More on Socks & Sweaters

Hmm, these socks are going to be a bit more challenging than I thought.

I knit up a gauge swatch with this Regia stretch using size 0 needles and got about 10 stitches in an inches. I got ready to toss it into the wash to be abused in a hot cycle with some towels and see how much it shrinks and decided to take another look at the pattern... gauge for fingering weight yarn is 7-8 stitches per inch. Okay... but that doesn't help me, I have a good swatch with the smoothness and lack of holes you'd expect from a good sock at my 10spi gauge. I'm not going to jump up to a holey swatch using #2's or #3's just to follow the published pattern.

...also, the patterns themselves are kind of ugly, if you know what I mean... not laid out very well, bad punctuation and grammar in the "intro / info" section, they make the graphic designer in me cringe, and the knitter in me huff at the inefficiency of it all.


So I'm sort of reinventing the wheel here by taking all the best things out of the pattern, from the "tips and tricks" section, and from my own gauge and measurements, and creating a fresh sock pattern, cuff down on DPN's. It's a bit frustrating.



On to more exciting news, I've started Riley's pullover! A random striped little girlish (but not sickeningly girlie) creation. I loved the colors when they were on the ball, became a bit leary of it when I first started, but now that I'm about 60-65% through the back I'm really liking the play of the colors. I need to take some pictures of it and update my Ravelry page.

I guess I should do the same to Cici's sweater--all the ends are woven in, now just have to wash and block it, and sew in the "made with love" tag. ;)

I also think I need to decrease my stitch count to match a smaller size. I was talking with Tina and Andrea this evening (Riley's and Cici's moms) and Tina mentioned that even though Riley is 22 months she's still wearing the 18 month sizes. I think I cast on this sweater in the 3-4 year size, I'll decrease down to the 1-2 year size, which is the next step down, and just have a bit more of the side in the seam for the back section. No biggie.