Jaywalkers on Two Circulars-disaster.

I started the second Jaywalker using the two circular needles described in Cat Bordhi's book, Socks Soar on Two Circular Needles. I'm not sure if doing one sock with dpns and one with circulars is a good idea, but we'll see. She recommends the Addi Turbo needles, at around $12-$13 each, however, after doing a bit of research and reading about peoples' experiences with socks on two circulars (such as this review at She Knits Shizknits), I decided to try the Knitpicks Options Harmony needles- much less expensive at only around $4 per needle!

After a couple of mis-starts, so far I really like them, and this technique. The joins aren't as quite as smooth as I'd like, but the cables are nice and flexible. After a few times casting on and having some trouble remembering where the starting point was, I added a stitch marker to mark the start of the round. Now the sock does seem to be going quite quickly with this method. I'm a bit nervous about what will happen when I get to the heel, but hopefully things will just make sense as I go along.

I will admit, I tried out the magic loop technique before the two circulars. Argh! It truly was like wrangling an octopus!

Update: I started this post and then thought, hey, maybe I should check to make sure these socks are the same size/gauge. Um, they're not, which you can clearly see in the above photo. Ugh.

Update number two: Ok, I thought maybe I should check needle size. Let's see, sock number one is knit on size 1s, sock number two on size 2s. Geez, what a surprise that the gauge is off. At least I can most likely switch to the two circular methods for the second sock. I just need to make sure they're the right size. Duh.

Urban Aran Cardigan- done!

Yes, it's done! I finally installed the zipper in the Urban Aran Cardigan. I think it turned out well. I looked at a couple of zipper-installation tutorials, such as the one on Kristin Nicholas's blog and the one at And She Knits Too!

Both were really helpful. In the end I just lined up the zipper and took my time, no fancy tricks or techniques. Jason wore the sweater yesterday. Its warm. You'd think that he might not need it now that its just about May, but I actually saw snow this morning! Blech.

Sock Yarn Blankie

A few nights ago at our book club meeting, one of our members pulled out a baggie full of small sock yarn remnants. She has started knitting a blanket inspired by The Heathen Housewife's sock yarn blankie. This is an amazing project, an entire, full size blanket made up of squares knit from sock yarn remnants. Check out the photos and description on her blog- amazing. Imagine all the seaming and ends to weave in! She's a more patient person than I am...

Speaking of book club, we discussed What is the What by Dave Eggers. A fictionalized version of the true story of Valentino Achak Deng, one of the Lost Boys of Sudan. The book is amazingly sad and powerful. A very worthwhile read.

For the Love of Knitting

My mother in law recently sent me as a gift the book For the Love of Knitting, a beautiful book filled with wonderful essays about the history and culture of knitting. Not a pattern book, but rather an illustrated cultural history (some might say coffee-table book) with wonderful photographs, vintage illustrations and advertisements, and essays by some of the biggest names in knitting, including Elizabeth Zimmermann, Kaffe Fassett, Meg Swansen, Teva Durham, Melanie Falick, and many others, it is truly an ode to the craft of knitting. Thank you Vivien!

Cast on for Something Red (Orange)

A few days ago I cast on for my next project- Something Red by Wendy Bernard. I am using the yarn recommended, Blue Sky Alpcas Organic Cotton, but in orange (actually "pumpkin") rather than red. I really enjoyed the process of making Baby M's striped sweater with a fun top-down raglan pattern, and this short sleeve women's cardigan with the same kind of construction really appealed to me. The raglan increases are done using yarn overs which creates a really cool sort of lacy effect. Although I haven't knit much with cotton, so far its going well and I love the color. I hope this project will go quickly so I can wear it this spring!

Filled With Accomplishment

This past weekend I had a great feeling of accomplishment, as I finished not only the first of the Jaywalkers, but also the Urban Aran Cardigan, excepting the zipper. It still needs to be blocked, but I'm pleased with it. I especially like how the collar turned out. I wanted a stiffer, more turtleneck-y collar and so, using suggestions from Streets and YOs, Aesthetic Entanglementz, and Brooklyn Tweed, I came up with some modifications that worked well.

Here's basically what I did:

1. Using smaller (size 9) needles, picked up the "correct" amount of stitches, as specified in the pattern, however, I did a basic ribbed pattern, rather than following pattern panel A up the collar.

2. Knit for about 1 ".

3. Did strategic P2togs and K2togs so that the collar was K2 P2 ribbing all around

4. Knit this ribbing for about another 1"

5. Switched to smaller needles (size 8s), and did all of the P2s as P2togs around

6. Knit the rest of the collar as K2 P1 ribbing to the top

7. Cast off

Next challenge: installing the zipper!

Socks!

Here is one Jaywalker sock, almost done. This is a really fun pattern, I love seeing the zig-zag appear. However, it has taken quite a while (started on February 20). Part of this is due to the fact that these have been my "commuter" project- pretty much only worked on during the car ride to and from work (which is not long) and occasionally over lunch. I think they look really good however, and now that I have knit a few socks I'm feeling much more comfortable with the whole process. In fact, last year when my mother in law gave me Cat Bordhi's book Socks Soar on Two Circular Needles, I opened it and was totally overwhelmed, and immediately put it aside. Now I think I could handle it. I'm thinking about trying Jaywalker number 2 with this method.


I'm also feeling sock-inspired by a book I checked out from the library recently, Favorite Socks: 25 Timeless Designs from Interweave. I've been wanting to find a pattern to make socks for J and I think the Retro Ribs are a great option for a men's sock. Check out these beauties on Stick Legged Girl. Also, I noticed that Alison just posted about the next Sockapalooza, yea more socks (perfect for summer knitting- if summer ever arrives in Minnesota-I mean look at this picture, its mid-April)!

Mom's Felted Bag

Since I have no finished objects to show at the moment (although the sleeves on J's cardigan are just about done- really!) I thought I'd share this photo of a cute felted purse made by my Mom. She used the basic pattern in One Skein by Leigh Radford for a small clutch and made it larger with longer handles. The only thing she'd do differently: make it deeper.

In Like a Lion- Sigh

On Monday I took a much needed mental health break (aka vacation day) from work to stay home with the kiddies. I was really hoping for a nice, early spring day, maybe a run or walk outside...alas, this is what it looked like. Needless to say, we stayed in all day, I did get some knitting done though, so that was a bonus. Here's my progress on round two of the Urban Aran sleeves, going much better this time. Can't wait until these puppies are done! Can anyone say "sick of gray!"?

To feed my need for spring (sunshine, flowers, bright colors, etc.), I purchased the yarn (from Webs) for my next project- Knit and Tonic's Something Red (a nice sassy spring/summer sweater), a welcome change from the gray, wintry, wool cardigan. Mine will be something orange though, with this nice, upbeat Blue Sky Alpacas dyed cotton in pumpkin- it looks like sunshine!