Thursday, October 21, 2010

The Week is Unraveling

First, there was Inara's Sock.  It took me what seemed like way too long, but I finally got two inches of sock knit up.  And then I dropped a stitch at some point.  And I dropped a couple more while picking up the first errant stitch. So I decided to rip back a bit. And then I discovered how difficult it is to pick up tiny twisted stitches correctly. So I ripped it back to the ribbing and started over.  And promptly goofed up the first row.

I'm thinking this sock will still be Inara's Sock based on color but that I might try a different, less complex pattern.  In any event, I'm unlikely to finish these socks before the end of the month, which means I'll be out of the Harry Potter Knit Crochet Cup for the rest of the term. :-(

Tonight I decided to pick up the sleeve to my Green Cardigan that I set aside several weeks ago.  I just have the shaping at the top of the sleeve to do.  I have been knitting the sleeve in the round using DPNs.  Since the sleeve cap is knit flat, I wanted to switch over to a circular to simplify things.  That's when I discovered the discrepancy.

I've been knitting on size 3 DPNs.  The sleeve is supposed to be knit on size 5 needles.  On the other hand, this explains why it was a bit more narrow than I had expected or wanted. *sigh*

So I'll be starting over on the sleeve. But perhaps not tonight.
 
In a tiny bit of good news, the swatch for my orange mohair/linen cardigan came out quite lovely.  I really like this color. It's bright and cheerful without being garish. The yarn is Louet KidLin, which is composed of 1 ply mohair and one ply linen.  The linen provides a bit of stiffness and body,  so the knitted fabric is crisp yet soft and has a bit of halo. The one potential issue I found in knitting up the swatch is that occasionally the plies separate a bit and only one is caught in a given stitch.  The body of the sweater I'm knitting is all stockinette so at least if I have to repair a split stitch, it won't be terribly complicated to drop a stitch back to the problem and run it back up after the fix.

What I haven't decided for certain yet is whether I'll wait until after the Green Cardigan is done before I cast on.  I like how quickly this knits up, the color reminds me of autumn leaves and pumpkins, and it's just so warm and cheerful!

I'm glad I didn't feel like spinning this week. I'm afraid to think about how I might have goofed that up.