Knitting These Days

The extremely fun Francie sock pattern has perplexed me again in the toe decreases.  It was supposed to be my mother-in-law’s Christmas present (just 2 months late or so) and I can’t seem to finish it.  I’m not sure how.  I’m not sure where I go wrong.  They may be crooked.  How much I care about perfection is dwindling right now.  I love my pair of these socks.  The first sock in this pattern I made for myself worked out perfect.  I had trouble doing the second sock.  I’ve had trouble doing both of these socks.  I don’t know what’s the matter with me, but I’m blaming it on pregnancy brain.

From time to time I work on the Catboat Cardigan project, using up some pretty alpaca yarn from my stash.  I need to work the armholes next, and am debating how long I want it to be before I insert the arms.  Right now this is my “calming knit” that I pick up when I’m frustrated with everything else or life in general.  You always need a calming knit on hand.  Always.

I splurged and got yarn for the Pomme de Pin Cardigan.  I picked a color purely based off of colors I could use in my wardrobe right now, which is unlike me.  I normally just pick one I like when fingering yarn.  This time, I went through my wardrobe, and wrote down some colors that I could use to round it out.  The color is “Norway Spruce” which I think is completely appropriate for me, and it’s Madelintosh Pashmina, which has been on my wishlist for years.  Happy Birthday to me…next month.

My only worry about casting on this project is picking a size.  I may have to swatch quite a bit.  I want it oversized and cozy like it shows in the picture.  There’s a big gap in the smaller sizes, probably due to how the lace numbers work out.  I’m a 32, so if I pick the 32 size, it will be a fitted, zero-ease sweater.  The next choice is knitting the 39, which would give me 7 inches of ease.  That’s a lot of ease.  That’s a really baggy sweater.  That’s pushing the boundary from cozy to swimming-in-it-size.  I’m going to swatch a bit, and crunch some numbers and see if I can knit the 32 on a size up needles or something.  She says the lace pattern is very stretchy, so it might just be something that some vigorous blocking can fix.

This yarn though.  Seriously.

In even bigger news, we have something new in our living room:

Meet my new Ashford Elizabeth 2 that was generously given to me by my husband for Christmas and finally arrived.  We got it unfinished, and I’ve been rubbing in layers of linseed oil in the gorgeous wood to finish it up like Knut loves to do with his hand tools.  I ordered some BFL top to practice spinning with.  So far I stink at it.  I’m starting to get the hang of it, but overall, I’m such a beginner.  But it’s fun.  It’s amazingly fun.  But I’d like to actually make some nice yarn at some point, and I’m not at that point yet.

I’ve been begging for one of these for years and years and years, but Knut kept pointing out I have no time.  I still don’t have time, so I don’t know how I won him over this year, but here it is.

My kids are really having a tough time not playing with it.  The drive belt is tangled daily.  I need to put it in the corner when not in use.  Silje and David are very eager to learn how to use it as well, but I’m sticking my foot down and saying it’s MY Christmas present, and I get to play with it first.

It’s just so pretty.