Done: Dissonance Socks

Such a mean name for such pretty socks.

It's not a judgement on the socks. It's a reflection of what was going on when I started them.

Well, it's a bit of a judgement on them, too.

I started these on our trip home from California. The day started with a delayed flight out of San Francisco. We weren't worried about it because our connecting flight had already been changed to a later departure and then delayed so we had time to make the connection.

But we ended up missing the connection anyway, being redirected through Midway, spent the night in the airport, and got home the following morning. Twenty-four hours after we'd first set off for home.

See? Conflict and discomfort were the rule of the day.

I got a lot of knitting done on the sock with the blue leg in those 24 hours.

I had debated making them punky distressed socks with random yarn overs and patches of ribbing, but I came to my sense before I implemented that plan.

Really, I like my socks to match. I would have tried to make the patterns match. That probably wouldn't have worked out and would if it had worked out it would have defeated the purpose of the "dissonance" name.

So I went straight stockinette. There was enough stress going on without getting freaky with my knitting.

Feeling Lightheaded
However, in honor of the whole dissonance thing, and contrary to me need to have matching socks, as soon as the first one finished I cast on for the second.

I went with the flow of the Noro Silk Garden Sock colors.

I did not reel out yarn trying to find the correct point in the color pattern for them to match.

This made me feel a little uncomfortable.

As you can see, until I got to the ankle of the second sock (the one with the red leg) there was really no relation between them color-wise at all.

In case you're wondering, yes, I did seriously consider starting the second sock over and making them match.

But I fought the urge. There was already a lot of knitting time invested in that sock and it would have been a shame to waste it.

In the end I persevered and finished them as is. They are still a bit jarring to look at, in my opinion.

But I guess that's the point.

Epic, ASJ: Like Potato Chips

I can't stop knitting it!

I'm totally obsessed and don't want to stop. In fact the only reason I'm blogging is because I don't want to get to far behind and one of my yarns is giving me gauge issue. (More on that later.)

Changing yarns every 10 rows was totally the right decision. I think that is part of the reason I can't put it down. Another reason, of course, is all the pretty yarn I'm using. Finally, it's a simple enough pattern.

In The Morning Light
I have to admit, I did not feel this way when I started. I lost a little momentum with the stealth knitting I had to do. This caused me to cast on the ASJ and put it aside for two days.

When I finally started knitting on Friday it was a rainy, gloomy day. We were watching TV so the living room wasn't well lit. And I was working with dark yarn and couldn't see the color changes very well.

This combined to cause me to think, "Ho hum. Miles of garter stitch. What have I gotten myself into." I knit around 20 rows, two yarns, before bed.

Saturday morning brought some weak sunshine. The pups and I trooped out to the porch to get a picture of my progress and BAM! I fell in love.

Look at how well those colors go together. In the dark living room they looked the same, but in the sunlight I could see the contrast.

The sunlight also revealed the color changes in the Noro that are in addition to the color changes I'm making by switching yarn. It all became very exciting.

So in the pictures the outside edge is Noro Kogarashi. This new yarn comes in 10 colors and is a blend of 51% silk and 49% wool. I have #10—Purple, Turquoise, Hot Pink. Like most Noro yarns it has a rustic feel to the structure, which brings out the softness of the silk without out any of the crunchiness. I like soft silk yarn and I like crunchy silk yarn, so this totally works for me. Since it's the start of my Adult Surprise Jacket the rows are longer and are almost drawing each color change out in separate sections.

The second yarn is Queensland Collection Sandstone. Another new yarn, this 53% Wool 47% Acrylic blend comes in eight colors. I'm using #8—Pale Peach, Hunter. This loosely spun yarn is composed of multiple strands of (at least) three different colors plied together. In this case it's green, tan, and brown. Since all three colors are throughout the ball the color has interest and depth without abrupt changes. The yarn structure also goes a little bit thick and thin, but it leveled out nicely in my sweater. The smoothness of it was a nice contrast to the rustic Noro as I was knitting.

Racing Along
As you can see in the first picture, I was already plunging into my third ball of yarn. In fact, as I write this I'm ready to start my fifth ball already.

That isn't the best picture, I took it with my cell phone. Don't worry, I'm sure there will be more pictures before I'm done.

The third yarn, right after the green Sandstone, is Noro Kochoran in color #83—Black, Purple, Burgandy. You might be familiar with this 50% Wool, 30% Angora, and 20% Silk blend yarn since it is already on the market. My color is one of six new colors introduced this season. It introduced a sudden bright spot to lighten up the jacket. The fuzz of the angora also livened it up with a new texture. Once again, the length of my rows brought the colors up in blocks, adding more variety to my stripes.

I like the black stripe, which I wasn't expecting, and think it and the following salt-and-pepper stripe make and interesting segue into the Queensland Collection Mist, which is the last yarn I knit. This new yarn is a 60% Wool, 40% Acrylic blend that comes in eight colors. I'm using color #2-Denim. Later in this sweater I'll be using #7 - Soft Turquoise and I have a ball of #5 - Tropical Brights squirreled away for the top-down sweater I'm going to make in shades of red.

Anyway. Mist is another softly spun yarn with a thick and thin texture. The size variation is much more than that found in the Sandstone. In fact, working with them side by side like this, I'd call the Mist slubby. The color variation that you see is caused by two strands—a shiny one and a matte one—that both shade from white to dark blue. It's very pretty and makes me curious to see what the other colorways are going to do. Because of the greater difference in the size between the thick and thin portions, and the shortening length of my rows, there is an interesting texture to the Mist section. The thick/thin portions lined up in little parallelograms.
Happily, it's not effecting my gauge.

Change Is The Spice of Knitting?
I instituted changing yarns every tenth row in order to blend the colors a little better and not end up with sleeves a totally different color from the body of the sweater. The unforeseen benefit is the excitement this adds to the process.

Before I have a chance to even think about getting tired of a yarn it's time to change! At this point every yarn is new and interesting. As I continue and they start repeating they will remain fresh. It's totally keeping me awake.

The shaping in the pattern is helping as well. This pattern is making me realize I really like those visual clues about my progress. That is probably one of the reasons I like socks so much and get bored with scarves so quickly.

A scarf is just one endless continuation of the same pattern with little indication of how far you've come and how much further you need to go. A sock, however, has all those turns and bends. This many rows of ribbing, this length for the leg, then on to the exciting heel flap and turn, and finally coast down the gusset to the toe. Socks are just riddled with landmarks.

Well, so is the ASJ, so far. I have to decrease at each marked point until I've decreased away 80 sts total. Combined with my color changes every 10 rows it's fairly easy to track my progress. wheeee!

Check back on me in a few days when all the decreasing and increasing is done and I'm just knitting straight on the central flap. We'll see how quickly my tune has changed.

Stalled
But I have to over come a little hurdle before I get there.

The next yarn in line is Elsebeth Lavold's new Silky Wool XL. I was looking forward to using this 80% Wool and 20% Silk blend since I have some of the original DK version. Also, the deep purple color, which is #11 out of 12, was going to return me to the darker shades I'd started with.

But my gauge is off. The ball band says you can get from 3.75 to 4.5 stitches per inch depending on your needle. I'm sticking with the US10 I've been using all along and got 4 sts/inch. The only reason I stopped to swatch was because the yarn felt thinner than the others I'd been using. On it's own I think the yarn at this gauge would be fine, although I personally would probably go for a little smaller gauge for a straight sweater. However, in combination with my other yarns I'm afraid it will make a thin spot in my ASJ.

If I drop it entirely I'll be down 100 yards of yarn, which could cause issues later on. Well, I guess I'd have to make the body and sleeves a little shorter. My other option is to review my other sample balls and substitute one of them in it's place. I have a Sandstone in #4—Blue, Red, which I had allocated to the top-down sweater. I could use it here instead, but it has less yardage.

Decisions, decisions. I think I'll swatch with the Silky Wool held doubled to see if I get gauge. If it works it will reduce my yardage, but it will also cause less disruption to my plans.

Done: Kureyon Hat

Did you notice how close my hat was to being done in my post yesterday?

Well, I finished it!

It only took seven days. Well, it took 15 days if you count my, ahem, swatch. giggle But in general it was a quick knit.

Recap
The pattern is the Ribbed Cap from Vogue Knitting.
It takes one skein of Noro Kureyon.
US 8 needles.
My color #264 - Hot Pink, Lilac, Brown, Purple.

Of course, it's not like I actually followed the pattern. As I said yesterday, when I followed the pattern it was too big, so I cast on 80 sts and worked it in the round. I also worked the I-Cord only until it was long enough for one knot, not two.

I'm rather pleased with it. I think it's cute and fits well. And who can argue with such a quick project?

The only sad thing is that when I made it smaller it used less yarn and so the fun hot pink part didn't make it in.

Oh well, now I have a fun scrap to add to my scrap collection.

Kureyon First
I should mention this is the first time I've used Kureyon.

Oh, sure, I always admired the Noro yarns when I worked at Knitting Central and then Westport Yarns. The colors were so interesting and some of the yarns had such interesting textures. Despite that I tended to shy away from them.

I'm a bit sensative to wool. Some wool yarns make my hands tingle like they've fallen asleep, it's the weirdest thing. I've noticed the less processed yarns seem to give me more trouble. I don't know if it's the lanolin, the dyes, the setting agents or what. Some of the Noro yarns feel a bit crunchy in the skein. I've heard they soften up with use, but didn't want to risk it if my hands would go numb.

I'm happy to report I didn't have any problems at all with the Kureyon!

I'm very excited about this for many reasons. Mainly because I have several sample balls of Noro yarns to work with and it would really suck if I had to pretend they don't exist or somehow power through an allergic reaction.

Since receiving the sample yarn I've been educating myself about the different brands.

In checking out the Noro website I learned the yarn is minimally machine processed. They do as much as possilbe by hand. They also use the minimum amount of chemicals they can. So it's an eco-friendly wool. I think you can really see the human touch in the rustic texture of the yarn.

Now that I'm over my fear I think my next project using Noro yarn will be the Shrug This from the first One-Skein Wonders book out of Kochoran.

But first, I should probably finish my Skew (Indulgent) Socks, or one of the other seven works in progress I have on the go!

Hat and Again

I suppose what I should be blogging about is mom and my adventures at Rhinebeck over the weekend, but I'm not in the mood.

I did, however, upload pictures of my new yarn to my "Yarn Hoard" set on Flicker, so you can bounce over there for a sneak peek if you want.

Actually what I should be doing is working on the article I'm supposed to be writing that is due this week, but I'm deep into denial and procrastination. Of course making some progress on it might improve my mood.

Anyway.

Hat Take 1
Having failed at all of my pre-Rhinebeck knitting goals--finishing the Celtic Critter Cardigan in time to wear it, finishing any project with any Rhinebeck 2009 yarn in time to wear it, finishing a project with gift yarn from my CT friends--I decided that maybe I can have a new hat to wear.

Hats are small, right?

To that end I busted out the sample skein of Noro Kureyon I have in color #264, which is one of the new colors this year.

My orginal plan for this skein was to work a square from the Lizard Ridge blanket from Knitty Fall 06 for my Swatchy Blanket. I saw Pam's square and was enchanted.

Then I forgot that idea and instead remembered Vogue Knitting had a free one-skein hat pattern, which sounded like a fabulous idea since the Lizard Ridge blanket was a distant, pre-move idea.

The Evil of Gauge
Maybe my issues aren't gauge's fault. Maybe they are my own fault for not swatching. But that admission would be taking responsability, and heaven forbid I do that.

After all, it's a hat! By the time I swatched I'd be half way done.

So instead I just plunged in and started knitting.

Here's a tip that I might have shared in the past. If you are casting on a large number of stitches using the long-tail method, say over 100, instead of trying to guess how long of a tail to leave, tie two balls (or the two ends of one ball) together and use that knot as an anchor in place of a slip knot.

One strand acts as your tail. The other is your working yarn. You can cast on blissfully without worrying about running out. Then when you have enough stitches snip the "tail" strand and off you go.

In a case like the Kureyon yarn where each end of the ball is a different color designating a "tail" strand is more important. I decided to make the pink the tail (so it hung in front as I cast on) as I thought the contrasting rim would be cute. Also, the purple was coming from the inside of the ball and I prefer to pull my yarn from the inside.

If I had let the pink hang in back and still designated the purple as my "working" yarn my rim would have been purple, my first row would have been pink, and my second row and on would have been purple. That seemed like an interesting option as well, but I decided to be boring.

As you can see, careful consideration must be given when casting on with two different colors.

Anyway.

After a week of industrious knitting the hat was almost finished and I was rather excited that I'd meet a Rhinebeck knitting goal.

Disaster Strikes
At which point things started to go wrong.

First I ran out of yarn.

I found this hysterical since it's a one skein hat and the yardage hasn't changed. This made me decide to finally check my gauge and it was indeed off.

Since I was going to have to rework the hat anyway I decided to try it on for fit.

As you can see in the picture above it's a little too big.

First I whipped stitched it shut properly (edge to edge) and found it was baggy.

Then I choked it down by 16 stitches. I was going to just fold it over and whip stitch it, but I realized the extra fabric would skew the fit so I attached the edge to the interior so the extra flap would be on the outside. (That's the picture.)

Although the fit was greatly improved, it was still a little too big. I probably could have worn it, but I realized that if I washed it, or it otherwise stretched, it would be unpleasantly baggy.

So I choked it down to 80 sts and it seemed just right.

Since I was starting from scratch anyway, I decided to work the dang thing in the round this time. A hat worked flat might be good for a beginner knitter, but for an experienced one like myself who doesn't mind working on double points, it just requires unnecessary finishing.

Of course this meant that another Rhinebeck knitting goal had fallen by the wayside. On the other hand, I had a small project to take with me.

(Look! I'm covered in Noro!)

Hat Take 2
I'm chugging along on this new version.

Since I'm a slow learner I once again didn't do a gauge swatch. I figure the first hat counts as my swatch.

I don't expect my gauge to have changed because I'm still working in ribbing, so I don't have that no-purl-because-I'm-working-in-the-round issue to worry about. Also, I've gone from my plastic Denise Interchangable Needles to my bamboo dpns and expect them to have the same amount of drag.

I should be safe. As you can see in the picture the fit seems to be much better.

Soon. Soon I will have a new hat!