Ten days after being infected with ICVFH, I am just about recovered. Hubby is quickly succumbing, though. A sick man in the house is trouble. This truly has been the cliche gift that keeps on giving.
I have felt well enough to actually brave the out of doors to restock the fridge. We ran out of saltines and plastic wrap cheese food product proudly called American cheese. (A culinary aside. An authentic Swiss cheese tastes wonderful with apples. An authentic Brie from France, lovely on a baguette. An authentic English Cheddar lovely with fruit. Authentic American cheese - kind of bad even when made into a grilled cheese sandwich.)
I have felt well enough to shout at the radio from the shower as I am getting ready for work, "How is THAT news?!"
I have felt well enough to wind the skein of yarn my parents gave me for Christmas and start knitting a pair of socks for myself. The yarn in question is Cherry Tree Hill Supersock in Wild Cherry - fuchsia, pinks, and deep purple.
When knitting gift yarn, it takes me awhile to pick the right pattern. I have been thinking which sock pattern I wanted to use since I got the yarn in early December. While I am willing to knit, check it out, and rip it out if it doesn't work, I prefer to get it right the first time to not knit bad mojo into the yarn. Sometimes the pattern picking process is quite frustrating, however, with much practice and experience it has become less so.
The first thing I do is to check out the yarn prep it for knitting. As I untwist the skein, I identify the fiber. Is it a blend? I evaluate the gauge. Is it a true fingering weight or spingering - thicker than fingering but a bit less than a true sport weight? As I wind, I feel the fiber moving through my fingers and evaluate the texture. Is it soft? Is it crisp? Is the twist school marm tight or Honolulu laid back? Do the fibers glide past each other or do they try to grab onto their neighbor like a desperate first date? Next, I evaluate color. Is the yarn variegated? Is the yarn hand painted? How do the colors pool? Are the colors deep and rich, or light and reflective? Each of these qualities influence the pattern I will choose.
In general, this is how I make my selections, but that doesn't mean I'm not willing to try something new. For cabled patterns, I choose lighter colors and yarns with a tighter twist to highlight the cables. Textured patterns in general look better in medium to light colors, getting lost in the dark. Cabled and textured patterns tend to have little pockets on the reverse that trap body heat, when added to fibers like alpaca you could easily knit a walking furnace.
Lace patterns are full of possibilities. Sometimes I want to highlight the spaces between the knitted stitches and sometimes I want to highlight the knitted stitches. Color has a lot to do with my choice.
For hats and socks, I use a yarn with a tighter twist and less drape so that they hold their shape and stand up to the hard wear of the winter cold and feet in shoes. Because I knit socks and hats in the round, if I pick a variegated yarn, I think about how the colors will pool and if the spiraling effect of the colors will overpower the stitch pattern. The colors and the stitch pattern should enhance each other, not compete like wedding guests fighting for the tossed bouquet.
I am a sock knitter in part because socks allow me a forum to explore technique and construction without a lot of commitment and a still serviceable garment. With socks, I can answer the question of how many different ways can you build a mousetrap. With socks, I can focus on the little things that make the larger projects look handcrafted instead of homemade.
Shawls and scarves allow me the most freedom to experiment with color, drape and stitch pattern because I don't have to worry so much about gauge and fit. I am willing to try different color combinations that wouldn't necessarily seem to work in other projects. These are my playgrounds where I let my instincts and my inner artist come out to play.
Then there is the sweater matrix. In the sweater matrix, color and stitch pattern are considered with the architecture of the garment. Let's face it, some designs fall at exactly the wrong spot, highlight everything a person would like to hide, and sometimes have bobbles in all the wrong places. No one needs extra nipples. In the sweater matrix, it is better to go the knit and rip route than expend a lot of energy trying to figure it all out before you cast-on.
So, what pattern did I choose for my socks? RPM from Knitty Summer 2006. I happen to like the Smiths. I thought about knitting the famous or infamous Pomatomus, but the colors wouldn't have worked with the lace pattern.
Oh, it's good to be back with all the pistons firing.
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