and now some lovely pictures of some delightful WIPs:
aww.... its my first sock pattern! ann norling's play on ribs pattern. not the most attractive but i figure if i'm going to foray into the wide world of sock knitting i might as well try something easy to start. i guess it doesn't get much more easier than this... the majority of the sock is just a K3, P1 pattern which creates a pretty tight but still stretchy fabric. i was a bit intimidated about picking up stitches around the heel but i don't think i f'ed it up too badly. i have maybe another inch or two to do on the actual foot part of the sock and then i'll start on the toe decreases/kitchener stitch finishing. i will admit, i definitely understand the phenomenon found in sock knitting known as "Lone Sock Syndrome." i'm not even done with this first sock and already i don't want to make the second one. knitting this has made me question the evolutionary design of having two feet. it would be so much easier to just have one for the purposes of quick knitting. it would certainly result in less bitching on my part.i'm using moda dea sassy stripes in the polo colorway. this is also the first project that i've ever used self-striping yarn for it's intended purpose and i must, it's so awesome! i'm using size 3 DPNs which is a size smaller than what the pattern called for but it seems to be working out well. the fabric is more dense and i like that.
i decided to undertake two rather frustrating projects in addition to the socks. the first is the candle flames shawl pattern from knitpicks. this is the biggest lace project i've ever worked on, as
i am generally impatient and prefer the relative instant gratification i receive from smaller projects. i have all of this delicious alpaca yarn that i have nothing to do with, however, so i figured i might as well try my hand at a responsible, classy project.let me tell you about this yarn. hoo boy. it's arucania yarn's atacama, colorway 502. an absolutely gorgeous, hand dyed, variegated alpaca in shades of blue ranging from pale, almost grey, sky blue to a deep turquoise. i love this yarn. it's probably one of my favorite yarns of all time. i really wish it wasn't DK weight because i hate knitting with thin yarns (takes too long, i'm always afraid i'm going to snap it from pulling it too tight) but i love it anyway. my one complaint is that since it's hand dyed, the color tends to bleed onto my fingers after i've been knitting for a while. i don't mind too much, though, since everything else about this yarn rules.
the picture above shows only about a third of the width of the whole thing. my circular needles are super curly so it's difficult to straighten them out long enough to show the project. the
picture to the left is a detail of one of the lace repeats. i think i'm about twenty rows in, which is a bit more than halfway through the repeat. i'm not looking forward to the 15 or so repeats i think i'm going to need to do to make this a decent shawl. this one is probably going to be finished in a year at the rate i'm going.another thing i'm not looking forward to is blocking this beast. which is something that i'm not gonna be able to get out of doing as it's lace and lace always needs blocking. i'm worried because i live in a studio apartment and i don't really have much room to block projects as big as this. i think i may just pin it to my bed before i leave for work one day and hope that it's set by the time i get home. that's kind of far ahead up the road so i'm not really going to worry about it for the time being.
last but not least is another tryout pattern. my friend steve is a big fan of cephalopods (and is also a knitter! how awesome is that!) and i am a big fan of steve (not in that way! minds out of the gutter!) so i' decided i wanted to make him one. knitty's nautie has provided me with the
perfect pattern. the directions are relatively straightforward, however, i've never knit a stuffed animal that's required stuffing while being knit. there's no way of getting around this, either, as you're basically knitting a long cone that's wrapped around itself as it's knit. this is done by means of picking up an already-knit stitch from the body every four rows and knitting it with one of the new stitches. it's kind of hard to explain but actually pretty easy. i like the stripey effect of switching yarn every other row (i'm using hideous red heart yarn because it's good for stuffed animals and that's about it) but i also hate it. because i'm switching yarn every other row. add to that constant increases, stuffing, and coiling and it all results in kind of a headache. now that i have the hang of this pattern i'm considering frogging it and just making the real deal for steve. in one, solid color.what a long post! congrats if you've made it this far! i think if i were to update this more often the posts would be shorter... i should probably get on that.
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