March Q&A / Crazy Sock Lady

y'all and welcome to the crazy sock lady youtube channel my name is kay and in this video we are going to be just sitting and chatting i'm going to be answering some questions it is time for the march q and a video i have my computer over here with so many questions that you guys put in from february's q a video i've got my muscleburg hat i need to silence my phone got my muscleburk hat that i'm working on out of breaking yarn in the gray matter colorway this is just going to be one for a christmas gift and i just finished recording the summerslot camp info video so all of the information about camp so i've still got my braids in i'm gonna silence my phone right now jenny is texting me okay bone silenced all right we're just gonna jump in with answering some questions so these are all from february's q a video and then if you have a question um for april's q a video you can just put it in the comments right down below and i will go through right before i record april's video and pull all of those questions and answer them on that video it's a mad house around here can you hear the cat meowing now um if you ever have a question that's kind of time sensitive that you can't wait for the next q a you can always contact me at crazysockladypodcast gmail.com i'll have that down below as well okay first question can you do a video showing your needles and notions collection and this is a two-part question so i'll never say never on that sure i could probably do that um right now i am a little crazy with somersault camp prep so if i do a video about needles and notions it won't happen for quite a while but yeah that could be something down the road that i could do have you ever considered dyeing your own yarn why or why not no the thoughts never really crossed my mind i did at one point think oh be fun to do sock blanks but yeah i would just rather knit the yarn than spend time dyeing the yarn and i don't want to have to make a mess and then clean it up that's that's the truth okay i've been looking for a pattern or maybe instructions is the better term for any size sock i've been knitting all the socks for several months now and i'm wanting to knit them for grandchildren from four years old to adult basically i think what i need most is how many stitches to cast on for the little ones i have their foot lengths shoe sizes etc so i don't i only have three different sizes in any of my patterns but i do know that mina phillip knitting expat she has a lot of variety of sizes she has a kids pattern and then i think it's orange knits that has the rose city rollers pattern and there's a rose city rollers littles i believe and that also has kid sizes those are two that i have done myself um so i'm confident in recommending those this next one has two questions the first one is i'm sure you've been asked this before but i was wondering how you washed your handmade socks i think i went over that in one of the other q a's but i just put them most of the time lately i have not been doing this but most of the time i'll just put them in like the delicates the mesh bags that zip and um just like depending on the size three four five pairs in a bag just whatever i kind of feel like will go in there and then throw them in the washing machine on delicate with cool water and then i have a drying rack that i set up right here in this room over on the other side of the camera and i will set that up and kind of lay them on the drying rack to dry lately i've honestly just been dumping them in the washer and putting it on delicate and washing them and they have been perfectly fine the second part of that question is and if you've ever had to mend one of your socks and if so how i have actually never had to mend socks i get this question quite a bit and knock on wood so far none of us have ever worn a hole in our socks so i've never had to mend them if anyone has any good tips tricks videos tutorials that you can put down below if you ask this question check down there hopefully some people will have some good suggestions for you is it wrong to cake up your yarn ahead of time what i mean is would you cake up yarn several weeks slash months before you start a project i have i don't know i think i did hear somewhere that you should not do that but i have i have yarn that i've caked up so long ago sitting right there and whenever i feel like using it i will use it um i've caked up yarn for a sweater and then it's set for a while and i've never had any issues with doing that on your vanilla sock how do you know how many stitches to cast on for small medium and large so within the vanilla sock pattern if you have that pdf pattern i do have a section um towards the beginning of the pattern where it goes over the different circumferences for the sock i know some of my older patterns do not have that but my vanilla sock does i'm working on getting all the older patterns updated to include that but the vanilla stock patterns all three of those do have the circumferences in there i always suggest that you measure to find the circumference you need at the widest part of your foot and then it gives you instructions as far as if you want some negative ease and all of that that's that's right there in that section where it talks about the different sizes and if you have um questions about that still you can always email me at crazysockladydesigns the email address is right there on the pattern as well i'm wondering if you have any tips for fixing socks when the yarn has snagged and torn um i don't that would be the same as like mending i think so if anyone has any suggestions for mending that they put down below i would suggest following that because i think you would fix that the same like at the torn yarn you would fix it the same as if you got a hole in your sock would be my that's my thought process on it you would fix it the same way i saw some cotton and nylon yarn is it possible to knit socks with that yarn or you can never knit socks with cotton you can definitely knit socks with cotton i think i've done a pair i can't i don't have any more of it but it i'm pretty sure it had cotton and it had like a little bit of everything um and i actually still wear those socks all the time so yeah you can definitely knit socks with cotton i think people that live in warmer climates um probably prefer them i am becoming a sockaholic welcome to the club i have patterns that i love and would like to know how to convert them from dpns to knit them on a 9-inch circular as i have come to love them so i don't there's really nothing special you have to do to like convert a pattern if you knit it on dpn's you can knit it on nine inch or magic loop you can knit it however you want a lot of my patterns don't even specify a specific way of working in the round you can knit them anyway um just with the nine inch keep in mind you know you're not gonna have your heel like split on separate needles so i always if you check out my nine inch circular video i show how to put a marker in to mark just the front half of your sock and then the back of your sock just put a stitch marker in at that spot so that you have the beginning of round and then your center of round but there's really no need or special thing that you have to do to convert a pattern you just knit away making sure you you keep that heel on the back of your sock pretty much i watched your tutorial on how to weave in ends and found it really well done and helpful thank you wondering how you handle the very first end right at the cast on edge i also prefer german twisted cast on but i find i never can get the join to look tidy when i weave in my ends and especially tricky when i choose to knit a few rows of a contrast say two or three rows before joining the main collar any tips for those trickier ends so i still just weave them in the same way um if you look at any of my vanilla sock tutorials you would have to fast forward i'm sure it's like right at the end but i'm pretty sure in all of those i show how i weave in that last end um i will just kind of take it through like a stitch on the top pull it back through to the inside and then weave it in but i'm almost positive i show how to do that on those tutorials i still weave it in the same just kind of taking it through a couple of the tops of those cast on stitches and i still i do the same if i have um [Music] because i like to do a couple of rows of contrast at the beginning of the sock as well at the beginning of the sock cuff and that can get a little messy you have quite a few ends there but it's all on the inside and my thought is nobody is going to see the inside of that so i'm not really bothered by how messy it looks when i weave in my ends because if they're looking for them they're not real friends anyways like move away um did you get a new wedding ring set looks really lovely thank you yes i did actually we just celebrated our 15-year wedding anniversary and eric bought me a new wedding ring set but thank you he did he did a good job i really like it what keeps you motivated so i'm definitely not always motivated but i am a very schedule oriented and motivated person so i tend to stick to like a scheduled routine as far as i get up at the same day every single day of the week um it gives me time to really get stuff done in the morning and i find that if i do get stuff done in the morning it makes me more motivated throughout the day but like i said i'm definitely not always motivated there are days where i don't want to do anything and that i don't but um definitely sticking to a routine or a schedule and putting that into place helps for sure do you have a favorite yarn so i could never pick like somebody in particular's yarn because i love so many of them but yarn base my favorite is a 75 25 so 75 superwash merino 25 nylon fingering weight yarn you mentioned that you knit in the car at your boys games while bowling etc how much time of your day are you knitting how much of that time is multitasking time versus just knitting time so there are actually days where i'm looking to get like an hour of knitting i think people really think that i knit all day every day and i don't but i mean honestly there are days where it's like like all inclusive and maybe like an hour and a half an hour that is my 30 minutes of knitting every morning that i like make sure i get that 30 minutes every morning um for myself but there are so many days where i just don't get that much knitting time a lot of my work time i can spend on the computer versus knitting but i do i think what helps me make a lot of progress on things is that i sneak in as much knitting as i can so like this question said knit in the car at the boys events when we went bowling i was knitting any second that i can have this in my hands and be working on something i am if it is only five minutes in the car i'm knitting for that five minutes in the car if it's five minutes in the car pickup line waiting on the boys to come out of school you better believe i'm knitting for those five minutes i'm waiting on something to boil while it's on the stove i've only got a couple minutes i'm knitting i squeeze it in every bit that i can um it is extremely rare that i have time to just sit and knit my day away like i can't even remember the last time i did that honestly seems like on the weekends we'll get distracted by doing something especially now the weather is getting nicer which i don't mind but i really don't even remember the last time i had like a day where i just did nothing but knit so i would say right now most of it's like multitasking um i'm kind of craving and needing some days to sit it and work on design stuff but it'll all get there um but yeah i yeah there's not really a set question on how much time i spend it in a day because it varies so much some days i'll have more some days i'll have less i just squeeze it in any second that i can what kind of yarn swift and winder do you use i have a stanwood swift and winder do i have one of them right here like i know i know some things over here i usually just have them on my long part of my desk right here but i've been doing so many other things on the desk that they're off right now so here is the winder i'm not going to focus on it very well i'm sure but it is their mega heavy duty and i love it so much it's metal it's so super sturdy this thing has been through two moves around so many skeins of yarn and it's it's still going strong i have no issues with it other than the fact that i'm holding it completely sideways right now there we go there we go i promise i've had coffee today um so here it is oh goodness so you just hook it onto your table right there wind your yarn i love it i have a stanwood amish swift that was the one i got with this i used it for a couple of years more than a couple years and then i did buy an umbrella swift the amish style swift its tabletop so you have to take it out and put it together and it takes up quite a big area on your table and i don't really have that space on my desk to be able to set it up so i did end up i still have my amish swift that i could use if i wanted but i did end up buying the umbrella swift so that it just connects to the side of the table and i can crank the yarn that way i'm noticing that my battery is dying on me so if i may have to finish this another day might be a costume change in a minute um how many pairs of socks do you think you've ever knit i have no idea none whatsoever i know for myself i have like 117 socks or something like that um but i've also knit them for family members the boys eric my sister has some my dad my mother-in-law has quite a few so i honestly have no idea none i wish i knew i wish i knew that number but i when i first started knitting socks didn't do ravelry project pages so i guess they could go back and count and kind of get an idea but i it would not be a total all-inclusive because i did not do project pages when i first started socks how do you plan scrappy socks do you knit a certain amount of rows per collar or until it runs out so i never really sit down with a huge plan on scrappy socks um a lot of the times i will say i'll do six rows per collar or five rows per color right now i have two pairs of scrappy socks going in both pairs i'm doing 10 rounds per color so i just kind of go go off of it that way but just definitely have fun with them any way you do it's fine because they're scrappy i'm still trying to learn to knit a pair of good fitting socks my last pair were really uncomfortable felt like pebbles i may have found a yarn needle pattern combo that may work do you just swatch to find the right combo with needles and yarn so you certainly can if you want to do a swatch and see if you like the feel of that fabric just make sure that you do it in the round because you are knitting socks in the round so your gauge may change and that would mean the fabric may change when you're knitting a swatch flat versus in the round so i would suggest doing it in the round if you're going to do it that way okay we're going to be um old school crazy stock lady here where i recorded everything on my phone because battery died battery died it's friday afternoon what's going on okay um yes i can't remember where i ended with that but yes i've never swatched before personally um i've just tried different socks to see what i like the fit of but i'm just that crazy person who likes knitting socks no matter what so if you want to swatch that's totally fine just make sure you're swatching in the round how do you manage your allergies around the cats i have had cats in the past interested in getting another but maybe more allergic not sure so i'm definitely not like extremely deathly allergic breakout in hives type of allergic i think i have a pretty fairly mild allergy to the cats um if i pet them and then touch my face my eyes will get itchy my nose will itch i'll sneeze i do get kind of itchy all over sometimes if i'm around them honestly and it's sad i just don't cuddle with them that much if i pet them i make sure i wash my hands we don't really they lay on our bed occasionally but just at the end of the bed if they would lay on my pillow i would probably be a wreck when i woke up the next morning but um they don't sleep with us or anything like that we shut our bedroom door so yeah i don't know if you're highly allergic that could be kind of scary but um mine's pretty mild i do take allergy medicine every day and that probably helps i take a pill and then i also do a nasal spray so i would say that probably helps make any symptoms a little less but yeah like i said it's sad i just don't pet them quite as much or um cuddle with them i just can't or i will be sneezy and my eyes will be so itchy um for cuff down socks have you ever heard anyone casting on a larger amount than decreasing down the leg slash calf i have purchased and knit your vanilla socks but cannot seem to cast on loose enough so there are i've definitely heard of people doing that there are a couple of different things that you can try um you can cast on a larger amount and then decrease back down to where you feel that you need to if if you're just having issues with that cast on row i wouldn't necessarily think you would need to do that you could probably just go up a needle size or even two needle sizes just for that cast on maybe even the next round and then switch back down to your normal needle size for socks if you're just having an issue with that cast on round if you're finding that when the sock is on um on your calf area see my fuzzy slippers um if that whole section right there is a little tighter because i have pretty wide calfs as well um then you can definitely cast on a larger amount and then when you find that you need to you can decrease back down to whatever a cast on or not cast on whatever stitch count works for the rest of your leg and foot how often do you clean your diffusers do you change the water every time you change the essential oil you want to use so i will run the diffuser until the what's in there is gone unless it is set like i forgot to run it it's set for a long time but typically i will within a couple of mostly two days use up whatever is in there um when i go to put new in if there's any left that's been staying there for too long and i'm not i don't want to use that then yeah i will dump that out wipe the diffuser out and then put new water and oil in i don't ever reuse what's in there and add more oil if that kind of makes sense and then if it's empty if i've used like it's ran completely out then i wipe out the inside put new water and new oils in how does a normal day for you look like how late do you get up and go to sleep and everything in between so i am a very early riser i wake up at 5am every morning sometimes before if i wake up before my alarm goes off but 5 a.m up out of bed i go ahead and get ready for the day clothes makeup i don't wear very much makeup [Laughter] clothes get dressed all of that come downstairs have breakfast coffee take my vitamins and get my day started i do my 30 minutes of knitting every morning and then if i have time depending on like the days that the boys have a little bit of a later start with school then i will get a little bit of work done before i get them up but i get the boys up get them moving they get ready for school while i do any household chores that need done vacuuming cleaning a bathroom like whatever daily chores i have for that day i try to get those done before i take the boys to school then once i take the boys to school um if i have any errands to run i will do that if not it is back home and i get started on crazy stock lady work uh that pretty much keeps me busy all day every day monday through friday now which is amazing and such a blessing um but yeah that's kind of it until it's time to go get the boys lately in the afternoon i've been um doing my workouts then so i will go for a jog do some weights the bike we bought a stationary bike and then i'll shower get cleaned up go pick up the kids and then when they get home it's pretty much time for like get ready for dinner all that kind of stuff and then we relax watch some tv or play a game as a family and bed i'm in bed by i get ready for bed at 8 30 and it's usually lights out by like 9 15 at the latest for me um lately it's been 9 30 because i've been reading 28 summers and i'm so sucked in and loving it but uh yeah i i go to bed pretty early so that's kind of my weekdays in a nutshell what is your everyday skincare and makeup routine so i actually brought this stuff down here skincare wise that i used because i knew i would never remember all of the names and this question kind of caught me off guard because this is never something that i think to share because i think y'all are mostly here for the knitting so i'm definitely not like a skin care um i don't know expert at all on anything i'm not an expert definitely not a skincare expert so um i don't use a ton i guess i love cetaphil just the daily facial cleanser over the years i would try so many different face washes and different things and my face is very sensitive it will go like one of two ways it'll either be super oily or it would be super dry and i used to get breakouts right along my jawline um which i think that is mostly like hormonal stuff but whatever i'm not gonna get into that but cetaphil it was like a game changer i kept trying to use like acne products to like clear up this cetaphil don't touch the face leave it alone but cetaphil is what i love i use this twice a day morning and night then i also have clinique skin care products and this was like a three pack um or like a set i don't know but it's for oily skin like i said mine will typically go one of two ways super dry or oily and it gets oily right in the t-zone i think is what they call that but so this right here it's just a liquid facial soap i use it after the cetaphil um and then i use the clarifying lotion twice a day exfoliator and then the other thing is a moisturizing gel i use this last in between this and that i use this i am starting to see some some wrinkles and things so getting ahead of the game here using my collagen every day and then also clinique smart custom repair serum love this stuff so much i see such a difference um when i use this especially i think the collagen is helping a lot as well i find my skin has been clearer it just has more of a glow i really am happy with my skin lately knock on wood i also use clinique all about eyes it reduces circles puffs all that kind of stuff this is a sample one that they had sent me um i ordered from ulta and a lot of the times if you order clinique you get a ton of free samples of things so right now i have a little sample container of it but yeah i use that for under my eyes and on my eyelids um i think that's it for skin care yeah that's all i do i use that stuff twice a day all of that right yeah all of that in the morning and then at night makeup wise i don't really wear anything i don't wear foundation i don't wear powder i put a little bit of concealer under my eyes and i do use an eyebrow pencil just a little bit because mine have gotten so thin um the older i get it's like the thinner they get so i do use a little bit of an eyebrow pencil very a little bit of eyeshadow like barely nothing it's like just almost the color of my skin and then um mascara sometimes a little bit of blush that's it yeah i don't even remember the last time i wore like a full face of makeup it's probably been 15 years i just have never liked the way it made my skin feel so that's it nothing crazy what are some things you really love and you dislike that are not yarn related hmm i'm gonna ask you to ask this one again but be more specific is it like foods i love or don't love or hmm i don't even know that could be a pretty generalized question ask that one again be a little bit more specific and we'll get to that one in april are you going to do a podcast on your beaded sweater it was so beautiful thank you how do you handle knots and sock yarn oh this is two part okay so uh beaded sweater i did do the tutorial for that it is up i will link it um yeah that one was a fun one to do how do you handle knots and sock yarn do you cut it then rejoin in a certain way so i will usually just cut like before the knot um leaving you know making sure there's a tail end there that i can weave in and then just restart knitting and then weave in my ends um just how i always do i don't do anything special to them how do you wash two to three socks and keep them from bleeding on each other in the mesh bag on delicate so any time that i wash my socks or any hand knit if i'm just soaking it even i will use a collar grabber if it's something that has like two different colors or i'm putting two items in at once color grabbers or um shout has them and i think they're called color catchers but this is just what the store happened to have in stock last time carbona color grabber it's just a sheet you throw it in and it grabs all of the dye if um i will typically just throw that in the dryer or the washer excuse me with the mesh bags not in the mesh bags unless i'm washing a pair of socks that i know because there are just some that's like i know that red bleeds um so i will put it in the mesh bag and then one outside as well i use a lot of those what is the first step i should take if i want to write a pattern um definitely make sure you have a test knit a lot of test knitters i don't know i think that's probably the most important step is make sure you have your pattern tested for sure my question is how do you count the rounds for the sock foot do you start at the heel turn or at the end of the gusset decreases i always use my sock ruler but was curious so if you check out any of my vanilla sock tutorials here on youtube i show how i put my markers down the front of my foot so say i did 50 rounds for the leg um all the markers go down the front and i count the rounds down the front i never count down the back or the of the sock or the bottom of my foot so i will have that 50 rounds for the leg and then the next um round i start counting for the foot yes austin i'll warm up my spaghetti real quick yeah go ahead you're fine he's going to warm up spaghetti so if you hear that that's what it is he's a hungry boy and it's 2 30 and he didn't eat lunch did you yep okay um so yeah i just count down the front so like 50 rounds for the leg then that's the leg the 51 like 51st good grief 51st round is the first round of the foot i hope that makes sense you can definitely get more of a visual in this vanilla sock tutorials what was your process for learning to knit without looking at your work how long did it take so i don't really remember um i could crochet without looking i was a crocheter before i could knit so i think i mean while it's totally different feel of your hands i think over time i just kind of started knitting without looking as well um maybe i sat there and was like okay you're just gonna try this next row without looking i am not the best at remembering things sometimes so i don't really remember if i had a process or how long it took me but um it definitely can take some practice just try a like the front of a sock if that's what you're knitting and just just try not to look look at the tv or whatever and then just take a look peek down to your work and see how how it's going just know that you may have to fix some stitches rip back a little bit um but just keep an eye on it and just definitely takes practice can you do a tutorial on knitting socks one at a time on two circular needles i see you have one with magic loop but i would like to see your way of using two circulars so i'm actually planning there's the microwave um to do that tutorial for summer sock camp so uh keep an eye out that'll be coming this summer enjoy seeing your cats from time to time would you share how you came to adopt them did they just show up as some do or did you and your family go to select them so we actually adopted them from a local shelter um when we lived in surprise arizona we got emmy first and what month would we have gotten her it was right after we moved to arizona i'm gonna guess we got her in august that's my guess um july or august maybe and then was it september i don't know it wasn't long after we had her that we got calvin and we got him right before october and i remember that because he's a black cat and they said they we got him just in time because they don't have black cats for adoption during the month of october because of crazy halloween stuff and crazy people and so yeah we got him just in time but we we adopted them from a local shelter i've been using two circulars for knitting socks and don't really like using dpns it looks to me like flexible dpns would be somewhat like using two circulars but without the annoying dangling what's your opinion on those i see that you prefer hiahaya to addie i'm considering buying a set what's the main difference between them so they're pretty much the same thing the adi flexi flips and the high ohia flyers um my preference for the higher high is just because i like higher high needles over adding needles i don't really like the cable on adding needles i don't really like the feel of them i'll use them um because i just love knitting socks give me some needles and some yarn and i will knit that with them um but if i have the option i will use the high high over the addi um definitely for the flexi flips as well i just like the feel of them better in my hands i've used both and i prefer the high ohio um as far as it being like using two circulars yes it's pretty much going to be the same as two circulars or magic loop you have a needle one and you have a needle too as far as the breakdown of the stitches the placement of your heel being on needle two all of that is going to be the same so it is pretty similar just with different needles do you put your leftover self striping yarn into your scrappy granny stripe blankets or do you tend to use only speckled and tonal yarns for that project i put any and every yarn into any and every scrap you blanket um i don't ever pick and choose based on whether it's self striping or tonal i just go with it and use it they're scrappy they are fun i am not bothered by any ways that any of it works out my question is what other kind of yarn you recommend for socks other than fingering weight so you can use any weight of yarn you could knit worsted socks dk socks sport weight socks you can knit any weight of yarn i will admit i've only ever knit fingering weight but you can totally knit any weight of yarn that you want for socks if you want like a thicker um sock for winter or house sock worsted dk all that's going to be great i am a continental knitter but i can't get the pearl part of the equation any tips or could you show a video in slow motion so i do show i was trying to think when i saw this question if i had any tutorials where you can see me doing a purl stitch the only ones i can think of are going to be the sock tutorials when i'm doing the heel flap so you could definitely check that out continental purling did take me a while to get i could knit continental but purling i just could not grasp doing the purl stitch continental um but i don't have a specific video for that at this time but maybe in the future that's something i can get around to recording have you ever considered doing an ebook of your favorite socks you have designed i have not um i don't know that's just not something i've ever thought of doing they're all there to purchase and i've never really thought of combining them into an e-book maybe one day when knitting socks and decreasing on alternate rows in the gusset i find it tricky to recognize if it's a decrease row or not that's next sometimes it's diff difficult to see from the row before can you suggest a way to make this easier please so you can always try if you're just trying to look at your knitting and see okay do i need to do um a decrease around or am i on a plane knit round you can always write down your rows when i first started knitting socks before i really kind of knit enough that i could read those decreases there i would just write out like um one two okay i would put like this is my first round of decreases i would have a number one that i would circle and then put one two so that i knew like row one is my decrease row row two is the plain knit row and i would cross them off as i went and then i would have like i would write all these out this is how my brain works um two that i would circle and then one two three that i would circle one two so those were all of my decreases eventually um you just get to where you can read those stitches and you can try to practice reading those stitches so if you write your rows out like that and you see that you have just done a decrease round you did round one you marked it off you're on that next plane knit round take a look at those decrease stitches there try to recognize and see what those look like when you come to them and then as you go and more practice and seeing them you're just going to be able to look and see okay i just did a decrease round that's a decrease stitch right there um reading your knitting is definitely something that takes some practice but you can get there [Music] but yeah that's my suggestion if you're you're really having trouble with that you can definitely write those out that's what i did for years and years and years just write all of them out what patterns do you recommend to break up color pulling on socks sometimes i like pulling but some yarns have weird crazy pooling so i actually i'm going to ask for y'all to put recommendations for this one as well down below so if you have patterns that you recommend or ways to avoid that pooling or anything um just put down in the comments below yes austin can i go to the park yes you can go to the park be careful and have fun love you huh oh you're fine they know i have kids and it's spring break did i even say it's spring break on this video i don't think i did it's friday it's the first day of spring break for them recording this um okay yeah so i don't i don't really know of any like patterns it's like that's gonna help break up the pooling so if y'all are more like experienced with that i guess and you have any tips tricks patterns for those below put them below um i'm definitely someone who's not ever bothered by pulling or variegated or i just go with the flow and let the yarn do whatever it wants to do and again i'm just a crazy person who loves knitting socks no matter what give me some needles give me some yarn i will knit socks i'm totally a process knitter what is your favorite way to join a new skein of yarn to the project in knitting so i just drop like say i was ready to join a new one i would drop the yarn and say this is the new yarn i just pick it up make a little loop put it on the needle starting it away i do not do anything special i know there are different joins you can do i just go back in and weave my ends in later i don't have any special way that i do that okay are we done oh no we're not done why did that break that up like that i thought man there were a lot less questions than i remembered okay let me grab a drink of water because we have quite a few more questions okay this one is a five part question after the covid restrictions are lifted would you consider hosting planning a meet and greet i would love that if anyone would be interested in coming i don't know that anyone would really be interested in coming would y'all but i would love that and i would love to meet y'all and i think that would be so much fun um do you recommend swatching for new sock knitters so you certainly can if you're someone i don't really like swatching i know that's bad i know i've never swatched for socks i just jump right in and knit and if it's not working i take it out and i re-knit it again 100 process knitter um but if you are not and you want to know before going in your gauge tension all of that do a swatch make sure it's in the round yeah the next question if you do recommend swatching do you recommend swatching in the round or flat in the round because i know my tension changes my um gauge changes in the round versus flat have you thought about making a knee-high sock pattern i have not probably because i don't think i would ever wear a knee-high sock pattern so i've never really thought about about designing one but i always say that i will never say never so who knows what would be the best sock to knit for someone with larger calves plain vanilla something with ribbing in the front or all the way around the leg etc so ribbing definitely always gives you a little bit more stretch to your sock so that's always a great option to do some ribbing you may need to depending um on the size of their calf start out with a larger amount and decrease down but ribbing is definitely a good option to try i'm thinking of purchasing a set of interchangeable needles if you could only buy one set that would be most versatile and have good joins what would they be any things one should consider while shopping for them so i have a couple of interchangeable sets the only ones that i have i'm going to be completely honest with you all here the only ones i have never had any issues with are my haya haya interchangeables i have never had one of them come and done i've had so many other interchangeable sets that they come undone i take that back i don't think my likies have ever like lika whatever those are called i don't think those have ever come undone but i don't use them as often but my hiatas are probably my favorite interchangeable i just my finger gets torn up from the way i push off on my needle but those are probably my favorite i have never tried ciao goo and i would love to try an interchangeable set of theirs i've just never taken the plunge and purchased one because i love their fixed circulars so much but yeah the high highs are probably the only ones i've never had like any issues with at all um lika i don't really prefer like the cord as much because there's definitely there's so much to take into account do you what do you like the cord of those needles i really don't like the cord of high highs that much either they get to like wound up on themselves same with the liquor but those two haven't i don't think the lick has ever come apart hayahayah hasn't ever come apart on me um my zings i i love my zings but they come apart so much now it's like the more i've used them the more they come apart and i just don't even want to use them anymore um trying to think what other ones i have my nitpicks ones i really like those come apart occasionally but i don't like the cords on them that much either basically i need to try chow goo because i love their the needles and i love the cords my preference lately has just been for fixed circulars honestly um but maybe that's because i've never tried the chelgu interchangeable so yeah there's a lot to consider do you like the cords do you like the needles um if the answer is yes to those i would say try that interchangeable set it's just they're quite an investment for most interchangeable sets price wise so it's it's kind of like do you dive in and then what if you don't like them i don't know i really need to try the chow goo and see if i prefer them but like i said lately i've just been ordering fixed circulars because i just get so frustrated with most of the interchangeables that i have when i knit the gusset in the vanilla sock pattern probably any version like that i noticed that my ssk looks a very obvious than the knit two together on my finished sock very obviously different i think is what um they meant am i doing something wrong or is there a way to make them look the same love how the knit two together side looks so they do look different they're two different decreases um so they do look different i know there's a trick to make them i believe it's the ssk look a little neater if anyone knows that will you put it down below because i can't remember it off the top of my head i'm never really bothered by them looking different they're on different sides of the sock if they were something that i was going to see right there together and it was like okay that's kind of bothering me maybe it would be different but they're on different sides of the sock so i don't ever see them together to think that they look diff like completely different um but they do and i know that really bothers some people so there is a trick i wish i could remember what it was i'm pretty sure it's for the ssk maybe it's not if you all know will you please put it down below um because i cannot remember question what is your favorite sock yarn and why so i think i almost i already answered that a little bit i like a 75-25 and i don't really i just like how it feels i like knitting with it how it works up that's definitely my favorite i need a drink between maybe this wasn't the best idea to do the summer stock camp video and the question and answer video in the same day eric and i are going out on date night tonight and i may not have a voice tonight honey maybe he would be happy it would be a quiet date night okay um what yarn wears better softness stretch wear etc so it really just depends on what you're knitting with it um as far as how it's going to wear so i love a yarn with nylon if you're asking about socks i prefer a yarn with nylon for socks it's going to wear better it's going to be more hard wearing because of that nylon so i definitely recommend something with nylon for socks and how it's gonna wear and all of that and the superwash definitely makes it a little softer on your vanilla socks i know you wear a medium how many inches stitches do you do for your socks before you start your toe let's grab my i have my sock ruler over here okay um so i have a sock roller i have this linked in the amazon storefront link down below so for mine um it for one i want to say that just because i do a size medium that the sizes small medium and large in my patterns are based on circumference um everybody's foot is so different so to say that like a size medium is going to fit women's size seven or nine is just bonkers to me because you could wear a size nine but need to knit a small because you have very narrow feet to me sock patterns should all be about circumference when this comes to sizes and then you knit the foot length to fit the the size of your foot or the recipient's foot so i do a size medium because that's what fits me circumference wise um then foot length i wear a size us women's nine for me what works for me is to knit to seven and three-fourths inches and then start my toe decreases so i just have that marked i had to look i can remember how many inches it was um i have that marked right here i just put a little line and an m for me because i have eric's and my mother-in-law's marked on there as well um but yes that's what i do for a women's size nine that i wear but again this the size in the pattern small medium and large is completely on circumference i have crocheted for years and am just taking up knitting i've tried to do continental style because it seems like it should be the most like holding the yarn to crochet but i just can't keep the tension right and the yarn on my finger any tips practice i know that's you want i wanted some magic tip when i like magic thing that was going to make it all work when i first taught myself continental so i pretty much always knit continental it was a little bit of a weird continental compared to what i do now um and i don't think there's any right or wrong way let me say that but it was just a weirder version of what i do now um a lot more work than what i do now purling so i used to like knit but then when i purled i would like drop the yarn pull it forward and purl this way it was it just took so much time so i was eventually like this is crazy you could be going so much faster if you just learned a more consistent way of doing it um so i mostly learned for speed because i wanted to knit faster in all the socks um but yes it just takes practice i watched so many videos read so many things about knitting continental tried all the things in the end it just took practice so much practice and time to for it to finally click and then i just remember one day at clicking and i was like oh my gosh i actually just did that so just time i'm sorry i wish i had some magic trick trick but time and your hands will eventually get that muscle memory and one day you'll have that moment where you're like oh my gosh i got it i was wondering if you have any tips slash tricks for when your socks are starting to wear thin to prevent a hole completely my favorite pair of hand knit socks are starting to thin out on the balls of my feet and i haven't been wearing them because i do not want them to wear completely through however it seems silly to just leave them in my drawer so i am assuming there is something i can do to prolong their life but i have no idea what um i don't know if you could just i would think it would be just like mending a sock again though i've never done that i've never i don't even think i really have any that are wearing super thin um so i'm gonna point you down below that hopefully some people have put some good suggestions on mending socks because i think that's what you'd want to do in this place i don't think that there would be anything else you could do to strengthen it once it started to work thin i think you would just have to mend that spot but again let me know below if you have any tips and if i'm completely wrong on that please put your thoughts suggestions etc um another one about darning socks so do you darn your socks i never have um i've never had to i should say it's not that i've never have i just never had have had to how do you dispose of your socks do they just go in the bin thanks for all the sockspiration that was sweet um so yeah never had any holes in socks which is like bonkers i guess um i will say we don't wear them barefoot around the house eric does sometimes it's rare though we usually wear slippers in the house um so i don't know if that's why we've never gotten any holes ones that the kids have outgrown austin has passed them down to wyatt but once wyatt has outgrown them or they start to just look a little like they've never gotten any holes but they just start to look boys are funky they just start to look a little funky um they just i just throw them away i don't save them for any reason or anything like that what do you do with your older socks that you have made but haven't worn as much due to the amount you have yeah i don't want to stop making more for yourself i'm starting to run out of drawer space for myself but have a rather large basket of self-striping yarn that only seems like they want to be socks so i just i have some upstairs which i'm actually going to be going through my sock sakura and passing some along to my mother-in-law and sister-in-law if they want them um if they fit because there are some i've never even worn but they have an afterthought heel and those do not fit me at all like i do not know why i just continued to make socks with afterthought heels knowing that i was not going to wear them because they do not fit again processed knitter um but yeah so i have quite a few i'm going to be clearing out but i have some back here in this cabinet all this right here is socks that have never even put more um i just keep piling them up in here and just keep knitting more and then i will have a lot that probably all these will go upstairs once i clear out the ones that i know i'm never going to wear so i don't know i just keep knitting them and the ones if my mother-in-law and them don't take them i may donate them to salvation army or something i don't know what else to do with them but um it's not going to stop me from knitting so you knit up those self striping yarns into socks do it do you ever knit two socks at a time cuffed down so yes i have i'm assuming you mean like two at a time on one long circular um yep i have not in a long while and i never did it very often it's just easier for me to pick up a socket knit on it is like sporadically as i do throughout the day if it's on one needle one at a time but i have done them i actually have a tutorial here on youtube for socks cuffed down two at a time as well is it okay when you count stitches and find i've got more stitches than required is it okay to knit together to get back to proper stitch count so i'm gonna say that depends um if you're doing something that's lace or patterned it may totally mess you up it may totally mess up the patterning but plain vanilla oh my gosh i do that all the time all the time in socks all the time and but again it depends and if you are like way off i wouldn't suggest decreasing a bunch because it could make things look kind of funky but there have been so many times where i have thought that i finished my gusset decreases but i miscounted or just wasn't paying attention or whatever and i'll be almost to the toe and i'll be like why do i have one or two extra stitches like what the heck happened i'll just decrease them and move on because nobody is ever gonna see that and one or two stitches is not going to make that big of a deal i want to make christmas stockings is there a book or video on collar work that is good for a beginner or is there a simple collar work i should start with i'm trying to think if there's any videos i think knit pearl hunter is one that i've watched for collar work so you could definitely look hers up if y'all have any good books or patterns for learning color work please put them down below i'm looking forward to summer sock camp last year i finally knit a pair of socks will crochet socks be included yes so crochet socks you can put in the wild card cabin in the knit along portion i if you're meaning um like tutorials i will not be doing any tutorials for crochet socks but those could be put in the wild card cabin of the knit along i know you count your rows rather than measure inches to determine when you will put in the toe when doing top down and a heel flap and gusset when do you start counting for the foot oh i think well this is a different one i guess after the gusset decreases or right after you pick up for the gusset so again um like i said before i just go down the front of the sock i don't ever count the back of the sock bottom of the foot everything's down the front as soon as like the 50 rounds are done for the leg it goes right into the foot are you going to make a toe up sock pattern with a different than short row heel like a gusset short row so right now i don't have any plans for a toe up sock pattern i fully need to learn more about toe up socks and be more experienced i have only ever done i don't even think i've ever done a handful of toe up socks like i'm gonna guess three if that um so i am not experienced in toe up at all to be designing them or teaching them so i don't know i definitely know that like short row heels after that heels they do not fit me so if i ever do venture into toe up it's gonna have to be something i come up with that fits my foot because none of the other options really work but i don't have any plans to do that right now i know you have a cleaning schedule that you do on your own but do your boys have chores i grew up on a farm and we helped with chores lots and i feel that it was a good learning experience but since we live in the city we obviously don't have chores like that i am struggling with having a clean house but also balancing teaching my children these things if it it's always just done and was wondering what your experience was thank you so yes my boys have chores they don't always enjoy their chores but they for sure have chores so they have chores that they do every day of the week they also have some that they do just weekly like their laundry they do their own laundry and that's done just weekly um daily they're in charge of making their beds picking up their rooms one of them does the trash one of them does recycling uh gosh trying to think what else they have to do wyatt has to empty all the bathroom trash cans three times a week they vacuum different areas of the house three times a week they have started cleaning their bathroom um they alternate weeks that they do that one week it's why it's week the next is austin's austin has to scoop poop out of the backyard and then they um have different nights that they do the dishes so they wash all the dishes at the end of the day in the evening um we have a dishwasher but like dinner pots and pans things like that that don't go in the dishwasher or can't um they alternate days and then if it's a big like a sunday dinner type dinner they will do them together i think that pretty much covers it but yes they do have chores i thought that was super important to teach them i myself growing up we never had chores like nothing like that that was like a schedule that you had to do every day and i definitely felt like when i moved out i didn't know how to do quite a lot of things i'm sure i'd probably done a load of laundry at some point but like it was just so much that i had to learn and didn't know how to do so i definitely think it's important for um my boys to learn that and it teaches them responsibility and earning money because they do get an allowance for it so it kind of all around us teaching them different responsibilities and it helps me not have quite as much to do okay what about non-superwash wool have you done any socks with non-superwash if so what do you think if not why not so yes i think am i wrong on this but i think the like opal and rajia that i've used is non superwash and it is super hard wearing it does feel more rustic as far as not necessarily scratchier but scratchier it kind of has that feel but it is super hard wearing eric socks hold up so well in those types of yarns i use nitpix interchangeables the problem i have is that they curl up and i can't straighten them is there a trick to keep them a little straighter so i believe if anyone else has any tips for this put it down below but i believe i've heard people say that you can soak just the cables in warm or hot water and that it'll help straighten them out like you soak them and then straighten them and that it helps keep them straight i've never tried that but i have heard that that works i was wondering how you structure your day do you have a schedule a to-do list a strict or loose routine i'm having a really difficult time putting down my knitting to tackle my to-do list and wondered if you have any tips that is tricky so one thing that i think really helps me is i get my 30 minutes of knitting and every morning so that regardless like if i get caught up in chores i've had my 30 minutes of knitting so i feel like okay i've had that 30 minutes of knitting i've gotten a little bit of knitting done a little bit of something for me so now i can focus on some other things for a little bit and then i do um like i talked earlier about my schedule a little bit i i don't have like a strict like you have to do this at that time as far as like this at one o'clock this is two o'clock i don't get that crazy but i do try to get the chores done in the morning when the kids are getting ready for school have household chores done by then and then work the rest of the day and then if there's laundry or stuff i'll change those loads as they need changed but yeah that's kind of that's kind of it i don't have like a super strict day like as far as times for everything but i like have a little plan for the day i guess do you have a tutorial on the best way to change yarns for projects like scrappy socks so i have a how i weave in my ends video and that was on scrappy socks so i may have chatted about that a little bit there i basically just dropped the old yarn and pick up the new yarn and start knitting with it um you could do a magic knot or russian join try to think what other ones there are but for scrappy socks where i want the color change to be right there on the side i just prefer to drop the old color pick up the new color and start knitting at that side spot on the sock where the side of the round is or the beginning of round i want to do a roll hem on a sweater is there a prep row to knit to keep it curling all the way up i wonder if you might keep it from curling all the way up trying to think i've ever done i rolled him on a sweater i probably have and i just don't remember but i'm actually not sure so i'm hoping that somebody's going to put something down below for if there's like a prep row for a rolled him um maybe start looking around for a pattern that has a rolled hem and and see what they recommend okay i think this is our last one double check yes this is our last one so do you have a pattern for gloves with fingers in them no i'm sorry i do not the only um patterns that i have that would be anything for your hands is the um fingerless mitts patterns i don't have any with fingers in them i've actually never tried that i think that would be fun to do um at some point maybe but i don't know that i'll ever do a pattern for them but it'll be fun to knit them but yeah i'm sorry i don't have a pattern for that all right so that wraps up all of our questions from the february q a video if you have any questions you want answered for the april q a video just put them right down below in the comments here and i will pull all those questions for next month's video so thank you guys so much for watching i hope that you enjoyed this and i will see you all again soon until then happy making bye

Channel: Crazy Sock Lady

Views: 12,776

Keywords: knitting, crazy sock lady, podcast, march, question and answer, Q & A, Kay Litton, sock knitting

Id: -wPwtJyJq1k

Length: 67min 32sec (4052 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 30 2021