More socks

Finished the Tootsie Rolls socks and got them to match as well! They are comfy to wear although I’m glad that I didn’t do the rolls on the sole. I have called them the Very Hungry Caterpillar socks as they bear a strong resemblance to one of LO’s favourite books. 

This is my latest pair of socks- Broadripple. I made a pair several years ago but wanted to use the Cascade Fixation I had in my stash which the pattern actually calls for.

Fixation is weird to knit with. It’s cotton with a small amount of elastane in for stretch so you have to be careful not to pull on it too tightly when knitting with it, otherwise the finished knitting will be distorted and not stretchy. As you can see in the picture above, the slightly rippled look to the knitting is where I’ve pulled a bit too hard! 

Beginning to feel like I want to knit something other than socks…

Not socks

This is Hey Teach in progress, I love the way the pattern has knitted up. The yarn, Pakucho Organic Cotton, is lovely to knit with and doesn’t feel harsh on the hands as some cottons can.

I knitted the front and back, then joined the two with three needle bind offs at the shoulders.

And blocking. I washed some of the yarn at the same time as it is designed to shrink slightly and I didn’t want to sew it up, then find the seams shrank! I used a sleeve modification pattern I found on Ravelry to make longer sleeves, as I thought I was unlikely to use a short-sleeved cardigan, but that three quarter length sleeves were more useful. I could have worked the mods out for myself, but just don’t have time at the moment – my knitting time consists of collapsing in an exhausted heap in front of the TV at about 9pm on most evenings!

So, the sleeve mod is where it went wrong. The sleeves have ended up too tight to be confortable. I can get it on, but it isn’t practical to wear over anything but a tight-fitting t shirt, and I’m not sure how comfortable it would be to wear for long. Disappointing after this much work, so I have put it one side for the time being and think I will reknit the sleeves in the next size up once I rediscover some umph.

Tell me about your knitting disaster and cheer me up!