I finished my entry into the Ravelympics 2010 Sock Hockey event last night. It was a long haul, two solid weeks of knitting nothing but socks, but I made it before the closing ceremonies with time to spare.
I cast on during the opening ceremonies on February 12. (Okay, I was out for the evening and cast on during my lunch hour that day, but it still counts.) Each row had 72 stitches. There were 12 rows to the inch. Each sock is roughly 16 inches from cuff to toe. That works out to (sacre bleu!) a whopping 13,824 stitches per sock!
Using size 0 needles! When I go back to knitting the sweater I'm working on size 7 needles, they will feel like knitting logs.
I am wearing these Hawaii socks (so named by Lorna's Laces yarn and it seems to me extremely appropriate in this awful winter which isn't over yet) as I write and they are quite comfy in my Crocs slippers.
A technical conundrum: I grafted the toe on the first one and decided I hated grafting so much that I would try the three needle bind off on the second one. Hated that too. I found a third alternative in Knitty in an article extolling the virtues of just knitting the toe to about 8 or 10 stiches and then cinching it closed. A most elegant solution and one I will certainly try next time!
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Big Foot
Having read about and admired a knitting pattern for felted slippers, aptly titled French Press Felted Slippers, I decided to give it a try. This pattern is one of the cutest examples of felted footwear I've seen and I had to try it. I used wool that I reclaimed by raveling a sweater I purchased at the Salvation Army. A huge sweater. Size XL and a tunic style to boot. I have a gigantor ziploc bag full of skeins of wool from this sweater, and for these slippers I used only a small percentage. But, my felted slipper career is still just getting started...
Anyway, this is what the felted slippers look like before felting:
They look like something Sasquatch could wear.
But, after throwing them in the washing machine in a zippered pillowcase with some towels and hot water and detergent, and agitating for about 18 minutes, they came out looking like this:
Anyway, this is what the felted slippers look like before felting:
They look like something Sasquatch could wear.
But, after throwing them in the washing machine in a zippered pillowcase with some towels and hot water and detergent, and agitating for about 18 minutes, they came out looking like this:
Or this:
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