Wanna Meet a Dervish?

I know. It's just a sock. It is called the Swirling Dervish, though. I finished this one yesterday. It uses a lot of traditional Turkish techniques. Turkey being the home of the original Whirling Dervish himself, Rumi.















I've enjoyed designing this sock. I'm not a very experienced sock knitter. I've knit some, but I've always been more enthusiastic about sweaters. Yet, I've had fun coming up with designs for Circles Sock Hop. Even though the project came to a grinding halt along with my health, it stays with me and I'm motivated to keep it going. Each sock focuses on different techniques. It's an opportunity to try out different heels and toes, etc, to see what you like best.

This one particularly grabbed me, because the techniques of Eastern Europe and the Middle East are sometimes wholly different from what we're familiar with. For instance, when they say to twist a stitch, they mean to twist it in the opposite direction than we do. Once I learned this, it prompted me to think about how to combine them for twisted stitch motifs. Which is how I created the little swirl patterns.

Other techniques used here: swirl toe begun with an Eastern cast on, extra shaping for the little toe (I can't tell you how comfy it feels. One of those things you don't think about until you've experienced it), a purls and yarn overs transition at the toe, twisted stitch patterning on the body,









a thumb joint heel (I have finally found the solution to my deep heel needs. With a modification for how it is closed off in the end, this may become my preferred heel for all socks.),






with twisted rib and Bosnian Crochet (I'm a reluctant fan of crochet, but this may have convinced me to use more of it in my knitting. It creates a fabric density more compatible with knitted fabric.)


There's a lot to keep a curious knitter's attention.

I've liked the sock since casting on. I did lose momentum during the relatively mundane sections of the foot and the leg, but when the edging was done, I really fell in love with it. I've cast on the for the right foot and will use the process of knitting that to refine the instructions before publishing. Intrepid knitters who would like to dive in before I complete the second sock are welcome to, with the understanding that I will provide technical support for any pattern confusion.

On a blog-tech note: I use Blogger and I have a lot of trouble getting the actual post to look the way it does when I'm composing it. Anyone else have this problem? Solutions? I'd appreciate any tips!

Ain't Bad

I have three active projects on the needles right now. Active being the operative word, as I'd be afraid to count how many are hibernating.

First is a sock design for the Circles sock club. We are unforgivably behind on this. Once we've completed 6 designs, I will restructure this to fit with life realities. Anyway, I have two designs in the works simultaneously, as the first design was an absolute failure for its intended yarn (Blackberry Ridge Kaleidoscope sport weight.) I was working on a twisted stitch pattern, but the busy-ness of the colorways made it a lot of work for nothing. The prototype was done on a relatively low-contrast colorway and you could sort of see it, but the pattern test knitter's colorway was far more vibrant with a wider range of colors and the stitch work just disappeared. Back to the drawing board for that yarn. And off to seek a new yarn for the design. Oh, easy. Shelridge Heathers. Now to adjust for the gauge......


Elsewhere on the needles is this:



I started at the collar. Well, actually, the collar was an accident of fate. I was swatching - to see how to use up one skein of hand dyed wool - and ending up with a fabric that looked like a collar, so I decided it was one and kept on knitting. I don't know what the sleeves or button plackets will look like, yet. I'm currently working on the peplum which is made with a diagonal slip stitch ribbing that leans in the opposite direction on each side and meets up with straight ribbing at the center back.






You can see from the front that I need to back up and make an adjustment where in the peplum. At the waist, I went from two strands to one and used a smaller needles. The plackets will end at the bottom of the waist. And I knew that I would need to increase the number of stitches in the peplum, so I started putting in gussets. But I think it's too big of a gap at the top. So, I'll go and do some increases on the first row, then put the gussets in for the hip shaping.

I'm going to stop here. Two out of three.....