Dyad Socks

With the Dyad set, I finally opened up a little color into the equation. I don't have anything against socks in multiple colors. In fact, I really love them! But, with this book, I really wanted to have fun just exploring the different shapes possible when knitting. Deep playing around with color will have to wait for another day. 

I chose “dyad” as the name for these socks as a kind of reference to my thought process.
I wanted to explore the easiest way I know to make a two-color sock: one color for the heel and toe, and another for the rest of the sock. I was also eager to use a band heel and a toe to match.

In Sock Architecture, they are worked both from the top down and the toe up in five sizes, plus a plug-in-your numbers size.

Dyad Socks, Top Down

Why It's My Favorite: Working in color blocks is an easy way to add color and even stretch a leftover skein of yarn, if you don't have enough for an entire pair of socks! The sideways toe and the band heel look great together. They are both a bit unusual, but easier than they look.

Dyad Socks, Toe Up

Why It's My Favorite: The band heel is fun and can be worked with or without a gusset. I also love the sideways toe that matches it so well. The single line of contrasting color around the front of the foot is a little different, too.

Strie Socks

Strie means “stripe,” “groove,” or “gore” in French, so it seems like the perfect name for these very simple, garter-stitch-ribbed socks with French heels and wedge toes. In Sock Architecture, they are worked both from the top down and the toe up in five sizes, plus a plug-in-your numbers size.

Strie Socks, Top Down

Why It's My Favorite: For the experienced sock knitter, this is a super-easy pattern in a fun mix of pattern/heel flap stitches. For the beginner, it's an introduction to some of the most common shaping methods in socks, in both toes and heels.

Strie Socks, Toe Up

Why It's My Favorite: Even experienced knitters may not have worked their "usual" heel turn from the toe up. Beginners can experience how easy it really is. Bonuses: No picked-up stitches needed along the heel flap and no grafting.

Adjoin Socks

Adjoin Socks

Why It's My Favorite: I love this heel construction, which looks so different, but fits so well! I swear, even Dee has happily worn these, and she can be a bit...particular. The cast-off at the back of the heel may look a little strange, but it is easy to work and allows the knitter to avoid grafting. If you prefer a different look, you could graft it, too. 

The toe is a little unusual, too. I designed a "training wheel" toe-up toe for people who aren't in love with Judy's Magic Cast On.

I would love to see it worked up in a self-striping yarn. The front of the foot, if colors are managed well, could look completely uniform from top to bottom!

If you're not crazy about the stitch pattern, you can leave it out.

This is the only pattern in my book that can only be made from the toe up.

Sock Architecture Photos and Patterns Are Going Up On Ravelry

One of the first conversations I had with Shannon at Cooperative Press about Sock Architecture was the tone of the photography. We both thought a white background would be great - we wanted everything to be as clear as possible!

Since I was am a photographer, I knew it would be best if I had a completely consistent lighting setup for the entire book. I talked Dee into letting me take over a corner of the living room as a small photo studio. There were other rooms I could have used, but that was the only one with the perfect corner and white walls.

You guys, I can't exaggerate how awesome it was having a permanently-ready lighting setup and a clean background. As soon as I get the basement in our new house sorted out a bit, I'm going to do the same thing all over again. I'll tell you all about it when I do it, but, pro tip: that 36"-wide white paper came from Staples and cost all of $7. If you're only shooting small things, it's pretty tough to beat. Professional photo background paper costs at least $50 a roll and is ridiculously difficult to store.

Ironically, the only time I couldn't shoot was when it was really sunny outside. My lovely living room had tons of windows and sunlight bouncing off pretty green grass into windows can do really freaky things to color tone. It's just another reason to love snow.

Shannon suggested I get a model foot, so I did. Dee and I even bought a tiny lamp shade for it and called it "fra-gee-lay."

Then, I picked up a few more sock blockers/forms for socks that didn't fit the foot, like extra-large and extra-small. 

Socks just look so much better when they're stretched a tiny bit. After all, they are stretched a bit when you're wearing them! 

With this setup, I could shoot socks, heels, and toes as soon as they were ready. Morning, noon and night!

Which is all kind of a long way of saying that, since the digital release of the book is imminent (the physical books will start shipping a few weeks after that), I've been given the go-ahead to finally show these photos to people other than my non-knitting family and test knitters. 

All of these designs were absolute labors of love for me, so I don't have a favorite. Instead, every time I pick one up, I think, "Ooooooh, this one's my favorite!" But then I think that about the other 16 patterns, so there you go. I guess I could try to tell you why each one is my favorite? 

Uncommon Dragon

Why It's My Favorite: Two reasons - the stitch pattern and that heel! I love taking the stitch pattern as far as possible down the leg. Oh, and the toe. I think the toe goes with the stitch pattern really well.

Arithmophobia Socks, Top Down

Why It's My Favorite: I love the goofy name, and I adore my method of making short-row heels and toes. No fuss, muss, stitch markers or wraps! Also, it's so easy to custom-fit to any foot. 

Arithmophobia Socks, Toe Up

Why It's My Favorite: Again, goofy name. And, for the toe-up version -- no grafting. At all. Ever. Also I do have a soft spot for toe-up socks. I tried really hard to make EVERY pattern in the book go both ways. The only ones I couldn't manage were grafted-under-heel types like Uncommon Dragon. (Technically, that's possible to make toe-up, but it would take major, major knitting gymnastics. I mean, beyond even where I wish to go. I tried it, and it just made me too nuts.)

But, don't worry, toe-up enthusiasts. There's one heel that's only really possible from the toe-up. I couldn't resist using it in my Sherwood Slippers. I'll put that sock design up on Ravelry tomorrow!

A Toe Up Sock: 5 numbers, 2 measurements

One of the things I do in Sock Architecture is lay out the idea of socks that take just a few numbers to knit. These socks are for Dee, and I've made a lot of socks for Dee, so it's getting pretty easy for me. I keep a small index card in my knitting bag with her key sock numbers on it. These particular socks are toe-up, but top-down works in very much the same way.

The toe starts with a certain cast on number, and I know the shape that Dee likes (pretty short), so I increase on every round until I hit the next number. Then, I increase every other round until I get to the number of stitches for the rest of the foot. 

I then work, straight, until the sock is as long as I need, without the gusset and the heel shaping. I make the gusset increases, which you can kind of see in the above photo, even though it's pretty dark. Sorry, bad cell phone photos.

So that I don't drive myself nuts wrestling with dpns through the heel turn and heel flap, I put all of the stitches that I don't need for the heel turn on hold on a set of very tiny, flexible circular needles. I love these needles. Once, when I lost a pair, I had to replace them in less than a week. They're just that important to me. (They also keep the stitches from being stretched out as you work.)

I made the heel turn. In this case, it's a Round, or French, heel. Looks pretty good, if I do say so myself.

I took a small break to pet this guy. His name is Cujo and he's my adorable dog nephew.

After the heel turn is done, I just work back and forth for the heel flap, closing it up to the sock with decreases as I go. The tiny needle is still in place here, but I just slipped the stitches back onto working needles and continued on up the leg.

Simple, right? I love it that I can knit a sock with 5 numbers and two measurements. In my book, I explain how to figure out (and sometimes just measure) to get to your 5 numbers and two measurements, so that you can do it, too!

P.S. - The maroon yarn is Simply Sock Yarn Solids. I wasn't kidding when I said I love it. The black yarn is mystery stash yarn, but I think it might be Cascade Heritage Silk. 

P.P.S. - If you would like to watch me make a sock in "real time" next time, follow me on Instagram! 

Sock Architecture Cover and the Yarn

The work on Sock Architecture continues apace. The team at Cooperative Press and I are pretty excited about it!

...and just in case you're wondering, all of the sock yarns in the book are Simply Sock Yarn Solids by Simply Socks Yarn Company.

Allison, founder of Simply Socks and generally all-around awesome person, supported my book from the get-go and even helped me choose the ten colors for the socks. I'm a bit scared of color and was worse when this project started. If it had been up to me, I probably would have just run the gamut from Brown to Natural!

I can't say enough good things about this yarn, and I swear it's not just because it's in my book. I made Dee's Moss and Diamond Socks using that yarn and, after 2 years and 9 months of being worn and machine-washed at least once a month (I machine-wash most socks and hang them to dry), they really almost still look brand-new. It's soft, tough, reliable and not too expensive. You don't find all of those things, at the same time, very often. Also, seriously, check out the stitch definition on that particular pair. AMAZING. 

Sock Architecture

I don't know if anyone else remembers, but over a year ago I took a (non-matching, very small) pair of socks on a trip with me and did the usual knitter-normal things like put them on landmarks and take pictures of them..and put them on Twitter, with the tag #GreatSockAdventure. If you like, you can see more of them here.

In the lion's mouth. OK, it's just a cool-looking door.

It was mainly because I couldn't tell you about my other Great Sock Adventure, and the fact that those two little guys weren't alone. They were part of this crowd.

Safe at home.

Which is kind of a long way of saying that my recent silence hasn't just been because of the move. I have been feverishly working away at finishing my book. It's called Sock Architecture. Writing it has been quite an adventure, and I can't wait for other people to see it. I love it, and I'm not just saying that because it's mine. I keep printing out pages and using them as a reference in my own knitting bag (not just when I'm getting frantic emails from test knitters), and I think that's a pretty good sign.

I'm going to explain it more and share as much of this final process as I can, but just for starters, here's the basic book description:

Sock Architecture is perfect for both experienced and novice sock knitters. This thorough, imaginative collection of sock shapes and patterns to try includes 17 toes that can be knit either from the top down or toe up and heel shaping techniques that can be combined into 26 ways to knit a heel from the toe up and 68 ways to knit one from the top down. You're bound to find at least one or two new favorites!  

Choose the best shape for a perfect fit, add a new technique to your bag of tricks or simply try out a different look for your hand knit socks. All the heels and toes are carefully explained and clearly photographed, and you can plug in your own numbers to work at the exact size and gauge you want.  

If you'd rather just pick up the needles and start knitting, Lara designed 17 patterns for Sock Architecture. Most of them include 5 sizes, from women's extra small through men's large, and an adjustable size. With the adjustable size, you can choose your own gauge, size, or both, to make socks as unique as you! 

Lara also demystifies popular sock-knitting techniques and gives you tips and tricks that could only have come from the mind of the creator of Math4Knitters. Terrified of grafting? Love afterthought heels but hate retrieving those tiny left-on-hold stitches? Adore the look and fit of your usual top-down heel, but hate picking up gusset stitches and dealing with that weird little hole at the top of the heel flap? There are tools and methods to make everything easier, and Lara explains them all.  

Jump right in to this ultimate guide to the world of sock knitting!

I'm so happy/terrified/proud/excited that I can barely sit still. Good thing I've got my knitting.

P.S. - Sock Architecture is available for purchase!

Still Kickin'

I can't tell you about this project, yet. I'm sworn to secrecy until sometime next year. But, I can tell you I did get to be a part of something that's bigger than I am, and I used my camera. 

I bought my little Nikon D100 way back in 2004. It has held up through professional use at a newspaper (tough on every piece of gear) and even my honeymoon (I kind of dropped it, but I caught it by the lens. Tough luck for the lens.)

It's not the fastest, it doesn't shoot the biggest files, there's no pc input for studio strobes and it doesn't make videos. There are many like it, but this one is mine. 

...and I still love it!

I also really liked the project. You know you had a good day when someone pays you and you think "Oh, wait, I'm getting PAID for this? Great!" It's a pretty good feeling.

Random Colorwork Inspiration

These are all from a nice but ordinary hotel room. I love toying with ideas for knit stuff with these shapes/colors, even though I have no idea when or for what reason I am likely to use them. Anyway, great two-color schemes, no?

A Little Green Sweater

A few months ago, the charming Lore (I assume she is, she looks charming on Ravelry) knit up my Keys to the Castle Baby Sweater. It's still one of my all-time favorite designs, and I asked her if it was ok for me to use her project photo on my blog. She said "yes" and also included these notes.

"I modified a few things. First the contrast color I used was some leftover yarn and I wasn’t sure how far it would go. So I didn’t do the vertical stripes on the arms (although I still kept the CC cuffs). I also wasn’t sure if there would be enough of it for the front bands so I picked those up after I finished everything else. If I hadn’t had enough CC I would have picked up bands in the MC.

Second, I detest knitting I-cord and avoid it at all costs. So I decided to go with buttons instead.

Thanks for the pattern. I had fun knitting it. Out little baby boy should be arriving in June, although he’ll have some growing to do still before he gets to wear it."

There have been some photos of an adorable baby boy on her Ravelry page, so it looks like it all worked out!

Grungy Basement and 16 Handknit Socks

Sorry for showing you my grungy basement. Hey, it's dry and functional, and that's really all I ask. But, I am very grateful for the little green bar someone hung up there a while ago. It's the perfect spot to hang 16 socks to dry at once!

My sis bought me that little octopus years ago at Ikea. I love it to bits.

So, I haven't dropped off the face if the earth, and I've been knitting socks.

A Little Spinning

I'm still trying to figure things out, but life is getting closer to normal. Which means, when my awesome sister sends me beautiful Coopworth wool dyed with indigo from the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival, I can spin some of it without everything else going off the rails. 

So, I did. Hooray! I can't wait to ply it. (In return, I sent her some Ply magazines, and she loved them! You might, too. Go check them out.) 

Sometimes I Agree With Travis

Things are starting to settle down now, but it will probably be a while before things feel normal. I don't remember having this much trouble getting a house put back together before. Then again, maybe I'm feeling more pressure because I have more happening in other areas of my life than I did. I love the new direction my career is taking, but it is definitely a different kind of headspace.

Some days, I agree with my little scaredy-cat Travis.

I like it under the covers. It's nice there.

One thing I haven't found: the hard drive with all of the Journal Gazette Crafty Living patterns on it. I might have to spend some serious time downloading pdfs in the next few weeks! That will teach me not to back up to the cloud.

Modeknit Socks: Finished!

We bought a house! And moved into it! And now I have to climb over boxes to get to the coffee, but that's ok. 

Moving is a lot of work, but I'm excited about making a home again. Our apartment was really just a badly-jumbled collection of STUFF, not a real home. 

One thing that has helped with the craziness is my lovely pair of Modeknit socks. I knit a lot of plain, black socks. I'll admit - at first, those snazzy pops of color kind of freaked me out. But, I'm absolutely in love with them and I get a real kick out of seeing them on my feet. 

The pattern is unpublished but is based on a set of patterns I hope you will all be able to see before the end of 2014. 

I'm going to try to get back to blogging regularly. But, until all of the boxes are gone, I don't think it will be every day.

A Quandary

Everything you see on my Ravelry designer page that says "journalgazette.net" is a free pattern. Come July or August, the Journal Gazette is changing over how it does its website, so all of those links might (or might not) stop working. There are ways to archive a website and keep old links working, but I'm not sure that a newspaper will want to do that. After all, yesterday's news is, well, old.

That's over 150 patterns. You can kind of tell which ones were from my really early days. A few are, frankly, embarrassing.

I was able to make them, and provide them for free, because my employer allowed me to use work time to write, format and post them. (They asked me to do all of the knitting at home, and I did. I also paid for my own yarn.)

I'll admit: some of them aren't great patterns. Even the ones that produce great finished products aren't written in the most standard ways. Only a few have sizing of any kind. Most of them don't even have page numbers. That doesn't sound like a big deal, but it can be if you're a little tired and don't want to think more than you have to. Many of them use handspun yarn or yarn that is discontinued.

I don't want the patterns to just go away. But...

To justify spending time reformatting, rewriting (using a real, live style sheet!) and suggesting alternative yarns, I would have to charge for the patterns.

I love the thought of updating things, and maybe offering them in collections.

But, will people hate me for what might look like charging for patterns that used to be free?

Yarnover!

If you have never been, you should go, because Yarnover is awesome! I didn't take very many pictures and I can only think it's because I was very overwhelmed. Basically, fibery vendors and teachers took over a local high school for a day. It's amazing. 

I took a Designing Cables class with Fiona Ellis. It was wonderful. She's a very clear teacher and her designs are beautiful. At the end of class, she had a little show-and-tell of some of her designs. She really blew my mind. 

I managed to only buy a little art batt from a (sort of) local sheep farm: Diamond D Farm. I can't find a website for them, but their information is listed here. I would have loved to shop a lot more, but we're moving from the apartment to our new house in less than a week and I'm starting to see every object in the apartment as an obstacle!

I stopped by the Modeknit booth to say hi to everyone and rave about my socks in progress. They should be finished very soon if I get any time at all to knit over lunch. 

Minneapolis Sculpture Garden

It's hard to believe it has been almost 6 years since we got married here!

It's still a stunning little garden spot smack-dab in the middle of Minneapolis. 

New Couch!

That's not our living room, it's the consignment furniture store, called Mainstreet Furniture. I'm so excited about closing on our new house next week. We bought this couch and they're holding it for us until we have the moving truck. I can't wait to lose knitting needles in it!

Starting Over

I didn't like the way that one was turning out. So, starting over with toe-up!

Don't you love the colors together? They're a bit darker than this and called Mrs. Moss and A Lovely Thing. I'm not normally nuts about pink/rose, but, my. These are pretty! 

Modeknit Socks, At The Beginning

I'm not normally crazy about yellow, but yellow is gray and white? I love it!

The View Across the Water

I love this time of year, when the ice is just starting to break and melt away. A little more depth of field would be nice, but what can you do? An iPhone can only do so much. 

Modeknit Mini Skein Set

I have a little sample pack of Modeknit yarns, in "Call the Midwife" colors. They are so cute! I was going to mix in a lot of gray from Simply Socks, but now I'm leaning toward just having the Modeknit go in all of its multiple-colored glory.

Kitty With Spinning Bag

Please forgive me the gross rag I use to wipe spinning grease off of my wheel. Our little Travis doesn't relax well enough to sleep around us very much. When he does, it's quite an event.

Antique-Store Inspiration

For those of you who have babies, would they REALLY benefit from having their little knees covered like this? Or was this just a good idea before central heat?

What Yarns Do You Love to Miss?

Some yarns are like twinkies in a zombie flick. You love it. They don't make it anymore. Someday it will all be gone. I bought a whole bag of this stuff when it went on clearance at Simply Socks. I'm knitting stash right now, and it turned up. It's a great yarn. A little splitty if you don't treat it right, but what isn't? Every bamboo yarn I have used is, essentially, indestructable. If you've never tried one, you should.