Flyby Stardancer (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
flybystardancer) wrote2007-02-02 04:31 am
flybystardancer) wrote2007-02-02 04:31 am
UPDATE! :D
Well, first off, Simply Sock Yarn are fast shippers. I ordered stuff for socks in the wee hours of Monday morning, and I got it and casted on today. ...Well, technically yesterday, but I haven't been officially to bed yet, thus "today".
And what socks am I creating? Well, I'm following the Unversal Toe-Up Sock Formula. However, I switched out that cast on for the Magical Cast On for Toe-Up Socks. Also, I'm doing a lace heart pattern on the top of the sock. The pattern for the lace I got from the Heart scarf in Knitty's special Breast Cancer Awareness edition. The author of that scarf got the lace pattern from The Ultimate Knitting Book by the editors of Vogue Knitting. As far as yarn goes, I'm using Cascade Fixation Effects in Hot Pink. The varigation and the lace work well together, in my opinion, since neither is complicated enough to overpower the other. And the varigation is actually making little one-row stripes almost. Very pretty.
Ups and downs so far in the knitting. This cast-on method for the toe is actually very shallow. I don't think a lot of people would really like that, so they may want to do the increases every other row, rather than every row. I, however, happen to like the shallowness of it because it gives my toes room too wiggle. (I have to be able to wiggle my toes, it's a compulsive thing. That's why I don't wear my other socks that often: no wiggle room.) However, I only casted on and increased enough to get to 48 sts. While this is actually a very good width for my toes, I noticed it was going to make the sock stretch more than I really wanted at the ball of my foot, where there's that bone that sticks out to define the width of the foot. So I did a couple rounds of increases (with one non-increase row between them) where the foot really began to widen out for the ball. So now the fit is really lovely on my foot. The aesthetics when the sock's off the foot however... The second part of increases looks a bit awkward. Next pair of socks I do with this type of yarn I just may increase out to 56 sts at the toe to begin with.
Now for scuba class stuff! We had our first class in the pool this Wednesday. We started out doing laps and a timed water-treading, because they need to oficially make sure we can do the swimming we needed to. It took me longer to do the laps than everyone else, but I was pretty happy with how long it took me, considering that I haven't had a chance to do major swimming in a few years. Then we got out of the pool and put on our snorkling gear and got back in and worked on snorkling. Everything went fine for me, until I kept trying to get my body under water. Between the awkwardness of the gear (mainly the flippers), and my own excessive amounts of body-fat, I'm very positively bouyant. A lot more so than anyone else in the class. Thus, my body really doesn't want to dive. Normally, when I dive in a pool I either do a standing or knealing dive from the side of the pool, or if I'm already in the water, I propell myself off of the side using my feet. That gives me momentum to get down. However, you can't do that in fins, and thus I can't dive. Or really dive down deep. *sigh* At least that won't be an issue when we start using the scuba gear, because the tank and the weight belt will help balance out my bouyancy.
And what socks am I creating? Well, I'm following the Unversal Toe-Up Sock Formula. However, I switched out that cast on for the Magical Cast On for Toe-Up Socks. Also, I'm doing a lace heart pattern on the top of the sock. The pattern for the lace I got from the Heart scarf in Knitty's special Breast Cancer Awareness edition. The author of that scarf got the lace pattern from The Ultimate Knitting Book by the editors of Vogue Knitting. As far as yarn goes, I'm using Cascade Fixation Effects in Hot Pink. The varigation and the lace work well together, in my opinion, since neither is complicated enough to overpower the other. And the varigation is actually making little one-row stripes almost. Very pretty.
Ups and downs so far in the knitting. This cast-on method for the toe is actually very shallow. I don't think a lot of people would really like that, so they may want to do the increases every other row, rather than every row. I, however, happen to like the shallowness of it because it gives my toes room too wiggle. (I have to be able to wiggle my toes, it's a compulsive thing. That's why I don't wear my other socks that often: no wiggle room.) However, I only casted on and increased enough to get to 48 sts. While this is actually a very good width for my toes, I noticed it was going to make the sock stretch more than I really wanted at the ball of my foot, where there's that bone that sticks out to define the width of the foot. So I did a couple rounds of increases (with one non-increase row between them) where the foot really began to widen out for the ball. So now the fit is really lovely on my foot. The aesthetics when the sock's off the foot however... The second part of increases looks a bit awkward. Next pair of socks I do with this type of yarn I just may increase out to 56 sts at the toe to begin with.
Now for scuba class stuff! We had our first class in the pool this Wednesday. We started out doing laps and a timed water-treading, because they need to oficially make sure we can do the swimming we needed to. It took me longer to do the laps than everyone else, but I was pretty happy with how long it took me, considering that I haven't had a chance to do major swimming in a few years. Then we got out of the pool and put on our snorkling gear and got back in and worked on snorkling. Everything went fine for me, until I kept trying to get my body under water. Between the awkwardness of the gear (mainly the flippers), and my own excessive amounts of body-fat, I'm very positively bouyant. A lot more so than anyone else in the class. Thus, my body really doesn't want to dive. Normally, when I dive in a pool I either do a standing or knealing dive from the side of the pool, or if I'm already in the water, I propell myself off of the side using my feet. That gives me momentum to get down. However, you can't do that in fins, and thus I can't dive. Or really dive down deep. *sigh* At least that won't be an issue when we start using the scuba gear, because the tank and the weight belt will help balance out my bouyancy.