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.

Chemo Caps

I wish I'd made something else, but  my sister started chemo recently, so this is what I made for her. I wanted to knit a Shedir, but was unable to find a soft cotton yarn at the right gauge. And so I modified the Shedir pattern using five repeats around the hat instead of eight. I wrote my modifications on ravelry.



That's the spouse, kindly modeling for me. Please say a prayer for my sister if you read this.

I want one!!!

I am talking about this gorgeous R2D2 sweater. It's so wonderful that I am shamelessly stealing the picture:

I know, that's really bad and one should not do it... but I guess it's better than linking to the image itself, no?

The link is from boing boing, but the seller is, of course, on Etsy.

I don't have 450 dollars. I don't have 70 or 80 hours to spare. But, deep down, as much as I like the sweater, I don't think I have the guts to wear it in public either!

Nano

I had a physics teacher that hated the use of the term "Nano" to refer to tiny things, when they contained no parts that were actually sized in the nanometer scale, or had nothing to do with nanotechnology. He always gave as an example the iPod Nano.

Well, screw that. This shawl was a disappointment in that it turned out too small. So I'm calling it Nano. I actually finished it in July, blocked it and stashed it away immediately. When winter comes, I might pull it out and use it as a scarf.



This is Wendy's Summer Mystery Shawlette, which contains no gauge information. In fact, I remember she said that gauge does not matter with shawls. Well, I proved her wrong :)

By the way, I used my Serratia marcescens yarn, the one I dyed with bacteria.

Labyrinth socks

So this is the pattern that was playing in my head. It does not work in the round with all those diagonals, so it's mainly on the top of the sock. After the heel I added a bit of the pattern to the back without completing the whole circuit to avoid staggering.



Did you notice that they are mirror images? I am sometimes anal like that. If I have not made a Pomatomus pair it's because I am too lazy to figure out the mirror image of the pattern.

By the way, I know I said these other socks look like camouflage, but the name fits this yarn much better.



If you ever want to knit a pair of socks to go with a camouflage outfit, choose Panda Soy in the Chocolate Almonds colorway.

I am still busy packing, we are moving a week from now! Here's one sock on a foot, posing on one of the moving boxes:

More Scraps Soup

This is my second version of Scraps Soup. This time I used only one strand of yarn when knitting the cuff, though I did change yarns halfway. I'm not sure I like how it looks.



I am running out of ideas regarding what to do about the cuff. I am also running out of scraps, which is actually a good thing, because I was itching to try a non-wool yarn and a different, lacey pattern that has been running through my head lately.

I actually finished these socks more than a week ago, but I have been very busy lately. Why? Because we're moving to our own home pretty soon! We are ecstatic, but overwhelmed with packing. I started with the books, and I've filled up 50 boxes already. Luckily, I have the ideal packing material.

Scraps Soup

Not that you'd ever catch me making soup from food scraps. It's just that I find the name fitting for socks made with leftover scraps from two previous pairs.



The pattern is the Pinwheel Socks by Elise Duvekot. Except that they don't have the characteristic pinwheel on either the heel or the toe. I prefer not to use garter stitch on my socks, that's why. Additionally, they're knit from the toe up, using 60 stitches for toe and heel and 40 stitches for the body of the sock.

I added a knit one, purl one cuff after increasing again to 60 stitches. I was making all the purls with one yarn and the knits with the other. I don't like the results much. The cuff is not as stretchy as it would have been when using only one yarn, and it does not create the contrast I expected.



Still, I am not ripping, just making a note an moving onto the second pair, with more scraps. Though not with these yarns. This is all I have left:

Pretty in Pink

Well, I finally finished those sleeves. I must have knit them three or four times before deciding on a final version. Even now, I am not totally satisfied with how they look. They are a little baggy.



Also, I was unable to block it properly, given that all I have is this piece of styrofoam. It has worked for me well with all my sleeveless projects but now there was not enough room for the sleeves. I had to improvise, block it sideways and fold the bottom lace section up at the seam and pin the lace edging to the body.

It did not work. That bottom part took two days to dry and the lace was still a bit curly.

After adding the crochet edgings, here's the final result:





Yep, the sleeves look baggy, but so be it. Either I learn to live with them or I bring the whole thing back to a plastic bin to age for another three or four years.

I wore it to work, got a few compliments, and nobody said anything about the sleeves, but maybe that's because they're too polite.

Remember the lazy pink thing?

This blog has been all about small projects (socks, mitts and hats) for too long. I am kind of fed up and want to go back to larger things. Which brings me to the lazy pink thing that I started back in 2007. I hated it then, having made some mistakes when modifying the pattern and then having to start over. Also, I was a little fed up with pink back then.




I am less averse to working with it now. Except for the sleeves. They are designed so they stick out, just like t-shirt sleeves. My first attempt at a sleeve looked really awkward when sewn in. My poor sewing abilities are partly to blame but I also think they would look ugly anyway even when sewn in by a pro.

Here's when ravelry saved me. NaiadKnitter finished this project but wrote on her notes that she would pick up stitches and knit the sleeves down from the shoulder on the next one.

And that is, precisely, what I am attempting to do:



I hope it works...