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Last week I made a pair of sprang socks in a single afternoon … see my last entry. The socks were made, two at the same time, without a frame, hooking my warp up on my kitchen door. I used an interlinking stitch, with the looser interlacing stitch at the heel. This gave me a sock that bent around the heel area, but the heel looked rather open, vulnerable to wear. I speculated about darning in the open spaces. That’s what I did, using the same thread. Here’s the photo:  Reinforced heel on a sprang sock I’m a bit concerned that the reinforcement has caused extra stress just above and below the heel patch. Hmmm, maybe I should use a finer thread for the reinforcement.
I still prefer the ‘short row heel’ that I discussed earlier. My book is progressing. I’m hoping to have galleys by the end of the week.
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Today was Aboriginal Day at the Forks. The St Boniface Museum had invited me to provide my ‘Sash Weaving Dance’ activity. Several groups of twelve participated, working together to weave threads suspended from the roof of the tent.
Meanwhile I’ve been working on another idea for sprang socks. Noting that there is a difference in yarn uptake between interlinking and interlacing, I’ve decided to use this to create a bulge for a heel. I set up a long warp, and attached it to a door.  the 'no frame' method, attached to a door Later, as the weaving progressed and the who thing became shorter, I attached it to a wall hook and sat at my work.  the sock is almost finished Here are the finished socks, one a mirror image of the other:  Interlinking Sprang socks with an interlaced heel These socks were completed in a single afternoon, lots quicker than I could have knit them.
Now, I am thinking that the stitching at the heel is rather loose and open. If I take a darning needle and work another thread over and under, following the path of the threads in that interlacing at the heel, I’ll have a nicely reinforced heel. I’ve made a variety of sprang sweaters (child size). Using cheap cotton, the type you use to knit dishrags, the same number of threads and always using the same frame, I’ve been exploring different patterns. Clearly different patterns have different amounts of lateral stretch.  Four sprang sweaters The moral of the story is (as in knitting) always, always make a sample swatch first.
I’ve been trying a few more variations of the sprang sock. Here’s a straight tube sock. It was made from a figure-8 warp, two rectangles worked at the same time. Cut apart, you get two socks for the work of making one … well, you have to do the finishing on the socks separately, gather the toe, sew the side seam, and deal with the fringes. This sock is a real tube sock: no fancy extra work to create the heel.  interlinking sprang tube sock The only problem with this sock is that people with sensitive feet might find all that gathering at the toe to be uncomfortable.  bulky gathering at the toe of the sprang sock The only solution for this that I can think of (decreasing the bulk at the toe) is to work from the toe up. This means you must work ‘free-end’ method, which technically is not sprang. It does give a lovely sock. I used several colors to emphasize the way threads were added.  fancy interlinking sock This sock has eliminated that bump at the toe. You begin with very few threads, and add more each row.  comfortable toe This sock also features a short-row heel, and increases along the calf.
Yes, I’d like to post the directions on-line … but there’s so much to say, how to set up, how to do the interlinking, how to keep things even …. it needs a whole book. Yes, I’m still working on the book. It’s getting to the ‘proof’ stage. I keep finding errors, and want an error-free product to give to the world. |
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