Socks

On the same day that I presented Ms. Redjeans I also gave my mom some socks that I’ve been working on here and there for a wicked long time.  Since these socks have taken so long, I decided to give them their own post. 

For the top portion of the sock, I used a cable rib pattern from Ann Budd’s Diagonal Cross-Rib Socks.  The yarn is a red and gray Cherry Tree Hill mill end that I got on ebay about a year ago. I bought it because my mom’s favorite color is red, and red and gray are the colors of the high school she teaches at.

I like these socks, I really do.  At least, I like the way they’ve turned out.  But I think I have to be honest with myself, and with you, dear readers.

I don’t really like knitting socks.

This is not a bombshell on the level of that time Grumperina said that she doesn’t like knitting sweaters.  But I share some of her concerns.  She asks “Somehow I feel like I’m not a ‘complete’ knitter unless I’m cranking out sweaters. Do you ever feel that?”  I know what she means.  I love sweaters of course, but I’m really not a fan of socks and I feel like a lesser knitter for that.  So many people crank out cute socks, and there are tons of great patterns.  Heck, I even posted a couple of sock patterns that I really like.  In general though, they’re not my cup of tea and I can’t even really explain why.  I hope you forgive me. 

Ms. Redjeans is Finished

Pattern: Mr. Greenjeans, Amy Swenson, Knitty Fall 2007
Yarn: Manos del Uruguay, Flame
Dates: September 2007 to February 2008

I love this pattern, and I love that this yarn finally found a good home. I forget when and where I bought it, but it called my mom’s name and demanded that I make something for her. The problem was deciding what, exactly. My second post ever on this blog focused on plans for this yarn, and I had already had it for awhile at that point. It was a struggle to find a good pattern because my mom doesn’t like to be too warm, so a cozy pullover was out. I started with a vest, but it didn’t turn out. Then I thought Rosedale, but I didn’t have enough yarn. When I saw Mr. Greenjeans I knew it was perfect. Because of the deep V neck it uses less yarn than other cardigans. Because it is knit from the top down I could have just stopped when I ran out of yarn for a cropped look.

As it happens, I decided to buy more yarn and make it a little longer than called for. My mom likes longer sweaters more than cropped ones. Since I bought the yarn more than two years ago, I had been nervous about buying more yarn. But the concept of “dyelots” is rather loose with Manos anyway, and it matched the other skeins to the extent that any of the skeins matched each other at all. I used two balls at once, switching every second row. I think I was successful in avoiding pooling and dyelot stripes.

I modified the pattern slightly, mostly to accommodate the thick-and-thin nature of the yarn. I decided that the cables didn’t look right so I did a garter rib instead. For the button band I decided to go with garter stitch, because I like the look of rustic yarn in garter stitch.  I’m not alone, apparently, and this post inspired me.

This was a very fun and easy project. The only reason it took so long is that I used it as my relaxing “zombie knitting” project. If I had really put my mind to it I could have finished it in a couple of weeks. My goal was to give it to my mom on her birthday in an almost-finished state so I could check the fit and finish it accordingly. It fits very nicely, so I’m glad I did it that way. Best of all, my mom loves it too!

Secret Project Revealed

The recent kerfuffle about whether a blog is more like a tea party or a house party got me thinking about blogging in general and my own blogging goals.  I enjoy blogging and I enjoy designing, but unfortunately those goals have been at odds lately.  It wasn’t a huge problem with quick projects like socks and hats.  I designed those and knit them on the side, and my blog didn’t suffer too badly for lack of content.  With big projects like blankets and sweaters, however, the relative silence is pretty noticeable.  We’ve all seen blogs go down hill when their writers switch from public knitting to secret designing.  I don’t want that to happen here, I enjoy blogging too much. 

My two favorite blogging Ruths have been a real inspiration lately.  Ruth S. of Knitting on Impulse recently revealed a beautiful sweater with interesting construction that she’d been giving us glimpses of for months.  Ruth H. of Ruthless Knitting has shown us the full design process of several sweaters over the last few months, Tokyo Top most recently.  Blogging and designing can be excellent companions when one is willing to actually show the designs in progress. 

With that in mind, I’ve decided to share one of the sweaters that I’m working on.  This is not the secret project I mentioned last week, which to be honest is in Slog mode.

Those of you who have known me for awhile know that I am a huge fan of Noro.  The big challenge of designing with Noro is getting it to do something other than orderly horizontal stripes.  Not that there is anything wrong with horizontal stripes, but they’ve been done.  I wanted something more interesting.

This is fitting the bill so far.  What you’re looking at is the back of a sweater that will one day hopefully look something like this:

It will have a scoop neck, and the stripes will be diagonal. There will be raglan sleeves, and the seams will be formed by grafting the body to the sleeves. I started in the center bottom with two balls of yarn going, and added stitches every other right side row until it was as wide as I wanted it to be. Then I turned the corner by decreasing instead of increasing. It is not perfectly square yet, but I’m confident that a good blocking will make it work.

I decided to knit the back in one piece, twisting the two strands on the wrong side of the work. I could have knit the pieces separately and then seamed them, but this method allows the piece to stretch very evenly while a seam would not have. It looks very neat, even from the wrong side.

I feel a bit exposed showing you this, after keeping it a secret.  I hope it works out!

WIP Wednesday

Whew!  Now that Super Tuesday is over I can take my eyes off the news for long enough to do some blogging. Before we return to knitting though, let me show you a picture I took of Obama on Monday at the (Hartford Civic) XL Center. There were 16,000+ people at the event, and I’ve never seen anything like it.

 

Anyway, I’ve been chipping away at several projects lately, all easy stuff that I can do while watching TV. I haven’t made much progress on my Endpaper Mitts because I really have to look at what I’m doing. The good news is, I’ve made great progress on a project that I can’t tell you about yet. Hopefully you’ll be able to see it soon, but here is a little teaser:

I’m also just about done with that Ms. Redjeans for my mom, and I’ll be able to give it to her the next time I see her.

Finally, I’m also moving along on an Everlasting Bagstopper that I started for my sister way back in August or something. I’ll also try to give it to her the next time I see her:

It looks like I’ll be able to check off at least three of my goals for the year by the end of February!