Monday, September 17, 2007

Swatches are Dirty Liars

I finished my redpinkpurple socks this weekend, with quite a lot of yarn left over. But that's okay, cuz I'm gonna use my leftover sock yarn to make doll socks for Peanut to sell at the Christmas craft fair.
But about swatches. Never trust them. I was swatching for Tita's socks, and my tape measure said that I was getting 13 1/2 stitches over 2 inches. The place on my leg where I wanted the sock to start(and Tita's legs are pretty much the same size as mine) was 9 inches around. If the swatch was truthful, that would mean I would need to cast on about 60 stitches.(and I used a calculator) But I knew that couldn't be right because I had just finished a pair of socks in sock-weight yarn with 58 stitches cast on. This yarn is DK.
So I decided to wing it. I cast on 50 stitches and started working in k1p1 rib. I tried it on several times, and it seemed to be working, so I kept going. Apparently I'm a really good guesser. I knit the whole first sock and part of the second sock in less than 2 days.
(as you can see, there's a substantial guage difference.)
This is a doll I made for Thing 1. I know, she doesn't have any pants. I started knitting the top before I decided that I was going to save this and make it a Christmas present, so I'll have to make her a little sweater and some pants.
In other news, the high today was somethig like 80 degrees. I had to put my jacket on when I went outside this morning. You have no idea how happy this makes me. The weather is changing! My favorite time of year is on its way!
I want to knit myself a cardigan or a jacket for cool weather, but I'm not sure exactly what style. I couldn't find a pattern I really liked on the internet, but I think I've got it down to either Tilted Duster from the Fall issue of Interweave Knits, and the Trailblazer Jacket from the September issue of Creative Knitting. But all this said, a jacket for myself is not the highest item on the priority list right now. I really don't want to succumb to IT this Christmas, so I'm going to go ahead and start on my holiday knitting. That means lots of yarn buying, and lots of time, and hopefully a more enjoyable Christmas season(free of frantic last-minute knitting). Comments, I beg of you!!

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