Argyle Update

Here are a few pictures of the progress people are making on their argyles.

My mom's (Lois)

Simma's

Angela (left) and me (right)

More Chemo Hats

Here are the chemo hat for teenagers that I knit a few weeks ago.  Hope someone likes them....
Clockwise starting with the black hat:  Turn-a-Square, One Day Beret, and Brattleboro Hat.

Chemo Hats for Teens

As many of you know, my daughter Simma works as a pediatric oncology nurse at Lucille Packard Children's Hospital in Palo Alto.  She has mentioned to me that selection of teen-appropriate hats is, shall we say, wanting.  People will often donate hats for toddlers and babies and the hat box is filled with crocheted pastel hats.  So, over the holidays my mom and I both started knitting some hats for the teens.  My mom has finished three hats already and here they are.  The pattern is "In-Between Seasons Cap".  They look great!

Simma also told me that she had a patient recently that had a store-bought hat that had a hand-knitted flower on it.  If anyones wants to knit some flowers for hats and send them to the hospital, let me know.  Also, not to forget: boys need hats, too.  

I'll post my hats in a few days.

Argyle Sample

Not to scare you or anything.....

Before the cuff gets sewn up.  Lots of ends to weave in.

I finished the sample of the baby version of the argyle sock and it worked!  This pattern is different from all those vintage ones in that it only has argyle on the cuff.  I couldn't find a pattern like that so I am making our own pattern.  I will write it all up soon.  I have been home sick and I didn't even feel like knitting much of the time. 

A few notes:

If you know that tangly mess is going to drive you crazy, you can just knit the diamonds and then put the lines in with duplicate stitch.  That would reduce the number of bobbins by four.  I put a video (over to the right) on duplicate stitch.  It isn't cheating!  It's more like sewing.  Though I know that some of us hate sewing:-)

Get your yarn and do a swatch.  That is the very first thing to do. Cast-on 18-24 stitches and knit a square.  Bring it along to the next SnB.  Then we will determine what chart you should use.

Let's Get Ready for Argyles!

We are hoping to schedule an SnB for next weekend, but can't be completely sure yet.  In the meantime, it would be good to gather your supplies. Here's a list:

1.  Sock yarn in at least 3 colors.  You will need a lot of one color for the main parts of the sock and then you will need small amounts for the diamonds and lines.  You can also use 5 colors as shown above.  It doesn't actually make it any more difficult.  You will still have the same number of bobbins...

2. Bobbins.  You will need 8 bobbins if you decide to knit the lines into the pattern.  (Some people like to put the lines in by using the duplicate stitch after the sock is done. This way you would need only 4 bobbins. Doing the duplicate stitch later may help cut back on tangled up bobbins...)  A lot of people think bobbins are silly and prefer to do a special little butterfly skein.  I like the bobbins, but I should try it!  Here is a video on how to do that.  

3. Needles.  The argyle part of this pattern will be knit flat.  So you will need either straight or circular needles to knit back and forth on.  You will aslo need a set double-pointed needles - in the same size - to finish the foot of the sock.  Determine the size of your needles based on your yarn.  I like #1's for socks, but you may prefer something else.

I have worked up charts (in Excel!) that have an argyle cuff in several sizes.  So far I have charts with 71stitches, 67 stitches, 63 stitches and a baby one with 27 stitches. You will have to knit a swatch to determine which one will work for you.  I could make more charts.  I can email these to you or just print them out an bring them to the SnB.  Last time we knit these, we used the 63 stitch pattern and it was just a little small, that's why I made up a few different sizes.

The standard finished sock circumference sizes are:

Woman S  7.5"

Woman M  8"

Woman L  8.5"

Man S  9"

Man M  9.5"

Man L  10"

Your sock should have a little negative ease, so it could be about 1/2 inch less than your foot circumference. You measure your foot at the arch.  But probably if you are generally a medium sized woman, you can just go with the measurement above.

So, if you are game, get your supplies and knit a swatch! 

What was thought to be a boy turned out to be a girl...

Little Miss. Wendy Walter-Herr sporting the Torben hat. I thought Wendy was going to be a boy but turned out to be a little girl but still looks terribly cute in blue.

My first Christmas Ornaments

I went to Imagiknit today in the hopes of getting a few very exciting projects started. However after I got home I accidentally drank approximately 3 (OK 4, but who's counting?) glasses of wine and figured I'd save myself the inevitable tears and start my knitting tomorrow. So instead I thought I might post the Christmas ornaments I made this holiday season. I made 2 "Ho, Ho, Ho" ornaments, one for my Nana and one for my boyfriend's parents, both of which went over quite well. In addition, I made a tiny Flyers hoodie for my boyfriend Lane, who is a fan of both the Philadelphia Flyers and hoodies incidentally. He expressly asked me to neither knit or buy a sweater for him this Christmas season but I just couldn't help myself.