FO: Norwegian Stockings...

Finally!



Pattern: Norwegian Stockings from Folk Socks by Nancy Bush.
Start/Finish: April 2006 to 23 June 2006
Yarn: Dale Baby Ull in neapolitan ice cream (ha!); approx. 2 skeins brown, 1.5 skeins pink, little bit of cream.
Needles: Clover bamboo DPNs size US2/2.75mm
Mods: Used tubular cast-on, shorter than called for (my leg isn't 15in. long), yarn sub, and grafted toes instead of drawing the yarn through the stitches.

Notes:

I technically made three stockings. The first had been ripped out so many times that the yarn pretty much wore out. I decided to just leave the first stocking as is (I'll probably have to throw it out or use it for tiny projects) and start over. I found that my stranding worked out better by knitting the main color (brown) English style (my preferred method) and the contrasting colors continental style.

I really didn't like the way the heel was worked--so much cutting and joining (not to mention the ends I had to weave in later). I found purling in the stranding technique to be quite difficult although this may be because I have trouble purling continentally. Next time I make these (and yes, I'm sure there will be a next time!), I'll try using an afterthought heel. I didn't know how to make one until the stockings were almost done. The pink is also darker than I'd like, but I suppose that's the problem with ordering online. I would have preferred something paler but they still turned out okay.

Overall, I love my stockings. So cute and comfy. I found, on the second stocking, that it only takes me a few days to make one. I guess my struggles with it were a combination of getting my tension right and second sock syndrome.

More photos:

Flogging the proverbial horse...

Episode 23 of Cast-On sums up this past month and a half of knitting pretty well.

First off is the Peacock Feathers Shawl, which I now call the Shawl Without End.



I'm on the edging now but it's so big that it takes me 20-30 minutes to work one row. When I went to my knitting group yesterday, I found that during the whole hour and a half I was there, I only finished two rows. A long way from the three stitches I started out with.

Then there are the Norwegian Stockings.



I had to completely frog it once because the tension was wonkey--loose in some places and tight in others. I spent a week away from it before restarting. This time my stranding was fine. I just happen to keep running into problems with the heel and foot. Once I *thought* I finally had it right, I realized that the pattern at the top of the foot was off center by one stitch. This one stitch was noticeable enough to me that I had to frog the foot, heel, AND heel flap. I think all these problems should be a sign that these stockings are not meant to be, but I just refuse to give up on them. Even if it drives me crazy.

Funny thing is, I started the Norwegian Stockings to keep me from going insane while working on Peacock Feathers.

Norwegian Stockings progress...

Frogged.



*Sigh*

ETA: I've also been really unhappy with the yoked pullover I was making for my dad (and that was *supposed* to be a Christmas gift last winter). I looked through my readily available pattern sources (a.k.a. online and free), and decided on Saranac from Knitty. I'll start frogging and re-knitting after I finish Peacock Feathers and get halfway through another project.

It's a dry April...

Or at least it is here at home.

I'm halfway into my one month Easter holiday and have spent much of it catching up on a semester's worth of sleep. I'm also chugging through some projects I'd been wanting to do for a while. I came home to packages of yarn I ordered before coming home as well as some knitting books and patterns.

My top priority is the Peacock Feathers shawl from Fiddlesticks Knitting. This is mainly because I have no way of blocking this at school (not enough space). I'm knitting it with Superfine Merino in peacock that I bought from TheKnitter.com. I was going to do it in Zephyr Wool-Silk but they were out of the peacock color I wanted. Interestingly enough, I had originally wanted to get the Superfine Merino in purple but that color was out. It was available in the Zephyr so I ended up switching colors on the type of yarn.

I'm not a huge fan of really airy shawls so I went down a needle size to US 3/3.25mm. I'm also thinking about doing a simple, stretchy bind off instead of the crochet loop bind off used in the pattern. I'm really iffy on those loops and I think I'd like a smooth edge better.



About the same time I started the shawl, I also started the Norwegian Stockings from Folk Socks by Nancy Bush. I'm almost done with the first stocking after having to frog back a couple times. It's been a while since I've done any colorwork so the tension of my two-handed stranding was a bit uneven. I'm using Dale Baby Ull in chocolate, pink, and creme (or neopolitan colors). This has been my TV knitting for the most part and has been an enjoyable knit despite a difficult start.

Vacations are usually times when I'm actively working on more than two projects at a time. My third project is my big needle project to give myself a bit of a break from the finer-sized needle, and I'm counting it towards project spectrum for this month. It is a small messenger back in a three color tweed stitch (Cascade 220 in navy, light blue, and red-orange). Thing is, I'm not the hugest fan of orange, yellow, or golden type colors. Sometimes I like orange but I'm really picky about it. When I envisioned the messenger bag, I originally thought of doing it in two, nicely matching colors. But it seemed a little boring and that's when I got the idea to use orange as a third color to give the bag some pop. So far, I only have the bottom completed. I'll pick up the stitches along the edges and work the body of the bag in the round.



My parents came back from their trip to the Motherland (or Mother Islands?) and my mom brought back two bags of yarn. They stayed on the same street as Nathan Woolen, which worked out given her time constraints. Now, my mom knows absolutely nothing about knitting so she was really overwhelmed by the shop. She ended up picking two types of yarn that she thought were nice and were of fibers she knew I liked: nine balls of Rowan Felted Tweed in shade #131 (which I don't think exists anymore because I can't find a color card that lists it) and ten balls of Jaeger Java (which only seems to exist on eBay). I already know what the Felted Tweed will become but that won't be until the fall as it's a thick, merino wool. The Java took some thinking. It's a silk-rayon blend so I'm thinking something drapey. Possibly a sleeveless cowl? It's also in a type of orange color--again I'm picky about orange. My mom thinks it's rust; I think it's more of a coral but the color is definitely growing on me.



Sadly, my package did not arrive in time for my parents' departure for their trip so my mom didn't receive Pearl Buck until she came back. She does like it, though, and it fits unlike the last sweater I made her.