I came to a sad realization last night. My lowly little sock, at even only 56 stitches around, is still too loose for my foot. I think the fabric needs to be firmer, too. So I’m going to frog and try again, this time with the dreaded size 0 needles that I had been oh so desperately hoping to avoid.
Am I just too loose a knitter to make socks? The prospect of size 0 needles is daunting. I think I might lose my mind…
Today I had an unexpected day off, caring for a sick, toothless 6-year-old, who, it turns out, has the strep buggers. So we had a Spongebob marathon, and watched Cars, I got some progress done on my purple sock. Not enough to show you though, so I thought I would talk tonight about my baby sweater. Again.
I played around with a couple of stitch patterns for the front panels, and I think I’m going with a simple plaited cable with vertical eyelets on either side. The entire rest of the sweater will be done in stockinete stitch, but I haven’t yet decided whether to do a garter stitch border at the bottom and cuffs, or some sort of ribbing. I’ll decide when I get there. I also have inserted one eyelet button hole, but it is so tiny you can’t even really see it in the photo. So I need to decide quick how to do the buttons. Maybe I’ll skip the whole thing and just do an i-cord tie. We’ll see.
I also decided to put the sleeve stitches on holders when I get to them and do them in the round at the end. That is what makes the most sense to me at the moment. I’m already wondering if this sweater is ever going to get done. The stitches are so tiny! Next time I use this yarn for such things I think I am going to double it.
Note to self: I stopped on the sock tonight ready to do round 5 of the second pattern repeat. But before I do any more work on it I want to put it on my foot again and make sure I wasn’t kidding myself about the size. It’s small. But I have a teeny foot (size 5, narrow). I often get away with wearing 6’s but I never wear open toe-d shoes so I forget how ridiculously big they really are.
All for now…
Just a quick post so I can make notes on my sock in progress, so I can replicate it for the second one. (No, I’m not into two at once. Most knitting gets done in the car, where it’s too hard to wrangle two balls of yarn in my purse.)
I increased from 8 stitches on each needle to 28 stitches on each needle. I am doing the Toe Up Monkey Sock pattern, and to do two full repeats on the top of the foot I would need at least 32 stitches on each needle. since my foot is so small I’m going to try one repeat up the center of the foot and see how that works, and then increase at the ankle to compensate (my ankles are fatter anyway so my theory is that this should work).
Anyway it is very late here so I had to stop after round 3 of the pattern and will pick up with round 4 tomorrow morning. Hopefully it will look cute when it starts to come together! Wish me luck…
Yes it’s true; I’m a slow knitter. I managed a few more rounds on my sock toe at yesterday’s knitting group, but that’s about it. I could have done more today, but I do have this brown ripple afghan I’m working on. So I did a little on that, too. And I do mean a little. I don’t know what it is with me lately; I have all of these grand intentions of knitting for long stints and then I get distracted. Usually by the computer, of course, which, coincidentally, is where I am now… could blogging be eating into my knitting time? I’m sure there are thousands of knitters out there now who are with me on this conundrum.
Yesterday at knitting group, Shelley gifted me with this:
It’s Socks that Rock Lightweight in the Mystic Kelp colorway. Yum! It’s all purple-y and, and, and… I love it! Thanks, Shelley!
While at the bookstore yesterday I picked up one of these:
It’s a Moleskine Small Sketch Book
I’m feeling bummed tonight. I’m coming down off of a week off from work and now I have to go back tomorrow. I feel the stress creeping up on me. Ack! Make it stop!
More next time…
Everyone was knitting socks:
Even me!
And the thing is, even though we were all knitting socks, we were all doing it differently. Shelley was knitting top down on DPNs. Lola, who happened to be knitting way cool purple socks, was doing top down on two circulars. Rhoda was doing a second striped sock top down on magic loop. And me? I’m doing one toe up on magic loop. Isn’t it great how the same thing can be done in so many marvelous ways? That’s the coolest thing about knitting to me. I’ve learned that there’s no right or wrong. I don’t have to be concerned that my hands won’t work a certain way to use this certain tool or that certain method. There’s always another way. And that’s cool!
Shelley and Lola both like spinning and had lots to talk about. Lola reported that she just got a new spinning wheel.
Rhoda knits away on her second striped sock. Looks like she’ll be done soon!
I of course could not get out of the store without buying another book. More on that tomorrow.
I just got the book, Afghans and Throws
There is a fair bit of crochet in this book, so if you’re put off by that don’t buy it. I had hoped for a little less crochet, but some of the joining methods described for joining squares or panels are genius and worth having the whole book just for that. If you’re a creative knitter who doesn’t mind knitting really big rectangles, but wants to get inspired to make your rectangles unique and fun, this book is for you. Go get one! I know I’m going to be using mine lots.
Onto another subject, tomorrow is my monthly knitting group and I am excited. I’m really looking forward to sitting and knitting with everyone. See you then!