Tag: socks

Cast On, Cast On, Cast On

I am right in the middle of choosing patterns. Maybe this one, maybe that. Do you love doing this?

It’s amazing how much time I can spend deciding and undeciding (is that a word?). One little voice is saying ‘make up your mind’, another voice is saying ‘let’s look at one more ravelry page’. I also scan my library of patterns over and over. I downloaded those patterns for a good reason, at least I thought so at the time.

This one is from my library. I do love a long project. I am knitting the Polaris Wrap by Veera Valimaki as a blanket. I belong to the Rustic Heather Sport Club by Lichen and Lace, where I get 2 50g skeins of rustic sports wool every month. I am going to knit the blanket out of my club wool. It will be bigger than the wrap because I’m jumping from fingering (pattern) to sports weight (my wool) and a much bigger needle. I think it will make a great blanket.

Looking good so far don’t you think, ha, ha.

Next I cast on Romi Hill‘s Winter’s Finery shawl, again in the Rustic Sport wool. I am experimenting with what this wool can do.

A lace shawl always looks a mess before it comes off the needle. I am very close to being done.

I am also knitting from one of my own workshop instructions: 3 Tier Shawl Workshop. I have taught this do-it-yourself triangular shawl at several retreats. I give you a basic structure and you choose the stitch patterns from a list in the pattern. It starts with the normal tab cast on to knit a triangle shawl with centre increases. Then it breaks into sections where you can work different stitch patterns. It’s tons of fun and I will tell you more about it as I get going.

I have knit several shawls using this pattern. Here’s one of them.

The shawl here is a stockinette based version (wrong side rows are purled). This time I decided to jump on the wool/mohair band wagon and work a garter stitch based version (all wrong side rows are knit) of the same shawl. I’ll post the pattern on ravelry this week. (The title of the workshop pattern might change since ravlery quite often doesn’t like my titles.)

How many is that, 3 so far. One long project, one almost done and one shawl just started.

I have a sock on the go, of course. I am trying to see how I can make Timberyarns stripes dance a bit. Nothing too complicated. An increase at either side of the front of the sock and a double decrease in the middle, with a short row heel. Fun to watch the stripes move.

I guess that’s enough to get on with at the moment. I have one more I want to start but nothing on the needles yet.

How about you? Is this Cast On time for you? What is taking your fancy?

Cheers, Deb

Cabin Fever patterns by Deb & Lyn and the cabinfever crew

Any Gauge and Gauge-Free patterns by Deb

Debgemmell 435 on youtube

deb.gemmell on instagram

On The Road

We came home for 10 days and now we are off again. I’m testing out several projects to see what works in the car and on our tour of Newfoundland.

I cast on a sock for my grandson who loves rainbows and all things colurful. I think these hit the mark.

This is Timberyarns wool and the colours are so wonderful. I’m using double pointed needles and knitting these in the Irish knitting method that Yarnharlot uses. I figure it’s good to mix up different knitting methods but as a car knit? We’ll see.

The other project for the car will be my Reversible Ribbon Wrap/Scarf (which is a free pattern on my ravelry site). It’s a backup project since it will work anywhere I go. I’m not any further along than last time since I was setting up the other projects. It should get some love over the next couple of weeks. I snuck another colour into the project bag since I thought this needed a bit of a colour lift. I’ll keep you posted.

I have one more project, because can two projects be enough? It’s a matching Musselburgh Hat for my little guy. This I can pull out any time and do a little bit.

I, of course, spent way more time thinking about what knitting projects to take and very little on clothes, priorities, right? Off we go. It should be great.

Hope your autumn plans are fun too. Cheers, Deb

Any Gauge and Gauge-Free patterns by Deb

Deb.gemmell on instagram

debgemmell435 on youtube

Gauge-Free Toe-Up Socks with Short Row Heel

I love knitting sock from the toe up. Do you?

There is one problem though. Where do you begin to work the heel for your desired length of foot?

I have come up with a solution, using a standard type of Short Row heel that gives you that 45 degree line on the heel.

Timber Yarns

I use a wrap short row heel but the shadow short row heel or the german short row heel all work.

Can you see that the heel and the toe look somewhat similar?

I have come up with an idea of how you can use the size of the toe to figure out the length of the short row heel.

Here’s my video.

I wrote up Sock Freedom, an idea for a Toe-Up Sock with a Short Row Heel. It’s a Project Page. There is no stitch by stitch pattern but the project page will give you instructions for taking the measurements and applying them to your sock.

It also includes a modification, of course, for giving you a bit more space for the instep if you need it. I do. You can make a slight gusset for more stitches on the top of the foot so it’s wider where the heel is.

This is totally working for me. Let me know if this is helpful.

Cheers, Deb

Any Gauge and Gauge-Free patterns by Deb

Debgemmell435 on youtube

deb.gemmell on instagram

Stalled

I’m stalled right here.

Heritage Wave

I’ve worked out my Any Gauge Sock, which is worked Toe Up with a Short Row Heel. I’ve even made a project page for it. No exact pattern for this one. I’ve already knit two other pairs which turned out really well.

Left is Rebel by King Cole and right is Timber Yarns.

I want to do a video but I’m having some difficulty winding myself up to do it. The blue sock above and the toe for the second sock are set up for the video, and there they sit. I can’t work on the second sock because I need it for the video. Argh!

Do you get stalled on a project? What works to get you going?

In the meantime I finished the Shima Mini Shawl.

I think the technique for carrying the yarn up the centre spine of this shawl is going to help with my next project.

I can’t wait to see if it works.

Cheers,  Deb

Any Gauge and Gauge-free patterns by Deb

Debgemmell435 on youtube

Sock Idea in progress

Here’s my Catch Up for the week.

The sock idea I talk about in the podcast has progressed a tiny bit since then. The video was yesterday after all. LOL.

Timber Yarns, twin sock sets (2 x 50g balls with the same stripes).

I tried these on and they are tight around the ankle, at the heel. I need a little more room there. Some people do and some people don’t. Which are you? You probably know your own feet as a sock knitter.

This is a short row heel on half the stitches of my 60 stitch sock. In my case, for this sock, that is 30 sts.

I usually do a short row heel on 60% of the total sock stitches, which would normally be 36 sts for the heel on a 60 stitch sock. That gives me enough room around my heel. I just took this sock, with a heel worked over 36 sts, off my foot! You can see a much deeper heel.

I think you can see that the deeper heel gives me more space around my ankle. So I ripped back the totally finished lovely heel, sigh, and an extra inch of the foot. (This is what makes designing sooo much fun!)

To rework for more ankle room, with 1 inch to go before I start the heel, I worked 4 sets of increases on either side of the top of the foot (8 additional stitches on the top of the foot).

Then I worked the heel again on 50% of the original total number of sock sts (30 sts).

Definitely more room. I tried them on and it’s much more comfortable (except for all those dpns, of course). I decreased the extra stitches away, back to the original 60 sts, as I worked the leg. This is sort of an increase gusset and then a decrease gusset. This seems to be working. Hoorah!

Cheers, Deb

Any Gauge and Gauge-Free patterns by Deb

deb.gemmell on instagram which I should start posting on again.

debgemmell435 on youtube

Winter blahs

I’m feeling that middle-of-the-winter slump. I curl 3 times a week, which usually helps the winter go by, but I am not doing very well, in fact, I have lost every game for 2 weeks. I guess that’s not helping! My knitting is coming through for me though. What do people do who don’t knit?

I finished the body of my Family Crew Neck for my rainbow obsessed grandson. It took a good bit of TV knitting but there it is, done. If you want to see me blather on about this sweater, along with an explanation about working the sleeves for an adult version, check out my latest youtube video.

And here’s the little guy, trying to play the solitaire game I taught him the other day. Hmm, wait a minute, the rules seem to have changed drastically!

He is totally knitworthy. He regularly wears the sweaters I knit him last year. I’m hoping this one will last a couple years.

At the bottom of the pullover, I cast off the ribbing with the Icelandic Cast Off. I cast off quite tightly if I’m not paying attention. I thought this might work better but it’s a little wavy. I’m not happy. I may have to rip it back and do a normal cast off after all.

Now the sleeves. I’m going to work one stripe on one sleeve and the same stripe on the other sleeve. This will make them go quite quickly, right? Here’s hoping.

Meanwhile on the helical front, I’m down to the bottom of the yoke.

I used my oM1 increase in the yoke, mostly because I like to see where they are. It reassures me.

And I started a second one in Hempton by Lana Knits.

I made a couple of changes to simplify things which I put in the second one. I have to see if they work before I get too much further. I’m also trying to figure out how to get a bit more room in the Front and make the Back a little narrower. That is what I like for my own figure.

It is a little hard to see the grey and green but they are there.

As I was already doing the helical thing, I started a pair of socks using 3 colours in the same helical method. Once I choose the 3 balls of yarn out of my odd-ball bag, I try to predict which colour will shine through. I am always wrong!

I didn’t realize that the variegated yarn had such a long colour change to it. That’s what makes helical socks so cool, you can never predict, or at least I can never predict, how the colours will end up.

A question that comes up when helical knitting is how to keep the colours straight and not too tangled up. Here is my solution. I move the colour to the end of the line of colours every time I finish with it. This totally works for me.

That’s a wrap for this week. Hopefully, two sleeves done by next week and maybe a sock. Days are getting a tiny bit longer. Yay!

Cheers, Deb

Any Gauge and Gauge-Free patterns by Deb

deb.gemmell on instagram

Debgemmell435 on Youtube

Socks, let me count the ways

Do you knit socks? I do and now it’s my in-between project while I contemplate my new sweater.

I’m teaching a traditional cuff-down flap heel sock class. They are knitting a worsted weight pair and I am trying to get ahead of them with two sock yarn socks.

The Naked Sheep Fibre Co. sock yarn.

I have 3 students working with double pointed needles (that surprised me – I didn’t think that many people still used them), one student with Magic Loop and another student with a 9″ circular. It makes things interesting when we get to the flap heel!

Cascade Heritage sock yarn. Men’s size (Christmas knitting).

I haven’t mastered the 9″ circular yet. Maybe I’ll pass on those.

What’s your favourite heel?

I’ve done two pairs with after thought heels which I thought went best with this striped wool.

Timber Yarns wool.

I must admit that’s it for me. Two pairs were enough.

My favourite is the short row heel, toe up or cuff down. This is a double wrap short row heel. I also love the shadow short row heel.

This is on the wild side. The Over Easy Sock by Holli Yeoh. This sock is knit flat and the bottom of the foot is attached to the top of foot as you go. I love that I can use my left over odd balls for the top of the foot. I messed up the heel but I’m ready to give it another shot.

There are many more ways of knitting socks. Do you have a favourite? Do you know of a wild and wonderful sock I should try?

Cheers, Deb

Any Gauge and Gauge-Free patterns by Deb

Deb.gemmell on instagram

My Socks by Cat Bordhi

I could say that I’m knitting socks because it is socktober but that would be a lie. I’m knitting socks because they are my go-to when I’m thinking about a new design or procrastinating on another project or just restless and need to cast on something, anything, new. Someone needs socks, right? My daughter just dug out her winter clothes and counted 12 pairs so she’s good. My son-in-law is working in his basement where it’s cooler so he could use another pair. My husband is talking about buying socks so he’s definitely in the queue.

Cat Bordhi has left us. To honour her, I have made a pile of all her books. I am trying to learn one of her sock systems because my dream of taking a class from her is gone. First up is the New Pathways for Sock Knitters book.

I have knit several pairs so far: the Spiraling Coriolis which are toe up, Bartholomew’s Tantalizing Socks which begin at the cuff, and lastly the Ocean Toes which are also worked cuff down.

I’m still working on these socks because I have learned:

  1. You can place the gusset stitches anywhere on the sock: on the top of the foot, under the foot (I love this idea) or even only on one side of the sock. Wow, that opens things up, doesn’t it?!
  2. You can work the gusset stitches with two knit rounds between the decreases (or increases if toe up). That means the gusset section is longer so these socks give you more room along the instep (the arch on the top of your foot between mid-foot and ankle) which I really need for a good fit, bonus!

I’ve knit six socks so I have this system down, right? I mean six is enough. Now to do it with the book closed (feels like high school exams). The first sock went pretty well until I turned the heel and realized that I had worked the Short Rows for the heel starting with long rows which got shorter. No, no, no, rip, rip, rip. Started the heel again with Short Rows which started short and got longer. OK, look at me, I got this. Everything looks great.

I cast on the second sock a couple of weeks later. Finished the heel and guess what, it doesn’t look like the first sock. It’s close but now quite right. What happened?! Picture me looking clueless.

It’s back to the drawing board to figure out where I went wrong. Rip, rip, rip. I feel like the little engine that could. I can do this. I can do this.

I’m changing my name to Deb Persistence Gemmell. Has a nice ring to it.

Cheers. Keep on, keepin’ on.

Any Gauge and Gauge-Free patterns by Deb

Cabin Fever patterns by Deb and Lyn

Deb on instagram

Variegated Sock yarn can be challenging

Look over there, some bright sock yarn. Into a bag it goes and now it’s mine with no thought as to what I might do with it.

Diamond Select Footsie

When I go into a yarn store I feed obligated to buy something and that something is almost always sock yarn. Bright sock colours shout at me but then, when I get home, I don’t always know what to do with them.

This wool has a really, really short colour changes. Can you see that? Each colour knits only 1-5 stitches. It’s not going to take a pattern well and I didn’t really want to work a totally plain sock, so what to do?

I decided that every time the next few stitches on my needle were the same colour as the next bit on the strand of yarn in my hand, I would purl those stitches. Sometimes one stitch, mostly 3 stitches and every once in a while I got to purl 5 stitches, whoo hoo exciting. It gave the leg of my sock some texture and kept me watching the colours very carefully. The first leg knit up really quickly.

I knit the foot in plain stockinette. You can see how sometimes the colours sit on top of each other.

One sock done. Can’t wait to get started on the second one.

Socks you gotta love them.

Cheers, Deb

Gauge Free and Any Gauge patterns by Deb

Tiny (Sock) Slippers

If you already know how to make cuff-down socks, you can make a small modification and use your sock know-how to make slippers. I hope this is a helpful tip for you.

I’m making tiny socks for my grandson and at 3 months old he’s not on his feet too much so making sock slippers seemed like the way to go.

worked from the Need A Sock book by Cabin Fever 36 sts in sock yarn

What makes them slippers instead of socks? A continuous rounded toe to give the slippers a higher toe box.

It’s all about the grafting at the very end.

These tiny socks are worked in the usual manner of cuff-down socks, ending with a rounded toe. Then instead of grafting the stitches on the front of the sock to the stitches on the sole of the sock, move the stitches on your needles so that you can graft the side stitches to the other side stitches. This gives you some thickness to the toe box of the socks and is therefore more slipper-like.

Graft 4 side stitches to 4 side stitches.

Now I admit that using only 4 stitches on either side doesn’t raise the toe box very much, so for an older child or an adult you could graft 8 or 10 side stitches to 8 or 10 side stitches and that would make them slippers. Make sure your slipper foot is long enough and then for the toe decrease work: starting in the centre of the sole, *knit to last 5 sts on needle, K3, K2tog, on top of foot K3, SSK; repeat from *. Work in heavier yarn, add a stitch pattern or some colour work, make the cuff ribbing nice and tall so it can be folded over and voila, slippers.

Try it and let me know if you liked it. Cheers, Deb

Gauge-Free and Any Gauge patterns by Deb

Deb on instagram

Cabin Fever patterns by Deb & Lyn