FIL Socks done!

I have just finished the second sock for my Father In Law, almost exactly a week late. It seems I take a week to knit a sock. Not too bad I suppose. I really hope he likes them! Here they are modelled by my husband (who hates wool, so thanks for suffering for me!)


Cable with Faggoting Centre and Rib Socks from Sensational Knitted Socks.
Yarn: Lana Grossa Meilenweit 100g Navy

I enjoyed these socks, they were great company during my jury duty. The only thing I found difficult was cabling 6 stitches without a cable needle using 2.5mm dpns, (talk about fiddly!) but it was only every 10th row, so not too bad.

So now I can get back to my Tangled Yoke Cardigan! I have also decided as part of my fearless knitting challenge I have given myself (inspired by Knitting Daily) I am going to try colorwork. I think I will start with a pair of Endpaper Mitts from Eunny Jang's old blog. A lot of people on Ravelry seem to have used these for their first colourwork project, so I'll give it a go! I have some KnitPicks Palette I got on holidays that will do nicely...

Although, I have just realised that I bought some Panda Cotton to knit socks for my hubby for his birthday which is on Feb 29th. Perhaps I should get those out of the way first? Ah nuts, there goes my cardigan for another couple of weeks. :(

FIL Sock Race

Ok, I have finished sock no 1 of the Cable with Faggoting Center & Twisted Rib socks from Sensational Knitted Socks for my Father in Law's 75th birthday on Sunday. Odds of finishing the second one in time? I would have say nil at this point.
It has turned out better than I thought though. I was afraid the yarn was so dark that the pattern wouldn't show.

I don't know if the pattern can be seen in the photo (navy is so hard to photograph!), but it's a lovely cable and rib pattern.
I have been knitting this solidly since I cast on. I have had lots of time too, being on jury duty involves a lot of sitting around in between being called down to the courtroom to hear evidence, not to mention bus travel time!
While we are in the courthouse we are supervised by the gardaí (Irish police) and they have been having great fun with me, as the navy of the socks is the exact same color as their uniform so they having been asking me can I make them a pair of socks! I said of course, for a small fee, and they were laughing. It's nice to lighten the atmosphere a bit as this is quite a sombre week I've had and the trial is expected to last another week. The court usher wants a pair of gloves too!

Anyway, back to the socks. I was thinking of wrapping one of them and enclosing an IOU for the second one, so I have something to give him on the day. What do you think? I reckon that even if I stayed up and knit all night I still wouldn't have them done on time.

Buttons

I got yummy buttons today at my LYS for the baby cardigan:
Cute little teddy bears, aren't they gorgeous? I think they finish off the cardigan beautifully. I have another button left over, but I think it looks better with the collar open. I wish I could finish off the neck a little tidier, but I'm out of ideas, so it will have to do. I will know better if I ever knit this again and cast on tighter.

While I was in the LYS I just couldn't help myself and bought this:

3 Skeins of Panda Cotton in colour Fern. Well, technically I didn't buy them, my husband picked them out for me to make him a pair of socks! I couldn't believe it, he has until now refused any knitting from me. He hates the feel of wool against his skin so when I pointed out that this has no wool and in fact has anti bacterial bamboo, he was sold. Yay! It's his birthday-that-shall-not-be-mentioned (40 snigger) on the 29th Feb (leap year baby, I'm buying him an "I am 10" badge!) so I would love to give him these then as part of his present. I must pick a really nice pattern for them now. Something manly, perhaps with some cables... hmmm. Suggestions welcome!

Other yarn goodness, one of my SnB friends, Lumia, gifted me this fabulous ball of Lana Grossa Meilenweit in a really rich navy colour.

She is so nice! She was in Germany for Christmas and naturally had to buy some yummy German sock yarn. It's my Father in Law's 75th birthday party next Sunday, do you think I'd have a pair of these knit by then? I dunno, I'm not going to cast on until tomorrow as I'm having a few drinks tonight, so we'll see.

First EZ pattern

Hi!

I became an aunt again on Tuesday night. I got the phone call while at Stitch n Bitch that my sister in law had had a baby girl, Anna! So, I decided that the Frankie Sweater I had made was nice, but not quite girly enough. As soon as I got home, I pulled out one of my Christmas presents, the Knitters Almanac by Elizabeth Zimmerman and cast on for the Baby Sweater on Two Needles.

This is my first attempt at top down construction and the pattern is very vague, but I forged ahead.

Everything went swimmingly, and I got it all knit up in more or less one day as I am off sick with an awful migraine at the moment. I found the sleeve instructions very confusing and thought I had done a good job, but as I was casting off I realised that I had picked up across the top of the sleeve instead of around it so there was no armhole to put the arm through! The sleeves were just hanging there like two pocket flaps! I couldn't believe it and was dreading having to rip the whole thing back and waste an entire days knitting, when I decided to experiment.

I decided to try a steek of sorts. It was only cheap white acrylic, if it went wrong, well, I'd chalk it up to experience. I picked up stitches from the sleeve and cardigan and knit them together, then took a scissors and cut in between the top and bottom of the sleeve on the inside and sewed a hem around the cut edges. It's not perfect, but I think I salvaged it. Let me know what you ,think! I would like to get some cute duck or bear buttons for it and maybe tidy up the cast on (neck) edge of the cardigan but I was thrilled with my problem solving!

Isn't it just really cute? I wish I had been knitting when my daughter was born, this would have made a fantastic christening cardigan.

The tangled yoke progresses nicely, I've about 5" of the ribbing at the bottom done.
I'm on jury service next week so I wonder if I might get some sock knitting done in between the trial (if I get selected)?

Happy New Year

Happy New Year everyone!
May 2008 bring all you wish for and more.

I have been trying to come up with some New Years Knitting Resolutions but not doing too well so far, so I will try and have some for the next post.

I have finished the Premiere Pullover! Hurrah! I got it done yesterday afternoon while watching Pirates of the Carribbean 3.

I'm pleased with the final result. It took me almost 3 months of knitting every so often, as I couldn't keep going with all the cabling all the time. My fingers hurt! I learned a lot from this project. Cabling without a cable needle, picot bind off and crochet! I doubt I will knit this again, but I suppose I should never say never.
A close up of the neck:

You can't really see the bobbles from the picot bind off, but man those suckers took forever to do! BO5, CO3, BO5 etc.
Anyway, I hope my friend likes it for her birthday!

In the meantime, I cast on for the Tangled Yoke Cardigan by Eunny Jang from IK Fall 07.

I'm knitting it in the 46" size, using Elsebeth Lavold Silky Wool in a yummy light brown. It doesn't look like much progress, but there's 247 stitches per row! That's a lot of stitches! Still, once I get past the garter rib and onto the stockinette this will be a great Stitch n Bitch meeting project, I can chat and knit without having to worry about counting.

That's all for now, I hope to have the Child's First Sock finished next time as I'm back in work and so back to car commute knitting.
Have a good one!