What I made, by Sharon

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Safety socks

I finished my latest pair of sneaker liners (Roxy by Trudy Hertaas , and wore them today. Knitting these in Socks Yeah, which is a fairly thin sock yarn reminded me of a solid fact: there are three things that affect the final size:

1) Needle size 2) number of stitches AND 3) yarn thickness.

Which is to say these, knit on my usual 62 stitches and 2mm needle size came out quite small. But I wore them today and they are rather perfect. I reversed the pattern for the second one. I was thinking about just eyeballing it as I knit, or rewritting it in excel, and then I wondered if my (work) photocopy machine could mirror the image. It could, and it worked, so that made life fun and simple.
I also changed the side cables: the pattern had one extra long cable, which I didn't realise, so when I saw my sock had one longer cable I "fixed" it. After I realised what had happened, I left the cables equal, because to me it looks better that way.

And now I'm back to only having one p…

Unravelled Wednesday - the one with socks AND a jumper

Knitting two things at a time does my head in! It made sense when I cast on, and then I figured 'socks for out of the house, jumper for knitting on when I'm home". And it has been nice being able to carry the sock with me even when I don't think I'm going to have a lot of knitting time, but knowing that I only have a couple of hours left to finish the pair of socks is very distracting for me. Anyway, I'll knit and finish them on Friday. until then I'm focusing on my Chuck Sweater, which only needs two sleeves and it's done too. Cropped jumpers are very speedy!
In reading, I finished As Dust Dances and it was a disappointment, I really didn't enjoy the second half. Now I'm reading The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal.

I'm really not enjoying it. The premise is that the earth gets hit by a meteorite, and so now we should colonise space, before the earth boils. I think they should try to fix the earth, because it seems more logical and…

Blanket update

I'm suddenly obsessed with knitting on my blanket. I don't know if it's because all my friends gave me their left-over sock yarn, and now I have about a kilogram of scraps - special shout outs to Katie, Kris, Susanne and Louisa. Or because it looks funny, and will until the sides are evened up.

Or because I have a knitting plan that takes me through to next year, but unless I spend a day or two a week (or throw in a bunch of of charity hats with the left over LOSY) I won't actually have enough projects to get me through to next year.

I don't know why, but I do know that I am obsessed and can't stop knitting on this blanket! Which is good, because it took me 10 years to knit the first half of this project, and I'm thinking I'll knit the second half in one year. I know that if I only knit this, I could get it caught up in no time, but I still have to remind myself that, or all the things I knit, this one is not about finishing it. I'll remind myself of …

FO Friday

I finished the two Baby Surprise Jackets I was knitting and sewed the buttons on, washed and blocked them, bought a card and a mailing envelope.

Now Leon just needs to get an address, and these can go off the there recipients. I really like how the button choice came out on both of these. I'm very happy with both of them. Like I always say, it's pretty hard to mess up a Baby Surprise Jacket.

Interestingly, despite both being knit on the exact same needle (3.25mm Chiagoo), one came out noticeably larger than the other.

Really, one of my most favourite knitting things in the whole world is pairing a solid with a self striping, whether it is for baby jumpers or socks. One of my other favourite tings is taking photos of baby jumpers on my teddy bears:

As a bonus to this post, here's a pictures of the a previous baby jumper (not a BSJ) that I knit, with the actual baby in it.

Unravelled Wednesday and Yarnalong too

I finished these two baby surprise jackets this week, but between them they have 10 buttons to sew on, and sewing on buttons is not my favourite thing.

Blocked photos when they have had their bath, which is right after I sew the buttons on, which is right after I press "publish" on this, since the babies they are for are already born.

I threw together a sock knitting kit on Monday night, since I was short on time and didn't have any knitting on the go. I used this neon Socks Yeah that I bought in Edinburgh (from Rachel Coopey herself, thank for asking) and if that won't brighten these grey winter days nothing will! I'm knitting a pair of shorty socks my Trudy Hertaas, one of my favourite short sock designers. This photo doesn't actually capture the true brightness of the neon pink yarn.

My intention was to finish these during the week and then start Chuck on the weekend, but I'm home sick today, so I cast on for it. It's only 4pm and I've already do…

Planning (and no pictures!)

I've been planning my knitting for the second half of the year, both in my head and in my Ravelry queue.

I bought yarn for 4 major projects at Bendigo, and I only had one major projects worth in my stash, so this plan should take me through the end of the year.

August's major project is the Chuck sweater. I've started swatching for it, but I'm out tomorrow and I'm not sure if I can deal with getting everything organised and casting on out of the house, so I will probably knit a pair of socks first.

September's major project in a jumper for Leon. We are (hopefully) going on a short holiday somewhere warm, and I think the body of it will make a great holiday project. Stocking stitch in the round. before that I'm going to make a cowl. We were originally going hiking in September, but I don't think that is going to happen now, but it is a piece missing from my kit, and I think there will be some hiking done in October, when it is still sometimes chilly.

Then it…