SMS. Does it mean anything to you? It meant nothing to me when I cast on my latest pair of socks in this yarn:
I love the colors of this yarn (colorway: Thyme, very "spring"-y), but I have always struggled with using Serenity Sock-Weight for socks. It's thinner than your average sock yarn...well, it's thinner than the sock yarns I usually knit with, at least...and it's a little splitty. I have to knit with size 0 (2.0mm) needles to get a sturdy fabric that will stand up to footwear!
Don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with knitting socks on size 0 needles. My "go-to" for socks, however, is 64 sts around on size 1 (2.25mm) needles, preferably DPNs. My favorite 0s are magic loop, and there's nothing wrong with that either, but I know that I have to cast on more stitches (tighter gauge and all, yada yada yada). Technically, I should probably do a swatch, but have you met me? Yeah, I am fairly "anti-swatch" in my knitting. I apparently enjoy "cutting off my nose to spite my face." (I rarely use white yarn...all that blood...this is a habit I should think about changing.) No matter how painful my last gauge-less project was, when I knit socks I simply cast on, knit on, soldier on...no gauge check, no matter what. Sooooo, true to form, I just cast on these socks, 72 sts (8 more than 64...that should be enough, right?!?):
Of course I made changes to the pattern straight away. I am really not a fan of the wavy garter stitch cuff that comes with most of these types of lace sock patterns, so I started with a 2x2 rib, for 12 rows, because that's my favorite for sock cuffs. Then, as always, I dove into the pattern, and things were going well for 64 rows...until I put the cuff on my arm to stretch the lace a bit and admire the work...it was snug.
On my ARM, it was snug. It was not going to ever go over my heel or fit around my leg. *sigh!* I thought about frogging. I thought about it a LOT. I thought about frogging 64 rows of 72 stitches (I've frogged more) in these lovely spring colors as the sock rested on my arm...then I had an idea. The Grinch got a wonderful, awful idea! Hmm, no, wait...that's a whole different story...
Still, I got an idea. Perhaps, this was not what I thought it was for. Perhaps, it was something a little bit more...more? More what? More smaller! What's smaller than a breadbox (or a sock), and would look good on my arm?
Of course! Fingerless mitts! Just increase for a thumb over here...
That looks good, now finish up the hand, add some more ribbing, and go back to add the rest of the thumb, and TADAAAA! A fingerless glove! A be-a-u-ti-ful, fingerless glove!!!
There's still a problem, though. I have two hands. That was a lot of stitches, for a lot of rows, for a single fingerless glove. Oh, no! I have Second Mitt Syndrome! (Ya know, just like Second Sock Syndrome, but with mitts. Not SSS, but SMS.)
So, thank you, but please put away your IT advice...and will someone come and cast on that second sock mitt for me? I am NOT feelin' it! Maybe I need to start something else...like a pair of socks...*sigh!*
Thanks for stopping by, and Knit in Good Health!
THIS is why I do all paired items two at a time. It just doesn't feel like I'm doing the same thing twice when I do them that way.
ReplyDeleteI have that exact same yarn (yeah...I know...!) I am actually at this very moment wearing a pr of socks made with Serenity Sock Yarn. I struggled with it a long time. The fabric seemed very loose, but I didn't have two 0 circs, so I went with 1s and the end result turned out to be a very nicely fitting sock that has held up better than some $$ yarns which shall remain nameless. They are somewhere in my rav-projects. I can't remember exactly but I think I might have made them 3 yrs ago.
ReplyDeleteNow I need to go knit mitts from the yarn we have the same of.