Showing posts with label Ilga Socks. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ilga Socks. Show all posts

Thursday, June 11, 2009

Ilga's Socks - Part 2

I am feeling the love for this knitting project. It’s not really that difficult, but it is a little time-consuming. However, the fact that is is straight knitting for part of the leg and all of the foot speeds up the project. I like the way the pattern is centered on the front of the sock.

Unfortunately, I didn't remember to follow these knitting rules...... changing yarn colors or yarn dominance....but the philosophy of a very wise, older knitter (a/k/a Joansie) is:

"If you make the same mistake more than once, it is now considered a pattern."

The inside looks pretty good! You think? Rule of thumb is that floats should be no longer than five stitches. I may have stretched the rule in a couple of places.

I hope I don’t have that dreaded disease called SSS (single sock syndrome). I've yet to find a cure for that illness. I’ve started two other projects since completing this one. My excuse was that the pattern was too difficult to follow on my plane trip last week, so I forged ahead with other knitting.

Thank you all for your support regarding my last post regarding difficulties with my mother. I truly am happy to be home again from Colorado and regain some sense of saneness and normalcy.

I had no time at all to knit while I was with my mom. I should have clarified that mom's is actually two hours away from Denver. The Denver area has some beautiful places but the area my mother lives in is rather unscenic (i.e. ugly). I left just in time as the day after my departure, the area had more tornadoes and so much hail that the plow trucks had to be used to clear the roads.

Check out this site Resweater. It is one of my favorites. Two posts back has the neatest mittens.

Don't forget that tomorrow is "World Wide Knit In Public Day (WWKIPD)". Ravelry.com groups for your state will tell you where one is being held in your area. There are several locations in Vermont, one being in City Hall Park in Burlington starting at 9:00 a.m.

I think you will like the other two projects I am knitting. One may be a contest giveaway and I’ll decide on that as soon as I figure out if my alterations to the pattern are acceptable. I know, I’m teasing you but doesn’t everyone like a surprise. So, stay posted.
Happy Knitting!

Sunday, May 24, 2009

Fair Isle Knitting/Ilga Socks By Nancy Bush

I often like to have a mindless knitting project that I can just tote with me. I also like to have a project that is challenging and a learning opportunity.

This blogger has great instructions and links to learn Fair Isle. http://fairisleknitting.blogspot.com/ Be sure to check out this link as there is an absolute wealth of information for any type of knitting. Not sure why but I am not able to create shortcut hyperlinks in Blogger lately. Any solutions?

I was knitting Fair Isle as a teenager. I wish I still had some of those knitted projects to compare my approach.

Notice the chart above. I have a sticky note with the row I am working on just below the edge of the note. This allows me so see the row below and quickly tell if I am making an error on the row I am working on. In other words, I am looking at two rows at a time. It allows for quicker knitting.

Fair Isle has a double layer of yarn as you are carrying the various colors across the row. Intarsia involves blocks of color in a single layer.

The rule of thumb for "floats" (how many stitches to carry a color not currently knitting with) is five stitches. It is to avoid toes (or fingers, if a mitten) from catching as you slide it on your foot. When working with wool, the scales of the yarn (stitches) have a tendency to nest themselves and mildly adhere to the other color. This happens with only wool. It works out very well.

The Ilga Sock pattern is from this sock book. I love the selection of patterns. I used by 40% off coupon at JoAnn's which made it very affordable.

Happy Knitting!