Sock Madness Round 4 Day 2

Hello:

It's a bit after midnight so I need to post and get to bed.  The above photo's title is, "I am NOT on the table."

I am going to first talk just a bit about the wonderful South Sound LYS Tour I did last weekend with Skeinherder.

We met at my house at 6:15 am.  Yes, you read that right.  The stores were having extended hours for the tour, and we were hitting all 10 stores in one day, so we wanted to be at our first stop right when they opened.  We decided to drive out to the farthest store, and work our way back home, so that when we were tired, we wouldn't have so much of a drive.

Amanda's Art Yarn
18846 Ne Front St # 200,
Poulsbo, WA
(360) 779-3666

Our first stop was in Poulsbo at Amanda's Art Yarn.

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You can take a ferry to Bainbridge Island, then drive across a bridge, but since we wanted to get there at 8 am, as the store opened, and on weekends, the ferries don't run as often, we decided to just drive the long way around the bottom of Puget Sound.

This was a delightful town, and a delightful store.

The owner, Amanda, features her own dyed yarns,

as well as many other beautiful brands.  The shop was light and comfortable and full of beautiful yarn.

Amanda was very nice and helpful.  She was excited to share her shop with us.  We met other people on the LYS Tour.

This young lady (who was on the tour with her mom), is wearing what once was a dress that her mom knit for her.  As she grew taller, she turned it into a tunic!

I guess I am more tired than I thought, so I will stop here, and try to find some time either tomorrow, or early next week to post more about the shops I saw on the tour.

As far as Sock Madness goes, I have finished the toes, the feet, and am on the gusset increases as I knit towards the heels.  These socks are different in that the sole is knit in reverse stockinette.  That means miles and miles of purling.  My purling is fairly loose.  I have tried a few different things in all of the purling for these socks, to tighen up the fabric.  Finally, today, I realized that I could knit the purls left handed.  I am holding the socks so that the right side of the front or instep is facing me.  After I knit the front/top/instep in the pattern, I don't turn the socks.  I pull out my circular needle then knit left handed across the back/bottom/sole of the sock, with the Wrong side or inside of the sock facing me.  I'm not sure if I explained that well, but it is working great.  I knit left handed pretty tightly, so the fabric is much improved.  The only problem is that I didn't use this method right from the beginning, so I have some lose spot and some nicely tight spots.

I hope it all evens out on the blockers.  Otherwise these will be very funny socks.

Peace,
f1bercat
shaping the planet after midnight.