A Productive Weekend

I finished several projects and accomplished my goal for the weekend. To start, we have a new pair of socks for my son-in-law Frank.

Boot Socks for Frank

Pattern: Maritime Woll Socks by Simone Van Iderstine

Yarn: Ella Rae Lace Merino Worsted
Content: 100% superwash Merino wool, worsted weight
Color: No. 1, Brown Violet

Needles: Addi Turbo circular size 6

Cast on: July 29, 2014
Bound off: August 16, 2014

Comments: I really enjoyed working with this yarn. It feels so wonderfully soft and knits up very nicely. The pattern is fairly simple, well written, and clearly understood. A good one for beginning sock knitters.

This is the first time I've done this type of heel. The 3x1 rib pattern continues down the flap bordered by garter stitch. I don't know how well it will hold up to wear, but it is pretty.

The toe is my usual wedge one. It fits the human foot so well.

All in all, I'm very pleased with these socks.

I will be shipping them off to their owner this week.

My eyes feel so much better, and my sight is greatly improved. I had a checkup with the eye doctor on Friday and they are healing nicely. I've got chronic dry eye, so I will be putting drops in for the rest of my life. I can live with that. Anyway, I'm getting my crafting mojo back because I can see! So, on Saturday I turned my dining room into a skirt factory and finished up 14 doll skirts.

I plan to get busy finishing up the little sweaters for them over the next couple weeks. I've got a goodly number of them knit, but not enough, and some of them aren't completely finished. I was really getting tired of making little dolls sweaters, but taking the break for the socks helped a lot. I'm ready to get back at at.

I'm also ready to knit another fairisle sweater. This one will be for me.  I've found a sweater in a Dale of Norway out-of-print book that is so cool! I found a copy of said book for sale at a reasonable price last week and ordered it. It arrived shortly after. I'm going to knit pattern 7911 Moose Sweater.

Sunday I spent the day knitting test swatches and making adjustments to the pattern so it will fit me.

Scrumptious colors!

I've decided to use yarn I purchased last year. I bought two colors of Madelinetosh Tosh DK from Webs, Magenta and Sugarplum, with plans to make a particular sweater, but I want the moose sweater more and it looks like I have enough to make it.  I have more than enough of the Magenta.

Isn't this cool?

I am a little concerned, since I'm enlarging the sweater just a bit (because it doesn't go up to my size in the instructions), I might not have enough of the main color. I ordered a skein of it yesterday just in case. It won't be the same dyelot, but since Tosh DK is hand dyed, no two skeins are alike anyway. I have ways to work around the problem. I probably won't need it because even though I'm enlarging the body of the sweater I am also shortening the sleeves quite a bit, but I like to be safe where yarn is concerned.

This will be my first project using Madelintosh yarn. It feels so good to my hands so I expect I will enjoy it immensely.

The super hot weather finally cooled down a bit last week. Temps last weekend, and for all of this week, are going to be in the 80's, with an occasional thunderstorm. Perfect weather for sitting out on the deck and knitting. Yay!

Live long and prosper. \\//