I finished this up, and gave it to Gwen as a Christmas present.  But we haven’t been able to get her to wear it!

She finally put it on this morning.  Isn’t she adorable!

P.S.  She only wore it for about 5 minutes.

I finally had enough of the sloppy, not fitting ribbing on my Triquetra Cable Gloves.  So, I cut the ribbing off, picked up the stitches and knit a new ribbing with different yarn and smaller needles.  I originally used size 6 with Queensland Collection Kathmandu Aran, which is 99.99% inelastic, with zero memory.

So, they are ribbing was always completely “stretched out”.  It pretty much never pulled in like you expect ribbing to do.  For the replacement ribbing, I used Mission Falls 1824 Wool, which seems to be my new favorite yarn.  I also used size 5 needles, and switched to a K2P1 rib instead of the K2P2 I used originally.  Now, the observant of you will notice, that I had to K2tog once, as 40 is divisible by 4, but not by 3.  However, 39 is.  When I was finished, I cast off loosely using a size 6 needle.

This produced a much more elastic and useful rib for a glove.  Not to mention that the gloves stay on now.

I finally broke down.  The ladies at my LYS have been “gently encouraging” me to try the magic loop for a while now.  I had a pair of mittens to make for Gwen, so I decided to try it.  I went on over to knittinghelp.com(very instructional website) to learn how to do the loop (everyone is doing it!).  I watched the video once, and saw how to do it.  The problem I saw, is that even in the instructional video, it looked like a lot more work that it was worth.

 I watched Amy spend a lot of time sliding the work around on needles, and fighting with the transition from cable to needle.  The video sure didn’t make it seem any easier.  But, I decide to try it myself.

Well, I’m able to do it.  However, it seems like it takes a lot longer to make progress, as so much time is devoted to dropping the yarn, and sliding the needles around.  I might try it again sometime, but right now, I still prefer my DPNs.

Anyway, loop or no loop, I like the mittens:

The yarn arrived for my sweater yesterday.  I was so excited that I got right to work.  After taking some measurements, and some quick (and painless) math, I knocked out the shoulder saddles.  I can’t wait to get to work on this sweater!

 I heard some slightly sad news.  Janet Szabo is no loner offering this patter / design template for free.  However, it is well worth the $8.00 she is asking for it.  She was discussing not offering this pattern long term, so if you are at all interested, I would purchase it right away.

I finally finished up my socks.  I started them when I came down with influenza.  That was not a terribly fun experience.  I spent two days with a fever and wicked cough.  On the third day, I went to the doctor, who gave me Tamiflu (wonderful drug, but soooo expensive).  The very next day, I had to take Shannon to her doctor, as she was now infected.  I spent the rest of the week taking care of her and Gwen, who miraculously didn’t get sick.  The little shreds of time that I wasn’t taking care of someone or sleeping, I spent knitting my socks. 

Hence the name, Influenza Socks.

They are knit in Mission Falls 1824 Superwash Merino Wool, which seems to be my favorite yarn of late.  It’s soft, it’s smooth, and it knits really well.  It’s an aran weight, slightly larger than worsted at 8 wraps per inch.  I used a contrasting color for the toes and heels, just because I felt like it.

Best of all, they keep my feet really, really warm!

Yep, I’ve got the flu.  Not a bad cold, not the kind that makes you live in the bathroom, good old-fashioned influenza.  It sucks, really.  I’m achy, tired, cold, then hot, hacking, coughing, sneezing.  I’m a NyQuil commercial.  I went to the doctor, and he said, “Yep, influenza, here’s a prescription for Tamiflu.”  One stop at the pharmacy later, and I’m once again glad for my medical coverage.  A pack of 10 pills, $113.99!  That’s $11.40 per pill!

Geez.

Well, I’ve just about completed my first sock.  It’s a simple ribbed sock using Aran weight yarn, so it is going super fast.  That’s good, because I don’t have a whole lot of focus right now, and I can’t seem to do more than a couple rows at a time.  I’ll post some pictures when I feel good enough to get the camera, and the card reader, and the laptop, and my sock, all at the same time.

The cable swatch is one complete repeat (24 rows) of the center panel (right side of the photo) and one side panel (left side of the photo).

Starting at the right is a 6 stitch wave cable, then a 4 stitch honeycomb, then a 10 stitch braid, another 4 stitch honeycomb, and another 6 stitch wave. This set of cables represent the side panel. The mirror image of this panel will be repeated on the other side of the center panel.

To the right of the side panel is a 6 stitch braid, then a 23 stitch simple Celtic cable with a 24 row repeat, then another 6 stitch braid.

 Now, I just need to order my yarn!

And it looks GREAT on her!

This is my first “Girl From Auntie” project. I’m truly amazed by the quality of her design on this pattern. Not only is the pattern extremely well written, the charts are easy to follow and the legend is excellent.

Her use decreases to move the cables, and reduce the size of the hat are very creative. All of the decreases are hidden in the knot pattern, there is not one decrease on the vertical cables, at least until the second to last row. The cable pattern goes all the way to the last row, and the symmetry is never lost.

I love this pattern!

This hat was knit using Blue Sky Alpacas Melange, colorway 811 (Bubblegum), which is a deep pink.  This stuff is wonderful to work with.  It’s smooth, even, and very, very, very soft.  I’ll defintely work with it again.

This is could be a challenging project, if you’ve never done cables before, but it is would also be a truly satisfying learning experience.

I haven’t had much time for knitting this week.  I had to go back to work, so I’m getting back on schedule.  Not enough sleep = SleepyScotsman = knitting mistakes = NotKnittingScotsman.

 I did notice a huge mistake on my Celtic Cable Cap about 10 rows down, so I frogged it.  I caught back up last night.  I’m too tired this evening to work on a complicated pattern, and I haven’t found a sock pattern for the aran weight yarn I’ve got earmarked for some wearing around the cold house socks.

I still need to order the yarn for my FLAK sweater.  I did chart out an entire single repeat in Excel.  It’s 121 stitches wide, with a 24 row repeat.  I figure I’ll take it easy on my first big sweater project.  Now I just need to get some legal size paper so I can read it when it is printed.  Next step is to swatch a single repeat of my cables, then I can size the sweater, and I’ll be ready to start knitting. (after I get the yarn of course).

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