Damn, Knit & Blast It

My blogging and knitting have been curtailed for the last couple of weeks - I seem to have hurt my hand somehow. In the syle of the old Tommy Copper joke that went,

Patient : “Doctor, Doctor, it hurts when I do that….” (Waves arm)

Doctor: ” Well, don’t do that then!”

I decided to rest it. So not much knitting or blogging for me! It is now much improved and I am pleased to report I have a new garment.

Dinny is done.

Here she is, with me looking a little silly, staring into the middle distance on my balcony, nestled in the flowers…

I can’t say I’m thrilled with Dinny but I think she’s a garment that will prove to be wearable, versatile and useful. As Ben put it when I proudly modelled it for him,

“It’s not exactly summer wear is it?”

Dinny is very sensible and functional but rather dull and uninspiring. No one is going to stop me in the street and say, “Wow, love your jumper” then go wide eyed with awe that I made it.

I guess that says something about me doesn’t it - I have a need to impress! (Try to anyhow…)

I do generally avoid knitting standard, plain garments I could “go buy in Marks and Spencers”. Just doesn’t seem worth the effort.

I love the neck on Dinny and she was a very quick and easy make. It’s a little shorter than I’m used to, with the rib falling at my natural waist but not so short as to be a problem. There is shaping in the sides which, as I’ve have come to expect from Kim Hargreaves, fits perfectly and saves Dinny from being another shapeless, “straight up from the rib to the armholes” sack!

I guess I’ve just got used to having some kind of “Wow!” factor when I make a garment??

I started my Fleece Artist socks way back in November 2007, as light relief from the incredibly difficult intarsia on Eveleen. I showed them to you, in passing, in my post about my stitch markers from B&Q!

This was them back then…

Since then, they have been sitting looking mournfully at me from the bag of yarn beside the sofa, saying, “Finish me! Finish me!”

As I was getting a little bored with knitting the plain fluffy stocking stitch on Dinny, I thought I’d “just finish them off…”

First problem - and why they got left to one side in November - I did the first toe wonky (Curse No.1)- it was about 8 stitches askew from being in line with the heel. I followed the pattern to the letter but failed to employ my brain (which at that point had been thoroughly exhausted doing Eveleen!)

No worries, I thought, I’ll finish the second sock then rework the toe of the first sock.

I spent 3 happy hours on Sunday at “The Guilty Knitters” finishing toe No. 2, then had immense problems picking up the stitches after unravelling the first , wonky toe. (Curse No.2)The problems picking up the stitches were miraculously solved when I remembered that I now need to wear glasses…seeing the stitches is such an advantage!

I also worked out the supreme arithmentic blunder that thinks that if you have 30 sitches on a needle and decrease two stitches per row, you can end up with 11 stitches… (Curse No.3)

I should probably tell you I was using the pattern that came on the back of the skein wrapper from Fleece Artist - this one:-

Hmmm. looking at that wrapper, I have another “curse” to point out. (Curse No.4)

I am not a person who wants to handwash my socks - even handknit ones. When buying this yarn, I rejected several beautiful yarns because they were handwash. Can you see where it says “100% Washable Merino Wool”? I saw that and thought - great - that’s the yarn for me! Look more closely at that wrapper, at the bottom, in a tiny font…

Grrrr!!!

I finished knitting toe No.1 (the wonky one I had unravelled) and thought it rather strange that I had an awful lot of yarn left over…

The “idiot woman” who “accidentally” bought the wrong yarn on Ebay must have been reading my pattern for me.

I had decreased on every round, not every other round. I’d happily made this mistake on both of my toes. So far I have knitted 3 toes for this pair of socks. Remember how I started these socks as a “light relief” project? Hah! (Curses No.5 and 6 - one for each short, stumpy, angular toe)

More toe ripping and picking up of stitches - whilst wearing glasses this time - I do try to learn from my mistakes…

Want to see the difference it makes to a toe?

“Correct Toe” on the left and “Idiot Woman” toe on the right…I suppose it depends on your foot shape and how stumpy your toes are huh?

I slogged on, and finished the cursed things. I even did Kitchener stitch on the toes rather than be tempted to just do a three needle bind off - which was an effort as I was getting so mad with the socks (OK, mad with myself actually but it’s easier to blame the socks )

As you may have worked out by now - I’m not exactly beguiled by these socks. The yarn and the colours are beautiful but the pattern is, IMHO, poor.

Apart from the arithmetic error, I’m not thrilled with the heel…

The slip stitch heel flap is OK but the little triangle that goes under your heel (is there a name for that?) is tiny - it’s tight, even on my narrow feet.

The 2 x 2 ribbing is loose on my leg too. in fact - maybe I should have made the whole thing smaller.

Here’s a predictable shot of one sock…

I was going to go for the “Sole to Sole” type picture but everyone does that.

I tried being a bit more bendy to get both socks in…

Then I thought - Hell! Go for broke!! Let’s see if I can still get The Lotus Position!

I think that shows them rather well!