goofus & gallant go to fair isle

there are two kinds of creative types. there are the progress ones, who are all about getting it done, for pete's sake. and then, there are the process ones, who juuust like to take their sweet time, puttering around for awhile, seeking others' advice and opinions, cogitating, trying out different things, and basically using whatever procrastination technique happens to be at hand to drag the whole thing out for as long as possible. or at least until the deadline arrives. one's a little bit country. the other, a little bit rock n roll. or, in my case goofus and gallant.

with that said, i've made good progress on these. and learned a ton in the process.

as in, i was doing it all wrong. as in, my stranding was too tight and causing these little puckers to form along the vertical striping on the sock. (btw, i am heartened by the fact that i am not alone in my norwegian woes. the adorable and prolific jess over at fig and plum has done an amazing job chronicling her own trials and tribulations with these stockings.)

first of all, i knit in the robust english style, throwing the yarn (and caution) to the wind. but i do it like an ugly american. (i wish i could daintily pick it like those suave, sophisticated continentals, i really do. but that's another story.) which is to say, rather than winding the yarn around my pinky and forefinger, i clutch it between my thumb and forefinger--as if i was holding a toothpick, say, or pulling the head off a beetle. it's not pretty. but it gets me there, ok?

anyway, i had my main color in the skein and my secondary color wound on a bobbin. i would knit merrily along in the main color, drop the main color, pick up the bobbin yarn from underneath so that it would twist around the main color, knit with the bobbin yarn, and so on. the problem was in the twisting. the weight of the bobbin would pull along the float.

what i finally realized after watching this great video tutorial was that the bobbin was not necessary. in fact, it was totally messing me up. (that damn bobbin.) as in, causing the puckering. but thank goodness, there is a simple trick to prevent puckering. it's simply spreading out the group of stitches that you're stranding across. well, knock me over with a feather boa.

it's not necessary to deliberately twist the yarns as i had been doing. rather, as you pick up each yarn and spread out each little group of stitches you're stranding across, it creates a nice, clean strand across the back. if the strand is too loose, no worries. you can always tighten it up later on. but if it's too tight, well, you're SOL, as my stocking detail below so blatantly depicts.


see how the green pattern parts look here? it's all pinched and puckered. it needs to loosen up. it needs a lot of drinks.


ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, now, doesn't that feel better?


here's a closeup of goofus and gallant. see how goofus pulls everything too tight and pisses everyone off? now, notice how gallant is so smooth and even and feelin' fine. don't you just love gallant? of course you do.