Grayjeans

Hurray, my new cardigan is finished. It took about a month, so not too bad on this front, especially, as I only knitted on the weekends.


The patterns is Mr. Greenjeans from Knitty, the yarn Bingo Chinè by Lana Grossa.
The construction is pretty cool and there's no sewing involved, which always is a big plus.
After the wash last week, it's know a wee bit too big, but I don't mind really. The arms are about an inch too long, too, but that is more of a plus than anything, considering how cold it got.
I'm not too happy about the collar, though, and am thinking about redoing parts of it (making it wider at the top.
It's warm, it fits (more or less) and it doesn't itch (which really, in the end, was the problem I had with Oblique)

Other than that I'm making even more socks.

I'm not quite sure what I was thinking when I bought the yarn last year, except maybe that sock from it will be warm for sure. It is pretty ugly, really. But the socks are perfect bed socks, and nobody but me will really see them, so never mind.

I did go back to working on the Afgan now. It's been a while, and now that it really got cold, the thought of a nice cuddly blanket has some appeal. I dropped the idea of making a bedspread though. I've finshed 16 squares so far and with eight more I'll get a nice, proper sized blanky. And I won't need ot worry about getting more of the yarn.

The Socks Formerly Known As Crusoe

The socks that started out their live as Crusoe (because they were stranded (knitting ...) - you get it?) ended up as the miss-matched bright colored pair.


Same pattern, same yarn. Same ball for a good bit, too.
But totally different effect. I love the one on the right more than then one on the left.
But I'm not going to rip them (or one of them) up!

It is actually a quite pretty sock.



Next pair is on the needles and there can't really be another name for them than the 'Very Green Socks'

... because, that's what they are.
The pattern is from the favorite socks book, and actually the third pattern I did from this book. Or, rather, the fourth, as I started those with another pattern, which I then didn't like so much for this wool.
The yarn is actually the left over yarn from the pullover I made for my nephew. Remember, I need the some green yarn to stitch the letters and this sock yarn was the only color that came close to the color I wanted. It is a lovey sock yarn though, very nice and soft (Lana Grossa Meilenweit Merino). I would totally buy more of this yarn if I ever should come into the situation that I needed more sock yarn.
Which I won't.
Really.
You should see my stash.

Making Progress And One Step Back

Grayjeans is progressing nicely. The body is done as well as the right arm

(this is obviously before the arm was finished ...)

I realy enjoy knitting this. The contruction is pretty clever - no seams!!! - and the cable pattern does keep is interesting.

Cables are on the lower half of the body as well as the cuffs.

I've just started on the twelvest ball of yarn. Good thing I went back and bought some more. I think I should be able to finish this with about a ball to spare.

The sock I've started last week turned out not as I wanted it. So in the end I decided to start a new sock with a different pattern I sort of made up (standard sock pattern with some details from another pattern)


The heel caused me a bit of a headache - this is version three. With the first heel (the 'classic' turned heel) the colors in the gusset section began to pool like crazy - but only there. So I went to the frog pond and tried another heel (short row), but there I didn't like how the yarn crosses in the wrap and turn sections, so this was ripped as well. This here is okayish, but still not 100% what I wanted. Ah, well.
The yarn, by the way is not as good as the first from this batch - I found a minimum of two knots in the first ball, and one already in the second. Means there's going to be a lot of weaving in the ends.

Loads of sock yarn

One of our discounters here in Germany had a special offer on sock yarn the other week. I ended up with four packs (200gr yarn each) which would be 8 pairs of socks. Luckily, a friend was willing to liberate me of half of that yarn, so the pressure is a bit off (that is ignoring the ... ehr, ... not exactly small amount of sock yarn I've still got in my stash)

The first pair is this here:

Just a very plain, standard sock pattern (what we would call stinos - sticknormale Socken) The yarn did all the work and I seriously like them.

The next pair is already on the needle

A very bright yarn knitted in the pattern 'Crusoe'

Main project, though, is Greenjeans (which I should rename 'Grayjeans')

I washed the swatch from last week and, indeed, it did relaxed a bit and grew by about 5%.
So I did a recalculation of everything, scratched my head a lot, and decided to go on as I started. Just before the cable section started I slipped (as recommended in the pattern) all live stitches on some waste yarn and tried is on.
It's an almost perfect fit with very little ease - so, accepting that it will grow a bit, I guess I'm all set.

I had to go back to me yarn store, though, as I sort of forgot that when I switch yarns (as I did with this project) I might need to recheck the amount of balls I need. The first yarn had 120m / 50g and I bought 10 balls. Why I thought that buying the same number of balls of a yarn that has 80m / 50g is a bit beyond me. I've now have 16 balls, though I calculated that 13 should be enough. Right now I'm at the seventh.