Old Socks and New
Nov. 9th, 2003 05:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
firstfrostI finished the Eight Cable socks (see an earlier entry for the picture) - these are for the Father, but I haven't put that on the actual Socks page because he might see it and they're still a surprise. I should be less lame about mailing them, though. I spent several months trailing around a puzzle trail, gathering up yarn and a book of socks pattern, which was certainly the most thoroughly entertaining wedding present ever. :) (Janzur should also get a lot of credit for this, as the puzzle comptroller on site). So he got a puzzle thank-you note, but also gets socks.
Now, I've started the ``grandmaster socks''. The basic plan is a red wavy dagger, on black. It's an interesting challenge. First, the dagger is intarsia (the sort of color work that's a blob of color, rather than a running color pattern), which means the red yarn needs to go back and forth, rather than round and round, which is what you normally do for socks. So it's got a seam:
I'm joining the seam with wrapped stitches, but I think I should have taken a page from normal selvedges, and slipped the "edge" stitches; as is, they're bunching up and are bulkier than I'd like.
Second, I'm not completely satisfied with the dagger. I like the twisted cable for the handle - it's a standard 2x2 cable, but the crossovers are asymmetrical, so it travels one stitch over for each cross, which gives it the little bit of a tilt. Things I'm not happy with: I think it needs more wave at the top - moving back and forth two stitches instead of one could be good. And the blade bunches a lot. I'm often poor with float tension, but I think the problem here is with the cabled stitch, not the floats. So making the wave happen with increases and decreases might be better.
Anyway, I'm going to rip back to the ribbing and try again, for the second time (the first time was centered wrong, oops). Happily, it's only a few days of work.
Now, I've started the ``grandmaster socks''. The basic plan is a red wavy dagger, on black. It's an interesting challenge. First, the dagger is intarsia (the sort of color work that's a blob of color, rather than a running color pattern), which means the red yarn needs to go back and forth, rather than round and round, which is what you normally do for socks. So it's got a seam:
I'm joining the seam with wrapped stitches, but I think I should have taken a page from normal selvedges, and slipped the "edge" stitches; as is, they're bunching up and are bulkier than I'd like.
Second, I'm not completely satisfied with the dagger. I like the twisted cable for the handle - it's a standard 2x2 cable, but the crossovers are asymmetrical, so it travels one stitch over for each cross, which gives it the little bit of a tilt. Things I'm not happy with: I think it needs more wave at the top - moving back and forth two stitches instead of one could be good. And the blade bunches a lot. I'm often poor with float tension, but I think the problem here is with the cabled stitch, not the floats. So making the wave happen with increases and decreases might be better.
Anyway, I'm going to rip back to the ribbing and try again, for the second time (the first time was centered wrong, oops). Happily, it's only a few days of work.
