Socks!

So I decided to finally bite the bullet a few days ago and make my first pair of socks. I cast off the first one yesterday and that's when I realized I wasn't making socks. I was actually making slippers for my step-mom. See, my sock slipper's cast on was waaay too loose. Note to self: US size 5s are just a smidge too big to be used as a cast on base for a sock slipper made on size 2 needles. Also, if your gauge is off by about 1/8th of an inch you can probably just keep knitting like you normally would. No need to your stitches so loose that the opening ribbing will fall off your ankle. Unless of course, you're knitting slippers for a step-mother who has high blood pressure which causes her ankles to swell up. In that case, feel free to disregard what I just wrote.

Maybe once I finish this pair of socks slippers, I'll make myself a pair that's actually cast on properly and that fits. Maybe.

Abbr when k

Here's the thing, I have no idea why people on the interwebz use abbreviations when writing knitting patterns. I can understand why it's a good idea (or at least a necessary evil) in print work such as a magazine since they have a limited space to include the maximum amount of patterns and every extra bit of text causes more space and that means extra money.

So I can appreciate the necessity of telling someone to k1p1 w/ 12 rep until 4in then k2tog, turn, rep until * in a magazine. I can even accept it in a book. But on the internet? Let's face it, all the text in this blog so far? Probably hasn't even gotten as far as 10MB worth of storage space. Plus this blog, like so many others is hosted for free. I don't pay a damn penny to do this. Even if I did pay for the space, the effect of writing "knit 2 together" instead of "k2tog" or "k1p1" instead of "work in a 1 by 1 rib" is negligible.

Trust me, I've hosted websites before. You could do an almost infinite amount of text before you really started to run out of anything. It's the images that will screw you over and most blogs aren't shy about them (I'll be hosting images as soon as I either find the camera that has batteries or buy batteries for the camera that does not have them). So why do we persist in using the insane abbreviations in a limitless medium? I can't figure it out. Is it just the force of habit? Is it that we see patterns written that way in magazines and other print sources and assume that's how we're supposed to see them elsewhere?

I do not have the answers necessary for those questions, but I am going to make a conscious effort from now on to write in a legible fashion when posting patterns. For one thing, I have to because I think I knit backwards as a result of my left handedness, so when I k you should p and so on and so forth. It's much easier to say "cable on every 6th row and bobble on every 12th" as opposed to trying to figure out what I'm doing and what you should be doing to replicate it.

Learning

So here's the thing, since I was largely self-taught in the knitting department (beyond "this is how you knit and this is how you purl") anyway, I have very little experience following patterns or doing things that weren't made up by me. I basically spent 3 years making scarves. As a result of this, I'm not exactly the best pattern reader the world has ever seen. I understand the abbreviations and when I don't I know where to find help with the terms, but largely I'm not the person you want making you that extremely complicated cable cardigan (or really ANY cardigan or other variety of sweater). So where to go with this? I'm going to learn. And you're going to watch me!

Right now, I'm working on a test knit for someone. As soon as that is done I'm going to make socks! I found some nice toe-up patterns until I learn how much yarn I need for myself at which point I'll try some of the cuff down variety. After that, I'm going to try some lace. That's the big one. I've always wanted to make lace but never had the cajones to try. Well, that's about to change my friends! At some point, I really want to make a lace stole to wear when I get married. Sooner or later, I'll end up making myself a sweater too. But this entry is boring and needs more boobs, so I'll stop now.