DPN distress

Well, I'm not sure if I like knitting with dpn's or not. The first two rounds felt so awkward. But I was determined not to give up. Plus, I think I need to find some shorter needles. All the "extra" needles feels like I'm fighting with a gangly octopus. Yes, I think a trip to Romni by streetcar after work this week is needed. Oh crap...I just checked their site and their summer hours are until 5pm -- I work until 5pm. Maybe I can make it there and back in time during lunch...will I be able to do it in one hour only? (I work at Queen & Yonge Sts.) And with probably no time to browse the store either? Hmmmm, I don't know.

Anyway, here's what I accomplished last night. I feel like I'm moving at a snail's pace. No wonder people only finish one sock.

Once I master knitting socks with dpn's I will try the 2 circ method. I used 2 circs to close up the London Beanies I made so maybe I'll be able to master that as well.

I started this crocheted stole last Thursday. It's the freebie pattern that was posted to the Annie's Attic site this past week: Pretty in Pink Stole. It's also in the Feb 2003 issue of Annie's Favourite Crochet. I'm almost sure I've seen it somewhere else as well. Anyhoo, I can't link to it because the freebie pattern is replaced daily. Sorry.

My version uses Patons Brilliant. Because the original pattern calls for fuzzy ww yarn and a 6.50mm hook, I had to adjust a bit to make the stole wide enough to cover my long arms (did I ever mention I'm 5'10" ?). I tried using the required hook but it didn't look right. I changed to a 6.00mm hook and added to the base chain. The basic pattern is 8 ch +1 and so it was pretty easy to figure out how to go from there. I then realized I wouldn't have enough yarn...the Brilliant came from my stash and I only had 4 skeins. (It was originally meant for a knitted stole using a variation of a Classic Lace Poncho from the Patons leaflet "Simply Brilliant".) So an emergency trip to Lewiscraft was in order -- the one at Eglinton Square in Scarborough is open until June 30...oh and the one at Bloor & Yonge is too -- and lo & behold I found lots more in the same dye lot! Yay! I bought enough to finish the stole with and then some. At 50% off ($2.50 each!) I just couldn't resist. :) And to finish the story for today, the stole is working up very very quickly...I'm imagining I could have had it completed by now had I been using a ww yarn....

Olé Olé .... Knitting World Cup Here We Come!

I signed up for The Knitting World Cup this past week. I meant to post about it on Thursday night, but when I finally decided to get on Blogger around midnight that night it was down for maintenance. Terrible timing I must say.

As my challenge, I chose to knit my first pair of socks: the Hiking Socks from the Patons leaflet Pull Up Your Socks. Will be using Patons Classic Wool in a dark grey.


And here is the swatch I finished on Wednesday. I know some may laugh that I did up a swatch for socks, but I wanted to make sure they're purrrfect for my dad. Happily, my tension was dead-on at the first try.


I had bought the leaflet and the wool in a little shop in Lakefield, ON while on vacation last summer. I had meant to make them for my dad for Christmas thinking they'd be great for him as he gets terribly cold feet in the winter. Of course, I never even cast on the stitches...mostly because I wanted to learn to knit with shorter needles as I used to be (and still am) one of those "needle under the right arm" knitters (just like my mom). So, in between then and now I've accomplished knitting using shorter needles (dpn's with point protectors on one end) and with circs. Now, I will try using 5 dpn's...trying to knit socks the traditional way. I will be casting on tonight. Sherri and Pirk will be so proud of me. :)