Obligatory Fiber Post

I've been doing my weekly blogging to the questionnaire put out by Secret Pal 12 and failing to admit that I have, in fact, been knitting. Occasionally, I even finish something. Well, almost. I still need to finish making the ends disappear on this. Look, a whole pair of socks.


These are made from Tofutsies. I decided to do afterthought heels. I think I've done these before. In any event, they were a great success in this case.

Part of what made me decide to do the afterthought heel was the problem I had with the yarn. I found a rather large section of yarn that was twisted differently from the rest if the skein at about the point where one of the socks got near the heel. I had a lot of time to think about how I was going to deal with this, and ended up deciding on the afterthought heel.



The lace pattern really wasn't the right pattern to use for this yarn. Still, I'm happy with it. I'm making another pair in plain yarn, because you really can't identify the pattern here.


My big disappointment was the too-loose bind off. But when I tried the sock on, it would appear that the sock isn't going to fall down and nobody is going to notice this. Unless you look at this picture.



I'm a little tired of Tofutsies, but I still have another skein. And I seem to have a lot of this one left over. Ah, well. What's a stash for but to save yarn for a rainy day?

The Tofutsie Sock

Ok, I've got pictures, finally.

This is my Tofutsies sock. Oh, don't worry - I have a pair. I always make two at once on a long circular needle. I've even knit them together once or twice.



Here's a close-up of the top. I've twisted it a little so you can see the whole thing. It's a pattern from one of my Japanese stitch dictionaries.



I started this pair of socks five whole times. The first time, the pattern I used was much too slouchy and obviously wasn't going to stay up. I had turned the heel. I ripped and the re-winding was horrible, because I decided to split the skein into two skeins by weight, and one of my piles fell over. I spent a whole week untangling the mess I'd made. Then I tried again, with a cabled pattern that was so tight I couldn't get it over my heel.

I don't even remember what I did next. Eventually, I realized that top down wasn't going to work for me, so I worked toe-up. When I got to the very end, I dug through my books for a sewn cast-off that would work. The one I eventually settled on was called the tubular bind off and basically is sewn like a kitchner stitch, but you don't need to split your stitches on two needles first.

This sock fits me like a glove. One more stitch and it would be too loose. One less stitch and it would be too tight.

I hope they don't shrink in the wash.

I have another ball of this yarn in a black-and-white colorway. I'm considering making something other than socks from it. Perhaps fingerless gloves? I really haven't decided.

In any event, I'm now making a pair of socks with a nice, boring, knit 3 purl 3 allover rib. I needed something really simple after the Tofutsies socks.

I Suppose I Should Admit I'm Alive

Actually, I'm alive and doing quite ok. I just have no pictures and my knitting has become very back-burner.

I just read Hamlet for class. Now perhaps I'll understand my ex-husband's beloved movie, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead. I find myself compelled to find out.

Then there's the desire to read more of the author I just heard a reading from last night, Miguel Piñero.

I don't think I mentioned that I found the rest of the sweater that I blocked. The story is that I had started a skirt a couple of years ago, and decided, at the point when I attempted to give it a waistband, that it was both too bulky and too revealing. In short, it was a bologna-casing and greatly enhanced curves I didn't realize I had. I ripped it and knit the yarn into a sweater, blocked half the pieces, put them in a safe place and blocked the rest of the pieces. I was then stuck, because I had mis-placed the first half of the sweater. But I've found the pieces and I've got both side-seams and one shoulder-seam done.

Now I have to go do secret-santa and potluck shopping. We expect to be snowed in tomorrow. Maybe I'll take some pictures and brag about my Tofutsies socks then. After five false starts, the socks came out beautifully. I haven't had so much trouble with a pair of socks since my first pair. Non-wool socks are less forgiving of gauge approximations.