janestarz | Long-awaited knitting update post

It seems like only yesterday I was posting about the Crocus top every other day, but I blocked it nearly three weeks ago already. Time flies.

The next thing I picked up was the one pair of socks that was still on the needles. I started on these socks during our holiday in France in March, just before the pandemic took hold. The gauge (9 sts/10cm) is pretty tight, making for an excellent pair of socks and slow knitting and sometimes, sore hands. The pattern was easy enough to memorise and before I knew it, they flew off the needles. I just needed a week of dedicated time to finish these, they were stuck at the first heel but now they are done!

Only after finishing did I read the pattern properly, and as it turns out the back of the leg has a different chart than the front! I'm not going to change it now, these are done and will be a gift, hopefully before the end of the year.

For a frantic day or so, I was without a single project on the needles. They were all bare. Naked. Unused. Neglected. WOEFUL.

Soon enough remedied! Quick swatch, and then I cast on the Pumpkin Ale as my next Big Project for myself. It has cables.
It has many cables.

I had forgotten how much work cables are, and of course I have never done cables on my Hiya Hiya sharps. Apparantly the sharps are a little too sharp to easily switch two stitches around, because you're more than likely to just split the yarn instead of neatly poke into a loop.
Also, intricate cables surrounded by garter stitch means that only the cabled stitches have to be purled on the wrong side. The rest of the stitches are knit on the wrong side. You HAVE to pay attention.

This was not the week for paying attention. But apparantly, it is the week for brioche. Yay for muscle memory!

Instead of empty needles, I'm now working on TWO big projects.

The Solstice was frogged earlier this year because the brioche gauge is so vastly different from my stockinette gauge. I can start in the smallest size for the shoulder yoke and only switch to a larger size around the bust area. And it's going fast, hassle-free and I only had to fix three stitches until now -- without breaking the brioche pattern.

I realise I can't escape the cables altogether. If I want a Pumpkin Ale cardi, I'm going to have to work my way up that intricate back panel. But I'm happy to have a much simpler project on hand for the other nights when I don't want the hassle of cables.