Some things I've finished over the past 6 months since I've disappeared from blogging. I did almost no knitting over the summer. I started a pair of leftovers socks, which you will see below, in July, but then we got a little troublesome kitten who needed a lot of attention (he was only 8 weeks old and very needy, and for the first few weeks it was like having a toddler to look after), and I just got distracted by other things.
I picked up knitting again in September with anotherSwinging Stripe Cardigan. This is the fourth Swinging Stripe I've made. It's such an easy knit yet really nice. Kelly got a hole in her previous one and asked for a new one. She picked the colors, a sort of teal and cream. It's more of a greenish blue in person, although it looks just blue here. I wouldn't have chosen these for myself or even probably chosen them to go together for her, but I like how it turned out.
After that, I picked up the pair of leftovers socks I had started in the summer. I used some plain navy blue yarn and some leftover yarn that I had dyed (Hera) in 2-row stripes for an interesting pair of socks. I think I actually like the dyed yarn better broken up by the navy than knit plain.
The final thing I finished was a pair of not-quite-kneesocks. I also dyed this yarn. It's called Gina, and as expected, thanks to some cat activity, it was kind of a pain to work with. Dexter, our then-kitten, had slashed it up while it was drying and there were a ton of breaks in it. Also while I was working on knitting these, the now-1-year-old Dexter and his new little brother Sid kept stealing them, playing with the yarn, dragging them all around the house and so on. So basically I was afraid they would disintegrate the first time I wore them, but I've pretty much been wearing them all week and they're awesome. (I would have liked to give them to their namesake, Gina, but since I thought they were going to fall apart and also they are hand-wash only and I like to give washable gifts, I kept them myself. Deal with it.) Anyway, the fit is perfect too. I did some calf shaping and I also did 3 inches of ribbing at the top instead of just 1 inch, and they stay up really nicely. Yay.
I decided to make the 3 nephews each a sweater for Christmas, and I'm waiting on the yarn for that. That kind of turned into a minor ordeal. Aaron picked out the color for his sister's son, a dark blue, the same color he picked out for his own sweater a while back. I asked my sister what color Christian might like for his sweater. He chose bright pink, but his dad vetoed that, haha. So then it was like a big problem trying to pick out a color. I should have just chosen myself, but Kelly ended up deciding she wanted bright orange for Christian. It seems like it will be overpowering, especially with his red hair, so we had to try to come up with a contrast color that everyone was satisfied with, which was no small feat. I ended up getting a medium brown, but I'm going to see what it all looks like when the yarn arrives. I may end up just doing all orange; I may do orange with a little brown; I may throw it all out the window - we'll see. Holden is getting green. And on a related note, I recently found out we're having another nephew or a niece in May. Yes, my sister has been busy the past few years, haha. Three kids with the oldest turning 4 right before #3 arrives should be fun for her...I just keep acquiring new cats, which I think works out much better personally, haha.
In the meantime, while I'm waiting for my yarn to arrive, I've started on a new pair of socks, Slalom. I had these in my queue for ages. A few months back, the designer apparently had a whim to go look and see who had her patterns in their queue, saw that it was my birthday, and gave it to me for free! Thank you to Gorlitsa Knits for the free pattern! I'm just working it in a plain purple yarn. I like cables better on plain yarn. I've joined in yet another SKA Sockdown (attempt #4) and hopefully I can actually complete this one. They have to be done by December 31, so I'm thinking that although I probably won't finish them before the boys' sweater yarn arrives and I start those, I SHOULD be able to finish them. The pattern itself is working out much better than the last few I tried for Sockdowns, so fingers crossed. (I never did mention that I abandoned the Drip Drip Drop socks I had started for the mystery sock SKA a few months back. I didn't like the fit in the foot and had to modify it to ribbing instead of cables, yet I didn't like the look of the ribbed foot. So I just ditched them and reused the yarn for the Gina kneesocks.)
Hopefully I will post more often than once every 6 months from here on, but no promises...
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