first finished object of 2007

I did finish the Jaywalkers socks, and hope to wear them soon. They are drying as I speak. This colorway wasn't too colorfast, my hands and needles came out stained after knitting with it. That's why I decided to give them a good wash first.

I frogged the brown socks. I didn't like the tiny cable in that dark color. And I lost a bunch of stitches when a needle slid out of the wip (work in progress) in my purse. I'll need to find a pattern better suited to this yarn.
I have also been inspecting my stash.

This is the cupboard in my livingroom, filled with oddballs, or special yarns, just enough for small projects. It's next to my TV, so when there's nothing on, I can admire my stash.

To keep my resolution of knitting from stash, I swatched with a variegated cotton paired up with some Rowan kidsilk haze. I bought the cotton in Venice in 2005.

The name of the shop was Lellabella, very nice but expensive. The kidsilk haze is from my local yarnstore, 't Wolwinkeltje in Leuven. (I must write one day about the yarnstores in my home town). The idea was to knit 'Tamarah', but my swatch learns me that that won't work. So now I'll have to think a bit more about what to do with these yarns.

And the jawbreaker cardigan is 'on hold' now. I finished the back, but am having second thoughts about the front. They are cut away, and slant towards the neck opening. I am wondering if this look will work on somebody who is not as flat as the model in the magazine.

not so mindless socks

I love to knit socks when I am inbetween projects, when I am stuck on a project, and when I am travelling. I use socks as a mindless project, I don't have to think about it, I can just knit and relax. So, when travelling to Torino, naturally I started a pair of socks.
I bought some sock yarns from 'storm op zolder' on the Stitch and Bitch event in Rotterdam.


The blue one is for my Secret Pal 9; the orange one is for my friend Jane in Texas, and the black/olive/sand yarn was destined to become a pair of socks for my son. To my surprise he didn't like the colors (but it has black in it, and olive !).
So I decided to start a pair of socks for me - I settled for the 'jaywalker socks'.

Now usually I knit my socks on 60 stitches, but this pattern calls for 76 stitches to cast on. OK, I thought, maybe this pattern has not much give, so it makes sense to cast on a bit more stitches. But when I had knitted the cuff, it looked soooo big, that I decided to decrease to 68 stitches. Well, let me tell you, this pattern calls for 76 stitches for a reason. And I only realised this when I had knitted the first sock, and tried it on. I could not get the sock over my heel. So frogging the first attempt was in order.
As my need for simple, mindless knitting was not satisfied, I cast on for another sock.

This is 'fancy rib socks', from the 'subscriber only' part of the Interweave knits website, knitted in Knitpicks 'essential'.
My second attempt at the 'jaywalker socks' resulted in another failure, that only got noticed when the decreases for the toe didn't add up. The zigzag pattern is formed by increasing on both ends of the needle, and decreasing in the middle. Somewhere I managed to increase without the corresponding decrease. I knitted a complete foot before this came obvious. So frogging the foot back to the heel flap was in order.
I have knitted this sock for the 3d time now - so I really got lots of knitting time for my money. And for the good order : it is entirely due to me not paying attention. There is nothing wrong with the pattern.