Saturday Stash

It's going to be a quality not quantity stash offering today.  This is newsletter week and that is compounded by the need to create some annual reports, too. My life is not all knitting and picture-taking - as much fun as that would be.

So, I've finished a little cardi for the craft shelves.  It's the same pattern as the last one but with more weird color changes going on.  I thought I had enough yarn but halfway through the sleeves I had to quickly find something that would fit in with the overall color scheme.  Yes, I did have a plan when I started but it soon went wrong.  So, a green-ish gray was added after the elbows.  The button band and collar are also striped.  I kind of like it though.  It has a tough-guy attitude. 

I also love this sock pattern.  It is really quite fun once you get going on the 'fish-scale' pattern.  The charts take a bit of work, though.  There are several versions and five different charts for each sock with three size variations.  Then to add to that there are left and right versions.    I was rocking along quite nicely when I stopped short.  Where was the stitch key to the chart? The designer used some unconventional symbols and I couldn't find them anywhere.  I searched Knitty for help but in the end I just went with what I could see should happen.  I kept puzzling about it until I had an 'aha!' moment: I looked at the same chart in the first size.  Yes!  How dumb was I not to think of that before I pulled everything out of the internet drawers looking for the right answer.  The upside was that my intuition paid off.  It was all smooth clicking after that.  One down; one to go! 

Those who voted on the flecks vs re-dyeing the socks question will be pleased to know that there is a majority of three for keeping the flecks.  I always like it when the easy way is the best.  Thanks!   And thanks, too, to Deb who gave me my lovely wee circular.  I would not be having near as much fun with this pattern without it.