Friday, August 17, 2007

A jaywalkin' we will go

What's gotten into me - two FO's in less than a week! Must be that old trick of having a week of work and lazing about house - man, it rocks for the knitting. And the spending of hours on Ravelry...

Anyhoo, these socks have been on the sticks for quite a while. First one cast on in January, as a good travel project for my trip to New York (New York - remember New York?!). And I used them as my subway knitting in New York, and plane knitting from NY to LAX and then on to Hawaii (thank goodness the US actually allows knitting on planes. About the most sensible decision to come out of the US government for some time!) It was the second one that took the time. Not that it's a slow knit, just one that, being for me, was easily put aside in favour of gift and swap knitting. But now they are done. Hurrah!

Details
Pattern: Grumperina's Jaywalker. I did the larger size, although on reflection, I think I should have done the smaller size, as I think these might be a bit large. Not to worry! A clever pattern which I enjoyed knitting.

Yarn: Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock Multi, in Black Purl - 2 skeins - although I probably have about 15 or 20 grams left of one skein. This yarn worked beautifully on the leg, but pooled like a barstool on the foot - exhibit A:
Exhibit B (the other side of the same foot):
So to cure the pooling on sock 2, I joined in the leftover yarn when I was about halfway through the gussets, and alternated yarn from both balls every 2 or 3 rows. And it worked fairly well, not perfectly, but better. A true perfectionist would undo sock 1 and redo. Of course, I am not a true perfectionist. The foot is going to inside a shoe anyway, I figure!!

See - pooling fixed on sock 2!
Sticks: 2.5mm bamboo dpns. I like knitting with these, although one is slightly bent now - not quite sure how that happened!

Time: 15 January 2007 - 15 August 2007

What I learnt: Fixing pooling! But unfortunately, not twisting yarn when swapping skeins very well. But I'm not showing you a picture of that!! A girl's gotta have some secrets!

******************
Baby update!
Baby James arrived safely yesterday morning ("early" according to my husband, who clearly omitted to get the pertinent details from his brother, the father of James! Not to mention failing to tell me until last night!). So the baby shower will no doubt be replaced by a visit to the hospital instead. Thanks everyone for your good wishes - James' parents went through many IVF treatments to conceive him, and then of course, wouldn't you know it, conceived him naturally! His big sister was so excited she didn't want to go to school!

19 comments:

Donna Lee said...

Yay for baby James' safe arrival. It's always fun when the "guest of honor" arrives in time for the party! It is a little strange reading your post dated Friday since it is still Thursday night here. You must an early riser and a morning person. The jaywalkers look pretty in that color. How did you figure out how to fix the pooling? You are very clever!

Anonymous said...

Glad the baby arrived safe and sound! Yay! And those jays are very pretty... another good reason to take a week off work! ;)

amy said...

Phew on the baby--what a relief! And congrats, new Auntie!

Anonymous said...

Happy Baby News!!!
The Jaywalkers look great. Their sizing seems to be either Big, or Small. I like pooling, I never want to fix it!! Very sensible decision to allow knitting on planes. There should be more of it!!

TinkingBell said...

Welcome baby James - love the jaywalkers - Haven't knitted them yet!

Will talk to you more re Happy Clappy KAL- do you think soysilk would be nice?

MadMad said...

Congrats on Auntie-hood (and all the knitting opportunities it presents - yay!) The Jaywalkers look great - I've been told they have very little give to them in general, so that the smalls end up being too small, so maybe you are better off with the larges?

Denise said...

I'm wearing my green Jaywalkers this very instant! Yours look great - very clever fix for the pooling :D

Welcome to baby James!

Anonymous said...

Oh, how cute - apparently, my brother also didn't want to go to school when I was born.

Congratulations, Aunty J. x

Bells said...

Oh so pretty! And I SO see what you mean about pooling now. When we were talking about it the other day, I really needed a visual.

yay for baby James!!

catsmum said...

welcome to baby James. Now we need photos so we can say 'awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww' :]

Meg said...

*snigger* - "pooling like a barstool" - that just made my day!
And, hey, nice socks!

Snoozen said...

Hey Auntie RR, big congrats to S and BiL and Big sister. Great news...a pigeon pair. Now you will have another project to do a monogrammed J cushion.
EE has an awesome cardigan which we got as a hand-me-down from big cousin J, very colourful, stripey and could be a possible idea for a little persons cardi and all those small amounts of wool you have left-over, will show you tomorrow.

Linda said...

Beautiful jaywalkers!

Ann said...

The Jaywalkers look great & the colors too! I also knitted a pair & used the same yarn & had the same pooling problem. Thanks for the tip on solving pooling - must remember that next time!

Anonymous said...

A big LOL at "the most sensible decision to come out of the US government for some time!" Sooo true, sad to say.

The Jaywalkers are simply lovely. I have that same yarn in my stash & have been looking for a pattern. Thanks for pointing out the pooling.

madhu said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Jo said...

Congratulations, Auntie.

kgirlknits said...

that wool is lovely for the Jaywalkers - great job on fixing the pooling on the second sock, too! I can never seem to get it looking that good, even if I do use the two-ball method.

Amy said...

Congratulations, Aunt Rose!

I wonder if there are variations in LL sock colors. Your black purl looks SO DIFFERENT than mine when I knit jaywalkers a couple years ago.