Monday, July 10, 2006

Mohair Madness!

Good morning :)

This is what I’ve been doing this weekend -

I finally got the mohair blanket under way.  I had been waiting for the stitch pattern to be uploaded to the Sampler Knit Along group.  This is the second pattern.  The first was for an initial and you know, I’m really not an initial kind of girl :) The second pattern was a snowdrop rib and I really didn’t want ribbing in the blanket so I went with the more traditional Snowdrop pattern.

I went through lots of needles, trying to find what worked best with the mohair.  I had been certain my Addis would be perfect for the task but it turns out they were too sticky - believe it or not!  Finally, in desperation, I tried some size 10.5 bamboo DPNs that I had purchased for hat-making.  Bingo!  Granted they make big lace (moose lace?) but I’d be afraid that with anything smaller, the hairiness of the mohair would obscure the pattern.  I put point protectors on two of the needles and use them as short straights.  When I’m done knitting, I take the point protector off the free needle and put it on the other end of the needle holding the stitches.  That keeps the stitches safe and in place until the next time I pick up the project.

I did wind up washing the bright russet yarn and it did help quite a bit.  It had been quite coarse and stiff and looked pretty bad knitted up - I must have knit and frogged a dozen swatches before deciding that my dissatisfaction with the results wasn’t entirely my fault.  Washing the yarn made a huge difference.  I did notice that the wet yarn had a very pronounced chemical odor - solvent?  And that made me think that if my hair had been treated thusly, it would probably be stiff and coarse too!  So I used a combination shampoo/conditioner on it and that seemed to help quite a bit.  I’m still undecided about whether the solvent smell is more acceptable than, say, the smell of wet angora goat :)

This panel is 23 stitches wide (about 8.5 inches, unblocked).

The eggplant colored yarn was much softer ( and a little finer, I think) and didn’t need to be washed to knit up nicely and not make me feel as though I was scouring my hands with a wire brush.  Apparently they are not identical, as I had originally thought.  Some are rough, some are soft and there seems to be a slight variation in thickness as well.  No matter, they will all work up nicely though some will need a little attention before they are suitable (to me, anyway) to knit with.

I’m using the snowdrop stitch pattern from Martha Waterman’s Traditional Knitted Lace Shawls and when I changed colors, I did so at the beginning of the pattern repeat.

You can see, highlighted (I hope!) inside the yellow rectangle, that the very tip of the showdrops are in the new color.  That’s the way the stitch pattern is set up.  This is what the pattern chart looks like:





The first row of eggplant is the first row of the pattern repeat.  I’m not going to frog this, but it is mildly unsatisfactory.  Should I change colors again in this panel (likely), I will work through the point of the design before changing yarns.  And that’s definitely something to pay attention to as I proceed with other panels and stitch patterns as periodic color changes are part of the plan :)

On the whole, I’m very happy with how this is turning out and am greatly looking forward to incorporating new stitch patterns (one stitch pattern, two or three colors per panel) into the project.

We will not discuss the possible insanity of working with mohair in July :)

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1. I can’t make fun of you knitting with mohair in July??

   Well, heck - there goes MY comment!

   ::;sheesh:::grumble:::some people take all the fun out of everything:::grumble:::::

   Posted by Bron  on  07/10  at  01:23 PM
   Location :



2. Bron - Heheh… It’s certifiable and I know it :) But most of a panel is lying over the arm of the chair while I knit on the other end.  It’s not so bad really.  Now, sewing the bugger up ought to be an interesting proposition!

   Posted by Robbyn  on  07/10  at  01:39 PM
   Location : Under the lap-top!



3. Did I hear you correctly, the “possible insanity”?  I know a certainty when I see one, and that insanity is a certainty.

   Similar I feel to my own insanity of working on an afghan in July. I watched the clock on Sunday morning. I started knitting at about 7:30 a.m. and by 9:15 it was time to switch projects. To something less, encompassing, shall we say.

   Love your colours in that mohair.
   amaryllis

   Posted by  on  07/10  at  05:34 PM
   Location : Swamped by work, not knitting



4. Amaryllis - I know, I know :) But I couldn’t wait any longer.  I want to be using this come the cooler weather - not just starting to knit it :)

   I applaud your persistence with your project.  A couple of hours here and there may not seem like much, but that’s how things get done.

   Less encompassing...heheh....

   Posted by Robbyn  on  07/10  at  05:48 PM
   Location : Under the lap-top!



5. I love the snowdrop pattern. It is one of my favorites. Are you making the afghan in strips?

   Posted by Maureen  on  07/11  at  07:37 PM
   Location : Sitting by the lake



6. Maureen - I like it too - pretty and a little delicate and dead easy both to execute and to memorize :)

   Yes, the blanket will be made in strips - a different stitch pattern for each strip which will also consist of two or three colors.  Working this way, I can manage the mohair - even in the summer!

   Posted by Robbyn  on  07/11  at  08:11 PM
   Location : Under the lap-top!



7. very pretty!

   Posted by nat  on  07/11  at  09:51 PM
   Location : at the computer, of course :P



8. Nat - Thanks :) It will be interesting to see how well the varying shades of rust/orange and pink/fucshia/purple play together.  If nothing else, it will be colorful!

   Posted by Robbyn  on  07/11  at  10:49 PM
   Location : Under the lap-top!

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