Mini skeins and mini eggs

 

The title neatly sums up my plans for the rest of the weekend. After a busy day of teaching and domestic stuff yesterday today is a day for relaxing with two of my favourite things - yarn and chocolate. I also get to watch the rugby too which is always an added bonus

The Everyday Knitter Facebook group is having a sock yarn mini swap and I am swapping yarn with two lovely ladies. Today I am planning to rootle through my sock yarn stash in its entirety and wind off yarn for them. I also need to take stock of my ever expanding collection of left over self striping sock yarn and come up for a cunning plan for what to do with it. I'm trying to keep my sock yarn blanket restricted to my more muted solid and semi solid yarns but that leaves me with a lot of my less subtle yarns still to deal with.

I did think of a crochet Granny- stripe style blanket but then all the ones I really admire are in subtle, muted colours and my self stripe might produce a slightly more ‘colourful’ effect. I think I may need to indulge a little in my third favourite activity as well and have experience a good browse of Ravelry for some good old fashioned inspiration.

If I go quiet for a few days, send help. I'll probably be submerged under a sea of mini skeins. 

Stress and stripey socks

I always think you can tell a lot about the current state of my life from my Instagram feed. A lot of garter stitch or a lot of plain vanilla stripey socks is a sure fire way of signalling that I'm under stress. When times are difficult I do what knitters the world over do and reach for their needles. But complicated charts and fiddly cables are a no-no when your brain is fried and all you crave is the comforting embrace of yarn and soothing stitches.

DH had surgery at the weekend for a planned knee procedure and I thought we were well prepared. Turns out that we were just in denial, both about the procedure itself and the cold hard practicalities of his extended rehab and lack of mobility. It's been a grim week, I can't lie but as ever my knitting and specifically my stripey socks have kept me sane.

I'm afraid that keeping up with my daily sock tips rather fell by the wayside though. Something had to give and whilst it turns out that I can quite easily manage a short blog post every day (I quite like being able to pop on here for some random rambling) coming up with a short, snappy and actionable sock tip every day was a bit beyond me at the moment.

So we are 1 week into a 6 week rehab programme - wonder how many stripey socks I can churn out before the end? And I wonder whether any will be for the patient or will they all be for ME??

Sock musings

There are many good things about knitting your nearest and dearest a pair of warm and woolly socks. Particularly the fact that it does give you a lot (really, a lot) of time to sit and think. My husband is eminently knitworthy and supremely appreciative of his handknit socks, but he only averages about 1 pair per year due to the length of time it takes me to knit them.

It was during one such marathon knitting project that I found myself wondering “How many more stitches are there is a man's sock compared to a woman's?”

Being of an enquiring and scientific mind I did a bit of idle working out on the back of an envelope and came to the conclusion that knitting socks for an ‘average man” takes precisely 21% more stitches than for an ‘average woman’.

This is assuming a 64 st sock for a woman and a 72st one for her male counterpart. I didn’t include the heel in the calculation but just based it on a 15” tube and a 17” tube respectively with a sock yarn gauge of 11 rounds per inch.

Using these numbers a ‘standard’ women’s sock came out at approximately 10,500 stitches in total whereas a standard man’s sock was a significantly higher 13,500 ( a difference of just over 20%). Obviously - you need to multiply this by 2 - unless your DH likes single socks.

It’s not rocket science and it certainly won’t help you get the socks knitted, but at least it is something to ponder whilst knitting on that second sock.

Check your gauge

As with anything to do with gauge this post comes with a huge caveat. Everyone knits differently and you might not have the same experience as me. That being said I find that often when I knit a plain vanilla stocking stitch sock I find that my usual 64st on 2.5mm needles doesn't work for me and the sock ends up being ever so slightly loose on the foot.

Instead I find that dropping to 60st for me (and from 72 to 68 for DH) gives a much better fit in plain stocking stitch.

Socks with a pattern or cable often have a slight degree of extra rigidity, unless there is a lot of ribbing. Plain stocking stitch however tends to have equal stretch in both directions. This makes for a beautifully smooth fabric - all the better to show off that gorgeous self stripe yarn - but which also has the potential to be ever so slightly baggy.

Going down just those few stitches creates the negative ease that is so crucial for a good sock fit.
Do you find the same thing ? I've love to know if you have the same experience too.

The art of a good heel flap

When it comes to the heel flap everyone has their personal favourite. I know some people who prefer a plain stocking stitch heel flap but personally I prefer something with a bit more texture and a bit more structure. The plain stocking stitch, whilst being smooth and simple to work can lack structure and end up creating a heel flap that is a bit too loose.

My personal favourite is a slipped stitch heel flap where the right side rows are worked (slip 1, Knit 1) all the way across and the wrong side rows are purled across (after the first stitch is slipped). This creates a thicker fabric as the slipped stitches create an extra layer of bulk across the back of the heel. The slipped stitches draw in the fabric and create a heel which grips better and gives a good fit.

There is also the Eye of Partridge heel where the right side rows are worked as follows:

Row 1: sl1, k1 to end

Row 2: sl1, p to end

Row 3: sl1, (sl1, k1 )to end

Row 4: sl1, p to end

This creates a really lovely texture, but it is a little bit more difficult to remember and for that reason it tends not to be my go-to heel. But it is well worth a go if you are looking for a pretty and fun alternative.

 

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