I just realized that I am, in fact, not ready. I have my awesome double-knit scarf for the Longhorns games:

Wouldn't this be great in your team's colors?

But I do not have a scarf—or any other knit item—for the Houston Texans. At least that should be relatively easy to find the right colors, because, man, it was tough finding a true burnt orange for the UT scarf. The one above uses Vanna’s Choice by Lionbrand, the Rust color description on their site even says “deep burnt orange”. Ordinarily I never would have bought Vanna’s Choice (really, Vanna White? All acrylic yarns?) but I have to admit, the end result is pretty damn nice, I do love wearing this scarf.

A knitter friend who is a graduate of University of Miami also had a tough time finding the right orange and green for her team colors (apparently orange is a really tough one). I need to set up a page that matches yarn colors with team colors. Here it is so far:

University of Texas (burnt orange): Vanna’s Choice—Rust

I know it’s short, but hey, project is now started. Got any suggestions you’d like to add for your team? Let me know and I’ll include them.

Anyway—the pattern itself is good for a quick gift or first lace project. The lace leaf stitch has a wavy edge to it, you can block it out in points so it looks a little like it has a lace edging on it without the effort of actually knitting a lace edging.

But that’s not fair, I like the concept of a cute, little bit of sweater. Not so much that it’s like a true cardigan with buttons and all, but with at least some hint of a front on it. So I call this the Cardi Shrug, it’s not really a cardigan, but not only sleeves like many shrugs. And I couldn’t really think of anything better or more accurate to call it.

I only wrote one size, because I’m being lazy, wanted to get it posted, and it’s really not that tough to resize. If you just wear it open as a shrug, I think it’ll fit a surprisingly wide range of sizes. My bust size is about 36, and it works fine for that, anyone smaller could wear it easily, and sizing it up a bit would be easy. But hey, if you want more sizes, say so and tell me what you need. I could expand the pattern if anyone wants, honestly I wasn’t sure what other sizes I should try for.

Anyway, I’m working on yet another top-down sweater-shrug thingie. I love top-down sweaters since I can measure and adjust as necessary. But this time I decided to go for a loose stitch, which means extra drapey, and also means more stretch to account for. But ah, how much, exactly? Who knows? The Yarn Harlot even just had a blog post recently about gauge and how it generally should be kept appropriate to the yarn weight and not loose. And then I go and flout that perfectly reasonable advice and start another loose-gauge project.

Bleah, I just hate gauge!

I’d be very interested in hearing opinions—positive or negative—about whether you own an e-reader or expect to own one in the relatively near future, and if you think you would ever use it for knitting patterns. Anyone?

She asked me to crop her face out, so I gave her a Hello Kitty face (ha ha!). Anyway, this year apparently the lacy knit and crochet tank cover-ups are all the rage. I’m sure the clothing companies have been watching us because they know how awesome we are. They should pay close attention to this shirt, I just got one and I think it’s the Next Big Thing.

I’ve seen lots about the Fibonacci sequence online, but they generally only explain the sequence itself and leave it up to you to figure out how to actually apply it. I try to demystify it in the pattern and give a clearer demonstration of how to use it to make up a stripe pattern.

Also included in the pattern is a chart for tracking which stripe and repeat you’re on. I worked hard to make the pattern very user-friendly and helpful; and as always, if you want any extra help all you have to do is contact me, and I’ll give as much support as you need.

The pros:

They’re generally straight-forward. There are some wildly complex patterns, but most socks have a fair bit of easy knitting combined with some interesting bits.

They’re almost a sure-thing gift. If the recipient doesn’t care for the color or style, they’re socks. They can still easily get use out of them, even if it’s just slouching around the house or wearing while walking the dog.

They’re a sure-thing for yourself. As long as you get even vaguely close in size, this is something you will definitely be able to wear. Not like that bulky-weight novelty yarn sweater you have stashed in your closet that you admire sometimes but only actually wear once or twice. Or the sweater that you ended up getting rid of so you wouldn’t have to keep feeling guilty that you never wear it (and it didn’t fit right anyway). Or the lovely wrap that you don’t use because wraps can be such a hassle. Etc.

Fine gauge means more knitting for your money. Generally, you get more knitting time out of finer gauges of yarn, and projects often cost less.

The cons:

They’re socks. Which will typically be covered up by shoes and pant legs, making it tough to show them off. It’s really not common that anyone is going to say, “Oh wow, look at those socks you’re wearing, did you knit those yourself?!” Come on, you know you want that to happen when you wear your own knits, admit it!

You have to make two of them. Which can be soooo tedious! Oh sure, you could use double-knitting to knit two at once on the same needles. Ha! It ain’t the fastest method, since you have to move both yarns back and forth between the needles for every single stitch—not too bad for some things, but socks tend to use a finer gauge and take long enough as it is. Using a method that makes it even slower doesn’t seem like the best solution to me. And god forbid you twist the yarns on accident, there is no way to fix that except to rip back to the point where they’re twisted; unlike a double-knit hat or scarf the socks will be absolutely useless if they’re joined together, so you have no option but to rip back, you can’t just let that one go or duplicate stitch over it to hide it. IMO, the best way to avoid second-sock syndrome is to knit both at the same time on two sets of needles, it’s faster than double-knitting and it ensures they’ll be just the same and finished at close to the same time. But still, tedious.

Fine gauge means they take a long time. Fine gauge has its own pros and cons, it costs less, but it takes longer. If you knit a lot, no problem, but if you don’t get in a lot of knitting time you may not want to spend your precious few hours on socks. You can use a heavier gauge and knit heavier socks, but you might get less practical use out of those (though if you like really heavy boot socks and wear them often, you’re in luck).

You’d better get the gauge exactly right. As they’re so small, fit is probably more crucial and exacting on socks than just about anything else you could knit. So you’d better swatch well. And you’d better be knitting at the same tension the entire time, too, if you relax more with the second sock you might well end up with a slight bit looser tension resulting in a larger sock.

And finally…

THEY’RE SOCKS! Seriously, what’s with the sock obsession? There are so many books devoted to them, websites, Knitty puts out several sock patterns in every issue, for crying outloud. Srly, you guys; you guys, srly.

Now someone come and club me over the head before I actually cast on these funky-fitted socks from Knitty. This was actually what spurred this entire rant, I know I’m going to end up starting them, and I’m going to hate them while I’m knitting them, too. Damn you, Knitty! [shakes tiny fist]

But hey, I can always find a use for them once they’re finished, right?

I really tried hard to write the grafting directions well, but PLEASE let me know if you have trouble! I’m always eager to help anyone with any questions or problems, I very much want you to enjoy the patterns and knit them successfully.