To Match or Mismatch

Variegated yarn calls to me all the time. I love the way the different colours blend together on the skein or hank. They always look so good and then you knit with it and things can turn ugly.

I've talked about variegated yarn pooling before here; it is one of the major drawbacks of variegated yarn. Here's a couple of pooling variegated yarns that are tolerable although they strike me as less than ideal.

Pooling on the front doesn't match well around the sleeves

Pooling in the upper half doesn't match the lower half

But pooling isn't the only concern when using variegated yarn. For instance, if one is knitting a pair of socks with variegated yarn, should you or should you not make sure they match by starting the second sock at the same spot within the variegation? (I know these are earth-shaking dilemmas.)

There was a discussion on Knitting Paradise about this specific topic recently. It seemed equally divided when it came to socks or mittens/gloves. Fifty percent were for the pair to be fraternal twins and allow them to mismatch, while the remaining 50% could not tolerate them if they weren't maternal twins matching perfectly.

Let me illustrate. Each of these fingerless gloves are knit with variegated yarn with relatively long colour lines. It is clear they are made with the same yarn but started at different points in the yarn.

The same can be said about these two pair of sock. Obviously they are made with the same yarn, but each sock begins the variegation at a different point.

Many will argue this lack of matching makes the combination more interesting to wear and talk about. I suspect those making this argument lean toward being the artistic amoung us. They like the unique look and lack of total organization.

Then there are those of us, and I do include myself in this camp, who need things to actually match. I am more than willing to cut away a very long stretch of variegated yarn to make sure my socks or gloves/mittens actually do match. To my thinking the fraternal twins although cute on others are unsettling for me. Should I wear them, which might be difficult, I know will be out of kilter all day long.

So to help me bring back some balance here's a couple of pair of fingerless gloves and socks, all from Stephanie Pearl-McPhee. She knit these pairs and more within the last month. See how each pair actually match in a way that brings harmony, at least to me. If you want to see how this matching process goes as one knits check out AmyKnits post on Knitting Paradise. She offers good advice and plenty of pictures to help one better understand what she's talking about.

So are you the matchy, matchy type or do you like the mismatch? If you think there's potential I'll be knitting for you in pairs, let me know if you like the mismatch, otherwise you can bet you'll be receiving maternal twins from me.

Anatomy of a Sock

I've been knitting socks for a relatively short time. One of the disconcerting things for me as I started following patterns for socks is the pattern designer assumes the knitter (in this case that would be me) knows all the parts of a sock. So I thought I'd devote a post to improve my own knowledge about the anatomy of a sock and maybe some of you will learn something about the humble yet necessary sock as well. Here's the names of the parts of the foot as I know them. #49 ankle, #50 heel, #51, instep, #52 ball, #53 big toe, #54 toe, #55 little toe, #56 toenail. There are some parts more important for this discussion; first the heel of a foot is generally used to refer to the entire C-shape from the ankle to the instep. Speaking of the instep, it refers to that curve near the bottom of the foot. And what seems to be missing in the design above is the sole which generally refers to the bottom of the foot in total or plantar aspect in more technical terms...

Yarn Usage II: Crochet vs. Knit

All four swatches were made. Each is 6.25" or 15.875 cm square; each prepared with the same sized yarn and needles or hook. It took 25 stitches to get the appropriate width for the knit swatches and only 20 stitches for both of the crocheted squares. That already says something, but I'll get to it in a minute. (Don't know what I'm talking about here? Check out this post first.) Unfortunately, you'll just have to trust me that four swatches were prepared and that they were all the same size. In the excitement to get to measuring and weighing of the swatches, no photographic evidence was taken. Luckily for me the results of this research doesn't have to be reviewed by a jury of my peer. This blog post will be the sum and total of where this information is published. The remains of my four swatches What can be shared, however, are the balls of yarn rewound after the weighing and measuring was completed. You will note the size ...

Knitting-Related Guinness World Records

I had to share some of the Guinness World Records connected with knitting. It is amazing to me the type of skill, stamina and unique characteristics these record holders have in common. How about trying to knit with these SPNs?? Ingrid Wagner and her large needles and knitted swatch The largest knitting needles measured 3.5 m (11 ft 5.8 in) long and had a diameter of 8 cm (3.15 in). Ingrid Wagner, a rug and art creation artist, from the UK used the needles to knit a tension square of ten stitches by ten rows at the Metro Radio Arena, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK, on March, 10 2008. (And I complained about getting certain SPNs stuck in my clothes.) See how this swatch was done with merely 5 people managing the needles. And what about the yarn? It is truly ex-bulky. It looks like they're knitting in a warehouse, but with a wingspan of almost 24 feet or 7 m, you'd need all that space. Or h...

Flagel Knitting Files

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