FO: Pomatomus Socks

Photos by my little sister, who's quite the photographer already.

Pattern: Pomatomus by Cookie A.
Yarn: Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock Solid - Cranberry (2 skeins)
Needles: 2, 2.25, 2.5, 2.75 mm
Ravelry: Here!

I love these socks! They are pretty, warm and look great with my favourite boots. I bought the yarn almost a year ago, when I was struck by the urge to make kneehigh Pomatomuses (Pomatomi?). After I got it, it seemed to pretty to be turned into socks and I swatched for shawls and gloves but nothing worked. It disappeared into my stash, only to eventually be dug up again. This time the desire for kneehighs was too strong, and the yarn finally found its purpose. It's great to work with, and the variations in colour are so subtle. I'd love to have enough of this for a sweater!

I made quite a few changes to the pattern to be able to make the most of this gorgeous yarn. In fact, the only thing that comes from the pattern is the stitch pattern. I knit mine from the bottom up, with a gusset and heel inspired by Yarnissima's way of constructing them. Because I have fairly slim legs, I didn't have to increase for my calves. Instead I simply went up a needle size after a few repeats.

I used Jeny's Surprisingly Stretchy Bind Off, which is totally true to its name! It's ridiculously simple - although I did get confused occasionaly with which direction I needed to do my yarnover in - and indeed suprisingly stretchy. I will be using this for all my stretchy edgings for now on!

Pomatomus - Part 1

A few days ago I was suddenly struck by the desire to knit socks - knee high socks, no less. I found two skeins of Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock that I bought with the intention to turn them into a pair of Pomatomus socks. Behold the first half of the pair.

Pattern: Pomatomus by Cookie A.
Yarn: Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock Solid, colour Cranberry
Needles:2/2,25/2,5/2,75 mm

To be honest, the only thing in which I stayed true to the pattern is the stitch pattern. I knit mine toe up, so I could continue until my first skein ran out. When the second one is finished too, I'll recruit someone to take proper FO pictures, because taking pictures of your own feet is a bitch.

FO: Featherweight

Pattern: Featherweight Cardigan by Hannah Fettig
Yarn: 80 gr. of Zephyr wool/silk in Sable
Needles: 3mm

It's finished, dry and I'm wearing it right now. Although I'm not completely convinced by the colour (a rusty, coppery brown), I absolutely love everything else about it. It's soft, light, drapy and warm and I never want to take it off!

Apart from knitting the sleeves flat, I made another minor modification: I knit the edges in seed stitch so they wouldn't curl. I was a bit afraid that the grafted edges would show, but after blocking I can only tell if I look at it from less than 5 cm.

I'm glad this one is finally out of the way, because now I can finally justify starting on one of the other three (or was it four?) sweaters I have the yarn for!

Battle of the Sleeves

Tonight I finally finished my Featherweight Cardigan. I've had the body finished since the summer, but somehow the sleeves wouldn't come along. I started off on magic loop, my favourite way of working small things in the round. Unfortunately it's not so much a favourite with tiny yarn on bigger needles. There was horrible laddering and it was altogether to fiddly. Knitting the sleeves flat on circulars was no better.

Next up were the DPNs. Again, not so much of a problem if the needles aren't a little big for the yarn. I got about a centimeter further than with the circular and gave up, this time for a month or two. As a last resort I got a tiny (30 cm) circular needle. This was even more fiddly and annoying than either of the other options. The cardigan went back into time-out and by this time I was afraid it would never come out again, until I found a way to get them done.

I was going to knit the sleeves flat, bottom up. Then, I'd graft them to the live stitches at the shoulder and seam them closed. It might be the most inefficient way to knit the sleeves on a top down raglan, but it was the only way it'd get done. And I was right, from the moment I cast on the first sleeve, it took less than a week to have the whole thing seamed and ready to go.

It's around midnight now, so the pictures will have to wait until daylight.

Sneak Preview

Just a short update to let you all know that I (finally) have a new pattern in the works! Luckily the student presentations were uninteresting and general enough that I could write up the draft during class. I knitted the first version of this over a year ago, but never bothered to write up the pattern or make notes. Luckily, I've managed to reverse engineer the stitch pattern and the decreases. I still need to make a new, final version for photographing because this one already looks old and worn.

Hopefully I'll get it finished and tested soon, because I think it'd make a lovely gift or selfish winter accessory.

Don't you just love the buttons?

Books, Books, Books

Oh my, it's been over a month already.
Unfortunately the daunting pile of books I need to read for my courses (American Literature before 1900 and Kaleidoscope of Western Literature - You get the idea) has left me with way too little time to knit & design. I have three finished things that need photographing, writing up and testing, but I'm afraid it won't be done just jet.

These classes finish in the first week of November, and I hope next quarter will be beter.

100 x Percy

See that, there on the right? 100 people on Ravelry have made or are making Percy! I had never expected it to be such a succes. After the KAL at the Beginning Lace Knitters group on Ravelry, a lovely group of German knitters have started a Percy KAL too. I am definitely planning to release more patterns in the (near) future. There's one coming up to facilitate people like me, who love sock yarn but aren't that much into knitting socks. I'm not showing it just yet, but it won't be long.