7 posts tagged “lace”

That's Juno Regina to the left, with three diamonds completed. I don't feel as if I've completely bonded with it as a project yet, but it looks pretty, and it's nicely balancing interesting to knit with easy to knit, so I'm tentatively considering it actively in progress...

Which reminds me, how long does it have to be since you've knit anything on a project to count as hibernating (for Ravelry purposes)? I'm very polygamous with my projects - I have [checks] six active projects listed on Ravelry, and two projects I consider to be actually hibernating (the other hibernating ones are either finished but for the sewing in of ends, or due for a good frogging, so they don't count). But one of the active projects (the interminable red cardigan) is something I haven't touched in months [checks] - not since last October - so should it really count as hibernating? And if I designate it as hibernating, will that make me even less likely to do anything to it?

Thinking along these lines has led me to take up the purple cable cardigan in the last few days. I've not done much, which is why there are no new photos of it, but it's sitting in the active-project part of my brain again, which is good. I do like both of these cardigans, so I should make more of an effort to finish them.

All of these good intentions, however, are thwarted somewhat by the fact that in the last few days I have also finished spinning the Wisteria navajo-ply, washed and set the yarn, and now started knitting with it. The navajo-ply (which is just a twisted crochet chain with really big loops) means it's three ply, but with the colour changes intact rather than mixed in together. It looks very different from the corresponding three-ply, but it's very pretty. This was always intended for socks, and now socks it is becoming; I've used Judy's magic cast on, and made a broad and shallow toe, because that's the kind I find most comfortable, and I'm not intending to wear these with shoes so the extra fabric doesn't matter. The yarn is really soft knit up. I was a little worried about its softness in the skein - it feels harsh next to the soft smooshy three-ply, but knit up it's soft and a little fluffy, but feels hardwearing too (I hope!). I'm actually going to cast on the other sock now I've finished the toe, and knit them in parallel, to make them as symmetrical as possible, considering that the yarn isn't all precisely the same weight. It doesn't vary too much (which is a bit surprising, considering bits of it are variously spun and plied on both spindles and the wheel, which was probably foolish of me), but I'm planning to use the tightest-plied skein for the heels for strength, so it's just easier all round if I knit them parallel.

I'm not sure how far up the sock I'll get with the navajo-ply. I think it will be enough for the whole foot, but for very little - if any - ankle. Depending on how far it goes, I'm still planning to knit the leg with the thicker three-ply, just because I want to use the two yarns together for contrast.

I'm really loving how the colours are knitting up. I'm not keen on stripes usually, but perhaps this is like liking a book more once you've studied it - you understand what is going on, so you find new appreciation for things you might not otherwise like in it. I'm itching to knit more of it, and am in fact only writing this blog entry because I'm at female-friend-R's house, taking a break from writing my dissertation, and I don't have my knitting with me :-( If I was working at home today, this break would be a knitting one ;-)

Something about Wisp called to me. Maybe it was just that I had the Kidsilk Haze in my stash anyway, but here is the beginnings of my bias-knit Wisp. The number of rows in each band isn't the same as in the pattern, because I wasn't looking at the pattern when I started, and because unless I get round to getting some pointy lace needles, my tolerance for knitting KSH lace is low, so my lace rounds are quite narrow. It looks really pretty, though :-)

I think there must be a trick to taking photographs of your own feet. A trick I have not yet mastered. But anyway! I have finished both of my Baudelaires, and am very pleased with myself :-) I did intend to finish the second sometime over the Easter weekend, but ending up having the kind of fun that is not conducive to knitting. I tried knitting in the garden on Sunday afternoon, but the Pimms and lemonade, and then the gin and tonic when we ran out of Pimms, meant that was probably a bad idea - I did manage a couple of rows, but they were very slow, and I kept having to count all the time and look at my knitting in puzzlement to try and work out whether the number I was counting was the right one ;-)

I finished the body of the second sock yesterday, and have just now finished the ribbing on both, and am wearing them as I type. This is the second pair of socks I've knitted for myself, but I don't wear the others often for various reasons, and I'd forgotten what hand-knitted socks feel like. I remember reading on some blog or other that feeling the texture of the knitting on your feet is supposed to be one of the joys of socks - every step reminds you that your feet are covered with something as extravagantly luxurious as hand-knitted socks. With these it works even when I'm just sitting here typing, feet propped up on the table in front of me. The incredible luxury is part of why I like the idea of handmade socks. The yarn alone costs several times more than a pair of machine-made socks, and that's even before figuring in the cost of the time (at a very rough estimate, these took eight hours of knitting per sock). And the intricate lace on a garment that will hardly be seen! (Especially true in my case - I don't really like wearing socks on their own. My ideal state is barefoot, so if I don't have to wear shoes I'm very unlikely to be wearing socks. Except if I've just finished knitting a pair, apparently ;-)

There are some problems with these. The toes are too pointed, I think, and the ankle isn't quite wide enough to comfortably go over my heel (these are the medium size, with larger instep adjustment, but my gauge was slightly off, so mine are probably a little larger than the medium are supposed to be). It fits, but there's a certain amount of tugging.

With the first sock, I was lucky in the way the rows worked out, and I ended up (by chance) with the ankle cables happening on row 8 of the 8-row lace pattern. With the second sock I made a point of counting rows to make sure the same thing happened again, but I miscounted. I was only one row out, and it's barely visible, but I can see it and it annoys me.

But still, I love them. They're my first serious pair of socks, and I don't think they will be the last.

That's my finished-except-ribbing Baudelaire mark one, and my just-about-to-start-gusset-increases Baudelaire mark two.

The photo of the side and the cables isn't a very good one; I'll try to take better ones when they're both finished. (Edited to add: I should note that there's some weird foreshortening going on in the picture on the right - my foot and ankle are not actually that shape!)

I've just finished the heel on my first Baudelaire. Well, actually I've just knit the first three rows of the leg, but I'd just finished the heel when I took the photos. Without a foot inside, it looks like a peculiar angular thing...

...But with a foot inside, it looks lovely :-)

I don't know how visible it is in the photos, but on the fourth pattern repeat, I started knitting the yarnovers through the back instead of the front, and suddenly the holes appeared as they were supposed to. Frax tells me that her yarnovers make holes when she knits through the front, so I suppose I'm making the yarnovers themselves wrong somehow, but I don't suppose it matters.

The heel construction is really nice. On the right side it is, anyway. Nice smooth lines of increases and decreases, and short rows with no holes. Lovely.

On the left side, it's a slightly different story. The lines of increases and decreases are nothing like as neat, although I'm not quite sure why, and the wraps are visible on the short rows, although still no holes. None of this is enough to make me want to frog, though!

I said I'd just started on the leg, but I didn't say that those three rows include probably the hardest knitting I've ever done: cable increases. Evil, evil things. Towards the end of the second set, I resorted to slipping each stitch in turn onto a tapestry needle and knitting it off that because there simply wasn't enough slack in the yarn to move the knitting needles anywhere. It was still tight on the tapestry needle, and my fingertips are still a bit sore from wrestling the damn things. Still, should all be smooth sailing from now on (fingers crossed).