Sooza's Knitting Stuff

Yesterday the best husband of all took part in the last autocross events on this year's schedule. The weather even though mighty cold in the morning warmed up nicely during the day and made the last day of the season a huge success. The number of participants was astonishing and it seemed like everyone wanted to take their car to the track one last time before winter lowers its white blanket.


I enjoyed the trip through the flat Brandenburg countryside prettied up by the low autumn sun and those awesome tree lined country roads. This one here is on the terrain of former Soviet air base in Groß Dölln. The clearing on the right side would have been the parade-ground. Weird how quiet and peaceful this place is today. Privately owned "Driving Center Groß Dölln" has become a mecca for motorsports enthusiasts across the country. And imagine, it's still an active air strip. So from time to time you'll have small air planes making their way down onto the tarmac where the guys do their dance around the cones. But with two air strips of 4000 meters there's plenty of room for everyone.


With the switch from DST to regular time the evenings start mighty early all of a sudden. Four o'clock in the evening has had us seeing the most beautiful sunsets this past week. For most knitters this turn of the clock signals the upcoming high season for our hobby. There's mittens and socks needed to keep small hands and feet warm. Wool garments pulled out of the closet to ward off the chill. Christmas presents to be planned and materials to be acquired. And the of course there's much knitting to be done. Let the fun begin :-)

 
It might not always seem that way if my recent blog posts are anything to go by but I've indeed been knitting away on all kinds of things and managed to complete a few of them. My latest infatuation has been a shawl pattern from the book "Knitted Lace of Estonia" - Miralda's Triangular Shawl. It's one of those bottom-up constructions that has you cast-on a bazillion stitches that are gradually decreased on the course of your knitting to form a triangle in the end. Not my preferred shawl construction but this one looked so pretty, with the diamonds and the nupps, I knew I would succumb one of these days. It finally happened when I took a closer look at this pretty dark blue lace yarn that had found its way into my stash not so long ago. A nice 2-ply yarn with a bit of a rustic charm to it. I knew it would work fantastic with the lace pattern. Only problem was I had only 600 meters whereas the pattern asked for 750 meters of yarn. Mhm, bummer. But I'm not easily deterred. A closer look in Ravelry showed lots of projects in similar yarns with similar yardages and needle size combinations that had gotten away with 400 to 500 meters of yarn. Still not totally convinced but I cast on anyway. No risk. no fun.


 
All worked out in the end. This shawl has been knitted in record time because the ever decreasing rows have been a real motivation. The pattern was well written and I loved knitting with this rustic wool yarn. Instantly went and ordered a few more colors. The shawl itself turned out lovely, too. It's just the right size between scarf and shawl. Wasn't sure about the nupps at first but like the overall look of lace, nupps and solid areas.


 
What's a nupp, you might ask?! Well, it's those special kind of bobble Estionian lace knitting is well known for. On a right side row you increase 5, 7 or even 9 stitches from just one single stitch just to purl all those stitches back together in the following row. It's kinda tedious at first but once you've gotten into the rhythm of things it get easier. The nupps give a nice, three-dimensional effect and sometimes even look like little pearls worked into your knitting. Strange but neat.

Details
Pattern: Miralda's Triangular Shawl by Nancy Bush from Knitted Lace of Estonia
Material: 1 skein of Filcolana New Zealand Lammeuld, 100% wool, 600 meters/100 grams
Needles: 4 mm
Finished Size: 160 cm wide, 80 cm deep

There's been a few other projects that got completed in the last weeks, like my first pair of Socks out of Wollmeise Twin yarn for example. They belong to the best husband of all now and I'm really curious about how well the yarn will stand up to wear. My last Wollmeise socks were still out of 100% superwash and they were worn through in record time. The Twin yarn consists of 20% nylon so it's supposed to wear better. Yeah, well, seeing is believing.


 
Details
Pattern: Earl Grey by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee
Yarn: 2/3rds of a Wollmeise Twin skein, 80% Merino/20% Nylon, 466 meters/150 grams; color 'We're different Tant Grön...'
Needles: 2.5 mm
Size: EUR 41/42

And then there is this small shawl knitted from only one 50 grams skein of Malabrigo Lace yarn in the funky and intense 'Gernanio' colorway.


 
Details
Pattern: Birch Leaf Shawl sideways, my own pattern
Yarn: Malabrigo Lace Merino, 100% Merino, 400 meters/50 grams, color 'Geranio'
Needles: 4 mm
Size: 140 cm wide

And knitting continues, of course. I'm bit on a shawl binge right now so there is already the next one on the needles. It's Evelyn A. Clarks Prairie Rose Lace Shawl from The Knitter's Book of Wool.

I finished the hand-spun socks last week pretty much in record time. The turned really nice and I've already worn them twice. The yarn got me a pair of mid-calf high socks (when worn they are 34 cm from floor to cast-off edge) that work especially well in boots. They tend to slouch down a bit with wear but I don't mind that. The soft merino yarn might not be ideal for hard wear and the heel and underside of the toes are already a bit fulled (felted would be too strong a word here) after two days of wear. But it looks like this might actually help with durability. I take this as an experiment and see how it turns out. The spinning and knitting process was tremendous fun and both socks getting finished at the same time was just great.



On the spinning front I got a wonderful delivery from Amazon.de today. After months and months of waiting it's finally here. Abby Franquemont's book "Respect the Spindle". The books deals with knowledge and techniques about hand spindles exclusively. It's fun reading and has lots of interesting information about this most ancient and simplest of fiber tools and shows contemporary spinners what great stuff can be achieved if you're open and willing to practice.

It’s been a while since I’ve tried knitting two socks at the same time on circular needles. All I remember is a whole lot of fiddling. I wanted to give this thing another try because ending up with two socks at the same time sure sounds like a cool thing. And besides there's lots of people out there who swear by this method so there's got to be something to it.

So far it’s fun and I’m speeding along. There’s been a bit of fiddling and trial and error involved when I tried to find the right circular needle/s for this job. I went through 3 or 4 different needles from really long wooden circulars to two short circs but in the end the 2.5 mm/80 cm Addi Turbo lace made it. The join is fabulous and makes sliding stitches around effortless.

I'm using a hand-spun 3-ply yarn that actually ended up in the right weight range for socks. It's neither too thin nor too thick. Which was a surprise. It's the first time I did a real 3-ply yarn (as opposed to chain-/Navajo-ply) and I am totally in LOVE with this yarn. Couldn't resist its charms hand had to cast on something right away.


 

 

 

 

 
Fiber: Blue Moon Fiberarts Sheep to Shoe Kit, color "Fire on the Mountain"
Yarn: hand-spun 3-ply, about 420 meters per 120 grams (4 oz)
Spindles: Bosworth Minis in Karelian Birch and Walnut

 
In einem Anflug von Tuchwahnsinn MUSSTE ich die Anleitung für den Herbivore scarf einfach kaufen und praktisch SOFORT anstricken. Ich bin für alles zu haben, das lediglich 100 g Sockenwolle verbraucht und außerdem, Schals/Tücher kann man immer brauchen. Aus dem Anstricken ist dann kurzerhand ein "kann ich nicht aus der Hand legen"-Projekt geworden und das Tuch wurde innerhalb von nur vier Tagen fertig.
 

 
Do I need more shawls? Mhm, probably not. Then again, can you ever have enough shawls? Probably not. I knew I had to buy and knit this small shawl as soon as I saw the pictures of test knits popping up on Ravelry. I'm a sucker for shawls and patterns that call for only one 100 grams skein of sock yarn. I hit the buy button as soon as the pattern was released and cast on in a matter of hours after that. The whole thing knitted up really fast in a matter of days.

Details
Pattern: Herbivore by Steven West
Yarn: Uschi Strumpfwolle Universal (75% wool, 25% nylon; 410 m/100 grams)
Needle: 3.75 mm

 

Die kleine Maus will ständig Socken anprobieren, die ich noch auf den Nadeln habe und lässt sich nur schwer überzeugen, dass Größe 42 vielleicht ein ganz klein wenig zu groß für ihre Füße sein könnte. Da dachte ich, stricke ich doch wieder mal kleine Socken. Außerdem wird es ja jetzt bald wieder Winter und kann man Wollsocken schon mal brauchen.

Little Girl seems totally fascinated by my sock knitting and is constantly trying on my half-finished socks. Can't convince her that a size 11 might be a tad too big for her. So I took the chance and knitted pair of wee little Noro socks. Can't hurt to have nice and warm wooly socks when the cold season is about to draw in.

Diese schönen Socken sind schon vor über zwei Wochen fertig geworden, nur leider hatte ich nie Zeit, hier mal ein Bild einzustellen. Sie sind gestrickt aus dem handgesponnen Corriedale-Garn, dessen Werdegang ich im August hier gezeigt hatte. Das Muster ist vor mir ersonnen und ich bin gerade dabei, die Anleitung dafür fertigzumachen, bzw. wird die Anleitung gerade testgestrickt. Mehr dazu, wenn die Anleitung tatsächlich fertig ist.

This nice pair of socks got finished 2 weeks ago but I somehow couldn't find the time to post the picture here. They are knitted with the hand-spun Corriedale yarn I showed a month or so back on the blog. The pattern is of my own making and I'm currently writing it down. Or to be more precise, it's currently being test-knit for me. More when the pattern is ready to be published.

 
I just found this picture on my hard disk of me actually wearing my Lacy Cables Knee Socks. Thought I share it with you because otherwise I might forget, what with the whole moving thing going on.

Während ich noch fleißig am Whisper Cardigan stricke und parallel dazu die letzten Reihen eines einfachen Raglan-Pullovers, an dieser Stelle mal wieder ein Paar Socken, die irgendwann in den letzten Wochen fertig geworden sind. Sie dienten lange als S-Bahn- und Bus-Projekt.

While I'm knitting away on my Whisper Cardi and at the same time try to finally finish a simple top-down raglan sweater I'll show you some sock pictures. This pair got done a couple of weeks ago. They were my public transport knitting for the longest time until I got really fed up with the pattern and finished them in one go.



Details
Pattern: Leyburn Socks by MintyFresh
Yarn: Lana Grossa Meilenweit 100 Fun (420 m/50 g)
Needles: 2.75 mm circ
Size: EUR 42
Construction: figure-eight cast-on, toe-up, flap heel
Comments: They came out nice and I like the color play between the main stitches and the slipped yarn a lot. But these socks are REALLY DIFFICULT to get on. Even though I changed the heel to a regular flap heel for more room in the instep and knitted them on 2.75 mm needles instead of 2.5 mm the strands you carry in front kind of bind quite a lot. They fit perfectly when worn though.

 
Ich habe es wirklich versucht. Wirklich. Total. Diese seltsam löchrigen Kniestrümpfe waren mir bereits beim ersten Durchblättern des letzten Hefts der Interweave Knits (Spring 2009) aufgefallen. Aber ich konnte mir beim besten Willen nicht vorstellen, diese Teile zu stricken. Mal ehrlich, wie viel unpraktischer geht's eigentlich bei einem so inherent praktischen Kleidungsstück wie Socken? Aber dann sah ich sie beim Mittwochsstricktreffen auf einigen Nadeln entstehen, schaute mir bei Ravelry die Projekte an und irgendwie packte es mich doch. Ich musste diese Dinger stricken. So unpraktisch wie sie mir auch erschienen, ich war mir sicher, dass das Stricken jede Menge Spaß bringen würde. Wird Praktikabilität nicht sowieso überbewertet?!
Und in der Tat, diese Kniestrümpfe strickten sich praktisch von alleine. Eine lange Autofahrt über das lange Wochenende tat sein Übriges. In diesem sehr großzügigen Lochmuster und auf 2,75 und 3 mm Nadeln reichten 100 g Garn aus, um Kniestrümpfe in Größe 42 für meine langen Beine zu produzieren. Ob ich die allerdings jemals tragen werde, außer unter Hosen vielleicht, steht in den Sternen. Jo vom Stricktreff schlug vor, ich solle sie doch zu meinen lila Doc Martens 8-Loch Boots anziehen. Das wäre mal eine Maßnahme ;o)

I tried to resist, really. I did what I could not to succumb to the charms of these impossible lace stockings that had caught my eye as soon as I've leaved through the last Interweave Knits issue (Spring 2009) for the first time. I mean, how impractical can you get with an intrinsically practical garment like socks?! But it was all to now avail. I saw them popping up Wednesdays knit meetings and on Ravelry and was hooked. They seemed like SO MUCH fun! And who cares about practical anyway?!
And they were fun indeed. These pair of knee socks practically knit themselves and a long trip over the May 1st weekend took care of the rest. The generous lace pattern on 2.75 and 3 mm needles got me a pair of real knee high socks for my EUR 42 size feet and long legs out of 100 grams of sock yarn. That's a pretty impressive yield. The question whether I'll actually be wearing them and with what clothes they might go is left for another day. Jo from knit meet suggested pairing them with my purple Doc Martens 8-eye boots. There's some appeal in that ;o)



Details
Pattern: Bettie's Lace Stockings (Ravelry link) by Hana Jason, Interweave Knits Spring 2009
Yarn: Socke to Go, hand-dyed yarn from Anita Schulze (75% Superwash Merino Wool, 25% Nylon; 100 g/400 m)
Needles: 2.75 mm, 3 mm
Size: EUR 42, US Wo 10
Modifications: Figure-8 cast-on instead of short-row. Slight modifications to accommodate my long feet and and legs. Omitted eyelet row on the cuff because I would never ever put a ribbon in there.

Nicht sonderlich spektakulär aber letzte Woche fertig geworden: Polly Jean Socks in einem zauberhaften Frühlingsflieder. Das Muster war interessant und gleichzeitig sehr repetitiv und eignete sich damit hervorragend als S-Bahn-Projekt. Interessant war auch das verwendete Garn. Ich habe zum ersten mal Cascade Heritage verstrickt und mochte es sehr gern. Ich finde es ist etwas glatter und weniger fusselig als das reguläre Regia, Opal oder Lana Grossa und zeigt daher das Muster sehr schön.

Far from being exciting but they got done recently so they deserve a little picture and post in my blog. It's a pair of Polly Jean Socks in a lovely lilac color that are calling spring all around. The pattern was interesting enough to not be boring but repetitive tp serve well as my public transport project. As for the yarn, I've been using Cascade Heritage for the first time here and I quite liked it. To me it seemed slightly smoother than the regular Regia, Opal or Lana Grossa yarns and therefore shows off the pattern stitches beautifully.

Details
Pattern: Polly Jean by MJ Kim
Yarn: Cascade Yarns Heritage, lilac (75% Superwash Merino Wool, 25% Nylon; 100 g/400 m)
Needles: 2.5 mm
Size: EUR 42, US Wo 10
Modifications: Slight modifications when it came to the twisted stitches because I couldn't figure out how the designer wanted me to do them. I didn't differentiate between M1L and M1R. M1R gives me the cramps and I absolutely refuse to do something that NOONE will ever notice.

Puh, was bin ich froh, dass diese Socken endlich fertig sind. Angeschlagen habe ich den ersten vor fast genau einem halben Jahr und in der Zwischenzeit mächtig über diese "Höllensocken" geflucht. Das Muster ist nicht übermäßig schwer, zugegeben. Aber irgendwie bin ich mit den Teilen nicht warm geworden. Zu allem Übel wurden sie auch noch von unten gestrickt. Und um alles NOCH schlimmer zu machen hat mich das verwendete Garn in den Wahnsinn getrieben. Es dröselte sich beim Stricken ständig in seine Einzelfäden auf und man musste tierisch aufpassen den gesamten Faden zu erwischen und nicht bloß einen Teil. Aber es hat eine tolle Farbe, die ich immer noch sehr liebe. Sie allein hat mich wohl bei der Stange gehalten.
Und um dem ganzen die Krone aufzusetzen stellte ich kurz vorm Bündchen des 2. Socken fest, dass ich doch glatt das Rippenmuster auf Ferse und Schaft vergessen hatte. Argh! Aufribbeln? Nee, keine Chance. Ich hätte die nie zu Ende gestrickt. Lieber habe ich zwei Socken, die nur so ungefähr ein Paar abgeben. Meine glatt rechte Variante gefällt mir sowieso besser. Achja, die Spitzen sind auch unterschiedlich. Eine ist mit verkürzten Reihen gestrickt die andere mit einem simplen Figure-8 Anschlag.


The socks I dubbed ‘the socks from hell’ somewhere along the way are finally done. They took half a year to complete. What a struggle. And to top it off I realized that I forgot to work the ribbing on the second sock when I reached the cuff. Argh! I refused to rip out half of the sock because I wouldn’t ever have found the motivation to doing it allover again. Besides, the stockinette version looks much better anyway, in my opinion.
Ah well, now I have two socks that only ‘kind of’ make a pair. And did I mention, not even the toes are the same? First one I did as short-rows the second one I chose the easier method and worked a figure-8 cast-on. It does not really make all that much of a difference. My main problem probably lay with the yarn. It splits like nobodys business and was aweful to work with. I still love, love, love the color, though. That’s probably the reason why I kept working on these socks at all.

Details
Pattern: Firestarter by Yarnissima, available as a free Ravelry download
Yarn: Doppio von Wollerey.de, handgefärbt, rosenholz (100% Wolle, 400m/100g)
Needles: 2.5 mm circular
Size: EUR 42, US Wo 10
Modifications: Worked one cable repeat more before starting on the gusset increases.
Comment: I liked the gusset construction a lot. I fits my feet much better than the regular short row heel and I might use it on toe-up socks again in the future.

Es muss wohl am schlechten Wetter liegen oder an der Tatsache, dass mich der Wollmeise-Shop am letzten Freitag extrem frustriert hat. Der Drang, selbst mal wieder im Farbtopf zu rühren und Wolle zu färben, war unwiderstehlich. Gott sei Dank gibts um die Ecke bei Real weißes Sockengarn (neben anderen Farben, natürlich). Um das ganze nicht ausarten zu lassen, habe ich es bei 300 Gramm Garn bewenden lassen. Dieses mal sollte kein kunterbuntes Garn herauskommen, sondern eines dieser schönen "fast aber nicht ganz uni"-farbenen. Als kommerzielles Garn sind solche Farben eigentlich nicht erhältlich und auch die Indie Dyer stehen mehr auf quietschbunt. Aus den 300 Gramm wurden zwei Stränge à 150 Gramm gewickelt und einer bekam eine lila-Färbung und der andere eine grüne. Da ich wie immer viel zu viel Pigment für relativ wenig Wolle genommen habe, sind die Farben sehr, sehr kräftig und wunderbar dunkel geworden. "Purple Rain" variiert von richtig tiefen lila über kräftiges burgunder bis hin zu helleren Stellen die fast lavendel schimmern. "Into the Woods" ist insgesamt ein blaustichiges grün, das von sehr dunklem tannengrün über petrol bis hin zu helleren Stellen grasgrün. Mir gefallen beide Stränge total gut und ich kann es kaum erwarten, mit dem lila ein paar Kniestrümpfe für mich anzuschlagen.

It must be the nasty, foggy weather or maybe the fact that the Wollmeise yarnshop totally frustrated me last Friday. Suddenly there was this terrible need to get out my dyeing supplies and do some hand-dyeing of my own. Thanks heavens there's a big supermarket just around the corner that sells white (among other colors) sock yarn. I left with 300 grams and got out the dyeing pot. This time I was aiming for something "almost solid" that you can never get in commercial sock yarns and some fancy color combination Indie Dyers seem to go for most of the time. I wound my 3 skeins into 2 hanks, 150 grams each and one get a purple bath and the other hank went into a green dyeing solution. Since I used a lot more pigment than recommended for this little wool I got very dark and saturated colors. 'Purple Rain' ranges from real purple over burgundy to hints of lavender in color. 'Into the Woods' is a bluish green with variations from dark green over teal to spots of grassy green. I love them both and am itching to cast on for a pair of knee socks with the purple yarn.

Back in June I finished a cool pair of socks using the number Pi as a means to devellop an interesting stripe sequence. I realize that the explanation on what I did and how Pi is involved might have been a bit cryptic. A couple of people have asked questions about it over time so this entry is supposed to clear up some questions and make up something that at least loosely resembles a pattern. That way I can even put it up on Ravelry as a pattern ;o)

Yarn
Use any fingering weight sock yarn of your liking. It can even be a heavier 6-ply sock yarn if you want something that knits up faster. Gauge doesn't really matter here as long as you know how to re-calculate things to get a sock that actually fits.
I chose good old Schachenmayr nomotta Regia Uni/Solid 4-ply/4-fädig in chocolate brown and green. One 50 grams skein of each should do. For the stripes to really pop you'll probably want to choose two colors that have a high contrast. How about brown/yellow, black/white, turquoise/magenta or dark red/pink?

Needles
I like to knit Regia 4-ply on 2.5 mm needles but I am told there are all kinds of knitters out there. You might be a loose knitter and 2.25 mm needles give you better results for your socks. Or ask my sis. She knits really tight so 2.75 mm DPNs are usually the tool of her choice.

Sizes
These socks were knit to fit the best husband of all. He sports shoe size EUR 42 with feet slightly on the wide side therefore I cast on 68 stitches. Regia provides extensive tables on sizes and gauges for their numerous yarns on their German website. Choose your number of stitches and off it goes!

Stripe Pattern
We start out with Pi’s numerical value truncated to 50 decimal places: 3.14159 26535 89793 23846 26433 83279 50288 41971 69399 37510. Pretty cool number, eh?! You could start out knitting as the digits appear above: 3 rounds color A, 1 round color B, 4 rounds color A, 1 round color B and so on. Alas, we would run into a problem as soon as we hit the first zero, wouldn't we? "Zero rounds of color A/B"?! You'd get one wide stripe and couldn't decode it back into the two digits it was composed of.

To compensate for that problem we go with a simple rule: Add 1 to each of Pi's digits so that even 0 ist represented accordingly.

Color A: 4 rounds
Color B: 2 rounds
Color A: 5 rounds
Color B: 2 rounds
Color A: 6 rounds
and so on



Sock Pattern
While working your stripes knit your socks in your favored basic sock pattern. You can either do them toe-up or cuff-down or whichever way suits you. I usually work mine top-down with a cuff in 1x1-ribbing for 15 to 20 rounds, switch to plain stockinette stitch until the sock measures about 15 to 20 cm (6 to 8'') and work a flap-heel. For the heel I stopped working stripes but chose to knit it in the brown yarn instead. As soon as the heel was turned and stitches for the instep were picked up I started working the stripes again. The toes I also did in plain brown and closed them using kitchener stitch.

My second sock continues where the first one left off. This way my socks represent Pi as 3.14159 26535 89793 23846 26433 83 (1st sock) 279 50288 41971 69399 37510 582 (2nd sock). Of course the stripes will not necessarily work out evenly so should you decide to follow my example you might have to live with socks where one leg is a couple of rows longer or shorter than the other. Same goes for the foot. I don't mind but if you're a stickler for such things you might want to just work two socks with the same stripe sequence. Or you could probably do some counting in advance to figure out which sequences of digits give you the same checksum.

While working the stripes I didn't cut the yarn not in use but carried it up on the inside making sure it didn't pull too tight or wasn't hanging too loosely. That way you can spare yourself a hell of a lot of sewing in ends later. Where the colors change a little jog appears that seems to drive some people nuts. Again, I don't mind. I did nothing to avoid it. There are all kinds of tips out there on how to minimize "The Jog" if you actually care about it.

Did I ever tell you that my handknit socks have to withstand the most horrible treatment imaginable? They go through the washer with all my other clothes at 30-40°C, they have to endure fabric softener and last but not least they have to put up with my feet. Commercial sock yarn is usually more than up to these tasks without complaining. So far some did better than others but all in all my socks are usually with me for a long, long time. You want to know what happend to this one pair of socks knit out of lovely Colinette JitterBug sock yarn that's supposedly "easy care Merino"? It gets treated just the same as the other socks in my sock drawer because that's what I always do with ALL my socks, of course. I seem to remember that the label read "easy care" but there was also this little symbol incicating a washing machine. So what can possibly happen? Obviously "easy care" is NOT the same as "machine washable" even though it might take a couple of washings to show. What can I say other than "May they rest in peace"?! Maybe that I'll stick to real commercial sock yarn in the future or at least to the stuff that's been 100% washing machine tested?

Auf der Suche nach einem schnellen, transportablen Zwischendurchprojekt fiel mir auf, dass meine Tochter gar keine passenden handgestrickten Socken mehr hat. In einem Strickerhaushalt kann das natürlich nicht sein. Auf keinen Fall! Na dann mal los. 44 Maschen in einem Rest Regia Africa Color anschlagen und Omas klassischem Sockenrezept folgen. Keine drei Tage später zieren sie auch schon Babys Füße. Das nächste Paar ist schon in Arbeit. Hach, so schnell sollte es immer gehen.

On the hunt for a fast and portable knitting project for inbetween I realized that my daughter didn't own a single pair of handknitted socks. THAT is a serious offence in a knitter's household. The situation had to be remedied at once. Okay, here we go. Cast on 44 stitches in some left-over yarn of Regia's Africa Color series and diligently follow grandma's sock receipe and here we are. It took only about 3 days for a pair to make and the next one is already on the needles.