Magic Looped and an Apology

When Pyroclastic was accepted for publication by Knitty, I was thrilled. I'd written the pattern the way I prefer to knit socks--I use 5 double pointed needles and distribute the stitches so I don't have to use a lot of stitch markers. When I was contacted by the technical editor, I learned that I would have to rewrite it as what I call needle neutral. At the time I knew how to knit using two circular knits. I had never knit using magic loop. I really couldn't imagine how to write the pattern to accommodate various needle choices. In my mind, if you knit with two circular needles or magic loop you most likely had knit from patterns written with reference to double pointed needles and knew where you needed to place markers.

Pyroclastic calls for markers to keep track of the increases and decreases that shape the foot. I could visualize those regardless of needles used. What I couldn't visualize for magic loop was how one kept track of the division between the top and bottom of the foot. So I came up with what I thought was the answer. It was messy with a lot of markers, four of which were moving every two to three rounds. I knew it was messy.

When the pattern was published, I got a lot of questions from people knitting it using magic loop. I couldn't really help them much. I bought the magic loop pamphlet and read it. I just didn't try it.

I finally got around to teaching myself magic loop last year. I don't use it for socks because I like my double points too much. However, I love magic loop for working sleeves in the round. Frankly, I find double points larger than US 5 bulky and awkward. Right now, I'm knitting a sweater using Cotton Fleece. I dreaded knitting the sleeves because the body is on the heavy side and I thought I'd be moving it a lot while knitting the sleeves. With magic loop, I've figured how to work the sleeves without moving the sweater much. Plus, I didn't have to change from a 16-inch circular to double points when there were too few stitches to work comfortably on the 16-inch circ. 

To all those knitters that have struggled with Pyroclastic and it's crazy number of markers in the Knitty version, I'm really sorry I didn't learn this technique earlier.

Weird, in a good way

I'm terrible, vain actually. Ever since the Winter 2009 issue of Knitty came out, I've been stalking the internet for comments about Pyroclastic. I can't help it--being published is really new to me. The best thing I've found: there is a geologist named C.C. Knitter who studied and wrote about pyroclastic flows!

Knitty

I can hardly believe it. Pyroclastic is in the Winter 2009 issue of Knitty. I never thought I would be published in Knitty a year ago. I don't think I can ever express my gratitude to everyone who encouraged me though the past year. Thank you!!!!

Pyroclastic was born at Sock Summit 2009. I started by charting the repeat and began knitting it in a class with Cookie A. The yarn I was working with was pretty but completely obscured the design. Cookie walked around the class to see what everyone was doing and to answer questions. When she got to me, she asked "Are you sure about that yarn?" My initial reaction was these are only for me and I need to use this yarn from my stash, which I only said in my mind. So I rooted around in the bag of sock yarn I had with me and found something much more suitable--A Verb for Keeping Warm Creating in a color called Bolinas (Pictures were not taken of it because it didn't seem as if it would photograph well; it's really pretty in person.)

I was really busy for the rest of Sock Summit and didn't really get back to my sock until the ride home. I was lucky enough to be ride sharing with Kathleen (KatDee on Ravelry) and Michael aka Wonder Mike. Michael and Kathleen drove the first 2/3's of the way home while I sat in the backseat working out the pattern placement for the heel and instep fueled by Voodoo Donuts. This was a bit tricky because I knew I wanted to have a shaped arch, which has less give that a straight forward foot and instep. You see, the shaped arch biases the fabric so you need a few more stitches than usual to get it on your foot. I was doing all of this on the needles because I couldn't find my notebook and only had the sheet of paperI'd charted the pattern repeat on, which was pretty scribbled on at this point.

Once home I finished the prototype, wrote out the directions, and knit it again in Lorna's Laces Shepard. Meanwhile, Kristine was busy knitting it out of the Burnt Embers colorway of AVFKW Creating. When we finished knitting our respective socks, I set about formatting the pattern in Knitty's style.

Kristine and Adrienne went to our local cemetery to take photos. Kristine did a bang up job of photography. Adrienne was our foot model. We had so many photos to choose from, it was difficult to decide which to submit to Knitty.

A few days later, I submitted the whole package to Knitty. Then the wait began. I tried really hard not to think about it. Every once in awhile, Kristine would ask if I'd heard anything. I started new designs. In October, I received an email from Amy Singer saying my pattern had been excepted. I was in a state of disbelief for about two days.

After that, it was a push to write the pattern for a second size since I was asked for at least one other size. Yes, this meant more math! I had to think about how the sock could be knitting using something other than my beloved dpns. I had to rewrite the pattern without reference to specfic needles. In my mind, I knit these socks on two circs and using magic loop. I had imaginary stitch markers that had to be tracked. I got stuck more than a few times with visioning what happens on magic loop. But in the end, I worked it out with great advise from my technical editor.

Then I waited some more and now it's really here. It's been a great experience and I want to do it again!



Photos in this post are copyright Kristine Vejar.