Oh the tangled web we weave? Nah! This is Knitting!

Well, the toes are done, the yarn is wound...I guess it's time to get this thing going.

YIKES!

One of the most common questions I get asked is "How do you keep this from getting tangled?"
The photo above certainly doesn't help to support my next statement, but...it's actually easier than you would think.

In all fairness, I should probably start with this photo:

As you can see all the strands are behaving themselves quite nicely here.

Each strand goes down to the needle and it's respective toe. Since the toes stay in the same order, it's not all that difficult to determine which strand is next. It's patiently waiting its turn on right next to the start of the row of that particular toe.

Perhaps a video would help...I'll try to remember to do that.

One of the drawbacks to doing the toes in a separate color....I'm going to have LOT more ends to weave in.  Maybe I'll have a good ol' Tom Sawyer moment and invite a group of knitters together to help with that. Hmmmm.

Okay okay...that's a LONG way off and I have other things to think about before then.


I knit the first row on the socks in preparation for talking to the Vashon Knitter's guild, and sharing the project with them. Word to the wise....when you start a project like this...DON'T start the first row at 10pm!

How I managed to do this without ripping out, I'll never tell. I will however, talk a little bit about one of my favorite parts of this project.  With the magic loop, each sock is divided in to a front half (instep) and a back half (sole). When working this project, I knit across all of the insteps first.  not that bad, all the yarns are sitting happily in their pockets, minding their own business. Now it's time to knit across the soles, um..., Houston...., now all the yarns are in reverse order.  The solution looks much worse than it actually is.  The first time I tried it (when doing the week's worth of socks) I had to be reminded to breathe.  Okay, here we go.

FLIP!

Looks intimidating doesn't it?  Trust me, after a few hundred times, it gets to be old hat.
Once again, each strand is waiting at the beginning of the row of each toe, so it's not as hard as you would think.

"So...how do you know which way to flip it back?"

I'm SO glad you asked that question!  Thing is...when you have 26 strands of yarn crossing each other, it's really obvious which way it needs to flip to prevent a major mishap. (Also, I strongly recommend that you keep this out of the reach of your feline family members.

Once the row is done, flip it back and you are ready to start the next row.  It's THAT easy!

As I mentioned, I did get the opportunity to share the project with the fabulous members of the Vashon Knitting group.  Here's a couple photos for you:

If you are in the area, I'm going to be teaching a class at Makers' Mercantile this coming Saturday.

The class is all about knitting from one side, although it's more commonly referred to as knitting backwards. This is a really handy technique for sock knitters!  When it comes time to turn the heel, you start working in rows instead of rounds. If you have multiple socks on your needle, knitting from one side can save you many a heartache.  

I'll also be at the shop for knit night on Thursday from 6pm - 8pm with the sock project, please feel free to bring your project and hang out with us!

Here's the topic for discussion, or feel free to leave a comment or question of your own.

Why are there 26 skeins of yarn?  If you've seen the project in person, or you are a family member (MOM), you already know the answer...so let's give someone else a chance!

Let's Go! On with the Toes!

Curtain Up! Light the (Ott) Lights! We've got nothing to knit but some tights (okay - socks)!
Honey every thing's coming up Toesies!

Can you tell I like Broadway musicals?  The winding is done and now it's time to explain the mystery behind "RED TOE" diaries.

Let's go.....on with the toes!
That's right folks - I decided for several reasons to make the toes on all of the socks out of RED yarn:
1. It's my favorite color.
2. Most sock yarn is designed to make a pair of socks for the average woman's foot, not a man with size XL. (Hey...I can't reveal every detail - this is a public site you know.)
3. It's my favorite color.
4. I wanted the socks to have something to tie them all together and make them a set.
5. It's my FAVORITE color!

Toe-night, Toe-night, I'll knit more toes Toe-night... 
So here is the yarn I selected - Admiral by Schoppel Wolle distributed in the US and Canada by Skacel Collection Inc.

 One thing that makes this particular yarn even more special is that Skacel had this color specially created to make Johnny's socks.  When you purchase either the sock kit or the yarn - 100% of the skacel proceeds are donated to the National Institute of Health's - The Heart Truth® program, which I think is pretty darn cool.

I want to thank one of my sponsors, the Vashon Pharmacy Yarnacy, for supplying the yarn for the toes!  Thank you Myra and gang!   If you get to Vashon Island - you will want to be sure to stop in.
The yarn selection may be small, but it is top notch!

I knit sixteen, going on seventeen, when will this project end?
I have a confession to make - I actually knit all the toes individually, and then move them on to the needle.  I know you probably consider this cheating, but I'm not really trying to set any world records.  (I did try with the Week's Worth of Socks - but that organization that does world records told me that there wasn't enough public interest to merit it as a record.)  Since I didn't know exactly how much yarn it takes to knit a toe, I didn't really want to wind off mini-balls of yarn and try to make that all work.  So..the toes were done one at a time.  If you want to know....using a size one (2.5mm) needle and working the toe by casting on 16 stitches and increasing to 72 stitches, it is possible to get 23 toes out of one ball of Admiral.

I could have knit all night, I could have knit all night, and still I'll knit some more!
Sorry, I can't help myself! 
The cast-on can be a tricky part of a toe up sock, be we must all thank the amazing Judy Becker for creating Judy's Magic Cast On. This technique is so wonderful because it just disappears and looks like regular knitting. While it's perfect for socks, there are many other ways this cast-on can be used as can be found in Judy's book: Beyond Toes: Knitting Adventures With Judy's Magic Cast-On.
I don't own the book myself (yet), but I've had a chance to look at it, and I must tell you,  it is the perfect addition to ANY knitter's library. 

How do you stop a knitter like Maria Brian?
Well I think I've rambled on enough here for now. I've got to get back to my socks! 
I hope to see some of you at the Madrona Fiber Arts Winter Retreat coming up in February.
Here is what you've been waiting for - the first photo of the socks:

 Do you have a favorite song from a musical that you can apply to sock knitting?  I'd love to see your ideas in the comments below. (Can you figure out where all mine came from?)

Winding - winding - winding

Guess who?

Okay, so we had some fun with the photo shoot.  It's the only chance I'm going to have to be literally buried in these skeins, although I'm sure I'll feel like I'm buried for a while.

A big huge thank you to my friend Allison Harding for her assistance in the preliminary photoshoot.  She certainly had a vision for how to put this all together and I will always be grateful for her friendship, prodding and encouragement.  It's good to have a friend like Allison and I feel blessed to have people like her in my life.


So....all the yarns are here, I'll give you a quick look at all the yumminess:

 
I know you will want to know more about these yarns, and I will tell you more as we go on this journey together.

So now that the yarn has been photographed, it's time to get to work.  That means all this yarn needs to be wound into balls.  Do you have any idea how long it takes to wind 26 balls of yarn (yes...26)?
A long long time!

I had the wonderful opportunity to go over to Vashon Island for part of the weekend and hang out with my friends Myra and Dave of Vashon Pharmacy.   Myra is the proprietor of the "Yarnacy" a small section of the pharmacy that has been devoted to all things yarn and fiber therapy!

Myra hosts a spinning group at her house once a month, and while it's not actually spinning...I thought winding was close enough.

 If you look closely at this photo, it looks like the yarn has disappeared, but there is a black section of the yarn that blends in with the fire screen.

I elected to wind all of the yarn into center pull "cakes" because it keeps them all uniform and helps me in loading the frame that I use to manage all of this yarn.

I have elected to use a clothing rack that we got from the container store, as it's a bit more industrial than the one that I used the last time, and the bar is longer, so it's easier to hang the organizers from it.

The next piece of equipment needed is the organizers - I use closet shoe organizers,  I had the two I used on the previous project, but I needed one more. Try as I might, I could not find an exact duplicate.

So...here it is....all the balls wound up and loaded into the organizers.

I will confess...I had to do it twice.   When I was loading the yarns I loaded them in order of the way you read....from right to left.  Sounds reasonable right?  Unfortunately I knit from the left needle to the right needle, so had to take everything down and re-do it.

Glad I figured that out before I cast on!

The next post will explain the toes (you can see them on the coffee table in the back - yep they are all RED!

And So It Begins

Hey folks....at long last I'm venturing back into the world of blogging.

What better way to begin than with another extreme (insane) knitting project.
A Year's Worth of Socks!

Yes....you heard me correctly - I'm venturing back into the multiple socks on a single needle project.
This time, I'm doing 12 pairs - one for each month.

Insane? 

Probably, but would you expect anything less?  Stay tuned as the story evolves.