Jobo Designs

Finally I managed to be home during the waning daylight hours to take some photographs of these socks? they?ve been sitting on the coffee table blocked for almost a week now waiting for their unveiling!  This time of year I find it very challenging to take photos, especially since it?s dark outside most days by the time I get home.  These images were taken indoors in the best light I could find.  (Sorry if they are still a little dark)

The Pattern:  Kaibashira by Chrissy Gardiner

The Yarn:  Dragonfly Fibers ? Dragonsock in ?Texas Bluebonnet?

Sometimes it is difficult to know what to do with a given yarn.  I really loved the colours in this skein, but every time I tried to knit them up I just had a hard time deciding if it was the right project.  In the end I decided on this pattern because I loved the way that the colours blended into the curves, and the way that the garter stitch rows added dimension to the design.  In the end I am quite pleased with the way they turned out.

There is something very enchanting about knitting socks for me, just enough interest to keep me entertained, but the utility of the finished product is also addictive.  I mean, you really only *need* a certain number of afghans, or cardigans, or mittens? you don?t necessarily use those everyday.  But I wear socks almost every day of the year!  On Prince Edward Island it is quite chilly (and the downright cold!) from the middle of November until April sometime.  On a frigid winter?s day, there isn?t much nicer than a pair of homemade wool socks? or at least to this ?lil knitter ;)

I think I would like to try this pattern again using handspun yarn, since the ripples were so easy to do? they knit up in no time really.  I hope the pattern for this year?s SockWars is as simple? my target won?t know what hit him/her!

It’s funny how sometimes you get a skein of yarn and something about it just speaks to you.  I can’t quite figure out what this one is saying - I am certainly having trouble fining the perfect project for it.  Maybe it’s the fact that some yarns look different in the skein than they ever will knit up, and could never live up to the expectations you have for them.

My “Texas Blue Bonnet” skein I think is one of those white elephants.  I tried last week to use it for a pair of leyburns, and the 2-ply “pearly” texture of the yarn didn’t feel right.  I liked the way the colours looked, but something about the way the yarn looked as unknit strands felt funny.  So I frogged and went back to the drawing board…

Just to Try and Illustrate my point about the 2-ply yarn feeling different than 3+ plies… I thought I might try and elaborate a little on Yarn Structure (I am still learning about spinning, so this will no doubt be a very basic explanation…)

One of the Simplest yarns one can make is 2-ply (simplest being a single ply only)  The yarn that results is basically two plies twisted together, so you can still see both plies clearly, and the resulting yarn is kind of like a string of pearls in that often it has distinct “bumps” Two ply yarns are specifically suited to certain styles and types of knitting because of the way these bumps lie together in the knitted stitch.  (See Photo on Right for a 2-ply yarn example)

On the other hand… the more plies one includes in a yarn… the Rounder the finished yarn becomes!  The yarn on the Left is a 4-ply sock yarn, and look how much straighter the edges of the yarn appear… there really isn’t that bumpy texture at all.  Because there are more plies, the load of the yarn will be spread out amongst those plies and the resulting yarn is supposed to be more durable and have different properties knit up than a basic two ply would be.

So basically, I guess what I was trying to express is that the unknit strands in my leyburns looked bumpy, and I think they would look better with a smoother yarn…

After the Frogging, this is what I came up with:  After some careful thought, I decided that maybe I should do a wavy/curvy/rippling type of pattern with goals of achieving a blended effect with this yarn.  The colours remind me of my home Province – Prince Edward Island - with it’s Green landscapes and Red Dirt.  I hoped to find some sort of pattern that would suit.  A reader (thanks! Saradippity) suggested a pattern from the book “Knitting with handpainted Yarns” that was wavy which I really liked, and was very similar to another pattern I had been eyeing:  Kaibashira by Chrissy Gardiner.

Here is what the yarn looks like knit up in the pattern stitches…

the handpainted yarn seems to even out its colour spread resulting in a nice blended effect that kind of reminds me of a pine tree (needles, cones, bark, etc) 

The blue sections of the yarn have become obscured quite a bit by the greens and browns, but in a pleasant way. 

(Keep in mind the sample has not been blocked yet, I hope the YO’s come to live after a good soak)

The lace pattern is very easy to memorize and simple to work even while watching tv or not really paying attention.  Basically it’s one row of Knitting 2 stitches together and YO’s followed by 3 Rows of plain knitting or purling.  Basically a no brainer… 3/4 of the rows are just knit!

I decided to omit the fancy lacy cuff that the pattern called for in favor of a more basic garter stitch top.  I like frills and lace, but sometimes enough is enough.  I cast on 66 stitches and worked 7 rows of garter stitch (I.e. in the round that means you knit one row, then purl one row, repeat)  I like the resulting wavy and feminine cuff.  It’s different from a plain ribbed cuff, but not flamboyant or frilly either.  I have one sock done and I am reasonably pleased with it.  I’ll post some more descriptive pics and the rest of the project details when number two gets taken care of