Moving this blog

I'm moving this blog to http://stringingmealong.wordpress.com. I just feel like I have more options to design, correct and update posts that I've made.

Top five I want to work on during the holidays

1. Celtic Knot Stole

2. Restart the cover for the toilet lid

3. socks for soldiers pair of socks

4. Solo sweater tank

5. Doilies for my mom. She needs 10.

Progress has been made in more ways than one

First of all, I have knit about 75 rows of the Celtic shawl. Further than I got before I frogged it the last time. Very happy about that.

Second, I think I am learning my limits on the stash thing. I have enough yarn now that if I want to go knit something, I have plenty to do it with. Some of it is very pretty, and some of it is utilitarian, but it is there.

There are several yarns I still want to buy, but the price tags would be enormous if I bought everything I wanted, plus, I am running out of space to put it in. So the Hazel Knits Baroness may be mine next month, since it's about $20, or January, if it's still around. Since Yarntini has gone up everywhere ($27.99 and up), it is on an "as funds/gift cards permit" basis, and only if there's nothing cheaper available. She has a martini colorway that is multiple neon greens that I love to bursting.

I have neon green in Sockotta, but I don't think it's anywhere near Yarntini quality. I haven't knit with it yet, so I don't know. The reviews I've heard aren't promising, but I'll test it for myself. I can always make crochet doilies out of it.

I used one gift card to buy some Kauni EQ yarn (the rainbow-colored one) from Knit+Purl, which is on back order and should be here soon (this week would be nice, I'll have to check). The lady I spoke to about it being on back order says the 130 grams is enough for a pair of socks, plus a few grams over.

I also purchased some yarn this past weekend to make some hats with for the SHIP Support Group and Socks For Soldiers. Unfortunately, I read some group posts immediately afterward saying that all yarns are not created equal and that everyone should stick the the SFS recommended yarn list when sending stuff for that group. So those hats I'm going to be making? Mine. Can't blame anybody but myself for that one, unfortunately.

That's all the yarn I have coming in. If I can get a nice design idea, I may buy another sock yarn for a Cherry Tree Hill contest, since I didn't exactly put my best sock forward on the other contest. I still don't think I know enough about knitting to make a design work. I have one, I just don't know how to put it in action.

I still need to order needle sizes in between 0, 1, and 2 to get gauge on the SFS socks. I'm knitting a swatch on size 1 lace turbos right now to see if it will match one of the two gauges needed for this project. Please God, let it match the smaller needle gauge so I don't have to kill myself on size 0 needles. I don't like knitting on size 0's. They feel like I'm knitting boat rope with toothpicks.

Oooooo, and even more progress has been made. I have decided there is no way in heck I'm knitting any more of the baby duck dress in that awful acrylic yarn I was using. I wanted to stab myself with my own circs. I'm going to find a nice solid color superwash wool (maybe some Smooshy or Araucania), preferably under 20 bucks, follow the pattern size, and embroider something on the edge to match. Or not, if it looks good plain.

What I wish I was doing...

Playing Pirates of the Carribean Online

It calls for a 3D graphics card, which I don't have much success with in Florida. The most gentle of lightning strikes kills them dead, so I quit buying the nice expensive ones after the 2nd one bit the dust. It'll be a while before I can get another one.

Most of the time I can play the game without the upgrade, but no such luck yesterday or today. Who knows when Catherine Seagrim will have another chance to sail the high seas.

Since I'm not getting everything I want, I guess I'll have to settle for what I can get. lol

I'm working on the Celtic stole today, and got from row 53 to row 57 so far without major mishap. Maybe I can get through this after all. I remain slightly optimistic that I will.

My spinning has been going well enough that I think I'm going to have to start standing up to get some lenghth going. Who knew my raggedly looking spindle would work out so well? I have only the bundle bag of roving left to spin that's in the picture from my previous post.

I have been enjoying reading SpinDyeKnit, the blog site by the author of Wrapped in Comfort, AlisonH.

SFS status

I signed up with Socks for Soldiers to knit wool socks and hats. I'm also a member of the SHIP support group. I am still trying to make a successful SFS sock swatch using Knit Picks yarn, but at the rate I'm going I'll be knitting the things on size 0 and 00 needles, and I promised myself several times this year that I would never, never do that. I despise the amount of time it takes me to knit sock feet even on size 3 needles. I think I should kick my own butt for thinking about it now, much less signing up for it. I'm going to do it; it's just going to take me a while.

What I'm working on right now...

...are the Celtic stole, which I keep having the same problem with, and spinning roving into yarn. Some nights the spinning goes well, other nights, it's bigger than I'd like, but I have come up with sort of a system to make almost uniform in size.



With the stole, I get to the part where I start knitting the first knot, and when I get to the other side of the knot, I start having trouble...winding up with too many or not enough stitches. Now, when I get to the odd rows, I am going to mark off the second side before I knit it to make sure I have enough stitches. I don't have much choice if I want it to look fairly decent.

I frogged back to row 40 and I am getting ready to do a few hours of straight knitting on it this evening after I get some chores done.



I wish I was finished with it by now. I know things take me longer than most people, but I'm getting kind of sick of looking at it. If I could get past the first knot, I probably wouldn't be so tired of working on it. I think I just figured it would be simpler than it is.



I love this picture so I thought I'd load it up again. This was how it looked before I started breaking it up and spinning it.

This is what I have spun so far.



Of course, it's not true to the actual color. It doesn't really look gorgeous since it's not all finished, but I intend to finish it before the year is up.



On the roving, I have decided to separate it in strips according to color, spin all the green ends together and all the cranberry ends together as one long strip (which I've only done once, this past week, after several practice attempts. This gave me a plan for the rest.)

There are two color repeats in this bigger strip I have left, plus one more section of apple green. (If this looks like some kind of bloody, neon mess I apologize. Pictures of roving that look like afterbirth turn me off, even if they're a true representation of cranberry or red, so I hope I haven't done that on this blog.)

Anyway, I split the section of roving that I broke off down the middle. Then I split those halves in half, and those halves in half again, making twelfths. (I think I may do one more split after that; I'm losing count. lol) They winded up being fairly skinny. It seems like they're making a heck of a lot of yarn, too. It got to where I'd spun for about an hour and had hand cramps from holding the yarn firmly for the draft.



I do feel much better about spinning it up than I did after the first couple of attempts. It looks much better as I wind it up. I have given up on making it all laceweight, but there's a bunch of black roving on etsy that I've got my eye on to ply with it. The only problem is my reluctance to spin that roving before plying it. It looks so shiny and pretty. I feel like it would really set off the colors of the roving, better than plying two strands of the Yarn Love hand spun together.

I don't know if I should get some black roving and spin it, or if I will just take the easy way out and ply it up with some prepurchased yarn. The more I think about it, the more I like that prepurchased idea.

I need to go look up something about how to connect two sections of hand spun into one. I don't see how plying would work without my doing that.

Dedicating my Stash, Part 3

The variegated yarns in this picture will be used to make throws. They were given to me by a friend who wanted them put to good use. The yarns on the right are being used to make a ribbons and bows bathroom set for my mom. I've got a ways to go on that one.

I don't think I will need all the off-white yarn, so it will probably be used to make stripes for one of the variegated yarn throws.




This closeup of the variegated yarns is kind of true to the color of both scarves that were made from them. For the darker navy blue/burgundy one, I intend to make sort of a "rainbow stripe" throw based on the colors used in it, ranging from light to dark, with rows of the variegated in between. That will be after I get a bunch of knitting and the bathroom crochet project done.

For the other more floral-type color, I intend to use a sort of patchwork blocks style to make a throw from it, a la Mason-Dixon Knitting. They have a gorgeous throw in there that's almost log cabin quilt style. This isn't my favorite color, but I could live with it. Maybe I'll embroider some flowers on the throw when I make it, and do some z-style embroidery along the edges to resemble a quilt that much more.

These yarns (from left to right, back row) are being used for the following: zig zag purse or confectionary tank; baby georgia knitted dress; the blue mixed cotton yarn is probably going to be a dish rag or neck wrap; the little burgundy thing is a mother earth shawl that I am still considering frogging and dropping out of my queue. I just don't have the enthusiasm for it that I had when it was still a mystery.

In the front are two white yarns that are crochet threads. One is a skinny one used for doilies, and the bigger one on the left is more like rope, that I plan to make a round wheat-like doily out of eventually. I need to go dig up my pattern book for it.

Powder Jacket crochet edge tutorial

Edge pattern rows:
Row 1: 1 sc, miss 2sts with 3 chn, 2 dc, 3 ch and 2 dc into foll st., miss 2sts, 3 chn rep from the beginning.
Row 2: hdc into sc, 2 ch, between the dc of previous ro 5 times: 1 dc and 1 picot, then 1 dc, 2 ch.


1. I chained 20 to represent your knitting.

2. work one sc over the first chain, then chain 3.

Photo 1: making first single crochet in first stitch.























3. skip the next two chain stitches. In the next chain (#4 of the 20), you are going to work 2 double crochets, then chain 3, then 2 more double crochets. This would make it a shell stitch.





Photo 2: Skipping the next two chain stitches and working the shell stitch in chain #4.




















4. Chain 3 and skip 2 more chains. Do another single crochet in chain #7 (This is the repeat from the beginning part.)

5. Chain 3 and skip 2 more chains. Do another shell stitch (2 dc, chain 3, 2 dc) in chain #10.

Repeat steps 4 and 5 to end of row. You will most likely end the row with a single crochet, since Row 2 starts with a half double crochet in the first single crochet from row 1.



Photo 3: end of row 1














Row 2:

1. Half double crochet in sc stitch.

2. Chain 3.

3. Double crochet, picot and double crochet in chain 3 stitch of row 1 shell.

4. Chain 3 again.

5. Put hdc stitch in next sc stitch.

6. Repeat steps 3 to 5 until the end.





Photo 4 of first part of row 2: making the hdc in the sc stitch from row 1.



















Photo 5: Making first dc of dc-picot-dc of row 2, step 3.
























Photo 6: Making the picot on row 2, step 3.




















Photo 7 of row 2, step 5:






















Photo 8: Swatch done













There's one thing I would change about these instructions. On row 1 when it says chain 3 between sc stitches and the shell stitches, I would chain 2 instead, unless you knitted the sweater fairly loosely. It has a tendency to clump up in places.

Dedicating my stash, part 2

Mama Llama laceweight

This, along with some Misti Alpaca black lace, if I can work it in, is going to be the Forest Path Stole, if I can find the yarn I want to accent it with. I may have to skip the accent altogether. I don't want to, but it's going to be very tricky to find a good match. I did write the company for their recommendations.






gray NTS laceweight
This gray laceweight from No Two Snowflakes is slowly becoming the Upstairs Shawl.


















suri silk

I don't have an idea in mind for this Oceanwinds Suri Silk alpaca, but I love it! It's so soft and smooshy, even though I have been trying to wrestle it into a ball. It got really tangled when I tried to unwind it by hand.

Unlike most yarns I've had to untangle, this one is still just as soft and pretty and shiny as when I started. I got halfway, then stashed the rest into a bag until my patience level got back up. This picture doesn't do it justice at all. It has a sort of a gleam to it.





NTS complimentary colors

This is the last of the NTS laceweight in my stash right now. I don't have any concrete plans right now, but am seriously thinking of dividing each of the two hanks into thirds and blending them for a color-blended tank top. It would start at the bottom with two strands of the burgundy, the middle would have a strand of burgundy and a strand of yellow, and the top would be two strands of yellow. It will be so cute. I think I'm going to do a swatch for comparison purposes.

sock yarns

This is a picture of the sock yarns in my stash, minus the 1 skein of Shibui Knits yarn mentioned in an earlier post. I don't have major plans for any of this stash right now, but I do want to make one or two pairs of toe-up socks.

The yarn on the left at the top is the Yarntini Gimlet sock yarn, which has been used up already. (I sent the remainder off to a Ravelry member in the Stash n Burn fan group.) Underneath that is some more Yarntini in the chocolate cream colorway. It's gorgeous, and reminds me of corkboard. I may make the waffle socks with it.

Right next to those is a stack with Shibui Knits Orchid variegated yarn (top), Scouts Swag yarn in orchid variegated, and OnLine Supersocke 100 yarn in Sierra. It's a mix of colors wrapped with a strand of black yarn. I love the color, but have no idea what it's going to become.

The stack next to that one is Whimzy Pinzy's Tippy Toes' Yarn line in Figgy Plum Pudding. I'm not so crazy about it, because the yarn bled a little and it seems to be a cotton yarn instead of the merino I prefer. It also had some uncolored spots on the contrast yarn for the toe where the yarn had been tied off for the dyeing process.

The last stack of yarn is by Cherry Tree Hill, which I got to make some socks for a sock contest.

There are two more parts to my stash. One is afghan-type, heavier weight yarn, and the rest is what I consider miscellaneous yarn. I will discuss those two in a later post.

Photo of the socks

I love this pattern. The socks have a sort of feathered look down the side. You really can't see it until the socks are on.

Short row toe simplified

I'm typing this up as a reminder to myself for the next time I have to do a short row heel or toe.

I kept having difficulty having more stitches than I was supposed to after the toe was I could live with. It wouldn't be 100% perfect, but after a certain point I didn't care. I finally figured out a way to do it that keeps me on track with the needles.

First of all, if you decide to do this and you knit as badly as I do, I highly recommend taking some yarn finer than the yarn you're knitting with in a highly contrasting color and string it through the stitches on the needle. This is called a lifeline, and you should do it at least twice. Once before you start the toe, and again before you start knitting the second half of the short row. This way, if you screw up and have to frog it, you don't have as much stress trying to pick the stitches back up and put them on the needle correctly. Don't take them out until the toe is completely done.

The yarnover increases (circled in yellow) are made of yarn overs at the beginning of each row after the toe is begun.
short row pic

Say you start out with 32 stitches on the needles to make the toe. As you make the first row, you do a yarnover increase at the beginning which makes a doubled-looking stitch on the needle. Count each yarnover doubled stitch as one stitch, and count the stitches in between as you go. These should equal 32 stitches throughout the knitting of the toe.

count stitches pic

The goal of the first half of the short rows is to decrease the stitches down to the number specified in the pattern you're using, usually from 10-14 stitches. The fewer the stitches, the pointier the toe.

1. Do a yarnover increase on the first stitch at the beginning of the row; knit or purl the remaining 31 stitches.

2. Turn work. Do a yarnover increase on the first stitch; knit or purl the next 30 stitches, avoiding working the stitches of the previous yarnover increase.

3. Continue these two steps until you have the required number of stitches in the middle as pictured above.

4. If you're on a knit row, knit together the two stitches of the yarnover increase. If you're on a purl row, purl the two stitches together (do this the same way throughout).
pic 4

5. Pick up the bar closest to the next yarnover increase. Knit or purl it like you did the previous stitch. Turn.

pic 5

6. Knit the picked up stitch and the yarnover increase together to make one stitch. Knit across to the next yarnover.

7. Knit the two stitches of the yarnover together. Pick up and knit the bar closest to the next yarnover stitch. Turn.

Continue steps 4 through 7 until all the yarnover increases have been knit up and you have 32 stitches on the needle. This ends the short row toe or heel with a little pocket. At this point, you can kitchener the toe to the bottom of the foot, or continue the foot part of the sock you're making.

Well, would you look at that?

Unbelievable hats at sockpr0n: Hats made from batting

Dedicating my stash

These are the plans for the yarn in my stash this year.

laceweight yarn from vieuxrouet on Etsy.com:
I plan to make the Bosom Buddy shawl from Carry (web site link). Actually, make that the Short Row Shawlette, which won't take quite as long. I'm making it on really big needles, and it looks like it's going to be very pretty. It should go very well with the black clothes I'm almost always wearing.(Speaking of black clothes, I think I have been wearing black so often that when I try on light-colored clothes, they don't look like they work on me. I'm thinking it's force of habit and personal paranoia.)



laceweight from NoTwoSnowflakes (NTS) on Etsy.com:
Okay, my pictures just don't do this yarn justice. I love it! It reminds me, first and foremost, of all the green and blue ocean pictures you see in photos. It looks like it should smell like the sea. After a week or so, I also thought of mints. I seriously expect a pretty smell whenever I take a sniff of it. I am considering making a lace tank from Interweave Knits (Summer 2004 issue, the same one that the Madli's Shawl and Juliet sweater patterns are in). Or the Radio City Music Hall Scarf NTS created to go with the laceweight.

I got the yarn in the first laceweight yarn club she is offering, and will receive two more shipments, I think. I was so impressed looking at the color changes in this skein. I don't know what I expected when I joined the lace club, but this exceeds my expectations in a big way. After getting such a great skein, in a huge amount of yarn (880 yards), I have absolutely no problem paying $80 for membership. I think I'm getting more than my money's worth! If you can't tell, I'm very pleased.

NTS's plan is to offer the club on a limited basis, at first. The colorways are a surprise, but you do get to choose color families along the lines of jewel, neutral, and other categories. If I can bust my stash far enough, I will join again next year.

This particular club is closed, but there are several skeins of laceweight and other multicolor yarns on NoTwoSnowflakes' Etsy site. I highly recommend you go there and snap some up before it's gone. The pictures of her current offerings are what drew me to the laceweight club in the first place. She also dyes yarn to order.

I've changed my mind several times about what to make with the green stuff since I got the order, because there are a few shawls I want to make as well. Maybe if I don't like knitting on the lace tank all that much, I'll track down the pattern for the swallowtail shawl and make it from that.

Lily Sugar n Cream dishcloth yarn:
I've completed one dishcloth using my own pattern from the peach colored yarn. Actually, I keep calling it peach, but on the label it says the colorway is "daisy" something. Ask me if I care. lol

It took several frog/reknit sessions to get the dishcloth to match on each end, make the lacy holes look like holes instead of a hidden opening, and think of a suitable border. I tried it several times in the blue yarn, then when I thought I had it down, I used the yellow yarn. I still wound up frogging certain parts.

So what does this mean for the blue yarn? My made up pattern is going to be much simpler. Since I like the checkerboard design and the way the three rows of single crochet looked on the finished daisy dishcloth, I'm going to use one big four square checkerboard design edged in several rows of single crochet. The KISS method will be used to full effect.

I'm also going to use a smaller needle and make the dishcloth using fewer stitches. I had comments that the daisy dishcloth was too big, but at this point, I don't care. I am mainly trying to bust my stash and get rid of the dishcloth yarn with a usable object. Maybe this will make two small dishcloths instead of one large one. I don't really want to stretch out the process of getting rid of the Sugar and Cream this way, but I'll do what I have to.

My mom said she wants black and white dishcloths to match her kitchen. I told her that I would teach her how to crochet so she could make her own. I am not volunteering to do any more projects for people unless it's on my own initiative. I am still working on a rug project for her that I started years ago, and I never want to put myself in this position again.

blue jean laceweight yarn:
This yarn from Kindred Spirit's Etsy shop is still waiting to be turned into something beautiful. I have gone back and forth on what I want to do with it several times, choosing a scarf, then remembering that I almost never wear scarves. Then I'll think blouse, which would probably be way too thin for my liking. That said, though, it might make great fingerless gloves as a layer of warmth for the office.

It's 880 yards, so maybe the Print of the Wave stole by Eunny Jang would be a good choice. Or perhaps, if I don't make the Radio City Music Hall Scarf in the green lace, I could make it in this one. The jury's still out on this yarn, really. I do love it, though.

It's a purse! No, it's a tank! No, wait....I bought these two yarns to make a purse designed by Wendy Wannacot.

I love the zigzags on this purse, but my first attempt didn't go very well. I'm going to try it again, but it's going to be a while.

If the second attempt doesn't work out, I'm going to try to use the yarn for the Interweave Confectionary Tank, which uses multiple colorways and would make a great top under a jacket.

I'm seriously considering buying that particular issue (Summer 2008). There's about six projects in there that I would love to have, and don't mind waiting on.



















orchid Shibui Knits sock yarn:
What else, but socks? The plan is to take this yarn and mix it with the Peony colorway to make striped socks. Vertical stripes would be cool.

I love that there's shots of lime green in this yarn, and am looking forward to seeing how it works as a blend.

I love the squooshy, springy feel of this yarn. I think it would make a really nice sweater, top, gloves, etc. And almost all the colorways are a refreshing, bright color. You should see the Midnight colorway. I think I'm going to order some of that, too.

This particular post has gotten kind of long for me. I think I will just continue it in my next post.

Woo Hoo! We have a chick row!

I was worried, really worried. The chicks looked like yellowish, lopsided blobs that were NOT going to work out to be chicks, so I'm really relieved at this point.

Just for a refresher (and since it's going to be a while since I finish), here's a pic of what the dress will look like when done.




My other project, the contour rug, has three rows of green left before I add on the lace border. Even though I am in the June challenge, I just went ahead and bought two more skeins to get me past this and hopefully through the rest of the toilet portions of the project.



The last toilet parts to make are the oval cover for the lid, which has tufts, the cover for the lid of the tank portion, and a cover for the tank.



These are the pieces to make after I'm done with the toilet stuff.

June Destashing Challenge 2008

I didn't get very much accomplished for the May challenge. I actually went up in yardage instead of down, but I got some great yarn in the process (Sonny and Shear was having an economic stimulus sale).

Here are my new favorites.

This laceweight (Mama Llama Jaggerspun) is going to be for a shawl project. I'm afraid I'm going to need another 2 balls of it to make a Forest Path Stole. I may pick a project with smaller yardage.

I love this yarn. I love the way the color runs from the pinkish to another color that's almost cafe au lait. It is beautiful stuff. I wonder how it will look knitted up.





This is a skein of Shibui Knits sock yarn. It's so pretty and springy and cute. I love the way it stretches, and look forward to buying more sometime. They have an awesome Midnight Blue colorway and a few others I'm looking at.

I want to mix a row of multicolor Shibui with a row of coordinating solid color of Shibui to make a sock, with the hope that the solid would mute the wildness of the multicolor, and blend in at the same time. If I'd had more money when I'd placed the order, I would be trying this technique right now.

I also brought these two Cascade Arcadia yarns, in aqua and sprout:

I want to make the Triple Braided Diamond Turtleneck with these, if I can find enough yarn. It's pictured on the cover of a book called The Pleasures of Knitting ($20.40) by Ann McCauley. There are a lot of beautiful sweaters in there, but the cover sweater is the main one that caught my eye. This is one of the first sweater books I've looked through that gave me the Jones to knit a sweater. I think it will go a lot faster than the sock projects, and where it doesn't, I'll have the cables to keep me interested.

I found a copy of it at the library, which shocked me, because they almost never have the books I'm looking for. I'm going to buy it one of these days. It's a lovely book, full of inspiration.

And for even better news:

I have added progress bars to my page! Look at 'em! I found a link to how to make them by doing a search on Google, and I am so very pleased. Now I can list everything I'm working on, and everything I've finished. I'm going to figure out how to add pictures of the projects too, like I've seen on a few other blogs. Yayyy!!!

I'm seriously considering giving away the ball of Lily Sugar and Cream yarn. I don't mind the peachy color, but I really dislike knitting with the stuff. Every time I look at it in my stash, I'm underwhelmed. I should just find a good home for it on Ravelry and call it done.

Oh, one more thing. There's this site online that sells knitting bags for way less than I've been finding on other sites. I will get the link later, but I gotta tell you. I have been balking at paying upwards of $60 and $70 dollars for a tote. The one I have been using is not perfect, but it's not $60 bucks!

The link I found earlier has bags for $9.99 and up, which is way more my speed. There's a lady on Ravelry selling a $50 something dollar one she bought from Knitpicks for $29.95; I have to know what she'd charge in postage before I bought it. I'm even balking at that price, if you can believe it. I'm also not sure where I'm going to put it. It has bars on the outside to keep it standing upright. I don't know how unwieldy that would be.

I've joined the May 1,000-yard challenge on ravelry

I was all lackadaisical about it the first few weeks, but when it came time to add up the total yardage of my stash, I freaked out because there was so much yarn in there. I'm a slow knitter, and I got scared that I would never use it all up. So scared that I'm determined to destash 2,000 yards instead. I may not make it, but at least I will make a dent.

That said, the last two skeins of yarn I got in the mail are beautiful things. The first one was the laceweight by vieux rouet on etsy. She did this beautiful water-colored yarn that is mixed blues and green (no bright, bright colors). The second is a trade that I swapped for the reddish brown sock yarn in my stash (from Kindre d Spirits Yarn on etsy.)

The yarn swapped for is this gorgeous skein from Scout's Swag called violets or something. It's a floral-looking mix with pinkish/burgundys and greens and white blended together. I love it! I'm going to have to find a nice pattern for it.

Dude! The Eight(ieth) Time's a Charm!

I lost my ability to read pattern instructions when it came to doing the yarn over heel on the Twinkleberry sock pattern, so I had to search the internet for help.

I sweated a couple of bullets looking at the instructions that popped up, but fortunately for me, I came across this link:

The easiest way to do a short row heel

This woman has saved me untold hours of sock heel making misery. I have recommended her two or three times already.

Thanks, Kaityvr!

It took me about 3 tries to learn the method, and a few more to make smaller holes and learn to recognize where I need to start knitting and purling the next slipped stitch.

If you try it, do your best to keep the yarn on the end loops close to your needle when turning and starting the next row. Also, keep count of where you are on each row. One easy way to figure out where you lost your place is to use a piece of yarn as a lifeline before you start the heel. Then you can count the number of rows you have worked to figure out how many slipped stitches are supposed to be on each side of the heel.

These double lines showed where I picked up the bar at the end of the row, which clued me in that I needed to knit that stitch, and pick up the bar for the next one.



I have had to frog back several times to make a decent heel with this sock, and having a lifeline saved me untold amounts of trouble.

My first yarnover heel

It looks like the pieces of this heel are not going to meet up, and I'm going to have big holes where the ankles should be. I'm going to ravelry for help. If I'm not back by Wednesday, please donate my pitiful stash to some worthy institution...