Failed Socks

Looks pretty, yes? Its Ziggy, from last summer's Knitty, done in two shades of Trekking Pro Natura. Ravelled here.

Lovely to look at, maybe. I was planning to give them to flatmate-Kirsty for Christmas, along with a box of her favourite chocolate-mints, seeing as the colours matched so well. But sadly they fail as socks. Put simply, they are too tight. And fail-socks are never a good present, so I told Kirsty she can have them now if she can get them to fit, and I do her a better present for Christmas. Those with bright screens can follow her struggling to get them on and off the other night.

Yes, I did keep the floats loose. I even knitted them in a much looser gauge than the pattern suggests. Yes, we've tried blocking. They are just too narrow. Plus, the bamboo in trekking means it isn't quite as elastic as a 100% wool sockyarn. Grrr. Once you get them on they are ok. In fact Kirsty says that the support of all that tight fair-isle is really nice (once you have them on, and are happy to keep them on, perhaps forever).

We thought we might steek the inside cuffs and add a couple of rows of stocking stitch - to give a two-way stretch. Do you think it'll work? Either that, or we need to find someone with super-narrow, super-long feet.

In praise of the knit blog

This is a post in praise of the knit blog. Its inspired by the 'You Make My Day' award which has been doing the rounds, and Veronique and Emma both presented me with tags for. But I'll start with an FO post - its been waiting to be blogged for a while, and is (kind of) on topic.

I only made one of these. As part of a 'single sock swap', Kate (of Zeitgeist) did half the work. Plus she chose the pattern and complementing yarn, which is, after-all, a big part of any decent FO. I'd made this sock for Heather (ADD Knitter), and sent it to her with enough yarn and the pattern to make its pair; Kate did similar for me. Isn't that the best idea for a swap, possibly ever?

Needles: 2mm & 2.5mm knit-picks circs.
Pattern: Gothic Spire, by Cookie A.
Yarn: Louet Gems Fingering Weight
Shoes: Doc Martin's Mary-Janes, purchased in the winter sales.
Ravelled: here.

I loved knitting this. Not just because of Cookie’s pattern, or the soft and gleaming yarn, but also the Kate's notes on how to accurately replicate her first sock. I always feel knitting from a pattern (as opposed to designing your own) is an insight into another knitter’s approach. I often learn techniques from following patterns. This time, I had the added bonus of an insight into how the pattern was read by another knitter.

So, the 'You Make My Day' awards. Rules: Give the award to 10 people whose blogs make you feel happy about blogland, then let them know so they can pass it on. It was so hard! I limited myself to knitter-bloggers, but still my first draft was about thirty. But here are the final ten, and why, in alphabetical order.

1) A Mingled Yarn. Elizabeth churns out sweaters at the most amazing speed. She thinks about them too; chooses good patterns and pairs them with appropriate mods to produce perfect FOs. She is also a big inspriation on me to sew and I enjoy her more literary posts. A well thought out, well organised and often inspiring blog.

2) Dogged. Funny, observant and thoughtful posts. Gorgeous photographs, with an amazing warmth to them. I really like the ways she reflects not only on knitting, but knit bloggers and their trends. Plus I enjoy drooling over her quilting skills.

3) HelloYarn. In one word, inspiring. Gorgeous shots of knitting and yarn, produced with a great sense of colour, immense skill, an obvious delight in a knitting challenge and a beautifully subversive style. Fair-isle insects, you can't get much cooler than that. Adrian is also one of the most knowledgeable knitters blogging, and one of the many that inspire me to challenge myself to try new techniques.

4) Knitting Philistine. Megan's another one with incredible, fiberlicious, camera-skills. She has a great eye for choosing patterns and yarn, and writes with a lovely breezy style. She's also one of the (many) grad-school knit-bloggers I read. I especially enjoy the enthusiasm she puts into her knitting, photography and blog. It's enthusiasm with a good dose of sardonic humour, but that's my favourite flavour. A real celebration of knitting, without getting 'too twee with the squee'.

5) Needled. Kate composes relatively long posts, but beautifully crafted ones, on a range of design and material culture issues. Funny, extraordinarily skilled, and most of all intelligent. Always worth the read.

6) Practical Polly. Perhaps its crazy to include the blog of someone you share a flat with. Kirsty often says she doesn't bother reading my blog because she assumes I'd tell her anything noteworthy. I read Practical Polly though *screws up face and blows raspberry at rude friend*. I enjoy seeing what aspects of her life she'll choose to blog about. Also, Kirsty has a large part of her knitting life based in Oxford, so it happens outside of our shared space. And through this I have an odd, virtual connection with her knit group, the Bluestockings. I read a load of their blogs too, so I'm going to cheat and add them along with Kirsty.

7) Quelle Erqsome. I read this in a completely different way from (for example) Needled, as Emma's blogging style is more about providing frequent, intense hits of her irreverent humour, great photos, forthright views and superb links. Plus, I like that she's a Londoner academic, even if I fail to go to any local knitting groups and so haven't met her in person. A speedy, punchy blog, but not a frivolous one; it can stay with you for a while afterwards.

8) Specs. Funny, thoughtful, self-deprecating and honest posts, lovely knitting and nice photos. What more could you wish for in a knit-blogger? I first started reading Sarah's blog when she commented here while knitting one of my patterns. It's one of the nicest ways I've 'met' knit-bloggers, and my blogroll is full of such links.

9) Tres Chic, Veronique. Great FOs, clear technical skills, pretty photos and an obvious enjoyment of knitter's maths. Plus, she's another knitter who inspires me to sew. I 'met' Veronique through a run of secret pal, and been a fan of her blog ever since. When I was briefly in New York this winter I even managed to meet her in person. I had assumed she'd have a French accent - not the case at all - I bet there are loads of other bits and pieces I've accidentally 'coloured in' about the lives of the bloggers I read. As with Kirsty and the bluestockings, I'm going to cheat again and include the rest of the Spiders with her, as I'm an avid reader of nearly all their blogs too. It was really nice to meet Gleek (and the Peanut!) in NYC too.

10) Ysolda. I don't know how she finds the time for so much knitting, designing and other domestic gubbins, but its all oodles of fun to read about. She writes well and the photos always look so very good. Plus I like that she's in Edinburgh, it reminds me of my Scottish roots. A classy blog from a clever and creative young woman.

FO: space invader socks

Another vintage FO that has so-far been hidden from the internet (squirrelled away as a secret Christmas present). Space invader socks, made for my little brother. Completed late this summer during flights to and from Tokyo.

I had an idea for these socks ages ago. But great minds think alike and Aija produced her great pattern last Spring. I thought I might as well use her specifications as they were much nicer than the vague idea I had half-formed. However, my (bamboo, 2mm) needle snapped a few cm into the charts. As I was on an aeroplane somewhere over Russia at the time, I was limited to the only other needle in my hand luggage, which happened to be a size up. So, I re-gauged and in doing so had to enlarge and simplify the pattern a bit.

Still, the bigger space invaders show up neatly, and the looser tension means the socks are slightly stretchier. As with the pirate argyles I made my brother last year, these are a pair of socks that are quite silly, but can look respectable under a suit. Let your trousers sit naturally and the embarrassing big-sister knitted motifs entirely disappear: lift them up a few cm and your childish alter-ego is revealed (though you might spot a green monster poking through the left foot on this photo).


The yarn is matchmaker 4ply for the black and knitpicks essential for the green (grass colourway), for those who wonder about such things. And I ended up using a 2.5mmm 80cm addi circular, toe up method.

Pottering about

We're right in the middle of those weird few days between Christmas and New Year. It's not a public holiday, but half the country seems to have shut up shop. There is an air of not-working everywhere.

I have work to do. I need to write an overview of my thesis - a paragraph for each chapter which succinctly states what I will be arguing. It's a short enough document, but tricky in its brevity. Pottering about while the overview mulls through the back of my mind seems to be the way to go. This sort of work is an iterative process which requires a lot of mental distance, so it's nice to have some relatively quiet time to space my thoughts out.

Over the last few days I've entertained myself filling in YouGov surveys, (re)reading Phillip Pullman novels and watching bad kid's movies (the latter two do sort of count as research for me). I gave my mother a sock-knitting lesson, did a pile of hand-washing, played with a pattern write-up, sewed some buttons, visited the winter sales, hoovered the hall and scrubbed the bath, every now and again returning to my thesis overview. Having spent the last couple of hours typing up my latest set of notes, I think a break to blog a so-far-secret Christmas FO is in order.

Pattern: Reverse-Bloom Washcloth (free!).
Yarn: Euroflax Linen sportweight, leftover from my bottoms-up top. I managed three washcloths with a bit over half a ball.
Needles: 2.5mm circular (smaller lily), 3.25mm (larger two).
Notes: It's a reasonably quick project, though not as quick as you might think. I wasn't sure if I had enough yarn for a third, so I fudged the design slightly to make it smaller - it's very easily adaptable. An excellent stash-buster and, finished-off with a tiny bar of violet-scented soap, made fantastic stocking-fillers.

The real meaning of SSK

SSK: slip, slip, knit? No, sew, sew, knit. Because I have been making tees. (We are going to ignore the stupidity of this in October, ok?). Sew 1, Sew 2:

Both using Simplicity Pattern 4589 and fabric I bought in Japan. My sewing, as ever, could be better, but they're fine if you don't look too closely. The ladybirds one was way too big, even after taking it in, so I cut a size down for the robots (and made it on the smaller side) and it fits perfectly. The ladybirds one looks fine under a cardigan though, or if you don't mind the super-smock look.

Next up, the knit. The pattern is my own, from the first edition of Yarn Forward. As I've posted before, it was inspired by bubbles in a champagne glass, but the eyelets in this green version are making me think of light coming through tall trees.


I'm really pleased with the result - it's come out exactly as I hoped. I wish I'd charted it though - if anyone's trying the pattern, email me and I'll see what I can do (though I can't promise anything instantaneous). I used Euroflax Linen in emerald. It's strength gives a nice 'tree-like' construction to the sleeves, and it's softening up nicely even if it was pretty rough to knit with. It's sportweight, not the 4ply of the pattern is written for, so I cast on for the smaller size.


Yet, for me the true meaning of SSK will always be a geeky one: Sociology of Scientific Knowledge. And on that, I'm going to a History of Science conference in DC this week, giving a paper on the Professor Branestawm books. Then I have a week off (last real break before thesis hand-in at Easter). I'll wander around DC for a bit, then I'm visiting a friend in LA, taking a bus trip up to San Fransisco and, as my flight home goes through Newark, finishing off with 24 hours in NYC.

Any tips for things to do, places to go, people to see? Kirsty's given me £10 to bring her back some inspiring craft 'stuff'. Where should I go? (bearing in mind I'll mainly be getting around by foot, though like any Londoner I do enjoy a bit of public transport)

FO: Pea-green baby jumper

Simple baby jumper I started on the way back from Japan from some leftovers of my main project (which is still top secret as is a xmas present).

Yarn: Knitpicks sock yarn solid. No idea on the colour - GREEN. Very soft stuff this yarn, probably much better for baby clothes than socks!
Pattern: My own, a top-down raglan worked roughly from this guide then with a zig-zag patterned stitch I made up on the plane as a way of stopping me go mad from the simple st st. I'm pretty pleased with this stitch, it gives a nice drape as well as texture.
Needles: Addi 80cm 2.75mm circs, using magic loop.