Friday, September 14, 2007

Woven Ridge Socks by Cat Bordhi

Believe it or not, this is a pair! I've bought two different colorways about a year ago, with another project in mind, but it didn't work out. So I had these two yarn cakes rolling around in my sock yarn bin, until Cat's book arrived and I saw the Woven Ridge Socks. Out they came patiently waiting their turn.


The colorway on my right food is the one used in the book. They did a marvelous job in photographing it. I always liked the linen stitch, and was pleasantly surprised when I saw a sock with it. This does not mean that this is my favorite sock from this book. I haven't decided yet. I like them all, but we'll see which one I like best, if at all possible. ;o)

I love this book, and I love all the constructions/patterns in it, and also how the book is made up. It's very easy to find things, to go back and forth.

I did have trouble with sizing this pair. Since I had the original yarn, but not size 3mm needles, I started of with 3.25mm needles. My midfoot measures 9.5 inches, so I went with the largest size in the pattern. I did the toe and used this to measure my gauge, which was 6 sts/inch/ Perfect. After I've knit about 4.5 inches I realized that this sock is going to be huge, even for my big feet. So I ripped it, and started over with 2.75mm needles (remember, I don't have 3mm DP). For some reason the sock was still way too big. What to do???

I started over with the second size in the pattern (fewer stitches), but with 3.25mm needles and it fits perfectly!

For the leg I increased 6 stitches evenly along the woven ridge part, because my leg is not straight up the same all around. I like the bind off with the double strand. It looks nice. I could have bound off a little looser, but I'm happy with it as it is.

I liked knitting with this yarn, how it glides along the needles, really wonderful to the touch. But- there's a but, in one ball I had two knots! Grrrrr! And I didn't even use it all up, so there's room for more knots. The other one had none, thank god.
I interpreted the arch increases wrong (with the first, left foot) sock. I realized my mistake with the second one, so that looks a bit different, but nothing I would rip out half a sock for. Next time I'll know.
So, well, there you have it.
pattern: Woven Ridge Socks by Cat Bordhi form her book "New Pathways for Sock Knitters Book One" page 98
yarn: Artyarns Handpaint Stripes color # 105 (right foot) and # 127 (left foot), 100% merino wool, machine washable, one skein each 100 g/188yds, with left overs from both.
needles: 3.25mm 5 DP bamboo (this yarn and bamboo needles are made for each other)
size: women's 10 1/4 (for myself)
start-finish: Sept. 10-13


After I had such a great time dyeing yarn with turmeric, I wanted to dye this lace weight yarn with rosehip/hibiscus tea bags, lots of them. The brew had a wonderful color, and I left the yarn in it over night, as directed somewhere on the Internet. Next morning, the yarn looked sick, or dirty, or both. I washed it, and it came all out, like nothing happened at all. I had some food coloring kicking around, and but it in the microwave. It came out all mottled and splotschy, real nasty looking - again. O.K. I set up another food color bath and in it went again. It still has some lighter spots, but it's much better. I felt so bad for the yarn, that I decided I could overdye whatever I'll knit with it, whenever. Not a success story, and now I'll take a break from dyeing yarn for a while. But it's still fun from time to time!

I had the urge to bake something and made this "Gugelhupf" without a recipe, just through in all the ingredients I could think of and had at hand. It's good, especially with tea. I used to bake a lot, so there's still some knowledge in my woolly brain left, that it turned out O.K. ;o) It had the potential to be a total disaster.

Something I have to confess: I've been on ravelry for quite some time now. I've uploaded a few finished projects and left it basically at that. Last week, after I've read all blogs I read, needed a knitting break and had nothing else to do, I remembered 'ravelry' and went for a looksie. Wow, you really can get lost there. I still don't use all the features, and don't participate much, but one thing's for sure. You will get startities! It's amazing what fine work people show there! I'm so inspired and would like to have a few more hands, which would constantly work on something. It's overwhelming, and wonderful. I haven't even started to go to all the places, new blogs to be discovered, and so much more. I really don't want to get sucked in, but from time to time, I'll be back there, whenever I need a boost, just looking around, appreciating all the beautiful things.

Have a nice weekend!

16 comments:

Unknown said...

Your socks are even more incentive to sit down with that book and get going!

After my initial Ravelry "rush" I've settled down and begun to use it for ideas and information and posting my knitting. I don't think I have the time to get really involved. I do love it though.

Cloudberry said...

Everybody around in blogland seems to bake chocolate cake - and yours looks both tasty and beautiful!
Love the pattern on your socks.
Have a great weekend!

Frieda said...

Ummmm , That guglhopf looks very temtping , my mouth is watering . I like the colour of your laceweight , doesn't look bad at all . As I was re-organizing my stash , I came across quite a few skeins of cream /bare yarn . I can't remenber what I had planned , but seeing your dyeing experiments I'm thinking I'll do some research as well and give it a shot. Thanks for the inspiration !

I love ravelry , but don't really want to spend too much time there either. It's very handy for project inspiration and information though .

shannon said...

love the socks!

i adore the PINK! yarn, too.

the cake...looks soooo good.

ravelry, i've not really become insterested in getting in. many knitters whose blogs i read are crazy for it. perhaps it's because the yarn is still safely at my friends house waiting to move into our new place?

Teresa said...

Oh those are nice socks! I like mismatched pairs actually. I found one store selling pairs of 3 socks instead of 2. They were very individual, bright and in a way..so ugly they were cool!

The yarn looks great! I'm sure it'll turn out great. I've been tempted to get more lace weight yarn and do some more dying.

Ravelry is great! I fell in love with all the norse socks people have knitted. I'm tempted to make my own.

Debi said...

I don't use all the Ravelry features either but I LOVE looking at all the pretty knitting in one place and the varying interpretations of a pattern. Plus I love to be able to see yarns actually knit up instead of a flat, lifeless picture!

Angelika said...

Interesting, looking at your odd twins there. I love the color of your dyed yarn, it's so sweet and pink and eat a piece a cake for me, will ya?

Anonymous said...

I love your socks - and your dyeing story too. I've been there a couple of times, but I can't stop my eksperiments.

Have a happy weekend :)

hakucho said...

Your Gugelhupf looks delicious...I made one (German turban cake) with a recipe and we were very disappointed. Maybe that's the secret -- no recipe ;)

Yes, once you get the initial "wow" about ravelry out of your system...you can just take your time and soak up all the inspiration. Today I was able to find ( and buy) one of the patterns I want to try...I'm excited, but have to wait until I get my knitting for others done.

Happy knitting :)
P.S. I'll have to go look for you on ravelry :)

Susanne said...

Liebe Monika,
seit Deiner Barn Jacket war ich nicht mehr bei Dir zu Besuch, sorry. Und wie immer, wenn ich mal zwei Wochen nicht im Netz war, sind bei Dir immer sooo viele Einträge mit so tollen Stricksachen, ich bin jedes Mal überwältigt.
Deine Sternendecke ist einfach wundervoll, mich hat sowas auch schon gejuckt, seit ich die Decke bei brooklyntweed sah. Deine vielen verschiedenen Socken sind toll und die Geschichte mit dem Färben mit Hagebutte und Hibiscus finde ich ebenfalls erstaunlich. Die Farbe ist super geworden, ein schöner Himbeerton, wenn die Farbe auf dem Bild richtig wiedergegeben wird. Nach so vielen Farbevorgängen doch ein echter Gewinn!
Und heute muss ich auch mal etwas zu den Bildern von Sam und Biko sagen: Sie sind wirklich lustig (im Pool und vorm TV) und es sind zwei so wunderschöne Tiere, Du kannst sehr stolz auf sie sein und hast ja auch eine Menge Freude mit ihnen, wie wir immer wieder sehen und lesen können.
Auf Deine Frage, ob ich das alles in zwei Wochen gestrickt habe, antworte ich ja. Immer abends beim fernsehen, die Finger kommen nie zur Ruhe. Ich bin dann richtig im Fieber und kann die Sachen dann kaum aus der Hand legen. Ich denke, Dir geht es auch so, sonst lässt sich Dein Wahnsinns-Output nicht erklären ;-)).
Hab ein schönes strickiges Wochenende
Susanne

Heike said...

Hallo Moni,
mjam, mjam - lecker Kuchen! Wir kommen gleich mal vorbei zum Tee... nee, natürlich nicht. Gestern habe ich an Dich gedacht: Hermann hat sich Sachertorte aus Wien schicken lassen. Leccker!!!

Deine Socken sind knuffig - ich mag das, wenn ich 2 ungleiche socken anhabe die doch zusammengehören.

Ich habe mich auch bei ravelry eingetragen. Ich höre nur so tolle Dinge davon und ich hoffe, meine Sprachkentnisse reichen aus. Ich bin mir aber garnicht sicher, ob ich dort mein ganzes Garn usw. auflisten will: Bin doch kein Buchhalter!

Viele Grüsse von Heike

TracyKM said...

I really like the pink yarn. I like hand dyed yarn with it's uneven colours, maybe moreso than the handpainted yarns and all the strange colour combinations 'artists' come up with that look great as a skein, but bizarre when knitted, LOL. But, that's just my opinion!

Dave said...

Matched pair huh? LOL

Now the pattern is not too bad... :-)

eyeleen said...

oh I'm drooling over the cake, it looks fabulous.

I like the look of the socks. Lovely.

T-Mom said...

You're such a wonderful knitter--I'm running out of ways to say "that's beautiful!" *lol* One thing I love is how you give all the details--yarn, pattern, needle size, modifications you made, how you feel about the yarn and pattern and needles... That's both helpful and interesting.

I'm on the Ravelry waiting list--somewhere. They may get down to me sometime next year.

Violiknit said...

I love those socks! Sorry about the annoying knot; I hate when that happens...
That cake looks so yummy!!!