Gromit Knits!

Posting at the speed of Light

Hi, I'm getting ready to rush out the door for a long weekend (not to Rhinebeck, but I figure a quick trip to London isn't a bad substitute.  God, how I love frequent flyer miles).

I'll be bringing some knitting with me, which seems like an obvious statement, but the questions is, as always, what knitting?

I won't be bringing the socks for E in Socks That Rock Medium Weight (Bleeding Heart) that I began way back in Norway, because I finally finished them.  They sat for a long time since I hate, (hate, hate, hate, hate, hate, hate) knitting the Medium Weight on 2.25mm needles.  In this case I resorted to them because I was getting some nasty pooling when I used 2.75mm needles.

Here they are in all their glory and with a glorious lack of pooling:

I made up a twisted stitch rib combination, but kept it on the leg only since these guys are so bulky I didn't want the extra fabric in shoes.

Soooo, what is coming with me?

Some Kidsilk Night to work on the Victorian Lace Rectangle from Victorian Lace Today. This is for all of the women of the house to share, though I think the younger E will be making the most use of it in the next several months.  She has about a gazillion bar and bat mitzvahs to attend.

I'm blaming the awful picture on the weather and not my utter lack of photography skills.  I'm sure you get the idea -- black, sparkly, dressy -- guarantee I'll never have occasion to use it, though the girls will.

There will, naturally, be emergency knitting in the bag in the form of a pair of Friday Harbor Socks from Knitting on the Road.  I joined the knit along over a year ago and have only made one pair, Denmark, in all that time.  I don't have picture, but I have to say, the Socks That Rock in Monsoon looks awfully good, even if the pattern is not immediately apparent.  And, I'm using 2.75 mm needles -- there is happiness in my small corner of the land.

Have fun in Rhinebeck everyone and rejoice that I'm not there to compete for the good stuff!

Three in One

Three finished objects in one blog post!  Whew, this is what happens when I take my first week off of work to get organized and skip blogging. Be forewarned, this is a very utilitarian blog post.

A pair of socks (finished as projected in the month of September).

Yarn:           Trekking XXL #107
Pattern:        Embossed Leaves by Mona Schmidt (25 Favorite Socks from Interweave Knits)
Started:        May, 2007
Finished:      September, 2007

Very pretty, but too it's too warm to wear them for which I'm sad.

I'm also sad I can't wear my new Tilted Duster.  I just sewed on the buttons this morning after finishing the seaming this weekend.  It was a quick project until I got to the skirt portion, but even with that I was done in about three weeks.

Yarn:            Froelich Wolle Bergschaf (long discontinued)
Pattern:      Tilted Duster by Norah Gaughan
Started:      September 15, 2007
Finished:    October 8, 2007
Mods:            I made the 40" size to build in several inches of ease so I can wear it as a jacket, but I decreased the shoulders to the stitch count for the 36" size.  Based on reports of too narrow sleeves I increased the sleeves by an additional 4 stitches which I bound off at the beginning of the sleeve decreases so as to match the armhole depth as knit for the 40" size.

For the skirt, being vertically challenged, I knew I wanted to do one less repeat of the eight row increase pattern, but I also wanted all the width I could get to cope with my backside.  To do this, in the last three repeats of the increase set, I added increases in row 3 where the pattern does not.  This means the skirt flares a bit more than the original, but I'm glad I made the adjustment so it is a little more flattering from the rear.

Can't wait until it cools down and I can wear this one too.  Soon I hope, please?

In the meantime, I do have Martha to keep me company.  She fit after all, but I'm not giving up on the dieting -- four pounds down, 26 to go...

Yarn:            Rowan 4-Ply Cotton in Aegean
Pattern:        Martha by Stella Smith in Rowan #37
Started:        May (?) 2005
Finished:      October 4, 2007

Now, on to October projects...