50% husband knitting

Dress socks for DH

There is a problem.

In my last entry, I mentioned that I was knitting more loosely with the continental style than I do when I 'throw'. There were definite advantages to this - lack of laddering and a clean line at the toe. Unfortunately, it turns out that there are definite disadvantages, too. Witness:

Don't see it? How about when I include my hand for scale:

Girthwise, this thing is huge. My husband is going to freakin' swim in these socks. Now, if these were supposed to be casual, slouch-around-the-house socks, I wouldn't care if they were roomy. But these are plain and grey. They're supposed to be dressy, can-wear-them-outside-the-house-in-pretty-nice-clothes socks. Slouchy does not cut it here.

I'm seriously considering ripping out the whole foot and some of the toe, and redoing it all using the instructions for the woman's size.

Stupid loose continental gauge. Stoo-pid. #*@*&$.

Heraldic tabard for moi

Last night I swatched! I have myself a more-or-less 22cm square swatch, and have knotted in four scraps of acrylic yarn, 10cm apart from each other, in a square (18 stitches and 24 rows apart):


It's all ready for felting. Once felted, I will measure how big the 'square' of knots is, and that will give me my shrinkage factor. (I picked this brilliant technique up from Aven's blog.) Once I have my shrinkage factor, I will know how much bigger I will need to knit the tabard in order to shrink it down to the size I want. Then I can design the motifs. And then, finally, I can start the actual knitting.

I've never felted before. Cross your fingers for me.

Minnesota mitts for DH

Fingers and thumb are complete. The pocket for the fingers has been started::

If you look really closely, you can see the texture pattern motif on the back of the hand.

And you know what? Knitting fingers kind of sucks. They're so small and fiddly, especially when you're doing two-stranded work. Gah.

Once I'm done the finger pocket, I'll be done the first mitten. Which would be very gratifying were I not a week behind schedule on this project...

Christmas gift for MIL

Got a call from Lettuce Knit - the Garden Shawl pattern is here and ready for me to pick up! Wheeee! It was all I could do not not rush out at lunch and nab it. But I must resist. Instead, I shall do the sane and logical thing, and wait until I can get to another SnB.

I am waiting to Really And Truly Officially say that I am making the Garden Shawl for my MIL for Christmas until I have the pattern in my hands, read it over, and make absolutely sure that doing it in seven weeks is not on the same level of crazy as doing the Persian Tiles shawl in three weeks. (That almost killed me. Never again. Or, at least, not again any time soon.)

DH, unfortunately, is grumbling. He thinks that seven weeks for this shawl is a ridiculous underestimate and that he will once again be a knitting widower single parent.

He has no faith.