Homework

I’m taking a Sock Design workshop with Anne Hanson of knitspot this Sunday at Eleganza Yarns in Frederick, MD.  Here is the course description:

Unleash your inner sock designer under the expert tutelage of Knitspot's Anne Hanson! This comprehensive beginning design class covers fit and sizing, working with textured motifs, appropriate design choices for the sock architecture, tips and tricks for achieving desired results, marriage of elements, charting, and pattern writing. Students will draft a sock pattern using a knit/purl stitch of choice. Students should have experience in sock knitting and be proficient with multiple needles (DPN's, 2 circs, etc.) and be comfortable with increases and decreases. Materials list will be emailed to participants prior to workshop.

I received the list earlier this week, and there is also a bit of homework:

Materials Needed: paper, pen, calculator, graph paper, stitch markers, one skein of sock yarn for project work (100 gr.), sock needles appropriate for yarn of choice. Additionally, students should bring a book of stitch patterns, and have several 4-6 stitch patterns marked as possibilities. Students should choose several stitch patterns for possible use in their design and work swatches in the chosen yarn to determine needle size.

A book of stitch patterns… I only have one true stitch dictionary, a Christmas gift from Steven and Jeff a few years ago (if I didn’t have that, I guess I would have gone to the Charlene Schurch books or put a call out to my local knitsibs for help).  I took one pass through the whole book and flagged a bunch of designs.  Then I took a second pass through the flagged pages and moved only 5 post-its to the side – those are my finalists:

And then I started swatching the Gulls and Garter pattern.  Here is what it looks like in the book: Here’s my swatch (the yarn is Dream in Color Smooshy in colorway “Night Watch”).  Gulls and Garter is at the very bottom.  Then I decided I didn’t like the Garter so much, but I thought Gulls could fly in a checkerboard pattern.  Oops, at first the gulls are too far apart.  Move them closer.  Nah, put them back in nice neat columns and throw some other stuff (not garter) in between them.  Hmmmm. Then switch to diagonal rib stripe.  Re-remember how to do a 1x1 right twist cable without a cable needle and without letting a loop hang.  Decide to make them all go left and learn why the left twist diagonal rib stripe is not in the book at all.

Then decide to wait until class to knit any more – I have 6.5” on this, which is practically a full sock leg’s worth.

But this is exciting, no?

I love homework. 

Hooray, Tesserae

It always surprises me how quickly a project can be completed if you knit on it monogamously.  This was supposed to be my office knitting project, but I kept toting it back and forth between work and home, and the knitting went fast.The pattern is Anne Hanson’s Tesserae, a sock pattern I’ve had my eye on for a while.  I think maybe Gretchen has this pattern and that’s where I first saw it?  Anyway, when I saw the pattern again at Sock Summit, I grabbed it.  It is a deceptively simple knit-purl pattern that creates what looks like a traveling wavy stitch.  See it up close? Because this is all knit and purl, it’s sort of a rib, which means it looks different when it stretches – see? But I find it pleasing either way.  This stitch pattern would be gorgeous in a cowl – it would have the stretch to go over one’s head but then relax into the wavy line again.  Hmmmm.

This yarn is Kitchen Sink Dyeworks Luxe Merino Fine (80/10/10 merino/nylon/cashmere) and boy, is it soft.  It was downright luxurious to knit with.  I got it at Sock Summit, also.  The Kitchen Sink Dyeworks booth felt like a calm, soothing oasis in an otherwise tumultuous sea of color.  The sign claimed that these yarns would not pool – and this one did not!  I don’t normally buy grey-ish yarns, but this one just felt right.  Upon close inspection, it contains whispers of bluish-green, as well.  I have 17 g remaining.

I enjoyed knitting this pattern so much that I immediately cast on another pair in a new yarn.  They are for a 5-year-old girl, so I only cast on 48 stitches.  They are going even faster.  New photos soon!

Fall into a new scarf

I’m not a prolific scarf knitter, but I tend to get the itch about once a year.  It’s that time.  The bulk of the leaves have fallen from the trees.  Dusk is falling when I leave work at 5 pm.  The days are still warm, but it can be 40 degrees when I leave home in the morning. 

Scarf weather. I got both this yarn and pattern at the Briar Rose Fibers booth at Sock Summit back in August.  The yarn is Briar Rose Glory Days, a DK weight Blue Face Leicester.  Briar Rose yarns don’t have colorways – each skein is unique.  Many of them are quite large, too, so that you have enough for your project – this skein is 1000 yards/16 oz.  (I wish now that I’d taken a picture of one of those man-sized hanks we saw at the booth – truly impressive!)  This particular yarn seemed moody and contemplative, perfect for late fall.

I’m using Anne Hanson’s (Knitspot) pattern Butternut Scarf.  The pattern calls for a laceweight yarn and this is much heavier, so I reduced the number of pattern repeats from 4 to 2. 

The back of the scarf is different but no less attractive, in my book.  I hate scarves that only look good on one side.  You can always tell in photographs when a scarf has been styled to only show one side.  Bleh!  Real scarves don’t behave like that!  My scarves don’t have to be identical on both sides, but they do need to be attractive on both sides.  Here’s how the back is shaping up: This charted pattern is a 24-row repeat and requires paying attention on each row (no easy purl-back lace) so I’ve been knitting on it exclusively at home.  I need to step up the pace if I’m going to wear it this fall, though!

Sock Summit: Trailhead to Base Camp 1

Steven and I made it through Day 1 of Sock Summit!  We’re not at the top yet, but we got to Base Camp 1 successfully.  Whew!

My first class was Spindle Spinning Basics with Abby Franquemont and Denny McMillan.  I bought the class kit, which included a basic bottom whorl spindle.  I was a little worried when they said that knowing how to spin on a wheel would actually be a detriment to learning to spin on a spindle (because I already have a “prototype neural pathway” for the physical activity of spinning), but it was okay!  I can now half-hitch, park, and draft just like most 2-year-old Peruvians can. 

We didn’t have time to ply any yarn in our 3-hour class, but I think I understand how to ply on a spindle.  We’ll see. 

Abby and Denny were great teachers – I recommend them wholeheartedly.  I loved hearing about Abby’s childhood in the Peruvian Andes – so interesting.  (Read it on her blog, or wait for her book, Respect the Spindle, due out this November.)  She was precise and articulate in her directions to us, but still warm and funny.  Great combination.  And I was blown away when she showed us socks that she knit with her first spindle-spun yarn – she made them only 15 months ago.  (She’d spun on a wheel for years but is a relatively new spindle spinner!)

My afternoon class was “Finding True Sock Yarn Happiness” with Clara Parkes.  We talked about the requirements of sock yarn and how “true sock yarn happiness” is found in the perfect balance among elasticity, strength, and absorption.  We talked about different kinds of fiber and listed their strengths and weaknesses; we also got little samples of various fibers and taped them to our handouts.  We did the same review with yarns and examined swatches and sample socks.  We saw a few special socks that are featured in Clara’s forthcoming book, The Knitter’s Book of Wool (due out in October) – it was neat to get a preview of them. 

I left this class with a confirmation of a sock yarn philosophy toward which I have been moving for a while now, and here it is: No More 100% Merino Sock Yarn!

It’s okay to have merino mixed with nylon (or perhaps “nature’s nylon,” aka mohair).  But no more 100% merino.

Do you know how much sock yarn is 100% merino?  A LOT.  Right after Clara’s class, the marketplace opened to registered students for a couple of hours.  The Harlot Herself was at the doors to the marketplace.  I can’t resist the urge to photograph her.  It must be so annoying to be on the other end of that!Steven and I hit the ground running.  I saw Brian from Skacel knitting his 7 pairs of socks at one time:At this booth, I also snagged a really neat Addi needles with one Turbo tip and one Lace tip.  I checked out some of the Dye for Glory entrants (mmmm, String Theory).  I fondled the Briar Rose fibers for quite some time (I’d heard about these on Brenda Dayne’s Cast-On but have never seen them in person).  There was a LOT to see, and so much of it was merino merino merino.  I asked Clara earlier why so much sock yarn was made of merino, and she said that sock knitters like it (or think they like it) because it feels so good in the hand, and that the Australian merino industry is really strong.

Clara suggested that we seek out Blue Faced Leicester sock yarn, and I found some!  BFL is my new BFF.

This is an awful photo, but here is my haul from that first evening. I’ll photograph this better later and describe it more.  That sparkly yarn on the right is for Anna.  The sunny yellow next to it is for S1.  The robot bag is for you know who.  Steven and I both got some of the Jacob/Alpaca/Mohair black yarn to the left of the sunny yellow – we plan to have a Toots LeBlanc sock yarn smackdown knitalong.  That big hank on the far left is worsted weight yarn but it was far too yummy to leave – I got an Anne Hanson knitspot pattern to go with it.  That Briar Rose booth was truly irresistible.

Later, we went to the Opening Ceremonies.  Steven asked if my munchies were dinner or a colorway.  This small plate does look like it could inspire a colorway, doesn’t it?

Whew!  We were POOPED when we got home.  And that was just the first day. We made it to Base Camp 1, but what will tomorrow hold?