Looking for New Pathways for Sock Knitters

I've been inspired to knit socks by the book Socks, socks, socks. But not from that book, at least not yet.  After some wandering around the sock universe at ravelry and knitting blogs I've got my mind set on Cat Bordhi's new sock knitting architectures. Needless to say I've been tracking down her book New Pathways for Sock Knitters (book 1). My place to go for quickly delivered cheap books, the Book Depository, is of no help this time. The cheapest new one I've found so far would cost me around 30 euros with shipping, so I'm still thinking it through. 

However, I found out that one of Bordhi's new master sock patterns is available for free. And it's the one that initially interested me the most, as well, the Coriolis sock pattern! I found the pattern late last night and cast on a while ago. I've misplaced the needles I need for the project, as well as my knitting markers (the 4 or so I own) so frustration is not far away now; I've only been able to knit the beginning garter stitch square. I read through the directions and they seem somewhat complicated but I'm sure that I'll be able to figure them out. And the inch measurements, it annoys me to no end that measurements are only given in inches. But I was lucky that I found the yarn called for, Austermann Step, from my stash. (That is a first!) I'm excited since not only will I a) knit socks for the first time in 10 years, and second time overall b) try the magic loop technique and c) try something pretty much revolutionary in the knitting world. 

I'm sure that I'll end up buying the book at some point. I believe that the book is just the kind of knitting book I prefer. Revolutionary ideas and a good variation of ideas for applying them in different projects. 

A break from knitting related things... and all other things

The reason for my long pause in blogging is that I had to go to the hospital and spend over a week there, recovering from first a simple gall bladder surgery and after that from pneumonia. The only knitting related thought I had was that someone could knit gloves that would allow one to warm the hand attached to an intravenous drip. I.e. my left hand was cold after being given both antibiotics and 'liquid nutrition' through a drip. 

Here are my hands before the operation: 

The drip was really not that pleasant all the time. I have very bony hands so they had to put it closer to my wrist. 

Here are the fantastic anti-embolism socks they put on me before the operation and that I had to wear for 2 days: 

Truly functional knitting! 

I'm slowly coming back to knitting, mostly by reading the books Socks, socks, socks (edited by Elaine Rowley) and Folk knitting in Estonia by Nancy Bush. The former has sock ideas collected in a competition. I'm thrilled that there are some really original patterns such as "Freeform socks" and "Maple Swirl Socks", both by Debbie New (I have her book Unexpected knitting, a true masterpiece). The 70 patterns cover many  knitting techniques (double knitting, entrelac, intarsia in the round etc.). I'm actually considering buying this book, something I really rarely do if the most a book has to offer are patterns. But there is definitely more than meets the eye in these socks. Folk knitting in Estonia has some new techniques for me, and I'm mostly reading it for them. Not to say that the patterns aren't beautiful, they are, and actually the librarian who gave me the book told me so as well! I feel rather stupid to notice that joining after casting on for knitting in the round is a special technique. I'll definitely start to 'join' my cast ons from now on. The wick decreases and braids are also new for me. 

A finished cowl! - or "neckwarmer with holsters"

After a few days' knitting the "3d cowl" (what a stupid name, I'm thinking...) is "finished". I'll rename this project, perhaps I'll call it "neckwarmer with holsters" for now. I really made the finishing rather badly because I'm mainly interested in presenting the final object at ravelry. And maybe, if people want, I will make this project into a pattern. I'm satisfied with the look of my double knit (not real double knitting, mind you, just 2 layers of stockinette - the middle was knit in the round and the beginning and ending areas were a stockinette strip that I folded onto itself by using a 3-needle bind off) areas but they were difficult to make. I can't imagine anyone wanting to do the same so if I make this into a pattern I'll rethink those areas. As it was, I yo'd after every stitch on the row I wanted to start the double knitting and put those loops on another circular needle on the next row. But having the circs in the knitting meant that it was difficult to knit, and the stitches on the double start row were looser than on the other rows. Really it would be best to use scrap yarn to hold the additional stitches... I'll think about it.

My explanations are probably rather difficult to understand, but here is a picture of the finished cowl. I'll post it to ravelry in a while - can't wait for comments, if anyone finds it... 

And an artsyfartsy photo for those who can appreciate a dirty mirror ;) 

More 3d cowl

I've been knitting the 3d cowl today and yesterday. At the moment I really hate the knitting but I'm satisfied with the first group of holsters. I found cunning ways to keep the lines of knit stitches uninterrupted by bind off loops, but I couldn't fathom similar solutions for the second group of holsters. That's why I'm mad at it at the moment. But here is a progress shot. 

And around the neck, a bit later... 

The cowl does look okay, I think. And I'm sure that writing the pattern will be a lot of fun even if I'm not satisfied with every detail of the finished cowl. I'm actually waiting the task of finding ways to express the design as clearly and efficiently as possible. One of the ideas I have is to take photos or draw pictures of the 'cunning ways' I devised. As a test we took some photos with the bf, here is a sample:

 (I'm thinking that drawn pictures would be clearer. Here I am twisting 2 stitches before purling them together.) 

I also went and bought some yarn today. 

Very basic types, some more 7 veljestä for the cowl and some Gjestal Maija and Novita Florica yarns for yet another cowl I'm planning. It's called a harvest cowl and it will have many colours and fall-inspired images. I think that I'll swatch for that project next. The "kohokuviokauluri" idea is still resting, I guess that I'll come back to it rather soon... 

Progress on the 3d cowl

Last night I finally continued work on my 3d cowl. I had knitted the row that connects the live stitches with the ones left by the cast on, but since I had a better idea on how to bind off the stitches for the holsters I unraveled nearly the whole connecting row (with 160 * 2 stitches it was no walk in the park). Then I bound off the stitches in the pattern and continued with the holsters. The knitting feels like it goes unbearably slowly, but I'm actually already on the 11th row of the holsters. The holsters with their reverse stockinette stitch are not quickly knit - I'm wondering if I could substitute the reverse stockinette with garter stitch for easy knitting. But I think that the garter stitch wouldn't curl and form the holster shape (I'm using the world holster because I got the pattern idea from Nicky Epstein's Knitting over the edge holsters stitch pattern) as needed. 

Before that I finally chose to make the holsters with holes in the bottom and at the end (i.e. create separate stitches for the holsters); now I'm, not surprisingly, doubting whether it was a good decision. But I'll knit this version as it is now and see if I want to include other options in the pattern. 

I measured the cowl, the gauge in the swatch and this full-sized version is almost the same, lucky me. I counted that my 72cm edge will take 142 stitches; the width of those stitches in the knitted cowl is around 70cm. Not a significant difference in this kind of a project, I think. 

Last night was also special to me because I got a comment on the swatch for "kohokuviokauluri" at ravelry. "This is beautiful" is a lot to say about a preliminary swatch, I think. I almost feel stressed about the comment; someone is willing to bet on the beauty of my project before the idea is even complete in my head. I have really only just drawn a simple incomplete picture and tested a few ideas with the swatch... now I feel that I really need to produce a beautiful knitted article. Not that that wouldn't have been my goal before. 

After the last post I've also learned the brioche stitch I couldn't understand. Not so after I found the website briochestitch.com. Their explanation was simple, and I realised that knitting brioche stitch is actually very easy. I liked the look and made a few swatches but the abundant explanations and examples at the site intimidated me a bit. It is a wonderfully rich knitting resource! I'm researching the idea of "gathering", I'd like to create something knitted with lovely layers... This is still a very vague idea, one that I'm juggling among all the others. It seems that that is how I work: many ideas and projects going on at once, some progressing every now and then. 

It is somehow weird to do all this knitting-related stuff. Some people around me are actually starting to think that planning knits is what I do. Today I saw a nurse I meet a few times a month and she told me that I get an excited glow when I talk about my knitting projects. I'm thinking that she's trying to flatter me, but maybe I like it...