1) How old were you when you learned to knit?

i started knitting around age 8, then i had a scarf phase in 2003/2004, and since january i’ve been in a sock mode. in between those manic periods there was zero knitting.

2) Who taught you?

my mom taught me to knit around age eight with a crazy purple and yellow scarf (that she found again a few weeks ago while cleaning). i was sort of a perfectionist and over achiever then and i moved on to multi color intarsia (see an example from that period here) which i learned from a library book. a couple of decades later the incredibly soft mohair from La Droguerie in paris called to me and i made a series of huge needled scarves for people (pictured above is me in 2003 with one of those but with vintage pink italian mohair which i have since ripped and it is back in my stash) and then i put down the needles for another few years. lately i have been blog-taught in the ways of sock knitting addiction. next up: fiber optics and interactive controllers in knitting.

…and hi Bobbi, *smile*, thanks for taking the time to take care of our rather large and widespread sp10 group.

oh secret pal, you totally made my week. when weeks get crunchy (you know what i mean, that chewy bad sort of crunchy when the universe seems a bit like it is imploding directly in your direction and you also have a nasty cold? yeah that crunchy), getting a fabulous unexpected thing or two in the mail is just the pick-me-up. my secret pal sent me this wonderfully spring-ily wrapped package of happiness and BAM didn’t the sun just pop back into the sky.

i unwrapped each piece (while on the phone much to the amusement of the person on the other end of the line who chuckled at the funky robotic noise artifacts the crinkling paper made when my voip provider‘s codec processed it) and lo and behold the contents were awesome. first check out the very cute mini knit sock keychain:

and the rest of the amazing package:

…the contents being:

– a lovely blue-striped journal i will be sticking all of my knitting notes in

– wild berry zinger tea which has already inspired some socks

– a beautiful mug, much needed around here the only two in the cupboard have been so loved they are a bit sad

– some prym bamboo double points, which will come in handy for some upcoming plane flights with those nasty metal detectors

– two skeins of yummy soft blue jawoll! yes this will become a pair of socks with a crazy complex stitch pattern, i am sure of it.

– a very cute card and the aforementioned mini sock

So, Ms. Secret Pal, THANK YOU. you rock. yes. *ahem* You ROCK.

when all else fails, bust out some wollmeise yarn and everything will be right with the universe. i finished an uber-secret knitting project a week or so ago and since then my knitting mojo has been sort of waning. when i felt down, my wollmeise yarn cheered me right up! even though the crazy purple and fuschia one pictured below looks simple, it actually is in its third iteration after two froggings. oh, and i am calling it the wild berry zinger sock thanks to the awesome tea my secret pal sent me! more soon on her awesome package of gifts. wollmeise yarn is color therapy, the extreme edition.

now that my blaggity blog is back up and running I can show you my first pair of finished socks for myself: Self Spiraling RPM’s. the pattern on the left foot spirals up and to the left, and the pattern on the right foot spirals up and to the right. in the original pattern on knitty, there is this caveat:

Note: The spiral pattern will appear slightly imperfect at the end of the round; as the next round of the stitch pattern begins, there will be 7 k sts or 4 p sts in a row.

me being the ever pragmatic math geek that i am decided i would figure out a way to get around that imperfection at the end of each round. it’s not that hard actually, when you knit in the round, you are making spirals already. i decided to knit these toe-up so my spiraled knitting is already going up and to the left. to achieve an auto up-and-to-the-left-spiral when knitting toe-up you only need to have the number of stitches all the way around minus one to allow the pattern to auto spiral up and to the left by one stitch. so basically, my pattern for the ankle of the left sock turns into:

step 1: start with a multiple of 9 minus 1 (in my case 63-1 = 62)

step 2: there is no step 2

step 3: p3, k6 until you are done

the right sock is therefore:

start with a multiple of 9 plus 1 (in my case 63+1 = 64)

p3, k6 until you are done

voila! auto-spiraling achieved. if you were to concoct a new pattern where the offset in your spiral was more than one stitch, you would just use:

start with (multiple of x) stitches

subtract y to spiral up and to the left

or add y to spiral up and to the right

where x = multiple of stitches in pattern

and y = number of stitches offset in spiral

the toe-up magic cast on toe in a smooth arc is another issue entirely. i really don’t like pointy or sharply angled toes on socks. toe up is fun, but i wanted the arc of the increases to be elliptical in nature so here is what i did for each foot (note: the increases are make ones that are located on the edge of the sock and are distributed as evenly as possible on the two sides of the sock):

cast on 30 stitches with magic cast on (15 on each needle of a circular needle)

round 1: increase by 6 stitches to 36

round 2: increase by 6 stitches to 42

round 3: increase by 5 stitches to 47

round 4: increase by 4 stitches to 51

round 5: increase by 3 stitches to 54

round 6: increase by 2 stitches to 56

round 7: knit to end of round, no increase, remain at 56

round 8: increase by 2 stitches to 58

round 9: knit to end of round, no increase, remain at 58

round 10: increase by 2 stitches to 60

round 11: knit to end of round, no increase, remain at 60

round 12: increase by 2 stitches to 62

round 13: knit to end of round, no increase

next round: start desired pattern on foot of sock

a shorthand notation of the left foot is thus:

30 36 42 47 51 54 56 58 58 60 60 62 62

i will let the reader extrapolate the right foot with the following numbers that represent the total number of stitches at the end of each round:

30 36 42 48 52 56 58 60 60 62 62 64 64

some final notes about these socks:

Yarn: incredibly gorgeous Rohrspatz und Wollmeise superwash sock yarn in colorway “Am kalten Polar” in medium-deep

Pattern: RPM from knitty

Needles: Addi double pointed 2.0mm (US size 0)

Modifications: Pretty much everything was modified. Knit toe up using magic cast on, increases were made so the toe sloped gently, stitch count was a multiple of 9 minus 1 for the left foot, multiple of 9 plus 1 for the right foot to allow for auto spiraling, short row heel with double wraps, knit one purl one sewn bind-off from Vogue Knitting.