lostpurl

I pestered anyone who had the Elann Puzzle yarn in their stash at Ravelry. I have no shame. I pleaded charity knitting, I begged, I threw freezing children into their minds. A wonderful lady LisaknitsinGAanswered me. She was glad to get rid of the yarn and I was glad to buy it. I have the yarn at hand now. I am going to frog the front down to the ribbing. Then add the new yarn so the front and back match. For the sleeves I think I will stick to just the blue on blue sock yarn. And I will be so glad to sew that puppy up. I have till Oct. to get it done.
In the mean time I have been knitting socks for the RavOlympics. These are also for A4A Youth push. Patons Classic Merino in the brightest colors I could find. I am using
stitchesofviolet sock generator. Works like a charm. It is based on a percentage system. Sort of like EZ. I cast on 40 stitches. 1/3 of the cast on amount for the ribbing then the remaining 2/3 for the leg. One third for the heel flap and the remaining 2/3 for the foot. This system will also work on adult socks in fingering weight yarn. The only thing I would do different for an adult sock is to make sure to measure for the heel flap and adjust the rows knitted for that. I knitted the heel flap on the kids socks a bit longer. If it is too large the sock will bunch up around the ankle. But if the heel flap is too short, the sock will pull under the foot and be uncomfortable and wear out more quickly.
The green pair are knit plain. Eye of The Partridge heel stitch, with a garter stitch edge. The toe is a bastard version of round toe. It took me a day to do each sock. But I am a really slow knitter. People are knocking out a pair in a day.



The Hot Pink sock (It is s truly eye blinding pink) is Garter Rib with the same heel as the green pair. I should finish this tonight and cast on for the second one.



Thank you everyone for you suggestions on fixing the sweater yarn debacle. I really appreciate it :-)

I finished the back of the garter knit sweater. As I said before I was using two strands of sock yarn with the Elann highland wool. The carry along yarns are a rather violent mix of yellow, blue, green and red. I am about half way up the front and took a good look at it. The two balls of sock yarn I have left are blue, green, red and white. No yellow. If I had look more closely I would have seen they were different color numbers. But I didn't :(
As a result the front look much lighter and cooler then the back. I don't know what to do. I don't see much chance of finding anymore of the yarn with the yellow. I tried Elann and Ravelry, no luck. I could frog the back I guess. What do you think?

I finished the Patons Upside-Downer sweater. This is the first time it has been sunny enough for pictures. There are many things about it I don't like. Mostly to do with my lack of knitting skills. The pattern is dead easy. My increases do need work.



The next sweater is well on its way. This is Duo I didn't have yarn that would work to the gauge, 4spi. But then Bets came to the rescue. She told me to beef up the yarn I had with sock yarn. This was pure genius. Awhile ago when Elann has the Sock It To Me Puzzle yarn on sale, my DH gave me two bags of it. It has been sleeping in the back of the closet. I dug it out. Two strands of sock yarn and one of Elann HW equal 4 spi for me. Happy dance all around. I tried the sock yarn trick with some HW Chunky, but it was more like body armor then a sweater and it came out too red white and blue. When the HW was on bag sale I got a bag of a lovely violet. Added to that is a sock yarn with red, yellow and blue. It sounds awful. But is knitting up like confetti. The sweater is done is garter stitch, so is thick and comfy. I have no idea why the picture is blue, but trust me it is much more violet. The back is almost finished now.
I am knitting the largest size and added a stitch on each side for seaming up.
The directions call for 4spi on size 7 needles. I am thinking you would need to be a really loose knitter to get that gauge with those needles. I am picturing someone with thicker yarn trying to knit is with those size sevens. And wondering what is wrong with them.