Knitting stuff

Every time I sit down to write a post with photos, I forget that blogspot is horrible for incorporating pictures and makes me put them in first, in reverse order, before typing. It's a huge pain, and I really wish they'd work on that. I wonder if it's perhaps because I'm using a Mac? Who knows.

Anyway, I have been busy lately with knitting, although not as busy as before when I was churning out socks at a terrific rate. I have been jonesing for a new project, but was determined to finish at least one of the three pairs of socks currently on the needles before I bought new wool. And I did, and I feel terribly virtuous. Here they are:

Here's a close up of the cable. I'd do it again, but I'd give it some purl rows to set it off and make it more noticeable. After all, I put in the work ... why not show it off more?

I'm particularly proud of this little innovation*: one of the problems I have with socks is the trouble I have with placing the heel. I've solved that problem before with ribbing the top of the foot and leaving the bottom plain, but I didn't want to do that this time. So I just included a single purl row on each side -- easy to add when you just finish the toe -- and continued it up the foot. And then when you're ready for the heel, you know exactly where to start and stop the heel -- just include both purl rows! No counting! Whee!

The purl row is also hardly noticeable, it's just a small indent up the foot.

And now for something completely different: Lucie. I went to the LYS with my birthday money and was all set to buy this nice wool / silk blend that was variegated, like in the pattern. But although they had some nice colours, they didn't have enough of the two that I wanted. So I sat and debated ... maybe I could get away with just a little less, not do the crochet ribbing at the bottom, for instance, or not at the cuffs, or something. But the crochet edging is one of the nicer additions to that pattern. So I hummed and hawed (how does one haw, exactly?) and thought some more and thought ... well, if I'm going to knit this sweater, I really do want it to be perfect, and asked if they had something else ... 

And they did, but this is a wool / cashmere blend and I tell you ... just holding it made me fall in love with it. It was slightly more expensive, but still within budget and so I started on it last night in great glee. I am hoping it knits up as nicely as I think it will. 

I am actually pleased this isn't variegated -- I do like that, most of the time, but I really had hoped for a solid sweater this time around. Esp. since I know that the yarn I was considering pools a lot, which I think could look pretty but wasn't the look I wanted for this sweater. 

Anyway, I will post more photos as it goes along, but I think it'll be slow going -- lots of tiny stitches, and not much time to knit. I'm hoping to have it done by the end of the summer, for fall. 

That's what I have so far, two hours of knitting. Oh, including unwinding the hank and winding it into a ball, sure, but still. 

But what do I knit for but for the fun of it?

*Oh, I'm sure I'm not so creative to be the first person ever to think of this, but allow me my little delusions. I haven't seen it before, so I can claim for now to have made it up.