UFO: Second Sweater - Na Craga

NaCraga
Originally uploaded by K2Karen.

Did I ever mention that I'm an ambitious knitter? This is my second sweater. Alice Starmore's Na Craga from Aran Knitting. It is knitted from an absolutely lovely alpaca in a soft green. (Picture doesn't really capture the color)

No gauge issues with this sweater. It should fit me nicely. Apparently I have a weakness for alpaca. Silly me. Alpaca is way too warm for this climate. However this sweater will fit loose, so I think I'll be able to wear it on cold evenings.

So why, you may ask, haven't I finished it? I ask myself this too. The best answer I can come up with is fear of failure. I really like how this sweater turned out. While it sits here, in pieces, I can pat myself on the back. If, however, I put it together and my finishing skills suck, I'll have to say I ruined a really lovely sweater.

OK, it doesn't make much sense, but that's why it isn't done.

UFO Inventory: First Sweater

FirstSweater
Originally uploaded by K2Karen.

I've spent the past week organizing my fiber life. All the fiber into boxes. All the yarn into boxes or given away. Future projects put in clear plastic boxes with labels, combining the yarn & patterns, any swatches done, etc.

Great cathartic experience.

One other thing I did was box up all the UFO's, label them, and photograph them. One of my goals this year was to eliminate these UFO's from my life.

My SIL was amazed that I had so many UFOs. I was amazed I had so few. I've been feeling like I never finish anything. She always sees me finishing most things I start. Hmmm...who is right? Maybe both of us.

To start off this series, I show you my first sweater. This is a sweater from the Yarn Girls book. It is the first sweater I ever attemped. I have two sleeves, the back and the front done. So, why is it a UFO?

Can you guess?

Gauge issues maybe?

While the body of the sweater will fit over my body, the high neck is too tight. I think I can make this a design element by not sewing part of the neck.

But there's another issue. This sweater is from a wonderfully soft bulky alpaca. Knit in a firm gauge. I live in southern California. Unless I want to see how many pounds I can lose by sweating, I'll never be able to wear this sweater.

Oh, I'll finish it. Eventually. And put it in a drawer as a reminder of my first sweater.

OTN

Here's some stuff I'm working on:

FO: Blue Alpaca/Wool EZ Sweater

Here's some pics of the finished sweater, the yoke during knitting and a detailed picture of the picot hem before blocking

Pattern: Circular Yoke sweater from EZ's "Opinionated Knitter".

Yarn: Austermann Peru Gold DerAnden (70% Baby Alpaca, 30%Merino) purchased at a bag sale and a bunch of different Anny Blatt Baby Blatt that I had in my stash from the same yarn sale.

Needles: Size 2 Addi Lace Turbos

Started and Finished in February 2007.

Other notes:

Used a provisional cast on and then did a picot turning row. Joined the hem using japanese bind off. One thing I would do differently: I cast on 90% of K then increased. When I joined the hem, it was a royal pain. Next time I'll just cast on using smaller needles.

Revisiting the Widdershin Heel

For the past 6 months or so, I've been on a quest for the holy grail: the perfect sock pattern.

My perfect sock pattern:
- is toe up
- doesn't sacrifice good looks for easy of knitting
- can be done with any combination of needles/yarns I choose
- can be easily adjusted for my tiny feet or my daughter's chunky feet.
- has heel flaps (instead of short-row heels)
- doesn't require me to count rows--because I do it badly
- can be done with minimal supplies in a large meeting without disturbing the speaker or those sitting next to me.

So I designed my own--a mix of many others I found that were brilliant in their own right, but not perfect for my picky world. The foot and leg are easy. The cuff is pretty easy too. The tricky parts are the toe and the heel.

Provisional cast-on toes look nice, but don't fit my requirements because they require too much stuff and focused attention to do in a meeting. So I learned to do a turkish cast on as I detailed in an earlier post. Using EZ loop increases, I can read my knitting well enough to know if I should increase this row or just knit--even when I'm sitting in a dark theater.

The heel is a bit more problematic. Picking up stitches violates my last rule of the perfect sock pattern. Picking up stitches can't be done in a large meeting without disturbing anyone. Maybe you can do it, but I always end up cursing loudly. When I found the Widdershins pattern, I thought I was home free. The Widdershin heel is a thing of beauty.

One problem. Every time I knit it, I had to go back to the web, print out the pattern instructions, go to Squeaky's web site, print out her notes--and don't even ask what I had to do when I wanted to use a different number of stitches. But the heel--perfect.

So I decided to re-write her instructions. This is not to say there is anything wrong with her instructions. The instructions in the published pattern are very clear. The revised instructions she published in her blog are also very clear and easy to follow. I just rewrote them in a way that works for me. The biggest differences: I use markers so I don't have to count. I use a different kind of short row technique I learned in Latvian Dreams--you use a yarn over rather than wrapping the stitch. I find the yarn over technique is easier to resolve on the next row when you're knitting in the round.


The most important thing I did was create a chart for all the different stitch counts.

So here's an excerpt from my basic sock worksheet for the Widdershin heel, with a respectful nod to the original author. One note: I knit socks Magic Loop so the "stitches per needle" is half the total number of stitches.

CALCULATIONS
B Stitches per Needle: ___________________
C Gussets Increase To: (from chart) ___________________
D Gusset Yarn Marker at: (from chart) ___________________
E End of Heel Yarn Marker at: (from chart) ___________________
F Heel Turn Markers: (from chart) ___________________

Gusset Increases
Sole Needle: K1, M1L, knit until 1 stitch remains, M1R, K1.
Top Needle: Knit even.

*Sole Needle: Knit even. Top Needle: Knit even.

Sole Needle: K1, M1L, knit until 1 stitch remains, M1R, K1.
Top Needle: Knit even.
Repeat from * until you have _____ (C) stitches on the sole needle.

Sole Needle: Place markers as follows
Knit _____ (D) stitches, place a YARN marker.
Knit _____ (E) stitches, place a second YARN marker.
Knit remaining _____ (D) stitches.

Top Needle: Knit even across all _____ (B) stitches.

Turn the Heel
Sole Needle:
*Knit until 2 stitches before second yarn marker. Increase 1, K1, turn work.
Yarn over from front to back on right needle. Place marker.

Purl until 2 stitches before marker. Increase 1, P1, turn work.
Yarn over from back to front on right needle. Place marker.

Repeat from * until you have placed _____ (F) markers. (Don’t include the yarn markers.)

Still on the sole needle:
*Knit to marker. Remove marker. K2tog.
Repeat from * until you reach the yarn marker. Knit remaining stitches.

Top Needle:
Knit across all stitches.
Sole Needle:
Knit to yarn marker.
*K2tog. Remove the stitch marker.
Repeat from * until you have removed all but the two yarn markers.

You are somewhere in the middle of the sole needle and there are now _____ (B) heel stitches between the two yarn markers and _____ (D) gusset stitches on either side of the yarn markers.

Heel Flap
Sole Needle (starting in the middle):
Knit to 1 stitch before yarn marker. SSK. Turn work. Flip yarn marker between needles.
Row 1: Sl1, purl until 1 stitch remains before yarn marker, p2tog, turn, flip yarn marker between needles.
Row 2: *Slip 1, K1. Repeat from * until 1 stitch remains, SSK, Turn work, flip yarn marker between needles.
Repeat rows 1 and 2 until you have no remaining gusset stitches on the left side. (You’ll still have one gusset stitch remaining on the right side.)

Top Needle: Knit across all stitches.
Sole Needle: k2tog, Knit across all stitches.

You now have _____ (B) stitches on each needle and are ready to do your leg.

K2Karen's Basic Sock Chart Numbers for the Widdershin-style heel

B Stitches	C Gusset inc to	D Gusset Marker	E Heel Marker	F Heel Turn Markers
15	27	8	11	4
16	28	8	12	4
17	31	9	13	4
18	30	9	12	6
19	33	10	13	6
20	34	10	14	6
21	37	11	15	6
22	38	11	16	6
23	41	12	17	6
24	42	12	18	6
25	45	13	19	6
26	46	13	20	6
27	47	14	19	8
28	48	14	20	8
29	51	15	21	8
30	52	15	22	8
31	55	16	23	8
32	56	16	24	8
33	59	17	25	8
34	60	17	26	8
35	63	18	27	8
36	62	18	26	10
37	65	19	27	10
38	66	19	28	10
39	69	20	29	10

My Favorite Toe: Magic Loop Turkish Toe Tutorial

My sister-in-law loves hand-knitted socks. She strongly encourages me to knit them for her. I, being the selfish person generous enabler I am, decided to teach her to make her own.

For Christmas, I bought her Knit Picks needles and two kinds of sock yarn. I cast on the toes using my basic technique and then helped her through her first pair of socks. She's ready to start her second pair and she's stuck on the cast on. She's a busy mom and we can only get together once every couple of weeks. To make things easier, I've been writing down my "basic sock" pattern as a tutorial for her that she can use at home.

This project, like many projects, has grown. While it started as a pattern, it is now more of a workbook. I have no problem with sharing this workbook, so I'll start at the almost-beginning. The toe.

But first, let me say that my sock pattern isn't entirely original. The cast-on is Meg Swansen's beautifully simple turkish cast on. The increases were inspired by Queen Kahuna's sock book--a really nice book with lots of pictures. (This is NOT a tutorial on her techniques--if you're interested in her sock methods, please buy her book.)

The heel I use is the amazing Widdershin heel as published by Squeaky on Knitty. I just re-wrote the instructions and did the calculations for lots of different stitch counts. (I'll publish those numbers in a future entry if Squeaky doesn't mind.)

So this sock is really a mash-up. But enough of this, let's get on with the toe. Oh, and one more thing--this toe is WAY easier to do than it is to explain! Try it once or twice and see what you think.

Here's the simple version:
Turkish Cast on approximately 5 stitches, leaving a tail of at least 6".
Knit across all the stitches on the top needle. (This is needle #2. Ideally, this will be the bottom of your sock.)
Using both the working yarn and the tail of yarn, Knit all stitches on needles 1 and 2. Number of stitches on each needle now is 10.
Needle 1: *K2, K2tog. Repeat from * across all stitches on needle 1.
Needle 2: *K2, K2tog. Repeat from * across all stitches on needle 1.
Needle 1: Knit all stitches.
Needle 2: Knit all stitches.
Toe Increases
*Needle 1: K1, M1R, knit until 1 stitch remains, M1L, K1.
Needle 2: K1, M1R, knit until 1 stitch remains, M1L, K1
Needle 1: Knit across all stitches.
Needle 2: Knit across all stitches
Repeat from * until you have correct number of stitches on each needle.


Now here's the detailed version with pictures:
In the following pictures, I've dyed the tail of my yarn with a wonderful Merlot--which I then finished off drinking. If the pictures are fuzzy, you know why. One of the needle tips is marked with some red nail polish I stole borrowed from my daughter.

Step 1: Make a slip knot and place the slip knot on needle 1. (In the pictures, Needle 1 has the red tip.)


Step 2: Wrap the working yarn behind both needles.


Step 3: Repeat wrapping around the needles for however many stitches you wish to cast on. I usually do 5 or 7 wraps for my sock toes. 7 makes a flatter toe; 5 is more pointy. For this tutorial, I'm doing 5 stitches.


Step 4: Pull Needle 1 out of the wraps so that the wraps are now around Needle 2 and the cable.


Step 5: Using Needle 1, knit across all stitches on Needle 2. You'll probably need to hold the slip knot firmly with your thumb. (Shoot! In the picture, my stitch is almost falling off Needle 2, it shouldn't be this close to the tip.)


When you're done, you'll 5 stitches on Needle 1. The cable is still wrapped and the slip knot is on the cable.


Step 6: Slide Needle 2 so that the slip knot and stitches wrapped around the cable are on Needle 2.



Step 7. Flip the needles so that Needle 2 is on top and Needle 1 is on the bottom. The slip knot is at the tip of Needle 2.



Step 8. Slide the slip knot off Needle 2 and pull out the knot.



Step 9. Slide Needle 1 so the stitches are on the cable and Needle 1 is free.


Step 10. Using BOTH the working yarn and the tail, knit across all 5 stitches on Needle 2 using Needle 1.


When you're done it looks like this. You have 10 loops on Needle 1 and 5 loops on the cable.



Step 11. Slide the stitches from the cable onto Needle 2. Flip the needles so Needle 2 is on top and Needle 1 is on the bottom.





Step 12. Slide Needle 1 so that the stitches are on the cable and Needle 1 is free.



Step 13. Using both the working yarn and the tail, knit across all 5 stitches on needle 2.




Step 14. Flip the needles and slide so the cable stitches are on the needle. Needle 2 is on top, Needle 1 is on the bottom. You have 10 loops on each needle. Slide out Needle 1 so it is free to knit.




Step 15. Treat each loop on each needle as a separate stitch. Using only the working yarn now, Knit 2, K2Tog across all stitches. If you started with 10 loops, you now have 8 stitches on Needle 2.





Step 16. Do the flip & slide and repeat Step 15 on the other needle.




Here's a picture of the finished cast on, ready for toe increases.


For the rest of the toe:
Needle 2: Knit even.
Needle 1: Knit even.
Needle 2: K1, Increase 1, knit to last stitch, Increase 1, K1.
Needle 1: K1, Increase 1, knit to last stitch, Increase 1, K1
Repeat until you have the desired number of stitches for your sock foot.


A note about Increases: This is a sock toe, people. It doesn't really matter what you do. Ideally you should use the correct left-slanting/right-slanting increase. Usually, my favorite increase is the lifted increase because it is almost invisible. I do not use it when I do increases every other row. It can cause puckering. What do I use for my sock toes? The old-fashioned EZ Loop increase as shown in the pictures below.




Why? Because it works just fine and I have no problem reading it in my knitting. I don't have to count rows to figure out of this is an increase row or a knit even row; I can read the increase instantly.