Month: February 2006

  • blues

    Second FO of the day – finished socks for the boy. Sorry for the blurry photo. Modelled by me, so they’re a bit too long.

    boy socks
    Pattern: basic sock, 64 stitches, 2×2 ribbing, four-point-dec toe.
    Yarn: knitpicks essential, dusk, 2 skeins
    Needles: Lantern Moon US1 dpn
    Finished: February 9, 2006

    Since I wanted to make socks he’ll actually wear, I did the same toe on these as I did on his last pair. It uses the same rate of decrease as my standard toe, but the decreases are spaced evenly around instead of at the sides.

    So in this case, I used four needles (plus the working one, so all 5) and decreased at the end of each needle, every other round until 50% of the stitches remained, then every round until there were 16 stitches left, and grafted. I know a lot of people hate grafting, but I like it!

    I’ll toss this spinning stuff in here now too – three of my latest skeins. All of them have blue in them, too!

    They’re all 100% merino, 2 ply. The one on the right has been set, but the others haven’t – and there’s a real difference there. My skeins always puff up all nice when I give them a nice hot eucalan bath. I also snap the skeins a few times (like cracking a whip) and whap them again the bannister a couple times as well. Gets more water out and just really improves the skein, I find.

    So, you ready to go (or cheer on)? If you’re part of the Toronto contingent, see you at the pub! Hope the lighting is okay, otherwise I might need a headlamp!

  • a glut

    I’ve got a ton of things for the blog, so I’m hoping to spread them out over the next few days (along with Olympic progress, of course). First (and coming up, second) bit is an FO!

    *click to see the sleeve better*

    Cabled Pulli
    Pattern: my own, see notes
    Yarn: Knitpicks Wool of the Andes in “Winter Storm” (I think), about..9 skeins?
    Needles: Denise US 7
    Finished: February 7, 2006

    I think this turned out really well. Knit in the round from the bottom up, with the front cable taken from “Rhapsody in Tweed” from Interweave Knits (Fall 2004). I originally made the front and back neck the same, but it was a bit uncomfortable so I ripped back and put in some short rows to raise the back neck. The yarn was nice to work with, a tiny bit scratchy but only if you’re really sensitive. Easy to wear, nicely fitted – I think I’ll get a lot of use out of this one!

    There’s one on-the-fly detail I really like, which is the shoulder:

    Decreasing for the yoke, I wasn’t sure if I’d have enough rounds for a complete diamond on the sleeve, so I just did a little cable after the last full diamond. I like it!

    Flat shot, looking brighter than life (the first shot is pretty accurate, colour-wise):

    So that’s one thing done before heading into Olympic madness. Next up, finished socks!

  • it’s shoddy photo day

    I’m terribly sorry about the quality of these photos – perhaps my constant headache due to sickness is to blame. I am feeling much better today and managed to stay out of bed, although my throat was killing me. Felt like I’d swallowed a golf ball and it wasn’t going anywhere.

    Onwards.

    The blue cabled pullover is done, so I can check one pre-Olympic goal off! As I knit the sleeve (which has a diamond cable on it), it was rolling and folding very strangely. Observe:

    the sleeve, relaxed.

    Actually on my arm, which gives me the hope that it’ll look fine while worn:

    Evidence of blocking:

    Note that the front neck is, in fact, lower than the back. And yes, I did fix the sweater’s wonkiness after seeing this photo, but back to the neck – I’d originally just done the front and back the same, but after trying it on I decided that the neck was a bit too high in the front, too chokey. So I ripped out the ribbing and a few rows, and did short rows to shape the neck. Much better.

    I love getting things in the mail:

    Two pounds of blue faced leicester from Copper Moose on eBay. I’m still waiting on some soy silk, though – and I ordered it over two weeks ago!

    File under “Extremely Random”: I have a song from Brokeback Mountain, one that is in a commercial, stuck in my head. Makes me want to see the movie again. Guess that means that commercial is doing its job!