Finished Project: Inspiration Scarf
Project Specs:
Pattern: based on Barbara Walker’s Baby Cable Ribbing from A Treasury of Knitting Patterns, CO 46 stitches
Yarn: 3 hanks of Classic Elite’s Inspiration, 50% cashmere/50% cotton in color 20526
Needles: US 6
Size: 58″ x 5″
This is one of my finished holiday gifts, so sadly, I won’t be able to keep. This yarn is incredibly soft and has a wonderful drape. But there is no elasticity to it. So it became a scarf instead of a hat. If you want some of this yarn, hurry. There’s not much left in the WEBS warehouse.
(Thanks for being my scarf model, Bill.)
Finished Project: Messenger Bag
Project Specs:
Pattern: my own
Yarn: Valley Yarns Amherst in Charcoal (7 balls) and Soft Grape (1 ball)
Needles: US 10 1/2 circs
Size: height-10 1/2â€, width-12â€, depth-3 3/4â€, strap length-38â€
My Blog Links: I’m So Behind
The bag worked out in the end. It’s just the right size for 3-ring binders; the size I was shooting for. The big flap makes it so you don’t need any buttons or snaps to keep it closed. The strap is just the right length for me to wear it comfortably across my chest, my preferred method of carrying a messenger bag. Ella’s already requested that I make one for her, just a little smaller. I considered adding inside pockets which would be easy to do, but I decided to keep it simple. Oh, I’ve got to mention how much I love this yarn. My first time working with Amherst. It’s so soft and lovely. Maybe a little fancy for a felted messenger bag, but it felts great, even in my front loader.
I’m So Behind
I’m quite behind on blogging, but not my holiday knitting. I’ve been busy, busy knitting.
Finally, I felted the messenger bag that I made for the store. I was nervous that the slip stitch flap wouldn’t work out. Here it is before felting.
And here it is blocking after felting.
As I feared, the slip stitch felted quite differently than the body. But I stretched it out all I could and it’s blocking right now. It’s hard waiting for it to dry. I really hope that it’s done by the morning. Fortunately the strap seems to be the right length. Twenty-five points for the person that can come up with a good name for my bag pattern. I’m not the most clever. But I imagine there’s something better than “Messenger Bag.”
Other soon-to-be finished projects to post: my raglan sweater, cashmere/cotton scarf, and a kidsilk night scarf. Busy, busy. And of course I still haven’t blogged about Rhinebeck. Probably too late now.
More New Techniques
This weekend I took two classes from Maureen Mason-Jamison, Japanese Knitting Techniques and Hole-istic Lace. Again, I left both classes with some new techniques or knowledge that I will be able to apply to future projects.
Japanese Knitting Techniques
• I learned how to do Japanese short rows on the knit side and the purl side of the fabric. I’ve never loved the wrap & turn method of short rows, so I’m excited to see how this will work out on my next pair of socks. Since I need to rip out Ella’s socks anyway, I’ll be trying out these new short rows on them.
• Then we moved onto the basic Japanese three-needle bind-off, and some fancy variations. I really only imagine using the basic bind-off on sweaters with cable or color patterns where the pattern extends up to the shoulders.
• We learned how to add edge stitches to the ends of sweater bands to that the bands extend to the edges of the sweater.
• The Japanese short row buttonholes were kind of nice if you want a horizontal button hole. But I still like the one-row ones better.
Hole-istic Lace
• A lot of this class was repeat for me. But we did learn how to use a running marker of waste yarn instead of a ring marker. Supposedly it won’t distort YOs, you’ll see mistakes faster, and it won’t slow you down. Personally I found it a lot slower than just sliding over a ring marker, and I never had a problem with a ring marker distorting my YOs. So I may not be using this technique, but maybe in a complicated pattern.
• We also learned about hard and soft decreases (an a-ha moment), and how to change the direction of wrap for a yarn over or purl stitch to tighten or loosen the stitch. This I may be able to carry over to my ribbing to make it look neater. I haven’t tested it yet.
• Oh and the most useful piece of information I learned was that instead of doing my usually SSK (slip 1st st knitwise, slip next st knitwise), if I slip the second stitch purlwise, I get a much better (and neater) match to my k2tog. Excellent.
Finished Project: Grandma’s Washcloth
Project Specs:
Pattern: Carrying two strands together, CO 45 sts, knit 90 rows of garter stitch, BO.
Yarn: cone of 2.2 Softball (100% cotton) in natural found at WEBS
Needles: US 6
Size: 9 1/4″ x 9 1/4″
My Blog Links: Softball Washcloths
Still soft and squishy, this washcloth is ready for lots of use.
