Ready to Begin the End!

 

I'm ready to begin the final chart for this scarf!  This has been such a fun project to work on, watching the short rows shape the colors into flames, but I'm ready to finish it up and move on.  Hopefully I'll be back later this week with a finished scarf to show you.

Yesterday I spent the afternoon cutting out sewing projects and I hope to get some more done today.  The issue with sewing is that you have to cut stuff out first and for me, that means taking over the kitchen island.  The problem there is that everyone uses the island for food prep and finding a few hours that no one is eating is difficult (teenage boy).  If I can get several projects cut out all at once, I can sew them together whenever I want to.  My goal for this week is to get several projects ready to go.

Francie Socks

 

I've finished the Francie socks!  I knit these in Sweet Georgia Yarns Tough Love Sock in Hush.  I fell in love with this pattern when I saw the sole of the foot.  The original pattern is designed with a different stitch for the leg - it's a tree bark texture, but the tree bark pattern seemed too organic for the more architectural foot pattern, so I knit the leg of the sock in a simple k2, p2 rib instead.   There were questions about the texture of the sole and while I can feel it on my foot when I first put on the sock, I wasn't noticing it by the time I'd gotten this morning's blog picture, so I really don't think they will bother me if I were wearing them all day.

The socks aren't difficult to knit but they are a big commitment to ribbing.  I'm currently pretty much over ribbing.  I don't really want to cast on another pair of socks right now because I don't want to knit the ribbing at the cuff, even though I usually only work 12 rounds of it on my own socks.  I think I'll wait a bit before I knit rib again.

I know that there are other ways to work a sock cuff, and I do like a nice picot hem.  It's been ages since I started a sock that way, hmmm...

The Dragonfly

 

First of all, let me take a moment and explain that this is progress from over the weekend.  I've been working on the Francie socks and the Fire Breathing Unicorn this week.  So far, I'm staying on track to get those finished despite the siren call of the Dragonfly colorway.  Periodically, I run across a colorway that just takes my breath away (Madelinetosh's Cove, Malabrigo's English Rose and Aniversario) and this is one of them.  Watching the colors do their thing as I knit it just never gets boring, and this colorway has a LOT going on.

I'm still going to try to get those other two projects wrapped up though!

Unicorn

 

I've added another couple of repeats to the Fire Breathing Unicorn scarf.  I am definitely past the halfway point now but I'm not quite ready to pull out the scale.  The pattern (very helpfully) gives an approximate weight required for the final chart, so I'll just need to periodically check my remaining yarn after another couple more repeats or so.  I'm also far enough along that you can see the crescent shaping that's happening because of the short rows.

I feel like I'm on the home stretch on this project as well as my socks, but all I want to do is knit my Relax pullover.  I'm trying to stay focused on working a little on everything, but the call of the Dragonfly is hard to resist.

Back to the Sock

 

I've knit the heel flap and heel turn and I've started the gusset decreases on my second Francie sock.  There were several comments on my last sock blog post wondering how the sole of the sock felt.  I obviously haven't worn them for any length of time (just long enough to get the photo), but I didn't notice any weirdness when I had it on.  I really don't think it's going to be a problem.  Of course I need to finish knitting the second sock and I need the weather to cool down before I even think of wearing socks.  It was 110 degrees yesterday, but today is supposed to be a balmy 102.  (That's 43.33 yesterday and 38.89 today for those of you who think about temperature in Celsius.)

The Soothing Qualities of Stockinette

 

I've been working on my Relax pullover and I'm still loving the colors of the yarn.  This is the back that I'm knitting now and the stockinette is not only relaxing knitting, but it's the perfect stitch to show off the yarn.  Anything else wouldn't let the colors take center stage.  It's also perfect to knit at the end of a day that's been crazy hot and my brain doesn't want to really think about anything.  I can just let my hands knit and my mind wander.  Summer knitting doesn't get any simpler than this.

Have a great weekend and stay hydrated - it's hot out there!

25% More Unicorn, 25% More Fire Breathing Awesomeness

 

I've done another couple of repeats on my Fire Breathing Unicorn scarf.  I'm somewhere in the general vicinity of halfway done with this.  I think.  I didn't weigh my yarn before I started so it's not like the estimate is based on science or anything.  I just feel like I'm about halfway done.  This isn't really the blog you come to if you're looking for scientific accuracy anyway.  At least I hope not.

There was a question about the type of short rows I'm using and there's really nothing special going on.  These are just plain, old wrap and turn short rows, but since they're being worked in garter stitch, you don't have to pick up the wraps.  The wraps just disappear into the garter stitch, so while you are taking the time to work the wrap and turn, you don't have to slow down and pick up wraps and knit them with their stitch or anything else fancy.  This project really is 95% just about counting!

Changing Gears

I was working on my Clair de Lune cardigan and thinking about whether or not I would actually wear it (probably should have thought that through before I started), when I noticed that I had somehow gotten off of the pattern.  I decided to take it as a sign and frogged it.  It's a beautiful cardigan but I'm not sure how much I would actually wear it in my real life.

Naturally, I cast on a new sweater almost immediately.  This is the Relax pullover which is similar to the Boxy, but slightly less boxy.  I'm knitting it in Hedgehog Fibres Sock in Dragonfly which is just an amazing colorway and I might currently have it stashed in three different bases.  This is my second sweater this year in a multicolored, varigated colorway and I really have no explanation for my actions.  Right now it's curling like crazy, so you only get a peek at what it looks like, but if you imagine a long, narrow rectangle, you've got a pretty good idea of what's going on.  This sweater is knit in pieces and I can't tell you the last time I knit a sweater that had to be seamed.  I didn't mind doing it years ago, so I'm not worried about it now.

A Tiny Narwhal

 

Last week was Team Spirit Week for the Eat.Sleep.Knit Yarnathon and they offered a half star for every person who made a mascot.  (The team with the most stars at the end of the year wins.)  As a Narwool, I needed to make a narwhal, so I grabbed my trusty narwhal amigurmi pattern and decided to make a fingering weight one.  Normally this would have been a single evening's work, but I have to be very careful with crochet so I don't make my arm worse.  It took all week.  I did discover that working at a tiny gauge is easier than the bigger gauge of my giant granny square blanket, but I still had to limit my time spent crocheting.

I used some Dream in Color Jilly in Dream On for the body and some Malabrigo Mechita in Natural for the horn.  Just in case you were curious about the size difference between a fingering weight narwhal and a worsted weight narwhal, here's a picture with the new narwhal and the Emotionally Ambiguous Narwhal I made a couple of months ago.

One Sock Done

 

I've finished the first of my Francie socks and I'm ready to start the heel flap on the second one.  Because of the ribbing, when this sock is not on a foot it looks weirdly long and skinny.  On a foot, you can see the stitch pattern clearly.  This is why I'm making these socks.  I saw a picture of the sole on Pinterest and had to track down the pattern.  I love the look of the sole in this design.

More Fire Breathing Unicorn

 

I'm into the main repeat sections that will give the scarf it's length.  Each repeat is taking me about an hour, and other than lots of counting, it's easy knitting.  This photo, moving away from the knitting more than Friday's photo, makes the project look like an oil slick.  I'm loving watching the colors change along the short rows.  It makes the knitting more interesting.  For such a simple project (it's really just garter stitch with short rows), it's fascinating to knit!

A Fire Breathing Unicorn

 

I started something new.  It's been ages since I knit an actual scarf (versus a wrap or shawl), but as soon as I saw the Optical Delusion: Conflagration pattern, I knew I had to make it.  The pattern is recommended for varigated or multicolored yarns with short lengths of color (three to five inches).  I know it's meant to represent flames and I could see it as leaves knit in greens, but I decided to try something else.  I had a skein of Sweet Georgia Yarns Tough Love Sock in Sunken Treasure so I thought I'd see how it worked.  Obviously, it's not conventional flames, but I realized as I watched the yellow, pink, and turquoise dance with the dark gray, I was knitting a fire breathing unicorn.

I'm still giggling about it.

The Finished Cowl

 

I have finished my Jessica Jones cowl!  The bind off took three days.  I'm not kidding.  It was a sewn bind off (which I've never done before), and it took three days to get finished.  It looks nice but I'm not entirely sold on it looking three days worth of work nice.

The cowl is finished though, and blocked.  It blended the two skeins of yarn well (much better than the original project that had a very obvious skein change line), and its very soft and drapey.  I've also got no urge to knit linen stitch at the moment, but since I really like the way it looks, I know I'll knit the stitch pattern again in the future.

Just in case you were curious, the top photo is more accurate colorwise.