H’okay. What kind of sock do you want?

(Check out my contest.)

It seems as though people are pretty evenly split with the whole “what should I design for you as a series of tutorials” with a lot of people being intrigued by the quilt-inspired scarf.. and socks.

Now… If I’m going to do socks, that’s going to be a big, long process because at the same time, I’m going to include excel tutorials for those wanting to write their own sock patterns.  Yea.  I’m probably too ambitious.  But what can you do?

So… since the sock will be a series of posts… that may infact stretch a few weeks, I think I’ll do the scarf along the way (I think I too am intrigued by this idea).

But first…

I need to know what kind of socks you want me to design.

So… leave a comment…

Do you want: Colorwork?  Lace?  Or textural?  Let me know and I’ll do some swatching over the holiday.

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Look! It’s a float! Catch it!

If you’ll remember, back when I finished my Bird in Hand Mittens, I promised a couple of posts that would helpful for others working on the pattern. The first of this was the quick, easy, seamless Estonian braid. The other thing I wanted to share was how I catch my floats.

When I was sharing my mitts with my knitting group we started to talk about how we catch our floats. I showed everyone who I caught my floats and got some intrigued looks. I think that the way that I catch the main color (held in my right hand) is a little different than the way some people do it. You can see after the part about how I wrap the contrasting color (held in my left hand), which is probably the way most people do it.

Um. So I hope this is helpful – and just so you know, all the videos I’ve made/will make are also up on the helpful videos tab.

Braids made easy!

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Making Slippers Non-Slip

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I’m sorry.  But I’m changing  blog locations.  Please click here to find the post you were looking for.

And please, excuse the mess when you get there!

Does confidence come before a fall?

I’m still chugging along on this blanket. When I was first working on this, I’d thought I’d do 3 blocks across by 4 blocks deep (a block being 4 mitered squares) and had thought that was only 36 miters… but my math was wrong – that would be 48 squares. Since I’m pretty happy with the current size of the blanket, I’m sticking with 36, but obviously, only 3 block by 3 blocks.

I’m knitting this for a baby that is due on the 7th of September and I’ve only got 8 more blocks left.  Now, you should know that the mom said that she doesn’t think he’s going to wait until the 7th.  But 8 blocks isn’t that much.  After that, I’ll only have to seam them and knit the borders.  I’m feeling pretty confident about my ability to finish this.

In a previous post about this blanket, someone left a comment suggesting that I must want to add some blue to the blanket.  And while I’m appreciative of that person’s kidn suggestion, at the same time I don’t intend to add any blue to this blanket for two reasons:

1. I chose a color them of greens and neutrals and adding blue to the mix would kinda mess that up.  And I haven’t done all this work for nothing.
2. I’m a feminist and one of the issues that peeves me the most is gender stereotyping.  I’ve pretty much decided that unless it’s a special request, I’m probably not going to be knitting any pink or blue baby blankets.  *I tried to write a few sentences explaining myself here, but nothing I could come up that was adequate could be said succinctly – so I think that’s going to have to be another post.

In the meantime, I’m going to keep knitting this blanket. And I’ll be sure that I’m going to finish it in about a month, never mind that while I’ll be working on this, I’ll also be doing the following:

• Moving 1/2 way across the country again (see the box in the top photo)
• Unpacking an entire apartment’s worth of stuff
• Ending my summer job
• Completing about 2 weeks of intense training for my new job
• Beginning my new job
• Leading about 2 weeks of intense training for my RAs (by intense, I mean 12 hour day…)
• Completing orientation and registering for graduate school
• Beginning Graduate school

9 to 5 socks, some help with modifications…

Note:  I think this is going to be the last of the posts about my 9 to 5 socks.  I don’t want to bombard you with tons of posts about this pattern!

I’ve had some questions about modifications to the 9 to 5 socks and I wanted to share my suggestions with you.  What follows is also in a clever and pretty PDF document here, just in case you want to print it out. (Those who’ve surfed here can find the post about this pattern here.)

 For a Smaller Sock or a slightly thicker yarn:
Change the number of stitches you cast on to 60.  Redistribute the stitches so that you have 18 stitches on N1, 12 sts on N2, 18 sts on N3 and 12 sts on N4 and work according to the pattern.  Before you begin the heel flap, move stitches as directed in original pattern so that you have 17 sts on N1, 13 sts on N2, 17 sts on N3 and 13 sts on N4.  When working Row one of the heel flap, work the same, except only work the *K1 Sl 1 wyif* portion only 9 times.  To do the heel turn, work the first row as follows:  Knit 14 sts, ssk, k1 turn. Work the remainder of the heel turn as written.  On the round preceding the gusset, work as written, but only twist the stitches that you picked up from the sides of the heel flap.  Work the rest of the sock as written, shortening the sock as necessary.

For a larger sock:
As written in the pattern, the sock has a lot of stretch to it.  If you feel like you need to make the sock larger, add a pattern repeat to the top of the foot.  Cast on 78 stitches.  Redistribute the stitches so that you have 18 sts on N1, 24 sts on N2, 18 sts on N3, and 18 sts on N4 and work the sock according to the pattern.  Before you begin the heel clap, redistribute the sts so that you have 17 sts on N1, 25 sts on N2, 17 sts of N3 and 19 sts on N4.  Work the heel flap as written, lengthening as necessary, picking up an appropriate number of heel stitches when preparing to work the gusset.  Work the rest of the sock as written, lengthening as necessary.

Other ideas for modification:

Allergic to wool?
The sock is worked in a thinner fingering weight sock yarn and so substitutions should be of a similar weight if you intend to work the original pattern.  You can also use a slightly thicker sock yarn (maybe something like Cascade Fixation) and work the pattern modification for the smaller sock.  Gauge is almost everything here.  If you get gauge and you like the yarn, use it.  Also, this pattern really is VERY stretchy and so it can be very forgiving with sizing issues or problems.

What about those # 1.5 US needles?
If you’re looking for needles of that size, you can find them in most yarn stores that have a wide variety of needles.  Knitpicks.com has also started carrying the size.  I liked them for this pattern because it wasn’t much smaller than the US 2s that I’m used too – but not quite so thin and scary as US 1s.  Remember, needle size is less important than gauge – and again, gauge is only almost everything with this pattern – it’s very forgiving with sizing because of it’s stretch.

What about yarns that aren’t a solid color?  Variegateds and hand-dyes?
Try it!  I used a solid yarn because I knew it would photograph well so that I could properly show off the pattern.  I can imagine that the sock would look amazing in an almost-solid color – something that is kettle-dyed and is subtle tones and shades of the same color.

More questions?
Shoot me an email.  My email address is nicole.hindes@gmail.com . You can also come back to the blog at allbuttonedup.wordpress.com.

9 to 5 socks, Pattern Support

Heya! I can’t believe how many of you have downloaded the Nine to Five socks! The number astounds me and goes way higher than I could have predicted!

A few of you are having trouble with the download. If you’re having trouble, my advice is basically to click the link (in the post below) and accept the copyright information and walk away from your computer for a few minutes (more if your computer or connection is slow). The document is 3 pages, so it could take short bit to download.

Also, a few people have asked about the twist stitch described in the pattern. It’s kind of a hard thing to describe with words… so I present to you the following video!! Let me know if you like this and think that this kind of thing would be helpful in the future!

workin’ “9 to 5…” (A Free Pattern)

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Quit ‘cher belly achin’!

Now, I ain’t one to sit around and bitch. That’s just not my style. Case in point:

The Walker Treasury Project. Yea, yea, the small black and white photos suck. But now, we can all work together and come up with a better solution. It’s teamwork darlins!

But now last night, I was knitting myself a dish towel. Something kitchy, somethin’ so ugly in color choices that only a mother could love ‘er. The stitch pattern that I picked out was from Barbara Walker’s Treasury of Knitting Patterns. It was a good pattern, but it was a 12 row repeat. And the gol’ dang book kept flippin’ flipping closed on me.

Luckily, the pattern was pretty basic and after 2 rows I kinda figured out what I was doin’.

But still, the frustration demanded I do something about it. Behold:

One of those things is not like the other!

What a perfect fix -and why havne’t I seen this before – I’d have done it long ago!

The details:

1. Call up your local copy shop. Mine was in the library of my college. Ask them if they could take a soft cover book and make it spiral bound for you. If they say yes, you’re in luck!
2. Take them your book. Have faith that they are not going to ruin it. That they are professionals. Know that when your book is returned to you, it will be way more useful to you than before.
3. Walk away if you are weak. If you are strong (or curious, like I was) then watch as they chop the spine off the book. Gaze as they drill the holes along the spine (only a few pages at a time here). Look with wonderment as they spin a spiral through the holes – and make your book whole again!
4. Pay. This cost me $3.60 – seriously. I do not know why I didn’t do this sooner.

Next up: My second treasury and my Knitter’s Handbook (which I never use because it never stays open!!!)

Needle Felting. A Tutorial!

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I’m sorry.  But I’m changing  blog locations.  Please click here to find the post you were looking for.

And please, excuse the mess when you get there!