Those Blasted Argyle Socks

I have been working on a pair of socks for my boyfriend for three years. Yes. THREE. And I still have not finished the first sock.



We do living history re-enacting. He demonstrates the pennyfarthing bicycle. I demonstrate hand-crank sewing machines. As you can tell in the photo, Argyle socks are the right thing for a pair of knickerbockers. Alas, commercial ones that we have found are too short. (He's wearing a very stretched out pair of my knee socks for this photo, if I remember right.)

Now I knit. I can do color knitting. What should be so hard about knitting a pair of Argyle socks? I started them three years ago. I admit I distract easily, but after about 10 months, the first sock was ready to try on. (Grr. Top down knitting is for the birds. Toe-up I'd have had them ready much sooner.)

Leon was able to squeeze them on with lots of help from me tugging them over the heel. The socks were too small. All that work... and I'd have to rip it out! Well, on the good side, I did learn that the socks should be one more pattern of diamonds taller. (Faint consolation.)

I haven't been as diligent with the new socks, and I'm into year two on the first sock. I will finish them but they are a chore now, not a joy. Other projects lead me away but I come back to them. The new socks are on larger needles and I am being very careful about stitch count.

Things I've learned:

1.  Stitch count means everything. It is very easy to lose a stitch along the way and that throws the diamond pattern off and contributes to the socks not fitting.
2. Lifelines are critical.  Every so many rows, I weave a "lifeline" into my work. This is a line of contasting color threaded through a row of stitches like a permanent "needle" going through the loops. If I have to tear back my work, I need only go as far as the last lifeline to find a point where the stitch count was accurate. I can rebuild from there and not have to tear back to the cuff.  Believe me, I did that a few times before I remembered the art of the lifeline. It was not pretty.
3, Intricate patterns need to be worked where you can concentrate. These are not traveling socks. Most of my knitting is done when I am a passenger in a car, gazing out the window, chatting and knitting. Not these. They require total concentration. No TV. No conversation. No fun. :(

I will post pictures of the final socks (in a year or so at this rate.) Leon says that knowing how hard I have worked on them, he will be nearly afraid to wear them.

No, that's not the point. The POINT is not even this pattern will get me to quit. :)

Intarsia knitting: challenging but fun

We are the Merry Cranks! Leon and I do some living history demonstrations with the hand crank sewing machines and the (foot cranked) pennyfarthing bicycle. We dubbed ourselves the Merry Cranks when one venue wanted to know our name.

I enjoy making garb for us. I have several dresses of various periods and have made period garb for Leon. I made his vest and adapted some thriftstore pants to be the knickerbockers, but Leon's 1890s bicycle garb has had one problem. He needs knee high Argyle socks. The ones I have found ready-made are too short. WELL...I am a knitter...

Enter intarsia knitting. I wasn't certain what intarsia knitting might be as my brother does intarsia wood-working where images are built from various pieces of wood. The different colors and textures of wood shade and build the images. Intarsia knitting works the same way. The fabric is built from multiple kinds of yarn drawn into the pattern.

 At first juggling those multiple strands is both the challenge and the fun of intarsia knitting. I am carrying eight strands. Some of the time I am working two strands at the same time as I knit with one color and carry the other color behind the work. It helps to be able to knit with both hands for this. I use American knitting techniques for the main color and European knitting techniques for the carried color.

I was a bit chagrined that I could not do this pattern toe up, two at a time, and in the round. Because you carry the main color behind the pattern color in the center diamonds it has to be worked flat.  There is no way to get the carried color back to the start if you are circular knitting. (sigh). I suppose you could carry it behind every stitch all the way around the circle, but it would make your socks dense and they would lose some of their stretchiness. Ah, well. It doesn't hurt to knit some things flat.

The first problem I had was with all those bobbins dangling from my work and getting snarled together. I posted to Sunflower Knitters Guild on Facebook to ask for help. I got lots of good suggestions and ended up using a mix of them.  Colors that use a lot of yarn, such as the cream of the body and the grey and brown of the diamonds I carry in bobbins. The red that uses less yarn, I allow to hang free. I usually have about 12-24 inches of red working and 36-48 inches of the other colors in the bobbins. If the red tries to snarl, it is easy to pull the thread free. The other colors are usually far enought apart they don't tangle. If they do, shorten the tail by winding up more loose thread onto the bobbin. A Russian bind secures the next section to the existing one: no knots!

My next problem was keeping the stitch count correct. Oh, have I ripped out this

project! (Six times so far, and it could happen again.) The pattern requires 75 stitches across. Unlike ordinary knitting, if you drop a stitch, it is difficult to ladder down and weave back up to repair the mistake. I immediately saw the need for lifelines. The red of the cross threads is bold enough to be noticed and I had plenty of it, so that is what I used. Any other scrap yarn would work just as well.  I place the lifelines at the beginning and middle of the diamonds. When the colorwork is done, I will pull them out.

The best way to prevent needing to frog a section ("Rip-it! Rip-it!") is to check your stitch count every row. This can be a bore, but it sure beats frogging! If I keep checking my count, I might actually get the first sock finished.