Girl Who Knits

Well, I am done.  Weaved the last end in Sunday afternoon.  Take a look:

I'll start by saying I like them.  I love the pattern, like how the colors turned out, and really enjoyed the process of fair isle.  You can feel it coming though can't you?...the but.  I guess I just have a hard time accepting that I am not an expert fair isle knitter on my first try.  You can tell by looking at the picture that not all the stitches are even and I mentioned in a previous post the errors I made on my first stocking. 

I did knit the second one a little different then the first so it would fit better.  I knit until the decreases on US 3's and then switched to 2's for the rest so it would be more form fitting on my lower calf, ankle, and foot.  I like this much better.  I also knit a shorter heel flap since it is too long on the first stocking.  I think I have a short heel because that was the same problem I ran into with the first sock I ever did (and never finished the second pair of because I was too new to knitting to know how to adjust a pattern.)  Here is a close up of the better stocking:

One thing I still need to do is add elastic to the ribbing at the top.  I am not sure how to do this but they don't stay up well on their own and I am hoping elastic will solve that problem.  The big question I need to ask myself is this: is it worth it to re-knit the first stocking to match the better-fitting second.  Really, they don't look that different—they just feel a lot different.  But is it worth it? 

I still haven't blocked them and I am thinking that and the elastic will make a big difference in how I see these so I am going to withhold judgment until then.  Honestly, I don't want to re-do it so I am hoping I don't feel compelled to. 

I did finish but I can't help feeling my Olympic dreams were not exactly as I pictured.  You would think that to earn a gold medal it would be my best work—the pinnacle of my knitting achievements.  So I was a bit down when I finished because I just didn't feel that was the case.  And then yesterday, while wearing my newly finished stockings and watching the Olympics wrap up, I heard something eerily relevant.  A commentator was saying that often Olympians do not give their best performances for their Olympic medal wins.  Not that they don't try their best but that an olympic medal performance isn't always their career best.  I worked so hard and spent so many hours over the last 16 days on this project that I think I am going to look at it in this new way.  I tried my best, it was a project that was an accomplishment to do in 16 days for me, I learned a new skill, and I finished.  All this makes me a gold medalist and I am happy and proud of me. 

I am also proud of sister/roommate who is also working on these babies and finished her first stocking this weekend.  I am not going to write about how embarrassing it must be for her to have one finished when I have finished two.  We all work at our own levels. 

I will leave you with the obligatory stocking with shoes picture:

I would have given you an outfit shot but I am wearing a bathrobe in all these pictures.  It was a nice look. 

I am not sure if my title relays the kind of doom I feel about the foot of my stockings.  Regardless, I am feeling it.  I have finished one stocking (and am about half way through my second) but I am thinking about fixing the first which will make my Olympic Knitting that much more impossible.  There are several things that are bugging me about it:

1. The stitches are not even.  I don't know if that is a fair isle thing or a two handed knitting thing or a "it is not blocked yet" thing.  But it bugs me because...well, it is not perfect.
2. The ankle/lower calf portion is a little big.  Darn my skinny ankles (okay, I don't really mean that because I am actually vain about the parts of me that are delicate and petite—I am allowed because I had to endure people calling me big when I was an impressionable teenager just because I was 5'10 living in Hawaii.)  But still, I think I should have switched to 2's for the lower calf and ankle portion to make it more form fitting.  The bagginess is really only apparent after I have been wearing the socks for a minute but do I really want to be constantly pulling the stockings up to give it a more form fitting look?
3. I messed up the pattern...slightly, but still messed up.  Stupidly, I rearranged some of the stitches on the needles earlier after a dropped stitch.  When I got to the heel flap I forgot about this and did the heel flap with the wrong stitches (about 2 stitches off from the pattern.)  These pictures are a little old since I have now finished but they help demonstrate:

Right side of foot:

Left side of foot:

You see?  See how the right side has 3 lines bordering the instep pattern and the left has one?  It is all wrong!  I know it might not be a big deal to some people but it drives me crazy!  I continued on and finished the stocking thinking I would get over it but upon further reflection (and if my second sock turns out much better) then I am going to frog the first to the decreases and do it over.  Now the question remains...can I finish the perfected stockings before the games are up? 

For Norway produced a style of knitting that is giving me such pleasure.  Here is my Olympic knitting update:

I love these stockings so far.  Love them.  It makes me happy to knit them.  Now, I have not been the perfect fair isle knitter.  Learning to knit with one strand in each hand has been a challenge and combine that with fair isle on double points—some of my stitches are uneven.  But for the most part I am pleased with how they are turning out.  I started on the heel flap last night—I figure I have to finish the first one by Saturday in order to finish my project by the deadline.  I can taste the gold medal. 

So I am off to a bit of a slow start.  Perhaps I can be one of those Olympians who starts off rocky and then comes up from behind.  I have to say though, for my first time Fair Isle knitting, I am really quite enjoying it.  I love watching the pattern take shape.  Also, I had to learn how to knit continental style which feels really awkward but I think will be worth it as knitting with a strand in each hand should go faster.  Actually, it is already feeling more natural.  I think I am liking the colors although admittedly navy is not normally my thing.  I am getting pretty excited about how it is turning out.  I figure I have to finish the first one before this weekend in order to complete on time. 

So I finally took pictures of my Stained Glass scarf:

I learned double knitting for this scarf which I actually think is helping me with learning fair isle knitting.  I used Artyarns Supermerino in Deep Brown (113) and Teal (120) and US 7 size needles.  I made a few alterations—it is a little shorter then the pattern called for and since the yarn is thicker then the recommended yarn, I did not cast on as many stitches.  The best thing about this scarf is how so soft the yarn is.  I am happy with how it turned out.  Here is a better picture of the colors and one that shows the front and back of the scarf:

I tell you, it is fun to have a finished object.  It makes me want to get my act together and finish several projects that I am so close to being done with.  But first, my personal olympics must be won.