Fearless Fibers Yarn

New Sweater Plan Underway … and, of course, more socks

As those of you who read my prior post know, my plans for a Fair Isle sweater are on the backburner and I’m re-allocating that yarn to a different sweater project. The new sweater is now underway and I can share a rather poor-quality picture of the progress-to-date. The knitted fabric is very curly at the bottom, so that’s the edge of my laptop holding it down for the photo. Blocking should resolve that when the time comes.



The stitch here is a simple slip-stitch combo, with two colors in play at a time out of the total six colors. I chose this stitch pattern for a few reasons. First ... well … I’m just a fool for slip-stitches! Also, I like the idea of having a sturdier knit at the bottom of the sweater. In this case, I plan to carry it all the way up through the midriff to the point just below the armholes where the “bodice” section begins. It won’t be form-fitting, as a ribbing would be, but the stranded nature of the stitch pattern gives the knitted fabric a firm and structured feel so it will have more shape than stockinet or many other possible stitches. The slip-stitch pattern and small vertical columns of color also help to draw the eye in a vertical line to counter the effect of the horizontal striping of the colors. That's appealing to me as I try to mask my pear shape.

When I get to the bodice, I will switch to stockinet and move in horizontal stripes of color. The change in stitch will give the sweater a bit of a blousing effect at the top and the horizontal stripes of the bodice should combine with the finer detail and vertical look of the lower section to create more of that slimming illusion that I need around the middle. At least that’s my theory and I’m sticking with it!

In addition to beginning this sweater, I also have a new pair of socks on the needles. They are going to be, in my opinion, rather hideous. Just plain ugly.



The socks are for my mother as part of a Christmas pack (I’m hoping to have six pair for her this Christmas). This pair is made of my sport-weight superwash merino. It’s a bit heavy for socks, but she likes to have thick, warm socks to keep her feet toasty during the cold Pennsylvania nights.

The socks are particularly ugly mostly because of the odd ribbing I chose. I used a 1X1 ribbing for the cuff and then switched to a 2X2 for the top side of the remainder. I decided to go with a 2X2 ribbing rather than simple stockinet body because these heavier weight socks seem to have more of a tendency to stretch out and so I thought a little extra ribbing might help with that. Regardless of how they look, they will be warm and cozy for the winter and if I really do follow through with my grand plan for six pair for mom, I will have plenty of other opportunities to make something prettier.

In fact, I already have one other pair done. I knit them some time ago, with no real plan for who would receive them, so I'm using them to jumpstart my plan my mother's Christmas pack. I need all the headstart I can get! These are cashmere. They are far less practical than the pair I’m working on right now and really just for occasional wear or perhaps bed-time only, as cashmere won’t wear terribly well in the long haul if cooped up inside boots trudging through the snow!



There’s more to the plan for my mom’s Christmas sock pack, but I’ll save that for another day.

What about you? Have you started knitting any holiday gifts yet? What’s on your sticks?