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Still here. :)
May. 20th, 2010 04:21 pmI've just been doing more crafting than writing about crafting, I guess. Mostly socks. Almost totally socks, actually.
1) I didn't do March Sockdown, because I'd hoped to finish my February socks. Then, near the end of the month, I had a glass just shatter in my hand while I was washing it and ended up with six stitches in the side of my little finger. You wouldn't think you used your little finger a lot while knitting - but you do. Go figure.
I'm actually binding off the February socks as I type. (Well, kind of, given that I need both hands to do both tasks.) Despite the fact that they consumed different amounts of yarn, they're basically the same size. This is weird to me. The Boxcars pattern is awesome, and I see all kinds of potential in the construction technique - you could build the sock around a crocheted hexagon, for example. And this might be just the pattern I was after for some orange- and black-striped Halloween yarn.
2) For April's Sockdown, I knit a pair of Pomatomus, out of Dream In Color Starry, in this awesome light blue color with green, pink, and purple highlights. I had this sock in mind the moment I laid eyes on the yarn - and the socks ended up....well, they didn't precisely not fit me, because I could get them on, but the scale pattern looked kind of stretched out and unattractive. Daughter has very slender legs and size 7 Extra-Narrow feet - so she has a pair of awesome Pomatomuses.
I did have the usual angst over the non-rectangular Chart B. The solution was simple: just knit it. The first stitch in the chart is the first stitch in the round, no need to move any stitches, even though the chart row is shifted over a few spaces.
3) For May's Sockdown, I'm doing Cookie A.'s mystery sock (no link) in a nice, soft alpaca blend yarn in a color I would call Purple Dammit Heather. It's a little bit of an unusual choice for the pattern - the featured technique of the month is cables, and while most people's cables seem to be Really Really Cable-y, mine are kind of gentle - and I actually really like the effect. This one actually will fit me, but is a little taller than I usually like a sock. As long as I don't run out of yarn, I'm good.
4) I'm kind of designing a sock. Hubby wanted a sock that was "plain, but not." I found a pattern he liked in a book - a 2x2 rib with a wee tad of cable - but there is only a photo of the swatch, not a chart. I have work to do there. And then I will have work to do to clothe Hubby's size 10.5 Extra-Wide feet. On the bright side he likes his socks short.
5) I'm also in the Re-Engineering The Pattern phase of knitting a sweater. Not the Opulent Raglan, after all the sweater-picking angst - I decided to go with Krista, from White Lies designs. I have the yarn for it and everything. Joan McGowan-Michael actually came up with a brilliant suggestion for girls built like me - if I'm 20" across the back and 26" across the front (I'm not - I'm not quite ready to announce my actual measurements to the world. :) ), then knit the back from the 40" size and the front from the 52" size, and fit them together. This requires a bit of jiggering at the shoulder seams and armscyes, but I think I can do it. I also need to figure out how to work short rows in the lace pattern - it's a two-row repeat so odds are really good that I'll have to wrap somewhere in the lace section.
Haven't spun a lick since the end of the Olympics. Haven't picked up a cross-stitch needle since sometime in 2009. Still haven't learned to naalbind. Naughty me.
1) I didn't do March Sockdown, because I'd hoped to finish my February socks. Then, near the end of the month, I had a glass just shatter in my hand while I was washing it and ended up with six stitches in the side of my little finger. You wouldn't think you used your little finger a lot while knitting - but you do. Go figure.
I'm actually binding off the February socks as I type. (Well, kind of, given that I need both hands to do both tasks.) Despite the fact that they consumed different amounts of yarn, they're basically the same size. This is weird to me. The Boxcars pattern is awesome, and I see all kinds of potential in the construction technique - you could build the sock around a crocheted hexagon, for example. And this might be just the pattern I was after for some orange- and black-striped Halloween yarn.
2) For April's Sockdown, I knit a pair of Pomatomus, out of Dream In Color Starry, in this awesome light blue color with green, pink, and purple highlights. I had this sock in mind the moment I laid eyes on the yarn - and the socks ended up....well, they didn't precisely not fit me, because I could get them on, but the scale pattern looked kind of stretched out and unattractive. Daughter has very slender legs and size 7 Extra-Narrow feet - so she has a pair of awesome Pomatomuses.
I did have the usual angst over the non-rectangular Chart B. The solution was simple: just knit it. The first stitch in the chart is the first stitch in the round, no need to move any stitches, even though the chart row is shifted over a few spaces.
3) For May's Sockdown, I'm doing Cookie A.'s mystery sock (no link) in a nice, soft alpaca blend yarn in a color I would call Purple Dammit Heather. It's a little bit of an unusual choice for the pattern - the featured technique of the month is cables, and while most people's cables seem to be Really Really Cable-y, mine are kind of gentle - and I actually really like the effect. This one actually will fit me, but is a little taller than I usually like a sock. As long as I don't run out of yarn, I'm good.
4) I'm kind of designing a sock. Hubby wanted a sock that was "plain, but not." I found a pattern he liked in a book - a 2x2 rib with a wee tad of cable - but there is only a photo of the swatch, not a chart. I have work to do there. And then I will have work to do to clothe Hubby's size 10.5 Extra-Wide feet. On the bright side he likes his socks short.
5) I'm also in the Re-Engineering The Pattern phase of knitting a sweater. Not the Opulent Raglan, after all the sweater-picking angst - I decided to go with Krista, from White Lies designs. I have the yarn for it and everything. Joan McGowan-Michael actually came up with a brilliant suggestion for girls built like me - if I'm 20" across the back and 26" across the front (I'm not - I'm not quite ready to announce my actual measurements to the world. :) ), then knit the back from the 40" size and the front from the 52" size, and fit them together. This requires a bit of jiggering at the shoulder seams and armscyes, but I think I can do it. I also need to figure out how to work short rows in the lace pattern - it's a two-row repeat so odds are really good that I'll have to wrap somewhere in the lace section.
Haven't spun a lick since the end of the Olympics. Haven't picked up a cross-stitch needle since sometime in 2009. Still haven't learned to naalbind. Naughty me.
