Fall 2011 youth drive

With Thanksgiving looming very near, I am finally coming to my senses and accepting the evidence: December is around the corner, which must mean that January won't be far behind. No, I am not thinking of holiday knitting, at least not seriously. What comes first on the list right now is the afghans For Afghans' current Youth Drive. I have a couple of things ready:

Several knitter friends have made worsted-weight socks for a4A, and I decided to follow their lead. The wool is ancient Cascade Quattro from my stash; I made a hat and scarf for Olivia with this yarn when she was in middle school; she is now halfway through her Junior year in college, so you do the math... I cast on 40 stitches on a size 4 circular and the socks practically knitted themselves.

The mittens were an experiment in striping a slightly garish color (orange) with a neutral (dark brown). I decided that one garish colorway stood out too much, so I added two thin stripes of another garish color (hot-hot pink) as a transition, and discovered that one neutral+two garish colors works better, in my eyes at least, than one neutral+one garish. I do find it fiddly to stripe mittens and I am not too happy with the old jog-less jog technique, however. I need a bit more practice to get it right or to come up with another trick.

These projects were a good warm-up to the sweater project which I have finally solved. A knitting pal was recently sporting this lovely and intriguing sweater which I had coincidentally earmarked a long time ago:

I had a pretty good post-it system back in the day: pink meant a woman's size-pattern I liked, yellow, orange, a baby or child-pattern. Green was for accessories or home projects, and yellow for good articles on knitting techniques. Around 2004 or so, I couldn't find much content to warrant a post-it, and I let my subscription lapse. But 1998, 1999, 2000? Those were Knitter's golden years in my opinion. Hardly a page was without its amply-earned post-it.

I am adapting this pattern for a large child's size, so I used Sweater Wizard software to figure out the math for a basic yoke pullover. I am also changing the bottom from shirt-tail to simple 2/2 ribbing. Once I get to the yoke, I will have to pay attention and figure out how to make the decreases work inside the ribbing... But until then it should be smooth and fast sailing. Just what I crave for this leisurely weekend with family and friends.

 

Comments

[dona]

Très ingénieux ce système de post-it! Je fais pareil mais je n'avais pas pensé à attribuer des couleurs!