Caryn's Knits

Friday, February 09, 2007

Recent FOs

Ever since I finished my Christmas knitting, I've been working to finish all the stuff I had sitting around my apartment partly done.

First up? Finishing my first-ever set up hand-knit socks. I started Pomatomus Socks last April, believe it or not. Got the first one done in a couple of weeks, and then never got more than a couple of rows into the second one.

Well, I finally finished them!



The yarn is a pink and gold colourway in 100% Merino sock yarn, from Handmaiden Knits. I think you can see the colours a little better in this picture.


Next up? Learning how to do toe-up socks, and learning magic loop. I think both would make sock knitting easier. It was fun, though, and it's kinda cool to actually make something that will get that much wear.

Once the socks were done, I went back to the Desert Sun Shawl (the Mystery Shawl along #4, from Goddess Knits. This one is knit in a double stranded linen-mohair blend (Kidlin Pixie) that was nice to knit with, and an absolute bitch to tink. 'Twas a good thing i never had to tink that much on this one. Going back 10 stitches was irritating - having to go back an entire row would have been impossible.

I've never done a round shawl before, and the math of this is kinda cool. You can see the 5 different sections (before the border) with different lace patterns. Before each section, the number of stitches was doubled, and that keeps the shawl nice and round. Isn't geometry grand? *g*



Unfortunately, I don't really have anywhere to take a picture to show it off, after I unpinned it.


I do have some detail close-ups, though:


The center of the shawl.



The outside edging. This was a typical knit-on edge, but the way the points were made to swirl to one side is a nice design touch. I wish I could have pinned the edge a little more evenly, but pinning in a circle's not that easy to do - especially on a pillow top bed. I think I'll need to invest in some sort of blocking board, eventually.

I'm also still working on the Irish Diamond shawl that I started almost a year ago. There's only 9 rows of garter stitch left, but there are 760 stitches in each row. It's a bit of a slog, at this point. *g* But I'm almost done!

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