Mistakes I Have Made/Lace Design Underway

What on earth made me think I could knit lace on my way to work this morning, before the coffee could really kick in? Not the best idea. There was ripping back.

Have finished my secret commission, am now back working on a lace design for my friends at Hopeful Farms. This will be available in April.

It never fails to amaze me what happens to lace when you block it. Blocked sample, and scarf in progress.

See? Is that not cool?

Trico-Dico

I'm taking a refresher course in French, through my employer.

My classes are Fridays, so invariably the instructor asks what my plans are for the weekend. "Tricot" was about all I knew... and she doesn't knit so we were both struggling for the vocabulary.

Thanks to V. who is in my Thursday class, I have found the answer... Tricotin, a French language knitting site. The "Trico-Dico" is an astonishingly complete list of knitting terms in French and English.

Merci bien, V.!

On Deadline(s)

You're not seeing much of my knitting here at the moment. Trust me, I am knitting. Like a fiend. I'm working on a design commission which shall remain secret for now.

The deadline is tight, there is a lot of knitting to be done between now and March 15th. I normally knit a lot -- on my commute, in the car (when hubby is driving, naturally), at home in front of the TV. I usually get a couple of hours of knitting done in an evening, most evenings. And on the weekends during the day, I knit for an hour or two. I knit during social events, too.

This design commission has caused me to radically increase my knitting hours... I've basically been on house arrest during the weekends, setting my alarm in the morning, knitting all day and all evening.

Now, I will accept that a knitting deadline is different from a writing deadline. You can't devour an entire season's box set of Criminal Minds while writing. You can't write while out with friends for drinks. You can't hold a meaningful phone conversation while writing. But knitting is still work. Work that requires you to sit still, in the same place for long periods of time.

And working I am. Oh yes. Knitting, knitting, knitting, knitting.

I can't wait for March 15th to arrive.

But here's the thing... it's not that I want the work to be over... quite the opposite. I can't wait to share my work with the lovely people who commissioned it. And I can't wait to move on to my next commission. I've already got two more "work" projects lined up for after the 15th, and I'm practically salivating to get onto them.

I guess this really is what they mean when they say that you should do what you love, huh?

Strange Places to Find a Cable Needle

Ok, knitters... 'fess up... I bet you've all misplaced a tool and found it later in an odd place, no?

Me, I'm always losing stitch markers, and those typically show up on the floor, down the sides of the sofa, occasionally stuck to my socks.

And last week I lost my plastic darning needle ... but found it again last night tucked into my copy of Volume 2 of Barbara Walker. It's exactly the same shade of red; I was using it as a bookmark.

But this takes the cake. Hubby came home last night, and I put down my knitting to greet him (working on a super secret project right now, all I'll say is that it requires a cable needle). When I went to restart, I couldn't find my cable needle. Gone. Just gone. I looked on the sofa and in the cushions and on the floor and under the coffee table and in my shirt.

(A brief digression: I've been known to hook a u-shaped cable needle in the neckline of my shirt -- very handy on a plane, for example. This is all well and good, but does earn you strange looks from the customs agents at Heathrow if you forget to take it out.)

As I was getting ready for bed a bit later, hubby remarked that there was something odd dangling from the back of my underwear... and there was the cable needle. I suspect I was trying to put it in my jeans pocket, but missed.

The Matador Variation

Quick 'n' easy 'n' enormously gratifying.... the Matador bolero from last fall's Interweave Knitscene mag.

Not content to leave well enough alone, I used Needful Van Dyck rather than the recommended yarn, and I messed with the edging...

The original pattern calls for garter edging for the fronts. Frankly, I felt like it was fighting with the eyelet detail on the raglan when I did it up in the plainer yarn. Garter to me is a rougher, more organic stitch, and eyelets require something a bit finer. Well, ok "finer" is relative here, we're still talking about a fairly "rough" yarn (in a good way), very chunky, and a seriously casual design.

I used a 4 stitch k1 p1 ribbing for the front edging, and it works tremendously well in this context. It doesn't look ribbed, as it pulls in -- which also means that it lies flat rather than curling. Very happy with how it turned out.

And no buttonhole, I just jam the button through a hole in the knitting.

Plus plain black provides a nice sartorial contrast to all the Noro I've been working with. Anyone who knows me well knows that I don't wear more than one colour at the same time -- with the exception of Noro products -- so a black bolero will look great over coloured tshirts in the spring. (You know, those days when I want to to be warmer than it actually is!)

(Squint hard at the picture and you should be able to make it out. I'll take a picture with a different tshirt in the near future.)

New Teaching Schedule

Check out the Lettuce Knit website for my upcoming teaching schedule.

I'm adding a couple of new classes to my repetoire: Cables 101 and Entrelac 101.

Cables 101 is a 2 hour boot camp to let beginner knitters in on the dirtiest knitting secret in the world: cables are easy!

Entrelac 101 untangles the mysteries of this marvellous technique -- previously considered to be the province of the knitting eccentric -- put to excellent use with Noro's Silk Garden -- as below. After 2 2-hour sessions, you'll have a fabulous scarf, and a killer new skill to be proud of.

It's Not a Bug, It's a Feature!

This is a commercial cardigan I bought recently (gasp!). It was in a clearance sale at an absurdly low price.


It's not colours I normally wear, and I'm not convinced I will ever wear it, but I had to bring it home and play with it.

I love love love what they've done with the Fair Isle. This is more than just not weaving in your ends, this is a deliberate and wanton display of the wrong side of the work.

Clever! How can I use this in my own designs? Hmmm....

Holy Sheep!

I received my contributor copy of No Sheep For You this week! I'm in it! Those are my sock designs! I'm SO excited, can you tell?

I spent a good few hours with the book this week, while hiding from the snow. The patterns are terrific, and there's a lot to be learnt from it about different types of yarns, their properties and applications.

Even if you're a dyed-in-the-wool woolhead (to coin a phrase), there's plenty to enjoy and learn.

And that's my name, in the table of contents, in very esteemed company.

Thanks Amy!

[thanks to Interweave for the pic from the book - photography (c) Interweave Press LLC]

A thought...

These are all my LR leftovers... is it just me, or is this screaming Entrelac?

Methadone for the Lizard Ridge Addict

Because a girl can't be expected to go entirely cold turkey on Noro....

I'm working on an entrelac scarf in Silk Garden. This is a design for a class I'll be teaching this spring. Stay tuned for details.

I'm using the same needles as LR, it's a similar technique, all short rows and turning, and it's Silk Garden which is even nicer to work with than Kureyon. So I'm doing ok.

On a different note, I discovered last night that it's impossible to knit lace and watch coverage of the Sporting Group in the Westminster Dog Show. Yes, it's true, we gloried in all the High Def production values of a televised dog show. All that cooing and oogling over the big adorable dogs with their giant paws make it impossible to concentrate on placement of yarn overs.

Is This It?

Number 24. Done. Some streetcar and car time in the last few days and now it's over.


I fear I might start going through withdrawal.

Not going to start the assembly process just yet, though. I've got a lace design brewing...

A few thoughts as I near the end of Lizard Ridge

(Halfway through the last square.)

I have seen two complete Lizard Ridges in person now... Jen's and Stephannie's. I didn't get a chance to spend significant time with Jen's, but was able to have a good ooh and aah over Steph's this week. She's finished it beautifully.

We discussed a few approaches to finishing. The thought of all that seaming and weaving in of ends is giving me hives... I worked it out today... 38 seams of about 30 cm each. That's 11 metres (or about 38 feet) of seaming.

Mum's suggested crocheting the pieces together, which would be infinitely quicker, but Steph did warn that it's a bit lumpy on the wrong side. She ended up sewing it together. She also used a knitted garter edge rather than crochet, and it's very effective. Plus I'm so much better at garter than crochet.

And on the issue of the bazillion ends, Mum suggested I simply not worry about it, and line the blanket instead. Something with a bit of texture, perhaps raw silk? Because 24 balls of Kureyon haven't made this project expensive enough, I should also buy several metres of silk.

Still... wow... just imagine how amazing that would be.

Number 23

Oh dear. Whatever will I do?

Oh yeah, there's all the sewing together and the edging...


Actually, they're all going to get put aside because I have a really great lace design underway. Pics soon!

Hey Denny! Are You Proud of Me?

Ends all woven in. My god, it's dull work.


The pattern will be available at The Naked Sheep as of Friday.

Khroma Vest - The Pros and Cons of Colour Work

I like it!

It's a bit big on me, by design. It's a shop sample, and it will fit the mannequin a bit better -- and also possibly Lorena who, by virtue of owning the shop, gets to wear the samples. It's always a big compliment when she wears something I've done.

This, however, is the downside of colour work...


The ends.... oh, the ends....

Weavin' away.

Which Makes This One Number 22

I had significantly more streetcar time this weekend than anticipated. Which means that another full square is done.


Two left!

Erin left a clever suggestion to deal with the extra ball.

(I figured it out, BTW. I inherited a ball leftover from Mum's cardi, so that upped the total balls available to 25. I'd been counting the complete squares by looking at how many unknit balls were left in the bag. Hence off by one.)

She suggested I use the extra one to create a pocket on the wrong side of the blanket, in which I can store remotes or snacks. Hmmm...

I Can't Count

Having a degree in mathematics doesn't mean I can count.

I dug out all my squares yesterday to show off to some of the knitters in my life, and it turns out that I've actually got 20 done.

This, it seems, is actually number 21.


And now I have four balls of yarn left and only three squares left to knit.

This is awful for two reasons. Really, how on earth am I to choose which colourway to abandon? And this means that I'm closer to the end than I feared.

I will miss this pattern.

Ok, so I don't normally do this kind of thing, but...

I actually found the questions a little thought provoking. So there. Thanks to MMJ for the link.


You appear to be a Knitting Goddess. You are constantly giving and are unconcerned with reward, you simply want others to love knitting as much as you do. If someone wants to knit miles of novelty yarns, you are there for them. If someone wants to learn short row shaping, you can help. There are no taboos in knitting, only opportunities to grow. Everyone should have friend like you around if they want to learn to knit, and there's a good chance that your passion has rubbed off on a few others.http://marniemaclean.com
Take this quiz!

Oh dear.

So remember that gripe I had about the sleeve instructions for the Pimlico?

About how it wasn't clear if the k3p3 ribbing went at the top or the bottom of the sleeve? And that how I was going to modify the pattern so that I was picking up the stitches from the body and knitting down? So that I'd be stuck if I got it wrong?

Well, I got it wrong. And I'm stuck.

I dug out the book and looked at the picture. And yeah, I'm wrong. The k3p3 should be at the bottom of the sleeve, so that there's a nice elegant flare at the wrist.

Argh.

So, what to do? Pull the sleeves out (both of them) and work 'em again? Or cut them out and fudge a sewn cast-off on the cut edge of the k3p3 and sew them back onto the body the other way around? Or leave it as a unique variant of the pattern?

Hmmm...

Number 19

This is what happens when I'm stuck at home with a cold. Very goth, this one. The next one is all rainbow sherbert, as a contrast.


Oh yes, quince marmalade is tremendously good, even on slightly stale challah.

That Double Espresso I Ordered

Thanks T.!

Remember that yarn-for-coffee trade I proposed a while back? I picked up my package from the Post Office yesterday.

Two different coffees and a little something sweet to go with it... some of the original marmelade, made from quinces. That challah (which is not green, despite the picture) seems like the ideal delivery mechanism.

Number 18...

Three quarters done.

Numbers 15, 16, 17

Four flights in 4 days provides a fair bit of time for Lizarding.

And number 18 is halfway done.

The pile of balls-yet-to-be-Lizarded is getting distressingly small. One of the great things about this project has been looking at the big heap of yarn, and carefully selecting the next colourway to work -- depending on mood, on the light in the room, on the crankiness of the cat.

The selection is dwindling...

Knitters on a Plane

Over the years, I've become very accustomed to being the only knitter on a plane.

(As a side note, the only downside to knitting rather than reading or working on a plane is that people think you're available for conversation. I need a little badge or sign that says "No, I don't want to talk to you.")

As usual, on the way out, I had a nice chat with a lovely older woman who recognized what I was doing, and wanted to chat. Again she confirmed my little sociological theory: her mother was a serious knitter, who produced many practical items of clothing for her family over the years. And now the daughter won't pick up a pair of needles if her life depends on it. Your mother's drudgery can never become an activity of pleasure.

On the way back, however, I was pleased to see two women, (upper 20-something, I would estimate), knitting away. Both seemed to be beginners, but only one was working some kind of horrible novelty yarn on big needles. The other was a good distance into a scarf in a nice grey wool.

Me, I was Lizarding like a fiend. Pics shortly.

Fair Isle Vest - The Front

I'm pretty pleased with it.

Back coming along well, too. I decided (with Lorena's input) to do the back fully patterned as well. It will make a beautiful and tempting shop sample, if not precisely an affordable project if worked entirely in Khroma.

Sheepy Friends

Check out the blog of my friends Michele and Gil of Hopeful Farms. They raise Shetlands for wool (lovely, lovely wool), and have some seriously adorable pictures of their working dogs.

I do have a soft spot for a good puppy picture...

Adorable dogs and wonderful wool. What more could a girl want?

I've raved about their wools before, and am looking forward to seeing what marvels they get this year.

Pimlico - Another Gripe About the Pattern

So the big main square is done... which is nice, because it was getting pretty tedious.

Now onto the next bit. You're supposed to do the sleeves separately and then sew them in. Sewing? Bah! Unnecessary! Why not just pick up the stitches around the armhole and work the sleeve in place? Easy! Less sewing!

The sleeve pattern goes like this:
Cast on xx sts.
Join and work k2 p2 in the round for a ways.
Then increase all around and work k3 p3 for a bit.
Cast off.

Then later on, it says "Sew Sleeves into armholes."

So as I'm contemplating my pattern alteration, it hits me: it doesn't actually indicate which is the top of the sleeve -- which bit you're suppose to sew to the body.

Yeah, I know, logic says that the wider section -- that is, after the increases -- goes at the top. But this design is constructed unusually... the sleeves are only from the elbow down to the wrist, which doesn't really require much shaping. And then the edging of the sweater is deliberately flared -- the ribbing starts with k2 p2 and then is increased to k3 p3 to flare out.

Seeds of doubt are sewn.

So here's the thing. There are pics of the design in the book. But I'm one of those sorts that travels with my knitting, and carries a photocopy of the actual pattern instructions -- the book (I own) sits safely at home, protected from the dangers of flying coffee.

I had to resort to surfing the web looking for other people's pictures of the damn thing, trying to figure out if I'm right thinking that the k3 p3 ribbing goes at the top of the sleeve....

It's a minor issue, in the grand scheme of things, but a good example of a little thing that can cause a big problem.



(Least interesting and helpful photo ever.)

Another One

This one went really fast... 14 done.

Am now starting to actively wonder about what to do with all the bits and pieces of the ends. Perhaps a smaller blankie wrappy sort of thing?

The full majesty of the heap:


(Although this is outdated, as that's number 12 on the needle there.)

Number 13!

Between all the car rides over the Christmas break, I managed to get another full square done. And I'm about a third of the way into Number 14.

And a new, slightly longer commute starting Monday will ensure excellent progress over the next few weeks...

Fair Isle for the Easily Intimidated

Working on a vest using Khroma. This is seriously delicious yarn, half merino, half baby Alpaca. The colours are tremendous -- a rainbow of tweedy delights.

I wanted to do a Fair Isle design, but I had two constraints to worry about: that the yarn isn't cheap, and therefore I wanted to use it wisely, and that my gauge in stranded Fair Isle is nowhere near the gauge I achieve working with a single yarn.

What resulted, after 3 or 4 hours of doodling with pencil crayons and graph paper is this design... it uses a minimum of extra yarn, the pattern is easy easy easy to remember and work, and is regular enough and widely enough spaced that my gauge isn't going to go bonkers.


It will have a v-neck. What the back will look like and how I handle the edgings will depend on how much yarn I have left in the extra colours. I want to use as much of the colours up as possible, but I know that I don't have enough to do the back fully coloured. So... hmm... maybe just plain blue with only the small contrast boxes? Maybe the armhole edgings in one colour and the neck edging in another?

Decisions, decisions.... enjoying the process very much.

The pattern will be available at The Naked Sheep later this month.

Knitter, Please!

I broke down and ordered Moo Cards for myself.

The whole process was marvellous -- the cards are lovely, the cardstock and printing quality outstanding, the ordering process is fun, and there are clearly human beings running the company. It's almost worth placing an order just to get a confirmation note from "Little Moo".

And now I have blog cards. I don't have a Flickr photostream, and it seemed gauche to use someone else's, so I orderd Skype cards and just had them leave off the Skype logo.

And now I have Wise Hilda Knits business cards -- and very cool ones at that.

If you're very nice to me next time you see me, I'll give you one.

If I Had Stayed in School...

This could have been me. "In recent years, mathematicians such as Osinga have started knitting and crocheting concrete physical models of hard-to-visualize mathematical objects."

Look What Santa Brought....

I've been asking for these for months now (noted on this blog, even).
On this topic precisely, the Harlot's post this week made me laugh out loud.

Although it's only put my dining room chairs out of work, not my hubby.

Number 12! Halfway There! Well, Maybe...

I'm going to be very restrained and put this project down over my 2 week break.

It's the ideal project for my commute to work, and I want to save it for then. With all my time at home and in the car, I'll have the time and space to work on bigger/more complex projects.

The pic doesn't do justice to the colours in this one. I think it's my favourite so far.

Have been teaching J. to knit, and everytime she sees me, I have another square of LR underway. She loves it as much as I do, and it seems to have become a great incentive to focus on improving her skills so she can give it a go. Can't wait to get her started on her first square!

I think my biggest problem is going to be that I keep finding other colourways in the Kureyon, ones that I hadn't seen before. I've got this sinking feeling that I might end up doing more than 24. Anyone else done a bigger one?

Pimlico Progress/Difficulties with Written Instructions

Coming along nicely... it's a great autopilot project, interesting to knit but still not so interesting that I can't watch Battlestar Galactica while I'm working on it. It's nothing to look at, at this stage... you work a big square of the eyelet pattern, and then the cleverness is in the assembly.

I still think it's a weird eyelet, though. And the pattern is written poorly. The schematic is of no help at all, and the way the eyelet is described isn't helpful.

The puzzling bit is this instruction:

k1b, k1 in 1 st, (some stuff that makes sense), k1b-f, k1 in 1 st

I get that you're making two stitches out of one in both cases. But the k1b, k1b-f are abbreviations I've not encountered before. They're helpfully explained as follows:

k1b: Knit into back of st in row below next st on left-hand needle (I'm ok to here), inserting right-hand needle into st from the top down (what?)

k1b-f: Knit into front of st in row below next st on left-hand needle. (This one makes more sense.)

I figured something out that I think works, but I'm not convinced it's what the designer intends. It looks ok, so what the heck.

This illustrates nicely the challenge pattern writers have in trying to articulate a motion, a placement of needles. This is why I have so many students in my classes tell me that they can't figure something out from written instructions, but it takes them a tenth of a second to figure it out once they see me do it. And I really don't think it's about being a visual learner in the case of knitting. If I don't know what the "top" is , when you're asking me to insert the needle from the "top down", then I'm stuck.

(I'm actually sorted of frightened to ask others how they did this stitch, because I'd hate to discover -- 22 inches of 34 into the main piece -- that there's a better, more attractive way of doing it.)

This is all to say why I love the big Vogue Knitting book, and it's helpful step-by-step pictorial instructions.

And why I figure I'll always be able to get teaching gigs.

More Progress!

Numbers 10 and 11!

Cumulative Progress

All of 'em so far, lined up.

Too busy stuffing my face with latkes and fruitcake and PB&J party sandwiches and mince pies to get much actual knitting done. But Lizard Ridge continues to truck along at a rough pace of a square a week, in commute time.

I suspect I'll spend more time trying to arrange them for the final blanket than I will knitting them... "Oh wait, that one's got a lot of green it, it shouldn't be close to this one... "

Thoughts on a Fair Isle Design

Am starting to play with an idea for a Fair Isle vest design.... time for an "All Creatures Great and Small" marathon on PBS? My mother calls Fair Isle "James Herriot" sweaters.

I'm designing a vest with a delicious yarn called Khroma from The Fibre Company. It's not inexpensive, so to keep the overall project cost down, I'm planning to do the colourwork only on the front.

So of course, I swatched. I swatched in Fair Isle, even.

I don't know what level of Zen Master you have to be to get the same tension in fair isle as you do working a single strand of the same yarn.... The label tells me I'm supposed to get something like 18-20 sts on 5mm needles. I'm actually getting 24 stitches, no matter how relaxed I am.

Of course, what this means is that if I'm going to do a plain back, I have to fudge the tension on the back to make it line up. Ribbing seems the perfect answer. k2 p2, maybe?

The other thing I've discovered is that designing fair isle patterns isn't as simple as it seems...

More Lizarding!

Latest complete square.And here's the cat, enjoying the one that's currently on my needles. I understand he'll sit on it once it's done, I can only take it as a compliment that he wants to sit on it already.

Measure Twice, Knit Once

It's important to measure your tension; we know this. I know on about this at length in my classes, and have talked about it on this blog.

And how do we measure tension? With a tension swatch, right. But that doesn't eliminate the need for a sanity check once in a while.

I'm distracting myself with what was supposed to be a quick and easy project: Matador, in Noro Iro.

(You may find it startling that there's a Noro yarn I hadn't yet worked with -- I did.)

Anyway, I carefully measured my tension, and I was absolutely correct. So why on earth is the thing a good 4 inches wider than it's supposed to be? Stuff happens, I know that. This is a good and humbling reminder that it's useful to measure a second time -- once you've started working.

They call it a sanity check, I think, because its goal is to preserve your sanity.

It's a seriously great yarn, though.

Cutting It Close/On Lizard Ridge

I finished up the edging and collar on Mum's cardigan, and this is what I'm left with.

The pattern calls for 9 balls in the smallest size, and this is the end of the ninth ball.

Phew.

Of course, I'm being disengenous. I bought an extra ball, as I am wont to do, and it will happily become a square of my Lizard Ridge.

I've been told by Denny (who is often quite reliable) that sales of Kureyon have gone up noticeably worldwide because of the popularity of Lizard Ridge.

Kudos to the designer.

Miss April 13th & Miss June 11th!

This is the 2007 "Knitting Pattern a Day" calendar. And I'm in it! Twice!

The last two years I've bought this calendar -- this year I had one shipped to me by the publisher.

I feel like I've hit the big time!

1970s Acrylic, or a Spanking?

A great story shared by R., in one of my classes.

Her grandmother was a knitter... a knitter of the "saving money" school. She used to buy only the bargain yarn.

R. tells me of a fight that her sister had with their mother... "We're going to visit Nana, you should wear that sweater she made for you."

The showdown resulted in an ultimatum being issued -- wear the sweater, or get a spanking.

She chose the spanking.

New And Improved! The Even-More-Perfect Recipe for the Perfect Tension Swatch

Revised in response to questions and feedback in my classes.

The Perfect Stocking Stitch Tension Swatch

Look at the tension indicator in the pattern. It will typically be a number of stitches and rows over a 10cm/4 inch square, in stocking stitch. If it’s stated over a smaller area – for example, 1 or 2 inches, calculate the number of stitches over 4 inches. If it's given in something other than stocking stitch, these instructions don't apply.

____ stitches x _____ rows over 4 inches/10 cm square using ________ size needles.

Using the needles specified, cast on twice that many stitches. For example, if it states 18 stitches, cast on 36.

Bottom border:
Work 6 rows in garter stitch – that is, knitting every row.

Main body:
Right side: knit entire row.
Wrong side: k3, purl to last 3 stitches, k3.
Repeat these two rows until the main body portion measures 15 cm/6 inches.

Top border:
Work 6 rows garter stitch – knitting every row.
Cast off.

Steam or launder the swatch according to the instructions on the yarn ball band.

It Runs in the Family, This Kureyon Obssession

Mum's working on this...

well, ok, she's done her bit, I have to finish up the neckline, graft the underarms and weave in the ends.

It's Kureyon colourway 147, FYI.

The pattern is Amy Swenson's Rosedale, from Knitty. We made a couple of adjustments -- plain k2 p1 ribbing rather than corrugated, and no constrasting intarsia rectangle. The second decision was more for my sake than the design... I just didn't want to have to field the support calls...

And Another One!

And I found a 24th colourway on Saturday -- very exciting! I have 24 different colours, and I've already got 6 of these squares knit. It's incredibly painless and quick going. I got half a square done in the car ride to and from Oakville Saturday.

For the record, the colours I've chosen are:

40, 90, 92, 95, 102, 134, 138, 139, 147, 148, 150, 153, 154, 159, 164, 165, 170, 180, 182, 183, 184, 185, 188, 194

Just don't ask me which is which. The flaw in my plan is that I haven't been keeping track.

Pimlico

Ok, I admit it. I gave up on the F&F shawl. The yarn is in a puffy envelope, winging its way across the ocean in that yarn-for-coffee trade I suggested a few days back. May it behave better for T. than it did for me.

I've been eyeing the Pimlico Shrug from Knit2Together since I first saw the book. I'm not really a shapless cardi kind of girl (that I'm aware of, anyway), but I love the innovative construction. It's a big square folded over to make holes for attached sleeves, and a ribbed edging all the way around the outside.

So I grabbed myself a ball of Lamb's Pride, in black, and swatched away. The eyelet is very odd, but as Tracey says in the book, once you get the hang of it, it goes swimmingly.

I found the yarn/tension in the book a hair confusing... it calls for Koigu Kersti which claims to be a DK but looks for all the world like a worsted. And the tension of the actual swatch is closer to aran...

So I threw caution to the wind and picked a yarn I love instead. The good news is that for this design, it really doesn't matter. You knit a big rectangle -- so it was easy enough to calculate the tension of my swatch (18 sts) vs. what the pattern calls for (19 sts), and reduce the number of cast-on stitches appropriately.

And then you knit tubes for the sleeves in k2p2, so I figure I'll cut out a repeat, since I have little arms anyway... and then the edging all around is k2p2 again, so I'll just eyeball it. Easy peasy!

Looking good so far...

Lizardy Progress

5 done! The sixth is underway! Loving this project! Over-punctuating!





Oh, and the cat seems to like it, too.

Currently on the Needles/Thoughts On A Difficult Project

The second Xmas sock is two thirds done (Yes! Gasp! I wrote up a pattern for a pair of socks when I only had one completed!). I've turned the heel, but it's on hold to use as an example in my next sock class, next weekend.

My current portable project is Lizard Ridge squares. Ideal streetcar knitting, on a short circular. Not a lot to carry around, it can easily be stuffed in the corner of my bag. And I've memorized the pattern so I can knit it on autopilot (although not in the dark, sadly, as I figured out at the movie last night).

For home knitting, I haven't settled on what I want to do. I've been trying in earnest to make progress on the Country Wool Feather & Fan shawl. It's not been going well, though. This project is resisting me at every turn.

The yarn was going to be a poncho-thing, at first; although the knitting went well, I wasn't pleased with the results, and there was too much variation in the hand-dyed colourways. So I ripped it back. It sat for a while, waiting for inspiration. A while later, while researching lace knitting, I found this pattern for a feather & fan shawl. I thought this would be a more interesting project, something to test my lace skills, and possibly a good gift for someone I know who's hard to buy for. Not so. I have been struggling. Lots of ripping back. I make mistakes. I mess up the stitch count. I fail to pay attention and work the pattern in areas that should be plain. I just can't seem to make this one stick in my brain. I think I'm actually trying to make it harder than it needs to be....

Do I persevere, or put it down and find something I'm happier with? Will it ever be done, this shawl? And more to the point, do I really care? I'm not sure it has a role in my life anymore, given that I have the really rather magnificent Highland shawl completed, and the possible giftee seems to have gone off green. (Don't ask. She's a bit odd about colours.)

I advise my students in my class to only work with yarns they like touching, and to pick projects they'll enjoy. A project that you don't enjoy knitting will never get done -- or you'll have to force yourself to work on it. And god knows there's enough in life that you have to force yourself to do, I don't believe knitting should fit into this category.

Perhaps I should take my own advice and give the damn thing up entirely? It's great yarn, maybe it needs to find another home?

Anyone want 5 or 6 100gm skeins of an aran weight variegated green hand-dyed 100% wool? Will trade for a double espresso...

Xmas Sock pattern

Festive Sock (After Vogue Knitting's Holly Leaf Socks)

Ladies' one size fits all.

Materials:
1 50gm ball green sock yarn (pick your favourite, I used Paton's Kroy 4 ply)
1 50gm ball red sock yarn (pick your favourite, I used Paton's Kroy 4 ply)
1 pair 2.5mm needles

Gauge:
approximately 40 sts and 40 rows over 10cm/4 inch square in mock cable rib pattern

Method:
Using red, and 2.5mm needles, cast on 64 stitches. Join, being careful not to twist the round.

First round: *Skip first stitch(leaving it in place on the needle) and k into second stitch, then k into first and slip both off the needle at the same time, p2; repeat from * to end of round.

Change to green and work leg in mock cable rib pattern as follows, until leg measures 6 inches/15 cm.

Mock Cable Rib (over a multiple of 4 stitches)
Rounds 1, 2 and 4: *K2, p2; repeat from * to end of round.
Round 3: *Skip first stitch(leaving it in place on the needle) and k into second stitch, then k into first and slip both off the needle at the same time, p2; repeat from * to end of round.

Set up for heel: work 34 stitches of next round in pattern (these are the instep stitches), attach red yarn, and work remaining 30 stitches of round in pattern. The 30 heel stitches should start and end with 2 knit stitches... if it's doesn't, fudge it by working 2 extra green stitches before you change to the red.

If it's easier to handle, slip the 34 instep stitches to a holder. Turn and work an additional 21 rows on heel stitches with red yarn, as follows:

WS: Slip 1, p1, *k2, p2; repeat from * to end of row.
RS: Slip 1, k1, work mock cable rib until last 2 stitches, k2.
You'll end with a WS row.

Foundation row for heel turn, RS facing: Knit 20, skp, turn.
Heel row 1, WS facing: Slip 1, p10, p2tog.
Heel row 2, RS facing: Slip 1, k10, skp.

Repeat the above two rows until all heel stitches have been worked. You'll end on a WS row, and there will be 12 stitches remaining. At this stage, you can cut the red yarn, leaving a tail to be woven in.

Go back to the green yarn tail position, at the end of the instep stitches. With the green yarn, pick up and knit 15 stitches along the left side of the heel, work the 12 heel stitches, and pick up and knit 15 stitches along the right side of the heel. Work across the instep stitches in pattern.

The start of the round is between the instep stitches and the left side of the heel. From here, you'll work the 34 stitches in the mock cable rib pattern, and the rest of the stitches will be in stotcking stitch.

Work one round even, twisting all picked-up sts.

Next round: K1, ssk, knit to last three stitches before instep stitches, k2tog, k1, work across instep stitches in mock cable rib pattern.
Work a round even.

Repeat these last two rounds until you're back to 64 stitches.

Work until foot measures required length -- 2 inches/5 cm shorter than total foot length. Your stitches will be arranged as follows: needle 1 has 15, needle 2 has 15, needle 3 has 34.

You'll finish the toe in plain stocking stitch.

Decrease for toe:
Needle 1: K1, ssk, knit to end. Needle 2: Knit to last three stitches, k2tog, k1. Needle 3: k1, ssk, knit to last three stitches, k2tog, k1.

Knit three rounds even.
Work a decrease round followed by two even rounds, twice. (6 rounds total)
Work a decrease round followed by one even round, three times. (6 rounds total)
Work decrease rounds until 8 stitches remain.

Cut yarn and thread through remaining stitches to close. To finish, weave in ends.

FO: The Highland Triangle Shawl

Done!

What do you think? I'm pretty pleased, and have worn it a couple of times already, to many compliments.

For those who asked, it's the Highland Triangle Shawl from Cheryl Oberle's Folk Shawls.

It was a challenge, but I learnt a lot about lace knitting, and feel confident that I could go further next time.

The bit that tripped me up the most was the applied edging. It was fiddly and time-consuming to work. And I discovered at the end that I'd dropped a couple of stitches.

Which, of course, only became evident during the blocking process. Argh. There was much debate about what to do to solve the problem (not to mention the cursing). I ultimately did the repairs in situ, with some careful weaving. And you can barely tell.

Mock Cable Rib

For those of you who were asking, here's the instructions for the ribbing I used on the Xmas sock.

Mock Cable Rib:
Worked flat, over a multiple of 4 stitches +2.
Row 1: P2, *k2, p2; repeat from * to end of row.
Row 2 & 4: K2, *p2, k2; repeat from * to end of row.
Row 3: P2, *skip first st and k into second stitch, then k into first and slip both off the needle, p2; repeat from * to end of row.

Worked in the round, over a multiple of 4 stitches.
Rounds 1, 2 and 4: *K2, p2; repeat from * to end of round.
Round 3: *Skip first stitch(leaving it in place on the needle) and k into second stitch, then k into first and slip both off the needle at the same time, p2; repeat from * to end of round.

It's sophisticated yet easy to work. Good for socks, mitten cuffs, or a flourish on the edging of a cabled sweater.