blarg!

sometimes I lack of words, today is such a day and therefore I keep things short today.

what's wrong in this picture?


you're absolutely right, there is only one needle in this socks where there should be two. That is because I'm going to frog them, again - sigh.

I don't like how I can't see the lace/wing structure of the sides.




so I started thinking and browsed my stitch dictionaries and found something I might like. Yesterday afternoon I made some more sketches and today I made a new swatch:


oh and below you can see what I have in mind. On the left you can see my first sketch and on the right there is the new idea I have, the "feathers" should touch above the calf. We'll see how well this will work.

hero sunday

first hero, the olive crown at the back of my new socks is finished. I think it turned out quite nice allthough the pictures didn't came out that well, the contrast between the purls and knit stitches just doesn't show well. Above this "crown" the back pattern will now turn into a simple cable.


second hero: how would you look like as a superhero? I would be:


turn yourself into a hero with the hero factory

third hero: CONGRATS to norway! They won the eurovision song contest this year with huuuuge success. I think they scored the highest points one band ever had during the contest.

midnight picture

I turnd the heel today and started to work into the leg pattern


and right now I'm tinking back 6 rows because I just saw I had forgotton to make a note on my chart for the back of the leg to work every second row as shown. I started wondering why the "olive crown" looks a bit wonky, checked the stitch dictionary and there I am at 11 pm tinking stitches.

short story

I'm using the lunch break to read some of my feeds and look what I have found on Drawn!
it's Gary, a lovely animated short story directed by Clément Soulmagnon, Yann Benedi, Sébastien Eballard and Quentin Chaillet

Gary from Gary on Vimeo.

p.s. I'm turning the heel at my icarus this afternoon, woohoo I'm making good progress

charting and frogging . . .

. . . frogging and charting is what I did the last two days. After I made my decision on the main pattern I was pretty sure which stitch to use to border the side pattern, so I casted on, made a lovely little toe and worked in stockinette until the toe covered my pinkies, jumped right into the fun and realized I don't like the outcome. The fabric got pretty stiff, which would have been a plus but the stitch looked awful with the yarn. I made little cables (across 3 stitches) that included a yarn over in the center. But this little hole could not be seen. Also I could only make 4 cables to the front, which looked like it wasn't enough at all. Frog. Next cast on and new stitch pattern, that one was lovely and matched the "little laciness, but not too lacy" idea I had in mind, BUT I frogged once more, because I didn't like my toe, it was a bit too pointy (see above), I started with 6 sts per needle and increased until I had 48 total (I like to have the first few centimeters of my socks a bit tighter) and which would have been increased until I arrived at the heel. Yesterday I casted on again (see below), I think it's the 5th time now (including the "I was a Bettie sock" thing). This time I started with 8 sts per needle and went up to 50 sts total (with the 48 sts I had one bordering stitch on the left side of the foot and two stitches on the right, and that felt awkward. I also recharted my foot pattern from a "everything starts just bejond the toes" to a "let's look at bit more elegant and grow into the stitch", which means I start in the middle of the foot and spread the stitch pattern to both sides until it covers the whole foot top and therefore the front of the leg.

swatching icarus

I have a new sock design in mind that will be called icarus, mainly because of the side wings that youcan see above. I plan this to be a sock that includes calf shaping within the pattern itself, so that the pattern sort of grows into the calf and doesn't need inserts like so many other calf shapings have. At the back will be one cable that will also grow to help shape the calf and a little "olive crown".
Right now I'm hesitating about the lace sections I want inbetween the wings and back cable, I waver between a lace cable (hole in the middle of the cable) or a simple "winding" lace built of k2tog and yo that alternate every other row.

Pattern - the little critters

USD 8.50
add to cart --- show cart
Meet the little critters. All of them. The pattern includes instructions for all six little animals pictured on the front plus info on two further ones.
you can make: fox, mouse, giraffe, beaver, squirrel, monkey PLUS a cat and a pig


Crochet pattern in pdf format, designed for a E / 3.5mm hook and worsted weight yarn, written out in plain English.

This pattern provides a stitch-by-stitch guide.

This pattern is for the intermediate crocheter or an advanced beginner with knowledge of crocheting in the round, increasing and decreasing. Special stitches are explained particularly.

Using a E / 3.5mm hook and the apropriated yarn you should receive a critter about 5 inches / 12 cm high.

But keep in mind that the size of a finished doll strongly hinges on your yarn and hook.

Unlimited email support is included to help you create your dolls.

FO - waterfall stockings

pattern: Waterfall socks by Anne Hanson from knitspot
modifications: not much, actually only made calf shaping by adding a few more repeats and decreasing them as I got closer to the foot
yarn: Regia solid 4ply, red
needles: 2.25mm
started: 22 may 2008
finished: 6 may 2009

I finished another pair of knee socks, but don't start believing I'm knitting non stop at the moment, I started these socks one year ago. I wanted to reknit the heel back then but somehow missed inspiration I think. I knitted this sock top down, started with a tubular cast on and added an eye of partridge heel to my short rows, and I finished with anatomical correct decreases, I just love this. The foot turned out a bit too tight at first but wears really well, I think I will stay with this for my next pair.

And to speak of my next pair. I casted on for a pair of Betties lace socks a few days ago but feel really uncomfortable about this pattern, I mean it's easy to memorize and actually easy to make but I can't stand the way it looks, it might be the yarn, but I don't see any other color of my stash with this pattern so I'm going to frog this and just keep on movong to the next sock. I have some ideas in mind for my very first own "design". . .

FO - Critters, at last

finally all critters are complete and the pattern will follow this weekend. I hesitated to show them all because I didn't wanted too much time between first pictures of the finished critters and the pattern release and I just couldn't come up with a good way for some of the pictures in the pattern. I normally want to turn everything into detailed black and white pictures, first they're printer friendlier and second I like the idea of patterns that don't push the one who works them into a certain direction for the color choice for their project. The giraffe gave me a hard time and finally turned me into 'okay this one will be true colored'
nevertheless here are a few pictures of the critters

eta: if you want to see a few more pictures you're welcome to have a look at my flickr page

knitting calculations

I just got home from a little visit in my LYS and the owner surprised me. She surprised me with something that is very obvious but I never thought about. I had a Duh! moment.
I bought some knit-in elastic to knit into my next ribbing for socks so they stay up better and asked how far she thought I was gonna get with 200 meters and she started doing sums, used Pi and my needle size and how many stitches there are in one round and said I would need 4 meters for the ribbing. I was like "What?" and she said my knitting needle determines the size of my loop, obviously right?
So taking the circumference being needle size (in mmm) multiplied by Pi as a basis one loop will measure exactly this length. If you now multiply this by the stitches you have in one round and the rows you want to make you will get the meters of yarn you will need. It's so simple and so obvious, it's just something you never think about until somebody else is pointing it out. Just like bats have testicals too! Of course they do, they're mammals, but who thinks about bats in this way? I never did until I saw a picture that said out lound "I am male and I am proud" It's a bit off-topic but I think you know what I mean.

CO - Bettie

I casted on a new knee sock. This time it's Bettie lace stocking by Hana Jason. The pattern is in the spring issue of interweave knits. The first time I saw it I knew I had to make it. I'm glad I didn't start right away because now I can profit from the experience of other knitters with this patten. Obviously the calf shaping is not enough to fit a nice curvy leg. I saw alot of projects where the calf shaping needed to be done with going up in more than one needle size and still is a bit too tight around the calf. Even though the pattern includes two different patterns for the major lace motif but it's just not enough. I read through the pattern and the total calf shaping is made with increasing 6 stitches per leg, which isn't enough for me - with my last stocking I increased 24 sts to fit my calf!
So I'm making quite a few changes to the pattern. First I go down in needle size to work with my normal tension, that means I use 2.25mm needles. Also I will make 4 repeats of the main lace instead of 3. And instead of using the "shaping" of the original pattern I will try to find a better way to increase. Last but not least I don't like the laddering bordering lace motif which I'm going to replace with a simple cable. Writing this down it seams like I change alot more than what it sounded like in my head.

p.s. reading through my older posts I saw I already crocheted Betties =^__^=

FO - karner blue stocking

pattern: variation of the border pattern from chevron scarf by Donna Druchunas, that can be found in her book artic lace
modifications: I only worked the chart as pictured, the original pattern calls for purl rows but I skipped these. The increases were made by not decreasing in the first row of a new pattern repeat
yarn: Regia solid 4ply, yummy teal blue
needles: 2.25mm
started: 22 April 2009
finished: 1 may 2009

Yesterday I asked for some ideas for a name and Goldibug came up with Karner bue lace, which I fund to be grandious. Karner blue is a blue butterfly.

source: fish and wildlife service

I've never seen it before, which isn't surprising, since it is only common in the great lakes area of the usa, where I haven't had the chance to go yet. But it's very beautiful and I find the name very matching.


I also learned alot during the process of this stocking, it was my first toe up and so I started searching for a good cast on, and found Judy Becker's magic cast on, which is really magical. It's great and I will definitly use it again.
As I searched ravelry for casting on methods I came across a thread on anatomical correct socks, which I think is sequitur when you make your own socks, I mean you have waist shaping on shirts and jackets, calf shaping on stockings, why not shape your toes? I followed the chart that can be found here, but started with only 7 sts per needle since I only needed 56 sts total to start the foot.
I always make short row heels and use the directions from the lana grossa homepage (pdf in german and english). They call it jojo heel, I don't know if there is difference between both but it's the best tutorial I found on short rows, I don't get any holes, not even on my very first try. Only when you finished the heel and start working in the round again I learned that the gap between the nedles can result in a hole if I don't pull the first stitches tigt enough, but ladders are a common problem when working in the round so I guess it's not a result of the short rows themselves.


Again reading threads and other blogs helped to improve my heels as well, I worked the heel on appr. 60 % of the stitches not 50 % as all directions I know call for. With 50 % I find the heel to be too short.
To reinforce the heel I used the Eye of Partridge stitch. I don't know if I did it right, I believe the slipped stitches should not be on top of each other, but I liked how it looked so I stayed with it. Also I twisted the slipped sticthes when knit, which I hope means they will be even more durable, I mean I don't want to put hours of knitting into something that will have a hole soon, a sock is alot faster to finish, but knitting til the knee is a bit more time effort o_O

To bind off I used the tubular bind off, I cast on this way alot and love how professional it looks, not to mention that you can hide yarn ends in it easily. After several trials and frogging (I couldn't seem to do it right yesterday) I finally followed the directions that I saw in this video. The knitted and purled stitches are devided onto two needles before you graft them, and I think that's so clever, and easy. You can see which way the thread needs to go and you can adjust your tension alot better.

weird, weird, weird

this is the weirdest thing I ever knit. I just finished (well I thought I did but I'm going to rip it out again), so I just "finished" my new stocking, within only one week - yeah, and I put it on and what do I see? and feel? the cuff is alot looser than the lace pattern of the leg. I know why the lace pattern is so tight, because there are tons and tons of twisted stitches in there but why the cuff doesn't have any tightness to it is a mytery to me. I didn't change needle size, I worked with the same tension (I actually thought the twisted ribbing would be even tighter than normal 1x1 ribbing) but obviously it's not, mysterious!

So what is a knitter to do? rip it and decrease and start the cuff over, not that I feel loke this right now, but I will need to!

p.s. do you have an idea how to call these stockings? I'm reminded of wings, and am torn between something like mosquitos or birdy or something like that