Many Happy Returns

Oh, my—it's been two months since I posted! We can mark the beginning of my long silence to my return to full-time work, which has been quite an adjustment after a couple years' dissertation writing. (This is not to say that the dissertation is finished, just to say that it's no longer my full-time focus—which underlines the extremity of my lack of blog time.) I have continued to knit, though, plus I taught two classes and have developed another original design for one of the classes I will teach this winter.


I thought it would be nice to mark my return to blogging with a return to the Pagewood MUMTU socks I made in conjunction with the sock class I taught over three sessions in October. When last I wrote, I was thoroughly enamored with the Pagewood Farm Denali Hand Dyed Sock Yarn. Seriously enamored with it... just look at the subtle sophistication of the gorgeous Butterfly colorway!

When I returned home from the final class—where I had let two of the students practice Elizabeth Zimmerman's stretchy cast-off on my socks because they hadn't quite finished the cuffs on their own—I couldn't wait to pop them straight in the Eucalan.


If you haven't tried this soak for your woolens, I highly recommend it. I just swish a few drops into my favorite mixing bowl (which also happens to be the perfect size for soaking hand-knits), drop the socks in, let them sit for about 15 minutes, pull them out, and block/dry them. No rinsing required—it's great!


I love the way the reinforced Eye of Partridge heel looks. If you scan the above picture up to the cuffs, you can see how pretty the twisted rib looks in this yarn and how nicely it harmonizes with the heel stitch. And the yarn continues to woo me with its squishy goodness.

Some of the ladies in my class said they would not reinforce their toes or heels again because they thought it made the fabric too stiff. This was before they actually finished their socks. So I brought in several pairs with reinforced toes and heels as a demonstration: Even though it may seem like you've crafted your socks in Teflon while you're knitting, the yarns full together during washing and soften so much that you never notice the reinforcing thread when you wear them. (But they still wear like iron!)

As for this particular finished pair... and the wearing...


The socks are very pretty. As predicted, nobody else notices that they're two different colors, which I pointed out in my previous post. I'm not sure I'll knit another pair for myself in this Pagewood yarn, though. My reason has less to do with appearance than wear. These socks may actually be a little too soft. That sounds whiny and way over-privileged, so hear me out:

Remember how surprised I was that my primary stitch count was 60 for these, when I normally use 64 PSC for MUMTUs on fingering weight yarn? Well, the resulting fabric is much less dense than I prefer:you don't get the same stable feel from the fabric. And this means that while the socks are still thick and cushy feeling when I hold them in my hands, the fabric shifts and stretches so much when I put them on my feet (and into my shoes) that I worry they won't wear well over time.

Finally, they're a little thicker inside my shoes than I usually need in Seattle. If I still lived in Ohio's snow belt, they'd be much more necessary. But for Seattle's usually milder climate—I say "usually" because I've been snow-bound at home four days thanks to two storms that dumped more than 5 inches in my yard and frosted our hilly streets with a thick sheet of ice, making them completely impassable given our lack of municipal infrastructure for snow removal—for Seattle's usually milder climate, the socks aren't all that comfortable.

Lessons Crossing the Continental Divide

Sometimes it's the impulse buys—the ones you look at afterwards with some regret and think, "What possessed me to invest in that?" . . . the ones you relegate to your Ravelry "Trade/Sell" stash, where you hope you'll be able to recoup at least some of your investment but, instead, they sit for months with absolutely nobody expressing interest of any kind—sometimes it really is those buys which result in the most satisfying projects.


Such was the case of my Maizy. What on earth was this die-hard wool enthusiast (i.e. me) thinking when I popped those two little skeins of 82% corn fiber / 18% elastic nylon into my basket?

I'll tell you what I was thinking: "Co00000ol... Corn yarn...." (Read that line with a note of Homer Simpson's "Mmmmmm... Floor donuts..." and you have a pretty clear image of the fiber-induced stupor into which I must have fallen.)

So the Maizy sat for months and months. I would gladly have passed it along to someone else, but nobody would have it. And then, while packing for one of our camping trips this summer, I realized I would be finishing one project before we returned and needed another to have at-the-ready. Short on packing time, the Maizy called to me for several reasons:

1. I had already identified and printed a pattern—one that had been designed on the yarn by the yarn manufacturer, so I trusted I wouldn't need to stress about running out of yarn the entire way through the top-down construction;
2. The yarn comes in center-pull put-ups, so I didn't have to reskein it;
3. The pattern calls for US2 needles, which I viewed as a welcome relief after the long work on my recent stretch of ultimately disappointing US1-needle sock projects this summer; and
4. Because I wasn't overly invested in wanting these socks to turn out brilliantly, I felt comfortable using them for an experiment... these would be my first-ever project knit entirely Continental, which I blogged about previously in Old Dog.
   

The result?

My Continental Maizy Lace Socks:


Pattern: Maizy Lace by Cathy Hannigan (for Crystal Palace). The free pattern is available via Crystal Palace.
Materials: Maizy, Neptune 1009, 2 skeins
Needles: US 2 / 2.75 mm
Started: August 1, 2008
Completed: August 12, 2008

Although they were the last of 3 pairs I completed for Summer of Socks 2008, with all the crazy stuff going on in my life this last part of the summer, I never posted them for the final raffle.

I worked these socks top-down, two at once, using Magic Loop. The pattern's not written for Magic Loop, but translates easily.


The simple yarn-over lace features pairs of offset diagonals that don't quite form a perfect inverted V but are perfectly charming, nonetheless.

The heel was written for a simple slip-knit stitch, which I exchanged for Eye of Partridge. I ask you, is there ever a time when Eye of Partridge doesn't make a more interesting choice?

Despite the stitch modification, I did not modify the garter detail flanking the heel flap:

Talk about charming! I may start adding this detail to all my socks from here on out. It creates a lovely frame for a more finished looking heel... and while I point to no higher authority upon which to base this next claim, I could swear it makes the heel fit more snugly. Of course, it may just be the elastic nylon that draws it in.

Overall, the socks fit very well given the pattern's not written for a customized fit.

And while I often find multi-colored yarns obnoxious for their striping and pooling effects—a feature which many people seem to turn a blind eye to in their enthusiasm for the caché of hand-dyed yarns—I actually like the way the colors played out in these socks. No complaints!

Even the Continental knitting went remarkably smoothly. In fact, I think these were one of my quickest knits of the summer. I still instinctively saddle-up Western style, but I became highly proficient at Continental on this project—both knitting and purling (on the heels)—and I'll challenge myself to more Continental knitting in the future.

Maizy is really spongy, and it's splitty in a not-very-splitty kind of way (if that makes any sense). It did take a few inches of knitting to get used to it, but once I did, I found working with the Maizy rather enjoyable. I'd even go so far as to say I'd prefer to work with Maizy again over cotton—cotton just doesn't have enough give to give me a pleasant knitting experience.

And now, a request for you:

Anyone out there know anything about the manufacturing process for Maizy yarn? I'm interested in the environmental impact... You know: just because something's predominantly made from a natural fiber doesn't mean the processing required to turn that fiber into knit-able yarn isn't loaded with so many harsh and damaging chemicals as to make the whole natural-implied labeling laughable. If you have any information about this process or can point me to online resources, I'd be grateful!

Mash-Up Magic Toe-Up Socks (Recipe)

My first socks of summer are done, blocked, and photographed!

Too bad they don't count towards my Summer of Socks 2008 participation! I do have two other legitimate SoS08 pairs on the needles right now. Sadly, I cast the ones pictured on on Father's Day, as I needed an in-process demonstration sock for the magic loop class I taught.

I've dubbed them the Mash-Up Magic Toe-Up Socks (MUMTU Socks or MUMTUS), and I've posted the condensed version of the pattern on Ravelry. Ravelers can view the project page here. Anyone can download the PDF by clicking here.

(ETA) You can also work through the pattern using my in-depth workshop/pictorial here on Aesthetic Entanglementz.

If you're not on Ravelry, don't despair—I haven't forgotten you! I've just run out of time to complete the conversions needed to post the pattern here before I leave for my camping trip in the morning. I am working on the pictorial for a workshop version of the pattern that will debut on Aesthetic Entanglementz shortly after I return from vacation later this week. (Another pair of socks that won't count towards my Summer of Socks participation since I'll be making them kid-sized. Alas—C just couldn't handle seeing another pair that wasn't for her!)

Aside from the fact that this pattern's customizable for any size, yarn weight, or gauge, what makes it special is that it features a pretty gusset and heel-flap (rather than a short-row heel) worked in the toe-up, magic loop construction.

My favorite! If I never saw another sock design, I could happily make these forever!

Here are my notes on the socks as pictured:

Pattern: Mash-Up Magic Toe-Up Socks (Recipe compiled by me). Download PDF.
Materials: Zitron Trekking Pro Natura, 1 skein, colorway 1602
Needles: US 1 / 2.25 mm
Started: June 15, 2008
Completed: June 27, 2008

Specs as pictured:

• Magic Loop
• Toe-Up
• 2 at once
• 2x2 ribbing on leg
• Gusset
• Eye of Partridge Heel Flap
• Reinforced toes (using laceweight Russian wool from my stash)
• Primary Stitch Count: 72

Love the pattern. Love the fit. Even might be persuaded to say I love the feel of the yarn. But I strongly dislike the look of the yarn. So much so that I lovingly refer to this pair as my "Anti Pro Natura Socks."

I really wish Zitron—and other yarn manufacturers, in general—would state on the ball band whether there’s a clear repeat within the yarn or not. They don't really have to include a picture of what exactly the pattern looks like, but some indication would be nice! You know, like: Repeating pattern, 3 yards. Aside from being courteous, it would make for happier customers, I think. In the case of the Pro Natura, I couldn’t discern a clear repeat when I was dividing the skein and winding the balls. However, about 4 inches into the socks, it became readily apparent that there is, in fact, a repeat … and that I hadn’t gotten the socks aligned. (In fact, I was only off by a slight margin, but that was nothing more than luck.) Grrrr.

Besides the repeat issue, I really just dislike how the colorway worked up. It's too bad because I thought the yarn was absolutely gorgeous in the skein. I liked it so much that I almost bought 2 skeins! But when I look at it worked up, I think it's bleghchy. I’m just not a fan of the areas of white pooling or of the way the contrast works. This is the kind of colorway and striping that makes me cranky, in general, because it rarely looks good knit up and just indicates to me that the yarn manufacturer wasn’t working with enough sensitivity to finish project.

So I ended up hating these socks the entire time I worked on them–not because of the pattern or concerns over fit or amount of yarn but, simply, because I don’t like the way the yarn looks. Some have asked why I continued knitting them if I dislike them so much—and why, on earth, I would have knit the cuff so long? Well, there's the obvious fact that these were being knit as a demonstration sock for the class. In addition to that, I decided they'll be good for wearing under boots (I'm wear boots almost every day during the cold months). That means nobody’s going to be looking at them. It also means they need to be long enough to peek over the boot top so the edge doesn't chafe my leg. Purely practical.