Tweaking Size Small on 72

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A few posts back I blogged about mid-calf socks I knit for DW with Patons Cotton Stretch.

She was happy with them (so she said) but I thought there was a little more fabric in the toe than I like to see. Also, she tried them on right after I made them and the leg did size down almost an inch in the first wash.

I added a dozen rows to the leg, which after washing put me at the right place.

For the toe – recall that I would normally knit Size Small (Ladies 5.5 – 8ish) on the 54 cylinder, but I knit these on the 72, with a rib, to all for the wider part of the calf.

Usually, when exiting a rib in preparation for a toe, I stop the ribbing 5 rows before the end of the foot – whether in true ribbing or mock ribbing – and go to full stockinette, knit 5 rows, then knit the toe. Part of switching to full stockinette is to make an easier job of kitchener stitch on closing, although I have done kitchener into a rib and its not really that much more complicated.

The change I made to narrow the toe in this pair – I kept on ribbing right up to the point of starting the toe . Instead of quitting 5 rows earlier, I quit only 4 rows earlier and then started my toe.  When I stopped the yarn carrier in the 6 o’clock position to prepare for knitting the toe I switched out the ribbing needles remaining on the instep onto cylinder needles, BEFORE raising the back needles in prep of knitting the short rows.

So my foot is 4 rows shorter than ‘normal’ and I begin the short rows. BUT when I get to the yellow marks on the cylinder that signal the end of the decrease rows, I keep decreasing for 4 more rows – so I end up with 2 more needles raised on both the left and right side.

By decreasing 4 extra rows my foot is actually now the ‘normal’ length, and the toe comes to a narrower end – 12 stitches wide instead of the 16 stitches between the yellow marks.

My increases then are done as usual, with the exception that there are 4 extra passes, ending up at the red marks where a toe would normally finish.

When I lower the back needles for the final pass, I’m in effect doing one row of stockinette for my finishing round, which then sets me up for an easy kitchener session.

Here you can see the size Small sitting on top of a Size Medium that was knit also on the 72 cylinder at the same tension – but in full stockinette. The lower sample is Fortissima Cotton Stretch.

So finished pattern for size Small, Cotton Stretch on 72 cylinder with tension set for ~12 rows per inch:

  • Topper – 1 x 1 rib for 20 rows (then switch needles to 3 x 1)
  • Leg – 90 rows 3 x 1 rib (then switch out rib needles on instep)
  • Pre-heel – 20 rows
  • Heel – regular short row
  • Foot – 56 rows (bottom is stockinette, instep continues in 3 x 1)
  • Switch out remaining rib needles.
  • Narrow Toe – with short rows decreasing until 12 stitches remaining)

I haven’t tried this with mock rib instead of rib yet, but I can’t see why it wouldn’t work – I’d do the topper in 3 x 1, 40 rows,hang hem and than carry on. And remembering to pick up stitches when switching out a stitch from mock rib to stockinette.

Fortissima & Patons Cotton Stretch

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Some more reprise knitting from stash of Fortissima Cotton Stretch.

41% Superwash Wool  39% Cotton  13% Nylon  7% PBT Polyester (Elastic); 460 m/100g; wash and dry on gentle cycle.

The above pair is colour # 33 Papaya, knit in size Large with the 72 cylinder on the Verdun 47.

And the below pair, is colour # 29 Orchidee, also in size Large.

I’ve been doing a LOT of knitting with the 72 cylinder. Even the size Small socks I’ve been knitting recently I’ve used the 72, with a rib, instead of my faithful 54 slot cylinder that long time followers will recall has been my mainstay!

My 72 cylinder is ‘almost’ ready for a cleaning… so I decided to keep knitting until it stalls (from excess yarn-cucky in the slots) then take that knitter downstairs and put the 54 in its place – which is my sturdiest table, in front of a window looking out over my beloved farm.

Each of my knitters has its own stand, but I’ve become more ‘particular’ about where I knit.

Having said that, I’ve been fooling around with my NZAK (New Zealand Auto Knitter) between bouts of repetitive stash bashing knitting, and the NZAK of course is on its own stand.

I’ve really used this knitter very little but have determined a special purpose for it, which would be lace weight knitting with the 84 slot cylinder. At the moment, I’m knitting swatches at different tensions to find my bearings. And I have to keep reminding myself that the tension knob, like a NZ toilet flush, rotates in the opposite direction. My God, its astounding how little it takes to confuse me!

And by way of another distraction I’ve knit myself a pair of cotton stretch boot socks.

The Patons Cotton Stretch is same %’s as the Fortissima, but with Cotton and Wool reversed. Oddly. the Patons label says hand wash, dry flat while the Fortissma (which does specify Suerpwash for the wool) is a toss-in-the-washer-and-dryer.

I guess I should try a Patons pair in the dryer and see what happens. I’ve always washed them in the machine on delicate.

The above pair is colour # 31135 Mineral. Size Large, extra long legs for my barn boots, knit from two never ending 50 g balls.

I swear, the Patons Cotton Stretch should be renamed Dr Who Yarn. It’s like the phone – looks normal on the outside but goes on for bloody-ever on the inside.

Alternatively, it could be renamed The Miracle of Loaves and Sock Yarn.

(I shouldn’t be complaining about yarn that goes on forever, but really, my objective for the past few months is to bust my stash down to a dull roar.)

I usually wear 100% wool for farming socks. In fact, usually worsted weight, even in the summer as my feet are very sweaty and the worsted weight really sucks up the moisture. But truth be told I don’t farm as ‘hard’ as I used to, so I’ve decided to try a pair of the cotton blend and see if they keep my feet dry enough when doing lighter chores. And also, it will be good to field test, literally, the durability of the yarn in rubber boots.

Canadian Moon Mission

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I’m going through a few boxes of old family photos and papers.

I found a scrap book that was a school project undertaken by my brother. I can’t put an exact date on the work, but the scrap book itself has a marking that indicates it was printed in 1941, and in the series of science type articles pasted into the scrapbook the most recent date I see is reference to the Hiroshima bomb in 1945.  So I’m guessing scrap book was put together in the late 1940′s.

There is no indication as to the origin of this clipping.

Still, I found it very fascinating.

Click the picture if you want to read the article.

Patons Cotton Stretch

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Knit from my (never-ending) stash: Patons Cotton Stretch in colour #31242 Olive.  41% cotton 39% Wool 13% Nylon 7% Elastic, 218m/50g; Hand wash, dry flat recommended.

I’ve never washed these by hand – always on delicate cycle – no problems, including a pair I have that is several years old and has been through the machine many, many times. I’ve never tried them in the dryer.

These are for DW who is updating her sock drawer for spring.

The first pair is my ‘regular’ sock length, size Small, but knit on the 72 cylinder instead of the 54. The yarn is fine enough and I wanted to try the different gauge and see how it played out for her ladies’ shoe size 6.

I did a 20 row 1:1 ribbed topper, then switched to 3:1 ribbing for the leg up to the pre-heel, then ribbing up to the last few rows on the top of the foot. The fit appears to be good.

Personally, I think the toe could be a little snugger, but overall I’m happy with it.

That having been done, DW also wanted a longer pair. She has a particular skirt that is just below the knee. She wanted a pair of socks shorter than knee highs, but longer than ‘sock socks’.

So this pair comes about bang on the middle of the calf – or about 3″ (40 rows) longer in the leg than the first pair.

You know, this yarn goes on for ever. I still had lots of yarn left over from a 50g ball per sock. I haven’t tried it – but wouldn’t be surprised if I could get an entire knee sock from one flippin ball.

My only issue with this (and any cotton/elastic) yarn is that it requires some extra time rewinding into a cake without generating rat nest tangles. I wind quite a bit slower, and at the beginning I’ll pull ‘a wad’ out from the center and unravel it before winding, and I feed the yarn between my thumb and forefinger of the left hand while I wind with the right hand, to make sure to catch any of those little loop knots that can form. It probably takes me an extra 5 minutes per wall to rewind. (Used to take much longer until I got my technique refined and put on my ‘patience hat’).

A major plus with the elastic yarn, combined with the ribbed leg – no need to fiddle with tension going from the wider mid calf area to the ankle/pre-heel. No bagginess and everything fits snug as a bug.

Fortissima Cotton Stretch

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This is a pair of spring socks for me.

Fortissima Mexiko Cotton Stretch – colour #31

Size Large, knit with the 72 cylinder on the Verdun 47.

The pattern repeat on this yarn are very Large-Friendly.  There was about 6 feet of yarn left in the repeat between the first and second sock. I love when that happens!

Spring Tomatoes

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Today I will harvest my first two cherry-ish tomatoes from my AeroGrow hydroponic garden.

I planted these on Dec 31. (That’s about as exciting as New Year’s Eve get’s for me any more!)

There are about a dozen fruit so far; quite a few flowers but most are too near the grow lights.

These will be very expensive tomatoes. My local store didn’t have the tomatoes so I ordered from the company stateside. UPS shipping cost 5 times the cost of the 2 plants.

And. My water is softened and there is no bypass tap in the house – only to the garden outlet which is closed off for the winter – so I’ve been buying bottled water – 8 litres per week.

They are called a cherry tomato but are actually bigger – more like a small version of regular tomato such as Ultra Girl.

They better be good!

(SIL tells my I’m the only person in the county who is using a hydroponic garden for, um, food.)

 

Rib bits

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This isn’t a tutorial on ribber use…. but just a few random little tidbits that I keep in mind while using the ribber.

1. If I want to keep knitting between socks instead of running the completed sock off the knitter, I knit about 20 rows of scrap yarn. Then I place my heel fork as shown, about 15 rows down from the top. The photo is taken from the side, so the fork tines are just inside the yellow heel markings. I hang a single weight, and I add a little very light pressure with my hand on the weight.  This works for me to keep the downward tension even all around the cylinder. If the fork was much higher then there would be a loose tension area at the mid point between the two tines, which could result in missed stitches.

When knitting a hem top instead of a rib top I don’t use the heel fork. I just hold on to the finished toe below the scrap yarn and, with visual clues, can keep my tension even. Using the fork/weight for a rib top allows me to keep my focus on the ribber while it is in work.

2. I start each sock with all the needles in the cylinder, and on scrap yarn, regardless of starting a first sock, or carrying on after a finished sock. You can see I’ve got the retention spring pulled out from the cylinder onto the little holder bit on the outer cam shell. This allows taking each cylinder needle out without having to pry it from behind the spring. I just place ribber needles in the empty horizontal slots, and then transfer a cylinder stitch by lifting it right onto the ribber needle.  You may note that I’m using the Verdun 47 in my examples. The Verdun Ribber Dial (the thing with the horizontal slots) is sized so that the ribber needles protrude over the edge of the dial by about 1/8″.  In this case, I find transferring the stitches as described works best for me.

(On the Legare, the ribber needles do not protrude over the edge and that makes me prone to dropping a stitch mid transfer, so I use a different method in that case. I’ll try to remember to take a pic of that.)

3. I switch from scrap yarn to sock yarn at the right side red hash mark. Here I’ve got the terminal tail of the scrap yarn going forward under the first cylinder needle  and I’ve got the sock yarn going backwards under that same needle. ie the yarns cross. I always knit with the heel spring in action, so that is why you see there is no slack in my yarns. I pull upwards gently, just enough to prevent the heel spring from pulling the yarn out before I get knitting. If you pull to strongly it is easy to pop the rib stitches at the red arrow and then, well, you have a mess!

4. Once I’ve knit a half dozen or so stitches I stop and pull my ends (the terminal end of the scrap yarn and the leading end of the good yarn) into the cylinder. Its difficult to see this but at the red arrow – reach up from underneath the cylinder with a latch hook so that it sticks out at my first good-yarn stitch. I snag the tails with that hook and pull them down inside, out of the way.

5. Tension and Selvedge.  What ever tension setting I would use with a particular sock yarn, I set my tension 1/4 turn LOOSER than that. To knit my selvedge, I knit one row with the ribber engaged, two rows with it disengaged, and then re-engage. When I re-engage the ribber that is when I tighten the tension 1/4 turn so it is now at ‘normal’ for what ever yarn I’m working.

The reason I do that little tension fudging is that it makes re-engaging the ribber much easier. I knit at a pretty high tension, and with the heel spring always in work, and that can make moving the little off-on switch jam. The bit looser tension seems to solve that problem for me. With a less stretchy yarn like a silk or bamboo, I may loosen even a bit more.

So these are some little things that are part of my knitting routine and I find that keeping these things in mind makes for things going tickety boo.

Vogue-ish Stripes

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Here’s a pair of Size Medium Sox I’ll call Vogue-ish Stripes. It’s my own rendition of a pattern from Vogue Knitting’s Socks Two. I did a similar smaller pair back in 2007. I love these and the only reason I’ve not made more since is that all these colour changes take a lot of extra time. But I was in the ‘extra time’ mood yesterday ;o)

The yarn is my own worsted spun 75/25 wool/nylon in some of of the colours I’ve dyed recently…Lavender (topper, heels, toes, + one of the stripes), Key Lime (main body colour), and Sky Blue, Honeysuckle, Sun Yellow, Bright Orange (other stripe colours).

My stripes in the foot are two rows each against 5 rows main colour, while in the leg the stripes are 3 rows against 5 main. This adjustment was in order to get the same-ish pattern repeat while getting the right number of rows in the foot without shortening the leg.

I knit these with the 72 cylinder on the Verdun 47. Since I had to re-calculate my row #s for this pair I also recalculated for other sizes at the same time. So I’ll be ready to knit more of these when the spirit moves me.

Arctic Qiviut

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Here is a new-to-me Qiviut blend sock yarn from Arctic Qiviut in Alaska.

This blend is 35% Qiviut  40% Superwash Merino  15% Bamboo and 10% Nylon.  Colour Natural. Approximately 375 yards/100 grams. Hand wash in cool water, dry flat recommended.

This is quite a different blend than what I’ve been knitting (70/20/10 qiviut/merino/nylon) and it is approximately the same gauge.

This yarn has a luxurious feel – but not quite as baby’s bum – less I think to the lower % qiviut than to the presence of the bamboo which adds a silk type luster (and added strength) to the mix. While not field tested on my feet yet, the yarn has a  sturdier feel to it  and the increase in merino gives some extra elasticity as well.

This pair is Size Large, knit with the 72 cylinder on the Verdun 47. I’ve used a putty coloured Wooly Nylon on the heels and toes – closet colour I could match.

I squeaked the first pair of Large from 100 g skein. On the second pair I was a few yards short. So if I had only one skein left and needed a Large pair I’d shorten up the leg about 5 rows just to be safe. (This pair: 25 row topper, 90 row leg, 80 row foot.)

I also have another blend of Qiviut to try from Arctic Qiviut – but you’ll have to wait until I play with it before I share.