Blocked

The glorious Mollyann at Ariadne blocked this neckerchief for me, and I think she’s a super star.  Not necessarily because she helped me;  I’m fairly certain she can fly.

Isn’t it pretty?  Golly.  Now I can rob all the banks I want, just like Sharon Stone in The Quick and the Dead.

That Crystal Palace Panda Silk in Forest tones is so crisp and lovely, this shawl reminds me of a really gorgeous and non-perishable leaf.

In other news, the microRevolt blog has posted images of the action they had commemorating people who died in factory fires: one this December past in Bangladesh and the Triangle Waist factory fire in 1911.

If you haven’t heard of the Triangle Waist factory fire, then I recommend watching this video from Democracy Now. It’s an excellent documentary that highlights how these tragedies are still relevant.

And also, I’m sorry that there are no pictures of socks. I’ve been having major issues with gauge. It turns out that I usually knit socks on 2.75 mm needles, but that my extra super long sock sized needles are actually 2.5 mm needles. Can you imagine? When I knit those show off stranded socks, I was wondering why they fit me so nicely.  I usually cast on 56 stitches for socks and (from what I can recall;  I’m far too lazy to look up the pattern again) I cast on 64 stitches for those socks.  Curses!  Well, not really.  Socks will be a lot easier to size from now on.  This is certainly a fascinating conundrum, though.  What socks to knit?  What will fit?  What happens next?!

Sock it to Me

I’m very nearly done that neckerchief!

I’m really pleased with how it’s turning out – and what’s more, Mollyann from Ariadne has said that I can block it at the store with a real blocking pad and pins and everything.  I have never in my life blocked a lace shawl, so I’m really excited about how this is going to turn out.

I really like how the colour has turned out, and it’s only taken one ball of yarn.  I wonder what I’ll do with the other ball of Crystal Palace Panda Silk.

In other news, my friend Lisa give me six balls of vintage sock yarn – two each in grey, brown, and green.  I’m seeing that grey in lace and that brown in cables, but I have no idea what to do with the green.  Maybe colourwork?

As you can see, it’s 85% wool and 15% nylon.  It’s pretty soft and I really want to work with it.  I like very plain sock yarns, and I’m glad that I have access to some sock yarn that isn’t variegated.  What can I say?  I don’t like bright colours.

I have this aspiration to have enough hand knit pairs of socks so as not to need to wear boughten ones in the winter.  Wool socks are a blessing when it’s cold and wet outside.

I’m thinking pretty seriously about buying a loom.  Any suggestions?

Mrow

Look at that:  a classic action shot.  I said, “Bazzy, don’t do that!” and my hand closed on the camera button as I reached to protect my new sweater.  Amazing, really.  More of a cultural portrait than a fancy knitting picture, but you can see the ribbing.  I think the best aspect of the picture is Bazzy’s expression.  He so clearly does not care what I think, but he can tell that I don’t want him to destroy my sweater, so he’s being tentative.  Jerk.

I think I have about 0.75 of an inch done.  The mission falls 136 in charcoal has been behaving a lot more nicely.  There are still loosely spun bits, but I don’t have to do nearly as much corrective surgery to fix it.  I ran out of my ball last night and didn’t bother to join a new one because it was 10 o’clock at night and I’m an early-to-bed kind of gal.  I also eat lots of fresh veggies and whole grains, which is much less boring than it sounds.

I’ve knit a bunch more on my vintage neckerchief.  I have no idea how big it is right now;  I just keep rubbing that gorgeous bamboo/merino/silk blend across my face and thinking about how much more awesome living in the 1800s would have been if scarfs were this soft.

It’s clear to me that I have to knit at least another two inches to make it wide enough.  I don’t want to rely on the edging to make this neckerchief big and bold, so I’m doing all the embiggening and enboldening now.  (I think I just made those two words up, but I don’t care.)

I like this yarn (crystal palace panda silk print in forest tones) and I like mission falls 136.  I feel as fancy and elegant as a cat washing his whiskers after a crunchy breakfast.

Mrow.

Rebelle

Last night, I did a heck of a lot of math.  I whipped out my calculator and actually did some trigonometry to figure out how big I wanted this neckerchief to be.

Ultimately, I want to end up looking like Sharon Stone in The Quick and the Dead, but with less of an urge to kill.

 

borrowed from ripinfo.blogspot.com

I think she looks great.  I also really like that movie.

I did some math, and some guesstimations, and then I decided that the rounded edge of the original pattern was a good idea.  I plan on knitting on the lace edging, so the rounded edge seems pretty useful in that regard.  I managed to knit enough yardage last night to get back to knitting directly from the ball.

In order to maintain that rounded edge (and to avoid the finished object becoming too long) I cast on 25 stitches.  My gauge being 8.75 stitches to the inch, that ended up being a 3 inch cast on edge – nicely rounded.

I love this yarn (crystal palace panda silk in forest tones).  It ripped out so nicely, and has obliged every k2tog tbl I’ve put it through.  Bamboo and merino blends are lovely that way.  I’m hoping to knit until it’s about 7-8 inches long, and then to knit the lace edging that should be about 2.5 inches wide.

I’ve already knit 4 inches or so.  I may end up knitting more;  I don’t know.  I mostly just want it to make me look badass.

 

This is the Remix

I’ve been knitting steadily along on my candy stripe raglan pullover. The waist shaping is finished, and I’m basically just deciding on where to start the ribbon at this point. Because I have an odd obsession with even numbers, I think I’m going to knit until there are 12 gold stripes.

I also want to put a kangaroo pocket on the front. I want it to be colour work, and it has to be awesome. This is of course dependent on how much yarn I have left, but considering that I’m almost done the body and have only used 4 balls of mission falls 136 in charcoal, I don’t think that would be a problem. Here’s a shot of the back shaping.

I’m not sure what I’m going to do about the sleeves. I think I want 3/4 length sleeves, but that feels silly. I don’t know – I guess I have some time to think about it. I have to say that I really like the versions of this sweater online that have long sleeves as well.

I’ve been working on my neckerchief, but I think I dropped a stitch. In fact, I know I dropped something somewhere. I ripped back a bunch and thought I caught the error, but it’s still there. Honestly, I think the ripping back and reknitting over and over again has exacerbated the problem, but it’s enough of a problem for me that I think I’m just going to start the whole damn thing over.

The picture above is what the stitch pattern is supposed to look like.  I think it’s really cool, and it reminds me of the stuff I’d see in my great grandmother’s house.  I want my scarf to look that way.  But it doesn’t, because I messed up about midway across one row.

It’s driving me nuts.  As are the conditions of my windows, but give me a break – it’s February in Montreal.  I’m going to rip it all back.  I think that I could have have handled it better if I had understood the specs of the pattern better.

You see, the finished measurements are supposed to be so that the final width across the widest part of the neckerchief (the side that goes around your neck) is 1 yard 16 inches.  I had no idea how big a yard is – 3 feet?  Seriously?  For some reason, I thought it would be smaller than a foot.  Regardless, I don’t want a giant shawl, I want a small neckerchief, so I’m going to recommence by casting on enough for about an inch and see if I can get something closer to what I wanted.

But isn’t it pretty?

Collared by a Neckerchief

I was going to cast on for a snood, but I’m using the needles that I need to get proper gauge with the yarn I want to use, so that’s going to have to wait.

I started poking around ravelry, and I happened upon this pattern:  a free pattern for a knitted neckerchief from the 1800s.

I think it’s lovely.  I told Mollyann from Ariadne that I was going to knit it, and she looked at me skeptically and said, “That’s Shetland lace, hey?”

I looked back at her, tipped my jaw haughtily, and said that I was going to do it anyway.  But!  I would say that the main body of this neckerchief is actually lace knitting (with yarn overs only happening on the right side of the knitting) whereas the border is true knitted lace.  The distinction is, of course, a bit silly, but it somehow renders my attempt at this project valid.  (If you’re interested in learning more, Eunny Jang does a great job of discussing different kinds of lace here.)

I’m knitting it in Crystal Palace Panda Silk Print, colour way 4012 Forest Tones.

It’s a beautiful yarn.  It’s 52% bamboo, 43% superwash merino, and 5% combed silk.  Delicious – and I love that it’s superwash.  I like to pretend that I, someday, will wear this scarf to a picnic and end up delicately wiping my chin of a sticky sauce.

My gauge was 35 stitches to 4 inches/10 cm, so I cast on 91 stitches.  The pattern recommends that you cast on a multiple of 6 minus 1 (for a total of 89 stitches in my gauge), but I added two stitches at either end for selvage.

I really hope someone else casts on this project.  It’s gorgeous!  C’mon – knit a long!