FO Catch up part 1

Okay, so I've been admittedly absent from the blogosphere, but to make up for the past month, I'm going to show you some stuff that I've been working on. Only a little it for now because I don't seem to have the attention span anymore.


Ebb & Flow Socks
Pattern: by Cat Bordhi in Vogue Knitting Fall 2006
Materials: Knitpicks Essential (75% wool/25% nylon, 231 yds per 50g ball) 50g in Grass, 50g in Fawn. Size US4 Addi Turbo 24, 32".
Gauge: 6.25 sts/in in St st.
Finished Size: to fit women's size US7 feet.

Started: March 12, 2007
Finished: March 15, 2007

Modifications:
None really except for the misguided yarn sub. I did only 3 pattern repeats for the cuff instead of the 7 called for.

Discussion:
There's nothing particularly wrong with these socks except that well, the pattern calls for doubling up fingering weight yarn and using 200g of sock yarn for the whole pattern. I only had this stuff in the stash, and I figured that it could be okay. Well, I think it sort of ended up looking like cat barf, but I needed a whole lot less of it that I thought I would. So now with the leftovers, I'll be able to make some boot socks for my dad. I think it'll be a bit more appropriate for him as he's ex-Army than these were for my great-grandmother. I thanked my stars when I finished these and got a good look at how god-awful they were that my g-grandma is practically blind. But then she went and had her cataracts removed and can see again. Drats! Foiled again!

Anyway, if I were to do it over, I'd have just used one strand of DK weight yarn instead of fingering doubled up. The doubled up yarn made the lace tops (yes, that's supposed to be lace, not crappy textured stuff) way too stiff. And mixing two different colors was a bad idea as the lace pattern was completely lost in the marled look of the sock. The construction of the sock was interesting (putting the gusset on the top of the foot), but I didn't like the way the heel looks, so it's not something I'd repeat. Oh well, knitting fug every now and then isn't a bad thing. I only wish I were a process knitter so that I could be more satisfied with what I've learned instead of wishing it came out prettier.

I also churned out a couple of hats out of leftover yarn. The one on the left is from leftover TLC Cotton Plus (maybe 15g)from my nephew's blanket. The one on the right is 50g of Cascade Pastaza from when I made the Buttonhole bag. Both were churned out in a day.

I'm in this one for you and one for me mode right now. I figured that while I'd like to be a totally selfish knitter, with the number of other events I have to knit for, I can't totally ignore everyone else. So that's why next time, I'm showing you another one for me (the eyelet blouse from VK Winter 2006/2007) and one for you (actually, my nephew - the mandarin collar sweater from Natural Knits for Babies).