A Lot of Knitting

February was a good month for knitting, because it was a slow month for working. I made lots of progress on my sock blank, and also completed two small projects - a pair of mittens, using my top-down pattern, and another Lily bath mitt.

 

I finally finished the SWS striped scarf. I alternated two colorways, Navy & Russet, inspired by Jared Flood's Noro Striped Scarf. Though it should've been a bore with endless 1x1 ribbing, the color changes continuously kept me interested. My honey likes it, too, although he has yet to wear it, but I'm not hurt, because I know he doesn't wear scarves. I was more interesting in knitting it than gifting it. Next winter, I'll make one for myself in more feminine colors.



I started an Ernie sweater for my nephew - a striped raglan, knit it pieces, so I can sew it up to perfectly match the stripes. It's based upon the construction of the pattern in Son of Stitch 'n Bitch, only much smaller. It's bigger than he is, though, and hopefully I can give it as a birthday gift, that he can wear when the weather turns cold in the fall.

For March, I will focus on finishing all UFO's before I start anything new, other than another small simple on-the-go-stuff-in-my-purse project. It keeps me sane whenever I'm out and about running errands and have to wait for something or someone.

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.

Lily Bath Mitt

I've made five of these so far. One for my sister, three for me, and one for my future sister-in-law. I tried to be clever by modifying the pattern to work them in the round, thinking that avoiding seaming would save time. Wrong! Garter stitch circularly on double pointed needles is tedious, compared to working the pattern as-is: flat, all knit stitches, a few decreases, and minor seaming. I can almost knit them without looking. Also, in the process, I learned from Principles of Knitting how to seam garter-stitch properly, which magically looks seamless from both sides!

So far, I worked this half in just under an hour, which means the last half will probably take less. I foresee lots of Christmas gifts along with some handmade herbal soaps. Currently, I've only experimented with melt-and-pour formulas, but in my Michaels Book of Arts and Crafts, there's some recipies for "real" soap, mixed with dangerous lye, natural vegetable fats, and essential oils, that read like a chemistry experiment. Now this is something I definitely can't resist trying!