January 2008 Archives

...but I'm determined not to have a one-post month. My apologies to Fig, who was probably expecting something else.

As I think I have said before, it is a good thing that I take pictures between blogging, or I would have no idea what I have done since January 1. But when I looked back at the photo record, this is what I found.

January 5, 2008


January 7, 2008


First FO of 2008

Toe-up socks with Turkish peasant afterthought heel, in Apple Pie yarn from Applelaine, colour Godiva.

First Frogged Object of 2008

A sleeve for a Cobblestone sweater for the boy. The yarn I am using is DK weight Peace Fleece. I made an error in calculating the increases and they ended earlier than I wanted, plus I didn't like the way the garter stitch band was slightly wider than the stockinette just above it. See?


I knew this would happen, since the pattern calls for a single needle size throughout and garter stitch WILL knit up wider than stockinette, but I thought maybe it wouldn't bother me. That brings me to the ...

First Reknit Object of 2008

Much better, I think. The stockinette is knit on 3.50 mm needles and the garter stitch on 3.25 mm. That's all it takes sometimes.

First Return Trip to Sleeve Island of 2008


Now the body of the sweater is underway. I used the smaller needle size for the garter stitch here too. I'm reserving that decision vis a vis the garter stitch yoke until I get there. It will be a while.





As you can see, I had help with all the knitting and reknitting. (Fig, Marx says hi!).
And Lennon.


We also have a new pet...

Ta da! My first toe up sock AND first Turkish/peasant/afterthought heel. I've just passed the reserved heel location on the second sock so it will be done by the end of the week. Another cool first-time thing that I did with this sock was use an "expanded" bind off to ensure that the top edge of the sock would not be too tight. This is a technique I learned from Lucy Neatby's book Cool Socks Warm Feet. As Lucy explains it, for a k2 p2 ribbing, on the penultimate round you increase (M1) in the middle of each k2 of the ribbing and then on the final round bind off in k3 p3 rib. I adapted it to my k3 p2 ribbing by increasing in each p2 instead, and binding off in k3 p3 rib. It worked great.





The yarn is Apple Laine Apple Pie in the colourway Godiva. This yarn is a wonderful local product. It is a great blend of wool/mohair/silk/nylon (65/20/5/10 %). It feels heavenly. I wish there were more greens though.

 Sadly, these are not for me, but for my dear dotter Leba. Happily, I have more Apple Pie (Winter Dawn) to make socks for myself.

Another first today was FINALLY my first time using my embellisher . I made a tea cozy for my favourite tea pot.



I made it from a wool sweater (from the Gap, no less!) purchased from a local thrift store and felted in my good old top-loader. I measured up the tea pot according to this tutorial, made a paper pattern, traced it with a marker,



and cut out two pieces from the sweater. Then I practiced a little bit on a scrap piece of sweater.



Then I did this. The yarn that I used for the embellishing was some leftover Fleece Artist Country Mohair from a couple of years ago, a limited edition yarn and no longer available.




I even used the machine to join the two pieces together. Here are the in-use views, front and back.



This was a lot of fun to make and only took a few hours, start to finish.

And if you leave it on the desk while blogging, then it apparently has another use that I hadn't thought of.