Socks and Squares

I’m currently juggling three knitting projects: a pair of tabi socks for my daughter, and a new genre of knitting that I’ve recently learned, called modular knitting, more commonly referred to as mitered squares. The third project is a washcloth of my own design. I’ve been adding on projects on an as needed or “I’d like to learn and create this” basis.

I thought it was high time for me to learn how to make mitered squares. I’ve seen many a beautiful blanket made from them. I really like the visual effect that they produce, the way the squares meld together, along with the continuous lines of mitering throughout the work. To learn the technique, I used the tutorial from The Knitting Squirrel . I’d had it bookmarked on my browser for a long time, finally got around to the lesson, and I’m happy that I did 🙂 Now that I’ve got a set started, I’ll just add on from there. Here’s how it’s looking so far:

Next up is the pair of socks I’m making for my daughter. I’m test knitting for my tabi socks pattern at the same time, so two good things going on at once. Practice makes perfect, we’ve heard it so many times, and it still holds true. Progress pic:

Last but not least, I decided to save money and make my own washcloth. I’ve had the cotton yarn for awhile, I got it on clearance, it’s Lion Brand Cotton. I just found out that it’s been discontinued, I don’t know when, but it was, so it’s collectible now, but yarn was made to be made into things, so I began on a 3rd project:

I’ve never been a fan of knitting with cotton, however, I’m giving it another chance, and in doing so, developing a new approach specifically for this material. I’m casting on more loosely, and knitting more loosely, with less automatic thread tightening while knitting. Cotton just doesn’t need that kind of attention, it doesn’t have the stretch of wool. I’m finding this to be the solution to the main problem that cotton presents in knitting: it’s lack of give. Now that I’ve figured that out, it isn’t the chore it used to be. Thanks to Nothingbutknit for reminding me to revisit cotton knitting again.

And that’s it: Socks & Squares, my latest 3 projects on the needles.

Take care and thanks for reading 🙂