Breaking the stall

I'm almost done with the second sleeve on Ropes and Picots. I think I will finish it after dinner tonight, and if I have the motivation, weave in all the ends on the sweater and maybe even block all or part of the pieces. (Blocking will depend on how they fit on my blocking boards. I have 9 square feet but I don't think that will be quite enough for all pieces in one go).

I haven't even thought too hard about the "next" sweater, even though I have a lot of them stacked up in my queue. I do want to get more done on Basketweave before I even think about starting a new one.

I also pulled out a long-stalled project yesterday and started it up again. As I said before, this is one of the things I love so much about knitting - you can put a project aside if you get bored with it, or if it frustrates you, or if something else grabs your attention - and if you keep halfway decent records of where you stopped, you can pick it right up again, weeks or even months later.

I got to thinking about working on socks again, and I pulled out the Little Ice Age socks. I had done one full repeat on the front when I put them aside; now I've done half of the second (and final) repeat on the leg:



It's a twisted-stitch pattern so it takes a while. But now I can go a bit faster since I've sussed out the logic of the pattern, I mostly see what is going on with it.

The back of the leg is subtly different:



I love how these kinds of socks look but it does take me a long time to get them done. (And interestingly, several of other sock patterns I have stacked up? Are also Rachel Coopey patterns, these being ones out of Knitting Now and the free Brit Knits book that came with an issue of Knitting Now. One thing I have to say I like about the British knitting mags: It seems that every issue they have a couple of women's sweaters, a project for men, a project for kids or babies, a shawl, a hat or mitts, and a sock pattern. So there's more of a something-for-everyone feel. I wonder if knitting socks is even more a part of the knitting world in the UK than it is here?)

(The "new" Knitting Now - Issue 11, I think it's actually not the most recent issue; we have to wait a few weeks for the recent issues to come over here - has a "vintage" theme and also an "all natural fibers" theme and there are some really lovely Art Deco inspired things in there, including a pair of socks...which are now in my mental queue - inspired by the Wolsely (which I presume is a building) in Piccadilly. I also really like the "Scarab" shawl in that issue, and if I do get out for a yarn-jaunt on my October break, I may be looking for some DK weight to make it with. AND there's a cute shrug made out of sock-weight yarn that I might just make for myself - I have a nice black and white houndstooth knit dress, but it's a wee bit clingy and I find I am more comfortable wearing a little jacket over it, to cut down on, shall we say, the "figurehead" effect. Last time I wore it I wore a little pink bolero that came with another dress - a bolero cut looks so much better with it than a longer jacket does. I actually felt rather Penny Garcia the day I wore that combination, and I mean that in the best possible way.)