Tuesday, February 06, 2007

Keep on Knitting


Fair Isle Progress: I've finally finished the first sleeve! I steeked the armhole and picked up the sleeve stitches just over a month ago. It seemed to go pretty fast once I got about halfway through. Obviously I had a decreasing number of stitches along the way, so I'm sure that's why.
I think I'm going to go start the steeking on the second armhole as soon as I finish this post, but I may not pick up stitches tonight - we'll see how far I can get :)

In January I also knit a sock (yes, one). I knit the entire sock, toe up, on size 2 dpns. I started the second one, decided the gauge seemed a little loose on size 2's, so I frogged out the second sock and started over with size 0's. I got about halfway up the foot and decided the sock felt too much like body armor. So I frogged it and started over on size 1's. These are my first socks knit from my own hand painted yarn, actually from any hand painted yarn, so I'm really learning a lot. (My very first pair of socks were knit out of worsted weight cotton/acrylic blend following a pattern from Knitty Gritty. My second pair were the Simple Stripes Fair Isle Socks from KnitPicks on size 2's, and the stranding makes them fit a little differently than single yarn socks.) If these work out with the size 1 needles, I'll frog the first sock and reknit it to match. I also don't like the way the picot edging is curling on the finished sock; I don't know if I need to switch to a smaller needle for the rows that are folded to the inside, decrease the number of stitches, or sew it down a row further than what I did. I plan to experiment with the second sock to fix this, but any tips are welcome and encouraged!


In non-knitterly news, my work schedule has picked up. Some of you know I work for a CPA firm, and I am officially in tax season now. I'm going in early, working late, working about half a day on the weekend, so my knitting time is really suffering. I take the sock every day with hopes of working on it at lunch, but I usually end up just eating quickly and getting back to work. I've set a pretty aggressive deadline for myself to have certain projects completed by Feb 15, and I don't like to let myself down. I have more goals lined up for once the Feb 15th one is met. I can't wait for April 17th!

1 comment:

Laura said...

Penny! Hi! Your sock yarn came out GREAT! I love the color and the way the striping works out! And your Sheherezade (sp?) stole. Oh oh oh how beautiful. What an amazing knitting accomplishment! I haven't knit any lace projects like that yet. One day. One day I will.

And your Fair Isle Cardigan is coming along GREAT for someone that's as busy as you are! You get a lot of knitting done girl! Congratulations for having great progress to show. :)