Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Mindless knitting


After working on the Mingus socks and the Raven shawl I needed something simple to knit away at. I also wanted to use up the two remaining skeins of Shibui Sock yarn I had laying around. When I bought this yarn I thought it was a semi solid sort of thing but it turns out to be a striping yarn. This makes it tricky to use in intricate patterns but perfect for a simple sock.

Since the point was to use up what I had, I cast on at the toe and found that one skein yields a mid-calf length sock. With the leftovers from Mingus I should be able to get a pair of knee socks. I'm planning to work a picot edging but I'm going to make sure I can get two full socks before I use up yarn on fancy finishing techniques.

As you can see in the pictures the stripes work out pretty well except for the increase section for the calf shaping. If I were feeling picky I would do all of my increases at once, rather than spread out, to minimize the break in the pattern. I am not feeling picky about these socks so I'm just letting them be.

I took the picture using my "new" metal sock blockers. I found the sock blockers at an antique store and decided that they would be useful to have around. Since there was a variety of them available I wanted to make sure that I got the closest match to my foot size. First I measured them against my forearm which I remembered is generally the same size as your foot. Then I remembered that I had a sock in progress in my bag that I could test out for size. I'm guessing antique stores don't usually get clients trying socks in progress out on their wares. It did result in a sale, though.

Enough about socks. I'm not sure if it is the arctic air mass, which is apparently bearing down on us as I type, or what but I found myself with a strong desire to knit and Icelandic Lopi sweater. I want something comfortable to layer over things when I'm at home and maybe substitute for a jacket on warmer days. I don't need soft, just warm and woolly. Thanks to Ravelry and the pictures at Camilla Family Farm I picked out this sweater to knit:

I think I will add a snow flake motif to the cuffs but otherwise knit as written. While I was looking for the right sweater I came across I great picture that puts all those little dog sweaters to shame:

If you want to knit it the info is available here. I guess that it is true that the yoke sweaters look good on all body types.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

I am being size-ist but that is no horse, that is a pony.
You would need a lot more yarn for a horse and in western Canada that horse might have other horses (dare I say it) horse-laughing.

Joan