Flint Knits

Thanks for all your advice in the Blogthday Contest. If you haven’t entered yet, you’ve got until midnight on Sunday night, so go go go!

I’m still working on the Peacock shawl. And still without lifelines, in spite of all your fabulous advice (dental floss? Genius! I had no idea!). I haven’t had to tink more than 1 row at a time yet, and I am exceptionally lazy. I think these two factors will conspire against lifeline use, until I really muck up and have to do a serious frog — fear (especially fear of more work) is one of the very few things that can trump laziness.

I also got some new Etsy goodies this week.

First, Sandra’s first sale from her pretty, pretty new Etsy shop. The super-chic circle/dot earrings. Thanks Sandra!

And another pair of earrings that StaceyG designed for me, based on my description and a scrawly sketch I sent her. Her shop is also brand new, with lots of stuff listed (I bet she’ll do more custom orders, too, if you ask nice enough).

I love the threaded hooks, which I hadn’t ever seen before — shiny!

And I started a new sock.

It’s inspired by the Herbstlied sweater from the Japanese book New Style of Heirloom Knitting. I don’t read Japanese at all, but the charts are pretty clear — except for the center leaves-and-acorns panel. That one was baffling, until I got some serious assistance from Marguerite — she’s knitting the whole sweater, people.

So I swatched and bungled and ripped and swatched some more, in the superluxe Dream in Color Smooshy sock yarn.

Then I figured out that the DIC, while probably one of the most gorgeous colorways I’ve ever used (Chinatown Apple), isn’t quite right for this pattern. Too much semi, and not enough solid.

So out came the Koigu (I won this particular Koigu in Ashley’s blogiversary contest last year).

I’ve gotten through half a repeat of the front panel, flanked with 4-stitch mirrored cables. I’m going to try Wendy’s toe-up gusset heel, and then continue the panel and cables up the front of the leg. The back of the leg will be the v-shaped lace that you see on the underside of the sleeve, and I’ll top it all off with the eyelet ribbing from the bottom of the sweater.

Not sure how wearable these will be — sculptural element + shoes? probably means squished socks and sore feet. But I’m all for a bit of art knitting now and then.

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