It's the little things that count.
It's strange, once I had a good handle on knitting, the only things I wanted to knit were full garments: sweater and cardigans. I figured that once you've mastered the many steps involved in making a sweater with your own two hands, shouldn't you knit a bunch of them?
Today, there are so many patterns that I want to knit that I sometimes limit myself to smaller knitted items, like socks, mittens and scarves. Fortunately, there are enough smaller item patterns out there to keep me busy for a few years. (Did you see Kate Gilbert's leafy fair isle mittens, Wintergreen?)
This summer, my mom looked through my sock yarn stash , and selected some orange Artyarn Ultra Merino 4 and Mona Schmidt's Embossed Leaves socks pattern. (I knew this pattern was popular, but according to Ravelry, 695 knitters have made these socks. Damn). While knitting the first sock, my mind was racing ahead to how I could tweak this pattern. You know, to avoid Second Sock Syndrome? Now, this pattern is pretty close to perfect, so there's very little wiggle room. BUT! I developed an idea... In the original pattern, which is knitted from the cuff down to the toe, the leaves are pointing down. I decided to knit the second sock in the opposite direction, that is; from the toe up. It turns out that I'm not that clever, because now the pattern doesn't flow as well from the cuff into the lace pattern, and from the lace pattern into the toe... But I did learn to work a toe up gusset heel, based on the Widdershins pattern!
View of the toe-up gusset:
Head on view of the toe:
Patterns specs:
Yarn: Artyarns Ultra Merino 4, purchased on sale at the Point.
Needles: Crystal Palace US 1 needles, 8" length. After this pair of socks, I decided to try knitting with 6" long dpns. I poked myself way too many times with the longer ones.
Mods: I couldn't figure out how to work a matching toe for the toe-up sock, so I cast on provisionally, knit the whole sock, then picked up the live stitches and worked the 2nd toe in the same way as the first.
The scarf recipient has been wearing his scarf for a few weeks now, and I managed to sneak a little photoshoot on a sunny, cold day.
I am somewhat frustrated by the result. I thought I was *so* clever with my 3 flanking garter stitches, but a mere 3 stitches is not enough to prevent the dreaded Scarf Curl. I uncurled it for this photo, but do not be fooled... *sigh*
This scarf is super duper long, as long as the recipient is tall-- 6'1"! But Cashmerino s-t-r-e-t-c-h-e-s. I'll let you know how big this ones gets by the end of winter.
Pattern specs:
Yarn: 6 balls of Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran in ... turquoise-ish blue?
Needles: Addi US 7, 24" long.
Cables: lifted from a stitch pattern book. They seem very similar to the cables in the Bubble Cable Dolman in this winter's IK. My finger's on the pulse!
Pattern design: improvised by me!
