Progress, or Lack Thereof

It's been a really busy week, so I've not managed to get much knitting time, dang it. I knit on Mom's cushion cover until I can't bear one more moment of handling that acrylic yarn. Then I switch to my 2-at-a-time, toe-up Magic Loop socks. That calms me enough for another few rows of the cushion cover. *LOL*

I'm anxious to get up to the heel on the socks. I've never knit a pair toe-up before, so this will be a whole new experience!

Magic Loop Progress

I'm now past the toe increases on my toe-up, 2-at-a-time Magic Loop socks and am knitting my way to the heel. I've already become more comfortable with the Magic Loop process and I just love the idea that when I finish a sock, I'll have finished BOTH of them. I'm sure I'll still knit some on DPNs when I get the nerve to branch out beyond my simple sock "recipe" just because so many patterns are written for DPNs. I still have a pair of socks at the office that I knit on during lunch breaks (unless I'm updating my blog...*LOL*) that are on DPNs, so I won't get out of practice, at least.

I need to get back to work on Mom's cushion cover. I have trouble making myself go back to work on the acrylic boucle after knitting with lovely soft sock yarn. *sigh*

Okay, I'm a Dunce....

I did something really dumb on my first pair of toe-up, 2-at-a-time Magic Loop socks....I misread the instructions (and they were SIMPLE instructions) for the M1R and M1L increases. This resulted in a rather decorative but impractical double row of cute little holes on both sides of the socks. Yuck.

So, I reread the instructions, kicked myself for a few minutes, frogged both socks and started again this morning. Dolt. Of course, I guess I could say that the good news is that it gave me another opportunity to practice "Judy's Magic Cast-On" and I was able to do it without watching the YouTube video this time! *pats self on back*

Baby Blankie

This is the small blanket I knitted for my friend's grandbaby-to-be....it's an oversized version of the "Idiot Dishcloth" pattern. I like it because it has a nice little border and I can practically knit it in my sleep. *LOL* I made it small enough to be very portable and knit tightly enough to be good and warm. Have to keep the little guy comfy!

I'm teaching myself Magic Loop knitting with the help of YouTube and various websites. You gotta love the internet! I'm trying to learn how to knit socks toe-up, two at a time. Knitting socks two at a time is the only reason I'm trying to learn Magic Loop to tell the truth. I'm actually quite comfortable working with DPNs. Right now Magic Loop feels awkward to me, but so did DPNs at first. So, I'm hopeful. :-)

Cute Teensy Little Socks

These are the baby socks I knitted for my friend's grandchild, which is due very soon.

They are teensy and cute and knitted up quickly. Now that I've done my first set of baby socks, I wish I'd done several sets of those before knitting my first pair of grown-up socks. That way I could have learned the techniques involved without a huge time commitment.

But.....I also wouldn't have already finished as many pairs of socks for myself as I have. *LOL*

Baby Socks

A friend of mine is anticipating the arrival of her first grandchild in the next couple of weeks, and I'm working on a baby blanket as a shower gift. It suddenly occurred to me the other night that a pair of booties might be a nice item to enclose as well. I went to Ravelry (my home away from home) to look for a quick-and-easy bootie pattern and found a wonderful baby sock pattern. I finished one that very evening and have nearly finished the second one. Photos to come, I promise. *LOL*

I have a doctor appointment tomorrow and another doctor appointment on Monday, so I'm hoping to finish up the baby blanket during waiting room time.

As soon as I've finished those, I want to work on the cushion cover I promised Mom. She'd chosen an acrylic boucle which just isn't working up as well as I'd hoped it would. Maybe I'm just spoiled by all the lovely sweater and sock yarn I've been working in lately. (Am I becoming a yarn snob???) Anyway, I thought I'd try double-stranding it with another less lumpy yarn to see what effect I get from that.

I also need to decide what holiday knitting I need to do and get started on that. Now there's a scary thought....I NEED TO START MY HOLIDAY KNITTING.

*sigh*

It's FINISHED!!

I finished my sweater yesterday and couldn't be more pleased. I washed it and was happy to find that it still fit after washing. I'm so happy with it that I'm going to wear it to work today. I'll try to post a photo in the next few days.

I have a few other projects that I MUST finish up (not the least of which is a cushion cover for Mom), but hope to start a winter-weight sweater soon. What fun!!