Welcome back! I need a name for my blog. I am taking suggestions. Please leave them in the comments below. I have to say that not as much knitting happened this week as I would have liked. Two major events got me sidetracked. I hosted Rosh Hashanah dinner at my house this year. It was lovely, and it was wonderful to celebrate the New Year with family and new friends, but it was really exhausting. I had a guest who cannot have gluten, so it was a great opportunity to try a Paleo thanksgiving menu. I used Paleo Leap's herb-crusted stuffed turkey recipe. It was my first time stuffing a turkey with a meat based stuffing. The husband raved about it and deemed it a winner. Other menu items included pea soup with smoked salmon, oven baked polenta,maple glazed carrots, apples and honey, and of course, honey cake. (Also paleo and really really delicious.) Get the Elana's pantry recipe here.
The other event which got me rather sidetracked was that my sweater, which I finished over the Summer, and was my very first ever self-authored sweater pattern, developed a hole. I am not sure if it snagged on something and broke, or if there was a weak spot in the yarn, but I lost about three rows by 5 stitches of knitting, so I spent 5 hours or so trying to figure out how to repair a knitted sweater. It is fixed, but my repair skills are not as good as my knitting skills, so at some point, when I am better at grafting, I will take it out and redo the repair. At the moment, the saving grace is that the hole is in the back, so if I wear my hair down, it won't show. I am not proud to say, I may have lost my temper a few times while I was working, but all is well, and there was no need to panic. The sweater will not unravel, even if it does look like Dr. Frankenstein fixed the hole.
Here is a picture of the sweater:
I knit it in cascade 220 on size 4 circular needles. (Have I mentioned that I am a loose knitter). I cannot remember the colorway, and I started the sweater two moves ago, so I don't have the labels anymore. My apologies. Here is the hole:
It is hard to see here, but there is another picture that shows the larger hole after I cleaned up the broken ends. I anchored the loops on dpns and attempted to graft using a kitchener stich. Once that was complete, there was still a small hole remaining, and I fixed that with duplicate knitting. The duplicate knitting was a much more successful method, but my execution was not what it could have been.
Socks.
I am still working on the Basic Adult-size Worsted-Weight Ragg Sock from Hand-Knit Socks. I am knitting Cascade 220 Superwash in colorway 1976 on size 5 bamboo dpns. Last week, I was about 10 rows into the cuff. This week, I have finished the cuff and the heel flap, and I have begun to turn the heel. Until I began to turn the heel, the pattern was rather easy to follow. I did my first short row, and then the directions told me to "follow the directions for 40-st Flap and Gusset heel until 14 stitches remain." That is as far as I got. It is not clear where in the 40 stitch instructions you are supposed to begin, and even though I am familiar with short rows, I couldn't figure it out. I am going to look at another pattern for the heel turning directions, and I think I am going to say that this is not a great pattern for a first time Flap and Gusset sock knitter.
I do like the way the sl 1, k1 heel flap looks. I read that slipping and knitting makes the heel flap a little sturdier. I already like they way these are knitting up better than the Cotton Top.
Other Works in Progress.
I am knitting a sweater for my mom. She is very petite, and it is hard for her to find sweaters that actually sit at the correct place on her body. Most end up looking tunics. We chose the pattern together. I am working on the Corrina sweeater by Ann McCauley. The yarn is Jade Sapphire Silk Cashmere 2 ply. I am knitting it on size 4 stainless circular needles. The yarn is a dream to work with. I did knit a swatch, and I calculated my number of stitches based on stitch and row gauge. I am adding bust darts based on Amy Herzog's Knit to Flatter workshop, which I attended once at Stitch House Dorchester and once at Vogue Knitting Live. So far so good. I love working with the yarn, although I am concerned that it is not very tightly twisted, but it does feel dreamy moving over the needles and through my fingers. I am working on the front, and I finished about three inches this week
So far, the directions are really easy to follow, and it is knitting up a lot faster than I thought it would. I'd like to have it done in time for the holidays, but it is a big project, so we will see. Luckily, it is a lightweight sweater and could be worn into the Spring.
Finished Objects.
I did not technically finish all of these last week. They were actually blocking last week when I posted, but here they are.
This is the Linus shawl by Annett Cordes. I started it when I was on vacation in Ocean City. I needed a project that did not require a lot of concentration. It knit up rather quickly, and I finished it just in time for scarf weather. The yarn is Schoppel Wolle Crazy Zauberball. I love the long stripes in the zauberball, but I must say that the yarn is very scratchy. If I knit this again, I will use a softer yarn.
I also finished three dish/wash cloths this week. Sunday is dishcloth day around here. I am planning on knitting a stack of them for the B.O.C. (Bag of Crap, in case you are wondering). This is our stash of small gifts that we keep around for hostess gifts or situations that crop up which require small tokens of affection. I will wrap them up with beautiful gift soaps. Voila. Holidays made easier. They were knit in Lion Brand Cotton Ease. I have a bunch of it left over from a top that was frogged a while back. I downloaded a bunch of free dishcloth patterns from knitpicks, and I am working my way through them.