Sunday, June 22, 2008

Missed it by that much.

I saw Get Smart on Saturday, and loved it.
Anyway, before the movie I cast on a scarf I could work on without looking-- a lot of stitches for a knit-sideways garter stitch fluffy purple affair. Mindless knitting. When the movie ended I started casting off with what I assumed was just the right amount left. I thought to myself, "My, what a clever knitter you are" and patted myself on the back until I ran out of yarn about, oh, ten stitches from the end? And that's what the picture shows. The sad remainder of live stitches. You can't see it but the tail is only about 3" long.

But wait!
I AM such a clever knitter! I fixed it. Tomorrow maybe I'll tell how.

Friday, June 06, 2008

A dream of gloves

Knitting shows up in my dreams. Sometimes in a dream I will be wearing a project I'm working on in my awake life, and I like those dreams because they make me feel like it's gonna be just great.
Last night, however, I had a strange one. In my dream, I was wondering whether to frog something that I had knitting back in the days of wrapping my yarn the wrong way so that all my knit stitches were twisted. This item was never knitted by me while awake, and that's what makes it rather strange.
It was a pair of gloves, using very fine yarn--laceweight, or maybe a crochet thread. I remembered having used size 0 DPNs for it, and the gloves were done in a self-patterning yarn.
It wasn't just stripes or anything like that, though. it was yarn that gave itself a skull and a couple of... cats? Or some kind of adorable little characters, that looked like they were screaming. And I had gone back and duplicate stitched over that (in the same pattern) to give it more definition or something. So these were some unusual and labor-intensive gloves, and here I was thinking about ripping them out!
If I recall, the hand part was white (to better show the design) and the ringers and cuffs were striped in cool colors, like the chevron socks I'm working on now.
I have no doubt parts of this were from the fact that in my working on said chevron socks, I came to a knot in the yarn. I cut it, joined the yarn like nothing was happening, and realized a couple inches later that the yarn hadn't even been knotted in a place where the stripe pattern would continue. So I ripped back and joined the yarn anew at a place where the sequence would continue appropriately.
What a hassle. But it looks SO GREAT now and I'm awfully proud of myself for being so clever.
Back to the dream, though. I guess I totally have to make those gloves now, and knit them right so the stitches don't twist.

Tuesday, June 03, 2008

Juke Sock

fo_juke_sock2

Last month everyone in the family got new cellphones and switched carriers. I picked out this adorable little combination phone/mp3 player, the Samsung Juke, and immediately had to begin knitting it something to wear so it'd stay shiny and safe.
I like to use fun details like the Turkish cast-on to give me a nice start and very little finishing, and the i-cord bind off to make the edge look clean.
Without further ado,

The Juke Sock.
yarn: sport weight
needles: US size 1,16 in circulars, x2

Turkish CO 16 st (8 wraps)
increase (kfb) at 2nd and 2nds to last st each needle until there are 16 sts each needle (32 total)
knit 1 round.
Begin cable pattern:
Round 1: (p4, k8, p4) twice
Round 2: k4, c4f,c4b, k8, c4b, c4f, k4
Round 3: rep. rd 1
Round 4: knit.
Repeat these four rows 12 times
Work i-cord bind off:
co. 3 stitches using backwards-loop caston.
1. knit 2, k2tog through back loop.
2. slip 3 stitches back to left needle.
Repeat 1 and 2 until you've come to the start, then kitchener the ends of the i-cord together.

Of course, this pattern can be easily adapted for like... anything. Just increase at the beginning until you've got the circumference you like, put in more garter stitch between the cables, and knit until it's whatever length seems right to you. Eeeeasy.