Completing Knitting Projects

Today I spent a good chunk of time working on the socks that I've been  making. I turned the heel, which is always the most challenging part for me. It's a relief to have both heels completed.  Now it's smooth sailing. I can zip through straight stockinette on the foot. I keep hand written notes of the other socks that I have made on my sock pattern. On them I write down the type of yarn, the shoe size,  and the number of rows that I knit for the foot. I also record the size needles that I used. If I'm knitting on tiny circular needles, I use a half size larger dpn's for the toe. This pair of socks is for a woman who wears a size 7 shoe.  My mom used to wear the same size, and I knit her several pair of socks when she was still alive. We would always discuss how they fit. Since I'm a size 9, I try on the sock, and then start the toe decreases an inch before they would reach my big toe joint. It's nice to be able to custom make your knits. With store bought socks, I always used to just buy the one size, that fits 9-11. They look small compared to these, and fit tightly. Hand knit socks are so much nicer, I think. They are really special. After wearing the first pair that I had made myself, I knit a pair for every day of the week. I also give them as gifts to friends and family.

Yesterday I finally figured out where I was going wrong with the window pane stitch. I had written in my notes to knit on the purl side, and pearl on the knit side.  (for the final rows in the contrasting color.)  I had also listed it as two rows of garter. That's why I kept having trouble. It was actually one row of pearl on the pearl side, and then another row of pearl on the knit side, in the contrasting color. I'm not used to making something like this without a pattern. It sounded so easy. When the woman who taught it to me offered to write out the pattern, I told her not to worry about it. That was a mistake. I learned the hard way that there are several critical details. One was to start the pattern section on the purl side.  Now I understand it, and can duplicate the sample blanket that I was given. It felt so good to finally fix my mistakes. I was really agitated and upset about it. I just could not let it go, and kept going back and trying to fix and re-knit it. I finally succeeded.

This afternoon I set out my knitting projects on the coffee table, because I have been avoiding that blue vintage sweater. It's the one out of the lovely silky wool that I was given. My stitch count on the front ended up being incorrect, because I forgot that the front of the sweater has more stitches than the back. I will have to rip it out and fix what was wrong. I'm putting it in front of me so that I will be motivated to work on it. It's always worse in my mind when I need to correct an error on a sweater. Seeing the shape and design again  makes me realize that it's too pretty to neglect. It's been sitting for two weeks in my knitting bag, which  makes me feel guilty. I can always start with the sleeves. That will get me inspired. Sleeves are easy. These are short and ribbed.

I received a few unexpected and kind messages from old friends in the past few days. There may be some exciting opportunities in the works. You never know what the future holds, especially when you've worked in show business. I feel lucky to have met so many wonderful, talented people.