Failure
Sometimes, despite our best knitting efforts, things go horribly wrong. Although I have knit many socks now in many different ways and patterns (although none toe up yet, that’s next), sometimes a project can still turn out a failure. I don’t want to say that I am a failure but it does seem that I have failed to correctly assess the size a sock will need to be if it is knit stranded, instead of just regular.
Let me back this up. I recently bought a great little sock knitting book: Knitting Socks with Hand Dyed Yarn by Carol Sulcoski. I loved this pair of socks with solid heals, toes, and cuffs but with stranded knitting (k1 and k1) for the rest with one semi solid and one variegated yarn. They were lovely! I decided I would knit them in crazy colours, purple and yellow, with purple as the dominant colour.
I was off and running, turned the first heal and was on the home stretch of sock number one when I finally decided to try them on….. This is where the problem began. Although I am sure the sock would fit once it was on my foot, it could not fit over my heal. My sock would not even go on. Not even if I pleaded with it, stretched it mercilessly, or cried. Nothing would get that sock on my foot. I had failed to calculate how much bigger the sock would need to be since stranded knitting just isn’t as stretchy as regular knitting.
I suppose I will frog my unfortunate failure. I can’t decide if I should try something else with this yarn and try the lovely sock pattern again in a different yarn (and a bigger size of course) or if I should give it another go, as originally planned. I definitely want these awesome socks, I just don’t know if I can bear knitting the exact same thing again only bigger. It might be too demoralizing.
Drinking the Kool-Aid
Surprise: I am a big fan of colour in general. My affinity for the rainbow is fairly well known among the people I knit with and hang out with in general. I love bright yarns and bold colour combinations. I knit a shawl in black and it nearly killed me. I complained for weeks about it being the dullest project I had ever knit. No colour means no joy. So I was smitten with my friend Kalin’s Kool-Aid dyed yarn (seen here). I was completely taken with the idea that I could actually dye my own yarn. It seems sort of obvious I know but I immediately went off to the grocery store to try my hand at it. I did the first two skeins using this tutorial for Kool-Aid.
While Kalin is more adventurous and went with 3 colours I chose to dye my first 2 hanks in solid colours (1 skein of Malabrigo Worsted undyed and split into 2). It worked amazingly! It’s really neat to see a drink mix turn my white yarn into 2 amazing colours. I was shocked when the boiling process was finished to find the water was clear and the yarn was a bright blue and red. It was like magic!
Once I had my two skeins going I wanted to try some hand painting. While the 2 handpainted skeins weren’t quite what I had envisioned, they were great in a totally different way. I used this tutorial to handpaint with Wilton’s Cake Dyes.
My attitude towards dying yarn is a bit non-specific. I wanted a lovely pink with small streaks of black but what I got was sort of a dark cherry/light cherry type of colourway which is good in its own way. The blue/green combo actually worked out much better than I had originally anticipated. I like its marine-like qualities. I can’t wait to try out some more combinations!
Some Things I Like
There are so many great websites and blogs out there it sometimes really amazes me. So many talented and creative people sharing their knowledge and expertice. I usually start looking online with a specific task in mind. Something I need or something I need to know. Then I just start to wander. Here a few great websites/blogs I have recently run across-
1. The Purlbee
Knitting, quilting, patchwork and more! They have some really great patterns and project journals as well.
Very cool photos of interesting baking and neat baking accessories.
3. Bare Maked
This is a craft collective of some very cool chics. They make some amazing crafts that are simple yet effective (my favorite kind).
4. Yarnstorm
This blog is run by a very interesting lady who loves all things domestic. I recently finished her book ‘The Gentle Art of Domesticity‘ and it was amazing. Great photos and wonderful little tidbits on making everyday things special.
There are so many out there that are lovely to read, these are just a few of my faves.
Third Time’s a Charm?
Well, that does it I’m addicted to socks. My newest goal is to have at least 7 pairs so I only have to do a hand wash once a week. I have all the yarn, I just need to knit them. I recently finished these bamboo socks (bamboo pattern, not fiber) in some lovely butter yellow superwash sport.
I had these wonderful sock goals until I met my match with the short row heel.
Usually when I make a mistake I can live with making it twice. If I have to frog something twice I will at least figure out what I’m doing wrong and how to do it right. No problemo. This short row business is killing me! I have frogged the heel on this pair of ‘Nutkin‘ socks 3 times now. 3 times and I am no closer to figuring out the short row heel. Mine has horrible holes in the heel that I simply can’t live with. While I can’t figure out what I’m doing wrong (and I am definitely doing something wrong) I have 3 lovely skeins of sock yarn staring at me, begging to be knit. It’s unbearable!
I’m off to take a deep breath and check out some online tutuorials. Then I will give it one more go. If that doesn’t work I’ll have to set it aside and wait to talk to the gals at the shop. They will know just what to do. I hope.
