Jaywalker socks -- finished!

Finally, I've finished the second sock of my Jaywalker socks. I couldn't sleep last night, so I stayed up, watched reruns of FarScape, and knit until I finished it. The project had reached its "let's just get it over with" point, so I was glad to stitch that last Kitchner stitch.

Pattern: Grumperina's Jaywalker sock pattern. The pattern is very well written and easy to follow. I had read in several places that people were finding the original size to be too small, so I went up one size. I probably shouldn't have -- I probably should have knit the original size. The socks seem too large.

Yarn: Socks that Rock, medium weight, Fire on the Mountain colorway. Since I made the larger size, I barely had enough yarn. You can see the leftover yarn in this image. The pattern is written so that as you work the toe, you knit every other row "even" and work two pairs of decreases in the other rows until you have seven stitches on each needle. In the first sock, I took some advice from the Yarn Harlot (I think it was her), and as I got close to the end of the sock, I eliminated the "even" rows. Somewhere I read that this would give a sock toe a more rounded look. For the first sock, I did this at about nine stitches per needle. In the second sock, to save yarn, I did this from about eleven stitches per needle. I can't see any difference between the two socks, so I guess it worked. Even doing that I wouldn't have had enough yarn except that I hadn't cut off the long-tailed cast on. I snipped the extra yarn off and attached it to the other end of the yarn, giving me several more inches.

As of the yarn itself, I really liked it. Nice feel, great sock yarn.

Needles -- Knitpicks Harmony double-ended needles, US size 1, 2.25mm. I mainly knit with four needles in the sock, but as I worked the heel gussets, I used five needles (with a sixth as the extra one).

Color -- I really liked the Fire on the Mountain colorway, especially in the skein. As I knit it, I found it had much less red and much more pick than I had imagined. It was still nice, but it looked different knitted than as a yarn. Not a criticism; just an observation.

Highland Triangle Shawl 2

I finished the Highland Triangle shawl before Christmas and got it blocked so that it could be a Christmas gift in time for the actual day.

It's a great pattern, well written, but the outer boarder seems to go on FOREVER. I'm sure that's due to the fact that each row gets two stitches longer and longer.

Blocking feels like magic, opening up the lace. I'm always amazed when I unpin it and the points stay pointed and the open areas remain open. Wool is great, even if knitting with it during a commute is like carrying an electric blanket in my lap. :-)

Knitting time was more than three months but less than four.

Here are its vitals:

Pattern: Highland Triangle Shawl (Ravelry Link) from Cheryl Oberle's Folk Shawls. I didn't make any modifications to the pattern, except for the yarn. I did use a couple of laminated excel spreadsheets to keep track of the row counts.

Yarn: Knitpicks Merino Style in Hollyberry. I think I ordered 11 skeins, which would be a total of 1353 yards (at 123 yards per skein). I must have used 10 of them and a little bit of the 11th; I can only find a partial skein in my stash.

Needles: US size 8, also from Knitpicks. My needles for this project were Harmony Options. I started with a short cable and worked my way up gradually to a 60 inch cable (as each row grew LONGER).

Finished Size: As it was blocking, I measured the triangle -- 98 inches across the long edge and 46 inches from edge to point. Big.

I took the images in the middle of the night, as I was wrapping gifts, and then it went to live with its recipient (my mom), so there are not outside pictures. I gathered some hints for the knitting of this shawl the first time I completed it, and they can be found at this link.

Click on any picture to see it larger.

Highlander Update

I'm still working on the Highland Triangle Shawl. It's moving along, although it feels slower and slower as each row is knit. Of course, that makes sense, because each row is four stitches longer than the last. To top it off, I count the stitches on the needle after each half-row is finished, to make sure everything is as it should be. The counting slows things down, too.

The pictures in this post don't depict the most recent look of the shawl. I'm actually working on the outer row. In fact, I'm almost done with it and with the shawl! And I'm glad of that. It's a really REALLY big project -- especially since I'm sticking to it until it's done. No breaks to knit something else.

A friend asked to see the pattern to see if she would like to knit it. She looked at it; she showed it to a fellow knitter, and they decided it was a Hard Knit. I don't think it's hard. I do think, because of the lace aspect, it's a knit that requires attention (just like any other lace). Mistakes are visible. It's just knits and pearls, and it doesn't require a real gauge, so wouldn't call it hard.

I've enjoyed it. I'm ready to be finished!