FO: Argante Shawl December 1, 2009

I’m kinda overwhelmed with all of my shawls. But I keep on knitting them, probably in the hopes of eventually knitting myself through this jag. Here’s the latest, in Malabrigo sock yarn, in that lovely Indiecita colorway:

The lace pattern is knitting on at the same time as the shawl.

And the pattern is quite lovely, even though the charts are not quite as complete as my chart-knitting self would have liked. But the directions are very clear and I was able to follow the whole thing, including learning a new style of wrap-and-turn. Great to learn the variations on things, isn’t it?

As I noted before, there was very, very little yarn leftover, but this is much, much better than just being a very little short on needed yarn, so I’m counting this as a total win (even though it’s luck, because I really didn’t weigh the yarn, or anything reasonable like that).

Wanna Join the Wave? November 27, 2009

I got invited to join Google Wave, which is apparently a darling of the tech-geek community. I’m not a tech-geek, so I haven’t figured out what exactly to do with a wave, but I’m sure I’ll get a handle on this.

If you’d like to wave at me on the wave, put a comment in. I have some invites to hand out now!

Malabrigo with a Twist November 25, 2009

I am not a yarnie – that is, I don’t look for all the cool and new yarns, and have to hunt them down on Etsy or other sites. I am pretty happy with what’s available at my local LYS – this one and this one too.

So, when the new Malabrigo Twist became available, it was pretty unusual for me to leap on the bandwagon so quickly. But the favorite colorway was available, so I scooped up two skeins – one for a cowl, and the other will be for a hat.

My feelings about this yarn: it has all the wonderful squishiness and softness of the Malabrigo brand. It is advertised as a subtle thick and thin buiky yarn. I beg to differ, based on the skein that I knitting. It seems more like an Aran-weight yarn, and there wasn’t much thick-and-thin in my skein.

The cowl pattern (Birthday Cowl – a free pattern) worked quite well with the yarn, although I adjusted the stitch count for my gauge.

I will definitely be knitting with this yarn again. Brandy seems to approve as well!

Cutting It Close November 25, 2009

I just cast-off my lovely Argante Shawl.

As I was knitting, I realized that this is one of those project where it might be wise to weigh it as you get close to what you hope is the half-way point, so you know to begin to finish the second half. I don’t own a postal scale (Christmas present this year?), so I judged it by eye.

I began to do the decreases, and kept thinking to myself “Do I have enough yarn to finish this? I know I do…maybe I don’t. I don’t know!” But I kept on knitting anyway. After all, it isn’t that complicated a project, and I could always rip it out. But I hoped, very hard that I wouldn’t.

As I got down to the very last part, I really wasn’t sure. And by the last 10 rows, I knew I had plenty of yarn. See how much I had left when I cast-off?

Talk about cutting it close!

(Yes, this is the same indiecita colorway that I knit the cowl in.)

Pattern: Slip-Stitch Stash Hat (free) November 15, 2009

I’ve written up the stash hat as a free pattern for toddlers to adults.

It’s a free pdf download on Ravelry – Enjoy!
Go here to download.

A Wonderful Spindle Tool November 11, 2009

Fleegle found this tool, so I got one too – it’s lovely and multifunctional for the spindler.

I’m using it in a pretty basic way at the moment, but Fleegle shows all the possibilities.  And the result – I’m back to spinning.  Yay!

BTW – the downloads of the shawl pattern are pretty amazing!  Thanks! The Stash Hat pattern will be finished soon – I’m awaiting a couple of final tweeks, and it’ll be ready to go.

Pattern: Lacy Prayer Shawl (free) November 10, 2009

I am on a board of women clergy types that I’ve now known for 15 years. Fifteen years! They’ve seen me through a lot of ups and downs along the way, and hopefully I’ve done the same.
Isabelle is dealing with a move and surgery at the same time, plus a loss of income while she is recovering. I’ve knit other prayer shawls in the past, but this time, I wanted to do something a little different. As I am want to do, I just cast-on, and created my own little lace pattern.

I’m pretty happy with it – it has a nice rounded look which works well with the Malabrrriiiggo (Malabrigo) merino worsted yarn. It only took two skeins, so you get a lovely shawl for about $20 – what a deal! It has an option crocheted border, which I think works well, and gives structure to the edging. You don’t have to do the crochet, but it’s only single crochet for three rows, so why not learn a new skill?

The shawl pattern is free, and contains both written and charted directions. Go here to download, or save to your Ravelry library.
download now

Edited to add: There was an error in the Written Directions in Row 1. The revised row reads:

Row 1: Slip first stitch purlwise, k3, * k2tog, k1, yo, k1, yo, k1, ssk * repeat ,* repeat between * * to final 4 stitiches, k4.

Magical Blocking (FO: More than 198 Yards) November 7, 2009

The whole blocking thing is simply amazing every time that I do it.

This is the “198 yards of Heaven” pattern, using a lace weight yarn – 6 1/2 repeats in Misti Alpaca yarn – only one skein used here. In it’s pre-blocking state, it looks rumpled, but you can see the pattern.

After a wet-mist blocking using my blocking wires (bought long ago), the difference is amazing:

This is a Christmas present for my mom, who lives in Southern California, and rarely needs something very warm. Lace-weight is about the only thing she’ll need.

I do have a quibble with the pattern itself- the edging chart as written does not match up with the lace pattern in the body. So I finagled my own version to get those yarnovers to nicely match up in my version. There’s a variation in the projects on Ravelry that does a similar thing for those who have a bit of fear of doing this themselves.

FO: Handspun mittens November 3, 2009

I’ve finally taken my first “real” handspun (Blue-Faced Leicester from A Verb for Keeping Warm) and made myself some fingerless mittens. Yum!

Using Up the Little Bits October 30, 2009

Most thrifty knitters find that the leftover yarn for their projects can begin to accumulate over time, and eventually, you have to figure out what to do with them.  I have three different leftover categories:

1. Enough to knit something.  Often the item is small – like a potholder, scrubbie, iPod cozy, etc.  There is enough to do something with it.
2. Needs to be combined to make something.  This is often a few yards left-over even from a knitted mitten, sock or hat.  On it’s own, probably not going to make anything, but with something else, Walla!
3. The bitter ends.  This is the trimmings of ends after weaving in.  I save them for stuffing little cat toys that I knit out of #1 and #2 yarns.

Today I present a hat knit out of category #2 yarns, mostly leftovers from Afghans for Afghans projects. I’ve been collecting wool worsteds in a tote bag, and try to use up the small bits in stripes and the like.  But this time, I realized it was all mostly #2, so I adapted the Slip-a-Color pattern in Knit Hats! for a colorful hat that won’t make this shipment for Afghans for Afghans, but will make someone warm in the future:

 

The Slip-Stitch pattern (which I’ve adapted and written entirely on my own) is a six-round pattern with even number of stitches:

Round 1: Knit with Color A
Round 2: With color B, * k1, slip 1 (with yarn in back) * for the whole round.
Round 3: With B, * p1, slip 1 (with yarn in back) * for the whole round.
Round 4: Knit with Color C.
Round 5: With Color D, * slip 1 (with yarn in back), k1 * for the whole round.
Round 6: With D, * slip 1 (with yarn in back), p1 * for the whole round.

Repeat 1 – 6 rounds, switching in colors as you feel like it!
If I only had enough yarn for a round, I used it for a Round 2 or 5, since that creates the purl bump, and gives a “pop” to the round.

Edited to add: This is now a free pattern as a pdf download on Ravelry. Enjoy! Go here to download.