Friday, August 31, 2007

Ah, completion!

This is a day of completion. Which is nice. For a change.


Yesterday we received our excusal letter from the Local Public School, telling us that we were officially in compliance with Ohio law and were excused from compulsory gulag...er, school attendance. I'll give the new super something: our excusal came lickety-split this year, as opposed to times past when it took the full 14 days to arrive. It was nice to have that off the list of things to watch for.


And I finished the socks this morning! Yay! Friend Gina and I knitted at her Palatial Estate last night, had a great time, and I really booked on the socks. Combined with the time I spent doggedly knitting this morning and they are finished. May I hear a "hooray" or even a "woot"? Do you want to see pictures of them enclosing the lovely and large feet of my beloved daughter Rachel? Cool beans, cuz I took piles of them. She was delighted to be doing ballet positions for me in the driveway.


First, the stats:


Whitby by Nancy Bush from Knitting on the Road


Took about 3/4 of a skein of J-Knits Amesbury (fingering size, I think) for a size 10ish adult women's sock


Used size 2 double-pointed needles


Whitbys finished 1 Whitbys finished 2 Whitby finished 3


For the record, I will say that these socks were a delight to knit. The pattern was unbelieveably easy to memorize so I could take them with me without hauling the book around (although it's an eminently easy book to haul). For some reason, I had an inordinate amount of difficulty with the first sock, with losing stitches and having to pick them up again. I ended up frogging back at least an inch during one of these debacles. It was not pretty. That picture of me knitting on Wednesday? I think it was probably one of the millions of times that I cried, "No, no, no!" while working on these socks.


Maybe it was the yarn, maybe it was the needles, I don't know. I used the J-Knits sock yarn I was given by Julie in one of her blog giveaways (here ya go, Julie! I finished something!) It was in the Amesbury colorway: beautiful yarn! I got many compliments on it as I was working on the socks. It was the teeniest bit splitty, which led to a few weird webs in the socks but that's the beauty of handknits, right?


Ok, the rest of this will only be of interest to me and possibly 3 other knitters in the world, but I want to put it here as a record or reminder to myself. Thanks for the attention from the rest of you! Have a great weekend!


Things I learned while knitting the Whitby sock from Knitting on the Road (Nancy Bush):


1) We have incredibly big feet in this family. I made the first sock for myself and the heel was too tight, so I gave them to Rachel. The sample sock in the book shows cabling all the way down to the toe, which I didn't do because I was afraid to run out of yarn (I needn't have worried). With our ginormous feet, we had a good 2 inches of stockinette stitch before the toe decreases. It would have looked prettier with cables. I'm just sayin'.


2) I learned to read a knitting chart! Yay me!


3) I learned a new way to pick up stitches for the gusset (and it's better than the way I was doing it before).


4) I also learned a new way to join at the top of the sock. Not major, just a notation.


5) Finally, I learned how to close the gap that sometimes happens between the gusset and the instep (read the book and you'll also find out...it basically involves adding a stitch, which you then decrease on the next row to pull it together).


I definitely want to knit more socks designed by Nancy Bush. But for now, I'm finished!

4 comments:

Gina said...

Lovely! They look like they fit her well. Does she seriously have size 10 feet already?

I enjoyed last night too. I can't do anything this next week but you're welcome to come on out the following week.

Anonymous said...

OH WOW~they're GORGEOUS! I can't knit a lick. We have yet to receive our letter.... (((((HUGS))))) sandi

Anonymous said...

They are beautiful, Lori! I so wish I had made mine in a lighter yarn like yours! I have 1 skein of J. Knits (Los Angeles) waiting to be knit - sure is pretty yarn!

Julie in Texas said...

Beautiful! So glad the yarn became such lovely socks.

It is always fun for me to learn new techniques...sounds like you enjoy it too.