I Like to Knit

Yes, I like to knit. Before you accuse me of stating the obvious since I have blog about knitting, let me 'splain. I like to knit. I mean I like to KNIT. I like to do the knit stitch, over and over, ad infinitum. Purling is okay. I have nothing against purling and I do it well. It's just that I like to knit. Knit and knit and knit. Borrrr-rrrring! I know. But what can I tell you? I like it.

I am a thrower. English or American as opposed to Continental. I've learned Continental and do it with color work, but otherwise I'm a thrower. Continental is said to be faster, less arm movement. I don't care. I like throwing. I also like using circular needles exclusively. They really make the method faster. With the yarn in my right hand, wraped around my little finger, under my ring and middle fingers, over my index finger, I've become a pretty fast thrower. Especially when I'm knitting what I like and get into a zone. When the stitches are at the right place near the tip of the needles I need only flick my index finger to throw the yarn. I go into Zen mode. I can do it with my eyes closed. I can do it in my sleep.

I am a sock knitter. I like to knit socks. Socks, socks, socks and more socks, in the round, on a 32 inch Knit Picks circular needle, usually size US 1 (2.5 mm) and using sock weight yarn. I know what I like. I used to be strictly an Addis girl until Knit Picks came along. I still like Addis, but my Knit Picks cables are more pliable more consistantly. That is because my Addi needle collection contains some Addis purchased during a period of producing stiff cables the company went through a few years ago.

I am a plain knitter. I like knitting plain socks. I'm happy without waffles, jaywalkers, cables, ribbing and the like. I do succumb to 1 x 1 ribbing for the cuffs and will even resort to knitting, slipping and purling for a heel flap. Sometimes I go so far as an Eye of Partridge heel flap. Wooohooo! I never have Second Sock Syndrome. I like starting the second sock so that I can watch the same miracle happen again, preferably identically. Turning a heel turns me on. What can I tell you? I'm easy.

You probably wonder why I ever consider knitting anything else. So do I.

Bona Fide KNITter

In Search Of: Comfort and Joy

I am having a heck of a time. 'Tis the season to be jolly. Oh great ti-i-dings of co-om-fort and joy, comfort and joy. I'm looking for some comfort and joy. I'm in search of it here, there and everywhere. Even in my knitting.

The lacy flirty skirt, as I call it, has been ripped back to the lifeline and the lace begun again. I worked on it last night while watching Wynton Marsalis' Red Hot Holiday Stomp live from the Lincoln Center on PBS. I'm not very much of a jazz fan, but that show brought me much comfort and joy with arrangements of Christmas classics (Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer never sounded so good [cool, hip] before!), other songs and a Maya Angelou poem set to Wynton's music and danced by Jared Grimes. Check your PBS listings and catch the next showing.

The 2007 Beach Socks are finally finished. Fraternal not identical and they're not freaking me out.



Wait'll next year. I fully intend to actually knit the 2008 Beach Socks ON THE BEACH!

I put some new socks on the needles, a pair of nemisis socks that I started once before, before I was a "bona fide knitter." They were too advanced for me. I gave up on them that time. They are lace, knitted on 000 Addi Turbos, a Nancy Bush pattern from Folks Socks. They are no longer too advanced for me and now I have figured out the problem with them. They are not fun to knit! The yarn, Brown Sheep's Wildfoote, splits like crazy when using those 000 needles, especially during SSK and K2tog and there are a lot of those in the pattern. Urrrrgh!

I have so much else going on giving me agita and angst I do not need that from my knitting, especially my zen inducing sock knitting. When I have a few minutes later today, I will cast on another pair of socks, solid color, Lorna's Laces, no pattern more involved than 2" of 1x1 ribbing and some good ole stockinette, knitting every round on a long circular. Just writing it soothes me.

Bona Fide Knitter

What to Do Next?

I'm not quite sure what I want to do next. The yarn for Heartbreakingly Cute Baby Kimono is a disappointment and I've been forcing myself to complete it. Needless to say I put it down after every few rows and pick up the sanity-saving Abundance Afghan. I thought the solution to my problem with the HCB Kimono would be to buy a different yarn, Peaches & Creme. I'm no longer sure of that. I don't want to finish it in Cottontot and I don't want it to become another UFO. To the frog pond?

However, the Abundance Afghan is thriving as a result. I just love the big loopy garter stitch of it! The garter stitch is my friend.

I could order the Peaches & Creme if I want to. The barrier of not bringing anything else in until something leaves is gone. I delivered the four pairs of socks to Richard yesterday. As you can see he loves them . . .















. . . and me as well.


I also mailed a gift of socks today. Sooooo, I'm free to buy more yarn, at least five skeins or 500 grams or whatever I can rationalize.

Speaking of socks, I'm really on a sock machine kick right now. I've gotten the Legare humming and sock production should soar in the next few weeks. I might even try the Auto Knitter again next week, after we've both had a rest from each other. The Legare uses the same needles and in my tweaking to get it to run smoothly I discovered I was working with some less than perfect ones. That could be why I was getting some odd results on the Auto Knitter. I should not stay away from the machines for weeks, months at a time. By the time I go back to them I have forgotten their idiosyncrasies.

As for the hand knitting, more thought is required. The good news is I will soon have a soft and light afghan in the beautiful sea, sand and sky colors of Cape Cod.

Bona Fide Knitter

More Socks and Sock Machines

I've been lost down a rabbit hole of blogs. Do you ever visit a blog and then click on the blogs listed as favorites and then click on the blogs listed on the favorite blogs and then click on their favorite blogs and then . . . well, you get the idea. That's what I've been doing and neglecting my own blog.

I gave the sample socks to Ruby and she was pleased. I've put the Auto Knitter on time out and set up the Legare 400 for 72/36 work. I am now making refinements to the way I make ribbed machine knit socks. I've worked on it for two days and still no completed sample pair of socks to show. I have the concept and I've almost completed a sock. But just when I think this is it, it isn't.

Foolishly I started with some black yarn. Never try something new with black yarn or on a machine that has been packed in its travel cart since being driven 400 miles six months ago. Ask me how I know these things.

My first swatch had some dropped stitches and then the whole thing knitted itself off the machine after the heel turn. The Yarn is Gems Pearl, machine washable and dryable 100% merino.

Although the label describes it as superfine, it is thicker than I thought and I should have loosened the tension.

I made another attempt with the black yarn that knitted itself off the machine during the cuff. Moving right along, I switched to regular sock yarn in a color these old eyes could see. The yarn is Marathon Sockenwolle, 70% wool/30% nylon.


Although the tension was right and the pattern refinements worked well, this one also knitted itself off after the heel turn. A house doesn't have to fall on my head before I realize a machine might need some adjustment after a long ride and a six-month hibernation.

That's where I am now, oiling and making adjustments. The ribber needed a little tweaking and maybe the yarn carrier needs a little skootch down. Let's see what this evening brings.

Bona Fide Knitter

Saturday and Sunday Sockknitting Saga

For two days one pair of socks had me by the throat. I am using the 60/30 set up on the Auto Knitter and making ribbed socks. Having my machine set up the way it likes makes some suggestions in the manual and on the Norma Bogan tape/DVD null and void. I have to figure my own measurements and needle placements. Primary School math (arithmetic?) seemed to have failed me on Saturday. Multiplication Table? 8 x 8 = 64 or is it 56? I know 9 x 8 = 72--subtract eight and there's the answer. Jeeze! By Saturday night I was using a calculator. Thirty divided by four equals seven and a half? There are no half needles in sock machine knitting!!!

Set-up basket in, waste yarn started

Ribber being placed with careful attention to ribber stop

Adjustments made for "half needles," notes written in readable form, by Sunday I was on a roll. I had one sock completed and needed a mate. The mate, if made by my own directions, would be better than the first sock. Then why is it now Monday and after working on it all day that mate is not made?

Ribber in place

Ribber needles added and starting turns made

Sock yarn attached, the sock begins

Yarn goes in up top, sock comes out at bottom

I made a sock before this one with stockinette leg that was too big. That's why I decided to tackle ribbed socks on this finicky machine. I've made two mates to this one, each one having some operator flaw. One had misplaced ribs. Then there was the one on which I forgot to release the heel spring before cranking the foot. Tight, tight, too small foot! Both those socks were rewound back to the cone. Today will be my third attempt. They say the third time's a charm. My Aunt Ruby, will get these socks, blocked and labeled, on Wednesday . . . or else!

Bona Fide Knitter

March First Mania

I've been knitting while not blogging, in case you've been wondering. I knitted four pairs of socks on my temperamental Auto Knitter. They are labeled and ready to go to Richard, my hair stylist. It being March and all, I used green labels. I think he'll like these: subtle, wild, very subtle, slightly wild. What do you think?


They were done using 60/30 slot cylinder/ribber. There is a two-inch 1x1 cuff, and eight-inch stockinette leg, short row heel and custom-length foot. The yarns are Regia, Inka, Regia and Marathon respectively and each pair has the ball band with three yards of extra yarn tucked into a cuff.

Who knows? Maybe he'll need to darn one day.

Getting the Auto Knitter to cause me less grief gave me the confidence to uncover the old Gearhart and change to the 100/50 cylinder/ribber. Now that gave me Grief with a capital G!


After much trial and error I was able to get the cylinder in just right so that the machine worked smoothly. Now if only I can get the tension and the weight coordinated. The few tubes I've made with lace weight yarn are full off holes and lengths of unlatched yarn from dropped stitches. I have to crank very slowly, watching to make sure every latch catches. I might need to tweak the timing a bit or adjust the yarn carrier. I'm working on it. However, in the meantime I'm in a machine sock knitting mood and lord knows I have the sock yarn stash to support the mood. So today, between blogging and decluttering (yes, that is still going on), I hope to hop on the Auto Knitter and ride out a pair of socks or two. That's one of the benefits of having multiple machines. You can have more than one project going at a time and we all know how much we love to do that! Which segues very nicely into . . .

UFOs being worked on? Yes, that is still going on as well. Unfortunately the baby kimono is no longer a favored object and was well on its way to being added to my UFO list. Oh no, that's not supposed to be happening! Last night I decided to add a few rows to see if favor would return. Hmmm, maybe it did a little. I will make an effort to finish before the shower date. Finished, it might be worthy. The Abundance Afghan is growing by leaps and bound in the interim. What interim you ask? The one in which I'm deciding on what to work on next. Sally's Favorite Summer Sweater had been the choice except I keep getting put off by the cable cast on of a zillion stitches. Perhaps with Knit Picks needles the task will be less daunting. Those pointier tips might be just what is needed. I'm glad I thought of that! Blogging is good for the mind.

Bona Fide Knitter