Knitting and Crochet

Here's a few things I've finished here and there: An Easter-like basket, a bath mitt & cloth set for my dishcloth exchange partner, another of my ubiquitous bath mitts again, and the baby blanket us Knit Niters finally finished for Laura's baby boy. All projects are in some form on Lily Sugar'n Cream - perfect for lazy summer knitting.

     


My favorite WIP of all, is this Master Upstream Socks from Cat Bordhi's book, New Pathways for Sock Knitters. I'm loosely following the Dove pattern, just for the decorative increases. Since my socks are at a tighter gauge (36 sts = 10cm on 2.0mm) the diamond pattern stops just a few inches after the heel, so I'm mirroring the pattern all the way up the leg.

The socks began on the magic loop, both at once, but after the heel, I put them onto DPN's. For one, I got tired of untangling the yarn, and two, I knit faster on DPN's. Still, the magic loop is great for insuring that both socks will be identical without too much counting and measuring.

Unlike the feet, I can easily work the legs identically without measuring, because one, the stitch pattern itself creates a built-in self-measuring feature, and two, I'm using the identical balls of yarn from the same sock blank, and will knit until I run out.

Once I got a few inches into the leg, I switched to 2.25mm DPN's so the socks won't cut off my circulation. So far, then fit perfectly. I look forward to happy, warm, and cheerfully bright feet this winter.