It’s a little gross, but it works

If you knit a lot of large projects – or projects involving more than one skein of yarn, you have encountered the step of switching from one skein of yarn to another mid-project. This is called a ‘join’ or a ‘tie-on’ in knitting lingo, and there are a lot of different ways to do it. You might know twelve different ways. It’s also entirely possible that you’ve been sort of Macguyver-ing this step and are convinced there is a better way to do it than your way. If you’re happy with the results you’ve been getting, by all means keep doing it.

Truthfully, you’ve got many fun options available to you, including simply dropping the old yarn and picking up the new one and returning later on to weave in the ends. There’s also the tried-and-true method of overlapping the incoming and exiting yarns with each other (holding them both yarns together and knitting a few stitches with both), or the approach of tying a square knot between the exiting and incoming tails of yarn, proceeding by knitting with the new yarn. I’ve used both of these options before, and they work just fine. The main downside with both of these options is that they  involve coming back later to deal with the ends.

If you’re working with 100% wool, more methods are available to you – in particular, the spit splice. Strands of wool (and it must be 100% regular wool, not superwash wool or wool blended with other things) have the ability to get fuzzy and friendly with other strands of wool. The same qualities, incidentally, that allow wool to felt – the planned and purposeful version of shrinking a piece of knitting – allow you to execute a spit splice.  Just as any kind of wool felting involves three steps: moisture, heat, and friction, a spit splice also needs all of these things! If you’re not familiar with this join, here’s how it goes:

(I grabbed this yarn from my leftovers bin, but in case you’ve fallen in love with it, it’s Knit Picks Wool of the Andes, in ‘amethyst.’)

1. First, separate the plies of your wool yarn at the ends (as pictured above). The yarn pictured is 4-ply which means I could actually go in and tease out all 4 individual plies on each of the two ends, but as you’ll see, separating the plies into 2 sections each does just fine. And, if you had a 2-ply yarn, you’d only be able to separate it out into 2 individual plies anyway.

2. Next, arrange these unwoven plies so that they are overlapping and getting friendly with each other. Again, you can be as meticulous or non-meticulous as you want. Mostly you just want the plies from one end to intermingle with the plies from the other end.

3. Apply the moisture required for the felting step – yes, this is the step where you actually spit on the yarn! If you’d prefer not to get quite that personal with your wool, you can apply water or run it under the tap, but I have no shame in admitting my splices are happily infused with my own spit. (I really put as much of myself into my knitting work as I can.) You can also just lick the whole thing in your mouth if you want – it doesn’t take long and is quite effective, although you do of course risk getting a fuzzy tongue.

(God I can’t wait to see the search strings that result from this post. I’m so sorry, blog.)

4. Finally, you’re going to apply the friction and heat at the same time, by rubbing the splice vigorously between your hands. This is going to take vigorous motion (i.e. more briskly than rolling a rolling pin), but will not take you very long. I bet this must look really fun to kids. Heck, grown-ups have fun with this part. Possibly after the first go you might have a few bunched-up portions, so go back a second or third time to rub those smoothly if you like.

Ta-da! A  successful join. The nice thing about this is that you have no ends to weave in afterwards. Once the work is finished you’re not likely to notice it, but it’s still prudent to place this somewhere other than front-and-centre across the middle of your sweater, say. As you might imagine, this kind of join is especially useful on a project where a simple overlap or knotted join might be either very obvious (on a piece of lace knitting, for example), or when you’ve already got a lot to deal with and you don’t want to have to worry about two more ends (such as a colour-work project). It does, however, only work when you are joining the same colour to itself.

So there you have the spit-splice, folks. Is this already one of the tools in your knitting toolbox? What’s your favourite method of joining yarn ends?

Happy Wednesday!
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The thing about handknit socks

On an earlier post about sock knitting, someone asked in the comments something to the effect of ‘how do you keep your handknit socks staying nice looking after you start wearing them?’

The answer, of course, is that you can’t. Unless you’re only knitting socks with the hardiest sheepswool knitted at a very firm gauge – and probably even then, eventually – hand knit socks are just going to wear out. It probably doesn’t help us out that current sock knitting proclivities have driven the sock yarn market towards squishy soft superwash merinos and luxury blends – even with a bit of nylon added in, these soft yarns just aren’t going to keep the fresh-off-the-needles look for very long, once our feet start doing their job by walking around in them. But they just feel so niiiiiiice, so we keep knitting socks with them anyway.

And even if we gave up the soft sock yarns and stuck to only the hardiest stuff, the fact of the matter is that anything worn on your feet inside shoes, day after day, is going to take a beating. In Stephanie’s immortal words, socks are not forever.

It’s all extremely nonsensical, of course – if your goal is to get pairs of socks that last forever. Interestingly enough though, I don’t know about you, but since I started knitting socks, I’ve never lost one of a pair. I’ve gotten holes in them, I’ve had some get over-washed and shrunk, I’ve had heels and toes felt up from extended wear and I’ve given away some that ended up too small for me to wear and I couldn’t bear to re-knit the same length of yarn into something bigger. I bet if you took a survey of knitters who knit socks, they would probably all nod at this and think all of these occurrences are totally normal and barely worth shrugging at. But unlike almost every pair of commercial socks I have ever purchased, every single one of my pairs of handknit socks has remained intact. I don’t know why this is, exactly, but I’m pretty sure that it has something to do with the fact that once you’ve spent many hours of time and patience very carefully making something super pretty that is about to get bashed around on your feet (because this is in fact its proper and intended use), you tend to give it that same bit of attention in the washing, drying, and putting-back-in-the-sock-drawer-until-next time phases of its existence.

And truth be told, I’m not sure my socks are all that perfect in the instant when they come off the needles, either. Usually I knit my ribbed socks in the movie theatre (because that’s a solid 2 hours of knitting time thanks ever so much), and inevitably I hit one row where my fingers forgot what “knit 3, purl 1″ ribbing was and I ended up out of sync with a few purl stitches placed where they shouldn’t be. (The errant row on this pair is from Iron Man 3. I regret nothing, and was thoroughly entertained). Those mistakes can stay where they are, I don’t mind. They feel the same on my feet.

The point is that in the short time span after these new socks come off the needles, they are the awesomest, greatest, most satisfying and comfortable, cutest and brightest socks ever in the whole world.

Until the next pair, at least.

Happy weekend!

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Pattern: A Nice Ribbed Sock
Yarn: Sweet Georgia Yarns Cashluxe Fine, in ‘berry tart.’ (who says you can’t eventually finish that pair of socks that’s been in your handbag for 3 months? Well, not me, now.)

Progress is progress

Knitter friends, I’m really not sure how it got to be Friday already. Between catching up on sleep and energy after a busy family weekend with a few late nights, and then slowly succumbing to the May-annual allergy stint that always leaves me wondering if the allergy pills are better or worse than the actual allergies themselves, I feel like the last week has passed in a haze. I’m so terribly behind on the things I wanted to have done by Friday, and yet I’m torn between putting in a huge effort or just saying to hell with it all and reading a book on the sofa while shovelling potato chips into my mouth. (As one does).

Probably I’ll end up doing a combination of both, but I am at least happy to report that the Multiple Sock Knitting Projects plan has been doing pretty well in action. I haven’t actually finished a pair of anything yet, but I’m discovering that this works nicely to alleviate some potential boredom. If I don’t feel like knitting on one sock project at a given moment, I can just switch to another one.

I must say this is also making me rediscover some parts of my yarn stash that have lain largely by the wayside for the last little while. I went through a big phase of sock knitting and sock yarn purchasing a few years ago, but lately my actual sock productivity has dropped off. I have a whole whack of Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sock that I gathered up back when I was knitting myself at least a week’s worth of Jaywalkers with it, but then promptly stopped knitting Jaywalkers and so the Lorna’s Laces stash sat idle. (I would still probably put Shepherd Sock in my top 10 yarns list, even though I have only ever used it for this exact pattern. What can I say, knitter idiosyncracy is just how I roll.)

It is a real privilege to have access to so many different sock yarns these days, and I’d like to get myself back to rediscovering the ones that are waiting for me in my own shelves. Sock yarn is so easy to pick up a skein or two at a time, and after a while it starts to add up. Here’s hoping more sock knitting results from the needles this summer! I think I’m going to enjoy it.

Once again, have a great weekend, dear knitters! Whether you are knitting socks or other things.

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Pattern: A Nice Ribbed Sock (on 60 sts instead of 64)
Yarn: Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks That Rock mediumweight, ‘enchanted forest’

Pattern: Jaywalker (Ravelry link)
Yarn: Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sock, ‘valentine’

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It had to be done

So, remember that time last week when I said that even though I was bored with the socks that had been on my needles since February, I was totally going to push through and finish them before starting any new pairs of socks?

Yeah.

I was full of it.

It’s a weekend of family festivity for me, and I don’t care how many partial pairs of socks I bring with me to fit in a bit of time with. If they all end up waiting for me on Monday in the exact same state, well, that’s fine too.

Have a good weekend full of knitting – and I’ll catch you next week!

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Pattern: A Nice Ribbed Sock (on 60 sts instead of 64)
Yarn: Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks That Rock mediumweight, ‘enchanted forest’

Pattern: Jaywalker (Ravelry link)
Yarn: Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sock, ‘valentine’

For the Sock Curious

It just goes to show a person that what you’d think would be a sort of boring post about winding up sock yarn would turn into something that leads to a bunch of questions. Internet hive mind, you just keep on keeping things interesting! I had several questions last time about yarn winders and sock knitting and so forth, so here you go, knitter friends, with some answers.

First, the yarn winding. I’ve owned my own swift and ball winder for long enough that I can’t remember how many years it’s been. A lot of yarns come in un-wound skeins (because this form tends to be easier to pack & ship, and less stressful on the yarn itself over extended periods of time), but in order to work with it more easily you need to wind it. The lowest tech version of how to wind yarn is to hold the open skein across a chair or pair of chairs and do it by hand, but the swift and ball-winder combo is much faster. (Both of these make good gift suggestions, in case you have a birthday coming up – that’s a little tip from me to you). Most local yarn shops will carry them. My ball-winder came from a Toronto shop and the wooden swift came from Knit Picks.

Next, if you’re new to sock knitting, one of the things you’ll encounter pretty soon out of the gate is the wide variety of “sock yarn” that exists in the yarn landscape now. Most yarn shops will have a section of yarn just for “sock yarn” – yarn that has been spun finely enough that you can knit it at a fine gauge to get socks that can be worn inside regular shoes. You can knit socks from a lot of different yarn weights (Worsted weight socks are popular for quick, warm socks for winter days or to double as slippers. I probably draw the line at bulky yarn, a the upper end, and laceweight yarn at the finer end), but sock yarn, or fingering weight yarn, is intended to be knit up at a gauge of about 8 sts to the inch, or thereabouts.

Sock yarns are often pretty colourful. I like this generally, because even if you’re knitting a pretty plain sock pattern you can still keep the interest alive with some fun variegation or bright colours. You can tend to find neutral or dark colours as well, of course, but I still notice them more in the minority these days. I’m pretty okay with this, and will happily wear socks with just about any colour, but your mileage may vary. Additionally, a lot of sock yarn (though not all) will include an amount of nylon in the fiber content – perhaps 10-20% – to lend stability to the yarn when it is worn on your hard-working, constantly-moving feet. On the other hand, a lot of sock yarn (though not all) also tends to use merino wool in the superwash wool content, which is happily soft and feels ever so comfortable but is unhappily not the sturdiest of wools. So, at the end of the day take that information into consideration and do as pleases you.

As far as sock patterns go, well, if you are new to sock knitting this is a convenient time to be so. Sock knitting exploded about five or six years ago and now there are a wealth of yarns and patterns at your disposal. A browse of sock patterns on Ravelry (I’ve even done a basic search string for you there) will put many popular patterns into your path, as will a browse of Patternfish (for sale patterns) or Knitty (for free ones).

If you’d like my personal favourites, well, I can direct you to my Weekend Socks (free pattern at Canadian Living) if you’d like a worsted weight pattern that you can work up more quickly than one on sock yarn. The two most popular socks in my own sock drawer, though, are my own Nice Ribbed Sock pattern, which is a ribbed sock pattern that uses sock yarn, and is free. It is the one I use most often because it’s just interesting enough to not make me fall asleep (because of the ribbing), but simple enough that I can do it in a dark movie theatre if I have to (because I’ve done it so many times that my fingers know what k3, p1 ribbing feels like). There was also a while there where I knitted more than a week’s worth of Jaywalker socks (Ravelry link), because I really like the way they look and feel and they play well with both solid and variegated colours of yarn. The Jaywalker pattern is free and has actually been around since well before Ravelry (though I know sometimes it feels like nothing in the knitting internet existed before Ravelry), on an online publication which is now no longer available and so is now housed there.

I also really recommend Stephanie’s book Knitting Rules. She does a chapter on the basics of all kinds of knitting things, including socks, and the Top Five lists are a scream. She explains basic sock knitting from the cuff down in a really approachable way and while her book wasn’t my first foray into sock knitting, I would absolutely say it is what made me into a Sock Knitter.

There are a lot of ways to knit socks. My preference is top/cuff-down on 4 double-pointed needles for plain socks, or Magic Loop for complex ones. You can also knit bottom/toe-up, on 2 circulars, on 5 double-pointed needles, some will even start you at the heel and have you work outwards from there. Explore and see what you like best and knit as pleases you, I say. There are lots of good yarns out there waiting to be knitted into socks, and you could be just the knitter to do it. (As with many things in knitting, though – starting is the easy part. Stopping is a whole other question.)

Have a great weekend, knitter friends!

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When a young knitter’s fancy turns to…more knitting

Lately I’ve been getting more of an impulse to knit socks. I’m chalking this up to spring, and the impulse to knit New Things That Are Also Portable. Also, I think it might have something to do with the fact that the floor space I use to practice yoga also faces my yarn stash shelf, and the cubbies that hold the sock yarn (because of course there is more than one sock yarn cubbie) are right about eye level with me when standing. And thirdly, as the winter comes to a close I’ve been noticing a bit more wearing and bits of felting on more of the socks in my sock drawer – I knit them less rapidly than I wear them, these days, and the sock drawer is always in need of new pairs to take the edge off.

I’ve still got the same pair of socks on the needles that I have had since February, though, so I’m trying not to sabotage my progress by casting on another one right away. (But Tuesday nights continue to yield a bit of knitting time while sitting in Photoshop class, so that’s helping). But since I am the sort of knitter who, some days, gets held up starting new projects by the simple act of having to wind the yarn, I decided to do my Future Sock Knitting Self a favour by winding up some new yarn to wait patiently until I get to use it.

This morning after yoga I grabbed a couple of skeins of Socks That Rock from the stash, and then a couple of more just fell out onto the floor so I grabbed those too. I figured if they were going to put so much effort into making themselves noticeable, I might as well consider them as well. (Sometimes being me has its privileges. Like having a sock yarn stash cultivated over many years for just such moments. This is not an unenjoyable thing, I’m here to report).

I wound up two of the skeins in the most spring-like colours in the bunch, and now will happily be able to just grab them at a moment’s notice when the new-sock-knitting moment should happen to arrive. Interestingly enough, one skein is among the newest in the stash (a Rhinebeck 2012 purchase), and the other is among the newest (purchased several years ago at Lettuce Knit in Toronto), so that’s pretty neat.

So now I just have to finish a bunch of things on the needles and then I’ll totally get to one of these. Soon, sock yarn, soon.

I hope you’re knitting something delightful this Wednesday!

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“Do I have to swatch?”

If you’re a knitter who knits sweaters or shawls, or other items intended to fit either a large portion of your body, or to be worn over a portion of your body in a very fitted manner (sweaters apply here, also knee socks or long gloves), this means you’ve encountered the directive to pay attention to gauge. Usually this means that before you start knitting the pattern, you’ll need to make a gauge swatch. Or a tension square, depending on your lingo.

Much of the time, this step can deflate some of the New Project Joy we get from sitting down with a new pattern and a (possibly large, possibly expensive) pile of yarn, possibly at the beginning of a shiny and bright day off, or at the beginning of a full hour of obligation-free time after dinner. Maybe you envision casting on the project right then and there and magically having half of the body of the sweater done before bedtime, because man, this project is going to be so awesome. And then, perhaps, you read the notation about pattern gauge or an accompanying note about the need to work a gauge swatch just to be sure, and wonder out loud, “do I have to swatch?”

(Gauge swatches, above, from about 75% of the Urban Collection Vol 2. Some for projects still to be revealed!)

Now, this is knitting world. In knitting world, no one really has to anything. If you truly have to do something, chances are you don’t really need to ask yourself about whether you need to do it – you’ll just go ahead and do it. So it is with swatching. You might know exactly what gauge you will get with a particular combination of needles and yarn, and you can skip swatching. (So it is with me and Cascade 220 – I know that 4.5mm needles + Cascade 220 = 18 sts/4 ins, quite reliably. I’ve swatched enough times to confirm that in the past, and I feel comfortable skipping the swatch, with that knowledge in mind). On the other hand, (and more likely) you might not be entirely sure of your gauge, and in this case your swatch will do much to inform the success of your project.

The truth is, you could skip the swatching step and see how it all turns out, provided you are willing to live with the consequences – and those consequences could very well reveal themselves in the form of a sweater that does not fit you the way you intended. However, the more I knit (and design), the more I am personally in favour of swatching. You get a lot of information out of those little squares, and if you keep them around after you finish the project, you can still have access to that information later. I have started tagging my swatches with the needle size I used to work it up, and that helps me out if I want to use that same yarn again another time.

(Swatches from my Northside Pullover, in Tanis Fiber Arts Green Label Aran, in ‘olive’.)

I have now come to look at swatches as end results in themselves. It’s okay if I don’t turn the swatch into something else later on (though you could, if you wanted – patchwork quilts out of many swatches, mini change purses out of single swatches folded over and sewn up along the sides, and so forth), because it has done its job just being a swatch. Swatches will tell you your gauge, give you a sense of how the yarn feels in your hands, how pleasurable (or not) it is to work with, how nicely (or not) a variegated colour looks in knitted fabric as compared to the skein, how well the yarn drapes (or doesn’t) when worked at that gauge, and can help you to knit both a stockinette swatch and a pattern swatch (like in the Northside pullover swatches, above). If you’ve got a pattern that tells you both a stockinette gauge and a pattern gauge, that’s something worth paying attention to.

Swatching does take up yarn, though, so there’s no way around that. Committing to swatching means being willing to buy a little bit of extra yarn for the project, or otherwise be willing to rip out the swatch to put back into the project if you haven’t got the extra to begin with. Or, you could even just buy one ball of yarn up front, swatch it up, and then go back for the project’s worth of yarn (or not) if you’ve decided you like it well enough (or not) to commit to it for a whole sweater.

Are you a swatcher? What’s something you’ve learned from a swatch lately?

Have a great weekend, knitter friends!

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