Lacemaking

I mentioned that I've been working on a project that was getting a bit emotional. This is about where I'd left it when I moved out:



What makes it even more emotional is that it's a lace shawl that I was making to wear to a wedding this Saturday.

I invested all my nerves and emotions and more than a few long train rides into knitting this silly blob of lace. This evening I happily bound it off, in a sense closing that chapter.

I'm going to block it later tonight and wear it to the wedding on Saturday. I can't wait to see how it comes out.

Another new home

For me knitting is a way of finding order in the world. It helps me maintain control and focus my emotions and energy on something predictable, finite, and productive. If I do everything the way I'm supposed to, I can have the results I desire (or even better).

Each tiny little stitch harnesses my joys, anxieties, trepidations, and scattered thoughts, and when I look back at pieces I've knit, I am transported to the time in my life when I was making them. These loops and bumps record my experience, and they are invested with what I brought to them.

I have a project that I stopped in the middle of a row, and I'm reluctant to even pick it back up again because it was what I was working on last week when I realized my living arrangement (and as a consequence my relationship) wasn't going to work out.

On Monday, my cat and I moved from Connecticut to my parents' house in New Jersey. My boyfriend and I are taking a break after dating for four years and living together the last three. In my heart, I knew this time was coming, and I am sure it is the right thing to do, but it still really hurts.

This weekend will find my mother and I packing all my belongings (most still not unpacked from the last move) into a U-Haul, and it will be done. I have no idea what the future holds (apart from a wedding we're going to the next weekend), and I have so much schoolwork and thesis stuff to catch up on that I don't really have time to process my thoughts and feelings.

This may be overly personal to share on my knitting blog, but I felt like it would be dishonest to show photos of stitches and projects without giving the emotional context behind them. It happens that my commute will get even longer, so we'll have lots of stitches to mull over in the coming weeks and months. And maybe somewhere in there, things will start to make sense again.

FO - Shock the Monkey Socks

I thought it was time to give the world's most popular sock pattern a try.



Boy my feet are getting happier and happier by the day.



Pattern: Monkey by Cookie A., from the winter 2006 Knitty (here on Ravelry)
Size: lady's size 9 with 9-inch foot circumference and 9.5-inch foot length
Yarn: Zwerner Garn Opal Neon 4-ply fingering weight, color 1937 dye lot #1, 75% wool / 25% polyamide; I used about 3/4 of a skein, totaling approximately 74 grams/2.64 oz or 347.5 yards*/318 meters.
Needles: Knit Picks 6" nickel-plated double-pointed needles, set of 5 size 1.5 (2.5 mm)
Modifications: Worked toe-up, with short row heel, 1x1 twisted ribbing and stretchy bind-off

Started: September 24, 2008
Finished: October 3, 2008

* Incidentally, this is the exact same yardage I used for my Bella Catena Italiana socks. Spooky.



When I saw how many people have knit Monkey socks before me, raving about how great the pattern is, I wondered if it could ever live up to the hype. I am so happy that not only did it meet my expectations, it completely surpassed them.

I decided to make these toe-up, even though that would mean flipping the chart upside-down. While there are patterns for toe-up Monkeys, I really did want to try the original chart as designed. I rather enjoy the look of the pattern done toe-up, as it makes little V's and upward-pointing triangles. Somehow that seems optimistic.



The lace pattern is about as intuitive as I've ever seen and addictive as all get-out. I had previously said that Bella Catena Italiana were the fastest socks I'd ever knit, but these Monkeys were decidedly speedier. I mean, 10 days?? Insanity!

I think I was just into the groove, and I was visiting my parents, so sock-knitting seemed to be a great companion to talking story, watching the debates, and whining about my thesis. Mostly though, I'm going to go with the addictiveness of the pattern, which begged me "just one more repeat, just a few more rows..."



I'm sure others have deconstructed the glory that is the Monkey chart before, but I think so much of its beauty comes in the plain rows. Each patterned row is followed by a rather plain sequence of knits and purls that absorb the increases and decreases. Within an eleven row repeat, there are basically only 4 rows with patterning, 3 which are knit completely plain, and 4 which are so simple they may as well be plain. This is a lot of fast and easy knitting, but with a great pay-off, as the lace becomes structural, textured, and really quite lovely.



The fit on these is fabulous, and I think I'm either really lucky with the ratio of pattern repeats to my foot's length, or I've figured out exactly where to start the short-row heels on socks. My boyfriend recently took a jab at me, saying that all I ever knit is socks for myself, and while he's right (and I felt appropriately selfish), I worry that I may not be able to get this kind of fit and comfort knitting for someone else, if I don't have them around to try it on as I go. I guess I'll have to give it a shot and see.

Back when I bought this yarn, I said:

This yarn is so cheerful and bright. It is positively electric with happiness, glowing with warmth and intense color. I feel as though it would be impossible to have a bad day when wearing socks knit in such a merry yarn.

I worried about how it may work into a pattern, and yes, the colors are pretty crazy, but I'm happy with the wacky stripes. As I knit, I realized that the colors formed a primary rainbow of red, coral, orange, yellow, and a gorgeous teal blue bouncing back and forth. As they laid side by side, they looked less neon to me than in the skein, but they still didn't look muddy or cancel out each others' saturation, which is an enjoyable thing about such pure color.



The put-up with Opal is nice and generous at 465 yards - with 7 repeats on the foot and 8 on the leg, I still have a quarter of the ball left. It felt nice to knit with, sturdy and well-spun, and they are wonderfully comfortable to wear.

I even like the way these socks look on the inside.



I had named these socks after one of my all-time favorite songs, "Shock the Monkey" by Peter Gabriel. Cause yknow, neon, electric, shock...? Really, I think it was because I knew one day I would want to gratuitously link to this video on my blog. Hehehe.

I feel silly saying I highly recommend this pattern, since really, doesn't it recommend itself? But I do, and I enjoyed it immensely, and I'd be surprised if I didn't knit another pair. They were fun, the fastest socks I've ever knit, and even in such a crazy yarn, I think they look pretty smashing. Happy feet indeed.

Previous Entries on this Project:
Ahem, none. Kind of sneaked on and off the needles.

FO - Bella Catena Italiana Socks

I finished these orange socks the other day, and my feet are so very happy!



Pattern: Bella Catena Italiana by Terry L. Ross (here on Ravelry)
Size: lady's size 9 with 9-inch foot circumference and 9.5-inch foot length
Yarn: Mondial Extrafine 8-ply DK weight*, color 804 Orange dye lot #57, 100% Extrafine Merino; I used almost 2 skeins, totaling approximately 91 grams/3.168 oz or 347.5 yards/318 meters.
Needles: Knit Picks 6" nickel-plated double-pointed needles, set of 5 size 2 (2.75 mm)
Modifications: Worked toe-up, with short row heel, 1x1 ribbing and stretchy bind-off

Started: September 8, 2008
Finished: September 26, 2008

* This yarn is listed as DK weight in Ravelry, but I found it to be straight up fingering weight.



I don't think I've ever knit a pair of socks as quickly as these, for which I suspect I have my new train commuting time to thank.

It is also immensely soothing to have reached the point in sock knitting where I can work them by habit: cast on 12 stitches with figure-8, increase the toes, work the pattern stitch up to a set point on my foot, use the equations I've memorized to work the short-row heel, and coast on up the leg to finish with ribbing and a stretchy bind-off.



I think the ease of this process makes toe-up sock knitting vastly more enjoyable than cuff-down, as the trickier structural parts (which in my preferred short-row heel method are really quite easy) get out of the way early and allow for a nice expanse of the fun stitching which drew me to the particular pattern in the first place. I don't have to worry about running out of yarn, picking up stitches, gusset and toe shaping, or Kitchener (which oddly, I don't mind at all). I should be careful to avoid proselytizing, but I suspect I am a full-on toe-up devotee and at this point I struggle to imagine knitting a sock any other way.



As for this particular pattern, I absolutely love it. The lace is fun, intuitive, and a really big impact for simple maneuvering. The name means "beautiful Italian chain," and I found myself driven to continue in the 4-row repeats, striving to add one more link - okay and maybe another - before I reached my train or subway stop.

I could have made the legs longer, as I actually had a good deal of yarn leftover, but I am happy with where they hit on my legs. The lace is stretchy, but not overly so, and the fit is really comfortable without being loose or snug.

The length of the foot is exactly right and the toes and heel feel fantastic. Actually, it doesn't feel like I am wearing socks (apart from the warmth and coziness), which I guess is a pretty high compliment.

The yarn is absolutely exquisite. It is incredibly soft and decadent to touch. I think it is more customarily used for fine-gauge tops or accessories, which I imagine would give it an insanely lovely drape and feel. It has a nice spin to it, though, which makes it plump and resilient, and this is part of why I was confident that it would hold up to being socks just as well.



The color is a nice kind of orange, saturated without being garish and subtle without being muted. I knit these socks as part of the Sock Knitters Anonymous orange socks challenge for September, and I later added them to the Solid Socks group's September pool as well. (By the way, the Solid Socks group is really lovely, and I just discovered they are doing monthly color KALs in solid and semi-solid sock yarns all year.) Seeing so many orange socks all over Ravelry has me thinking more and more about colors, and I am happy to come out of the experience as much in love with orange as ever.

I would definitely recommend this pattern for beginning and experienced sock knitters alike, as the lace is easy, quickly memorized, yet consistently enjoyable. I had such a great time knitting these socks that I have renewed my resolution to knit 12 pairs this year. We'll talk more about that soon though.

Previous Entries on this Project:
- Second Sock... Speed-Up?
- Orange Socks