Sunday, May 25, 2008

V

I finally finished the v-neck for my dad. He's happy, I'm happy.

Dad V-neck 1

Pattern: My own
Yarn: Jaeger Extra Fine Merino in Natural (SH 937), about 15 balls
Needles: 3.5mm/4mm Knitpicks Options circulars

Dad V-neck 2

Comments:
A pretty generic v-neck pattern with set in sleeves. I knitted both the body and sleeves in the round to reduce seaming.

The only difficulty I had was with the sleeves. I managed to mis-measure my dad's shoulder to wrist length, which led to a pretty long first sleeve that had to be completely ripped and remade. Designing the sleeve caps was also pretty tricky, but I found the article on the topic by Pam Allen in the Winter 07 issue of Interweave Knits pretty helpful.

This is the only photo I've got of my dad actually wearing it. It's taken on my phone, hence the awful quality. I can't take credit for the retro kitchen background though.

Sunday, May 18, 2008

Dead Sock Day

First up, I've been hibernating. Partly because life has been really really busy, but mainly because there's not much knitting to show.

I've pretty much been working on my dad's v-neck in all my spare time, and that's about it. All the knitting got done last week and as soon as I finish this post, I'm going to attach the last sleeve and block the whole thing. And boy will it be a relief!

Not that it's not been fun. In fact, it's been quite a challenge since it's the first jumper I designed from scratch. But more on that when I actually finish it and have something to show with the commentary.

Today's post is mainly one of comiseration. Yesterday could aptly be called Dead Sock Day.

First I took out the laundry to find that this...

Embossed Leaves Socks

had become this...

I've machine washed these socks many times before, and there's never ever been a problem. For some reason, this time they completely felted!

When I checked the settings, I realised I had set the wash cycle to intense wash for the previous load and forgot to switch it back. And I only did that because (out of the kindness of my heart) I had taken the dirty stinky tea towels from work home to wash! Just goes to show doing good is bad for you.

After the anguish of this incident, I decided to mend another hand knitted sock just to make myself feel better. This one had a hole in the toe. Easy. Rip back a few rows, reknit, rekitchener, done.

When I finished, I went to get the other sock to try them both on. But when I put the 'good' sock on, this happened!

A stitch near the heel snapped and created this big hole! I just couldn't believe it. Two pairs of socks ruined in one day. If someone knows a good site on darning socks - please send it my way.

Anyway, I want to finish up on a happy note. I did manage to finish the Child's First Socks yesterday, from Nancy Bush's Knitting Vintage Socks.

First sock 2
More pics on my flickr. And details on Ravelry.

Oh, and we're going to Japan in 3 weeks!