Holy crap! Thanks for all the comments. As for the stash organization, it actually wasn't very well organized before. I had random balls all over the place, so it was good to be able to get most of it in order. I also order my stash by weight, not color, but I thought by color made for prettier pictures. And who knew I was so red heavy? The things you learn! FYS has actually been really cool in that regard. I'm hoping I can keep tabs on my stash usage when this time rolls around again next year.
Oh yeah, so today we have some actual knitting content. I started these socks a while ago from the horribly tangled yarn mess that Kristi so kindly balled for me. I wanted to submit these to Knitty for the summer issue, but there are some major issues.
1. The yarn is fuzzing a lot and obsuring the stitch pattern. I'm not sure if this is because the yarn has been rubbed so much from the tangling and detangling, or if it's because I used size 0 needles and knit very firmly. Probably a combination of the two. The pictures were as unfuzzy as I could get.
2. It is biasing. When I try to fold it in half, you can really tell because it doesn't want to fold straight along the sides. So here is my question for you, dear reader. What causes this? Is it the way the yarn is spun? Is it that the yarn is somehow twisted in the ball while I knit it? Or, is it because I made a mistake and have been using non-mirrored increases for the traveling cabled section?
In any case, this is going to be frogged until I can think of a different project for it, but I want to know if biasing is inevitable before I try something else with it. I'm also worried that the yarn is so fuzzy that any stitch pattern will be obscured.
Oooo, I like them! Here are my 2 cents:
1. The fuzzing is not obvious in the photos. Even when I look at the larger versions in Flickr, it doesn't jump out at me. You did a good job of lighting the photos.
2. My guess would be the biasing is caused by non-mirrored increases. I say that because my primavera socks biased like crazy and it was the same type of increase throughout the pattern. With that said, I suppose the yarn twist could contribute to the problem.
Posted by: Janice at April 3, 2006 2:57 PMI think Janice is onto something with the "non-mirrored decrease" observation. In addition, most of us (whether left or right-handed) have a tendency to knit tighter in the direction of the dominant hand controlling the yarn and working needle.
Just a thought. Perhaps you could just go with the bias flow, so to speak. Consider a design feature!
Posted by: Karen B. at April 3, 2006 3:15 PMSorry I can't help you with any answers but Janice is right about the fuzzing not being visible in the photos. I like the design a lot so I hope you can make it work somehow. Good luck!
Posted by: monica at April 3, 2006 3:52 PMWhat a tease that yarn is... Possibly you notice the fuzz when you're knitting, but note that when it is on your foot, you'll be looking at it from at least 12 inches away. Unless you're really good at yoga. So really, it wouldn't be all that noticeable for something a bit less pattern intensive. I mean sure, you don't want to put all that work into something which is going to fuzz. But possibly for a simpler pattern, it'd look wonderful.
Teasing yarn *sigh*
Posted by: freecia at April 3, 2006 4:10 PMSay, there's that famous leg...:)And tha's a really nice pattern going there on the leg.
Posted by: Terry at April 3, 2006 5:01 PMChenille will bias, and I've been told it's due to the twist. I suspect that may be a factor here, although the idea that your decreases/increases aren't fully mirror and your tension differs on left-side vs right-side decreases could play a role...
Pretty yarn, though.
Posted by: Jo at April 3, 2006 8:31 PMYou might be able to see if the yarn is at fault for the bias by just knitting a swatch in only st st. If the yarn is over twisted then the swatch should be baised.
If it's not then I would guess that it is the decreasses.
I hope you get this figured out because the pattern is really beautiful!
P.S. I didn't notice any fuzzing.
Posted by: Brooke at April 4, 2006 2:34 PMare you ktbl'ing? if so, that might be causing the biasing too. when knitting in the round if you have lots of ktbl's they can cause biasing. you can fix it by knitting it twisted in both directions but it's a real pain in the butt.
Posted by: jody at April 5, 2006 1:00 PMI have been told it has to do with the twist of the yarn. although i have not experimented to know if it is true, you can apparently knit from the other end of the skein and not have the bias effect.
Posted by: heatherly at April 10, 2006 12:22 AM