First the Hem

Viking Sweater first, then the summary of the year.

Why? I am interspersing knitting with updating webpages, sock pages and filling of boxes for the post office tomorrow.

Viking Ship Sweater

Facing plus start

It isn’t the officially correct way to knit a Scandinavian Sweater – but it works for me.

After looking at the pattern and deciding where on the chart would make the best merge row, I did a provisional cast on (merino/tencil sock yarn leftovers are wonderful for this) and knit six rows for the facing side of the hem.

Next a picot row. Next, another row of white, then the four pattern rows. And the four pattern rows, and the four pattern rows… You see, I do this portion flat to avoid sewing and I really wasn’t paying attention. The Vs face outwardly in the front and the back. The first time around, I just knit them all in the same direction without looking at the side locations or the center back. The second time, well, I just made a couple of mistakes on the purl back row. And the third time, I only had to take part of it out. Four times is the charm.

Facing plus start

After another row of the white, I was ready to bind the two sides together. Transferring the facing stitches to a circular needle, I got three stitches done and thought my fingers were going to bleed. Deciding to be a bit smarter – I transfered them all (alternating one front, one back) to the main needle before starting the merge.

Putting together

Since I was matching two white rows – the colours lined up well and my fingers are starting to recover from the sharp points.

Putting together

From there, it was around and around and around for the pattern on the bottom.

Starting the border

After doing a repeat – I decided that I was going to need three sets of blocks rather than two in order to have enough length.

First Border repeat

Measuring – it looks like I made it 9 cm on the first white ball. After the third, looks like I will need to make a choice as to whether this is going to be a sweater …or…..turn it into a vest. And it will look a lot better as a sweater.

Knitting

A small start on the handwarmers for Nina. Silver glitter woven into grey yarn with red beads.

Start on Nina's handwarmers

Socks

As far as I can tell – I knit 45 pairs of socks this year, all adult size, 38 of which count for the 52 Pair Plunge. That means that I have 18 pairs to knit prior to 1 April when we close out the year. I think I can manage, but most of them will probably not be terribly fancy. And I have more than enough yarn on hand – trust me on that. If you want to see the collection please go here.

As far as the rest of my projects for the year, I need to update that page since it is only current to April. Just didn’t get there today.

Audio Books

The Cat Dancers – P.T. Deutermann.

May you have a safe and great New Year.

-Holly

About Holly

fiber person - knitter, spinner, weaver who spent 33 years being a military officer to fund the above. And home. And family. Sewing and quilting projects are also in the stash. After living again in Heidelberg after retiring (finally) from the U.S. Army May 2011, we moved to the US ~ Dec 2015. Something about being over 65 and access to health care. It also might have had to do with finding a buyer for our house. Allegedly this will provide me a home base in the same country as our four adult children, all of whom I adore, so that I can drive them totally insane. Considerations of time to knit down the stash…(right, and if you believe that…) and spin and .... There is now actually enough time to do a bit of consulting, editing. Even more amazing - we have only one household again. As long as everyone understands that I still, 40 years into our marriage, don't do kitchens or bathrooms. For that matter, not being a golden retriever, I don't do slippers or newspapers either. I don’t miss either the military or full-time clinical practice. Limiting my public health/travel med/consulting and lecturing to “when I feel like it” has let me happily spend my pension cruising, stash enhancing (oops), arguing with the DH about where we are going to travel next and book buying. Life is good!
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