Scary Maneuvers

I decided to say the heck with it and start knitting a sweater. I have often come back to the Acer cardigan on Ravelry, so when the gauge looked good I cast on and started knitting.

And I was moving along at a pretty good clip when I noticed something... I'd missed a cable crossing about 15 rows down.


See that? That hurts. I considered... could I live with it? No. Was I willing to rip out over 3000 stitches and inches of work? Absolutely not! So. Drastic measures. Fix the cable.

Step 1. Using a stitch holder, capture the five stitches that will need to be crossed.

Step 2. Put two end stitches on holder.

Step 2.5. Breathe deeply. Don't panic. This is no time to panic.

Step 3. Drop the five stitches down 15 rows. That's the scary part. It looks like this:


Step 3.5. Continue to not panic. Stay calm.

Step 4. Get the 5 stitches on the needle and cross them in the right direction.

Step 5. Start laddering your stitches up, not forgetting to do the yo, ssk every other row. I did this step row by row. I suppose you could do the three straight stitches all the way up, then the yo ssk, but I don't think it makes sense. Easier to keep track this way.

Step 6.

Step 7. Profit!


And no one will ever know that I forgot! Except you all. But you won't tell.


The Yarn Harlot has a much nicer tutorial on how to execute this tricky, but very useful maneuver.

I'm knitting on this cardigan like crazy. I'm very nearly ready to divide for front and back!

Beware the Ides of March

There are some knitting techniques which I like to avoid. Like provisional cast ons. Not so much the part about casting on provisionally - that I've got - but the picking out the cast on to get the live stitches.

Somehow I always miss stitches, or lose them, or have to make them up somewhere else, so the beautiful symmetry the provisional cast on was supposed to ensure is lost. In this case, it's my Simurgh stole. I've finally completed the first half, but I've now spent an hour picking up stitches and picking out the cast on edge and I'm about 5 short. Grr. And "unzipping" the crochet chain? No, that never works for me. So annoying.

And I'm sure that, in this case, choosing a waste yarn the same color as my main yarn was not a great help. That fuzzy grey at the top is the waste yarn (leftover Trekking XXL, I think) which I am not yet done picking out. Almost there. Then I can see how easily findable my lost stitches are. Heavy sigh. Should not have undertaken this on the Ides of March.

FO: Clover Socks

I finished a pair of socks. Well, not just a pair of socks, but the most favorite socks I have ever ever knitted for myself.

Pattern: Clover from the Inside Loop, by Kate Blackburn
Yarn: Regia Silk (I've expressed my love for it recently)
Needles: 2.5mm addi turbos

I knit these socks two at a time, top down. Except for the heel. I wasn't clever enough to do both heels at the same time, so I separated them and knit them separately. I might just be a convert to two at a time socks. It's fantastic to finish both socks at the same time. Love it. Not in love with top down, though. I continue to prefer toe up socks for the ease of it all. The only small mod to the pattern was a shallower heel - I did 11 repeats of the heel flap instead of 15.

I also really like this pattern, but I'm a sucker for simple cable and lace column socks. I adored Hedera (which, incidentally, were also knit in Regia Silk, but for my mom) and Pembrokeshire Pathways. Pembrokeshire Pathways gets a lot of wear from me. That Koigu is holding up pretty well.

Enough jabbering on, let's have photos!


And a full foot photo, with flash:


I should be doing my Latin homework right now, instead of posting this. Yep! Learning Latin with my pal Larissa. Who already learned it once and is way ahead of me. I need to go puzzle over the first declension now.

Socks!

It's snowing outside, coming down relatively heavy for this area of the country. Also, it's 11:15 pm and I should be in bed since I have to go to work in the morning. But I don't feel tired at the moment and my secret resolution was to knit blog more. So. Socks!

I've cast on a pair of Clover socks in Regia Silk. I love these socks. I love them. I love the pattern and I freaking love this yarn. This will be my third pair of socks in Regia Silk, but the first pair for me. If I could only knit with only one yarn for the rest of forever, I think I would choose Regia Silk. That's how much I love it.


I'm trying a new technique here, too! Two socks, top down, at the same time, magic loop. I've never knit socks two at a time before. And I very rarely knit socks from the top down. The cast on was fiddly and annoying, but I switched up to a 40" needle, and that eased my troubles considerably. I am now quite fond of this two at once business - I very much like the idea of not having to cast on a second time to finish the pair. I had a lot of trepidation about the cast on. It seems that there are many more instructional resources for knitting toe up than top down two at a time. But I found these instructions for a pair of top down socks and followed that. It was fiddly, but I survived. Maybe I'll try it from the toe up next time.