Socks for husband

I always have some small projects going while working with big ones. These socks for my husband are finished now.


Yarn: Raggi. I love that yarn for socks. It really keeps its shape after washing.

/Maia

Guest socks

Another pair of socks. Yarn: Novita 7 bröder. I think I know why the yoyo heel always gets so funny. It is because I use too fat pins.


These socks will go in the hall for guests with frozen feer.

/Maia

Socks for Mum

At last I made a pair of socks for myself. Drops Alaska.

Merry Christmas Day in the armchair to me! And god fortsättning (merry continuation of Christmas) to all of you!



/Maia

Lost in sock knitting

As you see I am stuck in sock knitting. Totally. Working with the magic loop knitting a sock goes so fast and working with different kinds of yarn and sometimes lace is so nice.

I am still struggling with the heels though (I accidentally wrote hells instead of heels. There's a Freudian slip for you!). The hourglass heel with its slips and wraps did not give the nice flat heel I wanted, and I really do not want to get into the different kinds of heels with rectangular flaps. I don't think they look nice.

So when I knit some rough socks in Drops Andes (I cast on 28) and the wrap and slip and knit together short row heel left the socks with big holes – again! – I went googling and found the Jo-Jo Heel which gives a better look.

But even with this technique a heel with a yarn this thick is not perfectly tight. I mean, the whole sock is not that very smooth and tight, so the heel can't be better than the rest of the sock. I am fairly satisfied with the heel though.

Here's another attempt, with a Järbo Raggi yarn.

So what you basically do is turn at the end of each short row and then you slip the last stitch you made and pull the yarn over it so that you get a double stitch on the right pin. You go on like that, but when you are supposed to turn the heel you make two rounds all around the sock before you actually turn. 

After that you will have to create these double stitches again while expanding the heel.  I understand if you don't understand. This is not meant as an instruction (maybe I will get to that later), but more as a taste of where the difference lies.

This technique has many names, Jo-Jo or Yo-Yo heel (silly name, since there are no YOs, no Yarn Overs) or Double stitch short row, but there is also a variant called Boomerang heel that I will try with my next pair of socks.

/Maia

Hourglass heel III

Last update on the hourglass heels. I sat knitting for hours today watching season I of Lark Rise to Candleford on YouTube!

Here they are. The second sock has two good sides, so as a total the socks have three good sides. Not too shabby for me.



The yarn is Järbo Raggi Batik, colour 1522. As the toe of the first sock was blue, the top of the next was also blue and it looks a bit like I have knitted the second sock from the bottom and up. Which I haven't.

As soon as I finished these little pilot project socks I started a new pair for my youngest daughter. Red yarn. Gull wing lace in the front. I'll get back to you on that project.

/Maia

Hourglass heel II

So... I thought I'd managed to understand the hourglass heel. And I went on knitting pretty much in the dark and felt very proud of myself. Until I turned on the lights and saw that there was a row of holes in the diagonal. Fail.

I went to sleep and woke up about half past three in the night. We have had an Indian summer the last couple of days and the heat was unbearable. So of course I went about googling and thought I found the answer.

When turning the heel I needed to include both of the rounds of yarn that I had put around the slipped stitch. If you have never made an hourglass heel, read the instructions I linked to in the last post.

And now it turned out OK. Not gorgeous, but OK. And, at least on the one side.

OK.

On the other side I must have turned the stitches the wrong way, see below. But I have one more sock to go, so this time I considered the work good enough and did not frog it.

Good enough.

/Maia

Hourglass heel

It's been a while. I know.

And I will try to be better in updating the blog. I will. Really I will.

Today I just want to mention that I am trying to knit a pair of socks. With hourglass heels. I really did not want any other kind of heels. And I really didn't want hourglass heels with a row of ugly holes. So at last, after searching the internet and trying again and again I finally think I've got it.

Check out the tutorial here:

http://www.ehow.com/how_10054252_knit-socks-hourglass-heels.html

...and stay posted. I will post some photos soon.

/Maia