Monday, February 9, 2009

Good listening

The Internet is wonderful for acquiring new listening delights. I get a regular newsletter from Koinonia House and the most recent one had an advertisement for a new resource - available in DVD, CD or mp3 download. Within a few minutes I was happily listening as I knit on my newest project. "Through Hebrew Eyes - A Messianic Journey" is fascinating! A Messianic Jewish man talks about the feasts of Israel and explains how they are a shadow of Christ and of things to come. And the fellow is funny to boot! Well worth the listen.

On the needles I have my February "new technique" - the afterthought heel. Basically you knit a tube sock, but part-way through, where you would normally start the heel, you knit half the stitches with waste yarn. Then you continue around knitting over the waste yarn and do the foot and toe. At this point you go back to pick out the waste yarn, put the stitches on needles and knit another toe! It's one of those magical moments of knitting that don't seem to make sense, but work out none-the-less. Google afterthought heel for great explanations and probably video on this technique. I went back to make the heel before I finished the sock because I wanted to figure out how long to make the foot after the waste yarn. One tip - if you have a pattern on the leg (like I did) make sure to only do it on the instep after the waste yarn. Otherwise you will have pattern on the bottom of your sock as well (don't ask me how I know this!). The heel is very well fitting and I think that once I have done it on a few pairs of socks I'll get the bugs worked out so that it doesn't look quite as amateurish as it's doing now. It works well for self-striping yarns as it doesn't break up the stripes like a heel flap will do.

1 comment:

netablogs said...

That heel looks great! It boggles my mind how to do it.. I'll have to watch a video and read an explanation and then maybe it all will make sense. I like that the stripes continue on so nicely!