Back to Socks

After several weeks' break, I've started a pair of socks - another pair for Mother. I'm using the "Move Your F@nny" pattern from the Socktopia blog as first seen [by me] on Kathy's blog. These will count as my July Socks for SAM3.

I like to read the patterns through first and was puzzled by the instructions for the heel that read: "sskWSL...." The explanation that followed probably would have been OK... IF I had read them At the Point of Need. But, I was reading ahead. Trying to get it all figured out before I got there. Probably not such a good idea.

I sent a "need HELP" email to Kathy and continued to knit the stst leg/ankle part. And by the time I was At the Point of Need, she had replied :-) Thank you, Kathy, for the advice! You're a life saver again! Here's a photo - with sock at the ready to work on the instep sts again. I got about an inch through the K1,P1 arch ribbing before calling it a night.

The yarn is KnitPicks Memories, 100% Merino in Redwood Forest. The pattern calls for 2 circs. Your eyes aren't fooling you, I'm not using 2 circs. When I ordered the yarn [which I meant for a different pattern], I also ordered 2 circs [size 2US/3mm] This pattern calls for a 8 sts/inch gauge. Not gonna happen with this yarn on 3mm needles. So I switched to my bamboo 1.5 [US]/2.5mm dpns and I'm getting the prescribed gauge.

No modifications to the pattern [other than the needles.]

Also in my last KnitPicks order, 2 hanks of Memories - Cape Cod [also from the clearance rack]:
Hmmm. Colors are a bit washed out. And now you know that I don't have a yarn winder system. Do it by hand. Fairly respectable little cake. And it pulls out nicely from the center. My Gran [GG] taught me how to do that early on. She was such a pro that her cakes were flat on the bottom. Mine are almost flat - flat enough they don't roll away.

That's how they knit in the Old Country

I'd visit GG & take my knitting along. She'd show me new stitches...give me tips about reading patterns...etc. I remember asking her, "GG, why don't we knit like other people?" Her answer was, "That's how they knit in the Old Country." I must have said, "Oh" and never gave it another thought. Not until I got into genealogy, that is.

WHAT Old Country? ALL of GG's ancestors were in North America more than 250 years ago and before they came to North America they were all from the British Isles.

I decided to do some research about knitting in the Old Country and discovered that GG taught me to do Continental knitting. Thank you, GG! I apologize to any "English/American" style knitter who might find their way to this post, but I can't imagine WHY anyone would do the English style. It looks like so much hard work. And it must take forever to get anything done. GG's Old Country style of knitting goes very quickly and the stitches are uniform.

I'll never know who taught GG to knit. It wasn't her mother, that I do know. Maybe it was her mother-in-law, KK, who DID come from the Old Country [Prussia.] I'd like to think that, because then I'd be knitting just like great-grandma KK!

How I Came to be a Knitter

It's all Grandma's fault. [Thanks GG!] When I was growing up we lived next door to GG. She was always creating something. She sewed, she crocheted, she knit [and when she got older she did plastic canvas things.] I don't know exactly when I was converted to knitting and crocheting, or even which came first. But, it was long, long ago.

GG started me off with scarves and knit caps. I quickly progressed to sweaters, doll clothes, and eventually baby clothes for my niece & nephew. [But never socks.] Here is a photo of one of my "masterpieces" - an Aran sweater/jacket that I did when I was a teenager. Of course, I didn't know that Aran sweaters aren't usually in gold. But, it was knit in THAT decade [the gold/olive one.]