Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Tour de France KAL: Equipment Change

So I had totally intended to knit Green Gable for the Tour de France Knit-A-Long. I had some Farmhouse Yarns Bonnie’s Bamboo all ready to roll, but gauge was not my friend and that project was not to be.

(on a side note, I purchased Knit So Fine at my LYS on Saturday since I found a pattern in there I like that meshes perfectly with the gauge I was getting on the bamboo. But I digress)

Anyhoo, my chain was slipping on that project and I was thinking that a new back wheel would help get me back up in the peloton, but no such luck.

Last Thursday, I walked into my favorite LYS and Michelle, the store owner, twisted my arm (ouch!) and waved my employee discount in my face and FORCED me to start knitting Sprout as part of the store KAL.

I got me some Dream in Color Classy, a yarn I had admired from afar as I wound kits for Tulip and Rocketry all through January and February. Deep Seaflower colorway.


Me likey.

So I jumped on the bandwagon with my brand new “bike.” In the form of some very pretty blue/green/purple yarn. I even found the perfect buttons in the store on Saturday. And here I am knitting along on Sprout!


It looks much nicer in person when it’s not so scrunched up

I started out knitting this on my KA interchangeable set, but the yarn was crocking and turning my beautiful shiny new needles blue. So I switched to my Options set and am cranking right along, cabling without a cable needle and increasing to my heart’s content.

I haven’t given up on socks, I’m just working on a deadly-boring pair at the moment


Yep. Onyx means Black.

They’re for the Hubster, who insists that he’ll only wear black socks. So at least I got probably my very favorite yarn in black. Fiesta Boomerang, purchased on my Oklahoma City business trip.

The only problem is that although I am knitting toe-up in order to maximize every inch of this yarn for the Hubster’s size 11.5 ski feet, I think these socks are going to be significantly shorter than I’d like cuff-wise. Do I?:

A) just stop when I run out of yarn and tell the Hubster he should simply be happy to get hand-knit socks for his gigantic feet

B) Google-fu another skein of Boomerang in Onyx

C) Bust out the Reynold’s Soft Sea Wool in my stash and knit the cuffs in something a little thinner, scratchier but still BLACK?

All opinions welcomed/encouraged. Hurricane Knitters? You get to chime in in person on Wednesday night at the Waterworks Barnes & Noble. Sprout and the Black Socks will be in attendance.

6 comments:

Jenn said...

At the risk of being stupid, what are the KA interchangables?

Sarah said...

Drool! Love that color of DIC. Can't wait to see it in person!

Let me think about the sock issue for a while. I'll try to come up with a genius solution by tonight.

Jess said...

Oh my that color is fabulous-FABULOUS. I am seeing sprout in a whole new light. I think I need to make one.
As for the socks, go with knitting till yah run out.

Jen said...

How about contrasting stripe(s) or edges in the cuffs (I'm thinking RED, or grey would always be man-safe, right?). What do you think? Would he wear them?

Carol said...

Love the Onyx. My husband is always asking for really plain stuff -- the last time he asked me to knit him something, it was basically sweatsocks. You know, in white...

Thanks for buying KSF!!! If I ever run into you somewhere, I will happily autograph it for you.

LaurieG said...

Go for the short socks. There're always situations where shorter cuffs are in order (what would he wear on the beach with his sandals, otherwise? ;)