Sunday, May 6, 2012

Year of Projects: Road to Oslo 01


Knitting on the Road: Canada • Canal du Midi • Conwy • Dalarna • Denmark • Friday Harbor • Hiiumaa • Huron Mountain • New England • The Road to Oslo • Santa Fe • Spey Valley • Christmas in Tallinn • Traveler's Stockings • Uinta Cabin • Unst • Whitby

This blog post is a bit of a cheat, because I actually have no progress to report on my year of projects. After finishing my Santa Fe socks last week I looked through my stash for likely yarns for The Road to Oslo socks. The pattern calls for sport weight and that's got me perplexed. There really is no sport weight sock yarn in my stash. What I am considering is whether I could pair two light fingering yarns and get away with that? That's what I'm going to try, I think.

And while I've been pondering that I've been trying to catch up on the (w)rapped KAL that I'm taking part in. The pattern here calls for Madeleine Tosh DK; instead, I'm using Shelridge Farms DK. But I think my yarn is a bit lighter than the Tosh yarn, because my gauge swatches are knitting up small. They grow after washing, but I've decided to also move up to a larger size. Having sorted that out, the next thing I discovered is that I wasn't doing the banded rib stitch correctly. YouTube to the rescue - now let's see if I can make some steady progress on this without any further drama!

We've been enjoying a couple of days of fabulous weather and as a result everything in the garden is starting to look summery. There's a carpet of blooming Vinca (Periwinkle) in the beds along the back fence, and the Dicentra (Bleeding Heart) has started flowering. It's just too nice to be indoors, so I think I'll head out there now with my little snips and prune the shrubs back into some sort of order. Happy Sunday!

11 comments:

Renee Anne said...

I never swatch. It gets me into trouble when I don't, however.....that's why I had to frog a sock :(

As for sport weight, you could probably get away with two light fingering weights together...I think. I'm not quite sure. You might have to change needle size though if you do that...

I'm not good at that. Oh well.

Emma (GirlAnachronismE) said...

Looks like gorgeous weather, you're very lucky. All we have is rain :(

Anonymous said...

Ahhhhhhhhh...spring has sprung for you.

We are in TOTAL SUMMER --- 90s today and sunny!

Unknown said...

Send some spring along here please, we have rain and cold at the moment lol. Can't help with sport weight but I love you tube for getting me out of trouble with how to.

Wanderingcatstudio said...

Those Oslo socks are adorable.
I had the boys outside briefly today - everything is in bloom - I love it!

Stefanie said...

I can't wait to see what your color combo is for the Oslo socks!
I swatch but think I need to wash and dry them. I used to do the latter, but got real lazy...sigh. But I think it's a must.

WildflowerWool said...

We had nice weather here too. Good luck sorting our the yarn for your projects.

Marie/Underground Crafter said...

I think you should do ok with the two fingering for sport but does that make the fabric stiffer? (When you crochet with two strands together, it does - I haven't tried it yet with knitting so I don't know!)

* said...

Glad the sun is shining for you, it is cold and raining here today despite sun yesterday, no two days the same. It's our bank holiday here, so it's quite typical the weather has changed.

Isn't YouTube fantastic, it can get you out of many a scrape I find. I have no idea about weights and gauges, not my strong point!

Frieda said...

Isn't YouTube great for knitting help! I do much better learning a new technique if I can see a demonstration . That is such a gorgeous shade of blue for your
(w)rapped !

We had fabulous weather here as well . Apparently it's back to rain tomorrow . Oh well , the gardens need water so we'll take just acouple of days of wet weather , but no more , ha, ha .

Kate said...

ha, don't worry, I write blog posts about no progress alarmingly frequently these days. Get outside and enjoy the sunshine!