Friday, February 06, 2009

Ketchup on My Socks

Thanks, everyone, for the e-hugs and support you've all been sending my way! Checking my mail is so fun when there are comments from you!

While I've been really busy lately, not just with the Kiddo and my random illness, I've also been knitting. While I was sick enough for a while that I couldn't even knit, I did spend quite a few days sitting at home dazed and knitting. I finished up two pairs of socks last week alone!

One pair is for me. Knit from cotton/wool that Stephanie, a friend, brought back from Czech Republic a year and some ago. As much as I love wearing cotton/wool socks, I hate knitting them. My hands do not like them at all. But they're done, and they're on my feet right now.


Pair #2 is for the Kiddo. Remember when we knit up blanks on the knitting machine and dyed them with food colors? I finally got the socks for the Kiddo finished. He says they itch. They're made from superwash alpaca, so maybe they do, but he better wear them anyway!


I got sucked into/volunteered for the Machine Knit Garment a Month Knit a Long on Ravelry (try saying that 10 times fast!) I pulled out the Brother KH-910 again, and got to playing with it. I made some swatches, I knit up the skirts for my friend Stephanie's daughter's summer dress She's a bit slow on getting things finished, what with working part time, commuting from Ohio, and, raising a toddler and an infant, that a long, stockinette skirt would have taken until long after the child grew out of it! So I used the machine.

That got my confidence up! If I could do the shaping and such for a skirt, why couldn't I do a sock on the knitting machine?! <<>>

After several attempts, in which several yards of yarn was irreparably harmed, I came up with this:It might be nice if it weren't as hard as cardboard and sized for a Hobbit! I had intended to do the ribbing by hand, as I didn't want to seam the cotton/wool sock, but once it settled overnight, I realized it was never going to get ribbing. Since I don't personally know any Hobbits, nor humans with a foot as wide as it is short, I intend to frog it and make another the right size. for now I call it a "gauge swatch" so feel free to pretend along with me that this was the intended purpose, ok?

I'm going to go play around with them again this evening, as I've been itching to get back to machining socks. I love having a sock in my purse at all times, so I have something mindless to knit when waiting in lines and such, but something about running them up in 45 minutes on the knitting machine is so...attractive! I could never have to buy socks again! And still have time to knit sweaters!

It's not cheating. It's a totally different art that happens to make a very similar result to another art, which I also happen to fully enjoy. I think I've spent more time learning to use the machine than I did learning to knit, and I still don't use it as well as I knit. So what does that tell you?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Rock on, babe. That's a lot done with how crappy you've been feeling.

I picked up a huge piano-sized loom this weekend, which is currently disassembled on my office floor while I decide where to put it. Then I have to order the manual for warping it and so on. *twitch*

Also, I'm amused that my Captcha word is "pansi" on this form.

Anonymous said...

You wrote, "I think I've spent more time learning to use the machine than I did learning to knit, and I still don't use it as well as I knit." Well I'm a card carrying member of that club too!! LOL!! I love the color of the machine knit sock - even if it is cotton - not my favorite fiber to work with, for sure! That might explain why it came out so tight. In my limited experience machine-knitting cotton, it doesn't seem very friendly to the mechanical process unless you knit it looser than you think it should be in which case it will actually turn out looser than it should be. See? It was always a no-win situation when I tried! LOL!!