strikkepress

I finished my first Pomatomus sock yesterday and started the second. I hope I will be able to finish it by the end of the week. I am very happy with how this sock turned out. It is very comfortable to wear and I like the bright colours.

I don't find the Pomatomus pattern very difficult and I really enjoy knitting the socks. At the same time, the pattern is quite challenging since I have stay 100% focused the whole time. 

This sock had to be frogged. The front needle in this picture has about fourteen stitches. As everyone probably knows, that needle is supposed to hold 24 stitches. I think I forgot a yarn-over at the end of this needle in the middle of the second pattern repeat, and after that I forgot the yarn-over all together until I realized that the number of stitches had decreased significantly. So much for not paying attention to what your fingers are up to. I ended up frogging the whole sock. I have cast on again and finished the ribbing. I am once again ready to start the pattern. This time I will watch my fingers and be prepared if the fish strikes again.

There is something about penguins. They keep on marching and their march never ends.

Well, my time with the penguins ended last night when I finally got around to sew the penguin buttons on to this jacket. It has been hidden in the basket where I keep my stash and WIPs.

There is even a funny little hat to go with the jacket.

This set is made for a little boy who was born in December. Since he was very tiny, and the set turned out to be quite large, I decided to hold on to it for a while. But now the boy has grown and I think he is ready to meet his penguins (even though he probably won't be able to wear them for at least another year).

The yarn is my usual for this kind of knitting, Rauma babygarn, the pattern comes from Rauma as well. The trouble with the penguins is that you have to knit with three strands of yarn at the same time. I find that quite difficult because I really don't know what to do with the third strand. Anyhow I managed, but I think the penguins are knit with a tighter gauge than the rest of the jacket.

A few days ago I joined the Pomatomus knit along and I am very excited. Before I start, I have a confession to make. I knitted a pair of Pomatomus a month or two ago. Here they are:

The yarn is Falk from Dale. I like the socks and I love the pattern. Making them was so much fun. Falk is a thicker yarn than the pattern calls for and the socks are very warm and comfortable. I have a feeling however, that a thinner yarn would give the socks the elegance they rightfully deserve. So I came across the knit along, and there was my opportunity to try again.

I have been debating myself about the choice of yarn for this project, but now my mind is made up. I am going with this colourful yarn that accidentally ended up in my stash basket the other day:

I hope I will have time to cast on tonight, but first there is other unfinished maritime business to take care of.

The new Knitty is up and I immediately fell in love with the Hedera sock. Cookie has made a great follow up to the Pomatomus success. Hedera is simple and elegant and really easy to knit. The ivy stitch pattern quickly sticks to your mind and the socks are done in no time.

I love the socks, but I am not very happy with the yarn, a sock yarn from Marks & Kattens. The colour is OK, but I dislike both the feel and the smell of the yarn. I have promised myself at least one encore with the Hedera, and next time the yarn is going to be first class.

Inspired by the creeping ivy pattern of the Hedera I moved right along to the Creeping Vines socks. The pattern wasn't as easy to follow, but the leaves are fantastic. I never managed to memorize the 8 different rows of the stitch pattern so I had to keep my nose in the chart at all times. Still, I really enjoyed the knitting and I am sure I am going to enjoy wearing them even more.

The stitch pattern is really beautiful:

I am more happy with my choice of yarn for these socks, 4-ply Regia sock yarn. I even like the colour. While knitting, someone told me that the colour was very peculiar and from the tone of her voice I understood that she meant ugly. That said, the colour would not have been my first choice if I had had plenty of options. It comes from my stash (it's probably larger than I am willing to admit), and I remember finding it in a discount basket at one of my LYS.

I like to believe that I am the kind of person who finishes what she starts. That’s why I don’t have very big stash, at least compared to the extravaganzas that were flashed on countless blogs on April 1. I admit, I am a little envious… my boyfriend, the storage space available in our apartment and my wallet prevent me from acquiring new yarn. Apart from a kilo of Lópi accidentally purchased on a trip to Reykjavík, my stash mostly consists of left over yarn from finished projects. That is the result of doing a lot of stranded knitting. You always have to much yarn. Sometimes you buy a whole skein only to realize that it’s only needed for a few rounds and you end up with a big basket stuffed with odd balls of yarn in your living room. Even though I try as hard as I can to dig through my basket to try to locate a yarn that can be used for those odd stripes, my stash keeps growing. The last couple of years I have knitted a lot of baby jackets like this one:

As a result, a substantial part of my stash is made up by Rauma babygarn, which is a lovely fingering weight (I think) super wash merino yarn. I think I must have tried every interesting jacket pattern made for this yarn. (I told you, I am a regular at Husfliden.) I am ready to move on to other types of projects, like a beautiful, comfortable, elegant cardigan for myself (haven’t found a suitable pattern yet), and there are always loads of interesting patterns for shawls and socks to try out. So why do I keep knitting my baby jackets? The hope of actually minimizing my stash of course, and when ever one project is finished, there is a new baby in need of a nice and warm hand knit jacket.

Well, with my latest baby project I think I might actually succeed in downsizing my stash by a few grams. I have only bought the white yarn, the rest is from my stash. I am confident I have enough, maybe even for a little hat. The pattern is my own, I worked it out based on elements from the jacket shown above. I am actually quite pleased with it.

So far I have finished the main part of the jacket. The front looks like this:

And the back like this:

This has been sitting in my knitting basket for almost a month, because I haven’t yet figured out what I want the arms to look like. I will try to get them done in the coming week. The baby is growing so I better get to work.