Come on in - the water’s fine!

We’ve been having the damndest hot spell - up to and over 90ºF for a couple of days and in the mid-eighties for several more.  Right now, at 8 or so in the morning, things are fairly comfortable but there hasn’t been a lot of shawl knitting going on.  Well, that’s not exactly true - I worked on it a bit last night - while the air-conditioning was on :)

Man, do I enjoy working on this!  I love the colors, I love the entrelac, I love imagining it complete and gorgeous (of course!) and being able to wear it whenever I want.

Well...probably not in the 90º heat :)

My order hasn’t arrived from Knit picks yet - the one with the rest of the yarn for the Secret of the Stole and I’m trying not to get nervous about it.  I know a great many of the participants are ordering Knitpicks lace weight yarns and I expect they’re pretty busy right now.  The KAL starts a week from today and I have enough yarn to start with - but I’ll be a slightly happier camper when the rest arrives.

Anybody tried their new Harmony wooden needles?  Frankly, I’m so pleased with the metal ones, I’m not sure I want to bother trying the wood.  And I’m kind of iffy on the multi-color thing - the needles are pretty, certainly, but won’t it be visually confusing when the yarn is added?  Probably not - and I’m probably the only person in the world who would worry about such a goofy thing.  Heheh....

So - I’ve got an entrelac shawl and a pair of Persephone’s socks (working the heel flap now!) in the works.  Come next Friday, I’ll have a stole going as well.  Any reason not to start something else in between? 

Didn’t think so :)

Chatters is on for tomorrow night - same time, same place (see info on sidebar if you’re new).  Come join the fun!

Have a great weekend everyone :)

I read blogs where people talk about liking a particular pattern because it presents a challenge.  I confess with some small embarrassment, that I sometimes avoid challenging patterns.  Often it’s because I want to work on something with techniques I already know how to do - either because it’s something I need to finish quickly (like a gift) or because I want some comfort knitting.

But sometimes it’s because I’m afraid I won’t be able to master the technique and don’t want to spend hours of frustration trying to figure it out.

One of the things I have been avoiding up until now, is any pattern that had an evil yarn-over, that being defined as a yarn-over that occurred between a purl and a knit stitch.  I have tried it before (incorrectly) and wound up with a bunch of muddled eyelets, neither crisp nor clean and looking like a drunk spider had attempted a web in their interiors.  Not good :)

You all remember that on Monday I was moaning about having fallen for Persephone’s Socks but not being able to easily get the pattern.  Well, Monday evening I received a note from Sue, reader and occasional commenter.  She had the pattern, but didn’t think she wanted to make it, and was therefore passing it on to me.

The kindness of people continues to amaze and, sometimes overwhelm me.  Thanks again Sue - most thoughtful and most appreciated.

Aside:  Is it always the case, when ordering patterns, that the shipping costs are seemingly ridiculous?  I’m not accustomed to mail-ordering patterns so when I saw a $6 shipping charge for a $5 item, I nearly swallowed my tongue!  Would the shipping price remain the same if I ordered, say, 5 patterns instead on one?  Those of you who do obtain patterns through the mail, how does this work - or how have you worked it out so that you’re not getting soaked with an absurd shipping charge?

Of course I immediately sat down and read through the pattern, looked at the charts, determined yarn and needles and cast on.  Got through the ribbing in fine style and then began the leg pattern only to run into my dreaded nemesis - the evil yarn-over!

Well, I didn’t let it stop me for long and did eventually figure out how to manage the things so that the eyelets actually looked like eyelets.  It took a few pattern repeats, but, at last I got the hang of it.  I suppose I could have ripped back to the ribbing to re-do the pattern repeats that I was learning on and which are, I’m afraid, a little lame looking :) A better knitter certainly would have.  But I kind of felt that I wanted their presence as a reminder of the learning process.  Working those eyelets helped me to figure out how to work better eyelets and I felt they had earned their place.  So they stayed in :)

There will be more techniques to master as I go on - this isn’t a standard sock.  But you know, I feel that I can manage whatever this pattern wants to throw at me.

I’m up to the challenge :)

I worked on the shawl this weekend; in fact I got down to the second tier and introduced the butternut (orangey) color.  You remember that? 

In it’s former life it was a yucky mustard color until I threw it in the crock pot with some red dye :) While the butternut works up to the same gauge as the Ultra Alpaca, it is a much denser yarn, more tightly twisted and coarser to the touch (have no idea what it was originally - it had no label).  The red I’ll be using later on is the same type of yarn.  But both colors will be in the interior of the shawl and what touches the neck will be the lovely, soft wool/alpaca so I don’t see this as a problem.  This isn’t a lace confection meant for evening wear over bare shoulders and/or back. 

This is a coat :)

Otherwise I’ve been driving myself crazy trying to find a sock pattern that I like.  I know, I could just make up my own pattern - I’ve certainly done it before.  My problem (not that it’s a weighty one, mind you) is that the yarns I have are multi-colored - they are gorgeous, soft, absolutely wonderful yarns that I love!  But they need a simple pattern.  Ev suggested ribbing at Chatters, Saturday night, and that’s probably an excellent way to go - but I’m afraid it would bore me to death and I would wind up with yet another abandoned sock. 

I did like the Persephone’s Socks.  In fact I like them so much that I decided to order the pattern. 

Myria mused that she should mark this day on her calendar - the smart-arse :)

The first site had a downloadable .pdf.  Excellent!  I could be working on these babies this afternoon.  Whups!  Paypal only…

The next site had the pattern, but would only snail-mail it.  Well, okay - I guess I could wait a few days.  The pattern was $5.00 - not bad.  The shipping was $6.00. 

Hows that again?

So I didn’t get the pattern after all.

I did, however, find a small knitting companion when I was out roaming around with my father.

My apologies if any of you attempted to join Chatters before 8:15PM (EST).  I had been out all day and simply lost track of the time.  Please forgive me and I’ll try to see that it doesn’t happen again :)

Have a great week! 

I’m moving along with the shawl - now that I’ve finished fooling around with the scarf :) It’s funny, my fingers seem to welcome the entrelac.  The Ultra Alpaca is wonderful stuff - smooth, easy to work with and not the least bit splitty.  And you should feel the finished fabric!  It’s not satin, of course, but it’s awfully nice - silky and soft.

These are a couple of preliminary drawings I did while I was trying to figure out how to arrange the colors - given that I had specific amounts of each.  The one on the left was very striking to my eye and I was all ready to get going on it when a couple of thoughts stopped me.  I would be changing color every block. Attaching one color and cutting another - with the subsequent weaving in of many, many ends.  That wouldn’t be so bad if there weren’t limited amounts of the accent color and what if I wound up short of enough yarn for the last red block because of what got wasted in the cutting and joining?  Unh-unh....

So I decided on the design on the right.  That will be the basic lay-out, though I’m still thinking about ways to pick things up a little.  You know, a little bobble or design of some kind in the middle of the color blocks (the red and the orange blocks, I mean...).

I’m more than half way through the first tier and going strong.

In fact I’m going to have to watch that.  I wanted this project to balance the Secret of the Stole.  It wouldn’t do to have it completely finished before the stole even starts :)

Speaking of the stole, I ordered the rest of the yarn for the project yesterday morning.  My usual experience with Knitpicks is that it will take about a week to get here and that should be just fine.  I also decided to try a couple sets of their double-pointed needles - in sizes 8 and 10.  I know, I had trouble a while back with the smaller socks needles that were only 6” long.  These larger needles are 8” long, which size I am used to working with.

No, I don’t make a lot of socks on size 8 (or 10!) needles :) But my knitting style seems to have evolved in this fashion.  When I’m working on something small - a scarf, baby anything, module pieces or anything like that, I use DPNs with point protectors on the ends.  Nice, short, comfortable needles.  Anything wider than that goes onto circulars. 

I like the Knitpicks Options needles very much from the splendid point to the finish which seems to provide exactly the right amount of friction between stitch and needle - not too sticky, not too slick.  If the DPNs are done similarly, I will be one happy camper :)

I have finally made it to Ravelry - thought I haven’t done much of anything yet :) I am determined not to replace the blog, nor do I really want to do everything twice.  I also have minor issues with having to get a flickr account for pictures when I already rent perfectly good user space for the blog.

All that aside, Ravelry is quite the accomplishment and I’m going to have fun looking around.  Ev, thanks for starting the Chatters group - it was delightful to arrive yesterday and see you all, already there!  Yay!  I’m working on a button :)

Also, this arrived in my mailbox yesterday…

This came from the creative and talented Omly over at Omly Crafts.  In honor of her first blogging anniversary, she offered prizes to randomly drawn commenters.  I was the luckiest :)

This is Lornas Laces Shepherd Sock in Bittersweet.  Folks, unless you’ve seen it (in person!), I cannot convey to you the richness and beauty of these colors.  I am so tempted to go out and get one of those big brandy snifter type things - like the lounge singer has on the piano? - and fill it with the yarn so I can just sit back and bask in those glorious shades :) Thank you Omly - I never thought I would knit with Lornas Laces and I’m very pleased to have to opportunity to do so.

Chatters is on tomorrow night - come one come all!

Have a fabulous weekend folks :)

Well, of course I couldn’t leave well enough alone :) I had to try it again with the scarf.  This time, after I soaked it, I squeezed out every molecule of water I could manage and then rolled it up in a towel and stomped on it!  Then I proceeded as I had before.  This is what I got:

The left edged is the newly dyed one :)

The idea had been to leave the scarf damp, but not soaked so that the dye solution would have room to move into the yarn.  You can see, on the left-hand edge of the scarf there, that the dye did creep up another 3/4s of an inch or so and that band is considerably lighter than the dark band at the very edge.  So it did work - just not to the extent that I would have liked :) No matter - it’s all a learning process anyway!

I am getting a bit antsy, waiting for the Secret of the Stole to start and I really don’t want to start anything else that’s going to require diligence and concentration :) The stole will be enough and I do want to focus on that.  But the other night, three colors practically came up and knocked me on the head…

I looked at them for a long while.  I have about 1200 yards of the violet (Berroco Ultra Alpaca), about 400 yards of the orange and about 200 yards of the red.  Why, that would be enough for another entrelac shawl!  The emphasis would be on color this time, rather than lace and it would make for nice, easy knitting when focus and concentration are out getting drunk - those reprobates :)





So I started it :) I cast on as soon as I figured out how many stitches I’d need and I got through all 12 of the starting triangles last night.  I even got the first block of the next tier done.  I tell you, if I hadn’t had to be out this morning, I’d probably have worked on it all night!

I am currently 432nd on Ravelry’s invite list (thanks for the heads up Kathleen!) so I’m thinking I should be in sometime this week!

Looking forward to it too :)

This was a weekend of mild experimentation :) I’d had an idea about a dyeing method that I wanted to try out.  I was wondering about dyeing a scarf.  My thought was that if you rolled it up like a jelly roll, set it flat side down in about 1/2 - 3/4 inches of dye solution, you might get a graded coloring on the scarf - the deepest color being on the edge that was on the bottom of the pot and lighter colors as you moved up through the width of the scarf via capillary action.

So I knit a plain little scarf from the bulky taupe colored wool I lucked into a while back.  I finished it up Sunday morning and got ready to try my experiment first by soaking…





...and then rolling the thing up - not the easiest thing to do with a wet scarf…





...and then plopping it in the crock pot which already contained the dye - 2 blue Easter egg tablets and one green dissolved in white vinegar to which about a cup of water had been added, once the tablets had disintegrated :)





The lid went on and I left it for about 3 hours.  After washing and rinsing, this is what I wound up with…

It’s not really bad, but it’s certainly not what I’d had in mind.  Having thought about it for a while now, my best guess is that the scarf was too water-logged to let the dye rise from the bottom - that there simply wasn’t anywhere for the dye liquid to go, the yarn already being full of water.

But that’s just a guess and I’d be delighted to hear anyone else’s theories on the matter.  I’ll probably try this again - after all, there’s a whole n’other side to that scarf :)