2 Colorful Socks and an Anticipated Cast On

The latest pair of Skew socks are off the needles!  And, I did manage to slow down and enjoy the process instead of rushing to get to my next project- the Bill Cipher sweater.  My sock model was sick in bed so I pulled out my sock blockers to take photos.  Unfortunately, the blockers are for medium feet and these socks are for an extra wide size 9.5 foot but at least the foot shape is apparent.  🙂

Finally producing a swatch for the new sweater was loads of fun because I got to try out a new technique- instead of a one stitch intarsia for the vertical stripes, I used a column of purl stitches and a crochet chain instead!  You can find more info on the technique here.

You can see in the pic that the tension comes out nice and even.  And, it looks better (to me) than a duplicate stitch.  Plus, it’s waaaay more convenient and uses far less yarn than trying to color strand to produce the design.  Here’s a peek at the back of the swatch (below).  You can see that it’s fairly neat and tidy.  Overall, I’m thrilled to have found a way to pull off the brick design at the bottom of the sweater with minimal discomfort.

In between my knitting, swatching and sweater designing, I discovered the most delightful beads to transform into stitch markers for my Etsy shop.  Who wouldn’t want to keep track of their stitches with alien heads or hula girls?!?  My current go-to stitch markers are turquoise skulls but I’m thinking about switching it up.  🙂