Knitting Chatters went smashingly last night, as always :) I have been thinking about changing the times a little though. Up till now, I’ve been opening up at 7:30 PM EST and closing at 11:00 PM. I’ve been wondering about opening up at 8:00 and then staying open until midnight. I haven’t done a poll before, but it seems appropriate for this :) It’s located on the sidebar, just beneath the Knitting Chatters banner. I’ll leave it up for a few days and would really appreciate your input :)
I mentioned I was working on a sock design. I cast on a few stitches and just kept knitting through ideas as they occurred to me until I had something I liked. I believe I read about this process in Zimmerman’s The Knitter’s Almanac and you know? It’s pretty neat, simple, able to be picked up at any time in any odd moment and small enough to be portable and easy to handle. This is what I came up with:
And these two motifs are what I decided on:
The overall appearance will be of wide ribs with the eyelet flowers in the stockinette portion and the embossed leaves in the reverse stockinette part. This was fun to work out and I think (I hope!) the sock will be pretty and feminine :) I got started last night:
As you can see, I tried the four-needle thing. Usually I stick to three but because of the way the pattern(s) work it seemed four needles might be more useful. I find them a little awkward but I suppose that’s just a matter of getting used to them. Unfortunately, I realized this morning that the numbers are off (I’ve been having a hell of a time with math this week!) so what you see will be ripped and re-started. Not really a problem, just annoying :) Why couldn’t I get it right the first time?
Finally, there’s this which I have been working on feverishly all week.
It’s a scarf version of Dragon Wings done in sport-weight cotton on size 4 (US) needles. The cotton yarn really spotlights the texture of the pattern nicely and I’m pretty happy with the results. I wanted to have it complete by tomorrow - any bets? Heheh….
I just got notice that we’re supposed to get much cooler weather and more heavy rains over the weekend. In fact, we’re back under flood warnings! Not satisfied with having put spring under water, the monsoons have invaded summer as well!
Stay dry folks and have a great weekend:)
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I always knit on four needles, given a choice. It just seems to pull my stitches less than 3. Plus I get the added benefit of always knowing where my heel and instep stitches are. “See these two needles? Heel. These two? Instep.”
But I also use as many needles as I think the pattern needs. When I was playing with the razor shell idea, I was using *5* needles, and knitting on a sixth, because I had five very large pattern repeats.
But, yeah. I like working on a square instead of a triangle.
Hopefully I’ll make knitting chatters again soon - only two more weeks until I can stop sewing for a bit!
Colleen - I can sure see using the number of needles necessary whatever that number may be. I have used five myself (knitting with a sixth) but never on a sock.
I bet you will be glad to get shut of the sewing for a while. It’s always great to see you at Chatters whenever you have the time :)
Oh NO not the dreaded have-to-do-the-cast-on AGAIN. Blech
Yay for the cooler weather, not yay for more rain. Enough already, whatever happened to moderation?
Aarlene - I think “moderation” as a guiding precept went out of fashion a long time ago :) I have always loved the line from Lost Horizon about everything in moderation - including moderation!
Later Thursday nights would be good for me, since one of the local knitting groups meets Thursdays as well. Of course I could also use someone who would come knock on the door and tell me it’s Thursday…
I am crazy about the Dragon Wings pattern—gotta find something to work it in.
Rob - It’s looking good for the time change. Depending on what the votes look like, I’ll announce the results on Wednesday :)
When you decide to go ahead with Dragon Wings, check the post again. Lousy pattern writer that I am, I’ve had to make a couple of corrections so you might want to print out a new copy. I’ve got to update the .pdf too but haven’t done so yet.
I’m glad you like it - 
I think the time change sounds good. I got wrapped up in a call from my stepdaughter the other evening. Sorry I missed the rest of the evening.
Your sock pattern looks great and I love your choice of pink yarn. I prefer to use 4 needles (if I’m not using 2, anyway) rather than 3, because I find I’m less likely to get ladders. Also, they fold down flat for toting around with me :)
Maureen - I’m thinking it would work out better for a lot of people. I’ll let the poll run through Tuesday but so far the response to the proposed time shift has all been positive :)
Pam - I don’t usually have a problem withn ladders though sometimes, with some types of yarn, I can’t seem to avoid them. I’ll probably always default to 3 needles but it’s worth keeping in mind that 4 may be the way to go with some patterns or some yarns.
Yup - rainingon Monday because it’s the first day of Wimbledon!
Can’t wait to see the socks. Sometimes I use 3 instead of 4 if the pattern works well and have half the stitches on one needle and then a quarter on each of the other two.
Abi - That’s how I usually knit socks - on three needles. I guess I was just wondering what the advantage of using four needles might be since it does seem like quite a handful :)
