Oranje Tulpen

I don't have to translate that, right?

With a bunch of orange wool blend facing me after ripping apart a sweater in a fit of I-don't-want-to-wait-a-minute-longer, I looked for a suitable sock pattern.

What could be better for bright Dutch orange than socks with a tulip pattern? Nothing, of course.

Obviously I am still carrying my trip to the Netherlands last June with me. And why would I fight that?

After a false start making these toe up, I ripped them out and started from the top. The chart kept me on my toes. It's a 24-row repeat with an independent lace panel on each side.

But totally worth it because you end up with these lovely tulips running up the centre front of your sock.

After finishing the leg, I knit the back stitches for 24 rows to make a heel flap followed by a short-row heel:

Then I picked up 12 stitches on both sides of the flap and starting knitting all the way around again. I decreased the extra stitches, one on each side every third row instead of every other row to make a longer gusset.

Once the gusset was decreased, I knit straight on to the toes. I thought I had room for one more "loop de loop" in the tulip pattern but I probably should have skipped it. By the time that was done, I didn't have much room for the toe. I decreased the stitches in fewer rows than normal and ended with more stitches to. This yielded a much more rounded toe.

I did the decreases different on this pair, just for something to try. Instead of lining up the K2togs and the SSKs so that a strong line appears on the decrease line, I reversed their positions and got an essentially invisible decrease. There's just a slight line between the front and back stitches.

Besides the length of the foot being just a bit long (there's no extra length, really; the socks just don't have to stretch to fit), these are definitely one of the best fitting socks I have. I am really loving the heel flap with short-row heel and the longer gusset really helps relieves some of the tightness over the top of my foot. I think my foot is pretty narrow, but it definitely needs more room around the foot, just in front of the leg. Maybe it's the high arches. I don't know, but I'm really happy to have found something that works.

The yarn I used is only 40% merino and I'm hoping it will be not quite as warm (even though it also has 20% angora and 10% cashmere). With the sock's short length, I think they will be good for spring and fall season. So far it is working out that way!

Project Stats
Started: 2 Jan '15
Finished: 25 Apr '15
Pattern: Tulpen by Stephanie van der Linden (free)
Materials: 40% merino/30% viscose/20% angora/10% cashmere mix from an Express sweater (78 g), held double


Here's one more look--some slip of the finger or misuse of the timer produced this picture, but I think it is kind of neat anyway.

More of All the Things

I don't feel like I've been getting very far on any of my projects (hmm...maybe a consequence of having so many going?), but I have updates on all of them for you.

Last time I showed you this Wool-Aid sweater, I only had a few inches done on the back!

I've had a lot of meetings this past week and since the sun was shining, I knit over some lunch breaks while sitting in my portable sunroom (aka my car) and so I've made some good progress. It doesn't hurt that I like to knit this yarn.

I told you I was going to add stripes, and you can see that I did. I placed them just below the armhole. All the pieces are knit and I have sewn the shoulder seams. Next up is to knit the collar. I have to get that set up tonight so I can work on it on the way to and from church tomorrow.

I got the 200+ stitches cast on for the skirt I said I was ready to start. I knit about 10-12 rows in the smallest size needle (a real pain in the hand) and had some doubts about the size.

So I threaded two cables together so that I could stretch the knitting out and try it on. My doubts were well-founded. It looks like I can reduce the stitch count by 30. So much for swatches! I haven't quite had the fortitude to rip it out and restart. Yet.

My orange tulip socks are coming along:

 I only work on them at home when I can follow a chart. Can't quite make out the tulip pattern? Here it is:

I assume you can see it now. I think I'll start the heel after this pattern repeat. I've decided to make these shorter than my usual socks. They have a much lower percentage of wool and I'm thinking they'll make good spring/fall socks. I've finally come to realize that not all of my socks need to be warm enough for dead-of-winter.

After finishing re-spinning the grey Jacob wool, I have done more on the Blue Face Leicester. My spindle got full enough that the wool was getting unruly on the shaft, so I wound it onto the niddy noddy.

I'll do the rest of the fibre separately. I have 75 yards done and it weighs one ounce, so that should be about half. (My scale isn't particularly accurate.)

I don't know if it's because of the colour or the fine weight, but I keep thinking of doing some lace with it. Single ply isn't the best for lace, though, and I'm not sure I can trust my yarn to hold up to the blocking!

I've been itching to dye something and with the Wool-Aid sweater almost done, I'll need another project to take out and about. I want to switch back to socks because they're a lot easier to do away from home.

I've made a couple pair of socks from this wool from a GAP sweater

and could use it again. There is just no way I am making another grey pair. So I have it soaking right now and am going to try for a multi-tone blue/green colour. We'll see how it works!

Where to Start?

You may recall my plying this orange yarn from a raveled sweater:

The full story is here. I was planning to use it to make sturdy socks.

Well. After searching for a suitable pattern and settling on this nice tulip pattern by Stephanie van der Linden, I started to knit with the plied yarn. It did not take me long to realize that it was too thick for socks at my normal gauge! All that work and it wasn't going to work. Not in this pair of socks, anyway.

So for plan B, I took the yarn from the front and back of the sweater (since I had already plied the sleeves) and started the same socks with just two strands. Since this pattern is more like a recipe (including such "detailed" instructions as "turn heel") I figured it would be easy to convert it to my usual toe-up method.

But. Once I had the toes done, I took a look at the cable pattern. It was not something I wanted to have upside down on my sock. Most of the patterns I convert to toe up are either identical or just as nice when done upside down. Not this cable.

At first I thought I would be able to convert on the fly while knitting. You can't just turn the chart upside down, but I thought I could figure it out. Then I wasn't sure. I actually did a swatch of just the cable pattern. I figured it out, but didn't do the entire pattern, or write down what I did.

I went back to the sock, but didn't work on it for long. When it had been sitting forlornly in a basket for a few weeks, I realized there was just too much going on at once and I was expecting way too much of myself to be able to convert the chart.

Then. I broke through my mental barrier on this pattern when I realized I didn't have to do it toe-up just because I usually do. What a thought. It's not like I'm worried about running out of yarn--I have a whole sweater's worth. So I ripped out those toes and started again at the cuff.

It's going much better now. As in, I am actually making progress. ;)

They're not speeding along because I only work on them at home. Working from a chart just isn't good take-along knitting. (Well, maybe to a knitting group where the expectation is that you'll be knitting, but not to meetings and other places where you should make eye contact as you listen and talk.) And the chart is 24 rows of non-repeating cabling so I'm not going to be memorizing it any time soon!

It's a very enjoyable orange colour to be working with. My sister made a comment about my orange and grey zig zag quilt, that my trip to the Netherlands is still having an effect, and I think she's right. Hup Oranje!