Miscellany

Jared has a new collection out. It works like a one-man Twist Collective: you thumb through the book on-line and buy individual patterns. There’s an “infinity scarf” – a “snood” in my new vocabulary – which I’m much taken with.

And I liked a pair of patterned socks which Zite offered the other day. I thought again of Kristie’s system – fancy socks as Knitting; plain socks for the emergency bag. Normally in Zite, an item moves further and further back in the magazine for four or five days, and eventually falls off the end. But occasionally an item vanishes before its time, and that’s what happened to these socks.

I clung to what survived of my memory of them, and google’d “sailor’s knot sock pattern”. Google got it in one, although the socks are actually called “Angler’s Loop”. I wondered again how we managed our lives, before Google. I’ve downloaded the pattern. I love cables.

And by the way, if you follow the link above to Kristie’s blog, you’ll see her in a beautifully-knit example of Kate Davies’ Boreal pattern, with link to the pattern. Kate most kindly sent me that pattern. I’ve printed it out, and it’s on my ever-lengthening HALFPINT list.

Which gained two new items yesterday. Helen’s husband David said that they urgently need a teacosy for their house on Mt. Pelion. He suggested that I knit one in the shape of Mt. Ossa nearby (literary/historical reference). I’ve been through five pages of amazing teacosies on Ravelry without seeing anything that looked like a mountain. You’d think it would be an obvious shape for a teacosy. Does anyone happen to know of one? That assignment defeated even Google.

I think the one I liked best on Ravelry was the one that looked like a cricket sweater.

And the other new item on my list is a pair of kilt hose, for Archie. Apparently he will need a kilt in his new role as a Merchiston schoolboy. (I trust David and Helen have calculated not only the fees for this venture, but the multitudinous extras. Kilts aren’t cheap.) I have knit hose for James and Alexander, with fair but not spectacular success. I think Alexander is wearing my effort in the sidebar. James's wonderful red ones are store-boughten. I’d like to try again, remembering the principle of negative ease.

But before any of this can happen, I’ve got to finish that vest a second time. Rosesmama, thank you for the pointer to “Conservative (but pretty) Dad Vest”. I found it, and downloaded. The shape is perfect. The designer suggests making a schematic from an old vest that has the desired shape. I should have followed that simple procedure from the beginning, using the raggedy vest mentioned yesterday.

I was interested to note that several of the vests on the Ravelry Dad Vest page have the fault which drove me to frog, namely too-wide shoulders. One of them even showed the shoulder seam flopping down over the upper arm, just like mine.

I’ve run out of space. Ketki’s socks are getting on fine, and should reach the heel tonight.