ARTwin knits

I'm a big kid now!

First, so much tragedy this week. My heart goes out to my NJ neighbors and to my fellow Virginians who are both reeling from the devastation of Monday’s storm and the terrible shootings at VT. As I sit here at home, safe in my (mostly) dry house, I feel a strange connection to both incidents. My office was closed and the city where I used to live (and still work) was practically shut down due to rising flood waters. I often drive through many of the other affected areas. The other tragedy hits close to home, because my dad is a graduate of Virginia Tech, and I grew up hearing about how great Blackburg is, and then of course rooting on the football team. Actually, I just talked to my dad, and he said what I thought he would – that he’s never been more proud to be a Hokie, and that his support for the university, the students, faculty and all affected by the tragedy has grown stronger. My sympathies and prayers go out to all those affected by both events. 

Well, H had his first real haircut on Monday. We were home because of the Nor’easter, and so Larry took the opportunity to head to the barber .  H was really good and came home looking like a little guy - not a baby anymore!!  Amazing how fast they grow up!!

I finally have some pictures of the knitting too. 

I’ve been cruising along on my jaywalker sock. I’m loving the colors much better than I first did.  The green looks more yellow in this picture, but it really is a bright, lime green.  I didn’t officially join Project Spectrum this year, but these socks certainly fit the bill for this month’s colors of pink, green and yellow. No real official yellow in the socks, but the green is really a yellowy green. Since I took this shot on Monday, I’ve finished the leg and started the heel. Actually, I was knitting on the heel while watching The Harlot on Knitty Gritty. Seemed appropriate to be knitting a sock while watching about knitting socks. (Stephanie was really great, by the way. You should try to catch it if you have DIY.)

I’ve also  been cruising along on my ripple blanket.

I’m loving the way that the colors have come together with a group of brights and then a group of cool colors – at least I think I do. We’ll see how it comes together as the repeats continue.

do you swatch for socks?

I cast on and knit a bit on my socks with the Schaefer Anne. I decided to knit the ever popular Jaywalker. I loved the way it looked, and the subtle striping from the yarn.  But, I had decided to do a picot edge.  And I did it wrong. So I frogged. Since I frogged, I decided to go up a needle size, cause the US0 size needles that I was using were hard to work with.  But now I'm worried that the larger needles aren't right. So this comes to the question in my title - do you swatch for socks? I did swatch with the size US1 needles and wasn't sure if the gauge was right. And I also didn't swatch in the round, which I think makes a difference.  But now I'm not sure if I should make a swatch, or just keeping going with the sock and see, and then frog again if I don't get gauge. You see, the thing is, the sock isn't that much bigger than the swatch, so does it make sense to swatch or just keep going with the sock and then frog if the gauge isn't right.

In other news, I started a cute baby sweater from the Spring edition of Family Circle Easy Knitting.  I'm bummed because they have a new publisher and their website hasn't been updated. I'm worried that there is an error in the pattern, but I'm just going to push ahead and see how it comes out. I'll try to post some photos tomorrow.

And I'm busy thinking about projects for Project Spectrum for this month. I have some yellow yarn in there and some orange Baby Ull that I picked up last year when I found out that I was pregnant. We'll see what calls to me.