One Up, One Down

This may be a long-ish post -- it has been a busy week for knitting (by my standards, anyway.)

I finally finished the second mitten of my daugther's "beret and mittens" set (just in time for summer!) I'm not sure why I had thought mitten-knitting was so tedious when I did the first one. The second one took three evenings to knit. And if I had bothered to write down the measurements ("begin shaping when...") when I knit the first mitten, I could have saved myself at least one evening.

I knit it with Patton's Classic Wool, found at the local craft store. OK to work with, but I don't expect it to be very durable. Daughter loves the hat because it is BLUE like her eyes, and because the big fat tassel bounces so distinctively when she tosses her head. She likes the mittens because they match and because I haven't made any for her brothers.

So with three recently completed projects, I felt entitled to go off in search of new yarn. Specifically, cotton-rich sock yarn -- I want to knit a pair of Jaywalkers. I have some perfectly suitable wool sock yarn, but I can't wear wool until November if I'm lucky and no way am I waiting until November to wear a pair of socks.

I found some self-striping 45% cotton sock yarn on Saturday and stayed up until the wee hours swatching. And then casting on. And then finishing the ribbing and then knitting a few rows in the pattern so I can get an idea what they will look like. On Sunday I slept in.

For the swatches I had two purposes -- first to test gage, then to practice a tubular cast on. I have never mastered a tubular cast on -- I lose count on evens/odds, and it all falls apart when I stop to figure it out -- but I was determined to make a neater-looking sock top. First swatch, with 2mm addis, tubular CO, with 2 rows of tubular rib. The cast on went perfectly with the 1x1 rib but felt a tiny bit firm, so for the second swatch...

I tried Montse Stanley's advice for a "softer edge." On 2.5mm addis, tubular CO, and straight into 1x1 rib with no tubular rib. I know I used larger needles, but the edge looked disproportionately sloppy.

After swatching, I concluded that the 2mm addis were the right needles, and that there was still enough stretch with 2 rows of tubular rib, so I pulled out the Jaywalker instructions, eager to proceed. And...Jaywalkers start with an inch of 2x2 rib. I debated for a while -- follow the pattern, or switch to 1x1 rib? In the end, as you can see, I opted to stick with the pattern, and I used my trusty old two-strand cast-on. So far I am pleased with results: