Knit One, Purr Too

Head and toes

In case you were getting sick of all yellow squares all the time, here's some non-yellow knitted goodness to gaze upon.

First up, a finished pair of socks. This is the Snowflake Lace sock pattern from the September 2006 issue of Magknits.

I made these with some cream colored Patons Kroy Socks yarn that's been rattling around in my yarn stash for a year or two. The pattern is pretty simple to follow and once I stopped doing only a row or two here and there and actually focused on the socks for more than a half hour every week, I had the 12 row pattern memorized in no time at all. 52 stitches around seemed like far too few for a sock, especially since I've lately been using smaller and smaller needles lately, but the lace pattern makes those paltry 52 stitches more than enough to fit around even my...um...shapely calves.

And now for a much cuter (and signficantly less blurry) picture of that little fair isle hat I made last month while learning how to do stranded colorwork, perched on the head of one of the cutest little babies I know.

I tried getting pictures of the little top-down raglan cardigan I made for the newborn son of my fellow tenor in the choir, but they didn't really come out, and since the cardigan has already been gifted to its intended recipient, you will all just have to content yourself with imagining it. It was really cute. Really. I swear.

Past the halfway mark

Here's the latest batch of square for my mom's afghan. I am really enjoying working with this yarn (Dark Horse)- it's incredibly soft and quick to knit. Plus I'm still managing to get a bit more than three squares out of each skein, so the ten skeins I bought will be more than enough.

These first four squares are stitch patterns from a very, very old Leisure Arts booklet that, unfortunately, I already returned to my knitting mom, so I don't have a pamphlet number or publication date. I suspect, however, that these stitch patterns are likely available in a number of other places. The first two did not have names, just numbers.

This next one is called, I think, Diamonds and Lace. I really like this and could see it as an inset on a cardigan, or even worked down the sides of a sock. I've been pondering whipping up a few extra baby sweaters, to use up some stash yarn and also to have on hand for the next time an acquaintance has a baby, and this would be really cute for either a boy or a girl.

This Flame Chevron pattern would also look nice on socks (can you tell I've been missing making socks?)

And finally, I found this stitch pattern somewhere online, and decided I liked the back view much better than the front, due to the way it creates just the suggestion of diamonds.

Lead me not

I have square #15 of my mom's sampler afghan nearly finished, a pair of cappuccino-colored Snowflake socks on the needles, all the pieces of Sheldon finished and just waiting to be stuffed and seamed, a picture of that baby sweater I made last month and finally got around to putting buttons on, plus a picture of the little fair isle hat on top of the cutest little model you ever did see, but you are just going to have to wait until later for all of that.

For now, I will simply share with you two things which have me drooling ever so slightly into my keyboard.

The first is this. Go look, I'll wait. And make sure to look at the sample pages inside the book. I know, I know, it's in Japanese, but all of those glorious stitch patterns are charted, so really, how hard could it be to figure them out? You have no idea of amazing amount of willpower involved in not immediately ordering that little bit of knitting p*rn so it can wing its way to me post haste.

The second thing that is perhaps just as delicious as the first, is the fact that Trekking now sells this. The fact that I already have three bins overflowing with sock yarn that still needs to be knit (and this already includes a not insignificant amount of Trekking) means nothing when faced with something like that.

I must be strong. Remember the fact that Richard's car is currently undergoing an extremely expensive 120,000 mile service, and that there just might possibly be termites under our house, and Stitches West is coming up in a few weeks and really, how much sock yarn and how many stitch pattern books does one knitter need, anyway? Right?

Five more

I've been busily cranking out more yellow squares for my mom's sampler afghan, so here's the next five completed pieces. This last week it's been pretty much all about the fun cables.

Integrated Lattice (from one of the Barbara Walker stitch treasuries)

Quatrefoil with Seed Stitch (from one of the Barbara Walker stitch treasuries)

Aquaduct (from one of the Barbara Walker stitch treasuries)

Candle Flame Tree (from one of the Barbara Walker stitch treasuries)

Leaning eyelet check (my own design) - a chance for me to practice making left leaning decreases that look as pretty as right-leaning decreases (the secret - knit two through the back loop, and then purl that decreased stitch through the back loop on the way back)

I'm currently doing a very non-cabley square, and my knitting mom loaned me two more stitch treasuries to browse through (because the four Barbara Walkers and the three Harmony books are not enough - heh). I've already picked out a few to try, just for fun.

There has been a little non-yellow-yarn knitting, just to keep things from being all yellow, all the time. I added a pom pom to the little fair isle hat and gave it to my coworker, who has two small kids. I keep forgetting how large baby heads are - I was sure it would be too big for the baby and would, instead, fit the three year old, but she says it fits the littlest one perfectly. I've also finished the body for Sheldon, which, without any legs or eyes, looks really quite disturbing on its own. The pattern has you add the legs next, but I am actually thinking that while I will make the legs and have them stuffed and ready, I will not actually add them until the shell is completed. My thinking here is that I can stuff the disturbing little body into the shell, and then pin the legs in place, thereby making sure that they are in the right spot for optimum shell fitting.