Beckle Speckle’s Zany World

Friday was my birthday.  DH got me two watches – one that I asked for (an indiglo watch where the face lights up) and another fancy watch ( a Bulova because he wanted me to have a nice watch, too), and a wonderful card with handwritten letter inside.  He almost always writes me a letter inside my cards and it reminds me how very glad and lucky I am to have him.  He is a sweet, smart, and handsome man who is as quirky as I am.  LUCKY ME!

Something has just clicked for me this summer regarding socks.  It used to take me months (really!) to knit a pair, but now they are much quicker.  I knit one pair in 2 weeks.  Maybe it just took me some time to feel comfortable with the construction and such.  Anyway, here are the latest – for DH, but I modeled them in my Mary Janes.

the specifics…

Pattern: a ‘messed up’ version of the blueberry waffle (alternate knit rows instead of putting them together)

Yarn: JaWoll aktion, used 63 g with 27 grams remaining

Color: 132.0203

needles: US2 (knitpicks) magic loop one at a time, toe up

Mods: Other than messing up the actual stitch pattern, I used a slip stitch Queen Kahuna heel and toe with a 9 stitch cast on

In other knitting, we had bought some yarn (Manos de Uruguay) while in Buenos Aires.  DH picked out a color for a scarf.  I was going to make him the Irish hiking scarf, but the yarn was too thick to use the pattern as written (scarf would be way too wide).  So, I turned the pattern on the side, used 4 repeats and with a moss stitch border between repeats…

Particulars:

Yarn: Manos de Uruguay, 2 hanks, used about 1 + 2/3

Needles: US 8

Pattern inspiration: Irish hiking scarf

Mods: cast on 171 stitches and worked scarf sideways – 4 repeats of the Irish hiking scarf cables (3 cables = 38 stitches each) interspersed with 5 stitches of moss stitch with 2 stitches of garter stitch at the very end of each side

Finished size (blocked): 8 inches by 59 inches

Yes, I cast on 171 stitches even though I hate to cast on – I used the crochet cast on and made sure to keep my stitches TIGHT.  It seems to have worked.

In other news, the grandparents (my parents) came for a visit – first in over a year.

I looked in the books I have and have come up with this list (no internet searching yet):

Cable

crochet over needle/chained

crochet chain

loop/E-wrap

backward loop (is this the same as the twisted loop?)

knitted

long tail/continental

invisible/provisional/waste yarn (are these really all the same?)

English #1

English #2

twisted loop (is this the same as the backwards loop?)

old Norwegian

1×1 rib

tubular

picot

And I didn’t even type in the “circular” ones I found in my books.