Pooling Problems (help!)
I finished up my green knee-high socks (pictures soon!) on Sunday and I didn’t waste any time casting on for my Sockapalooza Sock.
I decided not to do the Monkeys after all and spent all weekend deciding on a different pattern but this is what happens when I knit with this yarn.
Pooling!
Oh the horror!
I don’t know what to do! I stayed up till 2am trying different needles sizes, different # of cast-on stitches and even a couple different stitch patterns. I am thisclose to giving this yarn away and going back to the drawing board entirely!
Help! What do you recommend? Should I try a lacier pattern? More stitches cast-on? Give it up?
It might even out as you approach the more patterned portion of the foot, I would knit another inch or so to see what it looks like in the patterned bit, and if you are still not happy with it, try casting on a few more stitches.
Mithranstar
Maybe a slip-stitch pattern? or some other kind of pattern that “moves” stitches around. It might help, also you might want to try a different stitch count – maybe a cable pattern that pulls in so it can have more stitches and still be the same circumference.
I love the diagonal stripe in that last pic, if you’re knitting for me, please leave that in
I personally like pooling and would be interested in seeing it knit further to see what it is going to look like. Ultimately though if you aren’t happy you should find something else. Nobody likes to work on something they don’t like. It takes all the fun out of it. Good Luck.
Lorna’s laces has a tendancy to pool like that–if you keep going, it will most likely spiral around the sock and if you do a short-row heel (use the other end of the yarn and not break up the spiral) the finished spiral will look great. I’d knit a little further and see how the colors play out…but I personally really like the pooling/spiral effect that Lorna’s usually has.
I ditto what SB said. I looked at the picture and though “Oh, Lorna’s Laces Vera!”. It does tend to spiral, and I love it. If you are doing stockinette or a simple pattern it comes out looking great. If you can’t stand it, go for some Koigu instead and stay away from the LL! Good luck.
I like it the way it is too.
ah the dreaded barber pole effect. alas it can be almost impossible to get rid of. you can try alternating balls of yarn or alternating the inside withthe outside of the ball. hope this helps. its unlikely that youcan get rid of this otherwise
Yes, if you knit it “spiral fashion” with two out-of-phase balls, or knit odd rnds with the center-pull strand and even rnds with the skein’s outer strand, that should fix the pooling. Good luck!
I really like LL spirals too! If you don’t enjoy knitting it, I say scrap it - but if you think your pal won’t mind a spiral and you don’t mind knitting it, I’d keep it. Not much help, huh? I guess I wouldn’t keep trying to get a different result with the same yarn. I’ve never had LL do anything other than barberpole.
I’m not adverse to pooling. I rather like some of it, actually. I like seeing how the colors undulate in and out and around as the sock progresses. It seems an organic process to me.
What you’ve got so far with the slight spiraling effect seems quite pleasant to my eye.
But everyone’s preferences are not the same. Sorry I don’t have a fix for you to turn it into stripes.
For yarn that pools goofily, I recommend the Anastasia pattern (found here: http://pepperknit.com/patterns/anastasia.html). I’m working on my second pair now.
Oh, a spiral. It is very common for LL to pool like that. However, I also had socks that I started over and over again because I had just the same effect as you in the ribbing and then it was all “variegated” once I came to knit the actual leg. For the sock pal thing: I would like a undulated colour band around my feet/legs. But, maybe the Monkey sock pattern is a little too much then. I suggest that you either embrace the pooling and go with a plainer pattern (Kristens recommendation ounds great) or try your luck on alterning the yarn from in- and outside the skein. But this can be soooo tedious if you have to rip.
Good luck!
Any other suggestions for sock yarns that don’t pool? Personally, I’d enjoy it. However, one of my sock pal’s preferences is no pooling (or not much pooling)….don’t want to run into the same problem:)
I also hate pooling. When I made Jaywalkers the cuffs striped beautifully and the foot had one color on top and another on the bottom. What I did was do the cuff and then work from the second skein of yarn every other row on the foot. (Then I used the leftovers from the first skein when I did the second sock.) The only trick was starting the second skein of yarn on the right part of the color pattern so that the colors got mixed.
Just in case you are wondering, I also match stripes on self-striping yarn. We all have our hangups!!!
When that happens to me, I usually put the yarn in time out for a while. A different stitch pattern and cast on and needle size usually change things, but time helps, too.
just wanted to say i like it too! but I am slapdash and scruffy. i get excited by funny stripes appearing that weren’t what i meant.
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It all has to do with your guage, number of stitches and length of the color sections. If you want to be really crazy, pull out one full repeat, and measure each section.
Look at “how many stitches per X amount of yarn in this pattern”. You then can predict what is going to happen with the yarn.
Most of these yarns are dyed to create stripes. Figure stripes are fine, spirals are wide stripes and pooling is huge amounts of solid colour areas that sit and snarl at you.
Your choice really is to change yarns (to something that is not as high a color contrast) or embrace the spiral!
Either works -ymmv (your mileage may very)
-Holly
I was just looking for sock patterns that might be interesting to do and ran across this pattern at the Loopy Ewe.
I think that the sock pattern capitalizes on the weird things variegated yarns can do, so maybe it will help?
[...] Thoughts: So far so good. I’m actually farther along than in this picture, I only have to kitchener the toes to finish the first sock! I think it’s coming out rather well. A vast improvement over my first attempt. [...]
[...] based on my pal’s preferences (it did take a couple tries though -> remember my disastrous first attempt?). In the end I was really pleased with the socks. I hope they fit my [...]