Thursday, June 15, 2006

Sock it to me

I have put the bear rug aside for a bit. It was getting pretty warm to work with and I was running out of Chocolate Fun Fur. But, I just got the AC Moore flyer and the Fun Fur is on sale this week. So I'm going to buy the last couple of those that I need.

In the meantime I've started my socks with the Top Print alpaca. I am making these on size 2 DPNs, with 64 stitches. And Chris, since I have still not answered you as to what pattern I am doing the sock in, let me do that now! I started with a 2 inch cuff of K2 P2 ribbing figuring that I would try something different down the leg. But after trying a few patterns with the yarn I decided that most of them hid a lot of the beauty of the yarn. So I'm doing a simple pattern I saw in Nancy Bush's "Folk Socks." The whole of the leg is done in the K2 P2 ribbing with a number of heels to chose from. Then the foot of the sock is done in stockinette with a couple choices on how to close the toe. I have about 4 inches of the leg done on the first sock and it really looks great.

This sock is the first project that I've undertaken completely in continental knitting. I've practiced it here and there but it took me a long time to feel comfortable with it. However now that I've done it for a while I'm finding that I like it just as well if not better than English knitting. There is much less movement for the right hand and it feels more balanced. If you haven't yet tried it and are interested, head on over to the Knitting Help site where you can learn how with some helpful videos provided by the lovely Amy Finlay.

LISTENING TO: SONIC YOUTH - "Confusion Is Sex" I just heard that the new SY album came out this week. Though I haven't picked it up, I thought I'd get in the mood by putting in one of my favorite SY classics. Noisy, angry and essential NYC DIY post-punk.

2 comments:

Chris said...

What, English not good enough for you anymore?

I think it's great that your doing continental. Someday I might break out some spare yarn and try my hand at it. Just let me add that to my long list of things I am going to do someday.

Keep up the good work!
Chris(tex knitter)

Ken said...

Yeah Chris, I'm going all snooty on you with the continental knitting! No, I had to use it as part a two color section of the sweater sampler I did and ever since then I've been more and more interested in using it. So I've decided that the socks will be done 100% continental. We'll see how they turn out. I'll post a picture soon. -Ken