Presenting (Finally) the Alpine Scarf...

... after a truamatic start to this lace project (never have I experienced so much trouble with a lace pattern in all my life) due to my inability to read a lace chart properly!

Here is what's left of my cone of French 4ply silk from Colourmart that Mum purchased last year for me to knit this shawl as a 70th birthday gift for her cousin's wife next week (April 17th).

The silk felt quite rough whilst knitting after a couple of hours I could feel were the yarn had been running through my fingers however, after washing it has become softer and drapier....

I purchased the cone as 150g of yarn so thought the cone weighed 44g it would appear that I actually got 154g of yarn as when I have wound the remainder off I found I have 4g left; I could have done another 2 repeats of the leaft motif!!! I think not ;o)

Here she is blocking as you can see I have done 6 repeats of the centre motif rather than the stated 4 to make it wider and have worked an extra 10 repeats of the motif, working 47 instead of 37 to make it longer so it is more shawl like than scarf like.....

If anyone wants to do 6 repeats of the centre motif here are the stitch counts I used....

• Cast on 157 sts
• After the 1st 8 gt-st rows, knit your 25 border sts at each side as stated, then knit 107 in the centre
• When it comes to increasing on row 8 of the gt-st (before starting the centre motifs) increase 5 sts evenly across the centre 107 sts
  

You will then be knitting:
6 gt-st / 19 diamond border / 6 repeats of centre motif / 19 diamond border / 6 gt-st

Below are close ups of the patterns....

and finally the final article a modest but respectible 25" x 70" :o)

Progression

The Alpine scarf is at last making progress, I have done 22 repeats of the centre motif :o) and I am relaxing into knitting it a bit more now, so a repeat takes me just over an hour.

If I hadn't done the sample and washed it, I think I would have been dubious about the outcome of the yarn as my almost boil washed sample is soft and drapey whereas the 'rag' at the moment feels quite abrasive to the touch and especially when knitting with the silk, my fingers can tell I've used the yarn after a couple of repeats.....

No photo as the camera decided to eat the photo I'd taken of it's progress but it's really more of the previous posts photo so nothing really to see...

On the sock front as you see I've finished my two pairs of socks for me... I'm wearing the Neon ones today and they're bright and cheerful despite no pattern, bit like the sunshine we're having here at the moment!!!

For anyone who wants to know they are Opal Neon 1931 and Trekking 167 respectively.....

I know it may seem a bit boring just doing plain socks, but they're practical and I also think I am providing a service to other sock knitters... ever think about buying a ball of sock yarn and you wonder what it knits up like, so you google it to see if you can find someone who's knitted it, and posted a photo.... well I'm the one who does that ;o) especially necessary when it comes to Trekking yarns!!!!

SO I've cast two more pairs on Lana Grossa "Meetings" 7740 - a grey fairisle and probably my all time favourite pattern and also 'Firelight' which is one of my 1st handspun sock yarns... I will post photos when they are a little longer than the rib....

Hello, I'm Still here...

I know I haven't blogged for nearly a month... but TBH I haven't felt like it and I haven't really had a lot to show for it... my knitting mojo just seam to get up and go, perhaps it was post-Christmas burn out from knitting I don't know :o(

I have been knitting but just not seaming to produce anything....

Anyway since my last post the Alpine Scarf from VLT has at long last made some progress.... as of this morning, bottom border and 3 repeats of the centre motif....

and a close up, especially for Soo , without whom I would not be this far and the cone of silk would be on eBay for sale!!! yes it got really bad....

I 'faffed' about since the last post and eventually did one repeat of the bottom border but wasn't happy so ripped it off the needles and stared again..... a week last Sunday (24th) which I m now referring to as 'Grey Sunday' I got back to having done one repeat at 8.30am I had reached row 5 of the 2nd bottom panel repeat... something was wrong... I knew the SK2P should group together a particular set of stitches... it didn't!!! I studied and studied, couldn't see were I had gone wrong I tinked back a couple or rows everything was fine so in the end I ripped it back to the garter stitch border. Again I got to the 5th row and the stitches didn't line up so I pulled it back again... I was getting a tad distraught by now... I emailed Soo

My problem I should have mentioned when I did row 1 and 5 of the chart was that I always had 1 less stitch at the end rather than being able to do K2tog I had to K. This doesn't seem to throw the pattern out until you get to row 5 of the 2nd repeat were things just don't quite line up properly....

After exchanging emails with Soo and her offering me her phone number I re-read her last email and **ping** the light went on.... and no more K just K2tog :o) by this time its 4pm on Sunday so we rip back to the garter stitch yet again...

What had I been doing wrong???

This is so silly it's unbelievably silly and embarrassing.... the only thing I can liken it to is doing a crossword... you read the clue, you get the answer but it doesn't fit... you repeatedly read the clue your answer is definitely right the grid must be wrong... you leave the crossword go back to it re-read the clue get a different answer and hey presto it fits and not only that it fits with all the other clues that intersect that one!!!!

Yes I know I'm putting off telling you what I did wrong :o(

OK Rather than reading the chart all the way across from right to left I was just reading the pattern repeat for the top and bottom borders... as those of you with the book will know or can go check the chart for the diamond edging has bracketed sections saying top and bottom borders, left border and right border etc.... well I decided that I should only be doing the pattern repeat for the bottom and not reading the whole of the chart because that bit was bracketed right border!!!

OK I told you it was silly.... but it didn't end there.....

By the end of Sunday evening 9pm I had now managed to complete 1.5 repeats of the bottom border, yeahh back were I started at 8.30am 12 hours earlier....

Monday came and went nicely my friend Janet and our god-daughter came to visit... I decided that I could get the last 8 rows of the pattern in before tea and do another 16 rows after tea.... I got to the last few stitches of row 16 and I dropped a stitch and it ran all the way down to the lifeline 16 rows below - the air was blue- so I was now further behind at 6pm on Monday than at 9pm Sunday Agghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!

all DH could say was "you should have put your lifeline in half way through the repeat" - isn't hindsight wonderful!!!!

I did not touch it again that evening.... I managed to complete the 2nd repeat in the following days and this Monday (3rd) I managed to finally complete the 3rd repeat and the transition rows. It was only Tuesday that I finally managed to start the centre panel motifs....

And after all that I still have my knitting mojo, but at the moment it's a case of needing to knit it for a gift for the 17th April, I'm not hating it but am not enjoying it, I think it will be a while before every time I look at it I don't think of those wasted 2 days...

So thank you Soo without your help I wouldn't have made it this far..... you deserved your present... :o)

Less stressful knitting and a learning curve has been the Patons (UK) Sorbet top a new pattern this summer for one of last years summer yarns (70% cotton & 30% Acrylic). Quite chunky for me to knit (6mm) and a tension of 15sts x 22 rows.

I had 3 balls of the burnt orange left so opted for the contrasting ribs which I like immensely, again with hindsight I would have made the bottom rib twice as deep..... I had to lift the neck line as it originally started 2 rows after the armhole shaping which would have seen me done for indecent exposure!!!

I also knitted the body and the sleeves as far as possible in the round... another first for me as you may guess I pulled my EZ books of the shelf and having being enjoying leafing through..... It fits lovely too... DH is out so no photo of me modeling :o)))

And last but by no means least my sock knitting which has probably kept me sane through the last month... both socks have partners halfway through.....

January Round Up

Sorry it's taken so long to getting round to posting but have been quite busy on the fibre front in one way or another....

Not in any order of priority just the way I loaded the photos into blogger we'll start with the spinning.....

This is "Twilight 2" Merino that I purchased from the The Yarn Wench before Christmas to add to my stash fibre; although I am determined not to let it get out of hand, famous last words!!!!

I decided I would join the SAL on Ravelry for January which was "Snowed in colours - Angora - Fulling" as you can see I only opted for the colour theme and thought it was quite apt, Icy blues and whites with a bit of black thrown in, now despite not being a fan of black I think it makes the singles look great. Here is 2/3 of the fibre spun up and I have just the remaining 1/3 to spin then I will ply and attempt my first 3ply yarn.....

Next up is part of the 2008 new years resolution, not so much as a resolution but a promise to myself that I will try and improve upon my crochet skills.... I have been able to crochet for a while give me a hook and yarn and I can practise virtually most stitches and get a sample, try and put that into anything other than a scarf and I loose it so I always say my problem is counting not crocheting as I usually end up with not enough or too many chains left at the end of a row.....

Anyway here are my attempts so far... these are worked in Patons Jet (gloves) and Patons Inca (hat) both from the book Patons Learn to Crochet

I started with the fingerless mitts (1 ball) and then moved onto the hat (2 balls) my crocheting in the round is still not brilliant again no problem with the stitches and the principle I struggle with completing the rounds and if I don't keep count I find it difficult were the start/finish is if that makes any sense?

Next a straight forward bag in treble crochet (or double crochet for my American readers) worked in Patons 100% Cotton DK. I have to say the cotton is a fantastic yarn to crochet with and very good value at £3.35 for 100g of either DK (210m) or 4ply (330m) weight. This pattern is originally from a kit introducing how to crochet... I just thought if people could see the bag made up it might tempt some one to have a go... I really enjoyed this

Next up is the scarf "Flurry" from the book Crochet Inspirations 1 using 2 strands of the Mohair blend "Misty" this takes 4 balls all in all, and as I couldn't make my mind up about the colour I went with 1 strand of "Sky" and 1 strand of "Thunder" so I've ended up with a heathery look which I rather like; again quite a straight forward pattern but looks more difficult than it is.

The nice thing about the Misty is that despite it's 70% Mohair (30% polyamide) it didn't irritate my nose when working with it, at all unlike Rowans Kidsilk Haze and if memory serves me right it's statistics makes it a suitable substitute for that yarn: 150m / 25g; tension 18-25 x 23-34 on 3.25 - 5.00mm or US 3 - 8 and at £2.75 per ball it's a heck of a lot cheaper!!!!

Sorry you're going to have turn your head side ways..... must make Soo & Fleegle work for their photos!!!!

Last on the crocheting front is the "Chevron Scarf" from the Learn to Crochet book above, but rather than use the Jet, I've used a smaller hook and yes you guessed it Patons yarn again, but the Washed Haze Aran, which is another good yarn although I normally prefer the DK weight....

With all the striping - 6 rows to the pattern repeat I am opting for the format taken by some lace knitters when doing knitted edgings and doing 6 rows a day otherwise I would go mad cutting the yarn at the end of every row and threading or crocheting in the ends

Now to the Lace Knitting.... I know I haven't said anything about this but I have been working on this since New Year for my friend Anita aka Dream Knitting who has a had a bad back for a few weeks, and was doing this for a friend who retires at the end of February; I didn't like to mention it on my blog until I had asked her permission to do so....

Lorna's Laces Helen's Lace in "Georgetown" and of course as everyone knows it's the PLT MS3 stole otherwise known as "Swan Lake". I must admit I've enjoyed doing this as I didn't know what to do after Christmas, so it filled a hole.....

With the above lace knitting complete I finally cast on my 'Heartland Shawl" in Buffalo yarn that was a birthday present from my friend Mike last April.... lovely to knit and is a heavy fingering weight yarn although the pattern says 110g of DK weight I have 186g so I will be doing more repeats than the pattern states as it says 4 repeats before starting the edging.... shown here is halfway through the 2nd repeat......

I spent 3/4 hours the other afternoon re-charting the chart that came with it as it wasn't easy to read and I knew I wouldn't be able to work comfortably with it as it was.... so those hours were well spent....

Last but not least I cast on the "Alpine Scarf" from VLT which needs to be finished for April. I'm using some French 4ply silk from Colourmart and adding in 2 extra repeats of the central motif to make it wider and I will just knit it as along as I can. I did a test sample August when the yarn arrived so I could 'play' with the yarn, so you can see were I'm going with this one, at this stage I'm halfway through the first bottom border repeat. Once I get the bottom border done I will set myself the task of 1 repeat per day.....

And lastly to say thank you to Fleegle for nominating me for the "You make my day award" I was going to nominate a few people this morning but so far everyone I thought of has already been nominated... so I for those of you who I read your blog on a regular basis, you make my day when you post......

I hope the round up of January's fibre escapades has been worth the wait and there's sufficient photos for Fleegle & Soo...

Is it...

... S.E.X if I don't buy it?

This is 100% pure French silk in Silver Grey (2/28NM) from Colourmart When it grows up it's hopefully going to be the Alpine Lace Scarf from VLT; well actually I'm going to put a few more repeats of the centre motif in to make it wider to make it more of a stole... It will be a 70th birthday present from my Mum to her cousins wife next April (so I have plenty of time) so in effect Mum bought the yarn so is it really S.E.X, That's the question.???

I can't tell you much about it at the moment as I'm only just starting to swatch with it. I can tell you however, it's a 4ply yarn (a 2 & 2) so there are two distinct strands when knitting.... which doesn't bother me as I've been knitting holding two yarns together for a few projects. It feels a bit harsh at first, but after a few rows of stocking stitch the fabric softens up and I can see it being quite drapey and even more so after washing and blocking.....

I'm using 2.5mm needles and so far I like the result :o)

O.K. confession time.... I sent a link to a friend to show her the yarn and Colourmart had just had a new delivery of 1/20NM 100% Cashmere and this colour was there just glaring at me and begging me to buy it....

It's just such a beautiful shade of green it's called "Asparagus"... I gave it thought as to what I could use it for I didn't just want to buy it for the sake of buying it and then I'd remembered I'd subconciously been persuaded to pre-order the "Princess Shawl" pattern from Heirloom Knitting. Sharon Miller gives a couple of suggestions for yarn on her site and the Merino is just a little thinner (about 4 metres per gram) than the cashmere, so I bought it :o))))

I have to say I'm impressed with Colourmart's photography as the yarn is true to the colour on their website.....

So in the end I did succumb to a little S.E.X ;o)