Koigyle
Koigu KPPPM, 100% Merino
Main colour – #P439; 2nd colour and heels/toes – #P219; 3rd colour - #P402;
The heels and toes are reinforced with a pale pink Wooly Nylon (from Threadart.com).
Size Medium +, knit with the 72 needle cylinder on the Verdun 47 CSM.
OK. I’m transitioning from struggling/fighting/cussing aryle work to feeling a groove with it and enjoying it. (Well, except that black pair that kept trying to smack me down!)
The argyles are still taking a lot longer, as do any of the ‘special knit’ socks but I know this newly developing skill will provide respites from production knitting along my path.
Not to mention, a great new use for the scrap drawer – each diamond is taking quite less than 5 grams of sock yarn.
Categories: Koigu,Special Projects
17Jan
Good job –love them–You have been wanting to do these for some time –not sure I will ever be up for the challenge.Still just cranking away trying different yarns –Berroco Ultra fine alpaca is my new favorite.
If you can do a heel, you can do these. Just clear your calendar for a few days, and get out the cheap stuff to practice with. I imagine the alpaca would be nice in an argyle too!
Now those are JAZZY FUN SOCKS. I certainly would were them with a pair of Birk’s to show off all there glory.
Now that I’ve got the technique almost mastered, I’m looking forward to seeing what other colours will end up together!
And here I sit, just trying to knit a “regular” heel!
I received my new NZAK and have had some success so I am really am not complaining. This coming Saturday, the local CSM group is having their monthly gathering, so I will be able to attend and get some one on one help, too. Even though I am not have success with heels, I am having a good time with the machine. I definitely look forward to learning more!
Oh bonus that there is a CSM group you can go to! Always a lot better to have ‘live aid’! I look forward to progress reports ;o)
Did the wooly nylon in the toes/heels make the color of those areas pink,or did you use wooly nylon in addition to different wool?
And can I just say that your blog is full of awesome!
The Wooly Nylon does make a subtle difference in colour – so I do try to match my WN colour as close as possible to the main colour of the yarn with which it’s paired. In this case the heel/toe colour is the same as one of the two diamond colours.
If the WN isn’t a close match, it can indeed affect the yarn colour to a greater extent. I have a set of 50 colours of WN, so I can usually get close.
I’m amaze and green with envy that you can knit Koigu on the CSM, and on a 72 cylinder too. My machine hates the high twist of Koigu and refuses to knit a gauge suitable for human feet. Every time I knit with Koigu, I sulk and stay away from the machine for a while.
It’s a good thing to know when to walk away from the csm. (I’m doing it right now!)
The first few times I tried Koigu on the sock machine I also found the extra twist in the yarn to be a challenge. Yet, I know that the extra twist is a bonus for the strength of the socks.
If the yarn is stiff to crank, besides being physically harder work, it presents a ripe opportunity for stitches to drop or skip. Usually easing back on the tension is the remedy. You don’t want to go too loose or you will get a pair of socks that knit up nice but are baggy to wear. But you want the tension easy enough to turn your crank without a battle.
My rule of thumb with Koigu KPPPM is to set my tension 1/4 turn looser than ‘normal’. This almost always works for me. If the colourway is very deep – like very dark reds/blues – then I may slack off an extra 1/8 – 1/4 turn – I can always tell on the very first row of knitting whether I need to do this or not. (And by ‘always’ I mean usually
) )
Remember that Koigu KPPPM is 100% wool, and especially that it is Merino, which is a highly crimped fibre and therefore, even with a tight twist, has excellent natural elasticity – therefore the little bit looser knitting tension SHOULD be compensated with that elasticity. All within reason of course.
Thanks for the awesome tip. I love Koigu KPPPM and told my husband to throw a few skeins in my coffin when it is my time to go. I’ll try to loosen the tension at the next crank. Meanwhile, I’m still sulking and just wanted to throw it into the washer and felt it to hell.
I’d like some Koigu in my coffin too. Hopefully knit into a pair of kick-*ss socks suitable for my journey to the next world ;o)