Thanks for all of the b-day wishes. This past weekend was great. Busy, but great. Saturday, we had a party at our house to celebrate my 40th with friends and family. This involved lots of prep on the part of Mr. Penney and myself (but mostly Mr. Penney.)
We judged the party itself to be a success by the fact that we could not hear the stereo over everyone talking.
Sunday was spent recuperating from the party, and giving the leftovers to the neighbors. (We had enough food to feed twice the people that came.) Monday, Mr. Penney had to go to work, so I had the day to myself, doing laundry and finishing these:
Would you suspect that these were the same dyelot? They are. I didn’t really realize how different they were until I took this picture. I am not sure why I did not notice the difference in the depth of shade between the two skeins when I bought the yarn, but I didn’t. This is the second time that this has happened to me, though I have the excuse for the first time being that I bought the yarn off of eBay. I don’t have that excuse this time. I think, for future purchases of hand-dyed sock yarn, I will stick to those sold as single skeins for a pair of socks rather than these smaller put-ups.
As for the pattern, I do like the final sock, though there is a problem with that. The spiral that goes up the leg by virtue of doing a decrease and an increase every round? That spiral reduces the circumference of the sock’s leg. Those 64 stitches, which are fine in the foot, are not enough for the leg when trying to put the sock on. That increase and decrease creates an inelastic area that just happens to fall right above the heel when continuing the spiral up the leg. A couple more stitches in the leg would probably solve this, either by continuing the “gusset” shaping a few more round to allow for extra stitches in the leg, or just not doing a couple of the decreases at the beginning of the leg.
And I did start a new project!
I am going to try to sew a pair of pants for myself. I am using Burda 7841 with some cotton fabric that I got on sale from Michael’s Fabrics. If the whole thing turns out to be a disaster, I won’t cry too much, as this is mostly to see if I can make the whole thing work.
I have all of the pieces of the pattern cut out and have read through the directions. And I have read through the directions, again. And again. And again. I must say, these Burda directions are about as clear as mud. There are just some things that do not make sense after examining RTW pants. For this reason, I believe I will be following directions in the book Classic Tailoring Techniques: A Construction Guide for Men’s Wear rather than the Burda instructions. I’ll let you know how it goes.
oh wow! i can’t get over how different those two socks look. and they’re the same dye lot?
Yay, you’ve got photos!
That looks like a nice and friendly gathering.
And those socks…I got nothing to say on that one.
The socks are great,but that is very odd about the dye lots. It looks as though one skein sat in the dye bath longer than the other. I never would have thought to compare the two before knitting. I suppose the only thing to do would be to alternate rows with the two skeins. Even so, this is something for all of us sock knitters to watch out for!
Great picture of your party, glad you got to celebrate 4-0 in style. Your socks look very artsy and I find the whole decrease in elasticity info on the leg of the pattern very helpful. As I have learned from working in the lab, everytime you do something good, you get something else you didn’t expect. Will you give this pattern a try in the future with your suggested modifications?
So cool that you’re making pants! Wish I had some time for sewing. (Maybe I should read fewer blogs…) I had grand plans of making a master pants pattern for myself “several” years ago, but never finished putting together the prototype. But it would be great to make pants that would actually fit me, instead of being stuck with what I can find in the store. And making something at home is so much more fun than going out shopping! Best wishes to you as you progress; I’m sure you’ll do a fantastic job. Looking forward to seeing updates…
I’m very impressed that you’re making pants. Not that I could sew to save my life, but I’ve always been told that men’s pants are one of the most difficult things to make. Can’t wait to see how they turn out!