I did it. Instead of casting on a new project, I finished one! Two actually. Okay, so I started one but finished two, but the one I started wasn't socks, it was a hat. Two nights ago I finished the pair of socks I was knitting as a gift - with 10 days to spare! I'll post details and a photo once they've been gifted.
Yesterday, I cast on a winter hat (Petra Hat pattern on Ravelry.com) in a bulky yarn with size 11 needles. Let me tell you, going from fingering weight yarn (a 1 in thickness) to bulky yarn (a 5 in thickness) and size 0 needles (2.0 mm) to size 11 (8 mm) was a HUGE difference. My fingers were so confused at first, but quickly caught on. It's amazing how fast a project can go with big needles and thick yarn. I knit 90% of the hat yesterday then finished it this morning before 9:30 AM. No picture yet - I'll try to take one before I send it. This is my fourth pay-it-forward gift for 2011.
What's a pay-it-forward gift, you ask? In January, I posted a note on my Facebook Wall saying that I wanted to give a handmade gift to five people - the first five people who posted comments to my wall post. The only requirement is that they copy the same message to their walls and promise to give hand made gifts to the first five friends who reply to them, and so on. I've already made and sent three of the five. The first was a crocheted blue and white ripple baby afghan to a friend of mine whom I met at our group exercise certification testing day. I ended up becoming her Zumba mentor as well since she later became licensed to teach Zumba. She's pregnant with her second child - a boy. (Her first is a girl.) The second gift was a mesh shopping bag for my friend, Meri. I have to knit another one for myself - it will be great for the farmer's market! (Pattern is in the latest Stitch 'N Bitch book - Beyond the Basics.) The third pay-it-forward gift was two white knitted washcloths to a fellow Usborne Books (www.UsborneMA.com) consultant. The hat becomes the fourth gift and will go to one of my Usborne customers and past hostesses. The fifth person is my Mom and I'm not going to write what she's getting because she reads my blog! :)
Okay, so I cast on and finished a hat, plus finished the gift socks. In addition, I've reached the gusset increases for the off-white Ribbed Ribbon socks that I'm doing two-at-a-time. The heel is looming, but I'm hoping it will be straightforward.
I almost cast on a new pair of socks today. After all, I finished a pair, and with two pairs on hiatus, that only leaves me with one pair on which I'm actively working. My plan was to start a pattern called "Twisted Baskets" from Toe-Up 2-at-a-Time Socks by Melissa Morgan-Oakes. However, I have to admit that I'm liking the book less and less.
On the positive side, it introduces a great concept - knitting socks two at a time. It is also spiral bound which means it lays flat and makes it so much easier to deal with the book.
On the negative, the patterns are written in a very strange way and often take 4-5 pages. Don't get me wrong, I love when patterns are detailed, but these patterns are drawn out in a way I don't like. They are neither clear nor concise, and seem to be easy to misread. In the Ravelry knit-a-long (KAL) where people are knitting from this book, I've seen more posts about frogging and redoing the socks than in any of the other sock boards I read (about 6 or 7 different ones). It also seems as though some people interpreted the instructions for the toe differently so there are varying number of rows of increases as well as knit-only rows. There are also several people who have already said that they've modified the pattern to use a different toe that works better. A couple of knitters have also posted questions/issues with the gusset and one has already frogged hers at that point. To me, all of these things aren't good signs.
I would still like to participate in the KAL (more to potentially win free yarn than for the sock themselves) but if I do, I'm going to let a few more people start ahead of me so I can learn from their issues, Plus I think I'd just start with the toe that I know (and coincidentally it's almost the same as the one she uses in her sample sock pattern but not in the Twisted Baskets pattern).
Finally, the instructions for knitting socks two-at-a-time weren't nearly as detailed as I'd hoped, and the photos were lacking. I learned more from youtube about doing 2AAT socks than I could have with the 2AAT books, so I have to say that at this point, I unfortunately don't recommend them unless you really want to get every sock book out there. So here are my updated sock book recommendations:
Recommended books:
Socks from the Toe Up by Wendy Johnson
Toe Up Socks for Every Body by Wendy Johnson
Sock Innovation by Cookie A.
Not recommended (unless you really want an expanded collection of sock books):
2-at-a-Time Socks by Melissa Morgan-Oakes
Toe-Up 2-at-a-Time Socks by Melissa Morgan-Oakes
TBD:
Knit. Sock. Love. by Cookie A. (but based on her first book, I think this will go in the recommended category.)
Ta-ta for now!
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