No Knitting Content Today...

Being the proud Mom, I just have to share some photos of this milestone..........

  

Sorry for the lack of a post the last few weeks, and further for no knitting content this date.  This week's excuse is that a) I had a cold and didn't do much knitting and b) I've been pre-occupied with DD's college graduation and the holidays.

Happy Holidays!

Fair Isle Mitts

It's can be hard to find just the right shade of pink yarn. Recently I bought the perfect fuschia color of Cascade Heritage at The Loopy Ewe and was looking forward to making some socks for myself.  I was having a fun time deciding if I wanted to design a pattern or use one of the other patterns I'd been admiring, like Clessidra or Bayerische, maybe even Baudelaire.


My daughter was to home to visit and I said isn't this the nicest shade of fushcia?   She said, 'oh that would be perfect for those gloves you promised to make me'.....so much for my fuschia socks.


This pattern: Classic Elite Nederland Opera Mitts by Mary Jane Mucklestone


We decided I would use shades of gray for the fair isle patterning and conveniently I had just purchased cream, gray and dark gray sock yarn (Pace by Universal Yarns) at the Kirkwood Knittery.


The pattern is written for worsted weight yarn, so I adjusted the stitch counts for fingering weight. Instead of 48 stitches as given in the pattern, I used 72 sts.


She didn't want the gloves to go past her elbow as shown in the pattern, so I figured using the same number of rounds with fingering weight should end up just the right length. She is tiny and they are longer than I anticipated, but she seemed to be pleased.

Finished Shetland Shawl, etc.

The Flower Scarf pattern has been downloaded over 1,000 times and there are 51 Flower Scarf projects on Ravelry -- that is amazing to me.

Joann made a second Woven Diamonds Faroese:

The shetland style shawl is finished. Why did I call it 'shetland style'?  I began with a cast of one stitch for the center section, increased one stitch every row until the center square reached it's full diagonal width, decreased one stitch every row until 1 stitch remained; picked up stitches all around the square placing markers at each corner and knit the first border, the second border and finally the edging increasing at each side of the four corner stitches every other row.

As I wrote in an earlier post I couldn't decide on an edging for this shawl.  Most of the other shawls I have made have a sideways edging (this type of edging is knit perpendicular to the body of the shawl and attached to the live shawl stitches once for every two edging rows).  A sideways edging is very stretchy since there is no bind off; ideal for a shawl. However, it takes a very long time to work even if it's fairly narrow.  I was getting tired of working on this shawl and decided that in this case it would be nice to work an edging that could be bound off.

Also, since the center and first border stitch patterns are very angular, I felt that the rest of the stitch patterns needed to be more rounded/softer so I settled on four repeats of Horseshoe lace from First Treasury of Knitting Patterns as a second border.   Then I chose a simple edging from Knitted Lace of Estonia that I worked for eight rows before binding off.

I've been forever looking for a good looking loose bind off option.

I've read in several places on the internet that the following is a stretchy bind off:

'*knit two together through the back loop, place resulting stitch on left hand needle, repeat from *'

But I don't find that to be stretchy at all; every two stitches are being reduced to one stitch making it even less stretchy than a regular (knit two, pass the first stitch over, knit the next stitch, repeat) bind off.

I was excited to find the solution in Knitted Lace of Estonia, the bind off above needs one step added in order to be stretchy....like this:

knit 1, place stitch back on left hand needle, knit two together through the back loop,

*knit the next stitch, knit this stitch and the previous stitch together through the back loop; 

repeat from *.

Also I modified it a little by substituting 'knit 1 through the back loop' rather than 'knit 1' which seemed to lay a little flatter.

It took nearly two hours to bind off approximately 600 stitches but even so the whole procedure took less time than a sideways border.

Deborah (Rogue Knit on Ravelry) is an awesome lace knitter and her knitting is gorgeous.  She thinks the key is in the blocking (she is an excellent knitter to begin with but careful blocking does make a huge difference in the look of the finished lace).  Deborah wrote a most informative post on her blog about her method of blocking and since I was just about out of Eucalan, I took a short drive to the nearest Walgreens (what is it with Walgreens anyway - there are six of them in the City of O'Fallon which has a population of 76,000) and bought the Pantene (even had a dollar off coupon).  It certainly smelled better than woolwash.

The shawl measures about 50" square and could have been a bit larger, but it's close enough. I'm pleased with how it turned out although I'm not in love with it yet - it takes a while until I love my finished objects - I know that I am my own worst critic, but I think that after spending so much time on a project I'm tired of it and need some distance before I can go back with a less critical eye and think 'that's really nice - did I 

actually do that?'

This and That...

Crochet Cardigan

Stitch pattern is called 'Marguerite' from one of the Harmony Guides,
worked in Brown Sheep Cotton Fine.

Design is my own.

I really like how this turned out - it drapes and fits really well (obviously my mannequin is way smaller than I am) - I will probably actually wear this sweater.

Still in Progress: 
Garter Stitch Yoke Jacket, finish is pending: one sleeve, buttons, blocking.  Worked in reclaimed Reynolds Mandalay (100% silk).

This might be fun to do in a self striping yarn ?

An experiment to see how a yoked sweater would fit (i.e. can you raise your arms) and the answer is - probably if you don't make the yoke way too long like I did.........

Step Into My 'Office'......

I spend most of my time knitting in my 'office' (that's what DH calls it) - everything I need is within reach other than the 'library' which is approximately 10 steps away in the next room.

Cozy sofa....with laptop accessory:

Task lighting (could use improvement) with communications devices /table almost always littered with work[knitting]ing tools:

Lantern Moon 'file cabinet' for needles, notes, rulers, markers, etc.:

Basket of   UFO's:

Additional Filing Cabinet (at any time contains a multitude of stitch markers, pencils and sock needles):

Library:

Magazine collection:

Etc.

Also in progress a pair of socks designated for my sister in Jojoland.

Started a Shetland Tea Shawl in two colors, already scheming how to change the edging and last section of 576 stitches/38(?) rows.

I'm still working on the gray beret, trying to get it to come out like the one in my mind and still have it work as a writable pattern that would make sense to someone other than me......

Finished Faroese shawls, Blocking shawls, a Cabled Tam Design

Regina (Rubicon on Ravelry) finished her Woven Diamonds Faroese...I think it turned out stunning!

She made a couple modifications to the pattern, if you are on Ravelry her notes are here:
Rubicon's Woven Diamonds Faroese.

I failed to show a photo of Fran's Woven Diamond Faroese. Fran was the first one to work the pattern - as a matter of fact she was the one who admired my blue one and encouraged me to write it up.

You can see Fran's shawl on her blog here: Fran's Woven Diamonds Faroese

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I am working on a shetland style shawl design in Jojoland fingering weight wool. I have yet to find just the right edging so I have put this project on hold as I await Nancy Bush's new book, " Knitted Lace of Estonia " I'm hoping that there may contain an edging that will work or a stitch pattern that will inspire me to create an edging. In the meantime I blocked the shawl to see how the size is working out and to determine how wide the edging needs to be.

I used to block my shawls on towels laid over the carpet in the spare bedroom (which was once my sewing room and has since become the stash room). However, we have a little Yorkie named Buddy....

who was making a mess of the carpet when no one was looking and had to pull it up.

When we did that I could see that I wasn't helping the situation by blocking on it. Sometimes I spray my shawls with water to re-dampen them once they are pinned out, and that was also leaving water stains on the carpet backing.

Recently I found some interlocking mats at Big Lots (I also saw the same ones at Tuesday Morning).

I bought two sets at a very reasonable price. They seem to work great for blocking, I can pin into them and still shift the whole surface around if I need to. The wrong side of the mats is smooth. They did have a very strong rubber smell when I first opened the package but that seems to have dissipated.

Last year I took a fair isle hat class at Kirkwood Knittery taught by Brooke Nico.

I wasn't too fond of the result on my first attempt, so that that first hat lives at the shop. I had much better luck with my second design and also made matching fingerless gloves (background is brown shetland wool and the patterning consists of many different pieces of leftover variegated sock yarns).  Not one to wear hats, I found that I really liked the way this one looked and it didn't smash my hair too badly.

To block this tam none of my plates were the right size (of course not); instead I made a 10" diameter circle out of cardboard and covered it with plastic wrap.  Stretching the tam over the cardboard form, I threaded a piece of waste yarn through the edge of the ribbing (this works great if the edge is worked with a tubular cast-on) and drew it up into a small circle.  This was much better than using pins to keep the hat on the form while it blocked.

         

The last few weeks I've had an idea for a cabled tam inspired by the celtic cables in Viking Patterns for Knitting by Elizabeth Lavold and the patterns charted by the girl from auntie for her awesome designs.

I worked a few swatches and a prototype just to see how cables might work:

I bought a skein of Classic Elite's Alpaca Sox at Knit and Caboodle to use for the actual tam in a soft gray color. Next I worked a portion of the stitch pattern as a fingerless glove to determine the gauge. Then I played with the stitch pattern in excel for many hours to decide on the best way to work it. Finally I cast on and knit, this is the result:

It didn't turn out exactly as I'd pictured it, still deciding if I ought to publish it or not - leave a comment and let me know what you think.

Ravelry Love...

Ravelry is fun, fun, fun - the more time I spend there the more I like it.  It's a knitting party 24/7.  

I love seeing everyone's finished objects. My favorite part of the Greater St. Louis Knitter's Guild meetings has always been the portion at the end called 'Show and Share', one aspect that I love about Ravelry is that it is like a giant Show and Share! It's very inspiring to see what people are working on.

It's really been inspiring to post the Flower Scarf free pattern (download it here or here) - I am fascinated that it has been downloaded 373 times and favorited 243 times to date and there are 17 posted Flower Scarf projects listed - very cool.  Susan (I'm Knitting As Fast as I Can) is knitting a Flower Scarf and at the same time working on continental style knitting - I have visited her blog before and admired her patterns - so it's fun that someone I 'know' (is there term for that?) is knitting my pattern.

The Woven Diamonds Faroese has been favorited 67 times and several copies of the pattern have sold in my Ravelry shop (MakeOne's Ravelry Pattern Store).   Regina (Rubicon) is working on the Woven Diamonds Faroese - she chose the prettiest color yarn - can't wait to see how it turns out.

Ariel Socks have been favorited 41 times.  Nancy (Knitarooooo) is making Ariel Socks and posted a nice comment about the pattern on her Ravelry project page.

It's fun too to review my friends 'activity' page.

Plus there is an amazing amount of information in the forums.

And with over 7,800 groups there is a group for just about anything one could think of.

Gotta go back to Ravelry now and get my fix....

Bad Blogger

I am a bad blogger, I know that I  should write more often.

Excuses, excuses:

1. Some days I think what could I possibly have to say that would be interesting and hasn't already been written about.
2. Other days I have so many ideas on what to write about that rather than choose one I choose none.
3. Most days I'd rather knit than blog.
4. Also I'm lazy.

I hereby resolve to be a better blogger.


What have I finished recently?
As a rule I prefer to have no more than three objects in process, usually a pair of socks, a larger project such as a sweater or a shawl, and a third project which could be who knows what.  If I have more UFO's then that it feels like I will never get anything finished and they only thing I love more than starting a new project is finishing a project (I get bored in the middle obviously). 


Right now I have no socks in progress. 


The most recent (probably in the last six months) socks that I finished are these:

      
               Ariel (pair #2)                                                                     Ariel (pair #3)
Plymouth Yarn's Happy Feet, color no. 4.                          J.Knits SuperwashMe Light
This yarn was actually too heavy for this pattern             
and this pair is a little too big.
                        
Unnamed                                                                      Unnamed, Stranded
German Herringbone stitch pattern                   Regia Silk (dark Brown)
Fortissima Socka Disco3 yarn                                    J.Knits SuperwashMe Light (cinnamon)
                                                                                          Variegated that I think is Schoeller Stahl

Plain Old Plain Old
Berroco Sox

I already blogged about the Nordstrom's knock-off sweater which I finished in June 2008.
This tank top was finished in August 2008. I love the flat cables (they are not actual cables but instead are made with increases/decreases).  The stitch pattern is in 'The Big Book of Knitting Stitch Patterns'.  However, when I swatched the pattern as given in the book it was severely biased:

       

The reason is that it is only shown as increasing in one direction.
I rewrote the chart so that the 'cables' alternated one left/one right which eliminated the bias:
The yarn is Classic Elite Premier (cotton/tencel) that I've been wanting to use for a project for quite a while and although I loved knitting with it,  when worn for the first time the yarn left fuzzies all over me and I could feel it getting longer/stretching all evening.
Last Spring (not sure exactly when but I am sure it was too warm to wear by the time I finished it) I finished this sweater  (The solid color is an alpaca yarn and the variegated is a handpainted sock yarn):

It took a couple weekends to make a quilt for my daughter.  She wanted the numerous sorority t-shirts that she had amassed made into a blanket.  This photo was taken before the actual quilting took place, it took several days just to baste it.  I tried to avoid basting but I should know better and had to rip out my first quilting attempt.  I now remember why I only ever made one quilt before, and I don't plan on making any others any time soon.  I know it looks upside down - I should have shot the photo from the other end of the table.

What am I working on now?

This shetland shawl design in Jojoland Fingering Weight wool.  Still need to decide on the edging:

Top down garter stitch cardigan inspired by one from Victoria's Secret (see earlier post).  The yarn is Reynolds Mandalay, 100% silk, no fun to knit with at all.  This yarn had a previous life as another sweater that I never finished as noted in an earlier post.

A crochet cardigan in Brown Sheep Cotton Fine.  I thought this would be a nice change of pace and would go more quickly than a knit cardigan, but the stitch pattern I chose (marguerite) is slow to work and I'm struggling to keep an even gauge.

I've been admiring these sweaters where the cable goes around the yoke:
Tahki Stacy Charles Zara Cabled Tunic as seen in Interweave Knits; 

Lion Brand's  Cable Luxe Tunic


Armed with knowledge from an article in The Best of Vogue Knitting Magazine by Meg Swenson titled 'EPS Revisited' and inspired by this charted cable pattern from the girl from auntie as well as Viking Patterns for Knitting by Elizabeth Lavold, I have been swatching for a  cabled yoke cardigan design in Brown Sheep Sport.

This cable will be worked sideways around the yoke with  a narrower version at the cuff.  After reading Meg's article I came to understand that in a circular yoke only about 1/2 of the yoke involves increasing (if working top down) or decreasing (if working bottom up), the remainder is knit even to the armhole - now I see (lightbulb moment) how the sweaters with the sideways cable work.

Well that was quite a long post - took hours to do, my own fault - I vow to try and be a more frequent blogger!