I made the Seraphina Shawl just about a year ago.  The pattern is written a bit oddly but the pattern isn’t difficult to get the hang of.  The shawl itself makes a gorgeous bat (or angel) wing shape that actually stays put on one’s shoulders without resort to tying, pinning, holding on or contortions - always a nice feature :) I gave this shawl away to someone who adored it because I didn’t like the yarn - an acrylic boucle that felt seriously yucky to me.  In fact I hadn’t bought the yarn because of it’s fiber content but because it was the first self-striping yarn I had ever seen and I was dying to see how it worked up.

But lately, I’ve been remembering the lovely shape of it and the fact that when I put it on, it stayed where I wanted it to stay instead of meadering around my shoulders and down my back without so much as a by-your-leave.  And I wanted to make another one so I dug out a ball of lace weight wool (of which I thought I had plenty) and a ball of rayon flake (of which I thought I had a ton) and went to work with a size G (4.25 mm) hook and the two lace-weight threads carried together.  Much smaller scale than the original than my original effort which was worked with a size J (6.00 m) hook and bulky, fluffy yarn.  And oh, was it beautiful!

But of course, while I knew I had 800+ yards of the wool, I’d forgotten I wasn’t working to the same scale.  Doing it this way was going to require substantially more yardage.  And while last night I was prepared to swear that I had at least 1000 yards of the rayon flake, I couldn’t find it anywhere.  I went through each cabinet and every box and bag.  Nada, zip, zilch, goose eggs.  Well, poop…

So I will need to rip this and start again with something I know I have plenty of.  If I wanted to put it off (which I don’t but which may be necessary) I could simply designate a box or a bag for “Seraphina” and collect sport/DK weight yarns in a particular color range and a variety of textures and then go to work when I have a sufficient quantity.  Anyone out there think I’ll wait that long?  Neither do I :)

The other thing I’ve been thinking about is sleeveless-ness.  For several years now I’ve been enviously eyeing all the pretty tanks and otherwise sleeveless tops that come out during the warm weather.  And there are a ton of patterns for these garments and, for the most part, they’re simple to do.  Two things have been stopping me.  For many years, I avoided sleeveless tops because I have rather broader-than-usual shoulders and felt that the no-sleeve look made me look like a line-backer :)

Well, I’ve lost 42 pounds (and counting!) and am beginning to wonder if I mightn’t take the chance rather than spending another summer consumed by envy of those who didn’t worry about having sleeves on their summer tops.

The other issue is that I abhor the bra-strap-peeking-out look (and don’t even get me started on those plastic “invisible” bra straps...) and because of the mastectomy (and that fact that I seem to have been built droopy in the first place - I’ve had old-lady boobs since I was fifteen), I can’t go without a bra.  Well, I won’t - not in public anyway :)

But I was looking around this morning and had another long look at Grumperina’s Picovoli and have been wondering if that wouldn’t fit the bill.  At least one modification would have to be made, of course.  I would minimize or even eliminate the waist shaping because I don’t have a waist...maybe in another 50 pounds :) But the rest of it seems good and I like the idea of it being top down and worked all in one piece.

I even have yarn, believe it or not!

This is Classic Elite Pure and Simple, naturally dyed, cotton sport weight and it’s been in the stash for quite a long time because while I love cotton, I don’t much love the color of this stuff (or lack of color - depends on how you look at it, I guess).  However, it’s not much to risk for an experiment and if the tops turns out to be a howling success that I love to pieces - I can dye it (or have it dyed).

So that’s what been on what passes for my mind over the last couple of days.  Have any of you had a stab at Picovoli?  Like it?  Loathe it?  Things to watch out for?  I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Yes, it’s still raining here and is likely to go on raining for at least another couple of days.  Here’s hoping all your weekends at least, are bright and sunny :)

Gaaaaaah - it’s raining.  Again!  Heavily!!!

Sigh....oh well.  Such is life and into every life a little rain must fall and it falleth on the just and the unjust alike and similar duck-billed platitudes…

The idea behind the baby blanket is that it is constructed on the diagonal.  It begins with a few stitches, gradually increases out to the desired width and then decreases back to the same few stitches and is bound off.  This is a popular method for simple dish and washcloths and is usually done in garter stitch.

I wanted a little variation on the garter stitch so I incorporated a slipped stitch into the overall pattern.  A very small difference to be sure but it makes a beautiful fabric and creates a very different looking texture than plain garter stitch. 

Simple Simon Baby Blanket

Slipped stitch edge and garter stitch border

Cast on 3 stitches.

Row 1:  (and all right side rows) Sl 1 purlwise wyif, knit to end of row
Row 2:  Sl 1*, (k, yo, k) all into next stitch, k1 (5 stitches)
Row 4:  Sl 1, (k1, yo) twice, k2 (7 stitches)
Row 6:  Sl 1, k1, yo, k3, yo, k2 (9 stitches)
Row 8:  Sl 1, k1, yo, k5, yo, k2 (11 stitches)
Row 10:  Sl 1, k1, yo, k7, yo, k2 (13 stitches)
Row 12:  Sl 1, k1, yo, k9, yo, k2 (15 stitches)
Row 14:  Sl 1, k1, yo, k11, yo, k2 (17 stitches)
Row 16:  Sl 1, k1, yo, k13, yo, k2 (19 stitches)

Slip stitch blanket pattern

Row 18:  Sl 1, k1, yo, k7, sl 1, k7, yo, k2 (21 stitches)
Row 20:  Sl 1, k1, yo, k7, sl 1, k1, sl 1, k7, yo, k2 (23 stitches)
Row 22:  Sl 1, k1, yo, k7, (sl 1, k1) twice, sl 1, k7, yo, k2 (25 stitches)
Row 24:  Sl 1, k1, yo, k7, (sl 1, k1) three times, sl 1, k7, yo, k2 (27 stitches)
Row 26:  Sl 1, k1, yo, k7, (sl 1, k1) four times, sl 1, k7, yo, k2 (29 stitches)

Continue in this fashion, increasing two stitches on every wrong-side row.

When the blanket is as wide as you’d like it to be you can begin decreases on both sides of the blanket as follows, taking Row 26 above as our example (and having worked Row 27 - sl 1, knit to end).  The next row (the first decrease row) would look like this:

Sl 1, k1, yo, (k2tog) twice, k5, (sl 1, k1) three times, sl 1, K5, (k2tog) twice, yo, k2 (27 stitches)

You would continue this way, decreasing 2 stitches on every wrong-side row and working one fewer repeat of the (sl 1, k1) in the center of the blanket.

I haven’t decided yet whether I want to do an edging on this blanket but it would lend itself well to that treatment if you so desired - either knit or crochet :)

I have frogged the turquoise sock as being too tight.  I will either learn to figure gauge properly or I’ll stop knitting socks - yeah, like that’s going to happen :) I will find a pattern eventually that I like and that doesn’t drive me crazy.  As Myria says, more like a putt than a drive…

I am also playing with another project which I won’t detail just yet - any more than to say that I was working on the very same pattern around this time last year :)

Stay dry friends - Rain hats and rubber boot all around!

I spent a fair amount of the weekend looking for a lace pattern to tickle my fancy - something fairly open.  Although I tried several things, nothing really suited me so I’m still searching.  Time for me to get the Barbara Walker books out of the library again, I can see that!

I did get another baby blanket started and it’s coming out (and coming along) nicely.

I had started something entirely different out of my vast left-over Red Heart stash and it was going to be quite funky in assorted purples and greens.  But after knitting about 5 inches of the thing I started wondering how this yarn would feel to a baby’s relatively tender skin if it felt this rough on mine?  I think I knit another whole row while I was mulling it over and that was the end of that.

This yarn is Encore Colorspun and has been languishing in the stash for quite a while now.  It’s a self-striping white/pastel and it is tons softer than the Red Heart.  I feel much better about this going over a little sleeper and I won’t worry about it acting like sandpaper on baby’s skin.

The pattern is based on the standard diagonal garter stitch dishcloth (or washcloth or shawl, etc...) There’s a slip stitch border and the traditional eyelets around the perimeter.  Instead of straight, unrelieved garter stitch for the body of the blanket though, there’s a garter stitch border surrounding a body of garter slip stitch (Row 1:  *slip 1, knit 1*, Row 2: Knit).  This produces a nice pattern with no rolling whatsoever.  I’ve played with this idea before thinking it might come in handy some day.  The slip stitch pattern does tend to compress the fabric somewhat so to keep things nice and soft I went to a size 10 (US) needle.  The resulting fabric is drapey and comfortable without being hole-y :) Well...except at the eyelet border… There might be a further edging around the outside too.  That will depend on how much yarn I have left when I finish with the blanket itself.

I also started another pair of socks,,,

Having decided that I didn’t want lacey socks this time, I started with the gull-wing-cable mentioned in Friday’s post. However, I found it to be a bit difficult at the fingering-weight-size1-needles scale.  It was the cabling that was problematic to me - despite that being something I can do easily most times.  I’m certain I’ll try it again eventually but this was almost impossible for my fat fingers to manage.  After fumbling through a pattern repeat (which wound up looking like the dog’s breakfast) I frogged back to the ribbing and decided to try something else.

This is a variation on the tweed-mock-rib from the 365 Knitting patterns a year calendar.  In the round, it goes like this:

On an even number of stitches:

Round 1:  *Sl1, K1, YO, pass the slipped stitch over both the K1 and the YO.*
Round 2:  Knit
Round 3:  Knit

This version has an extra knit row.  I played with that last night and decided I liked the way it looked.  Besides, it tickles me to have a stitch pattern with an odd number of rounds :) I think this looks pretty nice but am concerned that it may produce too dense a fabric.  I’ll work a little further before deciding anything.  This is also some of the dyed merino - it feels wonderful and I have to say the color looks pretty good :)

And today, we have actual sun!  Imagine that!  I’m going to see about blocking poor Dragon Wings which I have putting off because of the wet weather (don’t want it to turn into Mildew Membranes after all...) More rain is predicted for later this week, but I’m hoping today and tomorrow will give me a little breather.

Hope your respective weeks are productive and enjoyable!

Here is both the first item for my Dulaan 2007 bag and the first thing made up in my own home dyeing experiments.

This is the kool-aid dyed Fisherman’s wool and you can see the variations in tone in the hat.  To my eye it looks similar to a handful of plums :) Anyway, I like the variations.  The yarn seemed no different in texture after the processing though it was a bit softer.  It retained its loft and worked up easily and well just as it does when I haven’t been messing around with it’s color :).

Now, remember the beet cooking water infused with tea I was going on about a couple of days ago?  To that got added red, yellow and orange dye plus a little vinegar to up the acid component.  The last of my natural fingering weight got washed and then dumped (carefully, of course!) into the pot.  This went longer than all the other attempts because the dye wouldn’t exhaust.  Finally, after about 6 hours, I shut it down.  After it had cooled sufficiently for me to rinse and wash it, I could see that there wasn’t any dye crocking into the water so the yarn had taken up all the color it could.  The tea had an interesting muting effect on what should really been a very bright orange.

More like cantaloupe, wouldn’t you say?  I’m not really an “orange” person but this is pretty neat and not too...um...screaming :) It has lots of golden undertones and some bronze.  Here’s the swatch…

I am noticing that after the yarn is dyed, washed and dried - it often sticks to itself as though it has fulled or felted slightly.  Actually this happened with all three hanks of the Knitpicks merino but not with the Lionbrand Fisherman’s wool.  I’m wondering if I’m not handling it gently enough in the dyebath.  I do stir it around periodically - but gently, always gently.  And I never wring, twist, fold spindle or mutilate it - but I do squeeze it both to distribute dye and to get out as much water as possible before hanging it to dry.  Could that be what’s doing it?  The felting isn’t enough to be a problem - I have no trouble unwinding the hank and winding the ball but the yarn is a little “sticky” for lack of a better word.

I’ll pass along a couple of stitch patterns that I’m thinking about for socks.  You’ll notice a theme :) Both are from the Barbara Walker Treasuries.  There may be charts later, but no promises :)

Gull Wing Lace - Panel of 7 stitches

Row 1:  Purl
Row 2:  K1, K2tog, YO, K1, YO, SSK, K1
Row 3:  Purl
Row 4:  K2tog, YO, K3, YO, SSK

Triple Gull Stitch Cable - Panel of 10 stitches

Row 1:  (RS) P2, K6, P2
Row 2:  K2, P6, K2
Row 3:  P2, K6, P2
Row 4:  K2, P2, sl2 wyif, P2, K2
Row 5:  P2, sl next 2 sts to cable needle and hold in back. K1.  K2 from cable needle.  Sl next st to cable needle and hold in front.  K2, then knit the stitch from the cable needle. P2
Rows 6-9:  Repeat rows 4 and 5 twice more.
Row 10:  K2, P6, K2
Row 11:  P2, K6, P2
Row 12:  K2, P6, K2

Have a great weekend!

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