JenLa

Why La’s a dumbass.

So, I guess when you write a pattern and make corrections to the charts on said pattern, it might just be a good idea to make those same corrections in the long-hand instructions, you think? Thanks to Enid, I have been alerted of my dumbassery!

So, for all of you who have downloaded Serenity before today, here’s the errata. Otherwise, you can find the updated version of the pattern, along with all my other patterns (all ONE of them) over on the La’s Stuff page.

So, instead of getting a shitload of knitting done this weekend like I had planned, I was busy dealing with a man cold.

(Thanks Leslie!)

And wouldn’t you know it, HE refused to take any of the convenient “knock you on your ass” meds that are out there. I was certainly tempted to resort to spiking his w(h)ine with it.

I did get a teensy bit of knitting done on Saturday when Michelle and Monica came over for a nice afternoon in, but not nearly enough as I was busier jaw-jackin’ than putting sticks to string. Certainly not enough to make it blogworthy. Besides I have to get back to obsessively inserting knitting symbols into graph paper. Speaking of which, hyposthetically, what is the ideal width/length for a manscarf?

And here I bet you thought last week was it, huh? Wrong!

Another Effed-Oh!
Stats: Felted Roman Socks aka Udones
Pattern: Plain toe-up (Turkish cast-on) in garter stitch; 60% heel
Yarn: 4 (KFYS) Balls [50gm/231 yds. each] Knitpicks Palette in Nutmeg; Doubled

Needles: US Size 4 [3.50 mm] bamboo DPN

Today’s Lesson
Felting is Forgiving

What’s wrong with this picture?

Because of the perspective (read shitty photo skillz) it’s difficult to tell, but if you guessed that the sock on the right is at least 10% bigger than the other one, you’re right! I took careful notes when knitting the first one, and followed those notes to the letter for the second. That leaves just one possibility: Tension. Basically, my attitude towards these socks came out in my knitting, meaning Meh, boring-squared… WONDERFUL!

You will also notice that there are the heel-turn-meets-instep holes that usually drive me absolutely batshit, so much so that if and when they appear, you can usually find me tugging on the stitches around it to make it disappear. Yup, the felting took care of that too!

Actually, because the yarn was doubled and I was knitting them on size 4s instead of size 1s they did knit up MUCH quicker than the last pair. But all in all it was still a slog, and I’ll be taking a slight break from garterstitch udones just so I don’t get totally burned out and end up hating thus swearing off them forever (like I did mohair, for which I’m about to get served a meal of my own words with a side of crow…).

Pre-felted sock; sandal (btw which I LOVE) included for scale

Today’s Alternate Lesson:
Cheap & Shitty does not easy felting make…

Yeah, it took 2.5 trips through the washer to get these puppies to felt down to the correct size. I had initially intended to hand-felt them, but after 15 minutes of working with them with nothing to show for it except steam-reddened, cramped hands and 2 very wet, soapy socks I said screw this, and chucked them into the washer. BTW, all the .5 in the 2.5 trips just means I sent the over-sized sock through a third time. Just another screaming example of “you get what you pay for”. You’d have thought I’d learn that one by now!

Even after all this whining and complaining I am quite happy with the way the finished product looks, and so was the recipient. The toe-up in Turkish and Magic Cast-ons are soon becoming my favorite Bitchener Stitch avoidance technique, and makes perfect sense when you’re making socks with a rolled cuff. I LOVE how the 60% heel, when felted, becomes more of a heel cup, which works out great for guys who will be sporting these in the oh-so-fashionable socks-and-sandals-with short skirts look, especially when the sandals or calcei are hand-made out of leather and whose soles are embedded with hobnails, giving added protection against wear and tear due to rigorous marching and hiking that would shred average hand-knit socks.

~~~~~~~

In celebration of the success of my first ever felted socks, I went out and bought several sets of these little beauties…and you should too. At those prices (she should easily be charging more), how could you pass them up? AND they’re hand-crafted by Sarkasmo. Well, what are you waiting for?

In a sort-of continuance of La’s post yesterday:

Specs:
Pattern: Udones: plain old toe-up in garter stitch; 60% heel
Yarn: hand spun romney
Needles: US 4
Notes: felted when finished

My March UFO Resurrection Project is done. Can I get a yee haw? Yes, we were knitting similar socks for different people attending the same event.

I began these socks at Distaff Day 2006. Wait, let’s back up a second. I began knitting them at Distaff Day 2006. If I wanted to be technical-and apparently I do-I’d have to say I really began them at the now defunct Long Beach Renaissance Fair in 2004. That’s when I began drop spinning the yarn in an attempt to do something period-correct at an ancient roman encampment since I couldn’t knit.

For people who end up at our site from researching Roman udones, [ew-dough-nays] Here are some links I found during my research and some thoughts about history and technique [putting aside La's reference in yesterday's post, because I don't have the information she alluded to.] First, though I can’t directly link to the vindolanda tablets online, there is a paragraph where a parent is writing about sending socks and underwear to her soldier at the front, just to answer the question of whether they even had socks. The socks that have been found from the period were either wool cloth cut on the bias and sewn [and I suspect this is actually an example of that, though many will disagree.] Or done with a technique we now call naalbinding. I’ve tried naalbinding and I confess that I’m way, WAY too lazy. I admire you crazies who do it, though. There’s been a lot of argument and back-and-forth regarding the manufacture of period looking socks for roman re-enactors. Please keep in mind that when you are reading some of these threads and links that the term “knitting” is applied arbitrarily. Even the V&A has identified ancient egyptian socks as “knitted” and then goes on to describe the technique as being done with one needle. One needle is naalbinding, not knitting as we know it. In that last link, you will see a close up of naalbinding that looks for all the world like knitting. So the next natural question is: why not knit them? The best advice of someone who actually knows what she’s talking about is that if you aren’t going to do it right, then you can knit garter stitch socks and felt them to obscure the fact that they’re knitted, leaving enough texture to convey the feeling of naalbinding socks.

My husband has a serious and scholarly interest in roman shoes and footwear, so having the proper socks to go with them is important. [yes, that's me playing a board game with him on the home page, so you can skip the picture pleas.] Important enough for me to hand spin the yarn for them and knit them and then felt them, but not important enough for me to actually manufacture them with proper technique, I suppose. At any rate, I had 2/3 of the first sock done and I had to finish spinning the wool so I could knit the 2nd one. The most surprising thing about this resurrection was not the fact that if you don’t make notes about how you constructed a sock and then a year+ later you try to match it, you’re going to have issues. Nor was it that I would never be able to match the previously spun yarn for them. The most surprising thing was that the yarn I spun to finish these was the best, nicest yarn I have ever spun and I was aiming for slubby, shitty yarn like I had done the first time. The newest batch was soft, springy and balanced. I truly don’t know what happened, but I wish I had enough for a sweater for me. I’d also like to state for the record that while La hated her socks, these were very fast for me and not terrible at all. I think it’s because I knit mine at such a large gauge, probably. Even factoring in the spinning, they were reasonably painless. And by the way, Happy Birthday, Jared! I hope your present keeps your feet warm and dry this weekend.

Now that I’ve gotten that little dissertation out of the way, I can get back to this:

Which looks like every kind of seed in the world, and yet there are important things missing. Like soybeans. And dye plants. Anyone got a good source for dye plant seeds? I’ll also accept ideas for cat repellent.

This morning the awesome lady I bought my llamas from left me a message about the impending bad weather, saying that when it gets very cold and nasty she usually gives the boys some cracked corn because it helps generate a little heat and energy. I was like bad weather? Huh? It’s been in the 70’s the last couple days [see snow video from last week] and I don’t watch-as they call it here-the TEEvee, so I can be a bit out of touch at times. Okay, oblivious. Head completely up my ass, if you must know. So I was looking around on the internet to see just what sort of nasty weather she meant and to do some research about whether the corn would work for the goats, too. It turns out that all of y’all who are confused by the weird winter aren’t alone.

Yahoo was predicting a low of 25 degrees and a high of 0. Yes, that was an actual screen capture, not a photoshop job. I was particularly concerned for Clearwater, FL as my brother doesn’t own anything warmer than shorts. I had hoped the forecast for the whole week was as glitchy and weird, but it wasn’t. I decided this must be what she meant by cold, nasty weather:

Off to the feed store again! A secret part of me wants to buy a pair of overalls and hang out with all the hick farmers all day in the dusty feed store that smells like fertilizer, chatting about heifer stocker, the merits of chewing tobacco and how to change a 1958 ford pickup’s engine parts. But there are a couple of problems. For one, I’m not a man. For another, they must sense my heathen ways because they always hand me pamphlets about Jeezuss and how great he is. So I usually drive home fantasizing about a combination feed/yarn store that smells like lanolin and isn’t very dusty but has lots of yarn bits all over the floor dating back to the depression where we would chat about the merits of feeding our sheep organic grain and hand out pamphlets about sustainable farming and needle size comparison charts. Dreee-eee-eee-eee-am…

All this talk of what we will be knitting and what we’ll be knitting it from has kind of made it seem like we haven’t actually been knitting, just talking about it. But I will have you know that I already have three finished objects for 2007.

Specs: Moebius Gaiter
Yarn: my handspun BFL/Alpaca
Pattern: moebius cast on, 2×2 ribbing
Needles: Inox US 5

Specs: Ribbed Scarf With A Twist (pdf), by Ann Budd from IK
Yarn: Bernat Denim
Needles: Inox US 8

Specs: Audrey’s Socks
Pattern: Baltic Socks from the Mustersocken KAL
Yarn: Henry’s Attic Superwash Kona, dyed by me with Jacquard
Needles: Addi Turbo US 3
Please note that the Socks for Audrey KAL now has its own blog! Click the button and join us. It’s a very good cause.

One last thing. While I was working on this post, I was chatting with Lalala in IM and if you read her blog, you know she’s been having some health problems lately. Well, she told me this morning about some new symptoms that she was experiencing but that she had only been at work an hour after a week off and she didn’t want to go rushing back to the doctor. I urged her to call him anyway and they sent her to the ER. Please go send her your wishes for feeling better. I know the healing powers of blogland and she could really use some.