Thursday, November 15, 2007

So with Fannigan gone - what am I knitting now?

Today - how the Brother Amos sock is an attention seeking sock and was this close(holds thumb and first finger very close together) to a session in the time out section of my knitting basket, plus I try a new technique, some mistakes I found after I finished Fannigan, the Andean hat grows despite using 2mm needles, and next week new/old books.

Brother Amos, I still like these socks, but with putting them on hold to finish Fannigan - well I lost my way, and I got mesmerized by these, which I want to cast on for NOW. But then Bro Amos will never be finished. Brother Amos knows this, and to frustrate me further (- can socks do this? appliances can), has misbehaved 3 or more times during the last pattern repeat. Of course knitting Bro Amos when out and about and not taking the chart was courting disaster, twice, and not counting stitches carefully when I frogged and put them back on the needles was also asking for trouble. Now I have tamed that sock, I knit quietly, at home, uninterrupted, with the chart at my side and I will finish this sock soon.
The close up here of Brother Amos is of the decreases, about four rows back I switched from a standard ssk to the more modern sytk. Now this is is claimed to be a better or closer pair for a k2tog, what do you think? I must admit to not seeing as much difference between the earlier ssk's and the more recent sytk's as I expected. I will keep knitting using sytk, and compare the entire sock leg when finished.

and I am still using the 2-circ method, its good, every now and again I knit them all up onto one circ with a twist in the middle, but with good smooth circs the method is perfect for patterned socks. No having to work repeats split by dpns. So a big thank you to Suzanne aka lace lunatic aka Magpie for enabling me to knit this way, and encouraging me to try.


And Fannigan, well I hinted in an earlier post there were at least 2 mistakes that I was not frogging for, this is them: first on a row that should have had a knit dot every 4th stitch, I confused myself and k3 red where there should be 1 red. Well its small, and not really noticeable and public now. The other mistake, well a small hole in the sleeve, where I wove in the ends the 'wrong way. That is I wove them in in a way that they pulled the join spot open, rather than snugged it closed. Oh well - that one is fixable, some time, maybe ...



Andean hat : it grows, faster than Kelly's, who mailed me and asked if it should be 2mm not US2's, as she had cast on apparently for a sweater not a hat. I didn't know how not to laugh, 54 puntas is a lot of work to rip back. Kelly was a good sort about it, just one of those communication things, but I'd have to say neither of us did gauge swatches so we probably deserve any size mishaps we get. I've lent her my extra 2mm circs, as a token of my guilt. At knit night, we did try and talk Kelly into continuing and then felting/fulling the hat, and making it a bag - but she frogged, she said no hat would beat her. My own Andean hat grows, I'm up to chart A, which seems to be forming well, the first 4 or 5 lines looked messy but then the direction of the pattern came together.


and the inside, some of the floats are over 10 or so stitches, but the gauge is so small I just left them floating. With white being a main colour I was reluctant to weave and risk show thru. I'm sure they will felt in just a little,

and I just have to say, that new sock knitter I enabled, a graduating student, well I get exited phone texts when she turns the heel, more txts saying she might have to open a sock business, and then more inquiries about narrowing the foot. I think she is hooked, don't you? Kathleen - you know who you are, I enabled even further now with a graduation prezzie of ashford dpns.

2 comments:

KathyR said...

Nice work on the Andean hat, it is really coming along. I made a pair of Embossed Leaves socks robably a year ago. Turned out well apart from not liking the colour a whole lot. I agree that the toe is rather clever! As for Fannigan - have you thought of doing duplicate stitch over the two recalcitrant red stitches? That would be a simple fix. Don't you just love it when you've finally finished something and heave a huge, proud sigh of relief just to look at it later to find some little minor hitch? Yeah, not. It happens too often for me!

Anonymous said...

BLOODY HELL Stella!!! This hat is going to be the death of me. I was so busy working on those darn puntas, that I really didn't pay attention to COLOUR! Now I am not really happy with the colour choices, but as you can understand, I am very reluctant to frog anything on size #$%@&* 2mm needles.
It will be amazing if this doesn't look like a swirl of mushy mud.
Whew, I feel much better.
See you tomorrow.