Almeara

In the latest Vogue Knitting (Winter 2008/2009) there is a pattern for a gorgeous pair of gloves, "Almeara", by Jared Flood (Brooklyn Tweed) and an accompanying article about Jared, "All you need is glove".

Here are my Almeara's knit in Elsebeth Lavold Angora which has been languishing in my stash for quite a while.  They were a lot of fun to knit and went very quickly, taking a little more than 4 evenings and less than three skeins to complete.

This yarn is heavier than the recommended yarn (Rowan Scottish Tweed DK), so my gloves are a little bit large and bulky but they are warm and fit over my rings - I love them!

The gloves start with an i-cord cast-on. That is a new cast-on for me and it is very cool.

I am glad to have it in my repertoire and can't wait to use it on future projects/designs.

Before blocking the fingers curl toward the palm since the palm side is done in garter stitch - that makes them look good without even having any fingers inside!

There are a number of errors in this pattern. Also there are a couple decrease rows that I thought could be worked better than the instructions given, although these may not have been errors. Here are my notes, bold/red are the changes I noted to the pattern. I think that most of these were quite obvious and many knitters would be able to make these corrections on their own without too much confusion.

Left Middle Finger

Round 4: k9, p1, k4, p1, k1

Left Thumb - Round 4 was omitted.

Round 4: p3, k8, p8

Right Pinkie

I thought the cables should be reversed:

Row 1: 4 st LC, k2, p1, k8

Row 3: k2, 4 st RC, p1, k8

Right Ring Finger

I thought the decreases should be worked:

[K2tog] 2x, [ssk] 2x, [p2tog] 3x, p1

Right Middle Finger

First sentence... 'work 5 palm sts',

would be clearer if it read: purl 5 palm sts'.

Round 4: k1, p1, k4, p1, k9

Decrease round ends with 8 sts.

Right Index Finger

I thought the Decrease Round should read:

ssk, [k2tog] 3x, [p2tog] 4x, p1

Right Thumb:

Decrease Round should read:

[k2tog] 4x, p1, [p2tog] 5x -- 10 sts.

Maybe in my next career I'll be tech editor.

Looking for my knittting mojo....

Haven't posted for a while feeling that I had nothing to say or show.

A couple weeks ago I was feeling uninspired and couldn't get interested in any of my works in progress or any new projects.

I had decided that the next day I would go to Kirkwood Knittery for some inspiration.

That evening I received an invitation from RogueKnits - she and Brooke had decided to knit the Lerwick Shawl by Sharon Miller and Deborah invited me to play too.

Isn't it funny how things like that work out? I was feeling so down on the knitting and at a loss of what to do next and the next thing you know Deborah comes along presenting me with a project challenging enough to help get my mojo back. (Plus the $1 skein bin at Kirkwood Knittery is always helpful too!)

Sharon Miller (Heirloom Knitting - click the link for some gorgeous shawl eye candy) wrote this pattern to copy an antique shawl, the finished shawl measures approximately 65" square and takes 2000-2500 yards of 2-ply.

Deborah anticipates that it will take her three weeks to complete this shawl - knowing how fast Deborah knits all those awesome lace objects, I believe that she will do just that.

I am just getting started on this project having the book and yarn in my possession for only a few days.

I have never knit with yarn this fine, I have never knit a lace stitch pattern that is patterned on both sides with a garter background - this will definitely be a challenge for moi.

The instructions give options for knitting the shawl from edging to border to center - or vice versa.

Starting with the sideways edging appeals to me as that is my least favorite part of a shawl to knit  [I dislike having to flip the whole piece over every other row to attach it at the end of every second row to the shawl.   I could knit every other row backwards if it was a plain row, but this edging is patterned on both sides and would take me forever (I tried it)].  In fact several times I have knit an edging separately and attached it by hooking the live stitches of the shawl to the chain selvage of the edging as per Joan Schrouder's instructions in Best of Knitter's Shawls and Scarves - the procedure is a bit scary but works fine.

I'll be using a 2-ply from Colourmart, color is Stone, a blend of 50% merino/50% silk. The pattern calls for a size 3 US needle but as an extremely loose knitter I knit this swatch with Size 1 US dpn's (now I need a find a source for a Size 1 US circ):

Naturally I have already decided to re-swatch and slightly change the edging. Why? Because the insertion is a four row repeat and the edging is given as a 14 row repeat, plus it's bugging me that the two little triangular sections between the edging and the insertion don't match.

Bring on the mojo.....

A few finished objects....

Here are a few finished object's since my last post...

A pair of socks in J. Knits yarn, stitch pattern from Treasury #3:

                

One entrelac sock in two colors of Shibui, some day I'll knit the second sock:

A vest that began as a circular shrug that didn't work out: the gray yarn is Needful Yarns Disco; the Multi-color sparkly yarn is by Artyarns (this yarn used to be a tam that didn't work out due to the weight of the beads), still need to get a closure:

I also knit this beret by the Rainey Sisters for my sister, Beth and forget to take a photograph.

Lastly I've started another pair of socks in a multicolor pink yarn, not liking the yarn but loving the color[s] and I'm working on a Shetland Tea Shawl (Gathering of Lace) in Alpaca With A Twist Fino:

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......