Friday, April 13, 2012

Man Things.

Knitting patterns for men are normally no fun to knit. They take longer than an equivalent pattern for me, because of the size difference. They're almost always some sort of very plain stitch, normally stockinette, which again wouldn't be so bad if they weren't so big.

That being said, I have some men in my life that deserve some hand knit goodness, so I cast on a couple projects this week (yes, I already know I have a lot of things on the needles).


The first project is a pair of socks for my dad. I've only knit socks for him once before, but they ended up being way too small. I decided the next pair I knit for him had to be all sorts of awesome. I'm using the Java socks pattern from Knitty, which is a conservative-looking pattern, but a bit more interesting than average because of the tiny cables.


The second thing I cast on this week is a sweater for Jose. Now that he's Husband Jose and not Boyfriend Jose, I no longer have to worry about the infamous sweater curse. I'm using a DROPS pattern that I chose because (1) it's free, (2) it's a bit fitted, and (3) is done on size 4 needles. Being in Texas, I don't think Jose would get much use out of a sweater knit with aran weight yarn, so I thought a nice sport-weight yarn would get a lot more wear.

Being on size 4 needles means it is going to take forever, though. As you can see in the picture above, I changed the pattern to be knit in the round, and I'm still only on the ribbing (which is done on size 2 needles). It's my goal to get this done by November-ish, but it might not happen.