A Project-to-be

I feel like I've been rather sadly neglecting this blog of late. It's not for lack of knitting, though it is for lack of knitting show-off-able projects, and for lack of finishing much.

For instance, in Paris, I finished a pair of simple stockinette socks for my sister Mary, but they were on Lion Brand Microspun (which I have decided I hate), intended as a way to start an in-the-round project with my other, knitting sister, Sarah. They took about two days, and that's with ripping out several times to accommodate feet which apparently grew over the course of each day. I have a photo of a sock-in-progress, but I never did take a picture of the finished product... I'll try to remember next time I see her, but that could be months.


I did finish one yellow sock for myself, and it's neat. I haven't cast on for the second yet. But I carry it in my purse, just waiting for the proper enforced down-time at work or wherever. Emily does have a softball game tonight...

I've started a sweater for a friend's child, out of Phildar yarn (a result of our French yarn shopping), and her birthday is in a week, so with luck I'll have a finished project to show soon.


I went to the WEBS tent sale last weekend, and picked up a handful of single balls to experiment with, including a Noro Transitions and Noro Silver Thaw on good discounts, some funky hand-dyed ribbon yarn, and a bag of Rowan All Seasons Cotton in the grape colorway. It's just exciting to have, even if I don't actually have plans for it yet... I'll have to take a picture soon.

But the big thing on my mind is a project for which I have ideas, photos and a bag of yarn, but not yet a pattern. I'd decided, before we ever left, that my souvenir of France would be the purchase of yarn that I couldn't get (easily) outside of France, to make a sweater to commemorate the trip - a way of combining a shopping trip with a longer-term hobby, you know? And our first day there, we went to the Opera, and I was inspired by the complex mosaic patterns on the floor. So I want to take these:






...and some of this yarn (the off-white is part-cashmere, yum!):



...to make myself a sweater, in the spirit of a Norwegian skiing sweater, with patterning along the waistline and neckline/shoulders and possibly also the cuffs of the sleeves, and a fairly wide off-white stockinette band in the middle. I haven't had the time and focus yet to sit down and map it out, and I want to finish off a few pending projects so I have more mental space for this one. But soon. Soon.

Continued Cuteness

Honest and truly, I am still working on adult, non-cute things... but they take so much longer. I still have Willem's neverending fisherman's sweater on the needles, and I've recently cast on these socks in a bright yellow Regia Silk 6-ply for myself (Monday night), and this sweater in Angora Soft, also for me (yesterday). I normally try to limit the active projects, or at least I don't cast on two new projects on consecutive nights, but I needed a break from the Aran sweater and wanted to start a small, non-threatening project to do on the plane to Paris next week (!!), and wanted another one, heavy on plain stockinette stitch, to work on in the car this weekend when we go to New York.

What? Me, addicted? You think picking out my knitting projects long before I start packing my clothes is a sign of addiction?

Yeah, me too.

So, that's what's happening. In the meantime, I have finished off a few things, with a week's hiatus to be deathly ill - strep throat and a GI virus at the same time, how lucky am I? I was literally too sick to knit. But I've recovered, and there was much rejoicing.

Let's see... I finished a walrus for Miss Emma...


Then a moose for my sister Mary, who, if she reads this blog, will see her birthday present a day before she gets it. I can cope with that.



And then my first-ever foray into both making something up and writing down the pattern... a little tube dress with i-cord straps, for Lexi, who spends Monday evenings with us and is as cute as a button but much rounder. I did endless searching for "free knitting pattern toddler sundress" and couldn't find quite what I wanted, but Kerrie's Exotic Tank pattern gave me the basic proportions and then I just converted it to circular needles and changed the edges a bit. Only took about 6 hours, start to finish... not too shabby!

Lexi's Sundress (size 2T):

Materials:
2 skeins Caron Simply Soft, MC=heather, CC=lavender
4.5mm / US 7 circular needle, 24”
Darning needle
Size E/4 crochet hook

Gauge:
5 sts x 4 rows = 1 square inch

Body:
MC co 213, pm and join
k 2 rnds
k2tog, k1 1 rnd ----- 142 sts
CC k 3 rnds
MC k2 tog 1 rnd
MC k 5 rnds
CC k 3 rnds
[MC k 6 rnds; CC k 3 rnds] – repeat until piece measures 17” from first CC rnd

Neck shaping:
Staying in stripe pattern:
Next rnd k 51 sts, BO 20
Next “rnd”: BO 20 – now with 31 sts remaining, working back and forth for remainder of project.
All purl rows, p across.
Next k row: k1, k2tog, k25, ssk, k1
Next k row: k1, k2 tog, k23, ssk, k1
Next k row: k1, k2tog, k7, ssk, k1, BO 1, k1, k2tog, k7, ssk, k1 (22 sts remain, 2 straps of 11 sts each)

Left strap shaping:
[p across
k1, k2tog, k to end.]
Repeat until 4 sts remain in this strap.
Switch to i-cord, CC for length of cord – make strap 12” long, thread darning needle and pull end of yarn through live sts, pull tight and weave in end.

Right strap shaping:
[p across
k to 3 sts from end, ssk, k1]
Repeat until 4 sts remain, then complete as right strap.

Using CC and crochet hook, single-crochet edging along neckline. Weave in ends, and apply to nearest size-2T child.