Birthday surprise socks

Posted on 10 May 2011 by Kris

So, after I finished T’s black socks, I told him that out of all the socks I’ve knit, his bored me the most. I also told him that he wouldn’t get another pair anytime soon.

When his birthday rolled around last month, he found out that one of those statements was a lie.

Yarn: Dream in Color Smooshy, in the Torchwood colorway
Needles: US0 / 2.00mm Inox express circulars

I knit them both at the same time and used the magic loop method. The good? No second sock syndrome! The bad? Two socks at a time is too fiddly for me. Though magic loop itself is okay, if I just do one sock at a time.

As for the pattern – well, I didn’t use one. It’s just 2×2 garter rib, plugged into my usual top-down sock formula. Simple, just how T likes his socks.

This is the fastest I’ve ever knit any pair of socks; it took me just under three weeks. Which admittedly is not particularly fast, but I couldn’t really work on them at home without spoiling the surprise, and that cut into my time. I finished just in time, but if I ever decide to do this again, I’m going to have to give myself an extra week, just to be on the safe side.

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Seemingly simple cardigan

Posted on 05 May 2011 by Kris

I’m pretty darn pleased with my only March FO!

Yarn: Brooks Farm Yarn Four Play
Needles: US 5 / 3.75mm and US 6 / 4.00mm Clover bamboo circulars

As for the pattern? Well, I didn’t use one, exactly. Rather, I cobbled it together using a number of different resources. These references include Amy Herzog’s Fit to Flatter series, Sandi Wiseman’s tips on bust dart placement, Jenna Wilson’s “Ravellings on the knitted sleeve, part III”, and the armscye calculator by French Roast Design.

It’s comfy, fairly cute, and goes with much of my wardrobe, so what else could I ask for? Well, a couple of things, but this is mostly because I tend to be a bit critical of my own work. Such is life when you’re me, I guess!

The back and front both use vertical darts, rather than side shaping. Though I don’t think I did quite enough shaping. The hips and bust are fine, even if there’s a little more ease than I intended. The waist, on the other hand? Way too much ease, even taking the generally loose fit into account.

I kind of wish I’d done either a straight V-neck or a regular scoop, rather than sort of a hybrid between the two. I also wish I’d put in more buttons, to prevent some of the gapping action going on (it probably would have also helped if I’d started by placing the top button a little bit lower) . But these are pretty minor complaints, honestly.

Finally, shorter sleeves. As I’ve mentioned before, these end just above the elbow, since I didn’t have enough yarn for longer ones. Seriously, I had just enough left for seaming.

Speaking of the yarn, I absolutely loved working with the Four Play. However, as I’ve said before, it tends to grow a lot after washing. Also, I’ve worn the sweater a fair amount already, and there’s some pilling under the arms now. Although, I wonder if both of these problems would be reduced by knitting at a tighter gauge. I guess I’ll have to buy more some day and test that out!

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In and out of Oz

Posted on 03 May 2011 by Kris

I tend to have multiple books in progress at any given time. Often, at least one of them is a children’s or young adult book.

Right now, I’m working my way through the Oz books. I’m not sure yet if I want to go through the entire “Famous Forty” or just stop after the last of L. Frank Baum’s Oz books; I’ll decide after I finish Glinda of Oz, I guess.

Most of the series is actually not a re-read for me. When I was a child, my uncle gave me nice hardcovers of the first three – The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, The Marvelous Land of Oz, and Ozma of Oz. (Yes, I still have them on my shelves!) I read these quite a bit, but for some reason never made it through the rest of the series.

It’s been so long since I read the first three, it was nice to go through them again! Although The Wonderful Wizard of Oz has always been my least favorite of the three, I still find it quite a bit more enjoyable than the film based on it. Most of the characters annoy me much less in the book (Dorothy’s not so much of a damsel in distress, Glinda’s not so irritatingly omniscient, etc.) and there’s a little more going on in the plot. And Marvelous Land and Ozma are both pretty enjoyable.

I’m not actually that far into the series past that. I recently finished Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz, which I quite liked, even though a good half of it didn’t actually take place in Oz. Although, it shows that continuity isn’t Baum’s strongest point – a key example being how the ruling family lost the throne and the Wizard’s role/non-role in it all. Oh well. I suppose I can live with that.

Now I’m about halfway through The Road to Oz and… I don’t know, I don’t care that much for it so far. I can’t quite put my finger on why. But once I do, I’m sure I’ll ramble about that here too!

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Fisherman’s socks

Posted on 28 April 2011 by Kris

Would you believe I’d never knit T anything before? I honestly just assumed he didn’t want handknits. I mean, I could probably count on my hands the number of times I’ve seen him wear a real sweater, and I’ve known him for 10 years. He wears hats, but only when he needs to keep the sun out of his eyes. And so on, and so forth.

So when he asked for wool socks a few months ago, after years of not showing any clear interest, my first reaction was “wait, what?!” Then I was glad that I got to knit him something. And then I got annoyed because his feet are longer than mine. And then I got really, really bored, and wondered why the heck these socks couldn’t just knit themselves.

And then I saw how excited he was when I finally finished these back in February…

Which I guess made it all better in the end!

The socks are just 3×1 rib – nothing too exciting, which is exactly what T wanted. I used Dream in Color Smooshy in Black Parade, and knit it on US0 Inox grey needles.

My only problem with the yarn was that some of the dye rubbed off onto my fingers while I was knitting with. Other than that, it’s perfectly lovely yarn to work with and so far it’s been holding up well with wear.

Bonus: one skein was more than enough for T’s socks!

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Swatching away

Posted on 26 April 2011 by Kris

I used to be really lax about swatching. This is largely because I mostly knit shawls and socks for awhile, and gauge isn’t as critical for those. Okay, it kind of is for socks, sometimes. But shawls? Just find what you like and go with it.

You know what finally convinced me to start doing decent swatches? Realizing that no matter what, I will always have to either modify existing sweater patterns or make up my own altogether. And having a good idea of gauge is really important for the number crunching.

Why do I always have to modify things? My size, for one thing. The other is that I pretty much never use the yarn called for in the pattern, and don’t usually like my chosen yarn at the pattern’s gauge. Luckily, the required calculating doesn’t bother me at all. In fact, I rather enjoy it most of the time, but then, I’m a bit of a nerd.

The pictured swatches are for two things. The blue swatches are in Brown Sheep Serendipity Tweed (which you may recognize from my attempt at a second Tubey). I’m planning to turn this yarn into some sort of short-sleeved pullover.

The beige swatches are in Classic Elite Allegoro, and are for a project that I started last week:

This is the start of Lizette, from the most recent Twist Collective. Mine will be quite a bit shorter, for obvious reasons, and I’ve also rewritten some of the shaping to better fit me. So far, so good!

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