A new use for self-striping sock yarn

Here are the finished gloves for my SO. The self-striping sock yarn looks like faux Fair Isle, don't you think? And I love that the fingers are each unique.



Pattern: Based on gloves chapter in The Knitter's Handy Book of Patterns
Yarn: Plymouth Yarn Encore Sock Double Knitting Weight, color 7521
Needles: US2
Modifications: Added buttonholes to index finger and thumb of one glove



The buttonholes allow my SO to operate his camera in cold weather without getting cold hands. It took a while to get the buttonholes right, then I put the first one on the wrong side of the index finger. After correcting that, I realized I had measured the index fingers wrong, so I redid the one with the buttonhole, AGAIN putting the buttonhole on the wrong side. I think getting the index fingers right took almost as long as knitting the rest of the gloves. And there were a bazillion ends to weave in. (Ha-ha - the spell checker accepts "bazillion"!)

The glove pattern created interchangeable gloves, i.e. not a right and a left glove. And while the measurements were close to the real hands, I think next time I will obtain actual outlines of the recipient's hands. After all, gloves should fit like a glove, right?

Nothing new, really

Not much to report on this dark and rainy day. I have another five miles inches to go on the Bog Jacket before I reach the armpits. And I'm working on a pair of photographer's gloves for my SO, out of Plymouth Encore DK sock yarn.



The long story is I had made some fingerless mitts a while back and gave them to said SO. His daughter admired them, so I suggested he regift them to her and I would make him some twined mitts. The regifting occurred before the twined mitts were done, though, and then the latter bogged down. Out of guilt, I am making him an interim pair. My daughter purchased a pair of gloves from Target that have fingers that button, so I am going to try to duplicate those. Maybe. This is my first pair of gloves.

I can read!

While working on the all-garter-all-the-time EZ Bog Jacket and watching football, I accidentally learned to knit without looking. Today, while reading an article in the NYer on brain injury in football players (don't let your children grow up to play football!), I also learned to knit while reading. The first couple of times I tried this, I could not concentrate on the words, but eventually the fingers go on autopilot. Every so often, I knit a row "normally" - looking and counting stitches - to make sure I have not screwed up along the way. Today the only hitch was a stitch that had split.



Yesterday I did manage to get some spindling in, using roving of unknown origin. The instructor of the spindling class I took might have given it to us, but you'd think I'd remember that or have blogged about it or something. Anyway, I hope I did not actually PAY for the roving because it is kind of bumpy. It is also very soft but slick. And it SHEDS. My black yoga pants were covered with white fuzz.



Time to think about knitting some socks for xmas gifts. I have several skeins of DK in manly colorways, and I think I will do them toe-up. Nearly running out of yarn with the last pair was too stressful.

Although these are not socks....

Got gauge?

When I started these socks, I apparently did not pay much attention to the needle size or gauge. Socks are socks, fingering is fingering, right? WRONG! These socks turned out HUGE, and I finished with only six yards of yarn left.



Pattern: Alhambra Socks (pattern found here)
Yarn: Cherry Tree Hill Supersock Solid, in "Island Red"
Needles: US1 DPNs
Modifications: None to speak of

The color in this photo is closer to the actual color of the yarn.



Sorry for the crummy pix, but I am so tired of these socks. A significant amount was tinked and reknit (because I can't count), and for some reason, I am so DONE with "fancy" knitting for right now. All I want to do is literally knit - either back and forth in garter or round and round in stockinette. Feeling very impatient these days.

Here is 115g of homespun, though.



That is actually enough to do something with. My urge is to knit it up right now, but I think I will wait for a while. It's not like there is nothing else to work on.

On a frogging roll

After frogging that baby sweater last week, I decided to do the same to the baby hoodie. I think I spent more time frogging than it would have taken me to just complete the darn thing, but no going back now.

The yarn that was on the spindles is now plied and the twist is being set. The result is still kind of uneven - okay, a LOT uneven - but better than my first attempt. I discovered I am not very fond of plying by spindle. My birthday is this month, and I had been contemplating gifting myself with a wheel, but I'm just not ready yet. Soon, though, real soon.

Most of my knitting has been on the current sock project. For some reason, the heel flaps came out uneven (okay, I admit it, I can't count), but I did not discover it until I was into the gussets, so some tinking occurred. Now I am in the homestretch, but - gah! - the yarn appears to be running short. The toes may be in a contrasting color.

Socks, sweaters, and spindling

My plans to whip the UFOs is not working out quite as I planned, but today I discovered there is more than one way to deal with an unfinished project.



The one-skein baby sweater is history. I used acrylic and I apologize to all you acrylic-lovers out there, but I just can't knit that stuff anymore. This particular yarn feels particularly oily, but instead of throwing it out or anonymously donating it to Goodwill, I am giving it and all my other acrylic yarns to a friend who uses them (along with Fun Fur) to knit prayer shawls.

I'm also not spindling like I had hoped, but I did fill up two spindles.



Now I need to ply the singles to free the spindles, but I'm having trouble remembering the finer points of how to do that. I'm sure there is a YouTube video I can watch, though.

One of my UFOs is the Hedgerow socks, but I can't work on them until I free up my only US1 needles, which currently are carrying this pair.



These are the Alhambra socks from Mossy Cottage Knits.



The yarn is Cherry Tree Hill Supersock, in "Island Red". It's an odd color, kind of a pink fleshy color.

And despite working on the Baby Surprise Jacket, I still had the urge to knit a sweater. A big sweater. A big red sweater.



This is Elizabeth Zimmermann's Bog Jacket, in Cascade 220. I had forgotten how much I like Cascade 220, especially compared to Elann's Peruvian wool. The jacket will be mostly red, but also black and gray, and trimmed in black, kind of lumberjacky. Since it is all garter, all the time, it is a good project for football games. (Colts won, BTW.) I'm even practicing knitting without looking.

Time to do some plying.