Wednesday, July 17, 2013

WIP Wednesday - My first attempt at double knitting!

I've got three things on my needles again this week... well, more than three to be honest, but three that I'm actively working on!

In order of casting on...

First a surprise for my husband. He's been SO good with enabling my yarn addiction (hmmm... ;) ), so I figured I'd knit him something in return. He's not really a knitwear person though, so I had to think up something good. The result was these socks... now, I can only show you the back since I don't want to risk spoiling the surprise should he come across this post, so while this may look like a straight-forward, plain-vanilla stockinette sock, from the yarn ends coming out from the top, you can see that something else is going on on the other side... ;)
I'm not entirely sure how to proceed after this first sock though... I have no way of knowing whether they'll fit him or not, so do I knit on, hoping for the best? Or do I ask him to try on the first sock, spoiling the surprise a tad too early, but preventing myself from having to knit the second sock in vain? (they are rather fiddly to be honest). Ah well, I still have the rest of the first sock to go before I have to make any kind of decision.

My second knit is a test-knit that I just knew I had to sign up for the minute I saw it - a musical score in double knitting. Granted, I've never tried double knitting before, but I wasn't going to let a tiny thing like that stop me! ;) It's so much fun seeing the patterns emerge!
As you can see I haven't come that far yet. It's slow-going, as I have yet to fully master the art of knitting with two yarns at the same time - they keep twisting up on me. I've been searching youtube to see if there's some kind of trick I'm missing, but it seems like it's just a practise, practise, practise thing. Fortunately it's a nice and long deadline - I don't have to be done until August 15th, which means that as long as I do 4 rows a day on average, I'm fine. That should be doable :)

Finally, my last WIP is always my very first internationally comissioned piece! And it came at a perfect time. DH and I were going on a road-trip last Sunday, and I needed an appropriate WIP to take with me. The socks were no good obviously, as that would definitely spoil the surprise, and the double knitting was just too cumbersome to bring along. But these adorable Llama Mittens fit the bill perfectly, and I pretty much finished the first one while on the road!
I'm still working on the cuff on the second one, so nothing interesting to show there yet :)

So that's my projects for the week. As usual I'm linking up with Tami's Amis.

5 comments:

  1. All great projects and I am impressed with your skills. The musical score in double knitting is stunning, I love it!

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  2. KEEP ON KNITTING!
    I really like the yarn...and patterns..musical fun.
    Always a fun morning on WIP when I can peek in and see what everyone is up to.

    With All That I Am
    Carrie - The Handmade Homemaker

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  3. Lots of lovely colourwork going on. I'm guessing your husband's feet are a dramatically different size than your own? I can usually guess if socks will fit Gavin if they're a bit looser at the heel and a bit wider at the front of the foot. As long as they're approximately the right size, they'll fit - between the stretch of the yarn and the need for negative ease, you're probably okay!

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  4. Great projects.
    The musical score looks awesome, good job :)

    Have you tried comparing the sock to one of your husbands socks. Okey that sounded strange, but you know what I mean. It should give you some idea of how they'll fit him when done.

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