Braided Rib Scarf

My mother plans on making a blanket and wanted a cable for the blanket. She asked for my assistance, instead of a swatch, I am turning the cable into a scarf, this is for mom:

Cast on 20 stitches (or multiple of 20 (ex 40, 60, whatever)

Rows 1-4: knit 2, purl 2

Row 5: K2, p2, slip 4 stitches to cable needle hold to front, k2, p2, k2, p2 from cable needle, k2 p2 to end of row

Rows 6-8: K2, p2

Row 9: K2, p2, k2, p2, slip 4 stitches to cable needle hold to back, k2, p2, k2, p2 from cable needle, k2, p2

Rows 10-12: K2, p2

Repeat Row 5-12 until desired lenght is acheived.

I used a chunky weight tweedy yarn (I don't remember the type, I think it was a Rowan tweed, the yarn was left over from another scarf) and size 11 needles, my scarf is about 4.5" wide, pre-blocking. The ribbed braid is reversible so there is no wrong side.

My other knitting is progressing, but there is no obvious visible change, so I am not going to share photos of that.

A week has gone by and there has been some knitting here in Boston. During the week I began working on Celtic Icon from Inspired Cable Knits. I am using some Kathmandu DK, which I bought from Webs. Since the pattern was originally made using sport weight yarn, I have had to make some gauge modifications. I think the gauge mods I made for width are fine, I am now very concerned that my height gauge mod is wrong, my raglan shaping is already longer than the 8.5" that the pattern specified, so there may be frogging happening at my place tonight. I am also modifying this pattern to add waist shaping.

In addition to working on Celtic Icon, I managed to make my way over to Windsor Button and I bought the last skein of Cotton Fleece that I needed to finish my Dollar and Half Cardigan.

I am not unhappy with this sweater, despite my expression. It probably won't ever be one of my favorite sweaters, but it will definitely be worn.

Last thing: mom, this is a swatch for you, I will be or have already emailed the directions for the cable bit, and the original swatch is being sent to you.

By Friday Dollar and Half reached this point:(the picture where I smiled actually looked worse if you can imagine).

By Saturday more progress had been made, one more skein of yarn bought (different dyelot but same color thankfully), and buttons were purchased.

By the end of Monday the second sleeve was to about midpoint and I am out of yarn again, I will be going to buy more yarn this weekend probably.

Back in the Saddle

It's been a while since my last post. In the last episode, I believe I was teetering on the edge of what was looking like a bad cold. Well, I have to say that it certainly was a bad one. The cold itself wasn't any big deal, but the bronchitis that came after kicked my butt pretty good. The worst part of it was the fact that it has been so difficult to sleep because I've felt like I had an elephant sitting on my chest. I'm finally coming out of it though, although I'm still sleeping a lot.

There has been knitting, though. I finished Julian, my self-designed sweater and it's been waiting to be blocked for over a week. We had a streak of fairly warm days, so I wasn't motivated to get it done. I heard that we're in for some chilly weather, though, so I washed and blocked it today. It is now drying and will hopefully be done in time to keep me toasty.



It has turned out to be one of those big and cozy sweaters, but it isn't really suitable to be worn to work or anything.

I've been meaning to talk about the yarn I used for this sweater, Rowanspun Aran. Lets just say I can see why Rowan discontinued this yarn. It's a very pretty yarn, definitely, but working with it is a challenge. It's a felted yarn, and I think that process must weaken the yarn. Also, it was spun with really thin spots throughout each hank. So between these two things, the yarn is pretty easy to snap. I just hope that since it's all knitted up, it will have enough strength. It also produced a fairly stiff fabric which I hope will become more fluid as it gets washed. I've had this difficulty with tweed yarns in the past. Finally, it bled like crazy in its bath, stained the towel I used to squeeze the water out and it stained the sweater I was wearing while I carried it folded over my arm while it was damp. Overall, not impressed.

I have moved on to my next project - the Cozy V-neck Pullover from Fitted Knits. I'm using Cascade Ecological Wool. This yarn is the complete opposite of Rowanspun. It's strong, soft and fluid. I'm knitting a bulky sweater but it has both the weight and drape of a worsted weight sweater. I'm in love. The color is a beautiful Crayola Burnt Siena.



I also gave a knitted baby sweater to my advisor whose wife had a baby in November. I don't think I ever showed a photo of the completed sweater on the blog, but now I can't find the one I took. I'll look around for it. Anyway, the recipients were very grateful for the gift and made me a thank you note that is just precious:



Yup, that's the baby wearing the sweater. Doesn't that just warm a knitter's heart? I think that's the best reception my knitting has ever had.

Grrr

Network server is down at the office. This is a major pain in the ass. No printing, no accessing case files, to be quite honest I have no clue how it is that I even have Internet access. My computer isn't connected to anything that I am aware of right now and my wireless modem is turned off.

Anyway, on to knitting. As a result of three days of deposition reading I have made quick progress on my Dollar and Half Cardigan. I have finished the cabled front panel and am nearly finished with the back. That will leave the other front half, sleeves, and the button band to go. I have just over one skein of yarn left, which I will use for the button band. The sleeves will be done in newly bought yarn, which means that it will probably be a different dye lot.

Restless

That is what I have been. It happens to us all. I am waiting for some yarn and a book and am impatient for their arrival. I haven't wanted to go further with Venezia, so I decided to read, but reading wasn't engaging enough so I wanted to knit with nothing moving me to knit I decided to use up some left overs and make a hat

The hat started with using yarn that was left over from a Seaman's cap I made last week, unfortunately, there wasn't enough black left over to make an entire second hat. As I ran low on black I searched around in my pile of left over yarn for some dark green Cotton Fleece (the same yarn as the black) which I thought I had. I couldn't find the dark green, no clue how or what it was used on, but it wasn't with my other left overs. What I did find though was my left over from Lotus Blossom, Candy Apple, so I used that instead. I wanted to try to make the hat as black as possible, but I didn't have enough black to do more than what you see above.

I finished the Seaman's Cap on Sunday morning and needed something else to knit. Venezia still didn't move me, mostly because I wanted to continue reading and there was NO way that I could do Venezia and read at the same time. I reached into my limited stash and pulled out some Cotton Fleece in Rue colorway that I inherited when Crisis of Praxis moved to San Francisco and cast on for the Dollar and Half Cardigan from the Spring 2007 issue of IK. I know for a fact that I don't have enough of this yarn to finish the cardigan but I was way to restless and impatient to wait to see if I could find more yarn.

Originally this was going to be a March project. I planned on casting on for Celtic Icon from Inspired Cable Knits, but since Webs still hasn't charged my card for the yarn I ordered on Wednesday and since my copy of the book hasn't arrived from Amazon yet, I felt that I had little other choice but to start this now. I am modifying the original pattern and knitting the body in one piece instead of 3. I have eliminated the slevedge stitches from the back and am using a purl stitch to create a faux seam. So far this seems to be working out ok, though the faux seam gets lost during the reverse stockinette sections of the pattern.

The sweater seems to be moving along pretty quickly, but that is probably because I spent most of Sunday and Monday working on it. I have been able to work on this while reading, which is excellent because I have tons and tons of deposition transcripts to review and they can be mind numbingly tedious. Speaking of mind numbing tedium, it is time I get started reading today's dose of transcripts. Have a good one all!

Slow Progress

For some reason I have lost inspiration on Venezia. I have an idea why this is, but it is still a surprise to me. I think I have lost inspiration because I am uncertain about the sizing. I am afraid that it won't fit right. I also haven't been in the mood to think and there are modifications that I am making that require some serious thought. As a result of the inspiration lost I am only a few rows into the body of Venezia.

I did manage to finish the second Orchid Lace Mitt. I ended up following the pattern correctly but ended the repeats short to keep the 2 mitts the same length on my hands. The length on my arms is different, but since I anticipate that sleeves will cover most of the arm I don't really care about that.

Finally for today, I started a Seamans cap yesterday. I had to rip out once and start again, so I haven't gotten very far. This is a belated Christmas gift for a friend.

Mayday! Mayday!

I feel like one of those WWII planes that got hit by German flak on a mission over France. At the moment, I'm still airborne, but going down fast. I am in the process of being taken out by a cold. Admittedly, it's a slow mover. I knew the minute it started. I felt a scratch in my throat and a wave of fatigue. Those symptoms are still there, but they haven't worsened much. However, my husband was sick last week, so I know to expect. Either it's a bad cold or he's a big baby. I'll let you know.

In addition to this, I went two straight days without knitting! How unbelievable is that? My thesis is due at the end of March and I'm starting to seriously freak out, so I spent two nights until 2 a.m. working. I'd intended to knit both nights, but by the time I packed it in for the night, I was too beat and it was too late.

I figured the cold was my body's signal to me - SLOW DOWN, GET SOME SLEEP, GO FOR A WALK, KNIT, RELAX--OR ELSE!!! My body's messages are not subtle.

So, I finally knit that sleeve cap tonight, fixed the back neck where I'd screwed up my short row technique, and pinned the pieces together. Before I knit the second sleeve, I want to make sure it's all OK. I mean, I winged the sleeve cap so the chance for disaster was pretty big.

Well, it all works! I love it! I tried it on and absolutely love the way it fits. I know, I know. It's simple, it's plain. But it combines elements from about 3 sweaters that I love, so it's perfect! In this photo, I think you can make out the tweedy bits:



Now, onto the second sleeve and then a new sweater! Yay!

An Uncluttered Life

Getting rid of all of the clutter in my life is something that I've wanted to do for a while now. To me, it's simpler to have less stuff. I've had people to tell me that I need to simply get a bigger home, but it seems to be that this isn't the answer. Although small, my home is already larger than what most people in New York or Boston have, so certainly, I can make do.

On Saturday, since it was raining, it seemed like a good day to stay indoors and get some stuff done around the house. So, I began the difficult chore of shoveling out our den. Before I began, there was dust, cat hair and piles of crap everywhere. My desk was an avalanche of papers and junk and there was knitting stuff on every surface, including the floor. Yarn, needles, notions, half-finished projects - you name it.

After about 8 hours of organizing and getting rid of stuff, I now have this:



The best part is that everything is actually put away in a way that I think it can stay that way. That is what has eluded me in the past.

I also have started a new sweater project. It's an original design, although since it's so plain, it can hardly be called original. However, it is all mine. It's a sweater that I've had in my head for years it seems, so I thought I'd finally knit it. I've had the yarn about as long as I've had the idea brewing as well - it's Rowanspun Aran in a really dark tweedy blue. I love the green specks.



This is the sleeve. When this photo was in my camera, I could see the stitches and the tweedy bits, but on my computer screen, it's a dark blob. Hopefully, you can see it better than I can. I designed the sleeve cap last night, so I'm going to finish knitting it tonight and as soon as I have time, I'm going to set it in to see if it fits in the armhole. I call this project Julian because it is the kind of sweater I would wear for a day in the mountains. It's soft, cozy and slightly oversized for a casual look. I think I'm going to be happy with it.

Hodge Podge

I knit gifts for only 2 people this holiday season. I made a mini-Clapotis for my grandmother and I made a mini-Jeannie for an Aunt. I haven't sent the mini-Jeannie off yet, so I don't know how it will be received. This is a drop stitch cable pattern that was designed to be sort of a stole/shawl type thing. I knew that I did not have enough Seasilk to make it a stole, so I turned it into a scarf. It still isn't a very big scarf, but I think it is long enough to be OK.

I have made some progress on Venezia and now have 2 sleeves knit to the same point. I am not going to bother sharing a photo since each sleeve looks the same and I have already shared a photo of the first sleeve.

I took a short break from Venezia, mostly because I needed to print out my redone version of the chart and my printer at home isn't working, and during the break I began making a pair of Orchid Lace Mitts. I am using some of my Malabrigo lace weight yarn. I have one mitt finished and the second one started. I have discovered that I made a mistake with the orchid lace motif on the first mitt. I read one line as being "repeat rows 2-14 two times" when in fact it said "repeat these 14 rows two times" Now my dilemma is whether or not to repeat the mistake on the second mitt, or to correct it.

Autumn Rose FO

Happy New Year!

Awhile back, I claimed to have finished Autumn Rose, but I offered no photographic proof that I really had finished it. Today, I correct that oversight. I have only the one photo to share, but you can see that it is done. I really like this sweater but I have some concerns, first I probably could have made the next size down, I didn't account for the impact of a U neckline. Also the raglan shaping seems a bit long. Other than that though, I love the sweater.

Oh, I am on Ravelry now, you can look for me as NorthEndKnitter. Well, that is all I have for now. Enjoy your New Year's Day.