Sunday, April 17, 2016

FO: The curse has been broken.

Look, I know it's been a long time. I'm not going to make any excuses. I'm just checking in to tell you one very important thing.

The curse that has hung over me since this blog was started, the curse of Pickle's socks... has been broken.

Started: June 30, 2015

Finished: August 2, 2015

Pattern: Francie by Rebekkah Kerner. I've knit this pattern before for myself.

Yarn/yardage used: Textiles A Mano La Paz, in an unnamed colorway that ranges from dark green through dark blue and purple. This is DK weight, non-superwash wool. Not the kind of stuff you usually knit socks from. I'm unsure of the exact yardage, because 1) I gave these socks to Pickle without weighing them first and 2) I can weigh the leftovers now, but I don't know how much was in the cake to begin with.

Needles: Size 3 Karbonz interchangeables. This was, I think, the first project I ever tried with my now-beloved interchangeables.

You might remember that I tried all sorts of things in order to break the curse of Pickle's socks. I tried changing needle sizes several times. I tried sneakily changing the yarn. I wanted to change the pattern... but that would have made Pickle sad. In the end, what seems to have worked is changing both needle sizes and yarn... and technique.

Yes, that's two-at-a-time socks on one very long interchangeable cord - the first time I've ever tried something like this. It will probably also be the last time, given how fiddly and tangly I found the whole process to be. Hey, I'm willing to go to great lengths to break long-standing knitting curses, but for everyday? Hand me my trusty old DPNs, please.

But that's not all. How do I know the curse is really and truly broken?

I knit him another pair.

Started: September 18, 2015

Finished: October 4, 2015

Pattern: The Password Is Swordfish by Heidi Nick.

Yarn/yardage used: Dream In Color Smooshy, in Night Watch. The original cursed yarn, bought all the way back in July 2002! I used just shy of 400 yards.

Needles: Size 1.5 Karbonz DPNs.

Original yarn, original needle method... all is well again with my sock-knitting mojo. I did change the pattern, mind you, and I converted the pattern to toe-up. I've become a huge, huge convert to the ways of the Fish Lips Kiss heel since I first posted about it, and now I use the heel technique and the cardboard foot tracing for almost every pair of socks I knit.

So there's that! You might have noticed that my photographs are less polished-looking and more cluttered than they used to be. Suffice to say that I started a new job and moved into a new house at pretty much the same time last year, and my DIY lightbox didn't survive the move. I plan to make another one, when I can find the time to. (Who knew that starting a standard 40-hour-workweek job would cut in on my free time so drastically, right?)