Socks!

The never-ending sweater project is once again on hold as I make Christmas presents for my family and friends. First up: my sister who specifically requested socks. I've honestly never made adult-sized socks before, so I was very intimidated. I was expecting to spend a fair amount of time on them, which is why I started in October. But I got on a roll and finished one in a matter of a couple of days! They are the Cadence Socks and here's one done:

Boy, that's not a very good picture... but you get the idea.

It's a very fun project. I originally bought two skeins of Classic Elite Fresco, but to finish off the toe of the first sock I had to tap into the second skein. But it was just the end of the toe, I hope I don't run out!

I started making the socks on size 1 DPNs but they came out way too small, so I restarted on 2's. The socks are a little big for me, but I think they'll fit my sister perfectly. (I hope she doesn't read this...)

Next, I'm starting more socks for my sister's room mates, the Circle Socks and Java Socks. Socks socks socks! Turns out, I'm pretty good at them!

Madison Knitters' Guild

Last Monday I went to my first Madison Knitters' Guild meeting. I can't believe I haven't gone before! It was tons of fun. They brought in Susan Anderson and the makers of Spud & Chloe yarn. I LOVE Spud & Chloe yarn! It's what I made my ducky socks out of. It was a great point to jump in, Susan is wonderful to listen to. And we got some gifts! We got this adorable heart shaped tape measure:

And a little canvas bag with two patterns!

Amazing! I also loved the show and tell, there are some seriously talented knitters and spinners in Madison. At the next meeting I'm totally showing off my deer hat and hopefully my sweater will be done by then too! And maybe even my Aidez as well! We'll see. I've got this silly math midterm the day after tomorrow that I'm getting really annoyed with.

Sweater Take 2

I ripped up the sweater pretty far. It was hard to do. Here's what it looks like now:

But one advantage of moving is being forced to go through all your stuff, so I recently found my bamboo size 6 DPN's so I don't have to deal with these clunky metal ones:

Lighter and shorter.

After ripping I started with the sleeves first. I also decreased the stitches in the arm by 6. The shorter needles and the fewer stitches means this is going a lot faster now.

Even though I'm making the sweater smaller this time around, I'll probably still need more yarn. I made this Aidez sweater out of recycled yarn a while ago, but towards the end I ran out (story of my life, I know) so I used this sweater's brown yarn for the last bit. But since I need it now, I unraveled the brown bit from the Aidez sweater. I assembled it really poorly in the first place, so it's not like I could wear it around anyways. Eventually though, I'll finish and re-assemble the Aidez. Here's pictures of it before the ripping:

Notice the big holes...

So here's to getting it right! Hooray for ripping!