It Might Actually Happen

I know that, relatively speaking, I'm a pretty fast knitter. But my knitting time is usually limited, what with a full-time job and a small child and all the demands of life. When I decided to knit a Rhinebeck sweater, I knew it was a big proposition and there was a very large chance I wouldn't finish it in time. But, lo and behold, my sweater is actually starting to look like a sweater!

I'd added quite a bit of fabric since joining the fronts and backs at the underarms and am now halfway through the underbust decreases. Once those are done and the knitting reaches just above the narrowest part of my waist, I do a series of waist/hip increases and then work even until the body is the right length.

Now that I've done a good amount of rows involving both front bands, I've gotten into a good rhythm. I won't say that I've memorized those stitch patterns, but I'm beginning to get a rough feel for where the increases and decreases lie, and I'm also less confused about which chart to refer to (they're side by side on the page, so which one you refer to first in a row depends on whether you're working on the right side or wrong side).

The further I get into this pattern, the more impressed I am with it. It's not exactly a difficult pattern in terms of the knitting skill needed, but it is an involved one in the sense that there's a lot to pay attention to. There's the two charts for the front bands, for starters, which are symmetrical, plus the shaping, plus some short rows on the edges that you do every time you repeat the charts to keep the I-cord edging from pulling too much. And while I was worried that the sweater was running small while I was completing the first parts, I've tried it on and it looks like it will fit perfectly.

Aside from the sweater, which has been my main focus, I'm also trying to finish up my current socks. I'm about an inch away from starting the toe of the second sock, so a completed pair will soon be in the offing.

The second sock has gotten me a bit annoyed with this yarn, to be honest. I was already not a huge fan of all the cotton because of how hard it is on my hands, but for some reason the skein decided to start knotting up as I was pulling the yarn out on this second sock, resulting in a lot of yarn barf. As if that wasn't enough, I encountered a knot, and after cutting it out, I found that the self-patterning was completely disrupted, as you can see from the photo above. I'm not terribly concerned, as it happened on the foot of the sock and that part will be hidden in my shoe when I wear these, but it's rather irksome that it happened this close to the end of the sock.

To avoid having more ends to weave in on these socks (because I'm dealing with enough ends on my sweater), I used a clasped weft join after I cut out the knot. I think I've used this join once before, and I really like it. It's very easy to do, and although the join feels a bit bulky for the first round or two after you do it, it seems to blend in very well after that. I can feel where the join is on this sock, but I can't really see it from the outside (the bits of ends sticking out on the inside are a dead giveaway). I did do the join on the instep of the foot rather than the sole, just to be safe, because although my feet aren't as sensitive as other parts of me, I have some other socks where there was a join in the foot due to a knot (where I did a normal join and wove in the ends later) and I can feel it every time I wear them.

I may try to finish the socks up tonight, if I can, so that I can start something new at lunch tomorrow. I have yarn support for a new design on its way to me, but in the meantime I have a hat design I've been meaning to cast on for months now that I think will finally get its turn.