Freebie for mid gaugers

I was playing around with this nice sock yarn and decided that the LK-ers should have socks too - I thought they turned out pretty good - they are a little heavier (thicker) than I would wear with shoes but they are nice to wear around the house insteads of slippers or to wear with sport sandals - and there are a lot of good techniques for beginners! Try them out!
LK150 Socks
Ankle sock, knit flat, with heel and toe shortrowed. Stitches are grafted over top of toe. Seamed on one side to make a neat, one piece sock.
MACHINE: 6.5mm flat bed, sample made on Silver Reed LK150. 
Level - Beginner
YARN: Plymouth Yarns, Happy Feet DK,
90% superwash wool, 10% nylon; 100g/262 yds.
GAUGE: Stockinette, T3, 22 sts and 35 rows to 10 cm/4 inches.

SIZE: Ladies 7.5, med-wide foot. Adjust as necessary for your correct sizing.

LEFT FOOT
1. 26-0-26 n’s. Cast on waste yarn. T3, knit several rows, ending carriage at right. Ravel cord, K1R.
2. RC000. MC, hold 24" tail (use to seam side later), K19R, ending CAR.

3. Shape heel. Set to hold - russell levers both to l. Bring all left of 0 to D (hold position). RC000. Working on needles at right of 0 only, at carriage side, bring 1 needle to hold, K1R, 16X to 10 needles in work. RC016.

4. Reverse shaping. At side opposite carriage, return 1 needle to C (upper working position), K1R, 16X, ending CAR. RC032.

5. Cancel hold by returning russell levers to ll. Reset RC000. At centre, pick up heel stitch (purl bump of row below) from #1 left ( the held stitch) and hang on #1 right to fill in hole from shortrowing. K1R. All needles back in work. Knit to RC050 (or desired length), ending CAR.

6. Remove left side on waste yarn: set to hold. Remove MC and set aside without cutting. Place right of 0 to hold. Thread up waste yarn and K6-8R on left side and drop from machine.

7. Place carriage at right. Rethread MC and shape toe by repeating step 3 and 4. Measure out MC 4X width of needles in work to leave tail of MC (to graft toe) and remove on waste yarn.

To finish top with stockinette roll: rehang cast-on side, purl side facing. T2, K14R. T9, K1R. Chain off stitches.

To finish top with 1X1 rib: rehang cast-on side with knit side facing, have an uneven number of stitches. T3, K14R. T9, K1R. Drop every other stitch for 15 rows -down to the beginning of the knit stitches and reform with latch tool, then chain off - this will make a ribwise cast-off.

Make sock for right foot, opposite to above, exchanging right and left, so seams face each other on inside of foot.

Graft toe stitches.

Try my modified mattress stitch to seam sock. This makes a very neat, flat, almost invisible seam with no ridge inside. Thread yarn into bodkin. Working from knit side, go into half outside edge on one side, across to corresponding row on opposite side; move up one row on same side; across into stitch one row above previous stitch on same side; up one row on same side, across, etc. Or another way to put it, go from the knot on one side to the loop on opposite, up into the knot on same side, across to loop, etc.

To adjust for size, use one or two less stitches each side for a narrower width and  add/subtract 3 to 4 rows per half size in length before making the toe part.

Stuff...

I did get my ‘LSA’ finished and the button on - the one I thought was going to be the perfect one wasn’t - it was a bit too light in colour but I did have the perfect one, just didn’t remember it until I went to my button basket!

The original pattern was in KNITWORDS No 44, but I shortened the sleeve and didn’t add the cuff. The yoke is knit sideways and one sleeve is knit up and the other down so to get the same edge on the cast-on side as the cast-off side, I began the first one with waste yarn and then the end one had waste yarn also. To finish it, I used the main yarn doubled and e-wrapped the same number needles; hung the open stitches wrong side facing; pulled the open sts through; knit a loose row and chained off. Beautiful!

My daughter, Laura, was home for a few days and I can only say the reason I still have this cardi is because beige is not her colour, but she did place her order for one in black, along with a plain straight dress to match - good choice, girl! She’s looking for a new job and thought a dress with the long sleeve version would make a great interview outfit instead of the stuffy ‘old-lady’ suit she bought in desperation a couple of weeks ago which she said she’d never wear, but paid $1200 for - yikes!! I’ll do it in bits and bites and have it done in no time, once I get the yarn!

I have a friend’s birthday this weekend and it was a toss up what to make for a gift - a shopping bag or maybe a pair of socks?...I may have given her a shopping bag already, so I rooted through my sock yarn stash and found a ball of Fortissima Socka Mexiko Cotton Stretch - a 100g/460m ball in the right colours for her - it’s superwash wool, cotton, nylon and polyester and oh, they knit up nicely - using my circular sock pattern (it was in the handout packet at PPP) - I made the cuff only half the depth I usually do for winter socks and I’ll probably have a hard time giving these away - they are so nice - good thing she’s a good friend!

A new way to graft...

I was in San Francisco last month to teach a workshop - we all had a great time. I felt like a rock star - no, really - Betty rigged me up with a cordless headset microphone and it was wonderful. Usually at the end of 2 days of talking to a large group, my voice is stretched to the limit, but this was a piece of cake. Met some great people, had some great food, the weather was wonderful - a girl from Thunder Bay in the winter, can’t ask for much more than that!
We also did a one day hands-on ribber workshop, just making samples and learning cast-ons and stuff, finishing off with the making of my circular socks because it is a great way to learn a lot about your ribber. So in preparation for this, I had made a couple of pairs, to be ready to show the finishing, seaming the ribbed cuff and grafting the toe. Of course, in a one day workshop, things never get finished off anyway and I came home with 5 socks that needed grafting.
The sock is started off with 2X2 (2X1) ribbing that makes a nice stretchy, comfortable cuff. Then the stitches have to be re-hung for the circular portion of the heel and foot of the sock, ending with the toe being shaped with full fashioned decreases on each bed, to the point where 10 sts on each bed remain. This is taken off on waste yarn and hand grafted. The small opening and the multi-coloured sock yarn make it hard to find the edge stitches to begin the grating and I had missed the edge stitches on a couple, which you don’t see until the waste yarn is removed and leaves holes at the edges - not good... So after rehanging, fixing and reknitting a couple of times, I thought, there’s got to be a better way of doing this...so, I figured out how to do the grafting on the machine, without the waste yarn in the way to obscure the edge stitches. I think it works great - I wouldn’t want to do more that a small section like the toe, because usually hand grafting from waste yarn works well for me, but this method is foolproof, I think.
So, my sock pattern is in No 39 - try it out and then try this method of grafting:
Waste yarn, K16R. Release from machine. Sock will be right side out.
To graft on machine: turn sock inside out and bring tail of MC to this side. On main bed, hang one side and then hang second side on top of the other, right sides together, with tail of MC at right side. Remove the waste yarn.
Leaving sts on n’s, with tail of MC threaded in a darning needle, go through first front stitch (closest to you) from back to front.
Go though both sts on first needle back to front.
*Go front to back through front stitch on second needle and back stitch on first needle.
Then, back to front through both sts on second needle*.
Repeat * to * across, making each stitch snug but not too tight.
The spacing of the needles will help to keep sts even.
At left, go front to back on back stitch of last needle. Pull off and darn in end.
Ha! 2 Christmas presents down...

Happy feet

I just know you’re not going to believe what I did yesterday! We finished up No 49 on Sunday night and got it sent off to the printers. I had a bit of office work to occupy the morning and then I was wandering around trying to come up with something to do. I looked at all my yarn and tried to invent a project, but mostly on days like this, I find it hard to focus - kind of like after the sugar rush of putting all my energy into getting the magazine finished and now, what should I do?
I had gotten my bicycle out over the weekend, even though my back yard is still full of snow. So, I went for my second spin of the season - it felt good, in spite of my sore butt!!
So, back in the office, looking for something to get into - not that I really have nothing to do, but, again, the focus thing. What CAN I do??
Here’s the part, brace yourself - I re-knit some socks. Yes, you read right! MAO actually re-knit something! Now, don’t get too excited, I didn’t unravel and reknit - I actually had a couple of pairs of socks (KNITWORDS No 24; No 39) - double bed socks of nice, expensive sock yarn with worn-out holes in the toes and bottom of the feet - I couldn’t bear to throw them out, they were my favourites! Before Christmas, while cleaning out drawers and cupboards, I’d set these aside, promising myself I’d do something, but I really felt I was just prolonging the agony. The tops of the socks are still perfect, nicely ribbed in stretchy 2X2 rib - that part will never wear out. But the holes in the stockinette part - couldn’t even be darned if you even would think of that, which I wouldn’t.
I had leftovers of the same yarn and figured, why not? I cut off the sock, below the rib - it’s still in a circle and it was quite easy to follow a fairly straight line because of the colour changes of the self-patterning sock yarn. Picked out the bits of broken stitches and unravelled a whole row. Then, knowing exactly how many stitches, I hung the rib bed stitches first - this is the trickiest part. Then brought the ribber up and hung the main bed stitches. Threaded up the new yarn and whipped off the new foot - too simple.
Have your sock right side out - that’s the correct way for rehanging! Find the seam that was at the back of the leg and put that part in the centre of the main bed, same place where you are going to shape the heel.
I just thought this - my Dad used to wear ‘Happy Foot’ socks - now I have some!!