Friday, January 4, 2013

Socked In

So, I'm sick with a cold and I'm making a sock. Exciting times here, really.

Actually, it's frustrated times. Frustration is the watchword of the last few days. Having difficulty sleeping, last night I was amazed to wake from a dream that was entirely about anger. I can't remember the substance of this dream, but OMG, I was out-of-control, steerage-class-plane-passenger-during-a-4-hr-runway-delay, deliriously angry. Have you ever woken from a dream enraged?? Till last night, I don't suppose I have.

I can't say if it's this anxiety-provoking bug*, which has effectively torched my holiday enriched my opportunity to rest... I don't know if it's the sock (a fast-tracked 2013 goal vis a vis this challenge**), which has managed to fuck up in just about more ways than any other project I've ever undertaken... I mean, it's snowy outside. I should just be grateful to have an excuse to sit on my ass and knit a sock.

Allow me to tell it like it is:

Here's a tiny little piece of the sock:
A Nice Ribbed Sock by Glenna C. It may be ribbed, but it ain't nice!
  • For starters, who makes a sock in royal blue?? Seriously. I only ever wear black socks. The shop had this same, very nice (if somewhat sheeny) merino-silk blend in black. Why didn't I just make a black sock? That, I might get some use from! The yarn has a lot of spring and strength (imparted by the silk). You know I ordinarily don't like silk yarn in any amount, but I was looking for strength.
  • I will never darn a sock. So how is it that I'm making a thing that's gonna need to be darned, or discarded, in some period of time (and probably sooner rather than later the way we walk around here)?? My choices will be, presuming I don't just burn these things on completion, a) wearing and breaking them (and wastefully throwing them out, which might be hard to do) or b) never wearing them and keeping them in a drawer doing nothing (also hard to do and wasteful). Socks, they really give you all the options.
  • Those of you debating whether to knit socks or a sweater: Please be aware that you can knit a pair of simple socks in about half the time it will take you to knit a simple sweater. I don't know about you, but I'll go with the sweater - which people will actually SEE when I put it on. And which won't rip in the toe. Note: I've never had a pair of socks that didn't eventually die in this way, so I'm sensitive. I have no actual indication that my hand knit socks will go at the toe. Specifically if I don't use them.
  • And a tiny bit about specifics: Magic loop may not be the best way to make all socks, especially if your needles are a US 0 (2mm). Admittedly, I'm a total newbie with this degree of magic loop - small-diameter knitting though, I've done quite a lot of in the past. However, I've never managed to pull out half the needle, exposing mini, microscopic live stitches (taking forever to replace on the needle and then leaving an unsightly tension-change ridge) quite so many times or in so many ways. 
  • A propos of tension-change ridges, I used such a crappy needle (one a new LYS sells and which I'll never purchase again!) that it's actually snapped while I was in the middle of a row! I was not knitting hard, peeps! The needle, so sharp at the point that I couldn't actually push on it without it hurting, routinely split the rather pliant yarn. How many badnesses can I expect to block out? Really. Cuz now I'm using a slightly larger needle to complete the project (2.25 mm). On the plus side, the new needle (also that terrible brand) seems to be handling things much more naturally and without any tension differentiation. I did think to myself, when I swatched, that the 2.25mm felt better than the 2mm. I guess I should have listened to my gut.
  • The sock leg is going to be too big, I'm pretty sure, esp. after a wearing. I should have cut an inch out of the pattern (8 stitches) but I really didn't know how much negative ease a sock requires till I started making one. (This is a reasonable learning curve experience I can't take umbrage with.)
  • This pattern isn't designed to be made up with magic loop, so I had to go online and learn how to make a sock with magic loop and then tailor my pattern to the method. I suggest, if you don't want to use DPNs, and I don't, that you start with a sock pattern devised for magic loop in the first place. It'll save you some time and energy. Having said this, I'm glad I figured out the magic loop version because the idea of carrying around 4 or 5 needles to make a little circle seems ridiculous to me!
Alas, I'm going to have to finish the first sock, make up its partner and then make up another pair (or 2) until I get it right. I may not like making socks but I'm going to figure it out and become proficient. Then, when people talk about the activity, I can be as obnoxious as I want with the benefit of experience.

So, knitters, come clean. If you hate making socks, you can share your true feelings here! Tell us about it.  And, those of you who don't knit, what's the core knitting project of your imagination? What's the thing you would want to make if you did knit? Is it socks???

* I should clarify that, even though I caught this bug hard - as you'd expect given that I'm still recovering, in muted ways, from pertussis - I can breathe (if not through my nose). I'm coughing a lot more than Scott and M did when they had this thing before Xmas and, I sense, I feel worse than I would, ordinarily, with a cold (though I'm a misery when I have a cold), but this is a totally different scene. It would great to recover in the next 90 minutes by Monday, when I have to go back to work, so that at least I will know that, once again, I can get a regular virus and overcome it in a standard amount of time. Weird, when catching a cold can corroborate one's health improvement.

** I have come to realize, in my 40s, that I'm actually quite competitive in some ways and I love a test! Gillian, apparently, has my number.

38 comments:

  1. My challenge has turned from good to evil! (MU HU ha ha ha!)
    Seriously, I only challenged you to *start* a sock. WHich you've done. And you hate it. So frog that puppy out and give the yarn away - Socks might be for other, but they don't have to be for you!
    (My personal confusion with handmade socks is, "How do they fit into shoes? Are they only for wearing around the house? Aren't they just slippers then?" I don't get it.)

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    1. That's true! But alas, I can't stop myself. Now I need to make it work - at least once! Mind you, I don't have to make the second pair until well into 2013 - though knowing me I'll start them right away just to capture the lessons learned before I forget them. Notes can only remind you of so much...

      I have no idea how they fit into socks. The yarn is so slender and yet they become much bigger than machine knit socks. It's weird.

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    2. It may depend on what kind of shoes you wear, but I find that socks made with sock-weight yarn fit into my shoes without much trouble. They're definitely thicker than dress socks but probably about the same thickness as my sport socks. (Then again, now that I think of it I only ever wore them with knee-high flat boots.)

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    3. You know, I think they'll work with boots, which is the only way I'd wear these. I mean, they're hardly show-stopping :-)

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  2. Oh I wish I loved knitting socks but I don't. The Husband loves wearing handknitted socks and thankfully my sock-knitting-lovin' friends find this a perfect excuse for birthdays! Hurrah! I may still have to suck it up and make him some more this year. That said...they are great for journeys and I have at least one decent train journey in April that begs for a sock to keep it company.
    I don't have angry dreams...but drive The Husband crazy with my wake-myself-up-laughing-hysterically dreams. Really annoying, apparently.
    Feel better soon.

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    1. Do you make them with magic loop or DPNs or both?

      I think hysterical dreams would be delightful! Who doesn't want to wake up laughing??

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  3. Hey - I am loving your sock making adventures. I don't have time to make a sock class - and I'm kinda a sock knob too....I do a lot of hiking - I don't know that my own knitted songs will catch up. I hear there is alot of technique to making songs (for example, dreamz makes a sock needle dpn set that I hear is highly reviewed - I'm a circle girl too though right now). Have fun with the socks! I'm still at the cowl making stage...

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    1. Interesting. I guess it shouldn't surprise me that they have whole sets geared towards socks. I might have to go look that up just cuz. (Don't worry, I'm not buying!)

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  4. Regarding magic loop - I think it may just be a combination of practice and preference... I really hate using DPNs and drop so many more stitches that way, but I know others feel the opposite. But also, what cable length are you using? I find if I use a longer cable then there's much less chance of mishaps in general.

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    1. I'm using a 40 inch cable! So I know it can't be the length. And, in truth, I've never tried DPNs. Who am I to dis them when I don't even know if the method is good?? I just don't like how inefficient it looks. And is, if you consider how many more needles you have to stash.

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    2. You may want to give it a go, just for the hell of it. Truthfully, I always do magic loop because I could never manage to avoid laddering with DPNs. But, I actually found transitioning from needle to needle quicker/easier than magic loop. (Definitely, try with bamboo though, if you do. Too much slippage danger with metal!)

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    3. Never heard of anyone having laddering with DPNs! Interesting. The most irritating part of the sock is the transitioning that's what takes the time and where you have to be so tight with the first stitch etc. My other project, the Princess Jumper, is flat knit and I've never been so happy to work back and forth.

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    4. I struggle with laddering with DPNs too, but love Magic Loop and never had that problem - just give a tug to the yarn when you have the needle in the second stitch but haven't formed it yet. I will convert anything and everything to ML. With the DPN's I also agree that working on stickier (bamboo) needles is better.

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  5. I REALLY recommend Cat Bordhi's New Pathways for Sock Knitters (Book 1) http://www.amazon.com/New-Pathways-Sock-Knitters-Book/dp/0970886969. You need never follow a pattern again. And as for magic loop, any sock can be knitted this way. You don't need instructions, just put one half your stitches on one side and the rest on the other and knit away.

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    1. Kay - I have to check this out. But it implies I'm going to start to like knitting socks and I just don't know!

      The magic loop method is intuitive (that's why I just decided to go for it instead of worrying that the instructions were knitted for DPNs) but there were a few moments - like at the gusset point - where I wasn't sure. Also, when instructions refer to needles and I've just got one, even though I realize the markers are my delineators, it's still complicated in the absence of having done the activity before. Next go will be a lot smoother, I HOPE.

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  6. Well,I am so glad you have embarked on the socks. You know I really enjoy socks. I currently use a magic-loop type technique that uses only one circular needle and makes 2 socks at once. I love it, but that was after I had done the DPN method several times. I need to put in a word for DPN. They are really not bad to work with. You really don't need to keep track of 4 needles, just one. The other three have stiches on them and all stays together with the sock. The only reason I don't always use DPN is that I like the 2 at a time option. I am not as fashionable as you, but I do wear mine as I would any other sock. They are not too thick when made with sock-weight yarn. As to the color, it is good you started with the blue. I finished a pair of black socks a few months ago and they are harder to work with. The darkness combined with the tiny needles (0 or 00 in my case) is a hard combination. I would leave black for after you have a little sock experience. Also, for wear, the best sock yarn (imho)is 75% wool and 25% nylon. The nylon adds significantly to the sturdiness and washability. That amount of synthetic doesn't detract from the natural fiber feel. Good luck. (I'm so glad you took the chalenge!)

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    1. You've raised some really good points about not knitting in black - that would be a misery, now that I think of it. And thank you for the tip about wool and nylon! When I make the next pair, I'm going for that composition cuz I just finished the first sock (it's blocking) and I can tell it's going to be way too loose - even though I measured all the way along. It's like every new project. Till you've done it, you don't know how it really works.

      The idea of knitting both socks at the same time on magic loop is very appealing (but was beyond me on my first try)! Then you only have to make 1 sock and they're exactly the same. I'm going to look that up.

      Is it hard to graft at the end, though? I suppose one sits at the front of the needle and the other is behind it, so you just kitchener stitch the first one and the second is behind it, yes?

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    2. Yes. You do all the knitting alternating back and forth between the socks. Your socks turn out the same size because they are knit at the same time. There are some mind-bending adjustments to do this on one circular needle, but it is pretty cool. The book I use is 2-at-a-time socks. I can't remember the author.

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    3. What length of cable do you use? Is 40 inches long enough?

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  7. I've recently discovered your blog. My sympathies with your illness. I've been out for the count with mono and because of suppressed immunity keep catching colds left and right!
    I digress...I love socks for their infinite portability and I find hand-knit socks warmer. I use two circulars. I used Cat Bordhi's fabulous instructions. (She has tons of YouTube videos.) DPN's have never been my friends, even after many overtures on my part.
    My first pair of hand-knit socks got holes in the soles after about 5 years (they were superwash wool). I think it depends on the yarn for durability.
    My mom always taught me to buy larger size winter shoes so I could wear thicker socks with them, so I've never had problems fitting into shoes with hand-knits.

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    1. Adelia: Oh, that sucks! I had mono in my late teens and I was a wreck for a year. Seriously, I've blocked it out of my mind!

      I really should go check out Cat Bordhi - she's apparently the sock expert. But I don't know how committed I am to this exercise :-)

      5 years before holes is pretty good. I think I'll feel fine about throwing socks away after that long - but did you wear them all the time or just occasionally?

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    2. I've thrown away all my commercial socks and only wear hand-knit ones. I'd say I wear socks for about 8 hours a day in the winter. (The rest of the time I'm in stockings or trouser socks...UGH!) And I really didn't feel bad about chucking them. I just look for brightly colored yarn to amuse me. I'm Alysraen on Ravelry if you'd like to look.

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    3. You've made some fab things, Adelia. Thanks for letting me know your Ravelry handle...

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  8. I LOVE knitting socks, almost as much as I love wearing hand-knit socks. Once you find a construction that fits you well (for me, it's top-down with heel flap and gusset) you will never look back; I find my wool socks much more comfortable than store-bought and I use them whenever I hike. As for the blue, I think it's a lovely color, and it would be so much harder to see those tiny stitches in black!

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    1. That's the kind of sock I just knitted and I don't mind the construction at all. I think my flap was too long this time (I followed the instructions but still seems long). I'm glad you like the colour! I just don't know if I like the sheen...

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  9. I have just started making socks (2 pairs under my belt so far) and I can totally see where your coming from! I even finished my last pair when it was 42 degrees Celsius outside which is insane. However I do for some strange reason enjoy the smallness of it all, the small needles, thin yarn and a small very portable project. Can't explain it.
    Anyway, try using 2 circular needles (check it out on youtube), I hate DPN's, and find this method (in all my experience!) much better.

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    1. Oh, that is insane! :-) I will look at using 2 circulars. Have you made the 2 socks at once on 1 circular yet? That sounds scary, but efficient!

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  10. I must confess that I don't love knitting socks because I suffer from second sock syndrome (SSS) but I very much enjoy wearing hand knitted socks. They are warm, comfortable and also durable. My hand knitted socks tend to remain whole (i.e. no holes) way longer than store bought. I mostly use a Kate Atherley pattern that is customizable for your own feet, making for very comfortable socks. Kate often teaches at Lettuce Knit so it may be worth checking out one of her classes. My love for handknitted socks trumps my SSS so I save sock projects for long car rides or times when I need a mindless, repetitive project.

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    1. I know all about that! It's tough to get up the urge to knit the second. That's why it's probably good to figure out how to knit them at the same time. I know of Kate - I think I met her at Lettuce. I should check out a class...

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  11. I HATE HATE HATE making socks. The only pair I've ever made was a gift for my mom, and I hated the process so much and dragged my feet until I ended up giving her one sock for Christmas and the other a few months later for her birthday. That was years ago, and I have no interest in trying again. It's like you said - no one will see them, why spend so much time on it??

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    1. Now here's a comment I can get with :-) I am making the second sock - and it's much less miserable than making the first. But it's a lot of work for something you wear under shoes!

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  12. I actually love making socks and always have at least one on the needles. I am a DPN user, though, and while I happily use magic loop for mittens, I prefer DPNs for socks because I find my rhythm is faster and I can just churn them out.

    I especially like making fancy socks that I get to show off when at parties (all my friends are shoes-off-at-the-door types). Maybe you just need a more interesting pattern? Something with lace and/or cables? They're much more fun to knit.

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    1. Good info about the DPNs with socks vs magic loop for mittens. I really should give DPNs a go, if only for the experience. Next sock, I'm going for colour excitement. Stay tuned :-)

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  13. I had big plans for sock knitting. I bought myself the Crafty sock class in preparation for my big debut...then ruined it by buying a pair of wool socks from John Arbon mill that I promptly blew the heels out on in ONE WEAR.

    This put a damper on the idea of spending days knitting a pair only to immediately destroy them with my stupid orthotics (which I have to wear in all my shoes, but have a rather sharp edge on the heel which, apparently, double as sock scalpels).

    Feeling your doubts with the whole process!

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    1. Ha! I knew that buying a class wouldn't help me. That I'd just have to figure it out, what with my essential disinterest.

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  14. It took a few socks for me to get the fit just right, but I'm humming along now. That said, I haven't done any plain, simple socks - I seem hell bent on complicated lace patterns. At the moment, my preferred method is toe-up socks (no grafting or kitchner!) with a gusset and flap heel knit one at a time on magic loop.

    Honestly, my hand knit socks fit better, keep my feet warm and dry and are more comfy than my RTW socks. There was a bit of a mental leap with wearing my socks under shoes instead of just around the house (kind of like the first time wearing a self-sewn garment out of the house), but once I made it, I was hooked on their comfort. And they seem to be holding up well.

    I just got sock blockers for xmas and they seem to dry and shape the socks better/faster than reshaping/drying flat. So, if you make more socks, I recommend them!

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    1. Well, your socks are so awesome, they were part of what got me thinking socks might not be such a bad thing to make. And, in keeping with my copy-catness, I ordered sock blockers after seeing yours. I mean, I may only make 2 pairs of these, but the gadget I will have!

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    2. *Blush* Thank you! You will love the sock blockers.

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