It's Summer

It's summer and my knitting and blogging have gone way down. Seems like we're out late in the evening every night, either at T-ball, the park, or just hanging out enjoying the nice weather. I have made quite a bit of progress on my Cherry sweater though, and hope to do some finishing work this weekend. Hopefully I'll have a good photo to share next week. In the meantime, here's a close up of the sweet "little birds" pattern.

I also finished one of E's pirate socks- argggh! I like how it came out, although a friend in my book group asked "Is that a skull or a monkey?" Guess I should work on my intarsia technique. I really want to finish these since I'm anxious to work on another pair of grown-up socks. I have some nice green Knitpicks Essential sock yarn that I think would be perfect for either the Snicket socks or the Waving Lace socks. (these are both Ravelry links).

Swatch #2

I finally finished swatch #2 for the Master Handknitter certification program. Wow, this is taking me a long time! Its not that the swatches are difficult, I've been able to churn them out in about an hour, its primarily that I have trouble tearing myself away from my other projects. Initially I had said I would spend one "knitting period" (evening watching TV, lunchtime at work, etc.) working on this. I've been less than stellar about keeping to that. Ok, I'm going to try harder. I think these will definitely be very appealing once the hot weather of summer hits (which will be, when?) and I need very small projects.

Birthday Fingerless Gloves

For J's birthday his Mom made him a great pair of fingerless gloves. I attempted something similar with my men's version of Fetching, however, Vivien did a great job actually making spots for each of the fingers- with nice little cables along the wrists. I know he'll wear these alot this fall and winter. Nice work!

Happy Birthday to you!

Arrrgh! Pirate Socks Matey.

I started some jolly roger socks for my 5-year old (excuse me, 5 and 3/4 year old). These are just a basic stockinette stitch sock. I'm using red for the main portion of the sock, with a tweedy gray for the cuff, heel, and toe. I'm also doing an intarsia skull and crossbones design on the leg. The yarn is a mix of Berroco Comfort Sock (in true red), Lana Grossa Meilenweit (gray and natural), all purchased at Needlework Unlimited. I am using two size 2 circular needles.

For the design, I found a skull and crossbones chart at Moth Heaven and adapted it for the size of the socks. Moth Heaven also has a great tutorial on doing intarsia in the round. Not an easy feat, but the third time's the charm on this one.