Slipped Stitch Sock Re-Knit

After completing Sock-The-First, I realized it was just a wee bit too snug so decided to knit the second sock with 4 more stitches. I also did a plain 1 x 1 rib for the cuff.

I used a shadow wrap heel combined with the staggered slipped stitch pattern to reinforce the heel sts.

As a result of the slipped stitch, a strand is carried behind, creating a double thickness of the fabric.

I also reinforced the toe with the same stitch.

I'm knitting the second sock from the first, snugger one and am on the foot. I should be finished in the next day or two.

First Sock Done!

I finished the first Slipped Stitch Sock the other night.

I used the shadow wrap heel and continued the slipped stitch bands down the instep of the foot. Sock The Second is cast on and I have a couple of inches done on it. If I knit this pattern again, I'll cast on an additional 4 stitches (for a total of 68 sts) for a wee bit more ample leg.

I'm heading out of town tomorrow for a fun weekend with friends, family, former colleagues and former students. I'm quite excited to be attending opening night of "Les Misérables" produced by a very talented former student, Carrie Beauchamp.

It will be my first solo trip in my new car and I look forward to listening to a book all the way there and all the way home.

Slipped Stitch Socks

I found a pattern that I thought would work well with this Handmaiden Casbah sock yarn.

Casbah is lovely MCN yarn.

Here it is wound into a ball. 

It reminds me of a painted bunting. I would LOVE to spot one of these for real someday.

I wanted to do a pattern that was primarily knit (as opposed to textured or lacy) and found this one on Ravelry.

I started the sock with a twisted rib cuff, frogged from Monkey socks I cast on first. I am adding an extra slipped stitch round.

Gradient Handspun

I found a braid of 70/30 merino/seacell roving in turquoise and purple in my stash. I decided to spin the colours separately as much as possible. The turquoise and purple were easy to separate.

I spun the roving with both colours as the transition.

Here are the three bobbins of singles.

There was a bit of barberpole-ing even within the solid colours.

The blended colour was actually quite consistent.

168 yards of turquoise, 100 yards of the blended skein and 150 yards of the purple for a total of 418 yards of fingering weight.

 I am now going to look for a pattern that would suit this gradient yarn.

Sweet Dreams Off the Wires

This is the best photo I could get on the lawn outside.

It really is worth the effort pinning out all those picots.

I had trouble taking a picture of the back in the mirror but you get the idea.

Here is some detail.

This was a fun knit with a fine laceweight yarn. I have enough to probably do another, smaller one. A smaller one would also be lovely with a tonal fingering weight yarn.

Blocking Sweet Dreams

I finished the Sweet Dreams shawl a couple of weeks ago but didn't get around to blocking it until today.

I'm using flexible blocking wires that I ordered on etsy a couple of years ago.

They're really good for curvy items. I even put them through the points of the lace.

Here you can see the difference in look after pinning out each picot.

There are 32 points and 8 picots on each point. That's a lot of pinning!

In addition to the t-pins, I used up an entire container of 250 stainless steel sewing pins.

The key to a nicely curved crescent shawl is to increase 6 stitches every 2 rows. If you only do 4 sts every 2 rows (or 2 per row) you get a nice trianglar-shaped shawl. The extra 2 sts every two rows creates enough extra fabric for the curve.

Also, instead of starting with a small garter stitch tab at the centre back, I knit a long one before turning it on its side to pick up sts for the stocking stitch area. This avoids a strange point in the middle of the centre back. This is where I got the idea to do this.

Geocaching

Yesterday, our friends, Susan and David, invited Skip and me to go geocaching with them. They have the nifty Garmin GPS. I've kinda been intrigued with this kind of treasure hunting and was glad to have the opportunity to have 'experts' show us what to do.

We headed off to an area a few kilometres east of here close to the Lake Ontario shore. It was a lovely, sunny day - perfect for a scenic drive.

We found the first cache in a cemetery. It was at this point, David informed me that I could download a geocaching app on my iPhone. We then went to the harbourfront at Newcastle but couldn't find the cache we were looking for. Then we drove farther east along Lakeshore Drive and found a couple more.  It was lots of fun.

We then went antiquing in Orono and I picked up a stitch pattern book dating from 1980 for $3. Then we went back to David and Susan's to sample some Prosecco they're considering buying for toasting at their daughter's upcoming wedding reception.

It was a very fine day.

Today is Victoria Day, a statutory holiday in Canada commemorating Queen Victoria's birthday. We call it the 24th of May weekend as it is celebrated on the last Monday before May 25th. Some call it the May Two Four weekend (a 2-4 is a colloquial term used for a case of 24 beers) as it usually marks the first long weekend of our fairly short cottage season.

Being retirees, weekends aren't a big deal for us. We can do fun things every day of the week and, in fact, try to do most stuff during the regular work week while everyone else is working. Skip is golfing with his league today and won't be home 'til after 5. I decided to take my iPhone geocaching to see what I could find in our vicinity.

I couldn't find the first cache I was looking for. It was along a creek and I didn't really want to step off the path into the muddy creekbank. However, I did find the second one I was looking for. Cool!