Last Sunday I spent four hours in A&E with my 81-year-old neighbour, who fell off her motorised scooter and broke her hip. Only a knitter could see the bright side of this; I managed to get the second sock finished, of a pair that had been hanging around for some time.
I bought the yarn (Trekking XL sock) from A Fine Yarn in Darlington market hall while I was killing a couple of hours on the way to Teesdale last year. The stall is small but has a great selection of yarns and they do mail order too. I love the colours on this yarn, they are subtle but not boring.
The pattern is my regular toe-up sock pattern, built on Amy Swenson's universal toe-up pattern from Knitty. It's perfect for A&E knitting; no pattern needed, it's all in my head!
The second FO is another pair of Saartje's bootees, for another newly-sprogged friend and made from leftover Yarn Yard sock yarn. I think one of them is slightly bigger than the other, I always have a problem counting the rows on the garter stitch. I also make little bobbles for the fasteners rather than using buttons; it seems to work ok.
Finally here's part of an experiment with the two balls of Noro silk garden yarn I bought half price in John Lewis last year. I picked a stitch pattern out of one of my books and started knitting what I planned to be a lacey neck warmer.
I have finished it, but cast off late at night and immediately sewed it up - forgetting that I should have blocked it first to emphasise the lace pattern. So now it's waiting to be unpicked, blocked and sewn up again! I'm pleased with the initial effect though, and the colours are glorious!
3 comments:
You have been busy recently - no sign of a January slump in your knitting productivity! I love the lace - should block out nicely :O) Hope your neighbour is on the mend soon as well.
A very productive January indeed!
If you feel a bit perplexed about the size of your knitted splippers, just use a smaller sized needle; try half a size smaller & if still a bit on the baggy side, go a full size. If you would like tighten up the tops of the slippers that have the border around the ankle (red I think it is) you could knit the slippers in the recommended size then just change to smaller needles when you add the border (if the border is the first part of the slipper to knit, then start off with the smaller needles then once the border/ankle portion has been knitted, change to the recommended size for the body of the slipper.
Dont worry about the booties, whether one is too big or not, because a mother is too busy to notice, and after a few washes no one will notice anyway.
Turning to the 'OMG how many garter stitch rows have I knitted' trouble (easily done when rugby or cricket is on while knitting). I keep a wee note book beside me, mainly only booty knitting times, and I resort to writing "1 2 3 4 5 etc" then on completing each row I put a line through the number. Ive knitted for 30 years and cant be bothered unpicking each time Ive forgotten where I am up to. I do it with increasing & decreasing too, especially if any cabling is involved.
Love the colours you chose, nice to see another knitter not sticking to stereotypical blue/pink.
Post a Comment