Let's Stop Doom Scrolling for a Moment

I get it, I can't get away from it either.  

My usual "happy, yarn filled" social media accounts, because I paused too long on a political or "bad news" posts is now filled with all kinds of doom and gloom, when all I want is five minutes away from the real world.

There is nothing wrong with staying informed and knowing what is going on in the world around you, but...let's take a breath, and pause for a few minutes and talk about yarn, knitting, (I would talk about crochet, too, but I know nothing about it other than how to use it to provisionally cast on, pick up run away knit stitches, and get myself out of a shawl using a fancy chain bind off), gardening, maybe even cooking and pets!

 Ready?

 

Over the past 5 weeks, I have spent some time every Saturday and Sunday trying to get all the yarn I own to fit into a single room.

 

 

A reasonable person would de-stash/sell/give away the yarn that didn't fit (in an entire room!), but I opted to instead remove the air from the yarn to create more space.  

Today I started in on taking the air out of the yarn that didn't even make it as far as "in boxes on the floor" of the yarn room.

Do I think that even with removing all of the air, the yarn will all fit in the space I have allocated for it?  No, but if I wasn't saving an entire wall of drawers for The Drama Queen's Fabric stash, maybe. (More about that later)

That probably didn't take you five minutes to read, so do me, and yourself a favor, think about three good things that happened, or you made happen this week, and tell me what they were.

Until next time...

Try and knit happy!

~M

A WiP Wednesday and Symmetry

 A little while ago I posted on Instagram and Bluesky a photo of a pair of socks, asking people if, when working a directional stitch pattern, it was important to them that the pattern is mirrored in each sock.

A pair of striped socks, on sock blockers

The difference, in this particular stitch pattern is very subtle, maybe a closer look?

Detail of the stitch pattern

Overwhelmingly, people commenting on the Bluesky post felt that a non-knitter wouldn't notice and that it probably didn't matter.  But, people on Instagram said things like "If the pattern doesn't mirror the stitch pattern I would do it for myself."

 

I believe that, while the knitter is definitely the person in control of  their own knitting, that including the instructions for mirroring, even when as subtle as this, is the right thing for me to do.  It would bother me if the socks weren't mirror images of each other. (I am also a stickler for the stripes matching, as you can see!)

 I will be putting these socks up for test knitting soon in my group on Ravelry, but first, the reason those finished socks count as a WiP post, I want to write up a tutorial for a "new to me" way of picking up stitches for the heel gusset. 

Which brings me to a question for you.  If you are a sock knitter, how do you do your pick ups along a heel flap?

Do you :

Slip the working needle under both legs of a slipped stitch edge?

Slip the working needle under one of the legs of a slipped stitch edge?

Work it some other way?

Leave me a comment with  your answer, all comments are moderated, so if you don't want to make your answer public just say so!

Until Next Time...hopefully soon...Knit Happy!

~Mary