Work in progress report

I've been holding out on you guys. I have several projects on the needles that I haven't blogged about yet. Time for a little roundup.

Broadripple socks in Cascade Fixation:


I started these on the honeymoon and haven't really touched them since we got back. I like the way it's coming out but the knitting isn't so pleasant - I feel like knitting fixation on size 3s makes a pretty tight fabric and kind of gives me that finger crampy feeling when I'm knitting. Also, you know what? I hate 7" bamboo DPNs. They always bump into my hands in such an unpleasant way. Much bigger fan of 6" DPNs for sock knitting.

Hourglass sweater from LMKG in Noro Cash Iroha:


I think the cabled turtleneck is going to have some tough competition as the best sweater I've ever knitted. This one is looking pretty good. The yarn is very soft and silky, and such an awesome vibrant blue. I've tipped the edges with a few rows of this light blue wool-silk blend (lost the ball bands so I have no idea what the yarn is). Once the edges are sewn down the light blue edging will be much more subtle as most of what you see will be on the inside.

Some progress on the ribbed Mark and Kattens socks for my Dad:


Yes, my dad has huge feet, and don't worry, these socks are very stretchy so they're not really as skinny as they look. This yarn is also kind of killing my fingers. It's a wool-cotton-nylon blend and it's just ugh. Not fun to knit with. I'm really not crazy about the colors either. I've decided that life is too short to knit with yarns I don't love, even if it's for someone else. I'll finish these, but I've put almost all my cotton-containing yarn up for sale on the new Destash site. Check them out here if you're interested, there's some sock yarns, Tahki cotton classic (that top I was making with it was quickly frogged, what was I thinking?), some linen yarn, and some KP laceweight merino. I'll be flexible on the prices for my blog readers!

My tiredness and crankyness and general dissatisfaction with the Mark and Kattens socks led me to start these last night:


Embossed leaves socks from IK's Favorite socks in KP Gloss. Aaaaah. My fingers are so much happier. I've had a few different things of gloss in the stash for a while but this is the first time I've had it on the needles. It feels so nice. I've been thinking of ordering enough Gloss to make Thermal but wanted to make something smaller with it first to see how it holds up. I've heard bad things about stretching and felting, but we'll see. So far I'm loving it.

Tired and cranky

I'm tired and cranky. But I am also itching to blog about this stinkin cabled turtleneck sweater, since I finally got around to lengthening it (picking out the ribbing from the bottom and knitting down some more ribbing was less traumatic than I thought it would be). I will try to put mostly pictures and not too many words, so that my crankiness doesn't overshadow the post too much.

Finally done!


Specs:
Pattern: The imaginatively named "Cabled Turtleneck" from Vogue Knitting, Holiday 2006. Apparently the designer is "Lang designs". I wonder in what circumstances the actual human designer doesn't get to be named. Did it really take a whole team of designers to come up with this sweater? Is there a ghost designer?
Yarn: Cascade 220 heather, in Lichen. Just under 6 skeins.
Needles: Size 6 and 7 denises
Mods: Made it a crewneck instead of a turtleneck
Started Jan 2007, finished July 20 2007. Ouch. Moral of the story, maybe I should pick sweaters with less seaming in the future.

Some more pics



Ta-da!

Bad daughter?

So, I was going to start some socks for my Dad with that Lorna's Laces he wanted, but then I wound the skein up:


Now I don't want to give this yarn away any more! Look how pretty! I want it all for me me me! This is the problem with trying to knit gifts out of your stash, it's mostly all yarn I've picked out because I wanted it for myself.

So I started these other socks for my Dad out of a Mark + Kattens cotton blend yarn instead:


I have all kinds of excuses for why I'm not making them out of the Lorna's Laces - these new ones will be sturdier, he probably won't even remember which yarn he picked out, he'll like this cool self-patterning stuff. But I feel a little guilty. Maybe I'll make him two pairs.

Monkeys v2.0

Monkeys part 2 are done! They would have been done a lot sooner if it weren't for a certain devil cat:


Don't let that cute face fool you. An evil heart lurks beneath that fuzzy exterior! While we were in Seattle for the long weekend, she somehow got the second sock in progress down from the top of the bookshelf where I left it, and chewed up all the yarn. Grrrr. Originally I started frantically knotting all the bits of yarn together to finish the second sock, but even with all those knots it wasn't going to happen. So I had to frog a repeat back from the first sock and finish them both a little shorter. They're a little saggier than the longer version would have been - the cuff could stand to be a bit longer. But I'm quite sick of frogging and reknitting these, I think I'll just look for some elastic to run through the top.

Without further delay, voila!


Monkey socks by Cookie A., of course.
Yarn: Koigu KPPPM, 2 skeins (minus the chewed up bits, grr.)
Needles: 2.5mm for the foot, 2.75mm for the ankle, 3.0mm for the top of the leg.
Mods: knit toe-up, all purl stitches knit.
Started: end of May 2007
Finished: beginning of July 2007





These are my first Koigu socks, I LOVE this yarn. I want to trade all my other yarn for more and more Koigu!

On color and masculinity

J. and I went up to Seattle for a long 4th of July weekend to see my parents. I heart Seattle.
Anyway, you may remember that I made my Dad some socks last Christmas. He wears them All The Time. I was so touched, especially because this was the first knitted gift I'd given him - he kept insisting that he wouldn't wear anything knitted and not to waste my time. Anyway, I thought I would make him another pair for next Christmas (as part of my whole having no salary for the next year, I think I'll be knitting a lot of presents). I showed him all my sock yarn pictures on Ravelry and these are the ones he picked out:


Cherry Tree Hill Supersock Mill Ends, leftover from my Clapotis


Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock in Buck's Bar

I just thought it was interesting, especially in light of the fact that J. seems to think any color that is not drab green, brown, or gray has some magic powers to drain his heterosexuality away. I guess growing up with my Dad kind of blinded me to the fact that most men don't wear colorful things. My Dad had this neon pink baseball cap that he wore constantly when I was junior high-aged. He got it for free at a gas station. The most embarassing part, to young teenage me, was that he had a wide selection of colors and CHOSE the pink one. But grownup me is more than happy to knit him some colorful socks. I think most "masculine" colors are boring.