Cobblestone pullover

I finished the cobblestone sweater from IK. It was pure comfort knitting -- no seams, only stocking and garter stitches. I did not use the tweedy yarn called for in the pattern because it was rough and scratchy. Instead, I used Stacey Charles Tahki's Savoy yarn which is a soft merino and silk blend. yummy to knit and to wear.

Update on Knitting

I started knitting again about a month ago. I've lately been working on Arisaig and have worked up to the arm pit area on the back piece. However, I have since been diverted to working on another sweater. This one is the Cobblestone pullover from the previous IK that is knit in one piece. It's very soothing stocking stitch knitting, and it makes me extra happy that there will be virtually no seaming at the end.

what to knit?

I am working on the interminable red scarf.

Miss Roxane gave me several skeins of Irish wool. I am thinking of what to make with it.

One project I have been thinking of is Alice Starmore's Kilronan pullover from the Celtic Collection. The pattern is from the 90s and it is by Starmore, so it is ginormous. I have to scale the pattern down -- not sure where to nip from without spoiling the pattern. My gauge may end up being small enough to fudge the width.

baby booties!

cute! these little guys were made from Classic Elite's Inca Alpaca. The pattern was from Debbie Bliss' Baby Style. I finished most of this project while watching Lars von Triers' Kingdom mini-series about the spooky hospital.

Red Scarf

This is the endless scarf that I have been working on since last March. I got the yarn from Knit/Purl in Portland. I was originally going to get creative and make the thing look like a dragon. but I will be lucky to eke out a rectangle of any kind.

Alas, poor arm warmers...

I nearly finished the arm warmers, but discovered that I was going to be a tiny bit short of yarn. And in thinking about where I was going to sneak out some more yarn, I realized that I was not happy with the shape of the arm warmers -- too wide. So I will rip them out and redo them at some point. But since I can't stand doing anymore circular stocking stitch, I'm going to give it a break.

In the meantime, I started on some moss stitch baby booties from Debbie Bliss' Baby Style book. The more I knit from that book, the more I realize how disturbing I find her patterns: no schematics, no final measurements, and very linear patterns that assume that exact gauge will be made. I'm sure a cultural psychological critique could be made.

Some medical knitting

I finished one of my long armwarmers with the Fleece Artist sock yarn in the blue colorway. It covers up my elbow, an essential because I have been feeling chilled. It feels so warm and snug, and I can pull it over sweater sleeves for extra warmth. It was basically a tube with some decreases starting halfway past the forearm. I did something new for the thumbhole. I did not go crazy and make a thumb "tube," but I knit up to the first thumb joint, cast off 12 stitches, and then the next round, cast on 4 stitches. So the base of the thumb is much more covered than in past incarnations of my wrist warmers where I basically made a vertical button hole for the thumb.

Christmas knitting progress

Much knitting progress during the long holiday weekend. I finished the bias corset. It turned out very well. I was happy with my decision to lengthen the body by about 3/4". Also VERY happy about my decision to knit the yarn over increases "invisibly" -- that is, I knit them twisted so as to have only minuscule lace holes. The bias corset would have had a very strong peekaboo factor if I had left the yarn overs super lacey. The one do-over that I had was the I-cord bind-off. When I followed the directions exactly, the neckline had a strong bowl-like quality, which actually made it look very much like a whalebone corset. However, I wanted a closer fit, so I redid the binding with the tiniest needles. That fixed the bowl problem but admittedly there are still some bulgeys along the neckline. but c'est la vie. Looks great.



This weekend I also made some striped baby booties to keep in the stock. I had given away the last of my baby things and have been very bad about gifting baby stuff because I just did not have anything on hand (and didn't feel compelled to make anything). Although I do not find this pattern particularly jazzy, the fuzzy alpaca yarn makes it look pretty nice. I have more of the alpaca yarn in stash, so I may make more pairs of booties. I also for the life of me did not understand that these booties had cuffs, so I have made a cuffless version (though they can be folded over for cuffs if desired).


I am going to go on a "yarn diet" and avoid purchasing yarn until I burn through some of my project yarn stash. That means knitting the Kilronan pullover, Arisaig wrap cardi, and Starburst sweater. But having said that, I recently acquired a hank of Fleece Artist sock yarn. I saw these nice armwarmers and was inspired to make my own. I get really cold working at the computer, and my elbows get sad. So I thought these would be very good for making my arms happy. The best part was the lady at the store used the swift and ball winder to make a center-pull skein for me. That made it much more fun than if I tried to do it myself with only my knees or a chair back to assist me. Sock yarn has an awful lot of yardage.