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• June 2007 posts
• New yarn and needles from Crystal Palace
• New DPN reviews!
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• Heraldic Red Scarf
• Guide to Picking a Sock Gauge
• How to make the perfect kneesock
• Tissue Fish
• Knee Sock Survey

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There are days when I love beign a designer. And then there are days when I REALLY CAN'T SAY HOW MUCH I LOVE IT! :) I was contacted a week or 3 ago by Susan Druding of Crystal Palace, asking if I'd like to sample their yarns. Pick any color I want. Free of charge! :) Yes, its good to be a designer. They have several new-ish lines out of very non-traditional fibers, and I guess they want people out there playing with them. This of course completely made my day because if there is one thing in this world I love, its playing with yarn! :)

So the yarns arrived last week, and I didn't get time to blog or play with them, because I was frantically finishing up a sock, and tied up with reknitting a recalcitrant second sock which decided not to fit in the 9 months since I'd designed its mate. Switching to continental without finishing second socks is a BAD IDEA (tm). I got as far as noticing the colors, and petting them. The balls are rather densly packed, and at first I wasn't too thrilled - the yarns just don't pet as well in those tiny tight balls. Also, the colors on the panda cotton were WAY brighter than I'd thought, and I couldn't help but think of children's book frog. Which made me think of my recalcitrant second sock. :) Needless to say by the time the acorn rib first sock (see blog below) was done, a FROG POND sock had evolved in my mind:

The lace vaguely resembles lily pads on a lake or pond, and there will be a big green knit-purl FROG on the heel flap. The lace is more complex than I'd like for a play sock :) but the pattern is mostly made in the holes, not the lines of stitches, so it is not completely lost in the colors. Besides, these are FUN socks so I'm deciding not to care if the yarn and pattern aren't a perfect match for each other.

So practical details first. The yarn is Panda Cotton by Crystal Palace yarns, color 9806 - Fern, 55% bamboo, 24% cotton, 21% elastic. 157 meters to 50 grams, machine wash cold gentle cycle, dry flat. I swatched and found this yarn knits up a lot like wools of similar yardage per ball - its a bit stretchier than your average wool but not hugely elastic. I got a stockinette gauge of just under 8 SPI on my 2.5mm needles, just like I did for the Strapaz yarn on Foggy Dawn. At this gauge it almost drapes, and you really feel the silk-like smooth feel of the yarn. Its a little looser than my usual gauge, but any tighter and you lost the silk feel. 2.25mm needles gave me 9 SPI cardboard. Its also good for teaching me NOT to be a gauge queen - I do have to let it slide a little looser for it to feel comfortable to knit. Which works, because the yarn is slippery smooth, so it would be HARD to put my usual tension on it.

I must say, the yarn PLEASANTLY suprised me. The texture looks quite odd and wrinkly in the ball, and its so small and tightly wound that you really can't feel how soft or not soft the yarn is. I honestly think I would not have bought this yarn had I run into it in my LYS. I can tell you NOW I'm this close to ordering about a pound or 2 more! :) Hey Susan, if you're reading this I'll happily take more free samples......... This yarn feels SILKY soft. It just slides through your fingers. I knit a full 2 inch long gauge swatch (I usually quit after less than an inch) just because I was enjoying the feeling of the yarn slipping through my fingers and forgot to stop. Very few yarns really induce my process knitting bits (Anne by schaeffer is another one).

I also think it has just the right amount of elastic. Its not insanely stretchy like Fixation - it behaves a lot like wool with some extra springiness. So it doesn't totally throw off your gauge. The fabric it makes is very smooth, soft and silky, and has lots of strech and bounce, both of which are lacking in other cotton or bamboo blends I've tried. But its not SO stretchy you have to change the whole way you knit with it. Its sterchiness makes it well suited to lace because you can get the needles into those loops easily, and then they spring back to shape and don't look wonky and stretched out.

I've only had one problem with it so far. The twist on the ball I'm using doesn't appear very consistent. In some places the 4 strands are tightly coiled, maybe overplied, and in others the strands are not really plied at all. It doesn't seem to be how I'm knitting with it - it pulls out of the ball this way. So far this hasn't affected the look or feel of the finished knitting, but when it is loosely spun it gets a bit splitty and demands more attention from me.

Overall, my opinion is I LOVE this yarn and I will almost certainly buy more of it. I'm holding out my absolute final word on that until I have some socks on my feet, as I want to know how well it breathes and wicks moisture, but bamboo is supposed to be wonderful at both. I also worry that the slightly thicker yarn will make it a tad warm for California summer wear. If I could change anything I'd have it made with 3 strands instead of 4, so its more like the thickness of my usual sock wools. I'd also like more nearly-solid or subtle variegated colorways in the darker colors - loud colors are fun but hard to design for. It is a genuine pleasure to knit with this yarn and I will most likely be engaging in some serious stash enhancement.

I also had the opportunity to try CP's newest bamboo needles. They come in all the .25 mm sizes, and are in a tan/yellow package, not the old black. My main complaint on these is a totally personal one - they're 7 inches long and I strongly prefer 6. You of course are welcome to disagree, length preference is very individual. But they will not take over my needle life. They're lighter bamboo than the original CP DPN's, which I consider to be an advantage. The tips if anything are slightly sharper, and I've had 0 problems withthe bamboo splitting. They feel to me slightly LESS smooth than the traditional CP's and they don't have that glossy look right out of the package. But the cotton bamboo yarn has no trouble sliding on them, even when my hands get a touch sweaty. I'd have to say they're a tad grippier than the more traditional CP bamboo needles, so if you are looking for a faster bamboo needle these are not it. Overall, they are fine, great needles, and I'd be happy to reccommend them. The tips are perfect for lacey stitches, but I'd reserve them for yarns that slide well. I hope that CP decides to offer them in multiple lengths!

Wow, 2 blogs in the same week. :) something must be wrong. One of the things I've been noticing lately out there in the knitting world is that we have ALL become a LOT more picky about our needles! No more tolerance of "US sizes", we measure our needles with calipers and discuss the accuracy of various gauges. I persoanlly want needle manufacruters to ditch this .25 mm thing and just make me needles in every 0.1mm size between 1.5mm and 3mm :) but that's a touch too picky for even me!

At any rate, recently I have been on the Quest for the perfect knitting needles. There's just a few problems with this. 1) Perfect changes based on the project. 2) I'm inordinately picky and 3) I'm alergic to just about anything metal. Especially nickel. No sock is worth fingertip rashes. So I tend toward bamboo. To date my favorite bamboo for socks is crystal palace double points - good tips, they bend but don't break, etc. However, I was sitting around in a yarn shop knitting on a sock (yeah, like that never happens in my life) and I decided I like heels so much that I simply HAD to start my afterthought heel NOW. Okay, I lie, I needed to try on the sock to see how it was fitting and its hard to do that without a heel in it! So I say "Hey, do you guys have any 2.25mm 6inch DPN's back there?" And of course they do, but equally of course, the CP needles haven't been restocked (due in any week I hope). So I'm *GASP* forced to try another brand.

The needles in question are from a brand new brand. This is very cool. Competition is good for quality and price control! KA double poitns are cheaper than my beloved Crystal Palace needles, and the tips looked good, they come in all the 0.25 mm sizes, so its worth a try. :) so far I really like them. They seem just a tiny bit slicker and faster than the crystal palace DPN's, but that may be because they are still newer. The other "advantage" is that the bamboo is MUCH lighter colored. So these will be my needles of choice for darker yarns. Especially dark brown wood colored yarns like on the sock in the project update below! :) I'm pleased with them, and consider them roughly equal to the CP bamboo double points. However, DO stay tuned, because I have heard from Susan Druding over at Crystal Palace that they have a new style of DPN's in production, and I fully intend to review them as soon as I get my hot little hands on a set!

So all would be well and good if I loved bamboo for everything. But I have 2 major problems with bamboo needles. First, not a single bamboo circ out there has joins that can handle magic loop socks. At least not that I have tried (and if anyone knows some that do work I will happily try any free samples! ;-) Furthermore, I knit tighter than a newly wound clock, and cotton blend yarns stick to bamboo like glue. So I need a non-woody alternative, that comes in ALL my sock sizes. I had to this point tried Pony Pearls, which I like but... they're just so PLASTIC, and I've had a few durability problems. So I was metal needleless until recently.

Along comes ANOTHER new needle brand, Hiya Hiya, which I get from the Knitting Zone (no affiliation, just sharign the addiction). Now I know I said I was alergic to everything under the sun. Well... there's 1 metal in the whole wide world I know is safe. 100% plain boring stainless steel. Its about as hypoalergenic as you can get without going into jewelry grade metals. Hiya Hiya is the FIRST needle manufacturer in the world I know of to make plain old boring stainless steel needles in something other than lethal thin knitting pins. And, get this. They come in about a dozen lenghts of circs, from 11 inches to about 60 inches, and they come in all the 0.25mm sizes, from multi 0 on up to tree trunks I'll never use. Best of all... THE TIPS ARE BETTER THAN ADDIS AND THEY COST HALF THE PRICE!!! The joins are also competative. Not perfect, but more than good enough. They also make bamboo DPN's (not tried) and steel DPN's in various lengths (5, 6, and 8 inches). The DPN's are NICE let me tell you, I only have about 5 sets. :) At any rate, Hiya Hiya has very rapidly become my non-wood needle of choise. I do hope they perfect the joins some day though.

BTW, I also do have 1 other non-wood needle I like. This again coems from sitting around in a yarn shop. :) "Crud, I have size 5 and 7 circs, but the gauge really needs a 6... Do you guys have any 24 inch long size 6 circs in? No no no, not addis, I can't use those - alergies. CP? Sorry you know I love them but this is cotton yarn and I choke the life outa needles... Inox? never tried it, what metal? teflon coated??? that's odd, I'll give it a try..." Turns out teflon won't stick to anything, and therefore can't trigger much in the way of alergies. I don't like the tips on the coated inox the way I like the Hiya tips, and the stupid coating has a tendecy to rub off the tips, but I do consider these needles an acceptable hypoalergenic non-wood needle. I'd use 'em again, in a pinch.

So there you have it, my needle review. For bamboo, its really DPN's only, and CP and KA both make great stuff. Clover needs to catch up... :) Metal, its Hiya Hiya by a LONG shot, with Inox coming in a usable second. Inox circs have better joins than the hiyas, BTW, if sharp tips isn't essential to you.

Tune in soon for more reviews! My new best friends at Crystal Palace have offered to help me get my hands on some of their new bamboo needles as well as new bamboo and corn blend sock yarns, and I'm sure I will have LOADS to say about them! Can't wait til they get here!

And now for a completely off-topic rant, 6-14-07. So like, I'm on this diet and exercise lifestyle change thing, right, and lost like 40 lbs (hence the designing of cool skinny tank tops). Luckily I'm nto stupid and my diet and exercise lifestyle change leaves room for ice cream! :) I simply cannot live without chocolate ice cream. So today, I manage to work out MUCH harder than usual, because I've got Dance Dance Revolution set to endless mode, Standard difficulty, and it manages to serve me song after song I can actually do (there's only like 5 or 6 I totally die on at Standard difficulty, God spare me from Paranioa in all its revisions!). 50 songs later I finally can't keep my feet moving on the beat, and I get to stuble off to the shower. So tonight I'm thinking, I have SO earned an ice cream splurge, and not a few spoonsfuls from the freezer splurge, but a full on going-out-for-ice-cream splurge. So after dinner we're driving to our neighborhood strip mall, which is in this cute little traffic square with a park and a fountain. Its 9:30 at night. Its June. Its California. Its 80 freaking degrees outside still. Sign outside Marble Slab Creamery: "Summer Hours now in effect, closed at 9 PM" There are people milling about the park, families with baby carriages, couples, etc. All people that like ice cream on a June night. There are a handful or restaurants, a grocery store, a coffee shop. NOTHING BUT WALGREENS IS OPEN! AT 9:30! IN CALIFORNIA IN JUNE! I mean, it barely got full dark a half hour ago... does this seem wrong to anyone but me? I WANT MY DOUBLE DARK CHOCOLATE WITH COOKIE DOUGH AND OREOS! *sigh* The world is conspiring to make me lose more weight, tis just not fair! :)

I currently have several projects on the back burner (a sock in Socks that Rock that's just too thick for me to want to knit right now, some tank tops in design phase, and article for Knitty on a toe up cast on variation, and of course the ever dreaded second socks I have yet to finish) but I'd like to share with you two new projects that I'm very actively working on. The first is a new sock that I anticipate I will release in a week or 3. Its working names are "Falling Leaves sock" or "Acorn Rib Sock." It is knit in Trekking XXL color 90, and I intend to size it for both women and men after feedback in a favorite chat room. Of course, its a 14 stitch repeat so... the sizing won't be perfect but what can you do??? The sizing isn't perfect for ME even this time, but I loved the stitch pattern and refused to sacrifice my preferred gauge of 10 SPI.

A few notes on the construction: The sock is obviously knit toe up, from the tip of the toe using my variation on Judy Becker's magic cast on. I'm planning an afterthought heel very much like the heel on the Rhapsody socks using my mock short row toe and some extra plain rows as that's the best fitting heel I've ever made for myself. Besides, its a self-striping sock! Afterthoughts are best for stripes. I'll then knit it up the leg until I get bored, do a ribbing to match with the design, and do a sewn bind off. I promise and swear I'll do the second sock immediately after the first. yeah right, oh well. :) At any rate I hope you like the sock and welcome comments.

Next on my sock yarn lineup is some sunshine yellow Anne OR some forest green Fearless Fibers from the yarn binge OR... yeah I haven't decided yet. its not like my stash is lacking choices at the moment!

This scarf was developed for the Orphan Foundations of America's Red Scarf Project through Nikko's Red Scarf Project. The goal was to produce something I would fully enjoy knitting, that would be loved and cherished by a recipient of any gender, and looks better in design, quality and workmanship than anything you could ever find in a store. Basically, when I charity knit, I insist it be good enough to give as a gift to my own family. And my family doesn't like homemade! I'm releasing the pattern under the following terms:

• You MUST knit your FIRST scarf for a charity organization. It is thereafter free for your personal, non-commercial use.
• You may freely distribute the link to this pattern or printouts of the pattern to other knitters. If you distribute a printout, you must include the copyright statement at the bottom and give the recipient of the pattern these instructions.

Currently, the pattern is only available as a chart, because I work best from charts. I will post written directions if and when I get the time to make them, or if someone writes them up and sends them to me. The image below is a 72 DPI png image (screen resolution). If you click on the image you can view and download a 300 DPI version (print resolution). I recommend DK weight yarn and size 6 needles, I needed 200 grams for a 60 inch long, 7 inch wide scarf. If you want to use worsted weight, the scarf will be a touch wider and you may need more yarn than 200 grams.

There are some minor problems with the design, if you care to hear the musings of my inner perfectionist. It curls slightly, and it isn't at all double sided. But it flattens out relatively easily when I've draped it on myself and well... :) I liked the stitch pattern too much to care about the double-sided bit! I have 2 more red scarves planned, both will be actually double sided and will hopefully not curl. One I intend to release under the same terms as this one, the other will be MUCH more work to make the motif double sided so if it works I plan to release the pattern for sale, with part of proceeds going to the OFA.

Oh and one last treat... :) In doing my article for Knitty I HAD to start a sock. So here is the latest kid's sock for Children in Common:


Pattern is copyright Suzi Anvin, 2007 and released under the following terms:

• You MUST knit your FIRST sock pair for a charity organization. It is thereafter free for your personal, non-commercial use.
• You may freely distribute the link to this pattern or printouts of the pattern to other knitters. If you distribute a printout, you must include these instructions.