Well, here I was - all ready to have a snit because we were forecast to have 6 inches or more of snow and sleet - in the middle of April!  But the weather-dweebs have cancelled the storm watches and warnings as of this morning and are predicting nothing more unusual than rain.  Mostly I’m pleased as I hate negotiating snowy, sleety, slushy roads.  On the other hand, I’ve got this really good snit all worked up - what do I do with it now?  Heheh…

I have begun dyeing the yarn for the shawl but have managed to get myself bollixed up right out of the gate :) Oh there aren’t any irreparable errors (thank goodness!) but it is humbling to realize - yet again - that my ability to count does go on periodic, unannounced vacation leaving me with a big stupid spot in the middle of my brain!

First of all, this isn’t the color I was hoping for.  I was looking for a cool, pure blue and instead got more of a Robin’s-egg (Hey - No wisecracks!) blue.  Still, after living with it for a while, I realized that it’s a lovely color and would probably fit the bill nicely.  Now I could hie my fanny to the craft store (or even WalMart, for that matter) and see if there’s a true blue in the Wilton’s icing dye line.  The only problem there is that I don’t have enough experience with the icing dye to judge quantities properly (especially for the increasingly darker and more saturated color tiers of the shawl) and I don’t want to be experimenting with this project.

Therefore, flexibility is the key :)

Second, I sat down last night to work out specific amounts of dye to use for the calculated, required amounts of yarn for each color tier.  I had already worked out how much dye/50 grams of yarn to use so with that and the calculated yardage (rounded up, of course), I started to figure out what I needed for the next dye lot...and ran straight into an unpleasant discovery.  When I had dyed what I thought was the first (and lightest) color, I had actually used the dye proportions for the second tier.  As it happens, the amounts of yarn required for each are close enough so that this isn’t the catastrophe it might have been.  Essentially, all it means is that I did the second color first and have yet to do the first color - which I will do today.

Would anyone like to come over and stand over me with a baseball bat - just to make sure I don’t keep making idiotic mistakes?

The socks are coming along slowly…

...but nicely.  I like this stitch pattern a great deal and plan to play with it a bit further to see how it will adapt to some slight changes.  In the meantime, I’m pleased with the way the sock is working up and very happy with the yarn.  This is the Gypsy Rose and the yarn is just lovely to work with - soft but with a nice spring to it - and nice definition in the stitch pattern.

One more note - I have gone back to my old, aluminum, 7” DPNs.  It’s not that the Knitpicks needles were bad - they were great in terms of working the stitches - nice, smooth finish and nice points.  It was the abbreviated length I couldn’t seem to adjust to.  There always seemed to be a needle point poking me somewhere and I finally gave up and went back to my old needles.  This isn’t to say that I have given up on the new ones - I haven’t.  But they will take time to adjust to and right now I just don’t have the patience for it.

As always, Knitting Chatters is on for this evening.

Hope to see you there!

One final swatch starting with six triangles and working down to one block.  See, a little while back Rob opined that she still like the idea of lace.  That got me thinking because despite the fact that the very first entrelac swatch had been lace, I had been thinking of the shawl as more or less solid.  Could I add some lace and have it look good?  I went over and over lace stitch patterns and swatched again and again.  Eventually it came down to something simple - something I had initially rejected because it was so simple!

The lace is a modified Razor Shell, in this case (over 17 stitches - multiple of 8 stitches + 1):

Row 1: K1, *yo, K2, [sl1, K2tog, psso], K2, yo, K1; repeat from *.
Row 2: Purl.

Except for general size and color (colors!), this is the final prototype - at least I think it is.  The shawl I intend to make will be considerably larger than this - though this would be suitable for a scarf - but the layout is about right.  I may play a bit more with the lace blocks - except for the ones in the center; those are perfect as they are :)

This piece is only partially pinned out because my knees got too sore (for the larger, finished piece, I’m going to have to have Myria’s assistance) and is about 50” wide.  I intend the final item to be about 80 - 85” wide - very substantial, for a shawl :) Right now I’m still planning on a seed stitch border - probably 17 stitches wide - same as the blocks.

Apparently, because I’ve been a good girl (as if!) this arrived on Saturday…

Now that’s pretty good service!

I haven’t actually knit anything with the Options circular yet so I’ll have to report later on that.  I can tell you though, once the needle is screwed onto the cable, I couldn’t feel where the join was - the machining is that precise.  That means there isn’t going to be any snagging of the yarn while you’re working and trying to slide the stitches up onto the needles.  Also the needles themselves have a little heft (without in the least being awkward or heavy, in my opinion), a feel of solidity so that my fingers won’t be afraid of breaking them.  As useful as bamboo needles are - and I do use them from time to time - my fingers never stop worrying that the needles will snap.

I did try the DPNs though, by casting on for a sock I’ve been eyeing for a while now.  It’s the Tidal Wave Socks pattern and the stitch pattern is somewhat reminiscent of the beautiful (and popular) Pomatomus socks.

They have the same feeling of substance in the hands that the Options needles do - and (entirely beside the point, I know...) they make a lovely, clear chiming sound when they knock against each other on the table :) They are slick and the points are sharper than any other DPNs I have.  I love them and will probably order the other sizes in due course.  The only adjustment I have to make is that these needles are only 6” long and that’s shorter than I’m used to.  I imagine they were done this way because most sock knitters who use DPNs these days use four of them and knit with a fifth needle (and this a 5 needle set) as well as, possibly, to save a little money on the manufacturing.  I’m a three needle knitter, myself, and though I worried that the needles wouldn’t be long enough to hold the stitches safely, they seem to be just fine - except that the shorter length feels a little funny.  I’m sure I’ll get used to it in time and it certainly doesn’t seen to impair my progress much.

Back to the shawl, the next step is to make some measurements so I can determine how much yarn to dye for the various sections.  In my mind, I see a progression from light at the top to dark at the bottom with the border being the same as the darkest shade - or perhaps even a bit darker.  Once I’ve got that worked out, now that I have the yarn, I can start dyeing and once that’s done I can begin to actually knit this beast!

Amongst the members of our company last week was an 8 month old baby boy.  He was a mellow little guy and quite the charmer.  However, like most babies, his digestive tract went into reverse almost as easily and as often as it went forward.  Clean cloths became rarer and rarer and I eventually contributed my washcloths to the cause.  No biggie - I just made a couple more.

Believe me, they were just my speed this past weekend and it’s nice to know that even when I’m feeling stupid, I can still produce something simple and useful!

However, that isn’t all I did.

In the comments to Saturday’s post, I told Maureen that swatches most often got frogged because I needed the yarn for something else - especially the larger swatches.  And I fully intended to frog the boobtacular swatch when it occurred to me there was something else I had to work out and it had to be done on an already completed piece.

Edging.

I wanted to go for a knitted on edging, but I have never done it before.  The idea of picking up all those edge stitches was daunting (to say the least) and I just didn’t know if I could work it so it didn’t look like a complete mess.

As it turned out, it was way easier than I thought.

I picked up 13 stitches on the side of each block and two stitches in the point.  Then I cast on 7 stitches to make a seed stitch border.

1. Sl1, P1, K1, P1, K1, P1, K2tog - where the K2tog consists of the last border stitch plus a picked-up stitch from the side of the shawl. 

2. Sl1, P1, K1, P1, K1, P1, K1.

I was surprised how easy it was and how quickly it went.  When I got down to the point, I created a bit of ease by not working the K2tog at the end of row 1.  Instead I just knit the last stitch without attaching it to the shawl.  I connected it on the next Row 1 pass.  I did this once just before the point and once just after - and it worked out great!

I like the seed stitch border because it’s simple and flat.  I also like the pebbly texture of it very much as it lends itself well to the ideas I have about this piece of work.  Now I can frog it and do some measurements so I have some idea of how much yarn to dye for the various sections.  And no, the stitch patterns aren’t set in stone just yet - there is one more thing I want to try out before I get going whole hog on this :)

I am, however, committed :) I ordered my yarn last night - 10 hanks of Knitpicks Bare Peruvian worsted weight which I will dye to suit - hoping that I can get somewhere in the ballpark of the colors in my head :) 2,000 yards is probably quite a lot more than I’ll need but definitely better to be safe than sorry :) I also ordered (probably the last knitter on the continent to do so) a set of the Options circular needles and a set of double-points - you know - just to try things out :)

So things are under way, if slowly.  I’m beginning to get pretty excited about the shawl as the things I have left to play with don’t seem to present any insurmountable problems and am champing at the bit to get started.  My mailman should expect to be mauled every day until the yarn gets here :)

Whee!!!