WE HAVE GIMPING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If I knew how to attach sound to my blog, you would be hearing the theme for Rocky right now.  I have gimped!
In case you didn't guess from the days without blogging, the idea of gimping on the wall hanging was frightening me.  I mean, decorative stitching is a commitment that one can't really back away from--ripping it out usually leaves a mark, if it doesn't ruin the material altogether.  Yesterday, just to make sure, I marked a corner of scrap tan material with one of my "disappearing" markers.  I put it in quotes because I've learned the hard way that it may not disappear from really fussy material.  Luckily, it worked on this one, so I drew a little freehand curving,
got in touch with my spine, and jumped in.  It isn't perfectly symmetrical or anything, but I'm okay with that.   It was a successful learning opportunity, and my drawing skills have always pretty much stunk, so I don't expect much of them.

If this were any other year, I would have gotten so freaked out about the gimping that the project would have been "put away for later," (a.k.a. "doomed to obscurity in the WIP bin because I don't like projects that have scared me silly"), but I need 100 projects this year which outweighs my normal tendency to be totally spineless when it comes to sewing.  Aha!!!

And there has been knitting!
I should have just changed the lace pattern as the silly K1, K1 tbl into a YO drives me crazy every 11 rows, but this is such a popular pattern that I really wanted to give it the benefit of the doubt.  That is, until the heel flap.

Normally, I do toe-up socks.  LOVE toe-up socks.  I can make them as long as I want because I KNOW it is going to work.  AND no kitchenering (grafting) which is also a huge selling point.  However, heel flaps are generally reinforced, which is a good idea and one of the few reasons I'll break down and do top-down socks.  And the Monkey socks do not have a reinforced heel.  Or, I should say, the pattern doesn't have a reinforced heel.  MY Monkey socks do:
Just a [slip 1, K1] all the way across to make the heel a bit thicker and sturdier.  

I have promised myself to try two more sock patterns just to double-check, but I think it's becoming quite obvious:

I do NOT play nicely with other people's sock patterns.

Think there's a support group?

Comments

Gaidig said…
You should really take a loot at Cat Bordhi's New Pathways for Sock Knitters. Her heel is fabulous, and you can use it to do reinforced heels on toe-up socks. Not to mention all of the other really cool construction atrchitectures...
May 12, 2010 at 4:10 PM
RobinH said…
Heh. If there's a support group, I need to join too. I may *say* things like "I did x pattern"...what I really mean is that I did the pattern, except I added two repeats and went down three needle sizes to get something that fit, converted it to toe-up, changed the heel, changed the ribbing, and omitted the bits I didn't like. *g*

And the gimping looks very cool!
May 12, 2010 at 8:37 PM
toni in florida said…
Love the gimping! (Never thought I'd have occasion to say anything like that. Especially since I grew up hearing "gimping" used to describe slow, awkward progress... like limping, but in other contexts.)
May 13, 2010 at 12:44 AM
Kathleen C. said…
Congrats!!! The wall hanging looks fabulous!
And I didn't do the pattern's heel in my Monkeys either.I always do either the S1K1 or an eye of partridge (same thing really just alternating).
May 13, 2010 at 7:11 AM
RobinH said…
And, you have a wall hanging for finishing Friday! Yay! (No, I'm not stalking your blog at all...)
May 14, 2010 at 1:47 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

I Used The Glue Gun Without Burning Myself!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Image
I'm not sure I'll have a prouder accomplishment all year--or a more surprising one.  I think I have a few fingerprints left. Andy is gone for the weekend, so the kitties and I are having a crafting weekend.  With their help,  I finished the first project of the year. The colors are a bit more subdued in real life, but I don't know how to reduce the intensity of this cell phone's camera.  I also cut some more strips for other projects, and wound another Hank from Hell:  A couple years ago I bought some Feza Rio that was on clearance, and for a cashmere/merino blend, it's not at all soft, and until this yarn, I didn't know one could hank yarn badly, but there does seem to be a way to do it so unevenly that permanent kinks are put into the yarn, and if that weren't enough fun, rather than being normal human beings who tie the ends into the threads holding the hank in place, these deranged maniacs tied the two ends together and snipped off the end...
Read more

Whew, It's Been A While.

Image
Wow - more than a year.   I am still crafting - lots of chemo caps knitted this year, but I'm also still learning to quilt.  This, is one of a set of table runners after I made a huge mistake on what was going to be a quilt.  Whoops.  That's twice I've done that.  I'd show you the other set, but blogger isn't letting me upload any older pictures.  I can show you this, which is from a kit and is one of my new favorites. This quilt, is my first attempt with a striped fabric, and is going to be shipped off to it's recipient today, who hopefully doesn't suffer from dizziness or vertigo.  What I learned from THIS project is that stripes aren't always printed straight, and if they are, I certainly don't always cut or sew straight.  Ahem... I am back to working from home.  I had been the marketing director for a local air conditioning company, but it was a family business, and what I discovered during the slow months is that it was a nightmare....
Read more

Ostrich Plume Scarf

Image
This scarf is actually very simple, but I'm trying to make the directions as thorough as possible.  It has a moss-stitch border of 6 rows on top and bottom and 4 stitches on each side, and uses the stitch pattern KNOWN as Ostrich Plume (hence the name).  There's a 3-stitch decrease using a slip 2, k1, pass slipped stitches over, which creates a nicer look than the traditional slip 1, k2tog, pass slipped stitch over technique, but feel free to use the more traditional decrease if you choose.  I used a shorter bottom and top edging to allow the wavy stitch pattern to pull the border into the wave effect, but you could certainly add a few extra rows of moss-stitch to the top and bottom if you would like. I have written this to slip the first stitch of all but the very first row as I think it makes a nicer edge, but you may choose to simply knit them.  As a matter of personal preference, I never slip the first stitch of the first row--it doesn't work with some cast-o...
Read more