Socks, Socks, Socks

I love knitting socks.  This hasn't always been the case.  The first adult sock that I knit, is a loner, no mate.  Big surprise.
I made a few mistakes, too small of needles and too thin of yarn, so the sock took forever!
My next disaster yielded a PAIR of socks.  Still wrong materials, but I still use these guys.  They are made of 100% merino wool, doesn't wear well at all.  I wore through one of the heels.  I recently decided to mend it and now I wear them for an hour or so after my pedicure and that's it. Merino
A few years ago some new neighbors moved in and the wife was a knitter!  Yea!  She loves to knit socks and felt I needed to knit them too.  So we picked out a wonderful pattern that I have used more than once, Owlie.
We knit them together, her right handed and me left, following the chart.  I chose smaller needles and more stitches, but they came out pretty much the same size.   Here are mine.  She didn't put hers on her Rav page and she has since moved so I can't get a picture of them.  She showed me that knitting socks is all about numbers, and they are easy numbers too, the same ones every time even.  Now I find a pattern or stitch I like and just plug it into my formula that fits me.

US size 1.5 needles
Finger weight yarn
Cast on 72 sts or close there of.
Work 12 rnds of cuff if one isn't written.
Work 60 rnds of pattern unless it is closer to a garter pattern, then it takes more rnds.
Work my heel flap across 36 sts, for 36 rows. I have recently learned eye of partridge and love it.
Work the gusset as written here.
Dec back down to 72 sts.
Work foot until I have a total of 60 rnds.
Work toe dec until the ere only 24 sts rem.
Kitchener closed.

This opened a door though.  We then joined the Tour de Sock and Sock Sniper the next year.  I then decided to be adventurous and try a pair of toe up socks.  The were given to a friend under going chemo at the time.  Stage 4 breast and ovarian cancer.  The Lord still has work for her here.  Here are the socks.  Not my favorite way to work.

I have since tried doing toe up socks again and I just don't get it.  I understand the knowing of having enough yarn for the foot and making a shorter leg if necessary.  My thought on that is the foot is the part in the shoe and not seen as publicly as the leg.  I'd rather have a longer leg, run short on yarn for the foot and have to make the toe in a different color.  Another way to avoid running short on yarn, especially for sock 2, is to divide the yarn that you have in half.  Wind each half into it's own ball, working one sock from each ball.  There are other advantages to this as well.  When you reach the hell of sock one, if you have another set of needles, you can start sock 2 and do the heel at a more convenient time.  Or just work both socks simultaneously.
The casting on for toe up is quick using Judy's magic cast on.  That I love.  It is very fiddly though until you have about 6 stitches on each needle, that's takes some time.
For me it has been hard to get a foot that fits working toe up socks.  My first try at the Port socks ended up ripped because the foot was too short.  Now I did do some math and my notes from cuff down and was able to get a foot that fit.  Having done all the work and knowing all my numbers for cuff down I don't see a benifit for me to change.  Here are the links to the final 2 Port socks projects, one done left handed and the other Portuguese knit.  Port 2a  Port 2b This pattern will be available in my Rav store soon.  One sock is worked from the cuff down and the other is worked from the toe up.  Both use the same charts.  It is a pattern I put together for a sock anatomy class I hope to teach soon.

Caring for socks is very easy to do if you put some thought in to the project first.  First of all think about who you are making them for and how they will wear them.  My mom and grandmother only wear theirs around the house and to bed.  I wear mine in my shoes, even my sneakers.  I know of one knitter's husband who wears his running every morning, for 5 miles.  She using Corridale yarn for those and they are holding up.
My mom loves the merino, cashmere, nylon base sock yarn.  She hand washes her and my grandmother's socks.  My favorite base is super-wash merino, nylon.  I throw all those in the washer AND dryer.  I do have a few of hand wash only pairs, before I knit socks like an addict.  For hand wash socks, alpaca, merino and other non super-wash blends, I fill a pot, sink or whatever is handy with warm water and some Eucalan no rinse soap.  I drop the socks in and swish gently as these are feltable fibers and not in the washer for a reason.  I leave them to soak until the water has cooled, then spin out the excess water and lay flat to dry.  To spin out the water you can use the washing machine set so that no water comes in or use a salad spinner.
So choose the fiber in the base with the recipient in mind, not only how they will wear them, but how much time it will take to care for them.
If they are for children, who's feet grow so quickly I don't even make then socks, then just make tubes with no heel.  Then they will fit a while longer.  I also do this for someone who's shoe size I don't know.

Speaking of heels, there are many heels out there that can be worked on most patterns.  The newest one I learned is the short row heel.  I may like it better than the heel flap I have been working for so long.  I haven't finished that pair of socks yet and therefore don't know how it will feel on my foot, but I know the knitting of it is very quick.
You can also do an after thought heel.  To do this, when you get to where the heel would be put in, pick up some scrap yarn and knit across what would be the heel stitches.  Re-knit those stitches in pattern using the sock yarn and continue on to finish the sock.  Then come back and pick up stitches on each side the scrap yarn.  Remove the scrap yarn so the you have live stitches for your heel.  Now work a decrease similar to that of the toe.  I don't like this one because it comes out too pointy.

Socks wear better when always worn on the same foot.  So how do you know which sock goes on which foot?  In my socks that go on the right foot I a small 7 stitch by 3 round purl section.  It makes a bump that can be seen by the eye but not felt by the foot.

This morning when I put my socks on I couldn't remember if they were a hand wash pair or not, they are but I had to look up the yarn,  In future when I knit socks from a hand wash yarn I will put another kind of mark on one of the socks so I know immediately.

I store my socks, rolled up in pairs in plastic, lidded totes.  Each of these totes holds a dozen pairs, please don't judge me.

I have been knitting socks like crazy since that wonderful neighbor got me hooked back in 2014.  I always have at least one pair on the needles if not more.  I don't have all of them on my Ravelry page, but most of them are there now since I have decided to post anything that takes a week or longer on my Rav page.  I was keeping all the little bits of yarn left over so that I could darn my socks.  Then when it came to it, I decided not to darn them.  I have so many new pairs to wear, why not rip out the worn socks and re-knit them into something new?  Now my little left over bits are going into a Stephen West shawl, I get the pleasure of not only the yarn, but the memory of that pair of socks.  Either who I made the socks for, where I was when I made them or places I have worn them to.  I'm excited about this.

I went to rip out my first 2 pairs of socks and it did not work. Boo!  The bottoms were so felted that ripping is going to be impossible.  So instead I have started a box to collect my socks that are beyond foot wear.  My idea now is to use them as pieces of fabric to make crazy cloth for other finished objects, like bags or hats maybe.  Still just an idea, but I am excited about it.

I'm not here to change anyone's mind, I just want to share my sock experience.  In hopes of getting everyone to at least TRY socks, for 2019 I am going to host #azariahsbabysockchallenge on Insta Gram.  Baby socks are smaller and faster than full grown socks.  They take small amounts of yarn and can be done in any color.  For the challenge I would like all socks to be either donated or gifted, but not sold.  My goal is to make a pair a week and then they will be donated to the Women's Resource Center in my area.  There are many free patterns available on Ravelry.  I will draw for a prize once a month.  Any other info will posted on my IG Azariahs1982 the end of December.  Yes I am copying what Yarnhoarder did with dishcloths, sorry.

Nijah's First Doll

This is the story of Nijah's first doll, 12 years later.

This doll was first made about 12 years ago for my daughter. She carried it around and loved it as you can see from the picture.  Hers is the one on the left.

I was new at making toys, let alone designing them. My mom, who loves to crochet toys, proofed the directions for me and placed sticky notes, on the side with the corrections and some highlights to the actual text. These directions have been sitting on my desk for years, moved to another town and still sat on my desk. I finally got to them and found the doll too!

I decided that I would use the same basic idea but that some changes needed to be made. I used half double crochets on the new doll because the double crochets would let little fingers in to the stuffing.  I also used a smaller hook and lighter weight yarn.  This made for a smaller doll.

I also decided to go faceless for this new doll as Nijah ripped the face out of the original.  She was about a year old when I gave it to her and the recipient of the new doll is about 8 months old.

Both dolls are made from 100% acrylic yarn and stuffed with polyester fiberfil.

Here are the step by step directions to placing the hair on the doll.

First I cut lots and lots of strands.  Then I outline where I want hair.

I then insert the crochet hook where I want the next strand placed.

I fill in the area working from bottom to top and left to right.  Bottom to top is practical for the way the hair lays and placing new strands.  Left to right is preference.

I then fold a strand of yarn in half and wrap it around the crochet hook.

I then pull the strand through the stitch.

I then hook the 2 ends on the left around the hook and pull them through the loop I just made.

I then continue to pull the hook up and to the right, pulling the ends completely through the loop.  Then pull the ends tight to make the strand secure.

I continue these steps until all the hair is filled in.  It is time consuming, but I love the finished look.  It took me an entire movie to do her hair but I really like it.

Until next week, fiber on and Happy Thanksgiving!

Dying Cotton and Wool

Hello Everyone!
Wow, this week flew.  We lost our phone service and had no 911 for a while either.  We were living in the olden days.  What was nice about it is that I had no phone the night before and almost the entire election day.  Glad that's over...

So to dying.  I dyed some cotton t shirts for Cross County State Champs competion a couple of weekends ago.

The white shirt in the middle is what we started with.  I hate wearing white and my husband can't wear white as dirt finds him any where.  Our son, in the middle, was the one going to state, and can wear white without issue.  I dyed mine using the Jacquard's fiber reactive dyes.  I put the dye in some water in a large stainless steel pot.  I added the salt as directed on the back of the jar and later the washing soda.  The worst part of it is the stirring.  20 minutes constantly sat first.  Then I did every 10 minutes for about an hour to set the color.  Then into the washer it went.

The gray one I used Rit dye.  It works much the same way as the Jacquard's, except without adding anything other than water.  The stirring is for an entire hour though.  I made my hubby do that, it was his shirt after all.  Then it went into the washer with the purple shirt and then had a rinse in cold water.  I did dry them in the dryer as we had to wear them the next morning.  Dying cotton is fun and easy, it just takes more baby sitting than I like.  The sew threads in the shirt are made something else, probably nylon or rayon and didn't take the dye, so they are still white.

Remember safety, do NOT use the same tools for dying and for cooking.  You MUST use a different set for dying.

I also recently dyed some super wash wool yarn for a friends Christmas mitts.
Last year my BFF asked me to dye some yarn and make him some fingerless gloves that were the same color as a sweater I had knit many years ago.  I dug and dug and dug and couldn't find my notes on the dye recipe.  I finally found the names of the colors I used and started there.
I did 4 different samples and made notes of each.  I chose a sample for the gloves and dyed the yarn and made them.  When it came time for these mitts, a year later, I knew her favorite color was purple...  I had kept the samples and my notes!  This means that I can recreate any of these 4 colors!  I chose a color recipe and went to town.

I then wet out the fiber.  While it was soaking in the jar, I got out my dye solutions.

I discovered I was out of one color and needed to mix some more.  I make 1% solutions by mixing 5g of dye powder into 500mL of boiling water.  I use the metric system when dying because it makes calculating and replicating easier and faster.

I then mixed my dyes in another jar and added 60mL of vinegar.

I then poured the water in the yarn jar into the dye jar.  I didn't have to worry about felting because this is a superwash wool.  If it were a fine fiber such as yak or even alpaca I would have removed the yarn from the jar before pouring and not taken any chances.

I then put the yarn into the water and shoved it down.  The white near the center of the picture is the yarn in the dye jar.  If I had needed more water to cover the yarn I would have slowly added to it.
From here I have 3 choices for setting the dye.  Place the jar in a pot of water on the stove and slowly heating about 180F.  My favorite method is solar dying.  I would place a lid on this jar and put it outside first thing the morning where the sun will be for most of the day, but only if the weather were going to be 80F or warmer.  The way I set this particular jar of dye was the microwave.  For a jar this large, 32oz, I did 3 minutes heating, 3 minutes waiting, 3 times for a total of 9 minutes heating.  I then leave it to cool in the microwave for about 4-6 hours, or over night.

After leaving the dye to sit and cool until after I picked up the children from school, I removed the yarn from the jar and rinsed it with water of the same temperature. Again because this is super-wash wool I could just run it under the running tap. If it were almost any other fiber I would have filled another vessel with water and carefully swished it in there.

Unless you have used an excessive amount of dye, or used either a blue or fuchsia, then the water in the dye vessel should be clear and the yarn rinse clear rather quickly. Blue and fuchsia don't always exhaust well, be it Kool-Aid or an acid dye company.

Most acid dyes are safe enough to go down the drain, but check the label first! I pour both my Kool-Aid and Jacquard's down the drain. We live on a septic tank and have had no problems with me doing this over the last 6 years.

I store my 1% solutions in Zip-Lock bowls, on a shelf in my basement dye studio. There is no heat in there and the bowls are stores on against a foundation wall. I moved many of them here with me 6 years ago and they still dye and set like they did when I first mixed them.

Store dyes out of reach of children and pets. There is even an MSDS available for some dyes and that should be posted if you have those dyes. In this picture you can see my bowls stacked up in the back, my jars of powders in the front and the color chart to the left. This shelf is eye level to me at 5' 8" and is made out of metal. You will want the dyes on a shelf with few or no holes and made of an easy to clean surface such as metal or melamine.

If a spill does occur as seen in the photo here...

It is easy to clean up. Soak up as much dye as you can using a paper towel, do not wipe. Then using a cleaning rag, baking soda and hot water, scrub off the remaining dye

This will also work if you get any on your hands and you didn't wear gloves.

The safety directions tell you to wear gloves for a reason. These are acid dyes to be used on protein fibers and therefore will stick to protein. What are we? Protein. I personally don't wear gloves as I don't dye daily. If your exposure is higher because you dye often wear gloves, save your self. Also be sure to follow any other safety precautions listed on the jar or company website.

If the safety precautions and directions are followed it can be great fun to dye. If you want to be able to reproduce your results keep good notes.

When I make a color sample I used 1g of yarn and measure in drops. When working with 1% solutions, I use 1mL of dye to 1g of fiber. More for a more intense color and less for a paler color. 1mL has about 24 drops in it. I use a dropper that holds 1mL and get drops from it. It is slow and tedious but I was able to replicate my results. For example for this purple I needed 16 drops of one color and 8 drops of the other color. I was dying 100g of yarn so I multiplied each of those numbers by 100. That told me how many drops I needed of each color. That would take simply forever so I then divided that number by 24 and that result is the number of mL I needed of each color. Much better.

In my next post about dying I will walk through making a color sample spectrum and the measuring tools I use for dying.

Next week will be about Glory's First Doll. Until then fiber on.

Make It With Wool and a few other things...

As promised here are the results from the Colorado Make It With Wool 2018 contest.

Glory and I started out early, 0545 am on our way to the Adams County Fair grounds in Brighton, Colorado.  I was about a 2 hour trek from Deer Trail and it was raining.  Thankfully we made it to the pavement before the dirt road became muddy.  There were breakfast pastries and juice awaiting our arrival.
We were ready.  The others arrived and Gloria gave us the run down for the morning.  Get dressed and while you wait your turn for judging please work on the puzzle and take the sheep test.  I learned a lot from the sheep test and the puzzle was of gummy bears which we all received a packet of.
Here is Glory all ready for judging.  She had a low number so got to be done quickly, but she did have to go in front of ALL the judges because she entered a knitted piece.

I got ready and was in the middle of a pack of 12 ladies.  Talking to the judges was so much easier this year.  I don't have a picture of just me in my outfit, but here is one of both of us in front of the restaurant, Senior Ric's in Aurora.

Neither of us placed to go to Nationals.  I did get 3rd in my group and was top knitter.  We received some great flowers and gift certificates for participating.  As top knitter I received a $25 gift certificate to Shuttles, Spindles and Skeins in Boulder.  I plan to go there later this month.  Look at this rose, isn't it amazing!

These last 2 weeks I completed my sweater, the leg warmers in the picture, 2 dishcloths, socks, did some dying and killing.  I will go step by step through the killing processing that I did, but I am going to save everything else for future posts.

Killing is the process for blocking acrylic items.
You will need either a steam iron or garment steamer, blocking surface, tape measure and rust proof pins.
Spread out the item on the blocking surface and pin if needed into the desired finished size and shape.

This is a finished blanket that one of the ladies in my crochet group asked me to finish for her.  I decided it needed killed before I did the embroidery.  I have spread it out on my blocking surface, which is a child's play mat covered with a sheet.

Here is a shot of my steamer on the stool so that the hose can reach farther.
Do NOT touch the piece with the iron or steamer as it could burn it.  After you have passed over a section do NOT touch it at all as you could squish it completely.  Acrylic is a type of plastic, so killing partially melts the fiber into its new shape and as it cools it will stay forever; even after washing.  I did wash this piece before I began, because any dirt on it when you kill could become permanent,

Here you can see how close I am to the surface of the blanket but not touching it.
After you have steamed the piece, leave it to cool for at least an hour.  It can then be handled and used.  Killing often makes even the softest yarns even softer.

Here are some pictures of the shark blanket I finished a couple of weeks ago.  H Bomb was much happier to pose for this than the unicorn.

I have started to crochet a doll, which I am proofing the pattern for as I go.  I have also started Robbie's gloves for his birthday, again another pattern and tomorrow I'm hoping to jump full into Mom's birthday shawl.  Yes maybe another pattern.  It has a symbol in it that is possibly copyrighted and I'm not sure what to do with it, we'll see.

In my next post I will share about dying, both wool and cotton.  In the wool dying I will be discussing how to use acid dyes, make notes and get repeatable results.

Happy Stitching!