Are there Rules of Acquisition for yarn?  Perhaps there should be…

We went up to Maine on Wednesday - a lovely ride, but a very, very hot day.  On the way back down Rte.1 as we were starting to head home, Myria spotted a sign that neither of us had noticed before.

“Did you know there was a yarn shop in that plaza?”

I hadn’t known - had never noticed the sign before.  So we stopped (after a little pro forma resistance on my part, of course!) and checked it out.

It’s called The Yarn Sellar and is really quite a nice little shop.  It has a very decent selection of yarns from the standards like Lamb’s Pride and Cascade to things a tad more exotic like Tillie Thomas worsted weight silk (which I stood and fondled for a positively indecent amount of time - you can’t believe how incredibly sensuous this stuff felt!).  The color ranges were very good and though the shop was well stocked, it wasn’t jammed or crowded.  Also, the lady minding the store on Wednesday was very kind and helpful.  In short, this is the kind of store I’d frequent if it were in my neighborhood.

Still - now I have even more to look forward to when we head up to Maine!

No, of course I couldn’t resist temptation.  I did try, but...well...not very hard, I’m afraid.  I won’t tell you this jumped into my arms because I darn well picked it up myself, but this fabulous stuff…

...came home with me.  This is Berroco’s Ultra Alpaca - worsted weight (on the lighter side), 50% alpaca, 50% wool.  I bought all they had of this color, Lavender Mix and it’s wonderfully soft.  In fact I held it to my neck for a few minutes, waiting for the scratchy-itchies to start and they never did!  There were 6 hanks (100 grams/215 yards) one of which was an odd dye lot.  However, even when I got the stuff outside into the sunlight, the odd hank wasn’t discernible from the others.  This will go for next winter’s project - whatever that turns out to be - and I am delighted with it.

After a number of false starts (and just plain goofs, let’s be honest), Bag the 3rd is under way :)

This yarn has such a glorious, gleaming finish that it’s a little difficult (for me, anyway) to photograph well.  It’s also rather slick which is one of the reasons I wound up starting it over several times.  This is the Classic Elite Newport and you want to watch this stuff carefully when you work with it because the slightest inattention causes it to jump right off the needles and unravel like mad :) But it sure works up beautifully.  Given that the yarn itself has such presence, I thought going with a simple basket-weave pattern would do the trick.  I like it so far…

And Bag the 2nd is complete.

I only have a minor quibble with this and it’s the strap - which I don’t really like and will probably change.  I’d like to be longer than that and not quite as heavy.  Fortunately I have plenty more of that yarn so no problem.  Otherwise, I think this works nicely!

Have a great weekend :)

I got started on Bag 2 last night while watching Captain Blood - there is nothing like a swashbuckler and we just don’t seem to make that sort of movie any more :) Showing my age, aren’t I?  Heheh…

I made good progress and was zinging along until the real Bag 2 announced itself at about 11:00 PM - at which point I had no choice but to rip back to the base and start again.

Sorry Ev, I know I promised to try Emily Ocker’s Circular Cast-on on the next bag but I didn’t know the next bag wanted to be crocheted.  I will try it with the next knitted bag :)

In the crocheted version of these mitts (scroll down for pattern and technique), I used a simple crochet technique which produced rows of chains on the surface of the work.  It occurred to me last night that if I were to combine that with the spiraling method of some crocheted hat patterns, I could produce a pattern that would look sort of like rope wound around a barrel…

It isn’t anything fancy but I like the look of this very much and think this is going to be a dandy little pouch :)

Oh yes, I did finish the first one…

...but I’m still not sure it’s all that.  I’ve got till the end of next week to get these done, so I guess I’ll live with it for a couple of days and see how it strikes me then.  Hopefully it will start seeming more like a cute, semi-funky bag and less like an inverted, misshapen mushroom :)

The shawl border didn’t advance much over the weekend because I just didn’t want a lap full of wool :) The scarf did get a little work but I had to take some time to look for a second ball of yarn (which I knew I had - I just couldn’t find it).  Of course when I finally did locate the yarn and get it spliced to the working strand from the scarf, I noticed that the eyelets on the left were all wonky and had been pretty much through the last repeat of the pattern.

Grump, grumble, frog....

So I decided it was time to get those bags under way - the ones I wanted to make for my friends.  And you know, ideas were less than forthcoming :) I scoured all my magazines and on-line resources (nothing felted, this is cotton - not wool!), I made several attempts trying one thing and another and basically discovered a number of new ways to waste time...and yarn :)

And then it occurred to me that one of those dishcloths - the ones that are knit in short-row wedges to make a round cloth - would make a great bottom for a pouch bag :) Well, not the cloth exactly because you don’t really want the edging, but the technique.  So I cast on and went to work…

I had tried to do this first in garter stitch, as the dish cloths are done. This would have produced a perfectly proportioned wedge of which you’d need six (or seven or eight - depending on how many stitches you start with and how big your circle is going to be) to make the circular bottom of the bag.  Unfortunately I couldn’t seem to keep track of what row I was on - hence I never knew whether I was dropping a stitch this row or just working the return - and which row is this now?  I know it sounds stupid - it is stupid :) But I couldn’t keep it straight to save my life.

So I decided to try it in stockinette.  This didn’t created nicely proportioned wedges because stockinette stitches aren’t as even as garter stitches.  It did work though, creating more of a spiraling type of effect (and using one wedge less than expected).  I should have used a temporary cast on but, of course, didn’t think of it so at the end I just picked up a cast on stitch for every stitch on the needle and knit them together, binding off as I went along.  There remained a nickel sized hole in the center, but a strand of yarn, threaded through and pulled tight solved that problem :)

I also discovered the advantages of the “wrap and turn” technique as I worked out the short rows.  I haven’t bothered with it in the past because it kind of interrupts the flow of the knitting and that annoys me.  But, since the alternative was to have holes in the bottom of the bag, I gave it a try.  It still interrupts the flow of the knitting, but the resulting fabric is whole (as opposed to holey!) and that’s worth a little annoyance I guess :)

Then I picked up stitches around the base, worked a couple of rounds of purl stitches and then swapped over to knitting.  After about 10 rounds, I did 5 rounds of seed stitch, a few more rounds of stockinette, a round of bobbles, and so forth.  I’m more or less pleased with it at this point (what you see inside the bag in the picture above is a can of soup, holding the bag’s shape) and only have to figure out how to end things.  There need to be eyelets, of course, for the ties and perhaps a little ruffle around the top?

This is smaller than I imagined when I began and I’m still not sure that’s what I want, but I’ll finish it and then see how I feel about it.  I doubt the other two bags will look anything like this though it’s always possible :) Part of the fun of doing this sort of thing is letting the imagination run around, picking up everything and anything that strikes its fancy!

Oh yeah…

And it’s also fun to have a growing container to keep things tidy when you’re not working on them!

The quick pick-up seems as though it’s going to work out just splendidly :)

I cast 15 stitches onto a size 9 DPN and then, using another needle and a small ball of the border yarn, picked up 17 or 18 stitches going down the side of the shawl.  That small ball in the above photo will only be used for picking up stitches as I work my way down the side.  Then I attached the working yarn and began to do the border, knitting out to the edge and purling back to the side of the shawl.  The border is attached to the shawl with a p2tog, where one stitch is the last stitch of the border and the other is your first picked-up stitch.

Funny thing, I had the number of stitches to pick up all worked out to be a multiple of 16 because there are 16 rows in the border pattern.  Anyone see what’s wrong with this?  Bueller?  While there are indeed 16 rows to the pattern, only 8 of them get attached to the shawl - only the purl rows, so only half the number of pattern rows.  This didn’t turn out to be catastrophic because if the number of picked-up stitches was divisible by 16, it was divisible by 8 but it annoyed me all the same.  I keep making this mistake and no amount of self-lecturing, finger-shaking, bribery or threat seems to make any difference.

Anyway, after a couple of repeats, I had this:

The big ball of yarn on the right is what I’m working the stitches with and the little ball on the left is what I’m using to pick up the stitches.  You probably can’t tell from the picture, but there are 15 working stitches on the needle and a couple of picked up stitches at the end.  When I pick this up to work on again, I’ll take off that point protector and put it on the other end of the needle (to keep my working stitches safe).  Then, using the little ball of yarn, I’ll pick up another 16 - 24 stitches down the side of the shawl, move the point protector back to the other end of the needle and work another couple of repeats or so of the border lace.  Repeat until border is complete.  I think I’m going to like this better than picking up all the stitches at once on a long circular :)

I’m going to meeting with some friends for lunch in a couple of weeks.  I’ve already missed the birthdays of two of them and the third’s is soon enough that I probably won’t see her again before then.  So I thought maybe purses/bags might be nice - especially if I can think of something special to put inside them.  Something like the Peony Purse.  I’d like that shape anyway if not exactly the pattern since I’ve only got about two weeks to get these done and that pattern is a little elaborate.  Also, two of the yarns I found are marled and not suited, in my opinion to fancy texture work.

This is Classic Elite Flash - you’ve seen it here before :) This is really nice, light worsted weight cotton yarn.  It works up well, washes beautifully and maintains its good looks.  I use it fairly often when I want cotton because it’s dependable, not very expensive and comes in every color under the sun.  The corn colored yarn consists of two strands of very light yellow combined with a third strand of deeper yellow.  The ocean colored yarn is a strand of light lavender, a strand of pale aqua and a strand of medium blue.





This is Classic Elite Newport which, I think, has been discontinued.  It’s also a cotton yarn though a bit heavier than the Flash, and has a gorgeous, shimmering finish.  Color selection was very limited, but I lucked into these three related shades and am interested in seeing how this stuff works up.  Now this could handle some texture work :)

Have a great weekend!

Wonder what happens...#1

I finished the first shawl border but still need to do the other side.  I’ve been thinking about picking up stitches - there are 200+ and that’s what I did on the first side - picked up all 200+ on one looooooooog circular needle.  But I’ve been wondering if there’s another way to go about this that might make working things a bit easier. 

I’m thinking it would require the use of 2 strands of yarn: one to pick up the stitches with and one to work them with.  You’d use an appropriately sized DPN and pick up, say, 24 stitches.  Then place a point protector on the back end.  Attach the second strand of yarn, the working yarn, and begin working at the other end.  When you’ve worked through those 24 stitches, remove the point protector from the needle holding your picked up stitches and pick up another 24 - or whatever number is convenient for yo to work with.  Re-cap the pick-up end of the needle and go back to the other end to continue with your border.

Does that sound like it would work?  I’m probably going to give it a try this afternoon.  That big, honking circular is a lifesaver if it’s your only option, but that sucker sure is unwieldy :) I’ll keep you posted…

Wonder what happens...#2

I’ve also, I admit, become a little obsessed (Who?  Me?) with the shawl’s border lace pattern.  An idea occurred to me night before last which I worked on off and on yesterday.  It seemed like a good idea, having gotten my Dulaan 2007 stuff mailed out, to get a start on my Dulaan 2008 stuff.

What I was wondering about was taking the stitch pattern (in the modified form that I’m using on the shawl), mirroring it and using the result as a scarf.  This is what I got:

The pattern is below.  Please forgive me for not providing a chart :)

Cast on 30 stitches

1.  P5, k1, yo, k1, yo, k1, sssk, yo, k8, yo, k3tog, k1, yo, k1, yo, k1, p5.

2.  (and all even rows) Purl.

3.  P5, k1, yo, k3, yo, k1, sssk, yo, k6, yo, k3tog, k1, yo, k3, yo, k1, p5.
5.  P5, k1, yo, k5, yo, k1, sssk, yo, k4, yo, k3tog, k1, yo, k5, yo, k1, p5.
7.  P5, k1, yo, k7, yo, k1, sssk, yo, k2, yo, k3tog, k1, yo, k7, yo, k1, p5.
9.  P5, ssk, yo, k1, sssk, yo, k16, yo, k3tog, k1, yo, k2tog, p5.
11. P5, ssk, yo, k1, sssk, yo, k14, yo, k3tog, k1, yo, k2tog, p5.
13. P5, ssk, yo, k1, sssk, yo, k12, yo, k3tog, k1, yo, k2tog, p5.
15. P5, ssk, yo, k1, sssk, yo, k10, yo, k3tog, k1, yo, k2tog, p5.
16. Purl.

Repeat rowa 1-16 for pattern.

Wonder what happens...#3

Some of you may have seen these photos before but I am reposting them for commenter Opal over at The Akami Knitter, herself the companion of a black cat, who wondered about Jade :)

Happy Wednesday!

I’m working on getting the border applied to the entrelac shawl; I’ve got about 2/3s of the first side done.  Let me tell you something.  This sucker is big!

I knew it was going to be, of course.  I wanted it to be big, I planned for it to be big.  This is huge!  This could be used as a carpet in a small room, or as a tent in a small backyard.  You could upholster a sofa with this thing.  It is soft, all enveloping and smells faintly of the citrus shampoo I washed the yarn in post-dyeing.

It is going to be awesome!

I’m liking the border lace pattern a lot, now that I’ve finally got it memorized.  I admit it did take quite a few iterations before I began to see how the lace actually worked.  I did add another couple of garter stitches to the edge and I like the effect.  As you can see, I decided to go with the natural color of the wool rather than try to co-ordinate another color and I think this looks great.

It strikes me that the whole piece would be a wonderful tutorial/practice piece for knitting backwards.  I do this quite a lot anyway, but entrelac just screams for it and it does make working the border quite a lot less annoying than otherwise.  In fact to facilitate the whole knitting backwards thing, the garter stitch on the border is purled on both sides, rather than knitted :)

You don’t get the scope of this piece when you’re just working on knitting the border lace because the whole piece is never entirely unfolded - especially not now when we’re beginning to get some very warm temperatures as summer draws closer.  A lap full of wool can only be tolerated for so long!

Still progress is being made and I am hugely enjoying this project :) My only problem is figuring out how in the world I’m going to block this thing - anybody got a spare football field? 

Maybe I can just pin it out on the roof....

Well let’s see…

I started this on October 27th of last year...8 months ago?  Since it’s me and since I know how ingrained and well established my tendency to procrastinate is, I’d say that anything less than a year was acceptable for getting this done.  Laudable, even :) Still, there aren’t going to be any speed prizes here.  Bron, sweetie? Your crown is safe :)





It’s finally done.  It is a bit big, but it will be fine for layering over things when colder weather returns.  In fact I wore it Wednesday when I went to lunch with my father because, at least here in the northern MA/southern NH area, the temperature never got out of the low 50s all day.

There are things I would do differently next time - like not make it so big?  Heheh… Well, and while the kimono type sleeve was the best compromise I could make with the huge armscyes, they’re not all that wonderful.  Although I will say they don’t seem to get caught or tangled in things which I was afraid long loose sleeves would do.  Frankly, I don’t need the help :) I don’t dislike the neck treatment, but that was done when I still thought I was going to be making the Licorice Whip and so doesn’t quite go with the rest of the sweater.  I knew then, when I discovered the funkiness with the pattern, that I should have just ripped everything out and started over again but I figured this was going to take me a long time to finish anyway and ripping it back would only prolong the agony fun :)

On the other hand, the tension is good and the stitches look nice and even.  The sleeves came out the right length - and both the same!  It was while working on this that I discovered how nice a purl bind-off looks and what a useful technique it can bee.  I now have a reasonable idea of how raglan shaping works and definitely like the top-down technique with one caveat...working sleeves in the round is a pain in the tuchus.  I think if I did this kind of style again, I’d be tempted to make it a little longer and maybe to add pockets...I like pockets :) It doesn’t quite look “home-made” as opposed to “hand-made” and really, for a first knitted sweater, I feel that’s triumph enough!

Have a great weekend, everyone!