Nine Is Enough

Here's another Circular Swirl Baby Blanket I made, but with three colors instead of two this time. I like it. Nine sections works just fine, and in some yarns, you can get by with eight sections.

This took one skein of Bernat Coordinates in each color.

More Socks Finished

I sewed up socks as I rode in the car with my husband and son yesterday. It's handy to have a quart ziplock bag with small scissors, a needle, and something that needs sewing ready to grab.

The brown sock is my husband's size, knitted circular on the standard bed machine with the ribber. It does have a seam in the cuff, which looks and feels fine, but no seams in the foot. It's that DVD & pattern for sale.

The blue and white socks, my size, are knitted circular on the antique sock machine. Interesting print yarn, isn't it?

Inspiration - Zigzag Lace Socks

Cute!

http://knitflix.blogspot.com/

Working on: Single Bed Sox

I was issued a challenge, to make good socks on the single bed with no ribber.

Now, y'all know I use a circular sock machine that makes superb 72-stitch socks with circular ribbed cuffs. Plus, I just wrote a booklet and produced a DVD teaching how to make terrific circular socks on the standard with ribber, which takes care of the other sizes and makes any kind of fancy ribbed cuff fairly easy.

So why would I do this?

Because I can't resist a challenge. And, not everybody has a ribber. Knitters, I want you to get the most out of the equipment you do have!

I came up with this shorty sock, to wear with sneaks. It is quite good, without a ribber, without much sewing. The only sewing is short cuff seams!

Do you see me rubbing my hands? Well, yes, I am rather pleased with myself.

Of course, without a ribber, you can't have a warm, soft ribbed cuff without lots of hand manipulation, or maybe hand knitting the cuffs, but if you'd like a short rise gym sock with a hem instead of a ribbed cuff, this one is fine. Try this very small project just for the interesting techniques. It's another good use for smaller amounts of leftover sock yarn. I buy such nice sock yarn that I don't like to waste any at all, and have been known to make stripes and contrasting heels, toes and cuffs to use it up.

It's filmed, and I'll put an overview YouTube up in the next few days, and then will work up some instructions and maybe a DVD later, not sure. Let me know what you'd like to see.

Got some sock book/DVD orders already, some shipped and some going out tomorrow. How cool is that! Thanks for that vote of confidence.

Oh - important announcement for Knit Natters. Sylvia has invited us to her house for the February meeting! I volunteered to do the program. Sylvia is one of our newer knitters, and has a Toyota 901. She uses a professional embroidery machine, and will show us that. I need to get over to www.knitnatters.com and change the "next meeting" page.

PalPal Buttons Fixed, and Diana Looped

The PayPal buttons weren't working and are fixed now.

-------------

Today's adventure - I took today off to have a diagnostic test, and the doctor knocked me out for it. He said it's the same drug that Michael Jackson took to sleep at night (which was incredibly dangerous. We know how that turned out. When they give it for this procedure, an anesthesiologist has to be right there the whole time.).

Well, I'm a high-energy person who is hard to sedate, and I switched right off. Don't remember anything. Afterwards, I told the nurse I felt fine, and asked if I could go in to work, but she told me I wouldn't be alert enough and that I should not drive.

Everything was okay, and I came home awake, but all I wanted was a nap. I had lunch and spilled things; good thing I didn't try to drive. I slept all afternoon. I don't know how Michael Jackson functioned at all, poor man.

So Rip Van Winkle here is finally up and functioning. And knitting, too, as I film a new video. I'm kind of scattered because I'm chasing three knit projects at the same time.

Now Available: Sock DVD & Pattern Package!

The sock knitting packages are finally available!

The package includes a book and a DVD.

Here's what in the book:

1. Sock knitting tips and techniques - 7 pages of information about knitting socks on the standard gauge machine.

2. Detailed instructions - written out for the women's medium size. I elected to do it this way instead of giving you multiple size numbers to hunt through and circle. Knit a pair, following the detailed instructions, and after that, you'll very likely prefer to work from the one-page summarized pattern chart, which has all the sizes.

3. The pattern chart - includes twelve sizes, from little kids to big guys. It's printed in color on the inside of the back cover. The columns for the various sizes are colored to make it visually easy to focus on your desired size instructions.

3. DVD - the video has all the material used in the three YouTube circular sock videos, plus an extra video lesson showing how to fold the cuff and begin circular knitting using a garter bar. The DVD, unlike the YouTube videos, is in the higher definition 1080p resolution for a remarkably clear picture.

The garter bar method of folding the cuff saves quite a bit of time.

This book and video, along with all my other products, is available at www.dianaknits.com.

Saturday Fun

John and I were taking sock pictures for the instruction booklet cover today, and having a good time with it. This is a photo where I was thinking "earrings!" as I held up a pair of little socks. The one going on the cover is even goofier, with the Kool-Aid socks on my hands like sock puppets. We weren't in a serious mood, I guess. That basket has lots and lots of handmade socks, but they don't show up the way I hoped.

We had a fantastic Knit Natters meeting today with ten people present, including Bea and Margaret all the way from San Antonio, and Sylvia and her daughter Jessica. Sylvia finally had a second Saturday off! Bea and Margaret are always a treat, and Bea had brought a big bag of things she had knitted on her Passap. Margaret said she hadn't brought anything for "show and tell" but she was wearing an absolutely beautiful garter carriage sweater. Mildred had a whole pile of projects along, and Sara and Pat are hand knitting up a storm. Barbara is still working on the many wazoos for the troops and then she starts on helmet liners.

There were a lot of great projects, but my battery on the pocket camera was low. Tiffany and Sylvia pulled out their cameras and there will hopefully be good photos emailed to me later. Barbara did a demonstration on drop lace on the Passap, and I did a demonstration on Shadow Lace, which is a Studio technique, only on the Brother. There were a lot of similarities in our demonstrations, but we hadn't coordinated. We just stumbled onto the same page somehow.

Knit Natters will not be meeting in February, and Barbara has lined up a ceramic painting demo in March. While we're officially a machine knitting club, we do like to change things up when we get the chance.

Inspiration at Knotty Knits and Naughty Kids: Wild Tam pt 2

Doncha love it when a knitter finds a gorgeous use of the last precious little bit of a nice yarn? Headband and flower embellishments over at Knotty Knits and Naughty Kids.

Knotty Knits and Naughty Kids: Wild Tam pt 2

Inspiration at Marzipanknits: Machine Knit Puppy Sweater

Marzipanknits: Machine Knit Puppy Sweater

Lose Weight While You Sleep

I'm highly skeptical, but isn't this fun...

http://www.masondixonknitting.com/archives/2010_01.html#002786

At least, while you are sleeping, you're not eating!

I better keep going to Weight Watchers.

Inspiration at Art Machines: Ruched Hat

Art Machines: Берет для любого возраста

Knit Natters Meeting Saturday

Yes, we're having our regular monthly meeting this Saturday!

It's at Barbara's house. She's planning a Passap demo and I'm planning to show the Shadow Lace tool as a way to move ribber stitches up to the main bed and back to the ribber.

Email me for more details if you are interested in attending.

That's Sara hiding behind her fantastic University of Texas afghan a couple meetings ago. The Longhorns are at the Rose Bowl tomorrow - Hook 'em!

Machine Knitting Fun: The Cupcake Hat Was A Hit

Machine Knitting Fun: The Cupcake Hat Was A Hit

Photo for the DVD Label

I asked my sister Sharon, who is a professional printer and does lots of CD and DVD packages, what she thinks of this photo for the DVD stickers to go right on the disks. Of course, it will be edited into a donut shape!

She likes it, so this is the picture.

You guessed it - I stood on a dining room chair, and I had to use all child-sized socks in the arrangement so it would be small enough for the photo.

Whole Lotta Sox Finished This Weekend

For my first commercial venture, and in response to considerable nagging from family and knittin' peeps to make videos and patterns for sale, I've been putting together the sock lesson package. The high-def sock DVD is done, and the printed materials are next. I have the sock instructions written and have been proofreading and testing the pattern book. I wrote a narrative pattern with just the women's medium described, but there's also a chart with all twelve sizes. Once you've got the hang of the sock you won't want to read all that detail, and you can work all those sizes from the chart.

People have been surprised at my hesitancy to teach or design for pay. Well, ever since I sold my yarn shop in 1989, my knitting has been strictly fun and never business. I was cool with just the day job, no appointments or deadlines. Nothing messes up the craft experience like a deadline! But here I am, finally dipping a toe back in. If this product is well-received, that will be affirming and exciting and will justify my time investment. If it's not, I did it and certain well-meaning relatives (who hopefully aren't reading this) can stop bugging me. Why, this is a win-win situation.

After John and I checked all the instructions and numbers endlessly, I started checking gauge and knitting socks. I compare the measurements to the chart just to make sure my charting is accurate. Then I weigh the pair of socks and make sure my required yarn estimates are okay.

I wanted to get the majority of the sock package done before I go back to work tomorrow. Year-end where I work is crazy busy. I love my job but feel sad that this vacation time is over. Usually when we have time vacation we go somewhere, but this staycation was sweet.

Because the kids' socks take so little yarn, and I've estimated how many grams I'll need for the small ones, I'm using some fun leftover sock yarns to make them. I'm using the Weight Watchers electronic scale to weigh my little balls of yarn in grams. I hardly ever use it for food. I asked the WW leader when I bought it if it would be good for weighing small packages, and she said she thought so, but said nobody else had ever asked that question. She gave me the strangest look, and I'm sure she was wondering what on earth I was weighing. Of course, I was planning to use it to weigh leftover yarn, but I didn't explain that to her. I try not to let people know just how boring I really am.

The scale is very accurate, so I don't find myself out of yarn with a sock and a half knitted.

Pictured, from left: Knit Picks hot pink sock yarn; Knit Picks Bare dyed with blue Kool-Aid; Knit Picks Bare in the slubbed version; Knit Picks dyed with orange and lemon Kool-Aid; an terrific cotton/lycra sock yarn called Cascade Farms Fixation (a deviation from my general rule to stick to wool); another blue Kool-Aid dyed Knit Picks sock, and finally, a variegated sock yarn I purchased from Barry Travis on the sock knitting list.

I knit a lot of socks on the circular sock machine, but the great advantage of using the flatbed is that we can easily make tiny socks or huge socks. The circular machine has several cylinders with different numbers of needles, but I don't have the compound cylinder that will do childrens' sizes.

I want to encourage everyone who'd like to make socks to dig in and try this method. The knitting is fiddly at first, but after a while, you get a routine going. I am a slow MKer, and yet I'm getting a sock done and ready to sew in 20-25 minutes.

Oh, also, I put up new video YouTube versions of the 3 sock videos with NO MUSIC. The music was annoying. My husband told me it would be, and I should have listened to good advice!

I added a little segment on the regular DVD with how to fold the cuff with a garter bar. If you have a garter bar, this is the way to go. I was also popping my ribber stitches up to the main bed with a Shadow Lace tool...another time-saver that would make a good video one of these days!

My Best 2009 Blog Entries

Bloggers are doing lists of their best stuff from 2009, so I'm jumping on the bandwagon. You probably missed some of these, because I didn't start out doing the videos, and the knitting patterns are all over the place. In somewhat chronological order:

1. Sock photos: http://diananatters.blogspot.com/2009/01/sock-roundup.html
2. I still love this lace scarf, and here's my pattern: http://diananatters.blogspot.com/2009/07/scalloped-lace-scarf-by-diana-sullivan.html
3. In June, I finished a big volunteer commitment and started putting up machine knitting teaching videos. By midyear, I had put up the complete beginner knitting course on videos, which is organized here: http://diananatters.blogspot.com/2009/09/links-beginner-machine-knitting-lessons.html
4. In August, I was finishing up the garter bar course, which is organized here: http://diananatters.blogspot.com/2009/08/garter-bar-lesson-videos-so-far.html
5. Also in August, up went the beginner raglan sweater, and knitters started sending me photos and progress reports on it: http://diananatters.blogspot.com/2009/08/beginner-project-videos-so-far.html
6. In September, up went the ribber course. http://diananatters.blogspot.com/2009/09/ribber-lessons-so-far.html
7. In October, I switched to projects, hoping readers would have time to make them for holiday gifts. Here's an afghan on the ribber: http://diananatters.blogspot.com/2009/10/luxury-throw-beginner-ribber-project.html
8. The child's English Rib sweater (fast, easy, & cute) http://diananatters.blogspot.com/2009/10/childs-english-rib-sweater-links.html
9. In October, the Swirl Baby Blanket: http://diananatters.blogspot.com/2009/11/swirl-round-baby-blanket-videos.html
10. Knit for kids in Nepal (you can still do this, but it ends soon) http://diananatters.blogspot.com/2009/11/please-help-knit-for-cold-children-in.html
11. Warm child's hat: http://diananatters.blogspot.com/2009/11/new-video-warm-childs-hat.html
12. Warm lined slippers, on bulky (thinking Christmas, by now): http://diananatters.blogspot.com/2009/12/bulky-lined-slipper-heres-pattern.html
13. Warm scarf from Homespun yarn: http://diananatters.blogspot.com/2009/12/warm-ribbed-scarf-to-knit.html

I consider the socks a 2010 item.

Sock Videos

I stripped the music off the videos because it's distracting, and these new versions are music-free:

Part 1 of 3



Part 2 of 3:



Part 3 of 3:



Later on, when I pull the original videos, I think I'll switch these into the previous post which explained a little bit about the socks.

3 New Videos: Knitting Socks on Standard Machine

You can knit excellent socks on the standard gauge machine. There are lots of wonderful books on the market with patterns and instructions on machine knitting socks. Over the years I've tried a whole bunch of different methods. Lately, I puzzled over what kind of socks would be best for video lessons. I considered making a simplified sock that would be easier to teach and knit, but I decided to teach the best possible socks, even though this video is more difficult. I'll have to wait and see how knitters managed (I answer knitters' questions by email every day).

Should I go flat, main bed only, and have you seam them? Should I go toes-down, and put two seams in the cuff, like my fave Passap sock? Or toes-up and put one seam in the cuff? I finally decided to do toes-up with one seam. I think it's the best possible sock if you don't have a circular sock knitting machine because it has the fewest seams.

This is a little more difficult than some projects, but so what? It's a series of straightforward steps, and a little practice will conquer them. As you knit a few socks, you will master a whole bunch of useful MK techniques.

The overarching principle in knitting is quality. Just as I strive hard for quality in the video project, which is my current stiff learning curve, you're striving for a quality product, for something to delight the recipient. If you're going to all that trouble to learn machine knitting, to pay for terrific equipment and supplies, then whether you're making a sock or a designer sweater knock-off, you want a quality finished result.

There's no point in making socks with crummy yarn. Use a good superwash wool yarn with some nylon content for socks that last. You can wear holes in an all-acrylic sock in nothing flat, maybe even in one wearing. I have homemade wool/nylon socks in my sock drawer that are years old.

Here is the latest about the DVD project. A lot of folks have asked me to make DVDs of the lessons available for purchase. This week, I was on vacation and I was able to spend time learning the new camera and the new editing software. The DVDs we've recorded and played back on our TV are amazing. Even on the standard machine with itsy sock yarn, you can see the tiny stitches and all my goofs and fumbles in almost painful detail. Soon, I hope to have the sock DVDs and a companion book with all the sizes available for sale.

I jump off on the DVD project with this one; it's a start to see how they are received.

Go up to find the sock videos!

Resolutions and Knitting Socks

Our Weight Watchers talk tonight was about New Year's resolutions.

Y'all already know that I already made one resolution, to make the best quality videos ever, and then tonight I went to WW class in the miserable cold rain and got all inspired by a 70-year-old lady attending class. She said she went white water rafting last year, and her goal this year is to ride a zipline in Hawaii! She got me to thinking...I am mulling exciting things that I could do that I have never done before. Gosh, I'd love to ride on a zipline. White water rafting was incredibly fun. I went with friends, and if my friends hadn't wanted to go, I wouldn't have tried it.

What would you resolve to do that is totally out of your box?

Knittingwise, I hope I put some things on the blog that inspire you to do something entirely different.

For instance, some time back I was talking with my girlfriend, who said that she didn't buy an expensive knitting machine and spend months learning to work it just to knit socks! Socks are much too ordinary. She had more glamorous projects in mind.

As a matter of fact, I felt exactly the same way myself. I didn't learn to knit to knit socks, for Pete's sake. However, somewhere along the way I knitted some socks and now I'm hooked. My handmade socks are warm, soft, beautifully fitted so they stay up without all that nasty elastic in commercial socks, and they breathe because they are natural wool. Even worse, I shared some with relatives and friends who are also hooked now. I crank out many pairs of socks each year, normally on my amazing antique circular sock machine. I buy fun, crazy colors. I've experimented with lots of different sock yarns, but my preference is superwash wool with a little nylon for wear.

Socks make wonderful gifts, and they're a great little project for evenings when I've come home tired and just want to knit a little while.

You don't have to have a circular sock machine to make good socks. You can make 'em on the standard machine with ribber, as well.

A sock is a complicated shaped piece of knitting. Expect this to be a little more tricky and to require some practice.

Now I need to go to the knitting machine and get the video made showing how to do a sock on the flatbed standard machine with ribber!

New Video - Dyeing Wool Sock Yarn With Kool-Aid

Here's my newest video, filmed on my new hi-def camcorder: