Lots of Swatches
I’ve been making a lot of swatches lately for my Stitches II class. It’s been kind of fun trying out a lot of different stitch patterns, but it’s been frustrating doing all this work with no finished product. I’ve also been working on sample cards for the store; no finished product, but the store credit is nice.
The River shawl is coming along. I did not get nearly as much knitting done at the beach as I was hoping (lots of shopping time though). I’m about 23% done with the shawl. I’m getting a little faster, but still no mistakes.
I’m really looking forward to this summer with a lot of free knitting time. No upcoming projects for people, no homework for knitting classes…I can just work on any knitting project that I feel like doing. Maybe I’ll spend the summer knitting up all of that sock yarn I have? Maybe I’ll make a whole lot of scarves? Maybe I’ll tackle an intricate sweater? The possibilities.
The one thing I know I’ll be doing this summer is taking a week long intensive weaving class at WEBS. Should be fun.
Sleeping Bundle
I haven’t had a child fall asleep in a weird place for awhile. But it happened the other night with Liam.
Even though it was still well before bedtime, looks like he decided he just couldn’t stay awake for dinner and fell asleep in the middle of the dining room.
The Yarn Harlot is coming to WEBS on Saturday. And it sounds like it’s going to be a big event. Unfortunately, I’m missing her since I’ll be at the beach with my friend and two other women all weekend. But I do see one or two yarn stops on my drive down. And of course I’ll be getting a lot of knitting done. I’m hoping to make a lot of progress on River.
Emerging Pattern
I decided that I just needed to get going on the River shawl and cast on with the best needles I had. I did go with the Denise needles and they’re working fine. They’re almost pointy enough to deal with all of the K2tog. And the joins aren’t causing any problems. I start a row with all of the stitches bunched up on the needle like this.
And then as a knit the stitches, they just slide right over the join on the other needle.
I ended up doing a knitted cast on with size US 13 needles. It appears that the edge with be stretchy enough. Nice and simple.
I’m hoping not to make any mistakes as I knit along. This yarn does not like to let go of itself so ripping back is out of the question. And tinking would be really time consuming. But I’m 30 rows into the shawl and no mistakes yet. And now I can see the pattern emerging.
I didn’t do a swatch first, but the shawl appears that it’s knitting just an inch wider on the US 10.5 needles. I shouldn’t have any problem blocking this to the correct size. So going down a mm in needle size was a fine plan. If I continue knitting my five rows a day, I shouldn’t have any problem finishing this by June. But this isn’t my favorite yarn to knit with. It’s kind of stressful knitting. But the resulting fabric is so weightless and lovely, it’s sure to be a nice finished shawl.
Matching Lace Bind Off
So here’s an example of the decorative lace cast on that I’m considering using for the River shawl.
I like the nice loops, but now I can’t figure out what a good matching bind off would be. The trick here is that there are half as many of these loops as the number of stitches you cast on. So I can’t figure out how to duplicate this when binding off. Here’s a yarn over bind off.
The yarn overs kind of duplicate the decorative loops in the cast on, but there are those connecting smaller loops between the yarn over loops that makes the bind off look different.
What to do? Maybe I’ll just go with a very loose cast on and bind off and just get started. But on what needles…?
I can’t seem to find just the right needles for the project. Nothing seems to be pointy AND slippery AND long enough for me. And there are no 7 mm US equivalent needles around. But wait, I just noticed my Denise needles. They’re pointy and slippery and long enough. But I’m not sure if the join between the cord and needle will be smooth enough. And of course there is no 7 mm size, but I already gave up on finding that. I did just finish a fuzzy shawl with lots of YO and K2Tog. I’m quite used to the Denise needles now. Maybe I’ll go with them.
Finished Project: Ultralight Shawl
Project Specs:
Pattern: Made it up as I went along. About 50 stitches across.
Yarn: Filatura Di Crosa Ultralight
Needles: I think I used US 10.5 Denise Interchangeable needles
My Blog Links: Upcoming Projects
This shawl is for my grandmother. I haven’t heard yet what she thinks. But it’s very soft and light. I’ll keep you posted. It was very easy, brainless knitting.
Cast On Lace Method
I’m back! The Montessori Auction is over and I’m slowly working my way back to my regular life. The piles in my home are decreasing, my knitting time is increasing, I played a game of Monopoly with Ella, and I even got to see The White Countess.
I’ve gotten the go ahead to begin River as written. And I’m off! I hadn’t cast on yet since I couldn’t figure out what the “lace method” cast on was. I remember reading about a lace cast on in the new Knitting Answer Book. I looked it up again and tried it with some scrap yarn. It’s not difficult at all and leaves decorative loops across the edge of knitting. Here’s a description of the method:
1. Starting with a slip knot on the left needle, wrap the yarn behind the left needle to make a yarn over.
2. Insert the right needle between the knot and yarn over.
3. Wrap the yarn around the right needle and knit a stitch.
4. Slip the new stitch onto the left needle knit-wise.
5. Repeat the four steps.
Now this method does result in an odd number of stitches. So if you need an even number, cast on one more stitch than you need and slip off the slip knot stitch when you reach the end of the first row.
My next hurdle was to figure out what exactly a yfwd is. I suspected it was just a regular yarn over, but I needed to confirm this before going on. Finally I came across a post at let me explaiKnit, properly titled “So, um, what’s this “yfwd” thing?” It’s a British term basically meaning a YO. Ah, the joys of working from a Rowan pattern.
I’ve tried all of my US 10.5 needles in the house and I need something much pointier to get through the K2Tog in this shawl. I’ll stop by the store tomorrow and pick up some Bryspun needles if they seem slippery enough to me. Then I’ll finally be moving along.
