Noro, Noro, Noro

So the Ziggy socks. Yeah, they're not working out. When we last saw them they would not fit over my heel. I ripped out the short row heel, added a few more rounds, knit a flap heel with gusset. They fit over my heel at that point but I knew I was just getting to the tricky spot. I switched needle sizes up to a 3 at this point. I've knit several rounds and it just barely fits over my heel if I struggle with it but it's too long in the foot now. I can rip back and knit the heel again (on small needles--you can practically read through this heel) but really the whole socks is just a little too snug. I should probably rip out the entire thing and reknit it on 3s until the heel then switch to 4s for the leg (and them possibly switch to 5s as I work up the leg). Frustrating.

So instead I've been knitting my easy, peasy Kureyon bliss project. Hexagons. I love those things. It reminds me of knitting the squares for my psychedelic squares but with no seams to sew up later. I am deeply in love with this project at the moment.




I'm in denial about how soon I leave for camp (Thursday!). I don't know what I'm bringing with me yet.

Change of Course

After looking at my sock and thinking about it for a while I decided to knit a flap heel. I'll increase the gussets until it fits my ankle properly (I hope). But I was getting tired and frustrated last night and my hands were sore so I started a new project instead.

All the stranded knitting had been making me think of the Giant Latvian Mitten Cardigan I never started after camp last year. I started to think it would be a good project to bring to camp with me. Camp starts in just a few weeks! But after finding the pattern I just couldn't bring myself to start another project on small needles. My hands need a break. Everything I'm knitting is on a 1 or a 2. After falling down some Ravelry rabbit hole I realized that I have 14 skeins of Kureyon just waiting to be turned into a blanket. I cast on for Bobby's Garden.



I intended to cast on 96 stitches for the hexagons. My first cast on I didn't start with a long enough tail and ended up with only 60 stitches. I decided to knit it anyway to see what the finished size would be. Too small. The top two are the original plan, 96 stitches.

Halp!

I finished the heel on Ziggy last night and tried it on. It fit perfectly. Now that I'm continuing up the leg I can't get it over my heel. I'm not very experienced with toe-up or stranded knit socks. Anyone have any advice here?

Two Timing

Wednesday night I was knitting away on my Ziggy socks when I thought I'd try them on to see how much further I had to go before the heel. They were looking really good.



But they did not fit. At all. Like couldn't get them over my toes.

So last night I ran to the shop just before closing and got a new US2 Addi Lace needle. I ripped out my Ziggy back to the end of the toe increases and started anew.



Like night and day, right? Okay, I'm kidding. They may look the same but the new sock fits--and believe me I'm trying it on every 30 minutes or so to make sure it continues to fit.

In other repeat news, Wes and I took the kids to see Wall-E on Saturday. I love this movie. It's complex yet simple, elegant, beautiful, silly, sweet, sentimental in the best possible sense. Love, love, love it. So when Wes got the day off yesterday I decided to take the day off too. We went downtown and had dim sum, visited the new Wing Luke Asian Museum, visited the downtown library, went to the Seattle Art Museum for the Inspiring Impressionism exhibit and got lunch at Serious Pie with dessert at the Dahlia Bakery. And we went to see Wall-E again by ourselves. I think I love it even more now. I want to see it again.

I've also been working on and off on a Totoro doll. When I first saw the pattern I only read the first bit and thought it made a little amigurumi doll. If I had delved further I would have seen that it makes a GIGANTIC doll. So it's taking a lot longer than I expected.