laugardagur, júlí 23, 2005

Stripping the armoury - for a knitter's needs

The uncommon warm temperatures this summer seduced not only me to purchase a foldable "army" chair. Though, I prefer to call them camping stools.
They are currently available for less than 700 Kronas (~10$), which is a bargain over here. They not only appear to be very handy for just throwing them in the car and then, later, experience the relief of relaxing ones old bones. Forgotten is the morning pain in the back, sitting crumpled on a mattress infront of the tent, spooning musli in an undignified position.
And see, I discovered an extra use for the cup/tin holders which are - very pc to meet the needs of both, right and left handers, or people who love more than one drink at a time - located on each arm-rest. The 100g skein fits in so perfectly and if worked from the center is one of the cleverest ways I have ever used for hsoting a skein at all. Especially outdoors. [backslapping myself, feel free to join in - But hey! Where's the beer that's supposed to be in the other arm-rest!?]

Army chair on peace mission
The sock that is currently emerging - as it appears - out of the arm-rest, is the summer sock from Interweaves, called "Rib and Cable Socks" by Nancy Bush.
I am using the grey shade of the Lana Grossa Meilenweit Ringel yarn I bought in Berlin. I quite like this pattern. It knits up very fast and adds a modest twist to a self-striping yarn. I had to cast on a few more stitches, though. Army chair on peace mission
The original pattern calls for only 60, but it was easy to add another pattern sequence and make them 70. Coming to changes, i also altered the heel therefore, I was simply too lazy to count out and adjust the necessary changes. Knitting wildly on, I also altered the gusset and added another sequence of the rib and cable on each side. [You can probably see it if you click on the picture for a closer look. Well, actually the only thing you will see is that it looks like the cables are wrapped around the whole foot...] It worked out fine so far, by what I mainly mean the actual knitting act. After reaching almost the toe (which I am going to alter, too!) I am not so sure anymore if stretching the pattern to so deep down the sole was clever.
Definitely a decision to sleep over.

And, yeah! I SHOULD rather start the sockapal-2-za socks. I know. But they need more thinking. I am still ambitious to make them very special. Though, taking longer time to think, might lead to a safety-fall-back-average-sock-pattern. Hmmm...

2 ummæli:

Nafnlaus sagði...

Aren't those chairs great? I do the same thing as you, use the cup holder for my yarn when I'm knitting. The Rib and Cable socks are looking great. I like your yarn choice. Once I finish up some of my socks in progress, I'd like to start that pattern, too.

Carola sagði...

@Rachel: Of course it was just a matter of time to find out that I am not alone with my great discoveries ;-)
I can only recommend the the Rib and Cable Sock pattern. The only difficulty I ran into was that it knits up too fast. I always knitted one or two rows more when there would have been a cable round... but it's still growing.