My afghan's getting bigger

It's April Afghan Day! Here's the Carol Adams square. I didn't feel a need to tinker with the pattern, except to start the patterning with a wrong side foundation row.



Here's a nifty variation on the Kf&b increase that I've been using on these squares for the get-out-of-garter stitch increases. First, reverse the stitch mount (if necessary) so that the left leg is nearside. knit the back leg, then the front leg (Kb&f). What's the point? When worked on a RS row, it makes the little bump hunker down deeper into the fabric. Also, if you sneakily choose your increase points so that those new "bump stitches" become the bottom of purl stitch columns, they blend in with the scenery even more.

Orts

I've been especially unfocused in my knitting lately - and for me, that's really saying something. I have no pictures because I keep ripping everything out! I started the Cabaret Raglan from IK Spring 2004, but Stockinette Tension Weirdness quickly set in. My purl stitches generally tend to be larger than my knit stitches, but on this project the opposite is true. Whassup with that? Maybe it's something about the cotton knitted tube structure of the Reynolds Cabaret. But then the Manos Cotton Stria arrived for my Perfect Tee class sample, so I put the Cabaret Raglan aside. This yarn is a lot like knitting with chenille because of its bumpy structure. I had to use needles two sizes smaller than I customarily would to get gauge. Then, halfway up the back, my tension changed. So this had to be ripped and reknit.

As a result of all this stockinette, I got it in my head to try controlling the tension for purl rows with my thumb. I'm pretty infatuated, but I've got to swatch properly, and then I'll report.

I had to start a new sock project because I was going to a classical music concert and needed something on wooden needles (no clinking). So I cast on Cookie A's new Stricken socks, but I've ripped them out at least twice now. First I misread the chart; the second time, I decided I really needed to make the calf more shapely, since the biasing and the twisted stitches interfere with its stretch. And I only got a couple of inches into her Mingus socks before bailing on that too. I'm going to start over and convert this to toe-up so I can control the fit more easily.

There are a couple of bits of good knit-news: mercifully, whatever was ailing the gauge of the Sea of Despair Socks seems to have straightened itself out, so the second one has a heel now. And I got my own copy of Principles of Knitting! I swapped my spare copy of Alice Starmore's Stillwater for it. Hurray, Ravelry!

Oh, and I cast on Nancy Bush's Estonian Socks yesterday for No Good Reason At All.