Two Scarves and Some Socks

Yesterday I finally finished a pair of socks I've been working on for about 5 months and wove in the ends to a scarf that I spent just 2 days on.

First, here are my July Mystery Socks.  It was a great, easy pattern and I love how the heel was done!  They are toe-up with a short-row heel, but also have a gusset.  It really cuts down on the awkward holes from a straight short-row heel.  As you can see from the WIP Post for these socks, I have been working on these for months!  I got distracted by making gifts for people and put them aside.  This week, though, I finally finished!

 

 Here is a close-up of the pattern.  The repeat for the main pattern is only 4 rows, so I was able to memorize it and didn't have to keep looking at the chart (yay!).  I decided to make them short socks because I live in California, and wool socks are almost always a little warm anyways!

 

Here is my 2-day scarf!  I used some handspun that I made during the summer and knit it up in garter stitch on size 15's.  Here is a post about the Mermaid Handspun.

The whole scarf.  As I had intended, the yarn knit up in long stripes of color.  Each of the colors was hand-dyed by me, so this scarf is truly handmade from start to finish.

 

Right now, I am working on a new LARGE project... The Beekeeper's Quilt!

Neverending Scarves

Scarves are great!  I can actually wear them in mild California (all those people dealing with snow get to knit endless hats, mittens, gloves...there's only a few weeks out of the year that it is cold enough to wear those).

But.

They take forever.  I knit socks a lot, and they probably have the same amount of stitches, if not more.  Socks are interesting, though.  You've got the toe, the foot, the heel, and the ankle (I like my socks toe-up) and are always just a few inches from the next bit.  With a scarf, though, it's one thing.  Over and over.  With no end in sight!

At least that's how I'm feeling about this scarf...

It's about 3 feet long now, which means I want to try to double the size still.  The entrelac is looking really cool, at least!  I'm using Patons SWS in Natural Garden, and it's got some great colors in it.  I'm usually a cool-colors person (bring on the blue and purple!) but these browns and tans are a nice change.

This weekend, I am attempting to get at least another foot done.  Wish me luck!

Double Knit DNA Scarf

I wanted a new knitting project to work on, so I designed my own DNA scarf.  I'm making it with the double knitting technique, which means it will take twice as long as a normal scarf!  I'm usually the type that gets about 6" into a scarf and gets bored, but hopefully I'll power on through this one. 

I made a double-knit scarf before, which had the numbers of Pi on it, so I know I can beat this!  The technique takes some getting used to, however, since you have two strands but they can't wrap around each other.  I've been using one hand for each strand, so a combination of throwing and picking!