twistedloops

I haven’t really been knitting much since the start of 2009.  I just haven’t seemed to find the inspiration to work on anything.  So, knowing that this knitting funk could ruin my annual yardage knit average, I decided to join a knitalong, and let someone else tell me what to knit.  I decided to join the Socks that Rawk group on Ravelry in their Leyburn Sock KAL.  The goal is to knit the pattern in as many Socks That Rock colors as possible.  I chose to cast on in Mediumweight Fire on the Mountain.

The sock knits up so quickly.  I’ve finished the first sock, and made it to the heel on the second.  As I looked for my notes on how I knit the first heel, I put the two socks side by side.  Now, I had cast on for the second sock while at Knit Night on Wednesday.  I’d forgotten my pattern, and Border’s doesn’t have free wifi, so I couldn’t look up the pattern.  Still, I was confident that I remembered the number of cast on stitches and the stitch pattern, so I forged ahead.  I didn’t take the time to verify the pattern when I got home.  Instead, I continued working on the sock for two more evenings.

The second sock had a significantly wider and shorter toe than the first sock.  I must have cast on too many stitches to start.  I was correct in the number of stitches needed for the pattern and the pattern stitch.  It was the cast on that tripped me up.  So, last night I ripped out sock number two, and it’s waiting for me to start again.  Hopefully, I’ll be inspired to do so soon!

Since things were a bit snowy last night and I was feeling a bit tired, I stayed home from KTog.  The good news about staying home is that it allowed me to finish sewing the seams on the Phyllo Yoked Pullover and block it.  In the end, it was only four days late for NaKniSweMo.  That’s not bad, considering how the month of November went for me.

I hope to have it make the big debut at the annual KTog Holiday Party on Friday.  Finished photos coming soon!

I’ve never been much of a joiner when it comes to knitalongs (Bayerische excluded).  But, I’ve joined one.

 

In November, I’ll be participating in the NaKniSweMo (National Knitting Sweater Month).  The goal is to knit a 50,000 stitch sweater in one month.  I assume that 50,000 stitch sweater = 1 adult sized sweater.   I’ll be waiting to start the Phyllo Yoked Sweater until November 1.  Now I have to find a sock or other small project to keep me busy for the next week.

You can participate too, by signing up at Knitgrrl’s blog or join the Ravelry group.

I finally finished reknitting the Bayerische sock tonight.  I decided to add an additional 8 rows of the texture pattern, and then knit the toe.  I did some informal measuring, and decided that there would be enough yarn for this.  I knit, and knit, and knit.  Each row became more and more troubling.  Would I run out of yarn?  Finally, I decreased down to the 8 stitches on each needle called for by the pattern before grafting.  How much yarn was left?  You can see it there in the picture, all 29 inches of it.  That’s right, less than one yard of yarn remains.

Now, I’ll admit that I’m worried about the second sock.  If my gauge is off just a tiny bit, it could spell disaster for sock two.  But, I went ahead and wove in the ends on the first sock.  It’s interesting, my sock is actually a bit big on me.  As I knit with the others from KTog on this project, I kept noticing that mine was a bit wider than the other socks being knit.  But, as I stated in a previous post, I refuse to knit socks on anything smaller than my US0s.

As for the next steps, I’m not sure if I’ll cast on for the next sock right away, or continue with my other current knitting obsession, dishcloths.  I’ve finally knit some ballband dishcloths.  The pattern is easy to memorize, and makes for good movie knitting.  I’ve still got a ton of cotton to go, so I image there will continue to be more of this pattern. 

Last night I knit the last row of Bayerische sock number one.  However, the toe is a bit too small and tight, so I will be ripping it out later today and adding some additional plain rounds.  I admit, you, you and the blogless others at KTog on Tuesday night were correct; I had enough yarn to finish the sock.  However, this is my remaining yarn.  I can admit that I was extra nervous at the end – it’s a super tiny ball of yarn!

I’m thinking that I should be able to rip back and add a few plain rounds before I start the decreases.  I had to start the toe before the pattern called for, I knew I would not have enough yarn to continue in pattern until 1.5 inches remained.  Because I knew the toe had to be longer, I added additional plain knit rows between decreases.  Obviously, I did not add enough rows.