"Dark Side, No Moon" Socks Failure

WARNING: Long post. TL;DR: Cool sock yarn, attempt number one fails due to gauge issues, attempt the second fails due to yarn issues. Socks scrapped and yarn awaiting new pattern.

You might remember that at Fiber Fest, I purchased this really great color-way from Fishknits called "Dark Side, No Moon" of a self striping sock yarn. I had a pattern in mind when I bought it, but after looking over the sizes it made, I was worried that none would fit. After hitting up Ravelry, I found a new free pattern by Paton for Toe Up Socks. Not only did they look like nice, simple socks, but their size measurements seemed like the Women's 7/8 would fit me nicely.

Looks so cool, no?

I am not sure what the 7/8 part of that size means (and I hope it is NOT shoe size), but the length of 10.5 inches is a little larger than my foot so, fingers crossed for it to fit! This is probably a good time to mention that this will be the first pair of socks I ever made!

Working with the D hook is tiny and hard to see, especially since the skein starts with black. A good strong light was needed for this project. I also found that I really needed to pay attention as I quickly messed it up in the first 8 rounds or so, adding an extra stitch at the end of the rows and having to rip it out...

A toe cap!

Which brings me to the fact that this sock is worked in rows... I guess I understand why... but at the same time it makes a seam which I can't think will feel good under my foot. For now I am going to make the socks following the pattern, but I can't help but feel like perhaps working it in the round continuously might make for a nicer foot-feel.

In any case, I love the yarn. The ply is wonderful and the tiny bit of sparkle is nice. I can tell already that the striping colors are going in a standard ROYGBIV sort of order, which is very cool if a bit boring. I was hoping I guess for a more random color order, but they did not have one worked up, so it was hard to tell when in the hank.

Colors look great.

I got about 4 inches into the foot when I realized I forgot to make a gauge swatch... OOOPS. I measured on my work to see the gauge and realized that I was an inch smaller in both directions. Instead of a 4" square, their numbers got me a 3" square. I am using a different brand yarn than the pattern calls for, but it says "Fingering" weight on the label, so it shouldn't matter. I tried the sock on and it fit pretty perfectly, so I decided to just keep going. I am now worried about yarn usage though, since more stitches per 4"square means I will need more yarn than I thought.

Got several inches into the ankle after this pic before scrapping it.

I got all the way through the foot. Bound off and got about 2 inches into the ankle when I realized I was running out of yarn. So obviously it is as I thought and that my gauge being off was using up the yarn too fast. I could have bought another skein but this one was 438 yards which is more than enough for a pair... also at $26 a skein I couldn't bring myself to make a $52 pair of socks... they go on my feet for crying out loud.

My husband suggested that I finish the sock and then frame it as a monument to my hubris.
I ripped it out.
_________________________

For attempt two, we are changing this thing up entirely. New pattern, new hook size, new pattern size. I am still using a free Paton's Family Crochet sock pattern, but this time it is worked ankle down to toe. Since I'm going to a larger hook, I'm going to make the Women's L5/6 size this time and of course try it on as I go again.

Ok, first things first... make a gauge swatch. Pattern calls for 22 sc to equal 4 inches. Pattern called for a D hook which I used last time, so I tried a larger E hook... still half an inch off. Went out and bought an F hook, made my gauge swatch and it looks to be a tiny bit too large?!

I went and read through the posts with this Panache yarn on the Fishknits Etsy store and it says that the Panache yarn is a two ply. That actually puts it into the lace yarn category, not fingering weight. So that is probably why I can only achieve the gauge with a large hook than called for... because the yarn is thinner. My F hook gauge swatch being a little too large is probably due to the yarn being all bendy from being ripped out.

With those problems sorted out. I got the ankle ribbing done and started work on body of the sock above the heel. I got about three inches down and decided to see if I could pull it over my foot onto my ankle like a sock. Which as you might have guessed did not happen. I'm assuming that since the yarn doesn't have a ton of stretch to it, that the body just isn't going over my heel. The ankle ribbing fits fine. Maybe socks are a thing you need to custom make for your foot and not follow a pattern except in loose terms.

In any case I have scrapped this second sock as well and am going to try to find some other use for this yarn. Bummer, but hooray for learning.

V-neck Tunisian Vest

Since I still had a lot of questions left unanswered from my first attempt at tunisian crochet, I decided it might be a good idea to invest in a class. Recently I joined Craftsy, and they have a pretty wide selection of online classes, one of which was for learning how to make a Custom-Fit Tunisian Vest. I enrolled when it was on sale for half price!

I really liked the class and it help me with a lot of things:
- learning to increase and decrease in tunisian
- learning about ease
- learning to bind off in tunisian
- learning to read and alter patterns to fit ME!

The class was really helpful in understanding the break down of the construction of garments and taking measurements to see how it would fit. The video format means I can go back and watch it over and over.

You make a gauge swatch and then an armhole swatch before you start working to make sure you are hitting your correct measurements. After that you get into working the actual v-neck sweater.

I bought 6 skeins of Plymouth Yarns Encore Tweed in a blue called "Wedgewood White" to use for this project.

With only good things to say about the class, I expect now you want pictures of the finished vest... Well after working on the gauge swatch, I still could not figure out why my fabric was curling so very badly, and the width of the swatch was way off since I was making these giant loose chains like told to do. This is a type of crochet that clearly needs a lot more practice than half a scarf before diving into a vest.

In any case, I have decided not to make the vest and am looking for patterns to use the yarn. It is both a bummer and a new milestone for me. Something to reach for in the future, but not something that will help me make a totoro sweater any time soon, as is my ongoing desire.

I have hope that a new stitch, the "split single crochet", might be a new solution to knit-look crochet garb. Live and Learn, right?

Beginning Tunisian Crochet

As we have previously established, the waistcoat stitch is an excellent way to replicate the look of knitting with a crochet hook, but creates a superdense, non-stretching material that tends to be very stiff. It's pretty cool for gloves and hats, but is not a good option for anything that needs to be made in flat pieces, like say, clothes or scarves.

Aside from this stitch, there is another commonly used technique for creating a knit look in crochet... Tunisian Crochet. Besides being impossible to pronounce correctly, tunisian is something that has been daunting to me for a long time. I recently had a coupon and got a Clover H 5.00 mm tunisian hook from Joann's. I also had a pattern in my Evernote that I thought would be a good place to start:
Tunisian Crochet Cowl by Rescued Paw.

To be honest, I am still confused as to why this Clover hook has two ends... I have read somewhere, I thought, that it is to make tunisian in the round with, but I cannot figure how. Leaving that aside, this hook is almost too short to make this cowl pattern with. The number of stitches just barely fits and I have trouble keeping it scrunched up to fit, while working. I am considering ordering a set of hooks online, the longer 12" ones with little nobs on the end to stop your work escaping. I feel like these would be a good investment if I decided to really try to make a full sweater from this technique.

In any case, I managed to work several rows of this technique with this hook mainly because I watched this How To video by Happy Berry Crochet. I guess I had assumed that tunisian was a single kind of stitch and that it made knit look stitches. Wrong. The simple tunisian stitch does not look anything like knit, that is in fact another stitch... called the knit tunisian stitch. Luckily, the video does a great job of explaining both and how they are different, which is to say, not very.

In any case, I decided to make the cowl in some super pretty Madeline Tosh DK in Mandala. It is just a little stretchy which helps a lot with making this stitch. I used the color changing technique by Rescued Paw to alternate between two skeins of the same color, to break up the color patterning that I feel tends to happen with variegated yarns. However, since I wanted to practice the knit look, I used the knit stitch, instead of the simple tunisian stitch as her pattern called for.

Tunisian Knit Stitch

After about 8 inches of work, I was really getting annoyed with the double ended hook. The other end kept biting into the outside of my palm as I worked. So I just went to the store and got a new longer hook. With that I was able to work with less pain and less scrunching. At this point I was pretty bored with the knit stitch and felt comfortable with it.

Even though this colorway is amazingly pretty, I felt I might be doing a disservice to it with such a plain application. So once I figured I had about half done, I decided to work in five row chunks, alternating between knit and simple stitch, to get a kind of striped texture that might be more visually interesting.

K for Knit tunisian stitch, S for simple tunisian stitch. But hard to tell right?

I did a few "stripes" of the texture/stitch switching, but the variegated color made it pretty hard to see. This piece was also doing some massive amount of curling. Obviously it would need to be blocked before it could even be remotely wearable. I found out that I was working way too tightly which caused the curl.

I started this cowl in December, but stopped working on it and did a lot of orders for people in the mean time. Like I said I was bored and new orders were more fun to do. By the time I got a lull in orders again, I had put this project down so long that I was hesitant to pick it up again. So, I ripped it out and decided to use the two skeins of yarn for something prettier than a cowl.

Getting that far into the cowl, I now understand how to do these stitches at least. The fabric created by the knit stitch is really dense, but seems to have good stretch to it. The simple stitch creates a slightly thinner fabric that might hang better on the body but doesn't have that knit look. I do think both would make a good sweater, as is my goal, but this project has served it's purpose.

Difficulty learning Tunisian: Not hard at all if you know basic crochet.

Scrapped - Granny Square Shawl

So I have a little over two skeins of the Weekend DK teal blue and maybe half a skein of the ToshDK stargazing left over from my open air shrug and Otachi respectively.

Since they are both the same weight and gorgeous together I wanted to make something with them. I feel like I might not really wear that shrug since I'm not comfortable with the way it fits, so I figured a shawl might be a nice idea for the rest of the yarn. I looked around and for some reason a lot of the shawl patterns I was looking at called for an N13 or 9.00mm hook, which I don't have one of. So instead I decided to try out this Triangle Granny Square shawl/scarf by Esther of Happy in Red.

I have made a few granny squares in the past and so had a pretty good idea of what to do. This isn't so much a pattern as a pattern. Like repeating idea pattern until you have the size you want and decide to be done. That is good cause then I could just stop when I am out of yarn.

The stargazing is such a dark color, but very pretty so I wanted it to be the edging. I figured maybe I could fade the light blue into it. So I figured I would do most of the rows in the light color, then when I get about half way into it (based on holding it up to my body and the amount of yarn left), I would started alternating colors like: one dark, three light, one dark, two light, two dark, one light, three dark...

After that I would start on the edging. I decided to do this Arc Lace edging. I picked it because it was both pretty and could be worked directly on to the edge of my giant granny triangle with a minimal amount of misery. I followed the instructions for crocheting it directly on. Each arch is worked completely and then continues in the same way you were going. I figured I would start at one outside corner and worked it towards the point of the triangle, then continued back up the other side. At the center point I might have to make something up if it did not end exactly for another full set of the 15 stitches for the foundation of an arc.

I got this far into the shawl and decided to stop and rip it out.

It was just too boring, simple and normal for such pretty yarn. I could do this with any yarn I had on hand, and I might later, but I thought it might be fun to do something cooler with such good yarn.

Of course I went to Etsy and found a crocodile stitch shrug pattern that I liked instead. So, next post will most likely be a review of that shrug instead. I still might do the rows of colors in that pattern too, but we will see how I feel about it.