Sunday, May 13, 2012

Why do they always change things?

It's been a while.  Like many bloggers my attention span is not good.  Lately I've been playing with my légaré 400 and not hand knitting as much.  I did design 2 other scarves and I have 2 testers, yes, I did kinda sorta write them up but neither of my testers have finished and I don't feel like pestering them because then I'd have to rewrite things.

I'll just put this out here, if you want to testknit a scarf or 2 for me and are serious, leave a comment below.  Or maybe you are one of my testers and want to finish it up?  It would force me to get back to work on them.  They are my tributaries, Turtle Creek and Nine Mile Run, links below in labels.  I'm not a slave driver but I will want them done in a fairly timely manner with some photos of your results.
Right.  Now what?  I've been playing with my sock machine and I made 3 videos.  I posted my 1st one already so I'll post my 2 latest.
Hmm, maybe some bloggers changes are good, posting that was easy and intuitive.  Good job blogger!
So what's that video about?  It's my somewhat anal retentive way to cast on which makes a nice symmetric architectural pattern.  To spare having to click to the youtube page I will repost my description
A way to cast-on a web that is even and kinda fun. I do this to help get the cobwebs out of my brain as I reacquaint myself with my machine.


If you are more inclined to be efficient you should either make or acquire a cast-on bonnet. Personally I am not. I make socks with this machine for fun and really once you get going if you are trying to get a bunch of socks going all you need to do is crank a few rounds of waste yarn and start another sock.


Here's some cliff notes:


Instructions times 12
set-up: 1 up, 5 down
clip crochet loop onto S carabiner
wrap yarn around up needles in star pattern, clipping onto carabiner as you go
add light weight
row 1: knit 1, wrap 5
add weight
row 2: lower 2 needles on either side of spoke leaving 1 needle up in center
add weight
row 3: raise 2 needles on either side of spoke lower the 1 needle up in center
add weight
row 4: lower one needle on either side of spoke leaving 2 needles up
add weight
row 5: lower remaining needles
Crank at least a few dozen rounds and you are ready to go
There you go.  Beginners can try this.

My very latest video is an attempt to improve my 1st Cat Bordhi Sweet Tomato Heel on CSM video.
Again, I'll post the notes that go with it
A demo of how to make Cat Bordhi's Sweet Tomato Heel on a circular sock machine. This method incorporates the 2 step no wrap method, but re-proportioned for this heel. This may be worked either cuff down or toe up.


This is my second video attempting to explain this. It is much faster paced than my original video. If it seems to fast you might want to watch the video response below.


Notes about this sock
Yarn: Autumn House Velvet(? one of the 100% wool sockyarns anyway)
Machine: Légaré 400
Cylinder: 72 slot, leg and foot 1/3 mock rib(54 stitches), heel, all needles in
Heel: Cat Bordhi's sweet tomato heel, 3 full wedges(48 stitches) with 5 rows both above and below worked mock rib in front(65 stitches, 11 needles added for heel)
Cuff: 30 rows 2/1 rib, cuff down with mock rib (K,P,K,S, repeat)
Leg: 100 rows, mock rib, 
Foot: 30 rows 1/3 mock rib(54 stitches)
Toe: All needles in for 5 rows(72 stitches) standard CSM toe, kitchenered off the machine
Note about mock rib: to line up just right for the heel, the last needle out should be the last slot in the round, that allows a few extra needles in beyond the wedges to prevent gaps.
After adding each needle I pick up 2 sticks below to make it tight


The Rib Stopper is a slight issue with the right heel fork because of the greater spread of this heel.
I just thought I'd post this stuff to keep you folks up to date if you aren't following me in other places.

BTW Blogger, I don't want to highlight my block quote.  I sent a complaint through official means but I will restate it in my post.  Don't effing change colors in my text and background for no ©ø∂ ∂嵘´∂ ®´‰´ÅÍØ reason! I also resent not being able to allow my readers to make my videos fullscreen without going to youtube. I understand you need the advertising revenue but it's annoying.

Sorry readers, if you watch the video and want to see it fullscreen you have to go to youtube. I did figure out in my fingerpecking way how to make the videos show up 60% larger than the standard TINY setting it was at.