Monday, July 11, 2005
Counting stitches
Did you know, that the Evening in Eden shawl (shown below) consists of about 22350 stitches? That sounds like a big number, doesn't it? Did you also know that an average sock (knitted from sock-weight yarn) takes around 17000 stitches (hm, that's weird, a single one of my socks probably only takes about 10000 stitches at most)? That's a LOT of stitches. Next time you feel frustrated with the knitting, calculate the approximate number of stitches you've done and voila, an instant sense of accomplishment! No wonder it takes so darned long to finish anything!
Sunday, July 10, 2005
Lace, and more lace
Well, I sucked it up and finished the Evening in Eden shawl. And blocked it, and fringed it. And you know what? It didn't turn out too badly in the end. I did one less pattern repeat than recommended (6 instead of 7), but it still came out to a good 5+ feet long, which is plenty long enough in my book. I am resigned to the stupid stockinette border, it curls a little less now that it's blocked.
In any case, I consider this shawl to be good practice for some other, more complicated shawls that I covet, in particular this Flirty Ruffles Shawl, and possibly this Lotus Blossom Shawl. Yummy.
In the meantime, I've started another little lace project. Last year I bought a lovely skein of Schaefer Anne yarn, to make the Pooling Colors (I'm only using the American spelling because that's what the pattern says!) scarf from the Fall 2004 issue of Interweave Knits.
I wound the skein (560 yards!) into a ball (it took an hour! Thank heaven there was no tangling involved), and attempted to make the yarn pool. The way the scarf works is that the yarn is space-dyed, so you try to work it so that each row takes up exactly the amount of yarn in a single colour repeat, so that as you knit horizontally you create a vertical striping effect. I thought the concept was pretty cool. As you can see, I've managed to make my yarn sort of pool (except for the cast-on edge and the very first row, but I knew that there was no way I could make that part work so I just let it do what it would....except that it's bugging me....to the point where I want to rip it all out and make it work, even though I've tried it already and know that it won't....the cast-on edge takes up too much yarn....argh....must learn to take a more Zen-like attitude towards the knitting....). It doesn't have an exact vertical striping thing going on like I've seen in some cases, and the colours tend to drift back and forth and get a little muddied in places, but overall it's not too bad. I think it shows off the lovely colours of this yarn pretty well.
The lace pattern isn't complicated and is pretty easily memorized, so far this is a fairly mindless knit except for keeping track of the pooling. I've taken to inserting lifelines every 24 rows in case I mess up and need to rip back. I'm not 100% in love with it at this point because of the cast-on edge and the drifting colours, so I don't know if I want to keep it or not. Although the last thing I want to do is to earmark this yarn for more socks, I have enough sock yarn as it is. Suggestions? Opinions?
Edited to add: OK, so I decided to rip the scarf out and start again. The cast-on edge looks a little better now (but it still doesn't quite line up, of course), and it's still pooling the way as it is in the picture. So much for letting things be. =)
In any case, I consider this shawl to be good practice for some other, more complicated shawls that I covet, in particular this Flirty Ruffles Shawl, and possibly this Lotus Blossom Shawl. Yummy.
In the meantime, I've started another little lace project. Last year I bought a lovely skein of Schaefer Anne yarn, to make the Pooling Colors (I'm only using the American spelling because that's what the pattern says!) scarf from the Fall 2004 issue of Interweave Knits.
I wound the skein (560 yards!) into a ball (it took an hour! Thank heaven there was no tangling involved), and attempted to make the yarn pool. The way the scarf works is that the yarn is space-dyed, so you try to work it so that each row takes up exactly the amount of yarn in a single colour repeat, so that as you knit horizontally you create a vertical striping effect. I thought the concept was pretty cool. As you can see, I've managed to make my yarn sort of pool (except for the cast-on edge and the very first row, but I knew that there was no way I could make that part work so I just let it do what it would....except that it's bugging me....to the point where I want to rip it all out and make it work, even though I've tried it already and know that it won't....the cast-on edge takes up too much yarn....argh....must learn to take a more Zen-like attitude towards the knitting....). It doesn't have an exact vertical striping thing going on like I've seen in some cases, and the colours tend to drift back and forth and get a little muddied in places, but overall it's not too bad. I think it shows off the lovely colours of this yarn pretty well.
The lace pattern isn't complicated and is pretty easily memorized, so far this is a fairly mindless knit except for keeping track of the pooling. I've taken to inserting lifelines every 24 rows in case I mess up and need to rip back. I'm not 100% in love with it at this point because of the cast-on edge and the drifting colours, so I don't know if I want to keep it or not. Although the last thing I want to do is to earmark this yarn for more socks, I have enough sock yarn as it is. Suggestions? Opinions?
Edited to add: OK, so I decided to rip the scarf out and start again. The cast-on edge looks a little better now (but it still doesn't quite line up, of course), and it's still pooling the way as it is in the picture. So much for letting things be. =)
Saturday, July 02, 2005
Dilemma
So several weeks ago I started this Evening in Eden shawl with some Berroco Softwist that I had bought on sale many many moons ago. I figured that the yarn was a pretty colour and the right weight, and the pattern wasn't bad, so why not? Except now I've made it through half the shawl and....well, I sort of hate it. Well, hate is perhaps too strong a word, but I am certainly not overflowing with affection and goodwill towards this particular knitted item.
Why do I dislike it? Well, for starters, the pattern, while interesting and easy enough to knit, does not call out to me. At first I thought, hey, look at the cute paw-print-like things! But now I'm thinking, paw prints? Why am I knitting paw prints?! Secondly, the yarn, it is slippery and splitty. I've mostly managed to avoid splitting the yarn, but when it splits, it's rather irritating. Additionally, I realized about 3 (48-row) repeats in that I somehow thought "garter stitch edging" meant "do it in stockinette!" and now my edges are all curly. At the time I didn't want to rip out the whole thing just to fix the edging, but now it's staring me in the face and mocking me for my stupidity.
So, what do I do? Do I rip out the whole thing? Do I throw it in the closet never to look at it again? Or do I suck it up and make a slightly shorter version of the shawl, with 6 repeats instead of 7, and leave it at that? I think I have 8 or 9 skeins of this yarn, not quite enough to make a sweater (not that I would want to even if I did, the yarn was cheap and a reasonable colour, but I bought it during my reckless-yarn-buying stage, and I don't love it by any means), so if it's not going to be this shawl, I don't think it's going to become anything else. I'm leaning towards just making the shortest shawl I can get away with and moving on to something else.
I think I'm more of a process knitter, I enjoy trying new things and watching them take shape much more than actually having the finished product (I've lost interest in most of the things I've finished). So if I don't consider the project (or the yarn) fun/interesting/beautiful my patience drops considerably. Just another example of my fickle nature, I guess.
Why do I dislike it? Well, for starters, the pattern, while interesting and easy enough to knit, does not call out to me. At first I thought, hey, look at the cute paw-print-like things! But now I'm thinking, paw prints? Why am I knitting paw prints?! Secondly, the yarn, it is slippery and splitty. I've mostly managed to avoid splitting the yarn, but when it splits, it's rather irritating. Additionally, I realized about 3 (48-row) repeats in that I somehow thought "garter stitch edging" meant "do it in stockinette!" and now my edges are all curly. At the time I didn't want to rip out the whole thing just to fix the edging, but now it's staring me in the face and mocking me for my stupidity.
So, what do I do? Do I rip out the whole thing? Do I throw it in the closet never to look at it again? Or do I suck it up and make a slightly shorter version of the shawl, with 6 repeats instead of 7, and leave it at that? I think I have 8 or 9 skeins of this yarn, not quite enough to make a sweater (not that I would want to even if I did, the yarn was cheap and a reasonable colour, but I bought it during my reckless-yarn-buying stage, and I don't love it by any means), so if it's not going to be this shawl, I don't think it's going to become anything else. I'm leaning towards just making the shortest shawl I can get away with and moving on to something else.
I think I'm more of a process knitter, I enjoy trying new things and watching them take shape much more than actually having the finished product (I've lost interest in most of the things I've finished). So if I don't consider the project (or the yarn) fun/interesting/beautiful my patience drops considerably. Just another example of my fickle nature, I guess.
Friday, July 01, 2005
Wednesday, June 15, 2005
Do you believe....
....in the Curse of the Love Sweater? Well, I clearly must not, cuz look what I made!
Two Baby Bobbi Bears, one for baby cousin Jayson (the blue one), and one for grownup Jason (the brown one), both of whom have birthdays this month. Aren't they adorable? Cutest bear pattern ever.
I actually did ponder the Curse for a few minutes before ordering the yarn for both projects, but decided not to worry about it because a)it's a bear, not an entire sweater (please ignore the fact that I've never actually made a sweater), and b)if I'm knitting two it must dilute out the effect somewhat, right? Not to mention that c)I live a charmed life and I laugh in the face of curses. =P
Some things I learned while knitting the bears:
1) Stuffed animal patterns aren't as scary as they seem.
2) Large double pointed needles (US9) can get unwieldy.
3) And they can hurt if you accidentally poke yourself with one.
4) Blue Sky Alpacas cotton (dyed and organic) is very soft and yummy yarn.
5) How to duplicate stitch.
6) Be generous with the stuffing.
7) The only stuffing worth using is Cluster Fill. It feels like slippery little polyester balls, and it is magical. Regular polyester filling will make your stuffed thing all lumpy and gross. I now worship at the altar of Cluster Fill.
Two Baby Bobbi Bears, one for baby cousin Jayson (the blue one), and one for grownup Jason (the brown one), both of whom have birthdays this month. Aren't they adorable? Cutest bear pattern ever.
I actually did ponder the Curse for a few minutes before ordering the yarn for both projects, but decided not to worry about it because a)it's a bear, not an entire sweater (please ignore the fact that I've never actually made a sweater), and b)if I'm knitting two it must dilute out the effect somewhat, right? Not to mention that c)I live a charmed life and I laugh in the face of curses. =P
Some things I learned while knitting the bears:
1) Stuffed animal patterns aren't as scary as they seem.
2) Large double pointed needles (US9) can get unwieldy.
3) And they can hurt if you accidentally poke yourself with one.
4) Blue Sky Alpacas cotton (dyed and organic) is very soft and yummy yarn.
5) How to duplicate stitch.
6) Be generous with the stuffing.
7) The only stuffing worth using is Cluster Fill. It feels like slippery little polyester balls, and it is magical. Regular polyester filling will make your stuffed thing all lumpy and gross. I now worship at the altar of Cluster Fill.
Friday, June 10, 2005
Stripey socks
In the interests of eating up some of the sock yarn that I've got stashed away, I started on a new pair of socks last night. In the interests of not being bored with yet another pair of toe-up-socks-with-short-row-toes-and-heels (although I've only knit 2 pairs of those -- so I can't really claim boredom, can I?), I decided to knit these socks top-down. Oooh, I know, how wild and crazy can we get, huh? =P
The main reason for knitting these socks top-down was so I could learn the tubular cast-on. With help from my mom and some pictures with confusing Chinese descriptions and the usually-incomprehensible-to-me Knitter's Handbook, I think I'm starting to get the hang of it. Here's the practice cast-on:
It's sort of hard to see, but notice the ribby-looking cast-on edge. And here is the sock-in-progress, reclining in my Easter-basket-turned-sock-basket. I think I switched the knits and purls around when I joined in the round though, but I'm just going to leave it like that because it still looks better than my usual cast-on edge. And there's still sock #2 to practice on besides. =)
Oh, and the yarn is Regia Ringel, colour 5048, clown. =)
The main reason for knitting these socks top-down was so I could learn the tubular cast-on. With help from my mom and some pictures with confusing Chinese descriptions and the usually-incomprehensible-to-me Knitter's Handbook, I think I'm starting to get the hang of it. Here's the practice cast-on:
It's sort of hard to see, but notice the ribby-looking cast-on edge. And here is the sock-in-progress, reclining in my Easter-basket-turned-sock-basket. I think I switched the knits and purls around when I joined in the round though, but I'm just going to leave it like that because it still looks better than my usual cast-on edge. And there's still sock #2 to practice on besides. =)
Oh, and the yarn is Regia Ringel, colour 5048, clown. =)
Sunday, June 05, 2005
Long awaited update
Wow, I've been a terrible blogger (and knitter) recently. I wish I could say something like "oh, I've been absent because big and exciting things are happening in my life", but the truth is simply that I've just been lazy. =P In any case, here are a couple of things that have been on the knitting agenda as of late:
Fun with socks! Toe-up socks in Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock, the Somerset colourway (notice the fun pink!).
A while back I bought a bunch of Berroco Softwist on sale, and it's been languishing in my closet ever since. Since I need a new "big" project and I'd rather knit lace than something useful like, say, a sweater, I started an Evening in Eden shawl a couple of days ago. I've done one pattern repeat so far, and I'm not entirely sure how I feel about it at this point. The yarn is the right weight for the pattern, and it's a pretty colour and is slightly shimmery, and it has a springy quality that reminds me of Koigu Kersti, but I'm not sure it's 100% right for this shawl. Then again I'm not used to knitting lace using worsted weight yarn, so maybe it would look thick and heavy no matter what yarn I used.
Lastly, a mom-endorsed yarn purchase, more Malabrigo in the Loro Barranquero colourway, for a fun scarf and possibly also a hat. Aren't the colours pretty?
One more thing, I think I'm going to put myself on another yarn diet (in addition to the donut and semi-ice cream diets I'm on) for the month of June. The stash, it overfloweth. I haven't shown you the sock yarn I bought off eBay, because I forgot to take pictures. But I have lots more Lorna's Laces waiting to be knit up. =)
P.S. I hate Blogger, it's driving me up the wall. It took me ages to get this post to format correctly. Argh!
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