Time to do a catch-up on some of those unresolved items from yesteryear.
1. This post would be a good place to start. See the lovely just-started Liesel in the lovely lofty Rowan Cork? She languished at the bottom of my knitting basket, untouched and unloved, for a good couple of years. But she's gone to a better place now. Ie, the nifty trade or sell function in Ravelry has enabled me to dispatch that Cork (plus the proto-Liesel, for interest) to a much more appreciative recipient on the other side of the Atlantic. Bye bye Liesel! I'll make you in another yarn one day.
2. Same post (and this one, too). Ahh, the Handmaiden Seasilk. It is just gorgeous, you know? Really really beautiful. What it isn't, though, is 500 metres a skein (as advertised, when I bought it). It's actually 400 metres. Which, combined with a denser lace pattern than I'd anticipated, meant (although it took me more than a year to accept it) that the tasty seasilk scarf I diligently worked on for a month or two was turning into a stunning, beautifully drapey teatowel. So last weekend I finally pulled my finger out and we saw the following chain of events:
It's my first ripping and re-winding experience and it mostly went pretty well (save for a Tangle Incident, which I shall gloss over, but let me just say that a boyfriend who will help you untangle yarn when you're all cross and tetchy is someone just shy of saintly). And I finally discovered the perfect use for some wrist-weights that have been eying me balefully since I bought them four years ago in a brief fit of exercise-lust.
3. You want some actual knitting? Go on then. Remember the sock yarn I picked up on an otherwise fruitless expedition to get some 3.5mm circs out in the wilds of Buckinghamshire?
Here is one nearly-finished sock:
Basic toe-up ribbed socks with short-row heel.
Except. Trying it on at this stage tells me that this going to be a near re-run of the too-tight sock disaster that I had with my ribbed green socks. Could it be that ribbing and the toe-up/short-row method just doesn't result in the right fit for me? Gahh! And I did my maths so carefully! It's a mystery, because my cabled Koigus are the most comfortable socks you can imagine (and still one of my top-three knitting projects ever), and they're based on exactly the same calculations and construction. Why would a slipped-stich rib be substantially more stretchy that an ordinary one? On the other hand, we are looking at an £18 pair of socks (yes, I know) versus a £6 pair...
Anyway, net result is that I'm ripping it back to before the heel and am going to try the gusset heel approach. I've been meaning to try that for ages anyway, but it's a shame I bothered doing six inches of unnecessary sock in the meantime. Hey ho! If it still doesn't fit after that, I'm ditching the yarn (which I'm not all that crazy about, to be honest, having been spoiled with some really special yarns since I bought it) and starting another pair of socks in something entirely different.
4. Ribby, for those who wondered, is still in pieces, some of which are still waiting to be ripped and re-knit. I got distracted by the arrival of the Cotton Fleece for my ribby-inspired in-the-pink, and the original has been pretty neglected as a result. I hope I'll go back and finish it one day, but after working with delicate cotton-based yarns it does seem awfully scratchy and clunky now. Not given up on it yet, though.
5. My miniature Via Diagonale is the one unfinished project from that post that hasn't been abandoned, although granted it hasn't been finished yet either. I've knit it to the right length and it's been patiently hanging around waiting for me to buy some lining, decide what kind of opening it should have (clasp? zip?), and sort out some kind of strap or handle. Maybe check back in another year or so and see how I'm getting on with that...Labels: blue ribbed socks, liesel, ribbon yarn, ribby cardi, seasilk, toe-up ribbed socks, via diagonale, wip