jumping into the frog pond

When I returned to knitting a couple of years ago, this tahoe cardigan was one of  the first things I knitted.

I was happy with it to begin with, but it has been languishing in the back of the wardrobe for many months now. I made a poor yarn substitution decision. The Patons DK cotton I used is a lovely yarn for some things, but was not suited to the loose tension of the pattern. With that and the sheer weight of the amount of cotton needed to cover me, it dropped horribly and became unwearable.

So now I am dismantling it. I’ve never done this before, frogged and recycled something I’ve made myself. It doesn’t seem ‘right’ to rip out all that work, all those endless rows of stocking stitch. But what is the point of keeping it as I’m never going to wear it again? The yarn is still in good condition and is a lovely colour, may as well reuse the yarn.  I’m thinking of making the vine stitch wrap from Vogue Knitting on the Go: Shawls.  So I have gritted my teeth and unpicked (OK not unpicked, cut) the seams; going to sit and frog it at knit night tonight.

he shrunk them!

Normally I’m superwash all the way for socks but the yarn was lovely and perfect for the pattern I wanted to use for Rob’s Christmas socks. I told him they were hand wash only. I put a yarn care label in with the socks (along with the ball band which also has the washing instructions on). And why does he think they’ve been regularly seen drying on the wool airer over the bath? Does he think I have some kind of sock-washing fetish? That I would rather hand wash socks that could perfectly well go in washing machine? Well obviously he did or else he wouldn’t've chucked them in the machine with everything else.

Oh well at least Owen now has a nice pair of warm cosy felted socks that fit him nicely.

how could I say no?

Last year I made a shrug for Bea’s birthday. Her little sister said she wanted me to make her a pink one. I saw her yesterday (3 months on) and asked her what she wants for her upcoming 5th birthday. “A pink cardigan” says Laura. So, I’m now working on a little pink shrug bolero cardi thing.

pomatomus socks

My first pair of pomatomus socks, I love this pattern and I love this yarn. I actually finished these over Christmas but made them too long and ended up reknitting the toes.

Pattern: Pomatomus by Cookie A (from knitty.com) (using 3mm needles for the leg and 2.75 for the foot)
Yarn: Stroud SuperSock Hand-Dyed 4ply by Violet Green, shade Liquorice