All About The Knitting, for a change

As promised, this post is All About The Knitting. Besides the fingerless gloves, there has been progress both forward & backward on a few other projects.



I finished the body of my striped mohair cardigan. The shoulders got sewn up yesterday, & I picked up the stitches for the first arm this morning. The sweater is in reverse stockinette, so the arm is turned inside out for ease of knitting. At this point, it almost looks more like a flying saucer.







I'm starting the heel flap on my very first pair of top-down socks. Also pictured is the beginnings of the hat which I mentioned in this post.



As far as the backwards progress is concerned, it seems that I once again am inspired by Ann.



My Icarus Shawl was turning out more like a parallelogram than a triangle, & I was having doubts about the yarn's ability to cooperate with the severe blocking needed for such lace. The yarn is Cleckheaton's Studio Mohair 8 ply, which has quite a bit of acrylic in it. I decided that rather than continuing on & hoping for the best, the yarn would be better served becoming something different.



My daughter helped me turn my Icarus in progress back into a ball of yarn.





In looking for a solid color of Cleckheaton to become the edging of Icarus, I came across a couple of possibilities, along with a pattern book specifically designed for sweaters (Well, actually, Jumpers & Cardigans by Australian terms.) with this yarn. I've decided that the variegated yarn will be the sleeves for the sweater pictured here, & the body will be solid in either of the other possibilities.





Originally I was thinking the blue, but the blue in the variegated is a much more muted color, as opposed to the brilliant blue of the solid yarn. I'm thinking the other pinkish-brown color will be my final choice.