No Sock Knitting

The weather is normal for this time of year: misty and overcast in the morning, then the fog burns off and the sun comes out. I've been getting the itch to knit more than socks. Being able to see all of the great projects others have made in Ravelry has been an inspiration. It's also been a distraction, leading to less knitting time than usual.

I also got some great books at the Knitpicks 40% off sale that I might not have purchased if they hadn't been such a good deal. The best one so far has been Top Down Sweaters by Doreen Marquardt. I learned to knit by making a top down circular sweater in Berella 4 acrylic, so this one was right up my alley. The construction techniques are quite different, involving lots of provisional cast ons and three needle bind offs.


I started the cover sweater, using some Silk Garden yarn I had in my stash, but decided to make it a vest instead of a jacket. This is the back of the vest, where the 3 needle bind off joined the two side pieces. The fronts are also mitered rectangles, with a raglan yoke holding everything together.

My top down cotton lace top is on hold because I ran out of yarn once again. I was using some vintage stash yarn from an eBay find, so there was no way to get any more. I decided to add an edging in a different lace pattern, using some pale pink fluffy yarn held together with a fingering weight ecru cotton to achieve the same gauge. It's just enough different in color and texture to look like a design feature instead of an afterthought, and not too high contrast so it doesn't cut me off right at the worst place. However, I ran out of the fingering weight cotton yarn before I ran out of the fluffy pink stuff, so I need one more skein of that. It was one skein of Rowan Cotton Glace which a friend donated. I'm going to buy some Paton's Grace at Michael's to sub for that. The color is slightly different, but since I'm using it along with the fluffy pink stuff I think it will be okay. The only picture I have just shows the yoke, but it's almost done.