Dress diary: Aragorn socks
Sep. 14th, 2015 10:08 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
janestarzSince this a KAL (knit-along) and therefor people want to see photos and lots of them too, I might as well share them here and document my progress in a dress diary.
Welcome to the Dress Diary of the Aragorn socks! I will be knitting a pair of socks in hopefully less than a month (with some dedication, I can do a pair of socks in 2 weeks, but school is starting and I Have Plans).
The pattern is a free pattern from Dutch maker Janneke Maat and if you have a Ravelry account, easily found. You can find all the details of my used yarn, the pattern, and all my notes on my Ravelry Project Page. I can't recommend signing up for Ravelry enough! If you're a knitter, a crochet'er, a weaver or even a spinner, Ravelry is the database for you. It has most fibers, probably all the yarn, and is host to thousands upon thousands of patterns.
I'm using a cotton yarn with low contrast, since the sock features twisted stitches. Like cables, twisted stitches look better in solid-coloured or low-contrast yarn in a lighter colour. In darker yarns or variegated yarns, the details of the cable are less visible. My yarn is Lana Grossa Meilenweit Solo Cotone Stretch, and this is my first time knitting a sock in cotton. Since wool has a little more stretch, I hope these socks will fit, but the cotton has some stretch built into the fiber as well (hence the name). I bought the yarn earlier this summer with a 30% discount because of summer temperatures.
On Gauge
The pattern states that you need approximately 10% more stitches than "usual" - so if you set up 60 stitches for a stockinette sock, you need 66 stitches now. I don't have a lot of experience with socks yet, and I'm still figuring out how many stitches I need for which needle size. My last two pairs were 64 and 65 stitches on needles 2.75 mm and 2.50 mm respectively, and each had a distinct stitch that stretched or shrunk the sock fabric, so there's no telling how they compare to a simple 60 stitch stockinette sock.
I'm just taking the plunge with 2.5 mm needles and 66 stitches, which is a size Medium from the pattern.
Other challenges for me in this pattern:
- First time tubular cast-on
- First time using twisted stitches
And so it begins.
Casting on!
This pattern uses a tubular cast-on with scrap yarn. The tip of the day is to knit 1 round with a strong yarn in between your scrap yarn and your real working yarn. Once you want to remove the scrap yarn (mine is grey), you just pull the single row of strong yarn (yellow) out.
I found it particularly difficult to set up. Not because the knitting is hard, although it's rather particular, but mostly because joining a sock on four double-pointed needles in the round sometimes can be a bit of a challenge, and even more so if you have five different yarn-ends hanging around obstructing the view.
When you start working with your working yarn, you knit a round just working the knit stitches. The second round you just work the purl stitches. It's well-described in the pattern, but it takes a bit of getting used to slipping the stitches you don't knit to the other needle with the yarn in the right place (in front of, or behind your work). It took me three tries to get this far, but now I have my cast-on complete.
Next steps.
I will have to remove the scrap yarn, so I'll be pulling out that yellow thread and the grey should be coming off quite easily.
Then I'll set up the cuff, which is knit to blend into the twisted stitches of the leg later on, so it's not a simple "knit 2, purl 2".
Welcome to the Dress Diary of the Aragorn socks! I will be knitting a pair of socks in hopefully less than a month (with some dedication, I can do a pair of socks in 2 weeks, but school is starting and I Have Plans).
The pattern is a free pattern from Dutch maker Janneke Maat and if you have a Ravelry account, easily found. You can find all the details of my used yarn, the pattern, and all my notes on my Ravelry Project Page. I can't recommend signing up for Ravelry enough! If you're a knitter, a crochet'er, a weaver or even a spinner, Ravelry is the database for you. It has most fibers, probably all the yarn, and is host to thousands upon thousands of patterns.
I'm using a cotton yarn with low contrast, since the sock features twisted stitches. Like cables, twisted stitches look better in solid-coloured or low-contrast yarn in a lighter colour. In darker yarns or variegated yarns, the details of the cable are less visible. My yarn is Lana Grossa Meilenweit Solo Cotone Stretch, and this is my first time knitting a sock in cotton. Since wool has a little more stretch, I hope these socks will fit, but the cotton has some stretch built into the fiber as well (hence the name). I bought the yarn earlier this summer with a 30% discount because of summer temperatures.
On Gauge
The pattern states that you need approximately 10% more stitches than "usual" - so if you set up 60 stitches for a stockinette sock, you need 66 stitches now. I don't have a lot of experience with socks yet, and I'm still figuring out how many stitches I need for which needle size. My last two pairs were 64 and 65 stitches on needles 2.75 mm and 2.50 mm respectively, and each had a distinct stitch that stretched or shrunk the sock fabric, so there's no telling how they compare to a simple 60 stitch stockinette sock.
I'm just taking the plunge with 2.5 mm needles and 66 stitches, which is a size Medium from the pattern.
Other challenges for me in this pattern:
- First time tubular cast-on
- First time using twisted stitches
And so it begins.
Casting on!
This pattern uses a tubular cast-on with scrap yarn. The tip of the day is to knit 1 round with a strong yarn in between your scrap yarn and your real working yarn. Once you want to remove the scrap yarn (mine is grey), you just pull the single row of strong yarn (yellow) out.
I found it particularly difficult to set up. Not because the knitting is hard, although it's rather particular, but mostly because joining a sock on four double-pointed needles in the round sometimes can be a bit of a challenge, and even more so if you have five different yarn-ends hanging around obstructing the view.
When you start working with your working yarn, you knit a round just working the knit stitches. The second round you just work the purl stitches. It's well-described in the pattern, but it takes a bit of getting used to slipping the stitches you don't knit to the other needle with the yarn in the right place (in front of, or behind your work). It took me three tries to get this far, but now I have my cast-on complete.
Next steps.
I will have to remove the scrap yarn, so I'll be pulling out that yellow thread and the grey should be coming off quite easily.
Then I'll set up the cuff, which is knit to blend into the twisted stitches of the leg later on, so it's not a simple "knit 2, purl 2".
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Date: 2015-09-14 09:11 am (UTC)