Still knitting...

My summer of funemployment is over and I'm back at uni. This means less time for everything other than either studying too much or being anxious that I'm studying way too little.

But I still have some crafting content: my father's 60th birthday is coming up and I've been working on a pair of socks for him since August. I'm using knitty's universal toe-up formula combined with an old Baltic pattern I found in a mitten knitting book.

The socks are taking forever and are not half as fun to knit as I hoped they'd be. But I have learned several things about knitting intricate mosaics with several colors along the road:

• Don't knit too tightly, try to find a relaxed gauge.
• Don't knit too relaxed or you'll get loops to get stuck in on the wrong side.
• Avoid mosaics on garments that are supposed to be elastic (I knew that already, but didn't expect it to be this bad!)
• Don't knit a tight fitting gift and expect to keep it a secret all the way until you give it. I tried the socks on myselt and found them a bit tight. Now I have big feet for being a lady, but not as big feet as my dad, so of course that worried me. I had Chris (who could probably wear canoes for shoes) try them on. He said they cut off the blood-flow to his feet. Not a good quality for a piece of clothing that is supposed to prevent gangrene rather than iniate it. So I had to let dad try them. And indeed they were too small. But only over the ankles, which made them totally rescuable. I just made a ribbed leg instead of a patterned one. Not as pretty as a mosaic leg, but it's not like he'll be wearing them with shorts anyway. I've finished one sock so far and knit the toe on the other one. Now I have about a week to finish the other one too.

Dad's Socks

Flicca was supposed to be my next big knitting project, but I keep putting it off. Earlier, I didn't have yarn money, and now when I have it I can't choose color. I bought a light grey wool/acrylic mix yarn and was meaning to make a swatch of it, but on my way home from the yarn store I changed my mind and decided I wanted to use brown instead. This happened despite the 30 minutes I spent staring at different colors in the store. But now I think I'll settle for a nice chocolate brown, it probably looks better on me than gray.

The scanner-squished skein of yarn that won't be used for my flicca. Now, the question is should I take it back or should I use it for something else?

Meanwhile I've been working on a lacy cardigan from the book Feminin Strikk. It's a really entertaining and different piece, knit in the round with an interesting lace pattern.

Book picture from Feminin Strikk by Lene Holme Samsoe

It's written for a kidmohair yarn, for instance kidsilk, but I'm using a thin moss green vintage wool. It's a one size piece that is said to be "extremely elastic". I just hope it doesn't end up too big.

What will become my lovely lacy cardigan

I found a new project I really want to make, the Geneva Camisole from Rowan Magazine #42, a beautiful lace camisole made with merino wool. Once again the color is an issue. I want to use the recommended yarn: Rowan's 4 ply soft. But there are several pretty colors that I can't choose from: Sooty, Dove, Folly, Clover, Daydream or Leafy. See my problem? I can't even determine if I want to go with a more red or green shade. :/

I was looking through my stash of old knitting magazines the other day. In a 1969 issue of Woman's Day Knitting Book I found this mini dress.


I love it! Wouldn't it look great with a ribbed turtle neck added? I'm going to put it in line with the rest of my future projects right away!

I figured out how to solve the shoulder problems I had with the green cardigan in my last post. It didn't even require any thinking from my side. Ever since I wrote that post I've been stumbling over yoke sweaters everywhere (Knitty, Interweave Knits - Eunny Jang's Tangled yoke cardigan). A yoke. That is clearly just what my cardigan needs. But don't expect any FO in the near future, this is a long term project. Lots of thinking to do before I get started. Well, at least I don't have to worry about colors this time. I've already established that I want my cardigan to look as much as the original as possible!