Grant's Kilthose

Got the kilthose finished at last. How many months have I been struggling? Basis was Cat Bordhi's Personal Footprints, working from the toe up. DId a bit on one, then a bit on the other, so they grew together.

They were a bit tight round Grant's ankles getting them on. The extra length was no problem for this tall chappie, but I had to put quite a lot of extra stitches in for his 17 inch calves (mine are 14 inches). Only just found out he swims 50 lengths every monring before going to work, which explains a lot! I took the calf shaping in a bit before starting the hidden rib.


Then I spent a couple of days deciding on the cable pattern for the turnovers. I ended up with woven lattice. I knew that most cables needed an extra 10% of stiches, but a sample showed it drew in rather a lot, so I added about 20% and forged ahead. I finished with four rows of rib and tow rows of tubular rib to do a Kitchener bind-off - quite pleased with this. But when I tried the first one on my own leg, the lattice was horribly tight. I am now waiting with heart in mouth for Grant to come round and try them on, with not much hope of them being right.

They definitely look better on a leg than off, as they don't want to lie flat on a sock blocker.

Sockwise or Anti-sockwise?

Having got into some difficulty with the rib on some Lana Grossa yarn, I decided to hand knit the ribs and place the work back on the CSM. Unfortunately because of the thread-up the yarn has to be cut (I wouldn’t have earned anything from the Imperia knitting company for this, they insisted on every sock only have one piece of yarn in it). Dropping the rib into the middle of the machine the same way as I knit means the machine in normal action takes the yarn in the opposite direction and would leave a big hole not easy to mend. So the rib has to be turned inside out. As I’ve done an invisible cast on with two rows of slip stitch it is identical both sides. Phew.

Afterthought - it wouldn’t really be the end of the world if I turned the handle the other way until the heel shaping. Just unconventional.

Busy Weekend

No.1 son plus wife and all three grandchildren (youngest 3 years old) were coming up for the weekend for the first time, which took some organising. No. 2 son and wife decided to join in pretty much at the last minute to surprise me, booking themselves in at the local hotel as I don't have elastic walls. I seem to have spent most of the weekend on my feet cooking for nine, but there were a magic few minutes when my grand-daughter "knitted" my craft room with a ball of wool. I got proper needles out for her and we did the "Under the fence, catch the sheep, back we come, over we leap" bit, but she was far more interested in the Art Installation. She didn't tie me up, but I had to cut my way out of the room!

Today I have put the house straight and set the 1920's Cymbal Circular Sock Machine back up. I've started a sock in two colours i.e. rib, heel and toe are going to be in contrast. Another pair for the local museum shop. At present, I only have three colours to choose from, as we need to be using labelled yarn for sales purposes, so I need to ring the changes. Last week I finished a pair of roll top socks, two pinks sandwiched with grey. I cheated on this a little, by starting the top two rolls on the Knitmaster flatbed. Then I e-wrapped a cast-on row on the CSM, but this row came undone later, so I must have done backward "e's". Always something new to learn!