Sweater Avoidance

I don't have much of a sweater update today.  I worked on it a bit over the week but it pretty much looks the same as it did last weekend.  I started increasing for the bust (although not very much), and I have about 2/3 of a sleeve.  That's it.  It's not really portable anymore so it doesn't leave the house, and anyway it's hard to get really excited about 97 billion miles of greyish purple moss stitch when I have projects like this on the go.

The pattern is Daybreak by Stephen West.  I guess it's called Daybreak because it looks like a sunrise?  Although I'm a contrarian so I'm calling mine Sunset because these colours remind me more of a sunset than a sunrise.  Once I got into a rhythm with it and didn't have to look at the pattern anymore it became a really fun and relaxing knit.  And, as opposed to the sweater, which is 148 zillion miles of the same colour, each stripe is a different colour!  The yarns I'm using are malabrigo sock and Noro Silk Garden Sock, which is exactly the right yardage for the largest size of the shawl as written in the pattern, but I've pretty much decided that I'm just going to keep making stripes until my Noro runs out.  It might not even be an issue because I might use all the Noro even though it still looks like I have lots left.  I think at last count I had 12 stripes of each colour, and the pattern says to go until 20 stripes of each.  Each stripe (4 row repeat) increases the stitch count by 14.  I have no idea what my current stitch count is but it's a lot, and apparently it's going to increase by a lot more.  I don't really want to know how many stitches it is.  I'm pretty sure I can't count that high.  All I care about is the colours... oh the colours....

I've also been working on my Snicket Socks.  Now that I've been working on them for a little while, I've realized a few things about them that have given me pause.  Don't get me wrong, I love how they look, and I love the colour, although I still can't get it to photograph right, it's like they reflect light completely differently depending on whether a camera is focused on them or not.  The below picture was taken in direct sunlight and edited slightly and it's still not right but it's the best I can do.

As I was saying, there are a few weird things about this sock:

1. The pattern is kind of poorly written.  Or at least it's written in a way that I don't like after just having done a couple of other very cabled patterns.  Instead of doing an abbreviation section for the cable directions (e.g. writing C2F in the pattern and providing the direction once that C2F means to slip one stitch to the cable needle and hold to front of work, knit one, and then knit one from the cable needle), the designer has written out the direction "sl 1 st to cn and hold at front, kr1, kr1 from cn" each time.  This makes the direction much longer and more confusing looking than it needs to be.

(As an aside, I learned how to cable without a cable needle when I was knitting the snapdragon flip-tops because using a cable needle to hold one stitch is really annoying.  I'm really glad I learned how to do it because these socks would be HELL otherwise.  I used this tutorial video.  Oh knittinghelp, where would I be without you?)


2. Every knit stitch in the sock is knit through the back loop instead of the usual knit stitch which is knit through the front loop.  This has the effect of twisting every knit stitch.  It doesn't make it more difficult, it just makes me confused.  I think maybe it makes the cables stand out more?  Or makes them sturdier?  I'm almost tempted to try the same cable pattern just with some other yarn and knitting the knit stitches through the front instead of the back just to see what it looks like.  If anyone has some insight into what twisting the stitches accomplishes, please let me know.

3. In reading ahead in the pattern, it looks like the pattern continues all around the foot, top and bottom.  Nope, I was wrong.  I just didn't read far enough.  I was worried for a minute there that I was going to have to *gasp* adapt a pattern because I didn't relish the idea of walking on big ol' honeycombs.  Whew!  Disaster averted.

I guess the sock isn't that weird, it's just me that's weird because I don't understand things like twisted stitches and reading directions.

.....  OH!  I almost forgot.  In my last post I promised a non-prize for the blog reader who correctly guessed the identity of the mystery item in the photo.  Well as it happens, I only got two responses, both of them in person.  The Enabler, who read the post and said "I know what it is!" and I told him he wasn't eligible as he was there when said item was photographed.  The other response was from Christina who, at our Wednesday night knit and chat night, asked me if it was soap.  I told her it was not soap.  She then asked if it was something edible and I said that yes, it was something edible, but she did not venture to guess any further than that.  So I guess the non-prize has to go to Christina for being the closest.  Congrats Christina!

However, I'm disappointed I didn't get any other guesses.  I suppose the promise of no prize was not enough of a reward to type a couple of letters and click "publish".  What more do you want from me?!?  Sheesh.

Anyway, since clearly nobody is waiting with breathless anticipation, let's get this over with.  The mystery item is.....

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Pesto Cheese!  And by the way, it was effing delicious.