Twists and crosses

Posted on 23 July 2012 by Kris

Hi! I know, I know, long time no blog. But I’ve had a lot going on lately, and now I have to play catchup. I’ve got several FOs to show in upcoming weeks, although with updates on a couple of my WIPs.

Speaking of WIPs, I am kind of in love with my current sock in progress:

Gorgeous, isn’t it? The pattern is Bayerische, by Eunny Jang, which I’ve wanted to knit for a few years – seriously, it’s been in my queue pretty much ever since it came out. One of the perks of my self-imposed sock club is that I’m finally using yarns and patterns I’ve had for quite awhile.

Speaking of the self-imposed sock club, I’m actually a little behind schedule right now. I was aiming for six pairs of socks this year, or one pair for every two months. Yet, here we are, 7 months into the year, and I’m still on the second sock of my third pair.

Oh well. It’s not really all that surprising when you think about it. 96 stitches per round in the cuffs and 82 in the feet, half of which are twisted, make for a kind of time-intensive sock. And a several-week hiatus from knitting didn’t really help either.

I’m rather enjoying it despite how long it’s taking, though. I don’t normally like doing this many twisted stitches, but I do really like cabling and crossing stitches, so the latter is really making up for the former here.

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Not quite a remake

Posted on 23 March 2012 by Kris

My Sharks socks started showing serious signs of wear last year. It wasn’t the first time I’ve had to reinforce socks (as I’ve mentioned, our carpet’s pretty hard on them), so I didn’t think it was that big of a deal. I did duplicate stitch over the thin areas and then moved on.

Except a couple of months later there was even more wear, just in different spots. So I mended those areas too.

A couple of months after that, I mended them yet again. The cycle continued once more before I ended up chucking the socks in the trash, because they were worn to the point of no repair.

So, it’s replacement time!

Pattern: Two-Yarn Resoleable Socks by Wayne Pfeffer, adapted by Anne Merrow
Yarn: Claudia Handpainted Fingering in Sharks (leg/instep) and Dream in Color Smooshy in Black Parade (sole/toe)
Needles: US0 / 2.00mm Inox Express circulars

The pattern calls for you to knit the leg and instep in one yarn, and the heel and sole in another yarn, attaching the sole to the instep as you go. I changed it up a tiny bit and did the heel flap in the Sharks yarn, partly because I don’t actually get much wear on my heels and partly because I wasn’t totally sure I had enough Smooshy for both heel flaps and the soles. Turns out I was right on that last part – I had to use a teeny scrap of Koigu for the last four rounds of the second sock. I’m not including it in the yarn list above, though, since I used so little.

I like how it looks, and I love the idea of being able to replace the sole if needed. But I didn’t particularly enjoy this pattern, because it’s a bit fiddly. It’s not super terrible if you keep all the held stitches and active stitches on the same long circular and just use magic loop, though.

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Stop! Sweater time!

Posted on 17 February 2012 by Kris

This took me way longer to piece together than it should have, but I’ve been plagued with one thing or another since my last post on this project. Those things included some serious (and unexplained) wrist pain, which obviously made knitting and finishing a bit difficult.

But! I finally healed up enough to finish Amelia. Which makes me super happy!

Pattern: Amelia by Laura Chau
Yarn: O-Wool Balance in color 8014
Needles: US6 / 4.25mm Clover bamboo circulars

I made a lot of modifications to this one. The most obvious one is that I chose to add buttons all the way down. Sadly, I don’t love the buttons themselves, but they’ll work, and they’re easy to replace if I find ones I like better.

Other modifications: I mentioned this before, but I added shaping to this sweater. I’m still having a bit of a hard time with front shaping though, specifically bust increases. It’s more of a mental thing; for some reason I feel like my measurements are wrong there, and that the distance between my waist and full bust is longer than it actually is. I really just need to stop doubting the numbers and start increasing more rapidly. I did a better job at it this time, but there’s still room for shaping improvement.

I also went for set in sleeves instead of raglan shaping.

Oh! Speaking of sleeves, these are almost perfect! I could probably stand to add a little more ease in the lower arms on my next long-sleeved sweater, but these are pretty comfortable as is. Also, they’re just about as long as I wanted.

I do have a couple of quibbles with this sweater, both of which are sizing related and which can be easily remedied in future sweaters. This one’s a little too big in the back, and a hair too small in the front; just a teensy bit more ease in front would have prevented the gapping in the buttonband. Whoops. I’m pretty thrilled with the sweater despite these things, though!

I’m also pretty thrilled with the yarn I used, and definitely want to get more of it, once I let myself buy sweater yarn again. O-Wool Balance is 50% cotton, 50% merino wool; it’s not the first cotton/wool blend I’ve used but it’s my favorite to date! It’s warm, but not too hot for me to wear most of the year; it has a nice weight to it, but doesn’t feel as heavy as, say, Arm Candy does. The twisted rib pattern shows up beautifully, and the yarn softens up nicely after a wash, but not enough to make me fear immediate pilling.

So, overall, even with the minor sizing issues, I would still call this a win!

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More for the feet

Posted on 27 January 2012 by Kris

I’m caught up on the FO photography again, and have not one, but two new things to show you! First off, my last FO of 2011:

Pattern: Spey Valley by Nancy Bush, published in Knitting on the Road
Yarn: Mountain Colors Crazyfoot in Peppergrass
Needles: US0 / 2.00 Inox express circulars

I only did 8 rows of ribbing #1 and 3 repeats of ribbing #2, rather than 12 rows and 5 repeats respectively, because I made the whole leg shorter and wanted to keep the original pattern’s proportions relatively intact. I’m a little sad that ribbing #2 doesn’t show up all that well, but other than that, I’m pretty happy with the sock. Nice and simple knit, for the most part, although I don’t really know how I feel about working the braids.

I like the yarn a lot – soft, but not overly so, and the colors are gorgeous! Now I just have to figure out what to do with the rest of it… I have nearly half a skein left!

This is my third pair of my 2011 self-imposed sock club, which I obviously didn’t finish. But, with the three pairs I did from the sock club, plus the two for T, I beat my previous record of four pairs a year (held jointly by years 2006 and 2009). So, I’m calling this a win anyway!

Also a win is my first project for 2012:

My own Felted Clogs! Yes, it’s the same yarn and pattern as T’s, although I opted for a plain join for my slippers’ soles. It’s a little weird to have an item nearly identical to his, since we are SO not the matchy-matchy couple-y type. But I didn’t know what else to do with the rest of that bulky wool, so slippers it was! Now I just have to figure out what to do with the last 70-something yards…

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Sweater work

Posted on 23 January 2012 by Kris

I’ve made quite a bit of progress on Amelia since you last saw it!

I finished the fronts. Looking at them now, I kind of wish I’d made the twisted rib section a little narrower. But I’m not bothered enough to reknit, or even to ladder down and change, so… it’s all good.

I’ve also finished the sleeves, which I’m a little paranoid about, not gonna lie. The last couple of times I knit long sleeves, I didn’t do so well – Roam’s sleeves are too long, and let’s not get started with all of Eris’s sleeve issues. So I made T measure me several times just to make sure. I think these are good now, but we’ll see once I seam everything.

After seaming, all I have left is to knit the neckline edging. Oh, and to sew on the buttons. Can’t wait to have a new sweater!

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