Kid knits

 A sweater and a pair of socks for the Kid.  Knitting for someone 1500 miles away is always shaky.  I need to try thing on and he's not here.  So if there's a problem, the sweater will have to come back and I'll make adjustments.  I have the feeling that it will be too short in the body as well as the sleeves.  He's growing and may have gotten taller since I got these measurements.

Knitted in KnitPicks Brava Sport, which is my favorite acrylic yarn. Wears and washes like iron, and mom doesn't have to treat it delicately. 

And a pair of Kid socks.  Yes, they will fit.  They are scrunched up because I've used a k2,p2 rib and that compresses until you put on the socks.  Then they fit.  He has skinny legs.  I tried them on and if I can wear them, so can he.

These are helix socks, knitted with 3 different sock yarns.  The green and yellow are solid yarns, and the variegated one is from a pair of socks I made for me.  I love making these, but they are fiddly and take time.  Still, fun to wear and a good use of leftover yarns.  And, of course, I now have leftovers of the leftovers.  Sock yarn, like quilting cotton, never seems to go away.

Here's a closeup of the socks.

Knitting and quilting

Mismatched socks for Miss P, she who inevitably loses socks, therefore I make singleton socks that don't match.  She loses one?  Doesn't matter; she has plenty more.

64 stitch sock, helix pattern with 3 yarns.

I also have a shawl on the needles, but no sense in photographing it yet; it's messy as usual.

More hourglass blocks.  Such fun! This is not a design board; the blocks are just plopped down randomly.

Take a look at the center points of each block.  They match!  And I didn't pin them; just sewed them.  whoo hoo.

Wow! An actual sweater!

Can you imagine?  I've finally finished a sweater for DD in the FN (Frozen Northland).  Took me long enough.  Actually I finished it a few weeks ago, tried it on (what fits DD will fit me, except in length) and the sleeves were way too tight.  I have no idea why I did this, but they went back to the frog pond and I made them wider.  Since I pick up my sleeves from the armhole and work them down, this isn't a major rehaul.  I just had to make sure that the underarm stitches, which are live, are not dropped in the frogging.  What took much longer was that the Little Guy had a sock crisis, and I had to churn out a bunch of socks.  So....here's a lace sweater. (if she doesn't like it, I'll take it)

The yarn is Palette (Knit Picks), which I love to work in.  Very soft yarn with no merino.  So it wears rather well.  Size 3 needles, worked in the round from bottom up.  Separated at the armhole, and worked back and forth until the shoulder. Front, of course, had neck opening worked. Joined the fronts and back, picked up the armhole stitches and worked down (twice, sigh).  Gave it a gentle wash on Fri, and here it is, ready to be mailed out.  Stitch pattern is from one of my lace books, but I tossed the copy, so I don't know where I found it.  But it's very simple and a nice break from the endless stockinette.

And then, just because I like making helix socks, one more pair for the Little Guy.  3 different yarns worked in a helical pattern.  Mindlessly easy, although you constantly have to untwist the yarns.

The big ball is a turquoise that I dyed some years ago.  I don't think that there is nylon in this yarn, so I didn't use it where there would be stress.  Bottom left is some leftover from who-knows-what, and the bottom right was used to make these socks from the last posting.

So here are the new socks with these 3 yarns.

Here are the two socks, the first worked only in that yarn, and the second with the 3 yarns.

Isn't that fun?  This is a great way to use up leftovers, although I now have leftovers of my leftovers.  It never ends.

Knitting in progress

4 projects on the needles, 3 of them socks, of course.

Another pair of socks for the little guy.  Same yarn as the previous post, same inability of my camera to get the red correct.  It's a lovely deep red with more blue than yellow in it.  You'll have to trust me.  I've just finished the gusset and am zooming onto the foot and finish.  Then sock #2 gets knitted.

Yet another helix sock for the little guy's big sister.  At 14, she's into mismatched socks, and this is a great way to use up my leftover sock yarn.  Of course it never gets used up; the balls just get smaller and smaller, but they never go away.  Kind of like dust bunnies:  you sweep them up, but they propagate over night.  At any rate, these are mindless and fun and she loves them.  Plus, if she misplaces a sock, she has a bunch more to choose from.  That's the beauty of mismatched helix socks.

A pair for me in my usual basket weave pattern.  No hurry on this pair since I have at least 60 pairs already.  And when I'm done, I'll have a nice ball of yarn leftover to be applied to yet more helix socks.  It never ends.

And now, the really neat knitting news:  I'm so into yoke sweaters that I've started another one, this one with a Bohus-style design for the yoke.  Bottom up with body knitted first, followed by sleeves, and then joined for the yoke.  I saw an Icelandic yoke sweater with a contrasting rib and little pattern, and I liked it, so that's what's here.  The body of the sweater will be that lovely heathered pale brown that you see with the off-white.  KnitPicks sport Wool of the Andes, which is delightfully woolly and warm and delicious to wear.