Wednesday, May 16, 2007

Monkey See, Monkey Do, Monkey Poo!

So I planned to join the masses (just call me a sheep ... bahhh bahhh) and make my Sockapalooza pal some monkey socks. I kind of felt bad about this, since it seems that this is what every one else is doing and it makes me a bit unoriginal. But I really liked them, and since everyone else likes them, it raises the odds that my pal will too. So there. It seemed like a good idea. Famous last words.

In any event, I decided to make a test pair to ensure that I knew what the hell I was doing. I went through my stash and picked out the yarn that my SP9 pal sent me awhile back.* The yarn was in one big hank and needed to be divided into two neat balls, so I whipped out my scale and got to calculating.




A little schmizzle zizzle and bam, two (almost) perfectly divided balls.** My pictures are kinda dark, but I think that you might still be able to notice that the table that I am using has a top that is about one square foot. Now before you laugh your self right off of your stool at my teeny tiny table, you should know that that I am a midget. No, I'm not. Just kidding. But the table still worked perfectly. I now have two swifts and two ball winders (this set being my my aunt's, found in the boxes from Miami) and this swift is small and dainty and it fit on the table with the scale and ball winder just peachily. Maybe I had to hold the table steady with my feet to prevent it from keeling over, maybe I had to pull the yarn out a bit from the swift and ball winder as I wound it so there was more drag (or less, or whatever, I'm not sure what the magic finger technique does to make the yarn ball better, but it works), maybe I had to fish my pen off of the floor several times because it was just too damn big for the space, but in the end, it all worked out.


I did the ribbing and a few pattern repeats on my double pointed needles and was really liking the monkey. I found, as I always do, that the double pointed needles were a bit unwieldy and were slowing me down so I decided to switch over to two circular needles. I had a safe needle transfer and did another row or two and was really pleased with how fast I this little monkey was coming along. There was a some color pooling that I would have preferred to not have, but overall I was pleased. But "pleased" always bites me in the arse. This is where things start to go down hill. Fast.



Pleased (ha!) with my progress and finished my third set of pattern repeats/rows, I decided to try the monkey on. Eeek! Nope! Not gonna happen. This little monkey won't go over my heel (well, without lube or heel lipo). Now being that this was my test pair and for me, this was problematic. Being that my sock pal's foot is bigger than mine and this was the size I planned on knitting her, this was catastrophic. Say it with me, GODDAMMIT! So now I am back to the drawing board. I haven't heard about anyone having size issues or read about anyone upsizing the little shits, so now I am going to have to look into it. Or, I am going to have to find another pattern. Again, dammit!


* Speaking of Secret Pals, my SP9 pal never sent me her 'reveal' or the last package she said she was sending. I know that she was preggers so it may be she had no time, but if she still reads me, please send me a hi and tell me who you are! I'd like to know.

** My second ball is slightly heavier and I seemed to have gained overall yarn weight. This is the second time this phenomena has happened. If you have x.x grams in one hank and divide it into two balls, I would think that when all is said and done you should still only have x.x grams when you add the two balls together. Is there some sort of weird energy transfer going on that I am to dumb to figure out? It is weird I tell you. Weird!

3 comments:

Kristy said...

Hmm, could you try going up a needle size? That usually makes a big difference for me!

Jenn said...

I would definitely go up a needle size unless you think that the fabric wouldn't wear as well. I made those socks a few months ago and I was surprised that they were a little tight on me. I guess I shouldn't have been, the circumference of my foot is 9.25 so most patterns are a little snug, but still. It goes on over my ankle, but barely!

Seanna Lea said...

I really like the Monkey socks, but I am a very loose knitter. My monkey socks are a little too big for me. I'd just change needle sizes and try again!