gramsdoings

Completed Flat Sock Pair

Finally — A finished pair of flat socks. And they fit!

As you see, the seam is more toward the foot than I would like – however, I’ll take the win.

One of the problems I ran into with this yarn was trying to match the row colors of the second sock. I had to unwind the yarn ball to find the right colors for the various rows. This left me with quite a few ends to weave in at the end. As you can see in the top picture, I wasn’t entirely successful but close enough for me.

I used the stitch markers you see in the above picture to hold missed stitches. Those were the only two missed in the entire sock – I call that a success.

The yarn used is Serenity sock yarn (color: Violas) and the pattern is Green Leaves in the Knit Your Sock Straight book. Links to both are below.

I ended up with multiple yarn bobbins due to trying to match the row colors. If anyone has a better method, please let me know!

Having whole skein of this yarn left, I decided to make another pair. It is addicting. This is a simple pattern. After this next pair, I plan to take on a more challenging pattern from this book. Wish me luck!

Update: 6/13/2020

I made several of these. Kept a few and gave away a few. My friends love them. 🙂

Flat Sock – Holey Moley!

A flat sock complete - a holey flat sock. My previous flat sock attempt was done using a #4 yarn with #6 (4mm) straight needles. As you can see in my previous blog entry, that sock came out looking like a medieval bootie - not good. However, I learned quite a bit from that effort.

I'd used the First Sock pattern from the Knit Your Socks On Straight book in my last attempt. I decided to use the Green Leaves pattern for this attempt.

From my ever-growing stash, I gathered Serenity sock yarn and 2.5mm straight needles.

This would be my first use of needles of this size. I had previously tried this yarn using the KB original sock loom but I lost patience as it seemed to take forever to make progress on that loom. It might have been my lack of skill but that is why I decided to try to make flat socks using straight needles.

After a few false starts - I found it difficult to cast on and get the first ribbing row started - these stitches were so small - I managed to make it all the way to the toe.

I counted about 5 holes - not too bad, I thought. You see the final stitches on a holder in the above photo. I wanted to fix the holes before sewing the seam so I put those stitches on a holder and held the wound seam yarn with a stitch holder. A few holes were large enough to easily pick out in normal lighting. However, to ensure I found them all, I held the sock up to the light - holes quickly showed themselves!

To fix the holes, I simply darned them using yarn matching the area of the hole. Because these stitches were so small, I used a large bore sewing needle instead of a yarn needle to make the patches.

The photo shows the finished darn with loose ends on the right side of the sock. The next step would be to pull the loose ends to the wrong side using a crochet hook.

With the ends of the repair yarn now on the wrong side of the fabric, you can knot the ends and weave the ends into the fabric.

I used the sewing needle to sew the seam. The pattern calls for using a crochet hook. To keep the seam as flat as possible, I sewed the seam using a running type stitch being careful to match the tension of the sock fabric.

At the end, the sock didn't fit me - it was too short in the foot. My lack of patience again - argh! I think it will fit my grandson. He's coming to visit next week. If it fits him, I'll make the other one for the pair.

I'm still determined to make myself a pair of socks and have already started this pattern again using a bigger stitch count.

Wish me luck!

Update: 6/13/2020

I didn't make a matching sock for my grandson. He lives in Florida - not much need for wool socks in Florida. As my knitting increased, I decided to purchase a set of needles. I prefer stainless steel or aluminum needles.

Here are links to the products I used:

Flat Sock – Attempt 1

Determined to make my own socks, I ordered my pattern book. While waiting for it to arrive, I sorted through the yarn pile for some leftovers I wouldn't mind throwing away. I say that because I usually have to make several attempts at a pattern before it looks acceptable. Near the bottom of my stash, I found a ball of leftover baby bootie yarn.

After the book came, I started with the first pattern in the book. The pattern called for k1,p1 ribbing but I decided to go with k2, p2 ribbing for the cuff. That was easy enough. The leg portion was just stockinette. OK - so far so good.

Heel flap - hmmmm - got a little scared but readied my stitch markers! After 18 rows of stockinette, I had a flap. Happiness! Then turning the heel - ummm - I had some trouble with this part. For some reason, my stitch count doesn't match the pattern so I improvise to try to keep it going. A few holes later, I had a heel. Happiness!

The gusset and foot were easy. For some reason, when doing the star toe, again my number of stitches was off and so - more improvising. Next - seaming.

The pattern calls for pinning the edges to ensure the last stitches at the cuff come out even. I didn't have any of the nice t-pins shown in the book. (note 1) So I used stitch markers every couple of inches to line up the edges. As described in the book, I used a crochet hook to sew the seam. Ok Done!

I sat back and admired my work. LOL! It looked like a medieval baby boot for Paul Bunyan! I tried it on - it had a loose fit but the toe and heel were good.

Undeterred, I began the left sock. When I began the heel flap and looked back at the finished right sock, I realized I'd done the pattern completely wrong for the finished right sock. The pattern called for alot of slipping and I'd just done stockinette. More laughing at myself!

When I began the heel turn for the left sock, I realized I was completely off on the row count.

Knowing I would never wear Paul Bunyan booties, I pulled the needle out. I was correct about not worrying about scrapping this yarn.

Undeterred, I'll try again!

Note 1: If you follow me on Twitter @gramsdoings, you saw my post about my shopping trip for T-Pins.

Update 6/13/2020:

I never purchased the T-Pins 🙂

Basket Weave Dishcloth

I picked up a booklet of knit and crochet dishcloth patterns. As I am trying to learn as many stitches as possible while wasting as little yarn as possible, these patterns looked like good exercise.

The first one I attempted was the basketweave pattern (#7). It looked like a great challenge for changing colors in the middle of the row.

I started by using some left over Lion Brand pound yarn #4 and Caron pound #4. After a few rows, the Lion Brand yarn seemed to want to separate into its individual threads and was a bit fuzzy. The Caron yarn was more stiff. This difference caused quite a bit of slipping and bunching while knitting. It also negatively affected the gauge. So lesson one, use the same type of yarn for both colors!

After sifting through my yarn pile, I found a pound of white Caron. Although these two yarns worked great together, my color changing skill needed practice! So three tries later - success, kind of.

(Side note: Regarding yarn piles - I hear via the Facebook groups these types of piles happen frequently :)).

Something I noticed about myself while making this dishcloth. It appears I 'zone out and start thinking of stuff I need to do' once in a while and lose track of my place. During these times, I usually find myself thinking of mundane things like grocery list items or bills that need to be paid. So I have to go back and count my stitches - sometimes rip some out to restore the pattern. I have also developed muscle memory for the knit stitch. Whenever I look back at these errant spots, I see all knit instead of whatever the pattern says. Does this happen to anyone else?

The piece looked a bit better after blocking it. It appears my white stitches aren't as tight as the blue ones and one of the borders is too wide. It is OK - my dishes won't mind 🙂

I'll get it right next time!

Update 6/13/2020:

My first attempt wasn't great. Eventually I switched to 100% cotton. That worked much better! I like the multi-colored yarns but have found the patterns show much better with solid colors. One thing I've noticed with 100% cotton - my hands dry out when I spend many hours making these.

Sock Loom Attempts

Making some socks – how hard could it be? After some research, I found there are three methods:

Circular needles or multiple single needles.
Sock looms.
Flat

As I love gadgets and am intimidated by circular needles, I decided to try the sock loom method. I chose the original sock loom produced by KnittingBoard. It is a fine gauge loom, suitable for light weight yarns. The loom comes with a DVD and a short pamphlet showing some basic stitches. These were OK but then I found knittingboard’s online video how-to’s – they were a great help as I could pull them up as needed on my phone as I worked.

Armed with the loom, some #1 weight yarn and a baby sock pattern, I began. As usual, when learning a new technique, I finally had a good start on my fourth try. Not sure why but my first three attempts at almost anything are not good. I do take heart that I was able to test my gauge at least 🙂

Twenty rounds later, I assessed my progress. Estimating 6 minutes a round, I feared it would take me a year to make a sock using this #1 yarn. Perhaps that is very slow – could be based on my inexperience. I scrapped that work and switched to a lion’s brand baby soft #3 yarn.

After a few rounds the progress was much better! I finished the pair in a few days as I worked in between other tasks. Success!

Update 6/13/2020: I gave these away to a new mom.

Yes – Gram Camps!

While hooking up or tearing down, fellow campers often tell me they are amazed that I do 'all that' by myself. It is hard work - sometimes I ask myself why I'm doing it.

When the kids were little, we started camping with a tent. Then it became a pop-up and then a Class C motor home. Then they kids became teenagers and thought it was super lame to go camping instead of hanging out with their friends. So, the camping was over.

As I neared retirement, I wanted to go out and about and camp again! I was single by this time - hmmm, no man to help with the camper stuff. It gave me pause thinking of doing everything myself. But, I said, let's give it a shot. I purchased a new Class C motor home. It didn't work out - there were many things wrong with it - it was in the shop more than in the campground. I'm still mad about that. Anyway, there were other things I didn't like about that model. So, I traded it in - and went for a Class A and a tow car.

This will be my 3rd year camping on my own. After stocking and hooking up the tow car, driving it is a breeze (kind of). I don't go very far - although for some reason Rapid City, South Dakota is calling my name. That would be a long drive for me by myself - not sure I'm up for that yet - maybe I'll find a friend to go.

While driving, my dogs are in their kennels. The first time I took them with me, I left them loose in the cabin. Big mistake. The younger one was terrified by all the road noise and kept running under my feet - almost wrecked! They are OK once we get settled into the campsite.

I'll have more stories as the camping season gets going - April!

Update 6/13/2020:

The dogs and I decided camping by ourselves wasn't much fun. So we sold the camper. This is my first summer in years without a camper. Due to the pandemic shutdowns and campgrounds being closed, I didn't feel the lack of camp very much. Now that camping is back open, I content myself by visiting my camping friends.

Of course, it is not the same. I miss being round the fire until the wee hours.

Loom Weaving

This afghan was made using the 28 inch Knitting Board loom. It covers a king size bed. It was much quicker to make than I thought using the loom. I wove the pieces and borders separately and then sewed them all together.

The weave was done done with hunter green and frost green. The border was done in the same hunter green. The pieces were sewn using the frost green and the borders were sewn on with hunter green. I didn't buy enough yarn and had to keep going back to Joann's for more - the checkout ladies were cheering me on by my third trip!

I used a 14" crochet hook to weave and then pull the threads back through.

Each woven piece took about an hour. The hunter green was used for the warp (long strands held at tension) and the frosty green was used as the weft (strands weaved through the warp strands). I doubled the weft strands for each pass - if you zoom in you can see the double strands.

The borders were all knitted on the loom in stockinette pattern.

As this was my first attempt at weaving using the loom, I just followed the simple pattern that came with the loom.

Lessons learned:

Don't pull the weft too tight - try to maintain even tension throughout your pieces. A too tight weft will make the piece 'pucker'.
Don't 'zone out' while weaving - you will lose your place and have to start over :). Luckily as the pieces are fairly small, it won't cost you too much time.
I used a simple sewing stitch - next time I will use the mattress stitch to join the pieces. You can see the sewing added another element to the pattern but it looks a bit messy.
Buy enough yarn to start

There was quite a bit of end weaving to do but it was easy to hide in the seams and border edges. I was happy it held together through the first wash!

I plan to use this technique to make some baby afghans in the future. It delights my creative soul to hold a finished product. This loom is great for weaving!

Update 6/13/2020:

I gave this afghan to my nephew as a wedding gift. He joined the Navy and moved to colder climes. It is a very warm afghan.

While making socks, another technique I learned was to use the Kitchener Stitch to join live edges. When I sewed the blocks of this afghan, I didn't know the Kitchener Stitch. When next I make an afghan, I'll try using that stitch to join the blocks. It should make a smoother finish.

I learned the stitch via this Youtube video.

Lemon Sherbet

lemons

Sherbet in the winter? I say sherbet anytime. Fresh, tangy and so easy to make! To begin I studied several recipes on the web and chose one from Yankee Magazine. It calls for four ingredients: lemon juice, sugar, heavy cream and milk. As I only had 2% milk on hand, I substituted half of the milk with half and half. To make it even more tangy, I added 1/2 tsp. of lemon oil.

Juicing a lemon without a juicer - using your hand with a heavy pressure, you roll the whole lemon against the counter top until it feels 'squishy' inside the peel. Then cut it in half, squeeze out the juice and remove the seeds from the bowl. You will get the seeds and very little pulp using this method. If you prefer more pulp, I suggest a hand juicer.

I whisked the lemon juice and sugar together and set the bowl aside while preparing the whipped cream. You should use a larger bowl to whisk these together than I did; It made a bit of a mess with this short bowl.

Next, whip the cream. I use a Kitchen Aid stand mixer for this. Using the whisk attachment, pour the cream into the bowl and let it whip on medium high for about three minutes. After three minutes test consistency by turning off the machine and raising the whisk. The cream should cling to the attachment and stand up in peaks in the bowl. If not, continue whipping and retesting. I prefer a stiffer consistency.

whipped_cream

Next set up the ice cream machine. This model requires the freezer bowl and paddle be in place before the ingredients are added. Note: I completely forgot the Kitchen Aid had an ice cream attachment when I bought the one shown below. Well, when it gives out, I'll get the Kitchen Aid one.

ice_cream_machine

First I added the lemon and sugar mixture to the machine, then the milk mixture and finally the whipped cream. The recipe says to 'fold in' the whipped cream but that was not possible in the machine. The machine would mix it.

lemon_sherbet_in_machine

You notice the color is near white. I considered adding some yellow food coloring but decided against it - keeping it 'nothing but natural'!

Confession time: I originally put the ingredients in the bowl before adding the paddle. Bad move as the paddle didn't fit because the ingredients were already freezing. So I had to remove everything, clean and refreeze the mixing bowl and start the churning process again. It turned out okay.

After mixing, the consistency was like a thick milkshake. I portioned it out into small glass containers and put it into the freezer to harden.

lemon_sherbet_in_cup

If you love the zing of lemons - this is for you!

Update 6/13/2020:

I have made this several times and finally attempted the cooked custard method for plain vanilla. I like maple syrup granola as a topping on the vanilla type.

I used the recipe for the custard type from the Joy of Cooking cookbook. That book is my only cookbook. The one I have was given to me by the mother many years ago. The one below is the updated version.

First Animaguri Attempts

I was excited to further my knitting skills and so looking at some pattern books, I find these cute little creatures - animaguri. I bought the book, some yarn and some knitting needles.

The first one I made was the monkey. It wasn't perfect but I enjoyed making it. His head turned out a bit flat, I colored his eyes with a marker and his shorts were a little hinky :).

The next one I attempted turned out a bit better, I think. A kangaroo and joey. I used safety eyes for the mama. The gauge on the bag strap was not good - it ended up being too short but I just added some more length. The joining point for that extra piece doesn't look great - I may go back and redo the entire strap. However, I just want to keep making them - they're so cute!

Then I made a polar bear. The stripped hat was my first attempt at changing colors while knitting. I cut the yarn for each change instead of carrying it across the rows. I ended up knitting some of the straggling ends into the next row and had to pull it out to restart that row. A bit frustrating for sure - but I learned. BTW - that's my sock loom at his feet in this picture - more about that in another post.

The latest one is my favorite so far - the lion. Although his nose needs tweaking and nobody is allowed to look at the wrong side of the vest, I like him! When my grandma taught me embroidery, she told me the underside needed to look as good as the top side. Not true for this vest! Hey I'm trying here 🙂

Some of my friends are asking me what I'm going to do with these - sell them? I don't know where these little friends will go but I just can't wait to make some more of them!

Update 6/13/2020:

I made several more of these. All these I put into a grab bag of gifts for the annual family Christmas party along with my dishcloths, a few baby sweaters and socks. It was a big hit and lot of fun.