Rainy Spring

Well, I finished A's socks and have ordered yarn for two sweaters. Sweaters for me. I have knit many things, but never real life adult size sweaters. I am going to try and get ahead of the game for A socks for next winter over the summer. Surely with swim lessons and park dates etc., I will have time to knock out a couple of pairs.

One of the sweaters I want to make is a summer sweater. Something lacy to wear over tanks and summer shirts so that I won't be cold in restaurants. I haven't found anything like what I want so I am going to have to design it. Having never made or designed a sweater I have a feeling this will be a challenge. I'm going to see how the yarn is first and then figure out the sweater. I'll post pics of the socks and more about the sweaters when the yarn gets here.

Wow! has it really been that long?

I keep meaning to post and then getting distracted. Easy enough I guess. My Xmas projects are done and I didn't take any pictures. I can tell you about them though.

For Dad's leg warmers I ended up using Knit Picks Swish in Truffle. (Don't know what that sock weight yarn I picked originally was all about.) It is a superwash Merino worsted weight. They went pretty quickly and unlike when I make socks one at a time they ended up the same size. Perhaps because I finished them in less than a month. The pattern is just in my head a simple 3x1 rib with increases at the knee and again at the thigh. They are close fitting so he can wear them under his pants and still be comfortable.

Mom's green stripey socks turned out great. She even got them on her birthday, last week. You know cause that's when they were done. I was very excited they fit her so well. Plain stockinette foot with a 3x2 rib leg. I still haven't figured out what size my feet are and I don't care for the fit of the last pair of socks I made for me. I'm going to use the same formula for my next pair that I used on hers. I have also decided that I really like the metric system and the USA is crazy for not using it. How many times do I need to convert .4 inches to 2/5 and then try to locate that on my tape measure? It's one frickin' centimeter.

Currently I am making socks for A. She decides periodically that she doesn't like the seam in commercial socks. While I can understand this I don't think it is actually physically painful and deserving of tears. I am wrong. It only seems to be an irritant about every two weeks. Hopefully, if I can manage to have two or three pairs of socks without seams for her she can wear those on the days the seam is a nuisance/painful. She may not be rational, but she has the smallest feet in the family so I don't really mind.

I have realized that since I like making socks that seems to be what I think of to make for everyone. In fact the yarn originally purchase for Dad's leg warmers (Essential Solid in Dusk) is now destined to be socks for my brother. The only person who requests knitted or hand made items other than A is my dad so he ends up with variety, mittens, leg warmers. Perhaps I should make my brother a blanket or something, but not out of the sock yarn.

Lace is still on my mind if not on my needles. I purchased some crochet cotton to practice with. A friend loaned me a book so I can design my own lace. I even found a pattern online for a 1940s doily and coaster set that looks interesting. Now I just need to jump in and start. Perhaps after I finish sewing A's jammies...

More Fiber Crafts

I took a needle felting class this weekend. Just what I needed another reason to buy wool. I have a bag of cat fur somewhere around here I want to try it with. The stuff wet felts and I've seen cats that had mats which are basically felted so... Yes, perhaps it is weird to make a 3d copy of one of my pets. I never said I was normal, whatever that means. I wonder how Bobcat will feel about a 3d counterpart. The better question may be how will Orange Kitty feel about Bob Jr.

Well, I think I need more cookie cutters for the shapes of the felt projects so I'm off.

Mmm! Yarn

Here it is before I got it out of the box. I was so happy when it came today. I don't enhance my stash often.


Here it is on my bed. It is all from Knit Picks. I love their prices. The brownish yarn is Gloss (70%merino30%silk) in Serengeti and is destined to be socks for me. The dark blue is EssentialSolid (75%superwash25%nylon) in Dusk and will be leggings of a sort for my dad who apparently has cold knees. These are both sock weight. The last yarn on the right is Alpaca Cloud (100% baby alpaca) in Mist. It is a pale purpley blue and will be a lace scarf for me. It is lace weight. Where I live it is rarely cold enough for a full on Alpaca scarf, but a lace scarf that can be doubled up on really cold days will be perfect.

The dyes are for a roving I have and we'll see how that project progresses. As it stands now I have some knitting to do. Now I just need to cast on something. Hey, I did work on my hat while I was in line to vote.