Thaw

Busyness elsewhere has begun to abate (hooray), leaving me enough time to start a Malabrigo March project. It seemed apropos to cast on Spring Thaw by Cat Bordhi (in Knitter's K91, Summer 2008) worked in Malabrigo Sock, colorway Lettuce.



Ordinarily this much twisted ribbing would make me crazy, but Cat's designs are so absorbing that the aggravation is minimal. Although I have my limits – I'm knitting the sock cuff down rather than toe up to accommodate my Frankenfeet.

Alas, the irony is that no sooner do I start on Spring Thaw socks than the weather forecast is for heavy snow. Le sigh!

Sweethearts

Queuing sweaters for NaKniSweMoDo but not casting on any has had its consequences, not least extreme pent up startitis. When I finished one of Juta's Stockings, I immediately cast on another sock as recommended. Excuse the muddy photo, it was raining (and freakishly warm) yesterday.



Gentle readers may observe that while tradition expects the second sock, the newcomer is a Sweetheart sock by Chrissy Gardiner. Sweetheart uses a modified staghorn cable similar to one on a sweater in queue – it's pretty in fingering on a sock but (surprise) I'm thinking maybe not so much in heavy worsted on a sweater.

   

A second surprise is I'm knitting exactly to pattern. At first I thought the 84-st cast on would be 'way too big, but the highly embossed cables draw in so much that every last stitch is needed. The front and back of the sock are delightfully different from each other (click to embiggen).

Inspired by the origami tree at the Natural History Museum, I folded some hearts for the Knitters for Obama holiday card swap. Thank you, Liana, for coordinating this excellent swap! There will be more pix of swap goodness to come.



I learned the origami heart as a money fold; these half-square hearts have a pictorial tutorial here. My teacher learned it from Toshi Ito, Lance's mother. So that's me > my origami teacher > Mrs. Ito > Judge Lance Ito > O. J. Simpson, back in the news. Strange.

DH noticed all the busyness with patterns and paper, looked sad, and demanded a mansweater. Sigh. Manknits have a decidedly poor history chez Jersey Knitter: the man mitts are put away "for later," the manly scarf is the "wrong size" and is hibernating until I can bring myself to ::cough:: frog it, and the cabled vest similarly got no love and really should be frogged. Sigh.

I've queued a his-n-hers design, Pine Tree Pullover and Pine Tree Cardigan by Linda Cyr (in VK Winter 1996/7), but I'm pretty sure additional resources will be needed stat. I'm thinking of adding Knitting for Him by Martin Storey and Wendy Baker to the modest library – suggestions are welcome.