Monday, June 4, 2007

Lots to catch up on

While I was working on the Elegant Ribbed Socks (previous post) the Inox needles I ordered arrived and I just had to try them out! I had planned on using this yarn to knit the Anniversary Socks by Nancy Bush from Favorite Socks but couldn't get gauge with these needles and I did feel like fiddling with the pattern so I started these...

Pattern: Merino Lace Socks by Anne Woodbury from Favorite Socks
Needles: #0 Inox dpns

I wasn't paying very close attention to the chart and missed an entire section of the pattern. I realized my mistake after 12 rows and had to drop those sts. down and reknit them, ARG! Then all went well until I got to the heel flap, the instructions say to - slip the first 3 sts from needle 1 onto needle 2 and then work the heel flap across the remaining sts. on needle 1 - now maybe I am missing something but I thought it odd to just skip those 3 stitches, so I knit them and moved on. Then the pattern says to - slip the first st of each row p-wise with yarn in front - that's what I normally do on wrong side rows but on right side rows I would slip with the yarn in back, slipping the yarn in front would wrap the stitch when you brought the yarn to the back to knit the next stitch. Oh well, maybe it adds some design feature, so I tried it. All it did (unless I did something wrong) was to wrap the first stitch on each right side row (as I thought it would) and make those neat and tidy slip-stitches along the flap that are so easy to pick-up, not so neat and tidy and very difficult to pick-up because they are all wrapped! Not only was it more difficult to pick-up the stitches, now the two sides of the heel flap look different. On the bright side, I learned something, my way was better! Well, while I was knitting up the flap preoccupied with that slipped stitch, I (again) wasn't really paying attention and just followed the chart to knit the flap - the lace pattern continues down the flap, very cute - but the flap as written happens to be about 2 rows too long for me, which I didn't notice until I was ready to knit the toe.
Finally my lack of attention paid off on these socks, the chart for the instep has a mistake - none of the the purl sts. are on the chart, which is glaringly obvious when I look at it now, but while I was knitting these I didn't even notice. All in all, I am quite please with these socks and the yarn, very nice, very nice indeed.

Sometime during my worrying about running out of yarn for the Elegant ribbed socks and not paying attention to the merino lace socks I picked this up from the UFO basket and decided it was time to finally finish it.

Pattern: Take a Bow cabled tank by Linda Cyr, Vogue Knitting Spring/Summer '02
Yarn: Lion Brand Microspun in white
Needles: US #5 circ.

I actually finished the knitting last spring but never got around to marking the length for the straps and grafting them on. Ten whole stitches on each strap! I just don't really like it, even finished. The gauge is too loose for me, a little too sheer, and it would look silly with something under it. I liked the cabled ribbing and the yarn looks very nice (although not in this pic.) and is silky smooth, I just don't like it. It is likely that this will soon become balls of yarn again.
There is still more but it will have to wait. One last thing, I just wanted to thank Jen for the wonderful gift she brought back from her travels, the lanolin is fantastic. I love it so much, even though I smell like sheep (clean sheep) and the cat keeps stalking me trying to take down the sheep I must be carrying, my hands feel wonderful. It worked so well, I made my husband use it on his feet (dry feet are really hard on hand knit socks) and even he was surprised by how well it worked. So, once again, Thanks.

1 comment:

Chicago Jen said...

You're so welcome!! I'm really glad you love it so much. I'll have to see how my kitties respond to the sheepy smell... :) should be interesting!