Entrelac Socks

I'm back!  So sorry for the long wait.  My motherboard truly was fried due to a faulty video card and I had to completely replace the machine.  My computer guy was telling me about all the recalls HP has been doing lately, so I decided to go in a completely new direction and am now the proud owner of a brand-new Asus!  So far it runs great and I couldn't be happier.  All my data is loaded in and I am back in business.

 In the interim, I got a whole lot of knitting done.  The entrelac socks are finished and blocked, Moebius Cowl and Hat are done (but not yet photographed--too hot!), I finished a quickie lace pullover, the February Fitted Pullover (also waiting for a cooler day for a photo shoot), and made some excellent progress on my Myrtle Cardigan.  I'm really excited about Myrtle.  It's going to be in a lovely dark teal alpaca/merino blend and (hopefully) will be pretty.

I'm also pretty excited about these entrelac socks, too.

The pattern is by Eunny Jang and I used two of the ~2 million balls of Palette I have in my stash, these were Teal and Hyacinth.  The only modification I did was to make them much shorter.  The original pattern resulted in knee-length socks, but I knit these up to mid-calf--because that's how high my snow boots go.  Awesome, yet practical.

The hardest part for me was knitting them from the toe-up.  The Turkish cast-on was really difficult to wrap my head around (har har) and took a great deal of frustration and cursing before I finally got my first toe going.  The second time was much easier.

After that, at least for a while, the entrelac was really fun to knit!  Even though it looks like woven bands of knit fabric, it is nothing of the sort.  You actually knit each square individually in short rows, so a finished tier looks something like this:

And then the inside looks something like this:

See?  No weaving and the only sewing is sewing in a couple of ends.  Waay easier than it looks, but it does get a touch tedious toward the end.

Kitty update:
The Good News: Everyone is getting along great!  They are playing and wrestling and generally having a good time.  I do, however, think Arty feels more comfortable with Branwen than she does with him.  I've seen him try to rub his head against her or snuggle and she shies away, confused and agitated.  I don't think she's quite figured out that she can have kitty friends in addition to her human friends, but Arty remains as cheerful (and purry) as ever.

The Bad News: Poor Arty may have ringworm.  I am supposed to hear back from the vet today, but we're pretty certain our little kitty has a fungus.  It's not life threatening, but he seems itchy and we'll have to give him medicated baths to get rid of it, yay...  I haven't seen any signs of it on Branwen, though--thank goodness.  Giving her a bath would be terrifying.  Here's hoping it doesn't spread and it's easy to eradicate...

And here's hoping it doesn't spread into my stash...


Next time: February Fitted Pullover by Amy Herzog

Cheers,

-Allie