Finished Socks

The parade of socks continues!  (I checked and this is either the sixth or seventh pair of socks I've knit this year.)  I finished my Seed Pod socks.  These are knit in Emma's Yarn Practically Perfect Sock Yarn in the Mermaid Tavern colorway.  This was a nice little pattern.  The most complicated part happens at the top when you're excited about a new pair of socks, and then it settles into stockinette mindlessness all the way to the toe.  

Actually, any sock pattern could be worked this way: cast on and work a few rounds of your favorite ribbing, work the leg in the sock pattern and switch to stockinette a little before the heel flap.  Just remember - cable patterns need more stitches than stockinette for the same gauge and lace is the reverse!  You can compensate by increasing or decreasing stitches or by changing needle size.  Easy peasy!

More Socks

Apparently the sock hiatus is over.  There is another pair of socks on the needles!  These are the Seed Pod Socks, the third pattern from The Handmade Sock Society of 2023.  I'm knitting them in Emma's Practically Perfect Sock Yarn in the Mermaid Tavern colorway.  I've already finished the first sock and I'm about to start the pattern section in the second sock.  I did make a little change to the pattern section from the the way the pattern was written, but I left notes in the Ravelry project page about my changes.

We continue to bake in the heat around here.  It's too hot for little Obi dog to do much outside, but we've got a constant stream of Kongs and Pupsicle pops in the freezer (I've got the refillable freezer tray and we've been making our own).  They help keep him occupied and soothe his sore mouth from teething.  The other thing that's been a big teething help is frozen mini bagels.  I split them and froze them and just hand him half of one when his teeth are hurting.  Since bagels are a dense, chewy bread anyway, they feel good to chew from the frozen stage to the thawed stage.  Just watch the flavor of bagels - dogs can't have onions or raisins.  Obi is eating plain bagels with no complaints, but I'm watching for some blueberry mini bagels too!

Finally Finished

This past spring I finished the knitting on my Balete Cardigan, but I hadn't done all the finishing for it.  I still needed to sew buttonholes into the reinforcement ribbons and add the buttons.  Since I was currently sewing my navy blue skirt, the sewing machine was threaded with navy.  I decided to just finish sewing the skirt before changing the thread to black since I wasn't going to be wearing the cardigan anytime soon.

Now that I have finished the skirt, I took the time to finish the cardigan.  I had made buttonholes in the front, right bands as I knit them, so I measured carefully to figure out where to put them on the ribbon.  Since machine made buttonholes and knit buttonholes are different shapes*, I decided to line up the tops of the buttonholes together, knowing the stretch of the knitting would accommodate the machine sewn buttonhole. After testing that the button would in fact go through both buttonholes, I was off and sewing.

The next step was to sew the ribbon to the front bands.  If this were an ordinary cardigan, I would have used two ribbons, one for each front.  The hood made this a little more complicated and I chose to use one ribbon, up one front, across the hood, and down the other front.  (The other option would be to skip the hood edge and just reinforce the two fronts, but I wanted the ribbon to peek out a bit on the hood.)  I used my clips to get the two layers of buttonholes lined up, and then clipped the ribbon the rest of the way around, making sure the two fronts were the same length, and keeping the hood smooth, but not stretched.  I began sewing on the inside (unclipped) side of the ribbon, just a simple whip stitch between the chain of picked up stitches and the narrow braided edge of the ribbon itself.  Once that was done, I stitched down the clipped side, removing clips as I went.

The last step was to sew the buttons on the left front band, lining them up with the buttonholes.  Once the whole thing got one more steaming, it was done!  I really love the extra stability adding a facing adds to the front of a cardigan, and the ribbon adds a little bit of interest.  Now it's all ready for cooler weather.  Not today though, today we're supposed to be between 106 and 110 (that's actual temperature, not heat index).  This summer is brutal!

*The other option is to not knit the buttonholes into the front bands, sew the reinforcement ribbon into the cardigan, and then machine sew the buttonholes through both the knitting and the ribbon at the same time.  This is how a lot of commercial cardigans are made.  I'm pretty sure you'd want some sort of stabilizer, but I've never done it this way.  The main reason is because if things go sideways, you're not just trimming off the end of the ribbon and starting over.  If this were to go wrong, you'd have to remove and reknit the front band and start over from there.  I'd rather just trim some ribbon.

Two! Finished Projects!

Yes, you read that right!  I've actually finished two things!  (Insert Happy Dance here!!!)

First of all, I finished the Musselburgh hat I showed you last week.  This is such a great pattern because you don't have a huge cast on, you don't have to check your gauge, you just start knitting with a yarn and needles that work well together.  Then you fold the hat in half, stuffing one half into the other half (instant lining) and it's done.  It means knitting a fingering weight hat that is actually warm.  

See?  Here's what it looks like when the knitting is done.  Crazy, right?

I also finished a sewing project.  This is the Brumby Skirt, and I don't think this will be my last one.  I made it in a navy cotton with slubs running both ways in the weave.  If you zoom into the photo, you can see the lighter crosshatch in the fabric.

Also, did you see the pockets in this thing?  I think you could put kittens in these!  I made the medium length version with the pockets (the pattern has mini, knee, and midi length skirts).  I also used an invisible zipper instead of the exposed zip the pattern calls for.  I can definitely see doing this again, but I also think it would be cute with gathered tiers for a maxi skirt (still with the pockets of course)!

Not A Sock

I found something else I can knit with Obi - the Musselburgh hat!  I knit a couple of these last summer, and once you get past the first few rows, it's very easy to pick up and put down.  By the time you get past the increases and switch to a circular needle you're home free.  Perfect puppy knitting!

This is knit in Blue Barn Fiber Arts on the I Knead This base in the Black Magic colorway.  At first glance it looks like a black hat, but when you look at it in the light, you can see the colors under the black.  I'm knitting this for myself, for winter dog walking, but I'm prepared to give it up if Caleb sees it and wants it. 

Earlier this week I made some cookies for Obi.  They were these Peanut Butter Pumpkin ones and they were super fast.  Obi likes them and Mickael and I tried one too (for science) - they taste like a bland peanut butter cookie.  The smallest cookie cutter I have is a 1 inch heart, but they're probably still a little big for Obi right now.  Once he's full sized, I think they'll be the right size.  For now he'll just have to break them up a bit and clean up his crumbs.  He doesn't seem to mind.

Have a great weekend!

(Very) Slowly, But Surely

Occasionally, I work on something other than socks.  I'm still working on the body of my Sagittarii pullover, it's just not as easy to work on with Obi.  The size of it means that it takes up more room in my lap and doesn't stay as compact as a pair of socks.  I'm also working from two skeins of the Charcoal yarn to avoid weird color issues.  Less compact and twice the usual amount of yarn balls = way more temptation for silly puppy!  I have begun introducing him to my knitting and he's doing pretty well with only sniffing it or giving it sweet kisses.  (With a retriever, and this seems true of Labs as well as Goldens, everything is going to go into their mouth at some point.  Sweet kisses are much less offensive than needle sharp puppy teeth.  Dog spit washes off.)  He seems curious about what I'm working on, which I find amusing.

I'm not sure at this point if the neckline is going to lie down nicely with blocking.  If it doesn't, I may have to unpick it and redo it.  Crossing my fingers that blocking will sort it, but it won't be the end of the world if it doesn't.  In the meantime, I'll just keep knitting along!