I've Been Cuffed

My cuff didn't leave me as pleased as I thought it would. I did end up doing the pick up stitches on the final piece - the trick was to use a larger needle for casting on - it did work and I'm pleased with it as it worked and looked pretty decent.  Then as I started to knit round by round, I stopped liking it.  It looked odd to me, and it wasn't the sort of odd I felt that I could get used to.  you know, you let a pattern develop and see how it goes.

The yarn is nice to work with - I've had a few sticky spots with splitting yarn, but nothing huge and didn't happen all the time.  Just in those areas where it was important the yarn behave LOL  Figures, eh?  I worked with it and around it.

The pattern is pretty and I do like that I can see the texture through the changing colours in the yarn.   So what didn't I like about it?  It's starting to look like the Sorting Hat from Hogwarth's.  Not my idea for a sock.

When I was first looking at this pattern I did a google search for Nutkin sock and looked at the image results.  This 'hat' look happens in everyone's sock that did it,  I also noticed that a lot of ppl did ribbing.  Didn't see a lot of reasons why, but I can guess.  It's a bugger to do the actual cuff for one, and for two I'm thinking that this cuff would allow the sock to slip.  I'd wear them a bit slouched as it is, so that wouldn't necessarily bother me.  But this look bothers me.  I've done 2 sets of 10 rows so far, and I'm not liking it any better.    I decided to let it sit over night and decide when I got up - so I'm thinking I'm gong to rip it out instead of going all the way through with one sock to see how I'll like it.  Normally, I'd do one sock and see how I like it, but not this time.  I know I'll obsess over that cuff all the way through.

On a more positive note:  I've been having a yen to make my own pasta, and I finally did it.  I found a recipe for pasta for two so I wouldn't have a ton of extra pasta dough that I didn't want.  I used my food processor and found that that recipe needed more oil that it asked for.  It is possible it was over worked a bit too, that will come with practice and experience.  Rolling it out by hand was a pain as I needed to be as thin as possible; Home made pasta puffs a bit when you cook it,  I got it how I wanted it and cut it with a knife, with no regard to thickness LOL  This afterall was an experiment.  I found a recipe for a Mushroom Garlic Sauce that really appealed.  I made adjustments as I wasn't  cooking a pound of pasta.  I must say, I'm pretty pleased with the result even though it was hard work.  I'll be doing it again and will cut the pasta thinner or maybe even with a pasta machine!

Cuffed it! BOOM

Yea me!!! *knitterhappydance* I know it doesn't look like much or even a major accomplishment like a whole sock - but getting that cuff done is HUGE - took me maybe five attempts and various ways to get it done, but the cuff is DONE.  I didn't even has this much of an issue doing heel turns when I first tried them LOL

I finally decided upon Plan C ..  ish.  Maybe Place C ¹/₂.  But I don't care, it bloody well worked.  HAH!

What I ended up doing was the provisional cast on with US3 sized needles.  It was fidgety as hell to join it in the round as that type of cast on goes back over itself, I likely could have done it that way but didn't want to have to modify more than I had to - I just bulldozed on through the joining and voila!  it worked!  A few dropped stitches, but caught them - no issues.

I've only managed to get a few rounds done as it was a busy day and the rest of week promises to be just as crazy as today - maybe I'll get lucky and get a few rounds in here and there 

Cast on - Rip out

Oh kay then - that went well - NOT. Gotta love when I first start a new pattern.  I've pcked the Nutkin Sock for my pattern - I love the texture on it  It's got a nice cuff at the top - what i really like about it is that you can still see the texture with the yarn I'm using - yea!!  I so wanted to do a texture or lacy type sock, but all my sock yarn is striped - so I had to take that into considering and making sure that the pattern didn't get lost in the stripes.

And as per usual, I'm having issues.  Nothing that can't be worked out - just giving me a bit of a pause.

It starts with cast on 64 stitches and divide between 4 DPNs, knit 5 rows, purl one, then knit 6 more rows - the purl row is for the cuff fold - the pattern then reads:

Using the tip of the right needle, pick up one side (the closest side) of the first CO st. Move that picked up stitch to the left needle. K the first live st together with the picked up st. There is now one st on right needle. Repeat this all the way around until all CO sts have been picked up and knitted with the live sts. 

 Seems pretty simple right?  Well sure it is, unless you've used a dark yarn and can't see the bloody thing.  I'm knitting this on US2 (275mm) with light fingering yarn and these stitches are freeken tiny.  Remember for the past bit I've been knitting worsted on US7.

So, I've a few options - I decided to give up when the right needle fell off, 5 stitches dropped; then every time I picked up a stitch, another would drop and just get funky looking on the needle, so I gave the win to the yarn LOL

Back to my options - Recast On further down the yarn and get a lighter colour and follow those instructions (which also leaves me open to the mistake of picking up the initial stitch in the wrong spot causing the sock to twist) or use a provisional cast on with waste yarn - be a lot trickier for the cast on, but way easier picking up the stitches.

The cuff lays nice and flat with her method - using a provisional, I might create bulk at the cuff as I'm not sure the stitches will lie flat like her method does.

64 stitches isn't much, but using 4 DPNs, light fingering yarn and US2 needles is not fun for the first 2 rows, and I'm thinking that the provisional cast on will make that just way more fiddling and a pain - OR it will it more stability and make my life way easier in the long run.  Now Plan B (starting further down the yarn) or Plan C - the provisional cast on ... decisions decisions .

Ravelry Link - Nutkin KAL Break Socks

Green done!

I'm just two blocks shy of being halfway through the blocks needed as per the pattern.   I'm still thinking bout doing more blocks to make the blanket bigger - that's a huge we'll see

I started doing the brown ones and kept messing up the first two rows and ripping it out, and decided me thinks I need to take a wee bit of a break on these.  Block 3 (bottom left) took me maybe 2 days to do and that's the easiest and quickest one - that was a bit of a hint for me to do a quick change up and do something else for a change.

I've got skeins of sock yarn so I think it's time do socks .. I just have to decide on whether I want to do ankle socks or something that goes higher,  I usually wear ankle socks, so I'm most comfortable in those, but would be nice to have something in winter that goes at least as high as the top of my boots LOL  Damn snow!

So off to pick out what socks I want and \which yarn to use :D

On the Green

It was a wee bit strange to suddenly be knitting a darker yarn, but a nice break and welcome change.   I can honestly say it was awesome to leave the pink, dusty pink and peach behind.  I'll have to work with them one more time when it comes to finishing.

According to the directions, I've a choice of I-cord or 3 needle bind off - As I've done the 3 needle before with socks and hats, I'll of course be using that method.  I've wanted to take a break and put the coloured blocks together, but knowing me, I'll change my mind on how they'll be put together LOL  sooooo ya - not going to do that yet, no matter how much I want to start playing with it.  I'm not even halfway done yet - I'll need to get 4 more blocks done before I can say 'halfway'

While I'm working on this, I am thinking about how I'll put it all together - light to dark or light and dark alternating, or just toss them all in.  I'll have to lay them out like I do with quilt blocks and see how it all looks.

I am really enjoying this pattern.  The few mistakes that are in the pattern are easy to work through as they not only provide the written pattern, but a chart as well (Thank God for the chart) so it makes it easy to figure it out  The worst mistake is the lack of what LC and RC in the pattern instructions - I was able to figure it out due to the chart!!  Definite A++ for that.

And depending on the size when I get the blocks done, I might actually make it bigger - i do want to kill off all my 1 and 2 orphan skeins of yarn.  They do need to be in the same colour family of course or maybe I might even do them as lights or mediums or darks.  I'll just have to see what's left and what I need.  I'm am very pleased and excited about this project!!

Ravelry link - KAL Stash Killer

Peaches picked!

Knitterhappydance!! Third colour all done! I was pretty worried about the yarn I had to choose for the last block - it didn't feel as thick and it was less WPI as it's more a cotton yarn than fuzzy acrylic, but it did come out at the size needed - so I'm pretty pleased with it!

What is sort of freaking me out is how the cable block and the diamond block seem so much 'taller' than the other two.  I'm not as worried about the diamond block, it's the cable block that's going to be 'interesting'.  I think that it even has more rows than the other blocks, but I could be wrong - it's been known to happen LOL.  I think that the blocking will be my friend or total disaster But I'm game to try for sure!  No guts no glory

I'm sitting here looking at my box of yarn that I've put aside for this project and debating between the spruce green or the totally un matchy matchy browns LOL  I guess putting it that way, I think I'll do the spruce green and deal with the no matchy matchy for the next set haha

Ravelry Link - KAL Stash Killer

Two Colours Done

I've been making some progress without much thought.  This pattern is so easy and mindless to work on.  A few challenging stitches, but there are video tutorials to help with the tricky ones.  I've the full set for the pink and the dusty pink and half way through the peach.

I'm working on Block 3  It's knit in a circle using circs or DPNs.  Since I couldn't find my DPNs, I was using 2 DPNs and 2 circs.  Since I'm working with acrylic, the block was looking circular by the time I got done with it.  I did find a tutorial on how to block acrylic.  There is definitely two opposing camps regarding blocking acrylic.  I've never blocked it before as I can't get it to stay blocked when I do, but I've not tried this method before.  I definitely need to do something to get them the same size or else I'll be doing a battle and a half when I start to put this together.  The sizes definitely are NOT uniform.

The new DPNs are shorter than I would like, but I can smoosh it together when it gets bigger, but it no longer looks like a circle while I'm knitting it.  This makes me smile :)  And I'm no longer fighting with having two sections of this pattern on one circ and rounding it out.

The next block is what's going to make this a true 'scrap' yarn project - it's not the same wool and the colour is definitively a different hue and a different texture.

I created a page for the blocks for this project  rather than post each and every single block .. that would be a LOT of pics LOL.

I'm feeling great about this project and am definitely getting more excited about seeing how this will look when I put it together

Ravelry link - KAL Stash Killer

Pinky Pink to Dusty Rose

My needles have been a bit busy :) I've managed to finish off all the pink blocks - that was a struggle because my second skein of yarn was just AWFUL.  It felt coarse and nubby.  I actually felt hard parts slipping across my fingers as I knit - it wasn't flexible so the P3TOG and K3TOG were a struggle as the yarn had no give and wasn't forgiving at all.



I moved onto the dusty rose yarn and have finished blocks 1 and 4 of the pattern.  This yarn is so much nicer to knit with and the blocks are making up quicker with way less mistakes.  I think I only had to deal with the odd dropped stitch through my knitting as it slipped off the needles during P3TOG or K3TOG.

I had the most fun with the block on the right (Block 4) It's an easy texture, mindless sort of knit with a simple repeating pattern.  So I'm trying to decide on either the cable pattern or the circular pattern.  Decisions decisions LOL.  It's supposed to look like chevrons, but I'n not quite seeing it as there's a lot of other texture to this pattern - no complaints here - it's a fabulous looking block.

A girlfriend and myself are starting to get together again to have a biweekly knatter night.  We did these in the past and they got rather huge and popular.  This time we'll keep it small - just 2 friends hanging out knitting, drawing or doing whatever.  Just enjoying each other's company and having girl therapy time which we both desperately need!