Friday Knitting Blog (02/25/2011)

Here I go with the first knitting blog of the year without swatches. Let's dive right in, shall we? Fair warning, this entry is link heavy. The pattern links largely go to Ravelry and the yarn links to where I purchased them. As always, click the pictures to make 'em bigger.

First up is the left front of my Cosima Cardigan. The yarn is Valley Yarns Berkshire Bulky in Lime from WEBS. The back and both sleeves have already been knitted. At this point, I have a couple more inches to go on this front before it's time to start the simultaneous neck and armhole shaping. I've managed to get this far in about 5 hours total knitting time, which is about 2 inches per hour, so it's going along at a pretty good clip. Bulky yarn helps with that. The goal between now and next Friday is to finish the left front and start the right front. 

I'll also have to make a decision fairly soon about the finishing. When I'm knitting a sweater in pieces, I like to block the pieces separately before I put them together; I think it makes for neater seams and a better looking garment. However, this pattern does not mention blocking at all. Not before finishing and not after finishing. I'm at a loss as to whether or not to follow my instinct and block before joining and then block again after I pick up the stitches and knit the collar or follow the pattern and never block the thing. I'll let you know what I decide; I'm sure you're anxious with anticipation. (We both know I'm going to block it at some point, it's just a matter of what point.)

And now for a sock. I worked on this for maybe an hour last Sunday evening just to see how it would go. This is Skew from Knitty (link takes you to the most recent issue, but Skew is from winter 2009). I've started it before but I didn't care for the yarn I was using, so I put it aside. The sock itself has a really interesting architecture. It's skewed (hence the name), and the stripes run on a diagonal which changes direction at the heel. It's knit toe up (instead of cuff down), and I'm not very very far along with it yet. If I put it on my foot to try to take a picture, it just looks weird, so I just took the picture flat. Still kind of odd looking, but it's a picture.

This time, I'm using this yarn. Knit Picks Felici (fingering weight) in Green Veggies, which is currently on sale because they have new colors. (In the new colors, I like Moonlit, Caprica, and Botany).

This is a 1 skein per sock kind of yarn, and I like to use the ball winder whenever possible, so this is what it looks like fresh from KP and what it looks like after I've made yarn cake. The cake actually shows the stripes better than the skein, I think.

I've been in love with this sock pattern for a while, so I'm excited to knit it, but I've also been working on the sweater for so long that it's the main focus right now. I really want to be able to wear it. I'm torn between 2 projects and trying to give both of them at least some of my attention. I get so much more done when I'm project monogamous, but I haven't been that in a while.