now that came unexpected

I knit on the leg of my tendrilous socks and increase / shape the calf by using bigger needles every 12 rows, meanwhile I'm using 3,25 mm needles and will use 3,5 mm as well in a few rows! When I casted on I thought I will end up with 3 mm needles at max.

I also started thinking about the cuff, I normally use an Italian BO which is sort of grafted but on my last pair I made picot BO and really liked the outcome as well.

and on they grow

so, next step on the tendrilous socks :) now after making the heel and continuing in stockinette or even eye of patridge pattern on the back of the heel as high as I like (which is high enough for shoes not rubbing the lace) I started to make leaves again, and little bit of perfectionist that I am of course I created a pattern for the left heel and the right heel so that the leaves will start to grow symmetrically again :)

charts for left heel:




charts for right heel:



I had 27 sts on the "heel needle" and started the charts, soon I realized that there will be YO at the beginning and end of the row (as there were on the front as well) and I shifted the first knit stitch from the front to the back of each sock, this way I have a knit stitch bordering the last YO, this one was sort of loose and tended to get lost, so now it's "protected". the first YO at the front (which is now without a bordering knit companion) can handle the situation pretty good on its own [good YO ;)]

all in all, after making the charts for the heel and continuing in the main stitch pattern I have 30 sts on both needles. And I will have 30 sts on each needle until I reach the knee because I make calf shaping by switching needle sizes, I test knitted the lace in 3 different needle sizes and they looked good. I will use 2,25 mm, 2,5 mm, 2,75 mm and maybe 3 mm as well depending on much space my enormous calves will use ;)

do you believe in magic?

no socks today, I just thought I'd share the song that followed me all day and made me smile all the way - what a beautiful earworm ;)

tendrilous heels

so it's time for the heels :)

I left you about 2 inches before you would start your normal heels. I love short row heels and knit something which is called jo-jo heel. On the lana grossa homepage there is a great explanation for it (pdf in german AND english). Meanwhile I tweaked it a bit and added some increases before I start the heel, because as it is in the pdf it was always too tight and too short for my feet - the main technique though is absolutely cool, I never had any holes. Before I continue if you like heel flaps better make one :) there is no reason why you can't exchange any heel with another.


the heel:

I find the jo-jo heel works best when you have enough stitches to work it from and I think if my feet get bigger from toe to heel why not increase the sock as well? so I start increasing about 2 inches before I would start the heel. In this sock I increased 2 stitches on the sole every 3rd row like this *k1, m1, k until 2 sts before end, m1, k1*. Slowly the 25 sts of the sole will turn into 37 - see below



now I start to work the jo-jo heel as described in the pdf above, only I divide my stitches like this 13-11-13 and not 10-10-10 as in the pdf. After I made the heel my sock looked like this:



and because I would have much too many stitches to continue the lace pattern AND because my feet narrow after the heel AND the heel as it is right now would be too short and my shoes would rub the lace I work a few more rows of stockinette PLUS I decrease some stitches again. I decreased the 37 stitches to 27 like this *k1, k2tog, k until 3 sts before end, ssk, k1* every 3rd row and my heel now looks like this:



In case you wonder, I added an eye of patridge pattern to the back of my heels to make them more durable. ([1] *sl1, k1*, sl1 -- [3] *k1, sl1*, k1 -- k all even rows)

the feet are ready to walk

After casting on I made a few more rows of stockinette stitch only far enough to cover my toes, oh did I mention I casted on with 2.25 mm needles? and then I started with the patterns for the feet, yes plural, this may look a bit difficult at the beginning, but after making the 'starting pattern' both feet have the same basic stitch, which is a little shifted at both feet, and this IS a bit weird when starting but I got used to it pretty fast. But now let me show you the charts and I hope that it will bring light into what I just wrote

the basic stitch:



to start the left foot:




to start the right foot:




as you can see I really like symmetry and I wanted the petals of the pattern to slowly "start growing" on my feet and if I finally get my SD card to work I can upload a few pictures of the knitted socks so far


last not least the stitches are:



work in pattern until ~2 inches before you would start to turn the heel. Another tip - there's a YO at the beginning and the end of every round on top of the foot, if you find that a bit hard to handle, because I did find it a bit hard, just transfer one stitch of the sole to both sides, you have the lace stitch bordered by one knit stitch, this will make 25 stitches of stockinette for the sole and 31 stitches for the lace on top (casted on 27 sts, increased 2 sts during the beginning of the lace sections and bordered by 2 sts = 31 sts)

and again, click the pictures to enlarge them


edit: got my SD to work and here some pics of the knitted pieces

let's cast on :)

welcome follow knitters :) I enjoy you being here. If you have any questions post a comment or leave a message on ravelry because it's the first time ever I write down a knit pattern, so any help is welcome :)

but now let's cast on. I prefer anatomical toes, I have no idea why (in fact I never tried normal toes) maybe I only like the idea of a sock especially for my left foot and one especially made for my right foot :) plus they feel pretty good on the feet.

To cast on I use 2.25 mm needles and the Judy Becker magic cast on, I like it alot and it creates a very neat beginning and to have anatomical toes I use this chart:


this one's for one foot only, just mirror the increases for the other foot. If you click on the picture it will enlarge.

I will work both socks at a time using the magic loop technique with 2 needles.

In total we will cast on 54 stitches.

If you prefer different toes please knit your favorite version - only make sure you have 54 stitches divided on two needles at the end.

added: a little pictures of my toes ;)

would you like to knit along?

I couldn't sleep last night, one reason was the summer heat the other were my new tendrilous socks. I kept thinking about how to start them and how the pattern will elongate along the leg and how fabulous they will be once they're finished and then I had the idea to make the whole process public and maybe some of you can knit along ... any followers? I will create a pattern page at ravelry too and copy'n'paste the details there as well. This evening I will cast on - we will cast on =^__^=

tendrilous swatching

So I started swatching again, I want to have a little project I can carry around easily and I always wanted to try knee high socks with a 'calf shaping' made from changing needle sizes instead of increases or decreases depending on toe up or top down. Searching my knitting books I found a cute little stitch pattern that might work great for its purpose - and after finding 4 errors in the original pattern and correcting them I came up with this:

FO - bintje stockings

pattern: Bintje-Socks by Jatta Saukko
yarn: Regia 4-ply, solid green
started: may 2 2010
finished: june 2 2010

modifications: made them toe up, added anatomical toes too, made an itsy bitsy alteration to the stitch pattern, I changed the [sl1-k2tog-psso] to [sl2-k1-p2sso] this way the decrease has the middle knit stitch on top, and since I was making them toe up I increased one stitch every second row instead of decresing.

all in all I'm very satisfied with the result, at the beginning I wasn't sure if I liked the stitch pattern but now they're done I really like it

_________________

oh, and I haven't forgotten my snailigan, but it's a SNAILigen so it grows very sloooowly, no seriously, a couple of weeks ago I started searching my little mess, that I call stash, for the single parts of it and found two sleeves, two different sleeves, meanwhile I reknitted one so they are both equal and am at the point when to decide how to knit all parts together so I can make a collar...