After I finished the scarf I couldn't decide what to cast on next. Currently on the needles were the second of a pair of socks and a dog sweater. I tried to work on the sock the day we went to Eau Claire to see La Harlot, but I was at the heel-turning stage and there was no way I could concentrate enough to do it. (Don't ask how I know.) Luckily I had had the foresight to pack some other needles and yarn so I made a dumb dishcloth. Here it is, reposing gracefully with my son's gas mask:
Yarn: either Peaches & Cream or Sugar & Cream, lost the ball band
Needles: Denise US#7
Pattern: mine. CO 36 st. K3, P3 for 4 rows. P3, K3 for 4 rows. Repeat.
Don't all 17-year-old boys have a gas mask?
Last Saturday I didn't feel like working on the sock or the dog sweater so I cast on for a Dulaan hat:
The next night I finished it (the colors here are more accurate):
Yarn: 20+-year-old acrylic, worsted weight
Needles: Denise US#7
Pattern: mine
The notable thing about the hat is that I knit most of it while at the computer (reading Cara's archives, if you must know). I am determined to learn how to knit without watching my hands. Stockinette and 2x2 ribbing with worsted on size 7s is not too hard, I found, but it will be awhile before I can do it with a real pattern or something on smaller needles.
Last night I finished the sock:
Yarn: Schoeller Eslinger Limbo Mexiko, color 2585
Needles: Crystal Palace bamboo, US #3
Pattern: Widdershins, from knitty.com, summer 2006
A few words here about Schoeller yarn: I'm sufficiently anal that I really would have liked the stripes to line up, but it was impossible. The two skeins of yarn started at almost exactly the same place in the color pattern, and I could have made it work if that were the only problem. But as I was winding the second skein into a ball after the first sock was done, I found that the color repeats were not the same - there was a whole bunch of other repeats in the middle of the skein that weren't there in the first one. So I just had to suck it up and let the stripes fall where they fell. When I knit my first pair of socks, also from Schoeller yarn, I came upon a knot in the yarn just after doing the heel of the first sock. After which the color repeats reversed! Now I ask you, what kind of happy horseshit nonsense is that? I dutifully reproduced the knot and reversed color repeats in the second sock (did I mention I was a tad anal?), but hmmph, I say, hmmph.
The colors of the latest socks are remarkably similar to those of that first pair of socks I knit:
Yarn: Schoeller & Stahl Fortissima Colori Socka, color 9070
Needles: Crystal Palace bamboo, US #1
Pattern: (don't remember; it was chosen for me by the clerk in the yarn store. I think it started out "cast on 68 st.")
Boyhowdy, did these latest ones go fast, once I started working on them consistently - only 48 st per round. The first ones were knit the conventional top-down way. These were toe-up using the Widdershins pattern from knitty.com.
I have made 3 pairs of socks top-down and hate both the "what if I run out of yarn" thing and the hard-to-use-up leftovers that that occur if I guess wrong too far in the other direction. I made a couple pairs of baby booties from the leftovers from the first socks, and that was okay, I guess, but the patterns and colors I chose for socks don't always lend themselves to baby footwear. I've done a couple pairs of short-row heel socks but didn't like them for a several reasons. For one, I seem to be incapable of counting correctly, so the short rows don't come out even at the end of the heel. It hasn't affected the fit of the socks but makes for a less-than-satisfying knitting experience. For another, the pattern - a generic one I found at elann.com - makes a row of holes diagonally along each side of the heel. There is very little chance that this isn't due to my screwing up, but I can't seem to avoid it.* Third, if I put a bunch of hours into knitting a sock, I want it to last roughly… forever! Short-row heels don't have that nice thick, corrugated slip-stitch heel flap that seems like it might do just that. The Widdershins pattern solves 2 of these 3 problems. The counting thing continues.
Heels, good:
Heels, bad:
The heel of the first sock, on the right in both photos, came out perfectly (on the third try). I'm very happy with it. The heel of the second, not so much. I had already knit and frogged it several times by the time I got to the heel flap. So when I realized, about three-quarters of the way through the flap, that it wasn't going to come out right, did I say, Oh, I must fix that! I must rip it out and do it right! Nope. I just finagled some strategically placed decreases and went on with my life. Clearly I will never be a knitter-for-hire.
On the dog sweater project, I need to corral the dog and hold the knitting against her body to determine exactly where the "sleeves" need to be. I'm making this one up as I go along. She is not going to enter any fashion shows or need to impress her friends at the vet. I'll tell you more about this project when I finish. For now, I leave you to consider these two words: huntin' season.
* Once I re-found this pattern so I could link it here, I scrutinized the photo v-e-r-y closely. I think the pictured sock has the diagonal row of holes, too! Hmmph (again). I feel better knowing the holes are not because I was unable to knit wrapped stitches correctly, but jeez! Don't you think Elann could have found a better pattern for their website?
