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Something Old... A Few Things New.





Today I was wearing a cardigan and socks I knitted a long time ago. They are from the time when I had never heard of Ravelry and didn't know the internet was filled with so many lovely patterns. Instead I used to come up with my own patterns; sometimes with success but often less so. The cardigan I was wearing today is about 5 years old, and it's probably one of my oldest knits that I still use. (I have progressed so much as a knitter during these past few years and to be honest, my first knit works were quite horrid. But I'm getting better all the time.) The socks are almost as old as the cardigan. 



I'm still working on the Stricken socks and the first sock of Socktober is now ready. Although I do have to knit the other pair for them to count as FO’s. The sock is really pretty! I’m so happy! (The photo is not so pretty, it's too dark to take photos already...)

These socks are probably one of the hardest things I've ever knitted. The technique is not particularly hard, but the amount of concentration and attention it craves is huge. The charted areas are especially demanding and definitely not something to try and knit while watching TV. The hardest part for me was the heel flap where you finish the charted section knitting back and forth instead of in the round. I have done cables on the WS of the work before but nothing in this scale. I have a hard time remembering which way is right and left (you have to show me by signing where I should turn when driving) and 3-dimensional thinking has always been problematic for me. So the whole idea of trying to mirror the chart in my mind felt completely and utterly desperate and troublesome to me: changing the direction of the "cables", which stitch goes to front and which to back, which stitches should I knit and which to purl, the whole thing was just reverse and opposite. I did get through it and the result looks like it should but it wasn't nice or easy.


I have finished the whole body of the Docklight sweater and I'm now knitting the first sleeve. It seems like I will have to go yarn shopping soon, because this is my last skein of the dark green Cotton Merino. There's no way I'm going to finish the sleeves and the neck band with what I have left.  

P.S. I just can't get over the name "Stricken" of the socks. I know they are named after the German word for knitting, but all I can think of is the song by same name by one of my favorite bands Disturbed. The song has been stuck to my head while knitting the socks and I can't seem to shake it.

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