Pics to start off the weekend

I finally went out and took some photos of my swatch for Mystery Stole 3. I started out with US3 needles at the bottom, went on to US4 needles, and then used US5 needles at the top. I still need to block the swatch but the hemp doesn't have much give so I'm thinking the size should not change drastically. (don't laugh, it could happen)



Complete aside, the first clue for MS3 came out this morning and I've already seen at least two pictures of people who have finished the clue (about 100 rows). I wish I had that kind of time. It will probably take me all week to get my clue done. Plus, I need to order more beads since what I originally ordered will probably only get me through the Clue 2.

Now, you would think I would have done a swatch with Canapone before now but, um, I just jumped into using the blue Canapone for the Alpine Lace stole. It has finally seen the light of day again. I'm aiming to do at least one 16-row repeat every couple of days to see if I can get this done before the end of July. (I was going to write "by next month" only to realize that is the day after tomorrow. eek) I have finally reached the half-way mark.



This was supposed to be for a friend of mine who is considerably more petite than I am. I'm thinking that it will wind up swallowing her since I think its wide for me. So, I realized that I had a perfectly good Flower Basket Shawl just waiting for a happy home. It would be perfect for her since its the shoulder shawl size. Unfortunately, its been sitting in the baggie for so long that it needs to be re-blocked. The plan is to get that done probably on the holiday so that I can mail it out next weekend.

Thank you for the heel suggestions. I'll be spending some quality time working that out this weekend as well. Guess I'll just have to give up the housework in order to get all this knitting done. Oh, the horror. (Oh yeah, um, despite how good I've been on my yarn diet there was a huge sale at my local quilt shop. I maybe have the beginnings of a fabric stash. Don't tell.)

Foiled

I was all set to take pictures of actual knitting progress but the camera batteries are dead. So, I'm afraid you will have to settle for my word that I have actually been knitting. (Hopefully, there will be pictures by the end of the week.) I have been working away on the Alpine Lace stole because I'm tired of seeing it around. I think it will be great when its done but it is just taking a long time to get there.

I worked up a swatch for the Mystery Stole 3 -along. I am determined to use something in my stash so I'm turning to the Elann Canapone (100% hemp which does not seem to be available on their site right now) that has been sitting around, unused. Despite my love of lace, I don't seem to have that much laceweight yarn. Of course, I still have one more bin of yarn to catalog in Ravelry so there might be one or two other options lurking in there. Although I know for certain that if there is, it won't be in the recommended white/ivory/gray/black spectrum which Melanie is recommending for the project. As much as I love wearing black, the idea of knitting black yarn does not appeal to me. As for white and ivory, they're not really not my style. In fact, I can't remember why I purchase the neutral beige Canapone now.

For those of you not currently in Ravelry, it lets you inventory all your yarn, patterns/books, and needles. This has made me realize that I really have plenty of yarn options at the ready. Of course, those options may not seem perfect for the pattern that calls to me at any given moment, but it does help to see what could work with the pattern. Plus, you can see what other people have done with a particular pattern. I'm actually hoping that putting all the information on Ravelry will help me maintain my yarn diet. (I'm doing fairly well, I've only bought new yarn to make socks for my Sockapalooza 4 pal since her yarn taste is different than mine.)

Speaking of socks, I have been working on my pal's socks. The pattern I picked, Horcrux socks (the original pattern was in a heavier weight, I believe) from the Six Sox Knitalong, was originally written to be made cuff-down. Since I only got the two skeins and my pal probably needs the large version, I wanted to make these toe-up to be sure I did not run out of yarn. Now remember, I've only done Fuzzy Feet and Twinkle Toes. That is to say that I have been tearing my hair out trying to figure out how to make the heel. In theory, this is not difficult. However, I don't actually understand the theory of how to create a short-row heel so I've been trying to figure out the general rules based on looking at a number of different patterns, or even trying to find a pattern that has the same number of stitches that I have so I can just follow their instructions. Let's just say that many attempts later, the socks have been banished to the corner until I have the patience to try again. (I have checked this site which is great, full of options but seems to link to actual patterns rather than giving an explanation of how each toe or heel works. I think its one of those things where understanding comes with time and experience.)

This working regular hours and increased days of the week when I go to the Orlando office is putting a real dent in my crafting time. How do people have full-time jobs, kids and still manage to churn out FO after FO? Again, listing all my UFOs on Ravelry will hopefully inspire me to finish more of them.

All quiet on the knitting front

The center pattern of the Alpine lace scarf seems to go much faster than the border pattern. However, when combined with a beer or perhaps some wine, it can be much more difficult. Some of you may scoff at using stitch markers, but I find that it makes it real simple for me to keep track of the stitches in a repeat. Well, after a glass (or was it two?) of wine, I was at the inside border part of the pattern and realized that there were only 4 stitches where there were supposed to be 5. I'm feeling daring so I drop down a few rows and see if I can figure out where I lost the stitch. No dice--I couldn't find anything wrong with the pattern. I look at the fabric and can't see where the pattern is off. I put the project away because when all else fails, I tink and I couldn't bear it at the time (maybe it was the blurry vision from the wine).

Anyway, a couple of days later I tinked back a few rows to where I knew for certain that the count was correct. I start knitting the pattern again and get to the inside border again. FYI, when I tinked, I kept the stitch markers in place. Why is this important? Because as I'm knitting and counting stitches, I realized that there had not been a problem with the stitch count. Apparently, while I was handling the fabric the split ring marker got caught up on the neighboring stitch and wound up moving over one. Duh. I thought I had checked the stitch counts for the pattern repeats on each side but apparently not. Needless to say, I needed to step away from the scarf again.

Here it is in its current state:



I think I need something like 30 more repeats to finish the center panel. Yeah, so not going to be done for my friend's wedding this weekend.

This weekend was "cold". It may have even dropped to freezing one night in the town over from us. As a general rule, we put off turning the heat on as long as possible. I would have turned it on this weekend except that we are in the process of upgrading our electric breaker box and hubby had not re-connected the heat pump. So what did I do? Started knitting some Fetching wristwarmers for me. Since its a small enough project, I figured by the time I made a swatch, I would be half done with the actual wristwarmer. My gauge (both row and stitch) is different from the pattern so I needed to add some cable repeats to the top so it would cover my knuckles. I like the way it looks but I'm not crazy about the loose bind off. I might use a less stretchy bind off or perhaps do another cable row and then bind off since the cable row pulls in more than the regular 4x1 ribbing.



I have to admit that the first wristwarmer really isn't wide enough--the hole by the bottom of the thumb is huge when I pull this on and the ribbing is pulled tight. So for the second one, I cast on an extra 5 stitches (50 total) to see if that helps. Considering this endeavor took a couple of nights of work, I think I can motivate to re-knit the first wristwarmer. So far, I'm still only using the first skein so I might be able to get a second pair done from my sister out of the second one.

Baby steps

With all the stuff going on around here lately, there hasn't been much knitting. I'm afraid the only knitting time was really on the plane ride back from our NYC trip. (I slept on the way there and was super busy the whole weekend.)

Can you tell that I got to the garter stitch border? I am almost done with the first repeat from Chart B. Obviously, I will need a few more repeats before you can really see the pattern.



I'm making this scarf with the hemp yarn from Elann. So far, the yarn starts out feeling like twine (no big surprise there) but after a while it seems to soften up with the warmth of my hands. There may also be some oils left from the hemp?? I don't know but my fingers do feel a little softer afterwards. I'm making this on Bryspun size 3 circs--I like the needles but hate the join. If I had another size 3 circular needles, I would switch them out in a heartbeat. I think the pattern is pretty visible and will probably only need minimal blocking. I actually don't want this to stretch too much since the recipient is smaller than me. I'm nearing the end of the first ball and I'm thinking there is another Russian join in my future.

I need to do some more knitting so I can have better progress photos.

Actual Knitting

As I mentioned, I actually finished the Wide Triangle shawl.



However, I was sloppy in the blocking and look at this:



Where I did the double decreases to get the shaping, it looks like there are two sets of yarnovers. It is really bothering me so I'm going to have to re-block. I think I need to run some thread (I don't have blocking wires) through the border before the yarnovers and then again through the points of the picots so that it will all lay out better. I do like the finished texture, hubby said it reminded him of mesh rather than a knit fabric. I'm hoping to re-block today or tomorrow so I can gift it this weekend. Since we have an actual guest (my little sister), my blocking board is in use and I may have to find an alternative.

Because my fascination with this book has not weened, I immediately cast on for the Alpine Lace shawl using Elann's Canapone (100% hemp) yarn.



The diamond detail:



The plan is to finish this by early Feb. (at this rate that won't be a problem) so I can send it to my friend in time for her wedding. I'm thinking this could be her "something blue" but either way, I think she will like it. It has been surprisingly straightforward and I like that you knit the border as you go along rather than adding it later.