Thursday, February 18, 2010

One Ravelympic Project Half Finished

Now that I titled this post, it doesn't seem like much at all, but it certainly seems like it is. One of my ravelympic projects is halfway finished. That would be the Skew socks. I have one of them done and have started on the second one. I have also started on the sweater for Tank, but I have no pictures of it to post yet.
So, update on the Skew socks: The cast on started at the corner of the big toe which is immediately a little odd because normally you start toe up socks in the middle of the toes. But if you think about it, your big toe is the one that sticks out the most (on most people, anyway, certain members of my family are exceptions). Then you kind of work diagonally up your foot area, so until the heel graft (another oddity on these socks), it just looks really wonky. Once you get to where your longest side is appr. 1 1/2 " less than the measurement of your foot, you start adding on stitches for the heel. And you add a lot of stitches.



Then (trusting the pattern directions) you slide the first 15 stitches onto 1 dpn and the second 15 stitches onto another and graft(kitchener) those 30 stitches together. Believe me, that took some trust because it did not look anything like a heel at that point, and I could not even begin to visualize what it was supposed to look like. But after it was done, it looked a lot better. Then you ignore the heel and begin knitting in the round again (still on the diagonal, though.)




Once the long side of the diagonal leg get to the length you want, you work short rows to bring the other side up to meet it, then do a bit of ribbing and bind off. It ends up being a nice fitting sock, but it is such an involved knit, that I'm not sure I'd do it again. Then again, I may find a handpainted or self striping yarn that just screams "SKEW" at me and have to make these socks again.

Normally a 2-at-a-time sock person, I did this pair 1 at a time because I wasn't sure how involved they would be and whether or not I would need to move stitches around very often (I guess I could have read the pattern beforehand, but that would have required reading the pattern beforehand.) As it turns out, there is only one point in which I had to move stitches around, and I think I could manage that with 2 pairs on my needles, so if I do ever decide to make these again, I think I will do them 2 at a time.
In other news, after I finished the first sock, I suddenly decided that instead of working on my ravelympic projects, I NEEDED to make a toy for our dog. I started out trying to make Kate, the kitten in britches, which has (as you can see from the picture) arms and legs.

I got the body made and attached the ears, and brought it out to show it to my DD.



Tank decided that he had to have it right then.



My DH remarked that it looks a lot like a weeble (if you are of a certain age, you may remember those cute little egg-shaped toys that would never fall over). This toy has since become known in our home as Weeble Kitty, and Tank does seem to like it.

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