Sheep Shots

That last little bit didn't take long, did it?

Now we proceed to the gusset to decrease back to the same number of stitches we started with. You should have 56 stitches on your three needles and will be decreasing 2 stitches every other round until 36 stitches remain, thus:

Next round (decrease): K across needle 1 to 3 stitches from the end, skp, k 1. K across needle 2. K 1, k 2 together, k to end on needle 3.

Next round (work even): k around.

Tip: I find that it helps to put a small safety pin at the beginning of the round as a reminder to me that "hey, you're staring a new round!" Ring markers don't work on double points.

Repeat these two rounds until 9 stitches remain on needles 1 and 3 (36 stitches total--the same as you started with!) You will have worked 20 rounds. Stitches will look like: 9-18-9 with the 18 stitch section being the top of the foot. If you get to this point and you have 10 stitches on one of the needles, just decrease on that needle only on the next round. (It happens, all the time!)

Tip: If you have trouble remembering whether the current round is a "decrease" or an "even," keep a coin nearby. Turn it over at the end of each round: Heads, it's a decrease round; tails, work even.

Note: The skp and k2 tog are known as "paired decreases" since they sort of "mirror" each other. Skp leans to the left; k 2 tog leans to the right. We'll use the same decreases (where they'll be more obvious) at the toe. K2 tog at both points will accomplish the same thing, it just won't be as purty.


Homework for the weekend: Continue knitting in even rounds (no increase or decrease) until sock is nearly as long as you want it. (In my case, I continued until the length from the back of the heel to my needle was 9". The toe decreases will add a scant inch to the length, so don't scrimp!)

We'll pick up the lesson on Monday with the toe decreases and finishing.


Lopi update: I made a little progress yesterday on my Lopi cardigan. Okay, I confess to keeping you Gentle Knitters in the dark. I polished off both sleeves earlier this week and joined them to the body of the sweater yesterday. Knitting fat yarn on size 10s goes a lot faster than knitting worsted weight on size 5s! And while I generally prefer lighter weight knits, this sweater is planned as "outerwear."

You can see that I started the yoke patterning. I decided that I like the high contrast of the navy against the cream, so I'm saving the lighter blue to use as the "minor" contrast. This is exactly the way the designer planned it, but in reverse since I am using the light cream as my main color (model in Lopi #12 shows the sweater in black with cream and light gray as the CCs).

I would love to say that I will be knitting my weekend away, but it won't be happening. Today, we sadly remove the air conditioners from the bedroom windows and store them away for another winter. :sigh: And I really, really need to clean because I hear that the Health Department has received a complaint from one of the neighbors. (Neat freaks!)

I may even cook real meals! And do laundry.

And then, there's a football game when I can knit. . .

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Labels: knit recipes