Waddya Mean 'Not Knitting'?

I expect this post is sort of that 'tree falling in the forest' type of post -- we'll answer that age old question if a blogger suddenly blogs after a long and unexplained absence does anyone read?

When last I blogged I was on a bit of a strange scarf in summer thing. I had just completed the very colourful drop knit scarf (good news - there is now an errata on the Vogue site!). A couple of other scarf projects were waiting in the wings (until today) for blogdom and since then -- I haven't knit a stitch.

Not a stitch. None. Zero.

Crazy.

The new job and learning the vagaries of HMRC (taxes!) has kept me occupied I guess....but I'm keen to start something soon. It was my best friend's birthday today and I took her out on Thursday for some yummy cocktails (cocktail bar near London Bridge called The Old School Yard)(comfy sofas, nice staff and amazing drinks - heaven!) and dinner and she turned up wearing some skinny white jeans, a black t-shirt and the wrap I made for gorgeous goddaughter Genevieve at Christmas. (We won't depress ourselves too much by dwelling on a woman who can fit into her 15 year old daughter's clothes.) The point was that she looked fabulous and it inspired me to make something for Gen's birthday.

But I'm still in inspired rather than 'doing' mode so I'll finish up this post with a bit more about last month's scarf mania.

Around the time I finished the colourful scarf I also tackled Victorian Ruby from Victorian Lace Today in a pale peach linen yarn. I decided to take the lazy approach to blocking this scarf, I just washed it and then laid it out flat to dry - no wires, no pins. I shaped it so that the ends flare out which I quite like.

It's a useful summer scarf - the linen means it's light and mostly decorative.

I also tackled a wrap in the most luscious sea foam Manos del Uruguay Silk Blend yarn - a single 100 gr skein was enough for this project. I decided it was time to tackle a mobius wrap and discovered that like most things in knitting it's pretty straightforward.

There are a few methods out there (Google is your friend) here's what I did.

I cast on 130 stitches using backward loop method onto some very long and very flexible circular needles. To get the famous 'half twist' on the first row you don't knit into the stitches. Put a marker on your right needles and then you turn all the stitches upside down and knit into the little piece of yarn between the stitches. (This is muchharder to describe than do!)(Probably easier if you have knitting in front of you.) You knit all these 'between stitches' loops until you are back at the beginning -- and NOW you start to knit the stitches you cast on originally. When you are back at your marker you have completed your first round.

I alternated 5 rounds knitting, 5 rounds purling to get the wide bands of stocking and reverse stocking stitch. I just knit until I was almost out of yarn. I cast off and heh presto - there it was.

It's modelled here by gorgeous goddaughter Genevieve, worn fetchingly over her school shirt.

My final scarf project (and perhaps it was this one that caused my mini knitting hiatus) was an attempt to make my mother a pink Ene's Scarf from Scarf Style. My mom likes pink and I found some mystery pink yarn in my stash (unknown brand) and decided it was about the right amount for a scarf.

My mistake was choosing a scarf design that started at the long edge. Scarves that start at the long edge do not give you the option of deciding that the scarf is big enough if you run out of yarn. You can't just decide to do the border in another colour.

Nope - when you run out of yarn on a scarf that starts at the long edge the scarf just taunts you with the gaping hole in the centre of your scarf. It mocks you for deciding to make a scarf that starts at the long edge with a yarn with unknown yardage that you can't even identify a brand, colour or (ha!) a dye lot for.

You can almost hear the scarf laughing in this picture.

It sits on the needles still - waiting for some knitting miracle to deliver another skein of the mystery unbranded yarn. A knitter can dream.

Myrtle Leaf Shawl

The snow has all melted and London has reverted to mostly rainy weather. Today however is gorgeous. Cold but oh so sunny with a clear blue sky. I'm not really a hot weather person -- but I love a sunny day.

So immediately after today's update I'm off to walk through the park. Greenwich Park is stunning on a sunny day (on any day really) and being able to stroll around it while the rest of the world is studying or working always feels a bit decadent!

Although the park has many trees, none are Myrtle trees so I won't be able to confirm whether this Myrtle Leaf Shawl from Victorian Lace Today is an accurate representation or not.

I knit this on 3.75mm needles using just over 1.5 skeins of Jaggerspun Zephy WoolSilk in Ebony (between 900 and 1000 yards).

It's a pretty straightforward knit (although do check out the errata if you decide to make it - there are a couple of errors in the chart). The body of the shawl is a 12 row pattern repeat - where each row is a pattern row (so no purling back).

The edging is knitted on. It is an 8 row repeat and works up reasonably quickly.

This wasn't one of my favourite projects knitting-wise. It wasn't challenging and the knitting got a little dull towards the end (40 repeats of the leaf pattern!) The shawl pre-blocking was particularly uninspiring.

Having said that, it's been very popular with the non-knitters who've seen it. In fact, it's been more popular with non-knitters than many of the complicated shawls I've knit.

And I'm sure there's a little lesson in that somewhere.

Unblocked the shawl was 18" x 50" and it blocked to an impressive 21" x 76".

Sea Silk and Mysteries......

I've cast on for the Melon Scarf in Victorian Lace Today, using a gorgeous red Handmaiden Sea Silk. I love love love the look of this yarn. It's got a beautiful colour and gorgeous sheen.

But I'm not really enjoying knitting with it. At least not so far. I miss the warmth and forgiving nature of wool. I'm knitting this on 3.75mm needles, and although I'm happy with how the fabric looks - I find it really loose and flimsy while I'm knitting. I'm finding it more comfortable now that I've done a few pattern repeats - the weight of the completed knitting helps things feel more stable on the needles.

I'm sure I'll adapt to the sea silk -- at least I hope I do, I have the same yarn in 3 other colours in the stash!!

The melon pattern itself is very straightforward. This is the centre panel, and consists of a very easily memorised 6 row, 10 stitch repeat. Really good DVD watching knitting. (In fact, I knit most of this last night while watching Little Miss Sunshine. How good is that film? I loved it so much I'm tempted to watch it again tonight. Funny and warm without being sickly sweet. ) Anyway - the centre panel is a pretty easy knit. I'm not sure what edging I'm going to use -- I'm not convinced the one used in the book will work with the sea silk.

The Mystery Deepens (and Lengthens)

I've completed clue 4 on both of the stoles. I confess to being entirely in the dark about what Melanie has in store for the pattern next. The lifelines she strongly recommended (required) have been inserted in both stoles. But what can they be for?? Surely if they were lifelines in the traditional sense they'd be closer to the end of the clue -- rather than 48 rows back. Hmmmm.....

Melanie added to group's curiousity when she posted this cryptic comment on the Yahoo group:

I hope you are all enjoying knitting this design and I just have one request for you before the next clue is posted in a week: Trust me. I've knit what's coming twice and if you follow thedirections step by step, it will work. Don't panic, just trust me.

Egads - is it that time already?

How can it almost be July? July is supposed to be ages away. By my calendar I have tons and tons of time to sort out some yarn and pattern for the felted bag I'm making for my goddaughter's birthday. But by the rest of the world's calendar I have only a few weeks.

Eeeeek!

I expect the making of the bag won't be tooooo time consuming. But finding the perfect pattern will be. I want her to love the bag. I want her to think - "Scooby" (she calls me Scooby)(Soo became Sooby Doo which over time became Scooby Doo which was shortened to Scooby)(anyway) I want her to think "Scooby is so cool." not "Sigh. Scooby makes me stuff - wish she'd just give me vouchers." Any and all ideas gratefully accepted if anyone who happens upon this blog has any..... In the meantime I'll have a search through the stash and pattern pile.

On a more productive note I've finally picked out my first project from Victorian Lace Today. It's the Alpine Scarf. I'm not very far into it, but it's an enjoyable knit so far. There are only 2 'plain' rows in each 16 row repeat so it requires some concentration. But on the plus side, when you mess up you are most likely to find out in the next row - which improves the odds of being able to correct it without frogging.

I'm using Fiddlesticks Zephyr in plum. I love the yarn and the colour. Unfortunately, I'm using rosewood needles - dark wool on dark needles is not a good idea. Some bamboo needles ordered yesterday and should be with me tomorrow. Phew.

Speaking of needles, the pattern suggests 3.5mm - but I've dropped down to 2.75mm to get the pattern definition I'm happy with. Some people might have done that by a bit of swatching on 30 or 40 stitches. Not me, my process is:

*cast on 121 stitches

knit 16 rows

decide knitting is too loose

frog

repeat from * FOUR times dropping .25mm in needles size until you finally settle on 2.75 mm needles

When oh when oh when will I learn??????