Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Done and on to something a bit more fun


The boring boy socks are done. They did not go to Camp Seymour, but he did get to wear them to school on Monday. I had just woven in the ends on the toes, when he was getting out of the shower on Sunday night. He put them on (I wanted to make sure he was happy with them.) I will weave in the ends before I wash them. I will say, his smile when he put them on was worth the tedium. So far, the only pictures I have of the completed socks are on his feet.

The good thing about being done with that project, I get to go on to a different project. Sunday, when I was just about done with the socks, I had an hour to myself, and the LYS about half a mile from me was open. I went in to see if there was anything I couldn't live without. I walked out with the yarn for the Hexacomb Cardigan for my 12 year old daughter. I am making the smallest size and using Queensland Collection Maldive cotton yarn. The main color is color 10, which is a grass green with tweedy flecks, and the contrast color is 02, which is an off white with tweedy flecks. I got gauge with size 7 needles. Instead of starting with the body, I am starting with the sleeves to make sure she likes the color combination and the drape. She seems to be happy with it. I am not sure I am happy with the needle-yarn combination. Normally, I knit cotton on my aluminum needles, for the slide factor. This cotton is much smoother than good old dish cloth cotton. However, I was not happy with the yarn and bamboo needles. I think I will get out my Denise set, and try those. I think that may be the happy marriage of yarn and needles I am looking for on this project.

Being glad to be done with the boring boy socks is one thing, however, I think for volleyball tournaments, socks are right level of knitting attention. I have the log cabin to work on, for mindless knitting, but it is starting to be too big to carry around. I will be casting on for another pair of socks for the young man. This next pair will have the dark blue as ribbing at the top of the sock (just 44 stitches cast on for the next pair), for about two inches, to be followed by about four inches of the dark green in stockinette stitch, blue heel flap, plain green foot, ended with blue toes. Although it is a toss up between 44 stitches on the size fours or 48 stitches dropping down to size threes. I will have to test up some of the yarn on threes, to see if it is too dense.