Monday, June 30, 2008

In Which There Are Toes

Finally, pictures. I think I need to be a little more attentive to measurements and stop when the foot measures seven inches from the end of the toes to the beginning of the heel; they ended up being not quite as snug as I wanted, but the next pair will be better now that I know what I'm doing. It's too hot to wear these right now, though, so I just put them on for picture purposes and whipped them back off again as soon as I was finished.
I've just cast on the toes for the next pair: purple toes and heels to go with Christine's yarn. I'm not sure what she used to dye it, but the colors--I'm sure I've said this before--remind me of Johnny Jump-Ups, which is what I'll probably call the socks for filing purposes.
The heat is really getting to me. It's been stormy here, but this hasn't lessened the humidity--go figure: rain=higher humidity--and I feel sluggish and ill because of the heat. Right now I'm hiding in my room with the air conditioner on and have no plans to poke my nose out the door unless the dog needs to go out or the house decides to burn down. It's okay, though, because I have a stack of library books to keep me occupied, and I've got socks to knit.
Dad wants to go to New England in August; I've told him he's nuts, especially because he wants to drive. I mean, really. He's driving here from Minnesota, which is already a huge distance and huge expense and huge amount of gas; I'm not sure he'll turn right around and drive to New England the minute he gets here, but after at least a couple days of recovering, he'll want to bundle into the car and get started, which will be another huge distance and another huge amount of gas. It'll be nice to get out of town for a bit, I admit, but... it's really a quandary.

7 comments:

teabird said...

Those are seriously cute socks!

La Duchesse said...

Fanks. :)

RaeS said...

The socks look awesome!! YAY! I guess you chose not to do the intarsia (you were using the knitty tabi socks pattern, right?). I like em! I still have to rip our and redo the one I've done.

I love that ball of yarn. It does look like Johnny Jump-Ups!

The humidity is crazy! I don't think I've gone out of the house in days... which isn't good.

Do post about it if you do end up going to New England. Would you just be going for vacation, or to visit family or something?

La Duchesse said...

Just for vacation, I think, though I suspect dad also wants to visit with his old Peace Corps(e) supervisor.

It was finally dry enough to mow the grass today, but it's still hot and humid. Ick.

What happened to your socks? They were going so well....! :(

RaeS said...

I took a break from the tabis when I discovered the "placet" part in the back was off-center. I ripped it out and redid it twice and it seems to be a mistake in the pattern or something because it turns out too wide and slightly to one side instead of in the middle like it should be. And then the intarsia also looks all lumpy and sloppy and the sock stretches awkwardly around it (this was the first time I've ever tried colorwork, so I guess I just don't have the hang of it). So I think I'll rip it out back to before the placet started and just knit the leg part in-the-round without the placet and embroider the kanji character in after the sock is done... But I got side tracked by other projects, so it's still set aside for right now. I'll probably get back to it toward the end of the summer...

La Duchesse said...

I had that problem with the orange bag. The fabric was fine before I felted it, but once it was felted, the intarsia got sort of puckery, so it's been draped over the railing upstairs and is unfinished because I'm too lazy to do the strap and lining... and I haven't decided how to correct the puckery part. Are there big stretches where you have to wrap the stitches? It drove me nuts, but it helped a bit... I can't imagine having to wrap every single stitch if you're doing a big project, even if it does help eliminate the big floats. Argh!

I just knit the legs in the round and skipped the placket.. but of course if you do it that way, you can't do the fair isle work unless you go back and embroider it in afterward... Which you just said. I don't know how to do duplicate stitch, so for now my tabi will be kanji-less. :( I have confidence in your abilities, though! You will prevail!

RaeS said...

No, there are lumpy and uneven stitches all over the place when I switch the colors back and forth, and then the fabric doesn't stretch right. Too tight in some places and too loose in others. I think it's a matter of inconsistent tension causing the lumpiness. I haven't quite got the hang of the floats and wraps and it looks like my stitch tension suffered a lot from it. I think it's just going to take more practice and probably watching more tutoring videos online 'til I get the hang of it. I'm sure there must be videos about it on youtube though I haven't looked yet...

I think I'll just weave in the CC over the stitches that should be the CC to form the kanji, following the MC yarn in those stitches. I once repaired a moth-eaten shawl that way and it seemed to fix those holes and weak spots in a way that didn't show, so I'm hoping the same thing will work just as well to fake the color-work this time. When I finally get to it, I'll try to remember to take pictures of what I'm doing and maybe write up something for my blog about it. I'm not sure if it's an existing technique and if so what it's called, but... I guess I'll see if I can find out later.