3rd needle, p2tog, turn.
repeat until all gusset stitches used up and back to 48 stitches in total.
knit one row then rib k2p2 for length of leg. I just knit until the yarn had about 1 metre to go. I didn't try and match the colour waves, and Poppy has complained they don't match, but with only 1 50 gram ball to use, there was a frugalness.




Fish n = 50, the last 7 fish are stacked and ready to block. I now know that fish are 3" long when knit in sock yarn on 2.25mm dpns, and that I really should trial stitching a few together. I am not sure if i will crochet - in which case i really should weave the ends in as i go. To weave in nose and tail ends of 200+ fish would be a very slow and unrewarding process. So I need to test a crochet vs sewn join, before I go to much further. Maybe I will sacrifice some of the early not perfect learning fish, slightly shorter where i must have missed a row or two out.


Socks, some finished, some begun, more fish and a theory about how to size socks.


New socks started, for husband - Chris of 19 years, in Regia stripe, from my short lived stash. knits up well on 2mm dpns. Using steel pins this time as one of the Brittany has bent a little and I am still waiting for a reply/response re the 2.25 mm one which broke 2 weeks ago. They did warn site visitors that they were not email regulars, but 2 weeks!

Before I could start I used Wendy's (see sidebar) method to divide the 100g ball of yarn into 2 equal parts - that is I weighed it. I left her a comment and she emailed me back, so nice for her to take the time to do that as she gets such a volume of comments. My kitchen scales are old balance ones with metal weights, and will 'tip' if a 10c peice is added to one size. So i wound off enough so that the wound off ball and the original ball were evenly balanced and snipped it in half. I then used my very cool vintage ball winder to prepare two centre pull balls - making sure these were in the same direction (one had to be rewound). I felt like a very 50/60's housewife.

Which brings me to my sock fitting theory, Ever since my first sock, around 14 months ago, I have traced the persons foot to use in sizing. A record of foot length, as at times iI can measure and forget what the measurment is, within 3 minutes. I have used a variety of toes, and recommendations for calculating the number to cast on. I tried the ankle, the ball -10%, the ball -1", the ankle - 10%, and most fitted, one memorable pair most certainly did not (alas the last pair for Chris). I have ended up using Wendy's generic toe up sock instructions, where you cast on and knit, and increase and try on. Worst case senerio is that you frog half an evening's knitting if it is to big, if to small just knit some more increase rows. And usually I would spend an evening making a guage swatch, and blocking and measuring it in 3 places and calculating guage and the number of stitches needed for the planned sock. So the the knit and try method works well for me.

Ove the last 12 month I realised that when I put my part knit sock down on top of the tracing of the foot/sole the width matches - exactly just like in the image posted here. So the sock for Poppy and the in-progress one for Chris have been 'fitted/calculated' by increasing every 2nd row until the flattened sock is as wide as the ball of the sole outline drawn in my workbook. I am knitting this sock for Chris, and it fits and i know it is 58 stitches, but have no idea of the guage and it fits beautifully so far.
A few more socks using this sizing/ fitting method, especially for my growing children and I will feel confident to suggest it on knitters review and see what the response is. almost to simple for no one else to have noticed.