I've been knitting some
bmp socks. They're done!
These socks were a commission by Julie, a friend of a friend.
She's vegan, so I made these out of Berocco Comfort Sock, half nylon and half acrylic.
This is my second real colorwork project, after the Anemoi mitts. For this one, I learned how to twist the strands together so that there would be no floats. Good plan, for socks.
I feel like the stitches sometimes came out a little uneven, but I guess it's alright. It might get better with washing, too.
The shooter is done in duplicate stitch. The last equals sign above is also done in duplicate stitch, because I forgot it the first time around.
Anyway, I think they're a success. I didn't really like working with the acrylic, and it definitely fought my new Knit Picks harmony sock needles. But I've also been using those needles for my mom's Austermann Step socks, and I love them. The upside of the acrylic is that it really resisted ladders. I was perfectly ladder-free on the plain foot section.
In the meantime, I've been working on a gansey for my roommate Emerson. It's been fun! I'm using Valley Yarns Northampton and loving it. It feels good and it's exactly sheepy enough. Smells great.
Emerson likes cardigans so this is not really a traditional gansey. I'm using the Seahouses Cardigan pattern from
Patterns for Guernseys, Jerseys, and Arans by Gladys Thompson. I used a channel island cast-on that I learned from
Knitting Ganseys by Beth Brown Reinsel. I plan to knit in Emerson's initials as well (seed stitch letters from the second book) and so I left a stockinette section on the back, followed by 5 rows of garter.
I started this project using size 7 needles, but I had all sorts of gauge issues and it turned out too small. I was past the armhole shaping on the back before I decided this. So I pulled it off the needles and cast on a new one one size up. I've done about one and a half repeats of the pattern and it looks much closer to the right size.
Here's the first one, now doomed, in an early stage:
Here's the new one in its current state:
The colors are pretty accurate here.
Here's some detail, with a wholly inaccurate color:
Emerson is totally into this gansey. He gets very excited talking about it. He's started to use "gansey" as an adjective, as in "That's definitely gansey." Shortly after I started the first one, he asked how soon he could wear it. I told him he could wear it immediately, and then he proceeded to spend an hour watching tv and holding the gansey to his torso. It was very cute, but he doesn't want me to post pictures of him. :(
Meanwhile, I've started a
Clapotis.
What was I thinking when I chose these colors? I'm enjoying the knitting, but I don't like the colors at all. I hope that I can find someone who will love it. The only thing is that now I'm using the same needle size for the gansey and the clapotis. I only have one set of size 8 tips, so this means that I'm not really actively working on both at the same time.
Phew, that was a lot of pictures!
