Starting Smaug's Treasure Socks
One project finished - one more started! I didn't waste any time getting out my small needles and prepare to cast on the Smaug's Treasure socks. As usual, that's when the fun started!
Here's a picture of the page in the Friendly Socks book (Volume 1) and my cake of handspun - all ready to go. I will pause to comment that I am still struggling on the learning curve with this new camera. It seems to think every picture needs the flash... sigh! Anyways, I read through the pattern very thoroughly and discovered - predictably - that it is written for a cuff-down knit. Hmmmm.... well, you can always teach an old dog new tricks - but - I am using handpun - ie; no ball band so I will be fiddling to sort out the needle size to start with, never mind swatching to decide how many stitches to cast on so the sock will fit. Ugh!
I will pause again to remind everyone the title of this blog is Chronicles of the LAZY Knitter. I do NOT knit tension swatches for socks - not with commercial yarn, not with handspun - never! The pattern is written using US 2 ( 2.75mm needles) so I though heck! Why not? And cast on 64 stitches for the cuff and began....
But the longer I knit the greater this nagging feeling got that this was all just horribly wrong to begin a complicated pattern like this - that I KNEW was going to demand a fair bit of time and effort - and HOPE it was going to fit. I am NOT going to do this twice! Out came the needles! Rip! Rip! Rip! (although I measured first and decided that the needle size was going to work fine).
I re-read the pattern and realized it didn't matter which direction the entrelac was knit since the instructions were for in-the-round and upside-down or right-side-up the entrelac would look the same. So I could make the socks in my usual toe-up way and increase as needed until the sock fit my foot - no swatching, no measuring and counting - simple and easy like lazy knits should be! Ha!
Next problem - find a suitable weight yarn to pair up with the handspun for the feet of the socks. I felt like a bit of a dope for not realizing I should have sorted this out first since I knew there wasn't enough handspun yardage to knit 2 whole socks. Digging through the "sock" stash (ie; yarns I would like to make socks from, not "real" sock yarns as I find they're too fine for the type of socks I like to make) I selected 2 likely candidates, both Supersock DK from Cherry Tree Hill. I wound them into cakes and decided to double strand (since it looked to me like a pretty THIN DK!) to try and match the weight of my handspun. I cast on the toe and knit about 2 inches (using the 2.75mm DPNs) and decided this would make deluxe cardboard socks - Rip! Rip! Rip! The second was no better! Rip! Rip! Rip!
Back to the stash bag! This time I had an intelligent brainwave - perhaps I should consider using yarn from the same Dyer because it was quite likely there would be similar color tones since she is a talented private crafter, not a commercial mill. Voila! One skein of superwash Merino dyed in Blue Bayou - a (true) DK weight that seems to be knitting up perfectly on the needles - a firm fabric that should wear well and the blues are indeed the same color values as the spinning top I had purchased from her! Thanks Susan!!
By this time I had spent four hours on this project. I had wound 4 cakes of yarn, knit 2 toes, taken multitudes of photos (with and without flash) and still had nothing of the intended project done! And I wonder where the time goes!! Sheesh!
Jump ahead another 2 hours and as I am knitting I realize I have forgotten how to make the toes and did all my increases right away instead of spread out so now the toe is a box not a wedge shape. Ask me how brilliant I am feeling! Will I rip this out too? Not likely. But now I have to remember what I did (I'd like to forget but remember every time I look at it! LOL!) and do the same to the second toe so they match! I think I will knit both feet first so they are identical and then tackle the entrelac. Apparently so much time has passed since I made socks that I can no longer be sure of what I'll get! But - I must say it feels pretty good to have them sitting beside me at my computer desk! It's been a while but I can usually get a few rounds done waiting for pages to load since we're on dial-up! So yes, I've missed having socks to knit! So I have pushed aside all trepidation and knit contentedly - there IS a big pleasure component to the project after all! LOL!!
Here's a picture of the page in the Friendly Socks book (Volume 1) and my cake of handspun - all ready to go. I will pause to comment that I am still struggling on the learning curve with this new camera. It seems to think every picture needs the flash... sigh! Anyways, I read through the pattern very thoroughly and discovered - predictably - that it is written for a cuff-down knit. Hmmmm.... well, you can always teach an old dog new tricks - but - I am using handpun - ie; no ball band so I will be fiddling to sort out the needle size to start with, never mind swatching to decide how many stitches to cast on so the sock will fit. Ugh!
I will pause again to remind everyone the title of this blog is Chronicles of the LAZY Knitter. I do NOT knit tension swatches for socks - not with commercial yarn, not with handspun - never! The pattern is written using US 2 ( 2.75mm needles) so I though heck! Why not? And cast on 64 stitches for the cuff and began....
But the longer I knit the greater this nagging feeling got that this was all just horribly wrong to begin a complicated pattern like this - that I KNEW was going to demand a fair bit of time and effort - and HOPE it was going to fit. I am NOT going to do this twice! Out came the needles! Rip! Rip! Rip! (although I measured first and decided that the needle size was going to work fine).
I re-read the pattern and realized it didn't matter which direction the entrelac was knit since the instructions were for in-the-round and upside-down or right-side-up the entrelac would look the same. So I could make the socks in my usual toe-up way and increase as needed until the sock fit my foot - no swatching, no measuring and counting - simple and easy like lazy knits should be! Ha!
Next problem - find a suitable weight yarn to pair up with the handspun for the feet of the socks. I felt like a bit of a dope for not realizing I should have sorted this out first since I knew there wasn't enough handspun yardage to knit 2 whole socks. Digging through the "sock" stash (ie; yarns I would like to make socks from, not "real" sock yarns as I find they're too fine for the type of socks I like to make) I selected 2 likely candidates, both Supersock DK from Cherry Tree Hill. I wound them into cakes and decided to double strand (since it looked to me like a pretty THIN DK!) to try and match the weight of my handspun. I cast on the toe and knit about 2 inches (using the 2.75mm DPNs) and decided this would make deluxe cardboard socks - Rip! Rip! Rip! The second was no better! Rip! Rip! Rip!
Back to the stash bag! This time I had an intelligent brainwave - perhaps I should consider using yarn from the same Dyer because it was quite likely there would be similar color tones since she is a talented private crafter, not a commercial mill. Voila! One skein of superwash Merino dyed in Blue Bayou - a (true) DK weight that seems to be knitting up perfectly on the needles - a firm fabric that should wear well and the blues are indeed the same color values as the spinning top I had purchased from her! Thanks Susan!!
By this time I had spent four hours on this project. I had wound 4 cakes of yarn, knit 2 toes, taken multitudes of photos (with and without flash) and still had nothing of the intended project done! And I wonder where the time goes!! Sheesh!
Jump ahead another 2 hours and as I am knitting I realize I have forgotten how to make the toes and did all my increases right away instead of spread out so now the toe is a box not a wedge shape. Ask me how brilliant I am feeling! Will I rip this out too? Not likely. But now I have to remember what I did (I'd like to forget but remember every time I look at it! LOL!) and do the same to the second toe so they match! I think I will knit both feet first so they are identical and then tackle the entrelac. Apparently so much time has passed since I made socks that I can no longer be sure of what I'll get! But - I must say it feels pretty good to have them sitting beside me at my computer desk! It's been a while but I can usually get a few rounds done waiting for pages to load since we're on dial-up! So yes, I've missed having socks to knit! So I have pushed aside all trepidation and knit contentedly - there IS a big pleasure component to the project after all! LOL!!
Wow - entrelac socks! I can hardly wait to see them! It was just plain luck that the DK and your handspun will work together but I'm glad that they will.
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Who knew there was so much thinking involved with knitting a sock! :o)
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