last part of the sock

pictures first, because the written part is the most difficult part.

Here is a video of how to make Kitchener stitch.

While we are knitting

here are some pictures of the process. I will explain the pictures better, when I have had my nightly sleep.

Sock continues

We are now at the start of the heel. You have 4 needles with 12 stitches in each. Knit the 12 stitches from the first needle so that they will be together with the 12 stitches from the last needle.

If you have a marker, which I didn't mention in the beginning, your first and last needles are siding the marker.

We are now working only on those 24 stitches, that means that you turn your work and start from the wrong side of work.

Slip the first stitch
purl the next
hold yarn in front of the next stitch and slip it purlwise,
purl the next,
slip the next,
and so on until the last stitch, which you will purl

next row is slip the first stitch and knit the rest

next row, again, slip 1, purl 1, slip 1, until the last stitch, which is purl

next row is slip and knit

continue this way until you have a total of 20 rows, don't panic if you have more.

Count the bigger knit stitches, and if you get 10 of those, you should have a total of 20 rows done.

I will continue later tonight.

Second part of socks

Hi everyone,

I am wondering if anyone is interested in making these socks.

I am almost done with the leg part for the other sock, so I can take
pictures, and show what I am doing.

I promised to post the second part today, but looks like life has other plans for me for tonight. Hopefully I'll continue either much later tonight or then tomorrow.

Here is a picture of the other sock that I made before I decided to write the pattern down. At least it might give a better idea how it would look.

Let's knit some socks!

This will be the first session.

The rest of the sock instructions will follow tomorrow.
This sock is fairly easy to make, after the square cuff.









































These will be socks with mitered square cuffs.

You will need

5 dbl pointed needles, 2.5 mm (US 2)

DK / 8 ply Wool/nylon mix yarn
about 400 yrds (390 m) (100 gr)

Gauge: 13 sts = 2" or 5 cm
20 rows = 2" or 5 cm

Size: women's medium (can be adjusted with more/less rows in the foot part)

Cast-on videos here.

First square: Long tail cast on 25 stitches

Knit one row

From here on, every second row (3, 5, 7, 9 etc.) will be knitted (garter stitch)

Row 2: k11, k3 tog, k11 (23 sts)
Row 4: k10, k3 tog, k10 (21 sts)
Row 6: k 9, k3 tog, k9 (19 sts)
Row 8: k 8, k3 tog, k 8 (17 sts)
Row 10: k7, k3 tog, k7 (15 sts)
Row 12: k6, k3 tog, k6 (13 sts)
Row 14: k5, k3 tog, k5 (11 sts)
Row 16: k4, k3 tog, k4 (9 sts)
Row 18: k3, k3 tog, k3 (7 sts)
Row 20: k2, k3 tog, k2 (5 sts)
Row 22: k1, k3 tog, k1 (3 sts)
Row 24: k3 tog (1 st)

One square done.

Do not cut the yarn, instead continue and pick 13 stitches from the side of the square you just finished. Pick the stitches from the loop between the nubby things that come when you knit every stitch, even in the beginning of the row.

You now need to cast on, on the same needle, 12 more stitches. I used Single cast-on.
When you knit these stitches, make sure you twist the loop so that it will form a nice and firm stitch. If you don't, the stitch will be very loopy and stretchy and difficult to hold on to.

Now we have 25 stitches on the needle, let's knit one row, and then continue the same way as on the first square.

You now will have two squares knitted together. Repeat the pick-up from the side, and casting on 12 new ones, amounting to 25 stitches again. You are now ready to start the third square.

Knit the first row and continue as in the first square.

The last square is now ready to go and you will do the same as with the other squares.

When you have finished the 4th square, do not cut the yarn, instead start picking up stitches on the side that has the nubbies showing. Pick up 48 stitches and divide them on 4 needles.

Join the stitches and start stockinette stitch in the round. When ever you feel like doing some whip stitching, join the squares to form a closed cuff.

Scarf Day

Here is a scarf I created on Sunday. After organizing my sock yarns, and sock WIPs,
I decided to make a scarf instead of finishing any of the socks.

The scarf is called Cascade, and the pattern comes from here.

It was an easy and quick project, and I am delighted that I finished something that I had started.

Oh, and the yarn I used is Alize Angora Special. Unfortunately I could not find a sample in the web to show different shades of this yarn. I know I had bought the yarn many years ago. I just never could make up my mind what to make with it.

Playful Day

This was a fun Saturday, Hugo came with me to our local crochet group meeting, learned to spin, with Sherri, ate lots of food and spun some yarn (well, play along, ok).
After the meeting Hugo and I went grocery shopping, and he loved it, except when he, by accident,
went inside the frozen vegetables section. Funny, he didn't mind the Ice Cream section.










The pictures will tell the story

Projects done

This was a one day creation. I cast on Thursday night, and finished
Friday early night.

The other picture is of a Freeform Bag that I made last year, but it didn't have handles. Last night, after the hat, I started working on the handles, and here is the picture. There are some yarn ends to finish and the handle connection is still a mystery, but I will figure it out, eventually.

If you noticed, there is a teddy bear behind the bag. She is going to be Hugo's new play pal. Hopefully the two of them will keep me silly and playful, for at least this month. January is a Playful month in the CED group.

I was creative last night

Started knitting another teddy bear, but he seemed to develop to a huge bear so I didn't, instead frogged it, and started a hat for my hubby.

Hugo, my teddy bear is helping me here:

Hugo makes me feel silly

I have decided that playing with my teddy bear, Hugo, is too much fun. I have not done too much of anything else but being creative with him , as in taking pictures. Here are a few of them:

Hugo came to work with me today. Perhaps playing, and being silly would wake up some dormant inspiration.

Playfully creative

Here is my playful creation. The bear was made some time ago, but his new found activity is knitting, and here he is, knitting a scarf.

Too much socializing

My hermit-like nature has recently entered a somewhat unfamiliar atmosphere, and that has given me a taste of excitement, and inspiration to explore beyond my quiet cul-de-sac.

I have put myself on an expressway that has exits to other expressways. I have signed up for a CED group, a book group, and I am already involved in two or three crochet groups. (Surprisingly none of them are strictly knitting groups, unless I consider our local, physical knitting group as one. But that does not have a lane on my expressway. That group has its own side street, in a quiet area of a busy metropolis.)

However, I have experienced speed pumps on my road. Some of them have made me to come to a halt completely. Those are the evil doubts in my abilities, my interest in socializing, and unsteady inspiration sprees. I blame my driving skills on these roads. I would like to drive on the slow lane, and watch everyone whizz by, while I am looking for an exit that would take me back to my own street.

It's Monday, and after staying up most of the night, my brain is cramping. I need to go to my cocoon and take a "nap".

Creativity?

As I was reading CED 2009 blog, there was an interview with Goddess Leonie
She was talking about her own creativity, and what it is for her. I only read a few lines, when I had to stop and think of my own ideas of what creativity is for me. I have to go back to read what else Goddess Lionie is saying, other than her smudges of paint, etc.

Mine:

Tiny pieces of yarn on the floor, on the dining table, in the hallway (don't ask)
some knitting needles and/or crochet hooks under and beside a stack of knitting or crochet magazines, topped with loose pattern leaves
yarn skeins and WIPs in tote bags
almost finished crocheted toy on the table

newly purchased plastic pencil case which is full of color pencils
sketch book by the pencil case

I also think that being creative is going thru everyday life. There are enough turns and obstacles on the way from the morning to the night when you dive in under your blankets and close your eyes trying to catch your sleep. When you close your eyes, do you see images? I do. Sometimes they are blurry, sometimes I see faces going by as on a film strip. That means I must draw something the next day.

I believe that making another person feel good about themselves, treating your co-workers/staff with fairness, requires sometimes some creative skills.

Thus:

In my opinion, creativity isn't only something that is visible, it can be emotional, or physical, too.

Just imagine yourself sitting by your computer, "talking" with your internet friends, and your body starts getting stiff. You do not want to leave the computer, but you have to make some moves to relax your muscles. What do you do? You create a mini exercise program that is done sitting down, while typing. If you are trying it now, it's not that easy, is it? Unless you are a professional exercise guru or choreographer, which I am not.

While thinking of this, I am glancing at my treadmill, in the corner, by the window, covered with my knitting stuff, yarns, magazines, pattern sheets, some tote bags. I could clear the treadmill walkway and start exercising, and getting my few minute walk per day going.

As I will be walking and reading my book, I might listen to my Spanish lessons and creating tonight's dinner in my mind. That is another thing, creating meals. Well, another topic for another time.

But for today:

I will try to be creative, and get on my treadmill and read a book, I will let myself go crazy with all the ideas that are currently brewing in my head. And to think that I was going to go to the movies today, when I have so many fun things to do here at home.

Here is my poor treadmill before clearing the mess:










and some of my "work area" on the dining tableI will post the "after" pictures when I have created something out of this mess.

These are after pictures:

Even little things count in CED

Today, this morning actually, I felt totally lazy, and did not want to do anything.

Somehow I forced myself to do some knitting, but that was not going well. My needles
gave me a hard time. I could not find a needle that felt good with the project I was working on.

What did I do? I dumped all my straight needles on my bed, and organized them in groups, and then sorted them in sets of sizes,

smallest to 3.75 mm in one set,
4 mm to 6.5 mm in one set,
and 7 mm to 20 yet another set.
I also have quite a few Tunisian crochet
hooks, starting from size 14 (US size) to 5 mm

Let's not to forget the needles that are shorter than 13", they are now in
one container, regardless of the size. However these are not dbl pointed
needles, they are another story, another organization event another day.

I am so glad I did this, and felt as if a great creation was done.

I have been knitting most of my life, starting in my pre-teens and even inherited my
mom's stash, thus my needle stash was fairly sizable.

Of Being Creative

Last night, at our local knitting group meeting, we were shown how to do slip stitch knitting with two colors. I created the first two patterns with no problem, but then realized that I was getting too self-confident about my knitting skills, and neglected to follow the pattern carefully. Sure enough, my little creation was going the wrong way. Aah, there went my inspiration, too. Of course I had several excuses, like my yarns were not the same weight, well true, one was Dk and the other fingering. What an idiot I am, trying to insert freeform into a clearly-called pattern knitting. Here is one sample how to do slip-stitch knitting with two colors.

I took my freeform scrumbling project from my bag, and started crocheting, and felt much better.
Why is it so hard to follow a pattern, for me, when I think I know what I am doing.

After winning some nice Tangerine color Svale yarn, by Dalegarn of Norway, I was even happier, because I had a project in my mind, immediately. A top for Valen. At home I didn't look too long for a pattern (!!!) because one from Berroco free patterns appeared on my computer screen.
It's called Sherri. I already started knitting it last night.

On the drawing plate, I drew an eye, with color pencil that has several colors in one. Of course the eye looks interesting, but not skillfully created, but a creation nevertheless. No picture
taken, but hey, I don't want to bore anyone with some of my silly drawings.

January Day

Here is a picture of my view, if I look outside from my window.

On the creative site, nothing is happening today. As if an invisible blanket was thrown over
my imagination cubicle. I went to Walmart this morning before work, and was getting extremely annoyed because there were no knitting needles. Not even one. I wanted to get some for a co-worker, because I could not find the right size in my needle stash. I had some color pencils in my hand, in case I wanted to do some colorful doodling at lunch, but my irritation took over and I put the pencils back and bought nothing.

It is so sad that little things can make my blood boil. I have yet to see that in reality. How does the blood boil in the veins? Must be pretty hot in there. Maybe it's just an expression.

It would have been Elvis' birthday today. I was sure, in my foolish teenage years, that he would see me, and marry me, instead of that Priscilla woman. Well, he didn't, but I'm sure, had he seen me......although he was much older than me, but it didn't matter.

Now I'm stuck admiring Johnny Depp's eyes. He has the best eyes in those pirate movies, and he looks really yummy in Chocolat movie. Leah mentioned this movie in her blog the other day, and now I am determined to watch it as soon as I see it on MTV or HBO, or BlockBusters. Just for the eyes.

I think I will go home and start drawing some eyes. Hey, that is a great idea, isn't it!