Frogged...again

Yesterday I frogged Juno. I had been knitting along happily, enjoying the yarn and the pattern. But when I completed chart 4 and got ready to settle in for the long haul of a 2 row repeat for 42", I finally paid heed to that incessant little voice in the back of my mind. I pinned out the scarf and had to face the fact that the yarn and pattern just didn't go.



This is the second time I have frogged this yarn. First time round was for the Featherweight cardi were things just didn't feel right either. I really love the colour of this yarn and I like the feel of it. I don't want it to languish back in my stash again so please, any pattern suggestions to help me out here?

I've completed a second Golden Eye square for the Summer Squares project. This square was knit in Bendigo Woollen Mills 4 ply cotton using 4.5 mm needles. This square measures 35 x 35 cm and will form part of the blanket I intend to knit.

FO: Featherweight Cardigan

The Featherweight Cardigan is finished.



It's impossible to take decent photos these days. Everyday seems to be dull and overcast. But at least you'll get an idea of the cardi. I knitted this with Bendigo Woollen Mills Classic 3 ply in Deep Pink on 3.5mm circular needles. My only modification was to knit the cuffs and border in moss stitch (seed stitch to some of you) instead of a K1, P1 rib.

I'm hooked on seamless cardigans. Only a few ends to weave in at the end and that's it!

Mary has led me into temptation. I've succumbed and I've joined Summer Squares.



Here is my first square. This is knitted in The Knittery 2 ply merino in Lavender (sadly no longer exists) with 3.5mm needles. My square measures 30 x 30 cm and will probably become a shawl. I have also started on a square in cotton which will become a blanket but more of that later.

Turning Primroses into Dragonflies

I finished these socks this week and ever since I've been battling to get a decent photo. I think it must be the time of year.



The yarn is Primroses and the pattern is Dragonfly Socks. It's been a while since I've knitted cuff-down socks and I must confess I'm out of the habit. I think I might becoming a toe-up addict! Its a very easy pattern and the yarn is great to work with.

Before I went to Cairns I also manged to finish the Seamless Baby Kimono. It was going to be a traveling project but it knitted up so quickly that I finished it before we left. I used 4.00 mm circular needles and Spotlight Basics Merino. The only modifications I made was to add a little icord collar and I made icord ties rather than garter stitch ties. Its a terrific pattern.

Finally, a moment

We had a great holiday in Cairns and environs but since getting home on the weekend life has been a bit hectic. (Hopefully more about it all some time soon). This afternoon I finally have a little head space to be able to blog again. I wanted to share a few holiday snaps with you.

We had perfect weather the entire time we were there. Unfortunately I started the holiday with a nasty cold but managed to shake it off in time to really enjoy the second week of the holiday.

We got up close and personal with a few of the locals.


An Eclectus Parrot peering from her hidey hole.



A Silver-crowned Friarbird getting to know Bruce.



A Yellow Honeyeater took a fancy to Bruce's watch.



And a Major Mitchell Cockatoo thought his glasses were cool.



We had a room with a view.


And we had this swimming hole all to ourselves - it was fabulous.

No knitting content because I haven't had a chance to take any progress photos. Soon though because I have finished a couple of things.

Lets talk about socks

My last post initiated a few comments about socks and the comments left by Kelebek and Metta, in particular, got me thinking about why I knit socks.

I thought back to when I first started to knit socks and realised that in fact I'm a relative newcomer to sock knitting. I've been knitting for about 35 years and it's really only in the last 8 or 9 years that I have been knitting socks. I knitted my first pair of socks for Bruce. He needed socks to go with his kilt and all these years later he is still wearing them.



I've always been willing to take the plunge when it comes to knitting. I figure if you can read a pattern you can knit anything. So with these first socks (knee highs mind you!) I simply went to a yarn shop, looked at the patterns, found a booklet by Patons, bought the required amount of yarn and some knitting-in elastic (yep, you read right!) and off I went. My mother-in-law had given me her old DPNs and fortunately they included the right side. I sat down and started knitting the cuffs with the knitting-in elastic (funnily enough I've never done that again) and a couple of weeks later I had completed my fist pair of socks.

I had some yarn left over and decided to knit myself a pair of anklet socks out of the same booklet. They were great and made me want to knit more but I had no yarn. I raided my stash (although the little yarn I had in those days hardly qualified as a stash) and found some acrylic baby yarn and promptly knitted two more pairs of anklets. I still wear them, they are amazingly tough.

By this stage I was hooked and as fate would have it self striping and fair isle sock yarn hit the market here in Australia and I was off knitting socks. Along came knitting blogs filled with pictures of beautiful yarns. This was followed by Ravelry and all the amazing sock patterns out there.

So why do I knit socks? Because:
- I have a desire to own a pair of hand knitted socks for every day of the month (and I'm talking 31 days here);
- Helen of Ripples Crafts entices me with beautiful hand dyed yarns;
- Kelebek inspired me by gifting me Cat Bordhi's New Pathways for Sock Knitters;
- people like Metta are role models in terms of the quantity of socks they can produce;
- people like Val inspire me - she knits socks out of yarn she has spun and dyed herself and they look stunning;
- socks provide instant gratification;
- socks provide new knitting challenges;
- there are so many beautiful sock patterns and they just keep coming.

So why do you knit socks? And if you don't knit socks, well, what are you waiting for?

FO: Cables and Corrugations

Cat Bordhi does it again! Her sock patterns are a delight.

I knitted Cables and Corrugations on 2.5 circular needles (two at a time of course).



The yarn is Crystal Palace Maizy and has just the right springiness for this pattern.



The yarn does tend to be a bit splitty and doesn't take kindly to ripping back. At one stage while knitting the legs I discovered that I hadn't crossed a cable correctly a couple of pattern repeats earlier. So I put the one sock on a couple of stitch holders and ripped back to the error. Knitting the ripped yarn was a pain in the backside because the tendency to split was enhanced.



We are off to the tropics next week for a couple of weeks and so I've been deciding on appropriate projects for the trip. Last night I cast on the Featherweight Cardi. The yarn is Touch Yarns 2 ply lace (60% superfine kid Mohair 40% Merino). Love the yarn, love the colour but I don't like the way it knits with this pattern.



The yarn is puckering around the increases and even with blocking I think it will look pretty messy. So I think I shall frog this this afternoon and try and find either a different yarn or a different project.

FO: Three Sisters Scarves #3

I have finished my Three Sisters Scarves #3 and I love it. But I have been battling to capture the beauty of this yarn and I have just not succeeded so you will have to use your imagination.





The yarn is Kaalund Enchanté in Magnolia. The pattern in the scarf highlights the colour variations in the yarn and it shimmers and shines as it catches the light.

I bought this yarn from WOW Wool on Wheels while we were in Armidale and now I have a lasting souvenir of the trip.