Tuesday, July 05, 2011

Hot hot heat

I had grand plans for the holiday weekend. I was going to work on my (new) sock, start another thread project, and warp the cabin loom for the chenille project. I did two of those things, but it was hella hot and humid in West Virginia this weekend and we don't have AC out there, so I spent my time knitting and crocheting until it was time for beer or gin and tonics, and didn't go near the loom. I'll save it for another weekend. 

On to what I did manage to get done...

I decided to go ahead and buy a different, smaller yarn to try the new sock pattern on, and boy am I glad I did. What a huge difference a slightly smaller yarn makes.

The stitch definition is so much better now, even through the variegation. I'm not fighting every single stitch, and there's much better elasticity.
Not sure how obvious it is in this photo, though. Trust me, it's better.
In fact, I feel so good about the new sock that I went ahead and RIPPED OUT the old one.
I also started a new thread project, using some of the worst written directions I've ever run across. I'm planning to email a complaint to the place I got them from. I can't imagine that someone who's new to thread or motifs would be able to make sense of the directions at all. Luckily, although the directions also lacked any kind of diagram, there was a fairly clear photograph to go by.

The first motif! Believe it or not, this is done in only five rounds.
This will eventually be a table runner. I showed the first motif to The Husband, who pronounced me insane (not for the first time). 

Husband: So where are you going to put the runner when you're done?
Me: That's ... not really the point.

I don't think he really gets Thread Sickness. 

And then I braved the terrible instructions and made a second motif.

My favorite kind of motif: the join as you go variety.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Gosh, the new yarn for your sock is quite delicious! I hope you can find a good use for the old yarn. LOL!

Love the motif! I haven't crocheted much lately and that makes me itch to pull out my hooks again. So pretty! (And I totally get "the sickness")

Michelle said...

The yarn is Malabrigo, which is the same yarn I used for the orange socks. It's about $20 a skein at my LYS, but I got two socks and then some out of it, so I think it's not bad for the price.

And don't worry, the blue yarn is now waiting in The Stash for another use!

She said...

LOL! - Yes, since you don't actually have a table at either the house or the cabin...... :-0

But then, how many quilts do I have for the one bed in my house? Yeah......

I was going to ask you about the yarn too - have you settled on "the" sock yarn, or do you try a different yarn each time? I think that's part of what confuses my brain about knitting - with Quilting, if you buy quality cotton fabric, the weight and texture and fiber content is always the same. Not so with yarn, and I feel the need to find "the go to" sock yarn, so that I can take that hassle (75% marino and 25% nylon? Or 80% Alpaca? 80% marino, 10% cashmere, 10% nylon? - it makes my brain hurt) out of that part of the process, and just focus on what I like - the pretty colors. Anyway - found a go-to yet?


and - I have new posts this week as well.

Michelle said...

I do enjoy the Malabrigo quite a bit, but I don't think it would have worked for the first, plain socks I knitted. The blue yarn would work well for those, I think.

What you need to do is look at the yardage per ounce and find something similar. It totally depends on yarn weight and needle size. The blue yarn I started this pattern with was about half the yardage per ounce of what was called for in the pattern, but I didn't have the pattern with me when I went to the yarn store, and I let the lady behind the counter talk me into it. It's a lovely yarn, made with bamboo and merino, but it was just slightly too thick for size 1 needles.

Every pattern will tell you the yardage per ounce of the (usually extremely expensive) yarn that's called for, so you just need to find something comparable. What the yarn is made of matters a whole lot less than that.

She said...

Sigh, so I need to find a favorite yarn at each weight. :) I tell you, so many variables hurts my brain!

I did look at the marino, and it's ooohhh pretty Pretty (solis and azules and lettuce, yummy!) so I may try some. Worsted, DK(sport) fingering and sock and now I have to look at yardage per ounce? :) It's a good thing yarn is so soft and pretty......

In the end, because I'm going to have to order much of what I want for sock yarn, I'm going to have to settle on some go-to patterns that all use the same size yarn, and a yarn I can buy in a bunch of different colors - that's the dream, anyway......

today's password, btw? logrash. nice.