Lazy weaving in for circular knitting

So a few years ago I saw how Pamela Grossman took care of her tail in her pattern Knucks and I've modified it over time to work for me.

For some patterns holding the working yarn and tail over several stitches can alter the look and function of the garment, especially with thicker weight yarns, so what I do is to hold both yarns together for 2-3 stitches and then drop the tail and finish my round with just the working yarn. On the next round I knit the first two stitches making sure to include both the working and tail in each stitch then I pick up the tail again and knit 2-3 more stitches and then drop it again for the remainder of the round. I do this for 3 or 4 rows and then cut my tail.

Here is my crappy photoshop rendition of this technique.












The red is shows the stitches in which the tail is incorporated.

It's lovely to finish a garment and find that you don't need to work in that tail. It also leave a really nice edge .



















I've used the darker purple bars to show you the stitches that have both the working yarn and the tail knit together. See how well it blends in?

Swirling

I've got so many projects on the brain and not nearly enough time to accomplish them all. I generally only allow myself to work on one thing at a time or perhaps two if I need something simple for the car.

I'm knitting Cable Rib Socks with some lovely Starry in Cocoa Kiss. For big socks they are coming along quickly.

The other night I miscrossed a cable and was convinced I could drop down and fix it without ripping back 8 whole rows. So I undid the errant 9 stitches and dropped down one row below the mistake. I picked up and corrected all 8 rows of the first 3 stitches (without a crochet hook too because I don't have one small enough for fingering weight) but then it came time to do the cable. Things got hairy. I might have cursed a few times but I kept going. I ended up making a mess. Much worse than just leaving the cable alone and knew I was done for. I set the sock down knowing that I really couldn't work on a cabled sock with black fingering weight yarn in the low light of evening.

I needed something simple so I did a gauge swatch hat. Nice and Easy. Just what I needed to fortify me. See, I need some confidence because I'm making a cardigan for the 7 year old and I'm steeking it. I've never steeked before but I really hate knitting flat.

I'm using Diane Soucy's pattern from Knitting Pure and Simple and I think I've got a plan. I even made a swatch so I could practice steeking (which failed as it unraveled at the edges so I clearly need to make another). I'm both thrilled at the idea of cutting my knitting and also really freaking scared.

I also bought yarn to start this as soon as I can.



I'm in love with it!

A, B, C, V...

I really wanted to make Ivy a sweater for the season but didn't want to have to buy a new pattern (and also it wasn't in the budget) but I remembered that years ago I made a V-neck sweater as a tester for a pattern that never was released. I searched high and low for my copy in our old computer back ups and through the myriad paper stacks of printed patterns I've got stashed here and there. I couldn't find it. Then I remembered that other people had been testers too. I contacted Abigail and she emailed me a copy. I cast on immediately.

In one night and two days I had this completed






















Pattern: WonderFaux Sweater by Pamela Grossman
Yarn: Blackberry Ridge Merino in Kaledescope Medium Weight Grapes on the Vine
Needles: #7 16" and DPNs
Mods: Added ribbing to the waist and cuffs and didn't do the faux cable on the side (it really is ingenious though for those cablephobic folks)

I've completed a few other things too. I made a dishcloth with the Chinese Waves pattern in a night of Lost watching.















It's pretty long though so it's more of a dish towel...or something.

I'm getting ready to cast on Boheme. I don't actually have enough yarn to finish it though. I'll either make it shorter or hope I come up with some other magic solution.