FO: Flat Feet

These were cast on as an experiment - I wanted to know how the Kollage square circular needles felt: were they easier on my hands/wrists/other? What I discovered is that, for me, these circulars are unusable - the cables are too soft and would rather kink through my stitches than let the stitches travel onto the needle. You win some, you lose some.

To finish the socks I ordered some (square) double-pointed needles (DPNs) and continued from the tiny amount of the toe I'd started. It's been a while since I knit with DPNs, and even longer since I knit socks with them (I've become a fan of the two circular method for small diameter anythings).

It was surprisingly refreshing to go back to this method. I do still find this a tricky way to try socks on - typically I'd worry that the needle would snap, in this case the needles were metal so I just had to worry about stitches jumping off the needle (or the yarn snapping). Aside from that though I do find DPNs a nice way to work.

And I really like the square DPNs - really lightweight, simultaneously grippy enough to hold onto stitches when you don't want to lose them and yet slippy enough that the needles don't hold you back.

Just don't make me try the circs again.

Pattern: Mock Cable Socks by Wendy Johnson
Yarn: Conjoined Creations Flat Feet
Mods: Gradual increases as the leg progressed.
Project: online on Ravelry.

Postcard from China

It's been quiet for a while, I'm on my second big trip of the month:

From top left, clockwise:

1. Lights in Yuanmingyuan park
   
2. The Great Wall of China
3. View of the Marble Boat from Kunming Lake at the Summer Palace
4. Close up of characters on an arch/bridge in Yuanmingyuan park

FO: Augustine

This was a combination of two ideas:

1. Use up one of those single skeins I bought without a plan.
2. Knit a scarf/shawlette that I can wear easily on a regular basis.

The pattern works pretty well with this yarn (although I do like the ones I've seen in solid yarns) but I haven't blocked it (yet?) and it rolls/scrunches quite a lot which hides any of the 'point' around the neck.

I do, however, wear it. It's less noticeably soft than I imagined but it goes well with some of the pink tops I've acquired since spring.

Pattern: Augustine Shawlette by Valdis Vrang.
Yarn: Misti Alpaca Hand Paint Suri & Silk in colour 05.
Mods: Slight size mods (this is narrower than the pattern called for) and also the point much less defined (mostly because I didn't have yarn to get wider and I wanted the length).
Project: online on Ravelry.

FO: Allgäu Socks

His socks are done!
I really like this pattern, it's very effective and the braid at the top is really cute. It's pretty unstretchy and I'm hoping that it might help keep the cotton in this yarn under control.

Pattern: Allgäu Socks by Susi Ferguson
Yarn: Kraemer Yarns Saucon Sock in Ginger (MC) and Harvest Gold (CC)
Mods: Nothing intentional - a couple of mistakes.
Project: online on Ravelry.

FO: Large Leaf Camo Cache

Deja-vu?

I've knitted something pretty close to this before:

On the right - the old; on the left - the new.

This was a replacement for the previous leaf which has been declared 'missing in action'. In case you're wondering, the leaf is designed to hung from a tree (hence the loop) and secretly hides a tiny container (which itself hides a tiny logbook). The coordinates for the leaf are listed on Geocaching.com and periodically someone comes along, finds it, and signs the tiny log book.

If you look really carefully you can see the distortion down the centre of the leaf that's created by the container hidden on the reverse.

Pattern: Large Leaf by Lesley Stanfield
Yarn: Stylecraft Special Double Knit in Green
Mods: Lengthened the icord and added a pressstud fastener to the end. Replaces the YOs either side of the centre with M1s. Added a small pocket on the back by picking up stitches either side of the centre, knitting a few rows and then grafting them together.

Project: online on Ravelry.

FO: Ribbed Ribbon Socks

The first in a series of finished objects, I'm not too sure why they took so long to reach the blog.

These are my Ribbed Ribbon socks. There's a lot to like about these, they're a reasonably straight-forward repeat but not so mindless that there's acres of time to get bored. The socks are a lovely green and the yarn is pretty squishy. I even thought to add stitches to the leg so I could use up a little more yarn (my socks always seem to weigh in around 60 grams).

I do find it slightly weird that the pattern doesn't continue around back of the leg though (I've done this once before but it was an accident):

Pattern: Ribbed Ribbon Socks by Wendy Johnson.
Yarn: CraftsMeow Soft Serve in Granny Smith.
Mods: For extra width on leg added four stitches at repeat 6, row 13; repeat 7, rows 1 and 13. New stitches were added using m1s on the plain knit portion of the leg and using pfb to hide them in the purl ribbons on the patterned sections.
Project: Online at Ravelry.

This was my first go at the Turkish cast on. It's easy to do and nice looking but my cast on gauge seems slightly looser than the rest of the knitting.

I look forward to wearing these when winter comes (looking out of the window, this may not be as far off as it seems). It's been grey and rainy all day today :(

FO: Hey Tech

Now this has been on the needles for a very long time... sort of. It was almost all knit and bound off - just the edgings and button bands to knit on but it just sat around waiting to be blocked... for a year.

Still, here it is, the first pieced garment I ever started (and the second I finished ;)).



Love it! I worried for most of the sewing it up that the sleeves were going to fall exactly in the fold of my elbow - they don't. It could be an inch or two longer but it's not 'too short' and the below bust ribbing seems to fall in the perfect spot.

Pattern: Hey Teach! by Hélène Rush.
Yarn: Knit One Crochet Too 2nd Time Cotton in Claret, bought at Natural Stitches in August 2009.
Mods: Sleeve length according to someone's Ravelry project notes. An extra buttonhole.
Project: Online at Ravelry.