Sunday, December 15, 2013

Time eating projects!

First- I did complete NaKniSweMo with 50000+ stitches. I have however misplaced my scrap paper that tallies my exact daily counts.

I have spent most of my knitting time working on two projects: the refashion of an old cardigan, and a pair of socks.

The front!
The cardigan is from a old issue of Knit.1 (Ravelry link). It's a boyfriend-type- long with little shaping. I knit it several years ago and early this past fall I noticed the elbow areas of the sleeves were a little thin, plus it has enough stretch that it gaped at the button band. Plus I modified the pattern when originally knit- I knit the sleeves top down- just picking up stitches from the shoulder on the front and back (the design had no sleeve cap shaping- just long trapezoids). However my gauge was off and it was tight around the armholes. So when I decided that it wasn't worth the time and space it took to hand wash and dry flat, I did something.

My original thought was to felt it and make mittens or something... But I follow this blog on clothes refashioning, and thought I could do something similar to this sweater. I knit it out of Paton's Classic wool in black, so procuring more yarn in a matching color wasn't going to be a problem. I ripped out the button band, and the sleeves- salvaging most of the yarn. I washed the sweater and  the salvaged yarn. Then did some math and picked up stitches for a sleeve- after some fancy math and several rip-backs I got a sleeve I liked, then duplicated it.They are looser, which allows me to wear it over long sleeved garments, and the shoulders are less likely to be pulled off my shoulders because of tight sleeves.


I'm having more problems with the button band. Okay, I didn't do enough planning before picking up stitches. The original was an inch and a half of 2x2 ribbing, witch matched the bottom and cuff ribbing. I am keeping the ribbing, but will add shawl collar shaping.  It's something I've never knit, and would like to try on a garment that is mostly an wear-around-the-over-one-hundred-year-old-deafty-house-sweater. In order to keep the intregity of the ribbing, I need to pick-up stitches symmetrically. This requires planning and placing stitch markers evenly around the front to facilitate in the process. I don't really feel like doing that. (/pout) I will get around to it because I need a warm comfy sweater, but for now I'm procrastinating.

The other major project is a pair of socks. I've had two skeins of Kroy FX in my stash for years and thought that they would be great for a free pattern on Ravelry: Scylla. It is a wonderful and wonderfully written pattern, but the colors changed to slowly to highlight the slipped stitches featured on the pattern. I frogged back to just after finishing the tos increases and left it.

After careful consideration, I decided to try my own toe-up sock. I've knit a few pair toe-up, but none of them fit wonderfully. So I'm writing my own. I was told it is similar to a Cat Bordhi pattern-in terms of toe-up shaping. After a quick Ravelry search, I'm considering that a compliment. The instep pattern is reminiscent of light passing through a prisim, you know when light is separated into is respective wavelengths- columns of twisted stitches move across the instep of the sock at different rates. Think back to basic algebra/geometry: slope! rise over run! It's fun. I'm not posting pictures because I'm toying with the idea of tweaking the pattern and trying to get it published.Worth a shot!

Before I get that far I have to complete the set. I finished the first and started the second- though I'm mirroring the pattern. I got half the foot done Friday night-a bout of insomnia kept me up so I took advantage and knit.Also got through the end of season five and the first third of season six of Dr Who.