YOP: post 1

I've been working on my first goal: learning to knit continental.












(colour is best on the first photo)

These socks are also my first non-basic socks! I must say I don't like the look of the 1x1 ribbing much because my tension seems to be all over the place, but the openwork pattern is very forgiving. I cast on 60 st. on 2mm needles as the pattern has quite a lot of give, and then reduced to 70 st. after picking up from the heel flap because I feared that they would be too small if I went back to 60 again.













I'll probably be knitting these socks again as my mother loves them and wants a pair for herself, probably also in a semisolid yarn, because I think the pattern-yarn combo works rather well. But as I won't have enough yarn left after this pair to make her one, she'll have to wait until I find some more nice yarn -which shouldn't be too difficult :) -

YOP-progress: I am now comfortable with continental knitting in the round, both on circ's and on DPN's, but my ribbing tension is still rubbish. I'm also finding it impossible to knit continental back and forth as I knit with one needle in my armpit. Knitting with both needles free is just too much of a strain on my wrists if I want to knit at an acceptable speed. It also stops me from knitting without looking at what I'm doing which is a big strain to my eyes, but I guess that's part of the learning curve...

Inspired by the earbud yarnbombing that went on  at the cwtch I decided to do the same to mine. But as I didn't fancy doing lots of i-cord I just covered it in crochet! I don't know any crochet terminology in English as I learned in Spanish, but the translation I've found for the stitch I used (punto bajo) is 'single crochet', though I have no idea whether this is UK or US terminology...






I've also finished and blocked my Ginko shawlette. I knit it at a very loose gauge, so it's slightly transparent. I used some wires to block it into shape so it would be straight and symmetrical and then used pins to pull out the points.

 
I didn't block out the pattern leaves, but just left them as points.
Remember the Wingspan? After knitting that I mentioned wanting a green shawlette, well, I think this might be it, though I'm not a big fan of elegant stuff, but I suppose it'll be a good item to make a casual outfit look slightly more elegant...

Mnz