Right on time

My swap socks were finished a week ago, then washed, blocked, and finally sent this Saturday to their destination. I hope their new owner likes them!

Monochrome Argyle

I finished today the spouse's socks, the ones that were originally on my needles. I finished them using my grandmother's needles which, unlike my addis, have a stiffer cable and the union between cable and needle is not as smooth. Anyway, picture time: Regarding the swap socks, this is the Rabbitworks yarn in the "Cryptic Notes" colorway. The camera does not do it justice. It combines several hues of deep blue. I look at it and think of sapphires. And this is how it looks when combined with "Revenge" using the Pinwheel pattern: I had to add a stitch, given that when knitting with two yarns you need an even number of stitches. Also, I refuse to make a pinwheel garter stitch toe. I know the garter stitch pinwheels are what give this pattern its name, but I personally find garter stitch toes very uncomfortable. This is the toe I prefer to wear, and so I used it for this pair of socks too.

Better than nothing

At least I am past the toes. Which isn't much, especially considering that I am going to rip the few rows I've knit after finishing the increases.



I am making Pinwheel Socks. I have made two pairs so far and feel confident enough with the pattern that I will not have to worry about screwing things up. I also wanted to try it with a single yarn, given that so far I have used this pattern to get rid of scraps.

It turns out that the real beauty of this pattern lies in the vertical stripes. Using only one yarn is creating a very boring pair of socks. Luckily, I have another skein of this Rabbitworks yarn, in a pretty blue colorway called "Cryptic Notes". I hope they work well together.

Shame

Last week I posted a picture of my sock swap yarn, wound up into two nice center pull balls. Have I made any progress? Why yes, I put the yarn in a baggie:




You might have noticed that there are no needles in the baggie. That's because the needles are currently in another baggie, holding another pair of socks I thought I would have finished by now:




Yes, I know, I should not procrastinate, after all there's a deadline. I am posting this to shame myself into hurrying up.

To hell with shawls

So, way back in October, I was working with a yarn that had glitter in it but was still very soft: Lanalux. I wanted to create an object of beauty and I chose the Sheri shawlette pattern, simply because it allows you to use up all the yarn with not much waste, since it is knitted sideways. I called this thing boredom because it requires a lot of boring stockinette.

Speaking of which, all that stockinette might have worked with another yarn, but my shawlette rolls at the edges even after wet blocking and steam blocking. I don't dare to use the iron because of the glitter. Don't let it fool you. It's lying flat against the sofa but in reality it rolls on itself without provocation.



In November I moved on to another shawl, something more challenging and without any stockinette: Haruni. I used two balls of kidsilk spray and finished the second to last row. Alas, there is not enough yarn to finish the last row. Kidsilk spray is, by the way, discontinued. So the future of my shawl is bleak.



After three failures in a row (I am counting the Garden View Shawlette as a failure) my knitting mojo dried up.

But I find myself itching again for the needles, so I joined a sock swap for Spanish speakers: Swapetines. I used to participate in that sock swap, stopped for a couple of years, but now feel like it's time to rejoin them. Today I split the skein into two pull out balls:



This is 75% superwash merino from Rabbitch, in a colorway she calls revenge. I had originally ordered a different colorway, but she had ran out of it. She reimbursed me, including shipping, and then sent me a skein in this colorway free of charge. Isn't she a nice lady?

The yarn is beautiful, though these days I find myself gravitating towards browns, grays and tans. When I learned that my swap victim likes bright colors I thought it was time to knit up this pretty yarn.

Soon to be frogged

Another September Project.



The pattern is the Garden View Shawlette. I like the pattern, but not with this yarn, which is Newton's Yarn Country Rayon Ice Hand Painted. Rayon has no memory at all, and a stockinette shawl, no matter how well blocked, just rolls on itself. It slides of my shoulders, even after tying it.

Also, where did all the yardage go? The pattern calls for 200-300 yards. I started out with 2200 yards, according to the label. The fabric was thin and my gauge was way off. I order to get a better fabric and also to hit gauge, I used two strands, which meant I had 1100 yards, right? Enough to make a much larger shawl, with 9 or 11 leaves instead of 7. That’s why I started out with a long garter strip to be able to tie it behind my back.

Well, I am glad this pattern is constructed sideways. This allowed me to weigh the skein as I went. After three leaves I realized that I was approaching the middle. I had to settle for 7 leaves. Of course, The shawl is more triangular now than crescent shaped, given that there is only one center leave instead of three. Also, the tie strips are now pointless.

I am afraid to confess that for the first time ever a FO is going to the frog pond. I just do not see myself wearing this monster.

Snakes and Ladders

Another September project. I did not know if I wanted lace or cables in my socks, so I went with both. Someone from India told me years ago that she knew knitted cables as "snakes", and so I thought of the game "snakes and ladders" as I knitted the socks. Later I learned that in the US the game is know as "chutes and ladders".



Thanks to wikipedia, I now know that the game originated in India, and that over there it is still known as "snakes and ladders". So I'm sticking to that name.

I used a yarn called Summer Sox, which was a pleasure to knit with, though the ends tend to get splitty and weaving them in was not easy. In keeping with my obsession of using up all my yarn, I used the leftovers to make fingerless mitts for a friend, in the same pattern.



No leftovers! Yay!

Now with pictures

September was a productive month. Sadly, it was not a camera busy month. For one reason or another, I was posting to ravelry but not taking the time to take pictures of my stuff. But now that I did, let me show off, starting with a raglan I made with Sinfonia cotton that I got in Mexico eons ago:



I did not want to run out of yarn, so I started from the top and kept going until I had used up all three skeins. Yes, I am lucky to be short.

The one thing I regret is that I thought a seed stitch edging would be decorative enough, but it wasn't. Towards the end I added a few lace butterflies. If I were to knit this again (but I am not) I would add the butterflies at the neckline and at the sleeve cuffs.



The spouse concurs. Only to him those are little holes, not butterflies. But to him, all lace projects are just random holes.

Waffles

This was an August project: Socks for the spouse. Well I think I actually started them in July, but had to interrupt them to make the Shedirs. Which reminds me: Many thanks for those of you who offered to pray for my sister. She keeps to herself these days, and I repeat to myself over and over that no news is good news...

Anyway, onto the pictures:



Socks in a very boring gray, knitted with 2 mm needles (that's US size 0). They would have been a drag were it not for the fact that heritage quattro is really nice to knit with. Also, the Ridge Squares pattern was easy to memorize.



Nowadays I knit mostly socks. And I always start them from the toe with a figure 8 cast on, and I always do a short row heel, and I always cast off with Jeny's stretchy bind-off.

There was a time when I liked trying new techniques and I even bought Cat Bordi's first book on adventurous sock knitting. I usually do not buy many books, much less knitting books, so that was a biggie. But I never bothered with the second book. I didn't even try to check it out of the library.

As for Sock Summit, as much as I love the concept, I've never been there. Let's face it, I'm too settled into my sock knitting by now. I know what works for me, and I am not itching to learn anything new.

I am one boring knitter.

But Rabbitch's post about Sock Summit got me thinking about another undesirable aspect of my knitting. Why am I so cheap? Why can't I splurge once in a while? Especially when it comes to independent artists. I love the stuff they make, my mouth waters when I see their lovely merchandise, and yet I never buy any fiber or yarns from them.

Next year, I will skip Stitches West and spend some money on Etsy instead. I will try Rabbitch's goodies, of course, but I will also consider other Etsy shops. Does anyone have another favorite Etsy yarn or fiber shop to recommend?

Mini

I somehow missed blogging about this sweater for the new pooch. Heck, I guess I did not even blog about the new pooch. She's a rescue pooch, presumably a dachshund and poodle mix.



Anyway, she had a small wound that she kept scratching, and this sweater was the solution. It's made with cascade fixation.

It's truly a mini sweater since all I needed was to cover her shoulders. I could have done a one shoulder number but that would have been even more tacky.