Beatnik sweater

Finally summer has arrived, time to knit outside!

My husband was going out riding his longboard and I accompanied him with my current WIP, the Beatnik sweater from Knitty: http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEdf10/PATTbeatnik.php , and a beer because it was friday.

I an using some yarn I got for my birthday: Peer Gynt from Sandnes Garn. I am knitting on 3 1/2 mm needles because of my loose gauge. I had to do the twisted rib on 2 1/2 mm needles, it was hell. I HATE doing twisted rib. It looks nice though.

So far it is really fun with all of the cables. I have knit the entire back and am almost finished with the front.

The only thing about summer knitting, is that you can only knit for so long before your hands get all sweaty. But the sun is so nice, for now. I am sure that in two weeks I am whining about how hot it is.

Oak ribbed sock

I found a bag of sock yarn at one of our local thrift stores, so I have been knitting socks again this week. More precisely I have been knitting the Oak Ribbed Sock from one of my favorite books, “Knitting vintage socks” by Nancy Bush.

Now, as much as I love this book, I do have at least one problem with it: Why does my heel not look like the one pictured? Why is my heel flap so long compared to the pictures? I feel like they must have cheated some how, knitted one sock and written the pattern for another. After being annoyed for a while, I decided to fix it. In the picture below you can see the sock pictured, the grey sock followed the books pattern and the blue sock I my revised pattern.

The pattern calls for a heel flap worked over a total of 32 rows, slipping the first st on each row. For the gusset you then pick up one st for each slipped st = 16 st.This creates a heel that is too long compared with the gusset. My revised heel flap is worked over a total of 24 rows, the first st on each row is not slipped, but either knit or purled depending on which side of the work you are on. For the gusset I still pick up 16 st, that is every two out of three edge st. I continue according to pattern. This heel looks a lot more like the one pictured, and the gusset width matches the heel flap length. I wish I had done this a long time ago, like 10 pairs of socks ago.

 

A new project and beer

I have finally started a non-sock project. I have been in love with this childrens sweater since I got the magazine years ago. More specifically I love the ribbed yoke of the sweater. 

I just happen to have a bag of green yarn in the right weight. But i can’t decide if the yoke should be green or blue like the pattern? Besides a colour change, I want my version to be shorter, but also without buttons. And I do not want blue cuffs or pockets.  I have done most of the calculations, now I just need to calculate the decrease of the yoke for an adult. I say calculate, but I would estimate that I use 50 % calculation and 50 % gut feeling.

The pattern is from an old Phildar magazine from 1977. I love older patterns, they are so much more fun.

On a side note: The Easter beers have arrived! They are my favorite holiday beers since they tend to be so refreshing.

Knitting at my parents-in-law

I am still knitting my red-heel socks. Creativity has been at an all time low. I just can’t seem to figure out what to knit. I have been thinking that I should learn something new, but at the same time I want to knit a sweater. This weekend I will try and figure out what to do next, and maybe put my sock yarn out of sight.

Beer and knitting

I decided I need some regular posts to get this blogging thing to work out. So I just came up with “knitting and beer”. I usually buy I nice beer to enjoy Friday night while I knit and watch TV. It will be a  “work in progress” kind of thing, in the sense that the knitting will be whatever I have on my needles.

I am playing around with the the idea of selling socks online. Socks are probably my favorite thing to knit. I am always working on a pair. So why not sell some of them. Of course I would need to create another website to do this, so it is not happening right away. But that doesn’t mean I can’t knit the socks! I thought about using etsy.com for a while, but it seems like that would just be an expenditure with all of the fees. I am not kidding myself, I do not expect to make any real money, it would purely be for fun, and if I make a few bucks I would not mind. All proceeds would go toward buying more yarn 🙂

I have become infatuated with red heels, so almost all of the socks I have knitted for my fantasy store have red heels. Maybe it could be my trademark for a while? I have also knitted about five pairs with a zig zag pattern, but I soon got tired of that.

Anyway, I am knitting yet another pair of socks, if you hadn’t guessed yet. They will be dark purple with pink stripes. 6 rows purple and 6 rows pink. With a red heel of course. I am following the pattern I posted earlier.

The beer was delicious, an IPA made with rye malt. It made it deliciously dark and bitter at the same time. Often darker beers will be kind of sweet, and I am rarely in the mood for that, so this beer really has the best of two worlds. IPA is my favorite kind of beer by the way.

Happy weekend knitting.

Some of my favorite things

Beer and knitting are perfect on a Saturday afternoon. Also, you’ve gotta try knitting while listening to Daft Punk! It feels like you’r knitting at an incredible speed.

Yes, I have a Nokia 3310, I love it.