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Thursday, April 18, 2013

Anticipation

I finally made it out to knit night last night -- I hadn't been in a month -- and it was so nice to have some dedicated, uninterrupted knitting time. I made decent progress on sleeve #1 of my Vitamin D, although it seemed like the sleeve was going a lot slower than the body went. I had to knit to 8 cm before I started the decreases, and it seemed like it took most of the time I was out to get to that point.


Now, however, I'm two sets of decreases in (out of a total of eight) and things seem to be moving more quickly. I'm working the sleeves in the round (the pattern has them written flat and seamed, which I really didn't see the need for) and will probably extend them to be full length rather than three-quarters.

I'm also zooming ahead on my socks and have finished the leg and started the heel flap of sock #2. Now that I've got the pattern memorized and don't have to refer to the chart, I can get in a few extra rounds during my limited knitting time at lunch.

Please excuse the phone picture

I'm anxious to have a new pair of socks in the rotation because, shortly after publishing my last post, I realized the socks I was wearing were developing thin spots in the exact same spot in the heel flap. This really surprised me, because these socks aren't as old as the others and did have a reinforced heel -- not to mention that I didn't wear them all that often (largely because they've always been hard to get on, not having much stretch, and always felt a little crunchy to me).

As much as I'm anticipating having a finished sweater (which I'll need now that the office air conditioning is on at full blast) and a new pair of socks, what I'm really getting excited about is my lace shawl design class with Kirsten Kapur this Saturday at my LYS. It's a three-hour class, so there should be a lot covered. Designing lace has always been one of my personal goals and I'm really excited to see what I can do after the class is done. I have a huge pad of graph paper, colored pencils, and stitch dictionaries at the ready. Expect a run-down of the class after the fact!

Postscript: I want all of you who have encouraged me to darn the socks (or even offered to do it for me!) to know how much I appreciate it, but it isn't going to happen. Assuming I still had the small bits of leftover yarn that corresponded to these three different dyelots, I'd have to find them in the stash -- a Sisyphean task if ever there was one. Frankly, I'd much rather repurpose what's left of the socks and knit some new ones. There are so many full skeins of sock yarn in my stash that have been waiting for years to be used!

6 comments:

  1. Now I'm very jealous!!!!!!! Kirsten Kapur?!?! Crap! why can't she be on this end to the state????

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  2. of the state*

    Apparently I was so freaked I forgot how to spell. :/

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  3. I'm curious about the lace class. No yen to design but fascinated with how people come up with ideas.
    And as far as socks go, they seem to be like lightbulbs. They all go at the same time!

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  4. I didn't sign up for the shawl class :( Maybe I should have. I'm taking the colorwork one on Sunday though =D Your projects are looking lovely. I'm sorry you are finding more worn out socks. Must knit more socks lol!

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  5. For what it's worth, I've read that reinforcement thread can actually cut into the yarn. Some of my best wearing socks have no nylon at all and my worst wearing ones are 25% nylon. I just knit them and hope for the best. :P

    (Although I'm sure that my Mary Jane style Keens are not any good for my socks...they are stretched out and the increased friction is making them pilly.)

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  6. Have you recently gotten new shoes? It's possible they are rough or wearing differently.

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