Slipper-socks and a forgotten project.

I’ve finished the slippers I was making. Yay!

Adding the beads was easy-peasy and I am looking for more projects which use beads.

Adding the Sock-Stop to the soles however was much more tricky.

Being a cautious sort of person I decided to do a trial run.

Do you remember this?

My trial run at sock making.

Well I kept it as a sample and decided it would be just what I needed to see how easy (or difficult – knowing me) the Sock-Stop would be to apply.

I found an old shop-bought slipper sock for a comparison and had a go. Two or three coats was what they said. So I did two.

The finish wasn’t as smooth as I would have liked but I thought it wasn’t bad for clumsy, messy me.

Although this trial run seemed very sensible it was a mistake.

Because when I came to apply the stuff to my new slippers I found that the liquid had become a bit granular and was much harder to get out of the tube.

I struggled on and produced this.

It wasn’t as neat as I would have liked but I moved on to the second one.

You may notice they are not identical patterns. By now I was just glad to get the dots on at all.

The following day I returned to the fray and added a second coat.

I thought of flattening them with a knife but decided that didn’t work too well as the dots were of such mixed consistency.

However the next day They were ready to wear and here they are on my feet.

I am hoping that the dots don’t come off because they are rather bobbly.

If they do I was wondering about using silicone sealer. I am a bit fingers and thumbs using that as well but at least it doesn’t seem to dry in the tube once it’s been opened.

And just to finish off.

Do you remember this?

I told you that it was my aim to knit this tube long enough to make a Buff®.

Well I have to confess that I have done very little since then but having finished the slippers and wanting to give my sore joint a little longer before I went back to crochet, I decided to pick it up again and now I have got this far.

After the slippers which were such fun to make, I have found it a little boring going on and on with just the two alternating stitches but I am determined to finish it and it is relaxing. I don’t know if there is enough yarn left to make it a full eighteen inches but when the yarn runs out I will see how it goes.

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Practice make Perfect!

Well what have I been up to recently?

Here are three of the bookmarks I am making for my giveaway. Hopefully I will get the extra colours soon and can make the others. BUT see at bottom of post!!

And here is a picture that actually comprises a lot of practice!

It started on 100cm circular needles for me to show someone how to do small circular knitting using the ‘magic loop’ method. Not to be confused with the method of the same name in crochet which is the way of starting some crochet patterns.

After the first couple of rows I passed the needles over so she could practice before starting a prem-baby hat on her own needles.

I then decided that it was a good starting point for me to try knitting on double pointed needles that I am so wary of, so I transferred the knitting as you can see above and did a few rows.

I have decided that (at least with this much knitting on this size needles) it is not so much a problem of stitches slipping off the ends as the other needles getting in the way. 🙂 But I will persist in practice when I have nothing better to do.

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I have also started knitting a pair of beaded slippers and have been pleased to discover how easy it is to add in the beads.

I bought the wool in ‘Hobbycraft’ when they were selling at three balls for the price of two, so it was a good buy and even the full price was not excessive. It is “100% Super Soft Merino Wool” and is lovely to handle.

The slippers are in three colours. The missing one in my colour choice is purple.

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And I have just received my new crochet cottons.

I think this may keep me happy for a few months / years! In many ways I prefer #20 cotton but I think this may be more durable for household items.

Projects, Projects, Projects!

I realise that I actually have four projects on the go at present.

Firstly and most importantly there is my hexagon blanket.

The main body is almost finished and I am trying to give it priority.

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Then there is my ‘can I really knit a sock?’ project.

The assistant priest in our parish, having seen me first in my spiral scarf and then in my rainbow scarf, realised that I must be a knitter and asked if I would knit him a pair of socks. Not any socks, mind you. He plays the bagpipes and is part of a music group. They have to wear white knee socks, which turn over at the top.  Apparently you can’t buy socks like this and they have to improvise. But if I could knit him a custom made pair!……………………..

Well I have never knitted socks. All these double pointed needles and picking up stitches for the heel had made me feel that I would never knit socks. But I told him I would think about it.

I discovered that socks could be knitted using circular needles, so not so many ends for stitches to fall off, and I even found a pattern  that used wraps to shape the heel, so no picking up stitches. It was getting better.

I decided that I would have to practice before I was finally sure I could do this. I only had DK yarn and circular needles suitable for DK yarn so I decided that would have to do. (At least I had some boring colours I didn’t need at present). I adjusted the number of stitches to suit the yarn and wow! I actually made a sock that fitted my foot. Yes. I can do this!

I couldn’t entirely eliminate the ladders you get, when using a long circular to knit a small circumference but then I discovered really small circular needles and decided to buy one.

Yes they really are that small.

I practised using straight needles and the small circular just to knit the heel part in some odd 4ply wool I had. Yeh! This works too.

Yes and I have even bought myself some gorgeous sock yarn to knit some socks for myself when I have made the knee socks. I am saving a reveal of this for a separate post.

At present, when my hands want a rest from crochet, I am working out how much I might have to increase to fit the sock round the calf. When I have finished the blanket then I start the socks proper.

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I have also been making a bag

similar to Lucy’s. I had so loved the thought of having it to use for holding my yarn, next to me on the settee.

She uses aran yarn and I only had DK so I have increased the number of rows for base and sides. It was useful for using up scraps of DK yarn and it was also good for when I needed some crochet I didn’t need to concentrate too hard on, (well not once I got to the sides). It is quite well advanced really.

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Lastly

I have a project that is really on the back burner and that is to make a Buff®. I saw it advertised in one of these little booklets for online companies you get and thought I could use the pattern I had used for my Scarf/Hat Tube Thingy  as all it is a stretchy tube. I have only done about the first four inches but it won’t take long when I decide to give it time.

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And of course I also manage to fit in the odd project on the side that can be completed quickly like the Cup Cape I made from the pattern at the Wool Hogs blog.

I made it to fit an old white mug I had, as most of my mugs have pictures on that you want to see. But now I have transferred it to my Bodum glass mug that I use for my breakfast green tea. It looks good on there too and fits just as well.

Catching up – Rainbow scarf & beret

About a year ago, I decided that I wanted to knit a scarf for my eldest as part of her birthday present and it had to be a rainbow scarf because she loves rainbows too.

But I didn’t want it to just be a striped scarf with rainbow colours; I wanted it to be a scarf where putting it on would be like wrapping a rainbow round your neck.

I knew how to do horizontal stripes but I couldn’t see how to do vertical ones.

I struggled with the problem for a bit and then I thought of using circular needles. I had used a 40cm one for my knitted tube but of course you could use circular needles to knit flat as well.  Then I could knit lengthways horizontal stripes!

So I bought some Knit Picks interchangeable circular needles and cables.

4mm (UK8) and 3.25mm (UK10) needles and cables to make them into 40cm and 100cm circulars.

The 4mm needles with the longer cable was just fine for the scarf.

I cast on 360 stitches which I calculate would make a scarf about 6ft (180cm) long.

I wanted the scarf to be reversible – so both sides were similar – and as I was intending to use DK yarn I wanted it to have a bit of thickness.

I wrote myself a pattern – or rather I drew up two charts which both meant the same thing as I am a very visual person.

The scarf worked out well, so I decided that I ought to make a beret also.  I adapted the pattern I had used for the earlier beret so it matched the scarf and this time knitted it on the shorter circular cable using the 3.25mm needles for the rib. I used the longer cable with the magic loop knitting method  to complete the central part.

In the end I made a scarf and beret for myself and my daughter. Only making the difference of the order of the colours in the beret for my daughter so as to make the red more dominant as that is her favourite colour.

My granddaughter also liked the scarf and beret and asked if I could make her one; so I ended up making a third scarf (only 300 sts) and beret for her.

So here we all are:-

What’s that there?

Synchronised scarfing

Just the three of us

Catching up – Knitting a scarf/hat tube thingy

The new and the old

About twenty years ago I bought a very useful bit of headgear. It was a knitted tube with a rolled end that acted as both scarf and hat and was especially useful in the rain, I felt, as there was less to get wet than with an ordinary hat and scarf.

But twenty years is a long time and things wear out. So regretfully, a little while ago, I decided that it would have to be retired.

They no longer seemed to make them for sale – but it was knitted! So I could make a new one, couldn’t I?

The stitch was very interesting looking a bit like rib on the one side but a strange sort of mesh on the other.

Never one to refuse a challenge, I set out to solve the puzzle.

Luckily, I suppose, I had met a new type of stitch in a pattern for bootees that I had adapted to use in a jumper for my grandson and I realised that this might hold the clue to the puzzle.

The stitch involved knitting into the stitch on the row below.

Knitting into the stitch below

(The above picture comes from another similar project I have on the go.)

By a little trial and error, I discovered that I could indeed reproduce the same effect if I knitted into the stitch on the row below every other stitch on one row and then purled into the stitch below every other stitch on the next row.

Purling into the stitch below is not as easy as knitting into it but then I thought of using circular needles.  I had never used circular needles before but this seemed to have a  double benefit in this case. No seam (the original had been seamless) and all knit stitches to get the same effect.

I normally knit with one needle under my arm; so I wasn’t sure how I would get on. However I bought some 4.5mm (UK 7) 40 cm Pony circular needles and found that everything went very smoothly.

I bought some variegated Paton’s yarn similar to that I used for my spiral scarf and beret but this time in much brighter colours – predominately  red with orange, yellow, blue and purple.

What I have never understood to this day is why the original appears to be made with an even number of stitches but I had to use an odd number to get the pattern to work out right.

It’s a very easy pattern.

You will need more than 100g of acrylic DK yarn. I bought two and so had enough for some gloves as well.

Cast on 61 stitches (or slightly more or less depending on how big you want it) on 4.5mm (UK 7) circular needles.

Make sure there is no twist then start to knit into the first cast on stitch.  (I sometimes do what I have heard suggested which is to cast on an extra stitch and then knit that together with the first one to give a firm join.)

Knit round to the start for the first row.

From now on Repeat (knit1, knit into stitch on row below) until tube is about 30ins (75cm) long.

With the rib looking side on the inside, roll up the last 10in (25cm) outwards to make a soft roll to frame the face and catch into place where the roll joins the tube with shirring elastic. Stitch nice and loosely so it doesn’t interfere with the tube stretching.

Elastic joining roll to tube

And there you have it.

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I also knitted myself a pair of fingerless gloves come mittens to wear for shopping when the weather was wet and cold.