All the small things
A SOCK!!!
A personal milestone for me because I've been terrified of using double pointed needles. There's so many, and you have to wrestle with them and they remind me of a spider *shudder*
Once I finally got the k2,p2 ribbing out of the way, there was enough on the needles to make it easier to work with. I used this nice simple pattern and it was for the most part easy to understand...even for a beginner like me! I was terrified of turning the heel and making the gussets, but really, there's not that much to it. It sounded foreign and strange, and entirely beyond my understanding, but if you go slow and read the instructions, it's quite easy.
I used size 7 dpns (courtesy of my trip to The Spinster *drool*) and Silver Creek wool in Bordeaux. Beautiful! Oh, I also cut the ankle from a measurement of six inches to three, because I prefer ankle socks to long socks.
Now comes the task of making the other one!
The other project I've been working on I absolutely love and am making a second pair.
Wrist warmers!
The scan doesn't do justice to the color. It's closer in this pic:
It's a light sage and does the cables justice I think.
I got the pattern from Wine & Needles. It works up really quick and since I figured out how to do cables I've been in love with them. I think that these will be absolutely perfect for cold days when I'm on the computer and can't move my fingers because they're freezing. I'll just tuck my fingers in to the cuff and voila! It took me about four hours, off and on, to finish the set. Once I checked out how to do the matress stitch correctly (don't ask me why, but books tend to make it seem way harder than it really is) on KnittingHelp.com, I was speeding through them. I used plain Red Heart in light sage for this pair, and I'm currently on the second one of my second set in another Silver Creek wool called Herb Garden (The leftovers from my purse and ribbon hat if you want to go back and look!)
I still have my sweater on the needles, as well as the Bear Claw throw. I haven't done much work on either this week. Between a nasty cold and sheer boredom from working on large projects, I decided to let them go for a week and make a few instant gratification pieces. I'll be going back to them this week in hopes of finishing them soon!
I'm thinking that now that I know how to use dpns and know that if I don't give up after three rows that I can grasp what I'm doing, I'm interested in finding more beginners projects to use them on. I spent ten bucks on my size seven dpns on Friday and I plan to put them to good use!
