Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Finis!

Swan Lake is done and even blocked out. (I really need to get some blocking wires if I'm going to keep knitting shawls and, especially, stoles. It would be good to have a straight edge to the straight sides.) Here it is! What's funny is that I got up to the last two rows of the stole on Saturday, then didn't feel like working on it for two days. Go figure.

I wasn't entirely sure how to block the wing and whether or not the "top" edge of it should be straight or have a curve. I think I waffled between both answers. It's not really curved, but it's not really straight either. I'm not sure it'll matter once it is being worn.

Once it's dry, I'll weave in the two ends. For all projects except lace, I weave in the ends before blocking. For lace I'm always worried that the bound off edge will be too tight or too loose. So I wait until after the blocking, when I'm sure it's just right. Now I'll go have some porridge and wait for the bears to come home.

Next Project:
Finishing the Braided Toeholder socks. I realized this past weekend that I have been wearing hand knit socks every day. I think I knew that before, since I only have hand knit socks, unless they're athletic socks and I don't wear athletic socks to work. But this weekend it seemed like I had a LOT of socks in the laundry, so I counted them. I have eleven pair of hand knit socks, plus one pair that needs the toes re-knit. Finishing them, plus the red lace socks and the Braided Toeholders will bring the total up to fourteen. That's two whole weeks of socks! And somehow it just doesn't seem to be quite enough. I don't know if that's the sock yarn stash speaking to me, with it's two dozen pair of unknit socks, or if I just want to shoot for a nice round number, like 30.

4 comments:

Stefaneener said...

Lovely. And can you, really, have "enough" hand knit socks? Aren't they like potato chips, or sunny days?

Do your clueless coworkers know you knit like this?

Ruby Louise said...

My actual boss on paper is a knitter herself. My day-to-day co-workers have seen me knit, but don't know the extent of my obsession. Now that I think about it, not many co-workers actually seem to have hobbies like knitting or sewing.

And I think you're right. There's no such thing as too many hand knit socks. :-)

~RaenWa~ said...

I love Swan Lake its goregous oh I hope to be able to make something like that one day its wonderful great job

Ruby Louise said...

Thanks Rae! I'm positive you could manage Swan Lake. It's just a bunch of knit and purl stitches with carefully place yarnovers and decreases. The only thing that makes it more complex looking than a simple stockinette stitch sweater is that there are more YOs and decs and they're supposed to go in precise locations. Just take it one stitch at a time and one row at a time! :-)