Yesterday, Becky came over to visit.

If you look closely, you can see the cat in the window.

I say that so casually! We’ve actually been planning this since March - and I had been trying to think of a good reason to invite her over for much longer than that. In my head “come sit on the porch and knit and maybe we’ll have some lunch” wasn’t a good enough reason. I came up with “Soon I will be in the midst of the SYAC and sad about my lack of new sock yarn*, so whaddya think about coming up to dye some with me?” She said yes! So yesterday, Becky came over to visit.**

Becky is my first knitblogger to turn from Imaginary Friend into Live-and-in-Person Friend. I warned her about the driveway and about the stacks of bricks (you know where YOU can go Brick Man) and about how I Cleverly Crop my house picture so that no one can see the Terrors of the Yard, lack of furniture etc. etc. I did not warn her that I am flaky, babble/am shy in turns and in general have no awareness of my surroundings most of the time. I thought I would save that for a surprise.

In case anyone is wondering, Becky is NOT a “troll masqurading as a fat, grey haired knitblogger”. She is cute, sweet, fun to hang out with, has a great laugh and really isn’t all that grey haired! If I were making Song of Hiawatha, I would have grey hair, too. The parts of it that I hadn’t torn out.

I’ll spare you Dyeing Details, you can google for those if you want to try it yourselves.*** We mixed our dyes and then used squirt bottles and sponge brishes to apply them to the yarn.**** After one hank of that nonsense, we switched to the soak-each-end-in-two-colors method. Then we wrapped them up in plastic wrap and stuck them in microwave for 6 minutes. The results?

From front to back: mine, Becky’s, Becky’s, mine.

Our conclusions? We are very happy that there are many many other people who hand-dye yarn and are willing to sell it to us for the low low price of $20. Dyeing is hard work!

Becky has also ruined my Granmother (What? Of course Great Gran was there). All Great Gran wants to talk about is the Flower Basket Shawl that Becky brought for show and tell (the purple one that she dyed with Kool-Aide). Luckily Becky has some great pattern notes to help us get through this thing. I have to order the yarn so that we have it when my Mom is here next and start collecting Kool-Aide packets to be sure we have enough. I guess I know what our next KAL is. I haven’t even finished a hand towel.

I know that I have left a TON of stuff out! But I am late for my haircut so I will have to update later. Becky, thanks so much for coming and for saying “the next time we do this” several times while you were here! There should absolutely be a Next Time - just give me a call.

Becky has a much better account of the day over here. I can’t believe I didn’t show her any of my knitting and completely forgot lettuce for the sandwiches!

*I ordered the dye-your-own before April 1!

**Some hand-dyed yarn for Great Gran (she’s taken it home - I haven’t got a picture) and a felted box (a la MDK) for me! How cool is THAT?!

***I didn’t take nearly as many pictures as I planned…I’m so sorry, Esther!

****I heart superwash. You can do all kinds of bad things to it and it still looks like yarn.

One down. Three to go.

The Most Urgent Bear is finished in surprisingly little time. When I counted up the TV shows I watched making him, the total came out to around six hours. He was really fun to make! I think I am going to make the other bears (I used to need two more, but now I need three more - what is up with all these babies?) on smaller needles. My gauge was right but he looks too stretched out when he’s stuffed. Mom put his face on - I will have to do the others myself. The pattern is “Baby Bobbi Bear” from Blue Sky Alpacas. They also have a a “Bobbi Bear” who is 20″ tall.

To make your toe:

Knit to within 1.5 inches of your total desired sock length, ending with round 6 or round 14 of the pattern. Then shape the toe as follows:

Round 1
Needle 1: k to the last three sts, k2tog, k1
Needle 2: k1, ssk, k to the last three sts, k2tog, k1
Needle 3: k1, ssk, k to end of needle
Round 2
Work all stitches evenly (no decreases).

Repeat these two rounds six times (48 stitches remain).
Repeat Round 1 six more times. (24 stitches remain)
Knit the 6 stitches from Needle 1 onto Needle 3. Break yarn leaving an 8 inch tail. Graft (kitchener) live toe stitches together. Weave in ends.

Now, you can taper the pattern down the toe by dropping one set of hay-stacks from each end on each successive repeat (by repeat, I mean rounds 1-8 and rounds 1-16; by haystacks, I mean the big, loopy stitches). For instance, if you have ended the foot on round 14 (with 5 haystacks across the top of the foot), work rounds 1-6 with only the 4 middle haystacks. At the same time, work the toe decreases as indicated. If you want to plan ahead and create a more noticeable taper, begin dropping haystacks on the repeat before the end of the foot. There is enough length in the toe for one more repeat. This is not as hard to do as it is to explain!

You know what you do when you finish the first sock, right?

Cast on for the second! And wear it on your head to celebrate.

You can print out the complete pattern for the HayStack Socks here. Please let me know if you find any mistakes!

The mailman was good to me and brought me a Treat from KT (the one in VA not the one in AZ)! She met Ann and Kay in Actual Person and was sweet enough to get me a signed copy of Mason-Dixon Knitting (which she even wrapped before mailing)!

Look! My name! Written by Famous Knitters!

Thanks so much, KT, you absolutely rock (16 days)!

Let’s take a moment and review a record-breaking (for me) collection of Works in Progress.

From left to right we have: the Honeydew Top (almost finished with the waist decreases), the At Your Own Risk Socks (about to the toe), the 4th square of the Epic Counterpane, a Moss Grid Hand Towel (from MDK), those red socks, and another dishcloth. I have been trying to come to terms with this — Oh for crying out loud. I just realized that I have another one: my first LL socks in Black Pearl. I had to hide them from myself because they are all I want to work on and I have Project Spectrum commitments. It is Unusual for me to have this many In Progress things at a time and I find it a little bit upsetting. I have spent way too much time justifying the situation. Wanna hear? Of course you do:

• The Honeydew Top is my big project. I only have one so that’s OK.
• The socks are for Project Spectrum, technically they are a “small project” so they are OK.
• The Epic Counterpane is already going to take a billion years to complete so shouldn’t even be figured into the list of “what I am working on” so that’s OK.
• The linen hand towel is because my Mom is visiting. The hand towels are Great Gran, Mom and my current KAL. It can’t be helped so that is OK.
• I think the 2-up red socks are still too big (I might hate them). They don’t have to be finished until July. That is not OK, but I am going to live with it.
• Dishcloths are now “Knitting for Places Where My Knitting Might Get Dirty.” You gotta have at least one of those in case you have to knit in a sewer or something. So that’s OK.
• The LL socks (not pictured) are my travel project (they are on circs). Gotta have a travel project. So that’s OK.

And all of that is great. Unfortunately, now there’s this:

That’s Baby Bobbi Bear from Blue Sky Alpaca.

I’ve got to make baby presents. You can’t make them sweaters when they are born at this time of year. And their parents know I knit. Why don’t I just make booties? I really don’t know. I. Just. Don’t. Know.

Happy Easter!

The Easter Bunny’s cousins live in my back yard!

**Added 4/22/2006: You can print out the complete HayStack Socks pattern here!**

When you are finished with the gussett, work evenly on the sock until the foot (measured from the back of the heel) is two inches shorter than the total length of the actual foot for which the socks are intended. The toe won’t actually be that long, but I haven’t decided if I am going to try a different kind of toe so stopping at least two inches shy of the total means you won’t have to pull out. If you are continuing the pattern down the instep, keep an eye on your progress so that you can stop patterning on round 6 or round 14.

So when I said “Tomorrow, the gussett!” what I meant was “Friday, the gussett!” I can see how you would be confused.

Here’s what you do:

**Added 4/22/2006: You can print out the complete HayStack Socks pattern here!**

Gussett
K across the 7 sts on needle one. Pick up and knit 21 sts along the heel flap. Work across the instep sts on needle two. Pick up and knit 21 sts along the heel flap and knit the 7 sts on needle three. (28-36-28 sts on the needles)

If you want to continue the pattern on the instep, work round 9 as:
K5, *(P1 wrapping needle twice) twice, K4 rep from star to last 5 sts, K5
Then slip the purl sts as usual for rounds 10-14.

Decreasing on the Gussett
Round 1
Needle 1: K all sts
Needle 2: Work across needle
Needle 3: K all sts
Round 2
Needle 1: K to the last 3 sts, K2tog, K1
Needle 2: Work across needle
Needle 3: K1, SSK, K to the end of needle

Repeat these two rows until a total of 72 sts remains on needles (18-36-18). According to my math, this should be 12 repetitions.

Now as a tiny note: This doesn’t seem like enough decreases to me, but I made the heel flap 2.5 inches long for crying out loud so it should be fine. Maybe it has something to do with the Dutch Heel.

Incidentally, Lene (my yarn buddy) has this to add about heels:

PS: On socks - “Dutch heel” (or German, as it is know as in Europe) - was what I learned from my grandmother and what she learned from her grandmother… so on. I think it fits great, but if you have experienced that the heel didnt fit right in stockinette, have you tried to make it larger? Most often the problem is a shallow heel or a too-short foot, OR a too-large instep. If the heel slips away and you find yourself walking on the side of the heel, try using 60% of the sock stitches for the heel instead of 50%, and still knit a square for the heel flap. Especially usefull is this trick if you are knitting a pattern on the heel that will pull in, like your reinforced heel, which will make the heel smaller in the width. Phew what a long PS.. sorry, but once I get started…

Then she mentioned (in another email that was really about licorice):

If you have very broad heels, try to knit the square and just pick up stitches from the side of it instead of knitting the bottom of the heel. The gusset would be much longer, but the side of the heel would be shorter, evening it all out. I have very small heels, and as such do not use this technique, but for men with large heels this is a godsend method (Do not use it, however, with any yarn thicker than sock weight, because it may create a bit more bulk).

Did I tell you what Salmiak is? Klaus (Mr. Intrepid, wearer of Cool Socks) looked everything up in his German-English dictionary (”Glukosesirup” is “grape syrup”) and translated “Salmiak” into it’s chemical name. Then Lene wrote that “7,99% Salmiak” is the maximum amount of licorice flavoring allowed by law! Which doesn’t surprise me, that is some Potent Candy.

P.S. OHOHOH I am going to Maryland Sheep and Wool! KT invited me up (her reasoning was that MD isn’t that much farther than Atlanta - heh) and who would pass up a chance to meet one of their Best Blogging Buddies? Not me - I hate to miss a chance to hug a neck in person! So M and I are going (Great Gran expressed Dismay that I was ready to hop on a plane to meet a stranger I met on the internet - to be fair, that is the kind of thing cable news lives for - hence the Traveling Companion). Joy!

I’ll get to the heel turn in a second - I gotta show you what came in the mail from Lene!

That is my camera shadow in the picture. Heh.

That is part of an Elaborate Trade with Lene (in Germany) that started back during the LL contest. She offered me a bribe of Kauni Effektgarn, a German self-striping yarn (she made Pi with the rainbow colorway). I said that I thought a bribe would be a great thing and the Wheels of Swap were set in motion. I got 200g (800m) of Kauni Effekts in a sort of brown, blue and gold colorway. This ought to be enough to make a sweater vest for myself. If it isn’t there are about a million other things that I can do with it. The grey and purple yarn is called Evilla Artyarn. I don’t know what I am making with it yet, maybe a shawl or something. But wait, there’s more!

FIBER

The rainbow colors were all wrapped up in a long, soft fleecy bit of brown and were such a pretty surprise to open. The grey and tan next to those are sheerling alpaca! I can’t wait to try them out (since I only have the one spindle, they will have to wait a little while). The cats have shown a disturbing interest in the grey alpaca. It now resides in the top of the closet. You can’t be too safe! Lene also included some Pirate Licorice Coins in my package - which are way cool by themselves but I now know that “Glukosesirup” means “Glucose” in German. I can’t figure out what “7,99% Salmiak” means. I think it is related to “Extra Stark.” Context will only get you so far. Thank you so much, Lene! I hope your package gets there soon!

On to the sock heel!

**Added 4/22/2006: You can print out the complete HayStack Socks pattern here!**

My sock leg reached 6.5 inches after four and a half repeats of the pattern. I toyed with making the heel flap in stockinette, but I have never found those to fit well and ended up using the standard heel stitch on mine. I did decide to try a “Dutch Heel” for a change of pace (I usually make round heels - I like how they look). In the Dutch Heel discription in Folk Socks, Nancy Bush mentions that you can continue the heel stitch pattern over the length of this heel turn for reinforcement. I thought this would be great since M walks through his heels first. So I’ve tried it. And I think it looks OK. SO the heel flap and turn go like this:

Sometimes they call it a “Square Heel.”

Heel Flap
Rearrange your stitches so that there are 36 stitches on needle one and 18 stitches on needles two and three. If you just add the next 12 stitches to needle one, the leg pattern will be centered across the instep. Working back and forth on needle one (36sts):
Row 1 (RS): *S1, K1 repeat from * across row
Row 2: S1, P across row
Repeat these two rows until the heel flap reaches 2.5 inches (about 20 repetitions). End with a wrong side row.

Turn Heel
Still working back and forth on the 36 stitches of needle one
Row 1: *S1, K1 repeat from * across 24 sts, SSK, TURN
Row 2: S1, P12, P2tog, TURN
Row 3: *S1, K1 repeat from * across 12 sts, S1, SSK, TURN
Repeat rows 2 and 3 until all heel flap stitches have been worked (14 sts remain).

Divide the 14 stitches of the heel onto two needles. Combine the 36 stitches from needles 2 and 3 onto one needle (instep). K7. The round now begins and ends in the center of the heel (needle one holds 7sts, needle 2 has 36sts and needle 3 has 7sts).

Tomorrow, the gussett! And I have been working on the Honeydew Top.

I tried it on.

Three more rounds and then I will begin the side shaping.

It’s raining finally! Hoo-ray, rain! It makes for great knitting weather and when it stops, you can dig holes for plants in places where digging was previously Impossible (I’m serious, the yard is like a rock). The weather radio is saying things about Severe Thunderstorm Warnings.

I got the sock leg pattern worked out thanks to the dishcloth.

See why I wanted to change the ribbing in the final version?

I am sure I am not the first person who has used slipped-stitch patterns to deal with variegated yarn, but it still made me feel good when the light bulb went off. In my first try, the slips weren’t long enough for the look I wanted and I wanted them to alternate rather than make columns down the sock leg. I like the smocked look the leg has (this will stretch out when you have the sock on).

The sock pattern now goes like this:

**Added 4/22/2006: You can print out the complete HayStack Socks pattern here!**

Gauge: 9sts=1″ for an 8″ width (relaxed) OR 8.5sts=1″ for an 8.5″ width (relaxed)

Needles: With this yarn I’m using a set of 4 US size 0 double pointed needles (your mileage may vary)

Notes: In the leg pattern, the purl stitches are made into large loops by wrapping the yarn three times around the needle during purling. When you come back around, drop two of the loops made by wrapping off of the needle leaving one very loose slipped stitch. It looks messy, but it will all work out.
Slip leg stitches purlwise with the yarn held in back.
K = knit, P = purl, S = slip

Cuff:
Cast on 72 sts, divide evenly onto three needles (24-24-24), join (without twisting) and work in *K2, P2* ribbing for 1.5″

Begin Leg Pattern
Round 1: *K2, (P1 wrapping yarn three times) twice, K2, repeat from * to end of round
Round 2: *K2, (S1 dropping 2 of the wrapped loops off of the needle) twice, K2 ,repeat from * to end of round
Round 3: *K2, S2, K2, repeat from * to end of round
Rounds 4, 5, 6: Work as round 3
Rounds 7, 8: Knit all stitches
Round 9: *P1 wrapping yarn three times, K4, P1 wrapping yarn three times, repeat from * to end of round
Round 10: *S1 dropping 2 of the wrapped loops off of the needle, K4, S1 dropping 2 of the wrapped loops off of the needle, repeat from * to end of round
Round 11: *S1, K4, S1 repeat from * to end of round
Rounds 12, 13, 14: Work as round 11
Rounds 15, 16: Knit all stitches

Repeat the 16 rows of pattern until the sock leg measures about 6.5″ (this should be around 5 repeats - don’t quote me on that) or length desired, ending with row 16.

If you’ve got questions, comment or email. I am going to work on my Honeydew Top. I’m almost to the side shaping.

**Added 4/22/2006: You can print out the complete HayStack Socks pattern here!**

If you are Knitting Along At Your Own Risk, stop now! I’ve had to change a couple things. Forget about calling them the Great Socks of Aten for starters. The ribby pattern I wanted to make gets completely lost in the colors of the yarn. Drat. Discouraged, I worked on my dischloth and tried to come up with a way to break up the variegation. I’ve figured it out (YAY dishcloths), I’ve tried it and am making a couple more changes before I show you a picture and give you the pattern. The bad news is that I think a *K2, P2* rib will look better with version 2.0. Stop being so crabby, I told you socks are an Organic Process! If you’ve got an inch and a half of *K1,P1* and don’t want to pull it all out, it looks fine so don’t worry. If you haven’t started because you were waiting to see where I was going with this (good on you): find your gauge, cast on 72, join and *K2,P2* for 1.5 inches. I’ll have the leg pattern in its final form in the morning.