Finished Projects – Page 8 – The Knitting Doctor

Saved From The Fires Of Mount Doom

Or,

Finished Project!

Project Details:

Yarn: Sanguine Gryphon Little Traveler sock yarn, color is Penny Pot, NJ. Go check out her yarn, her colors and fiber bases are wonderful. This is superwash merino.

Pattern: What do YOU think? Same old pattern, 72 stitches around, top down, this one with a ribbed cuff. I put Wooly Nylon in the heels and toes.

Needles: 2.00mm Blackthorn needles. I like these, and the tips are absolutely the sharpest double points I’ve ever seen. I was worried that these would hurt my hands, since my one go-around with the Signature needles did (enough that I sold them), but these are fine.

Started: July 2010. I’m not kidding, even though it’s a bit embarrassing to say so.

Finished: Today!

For: Me!

What I Learned: Medical conferences are really good for finishing sock knitting! Lookie here at what else I did today:

In the spirit of full disclosure, I didn’t do all of that today. This was my Wintergrass sock, and I was about half done with the cuff before I picked it back up today. I ran into two other knitters today, one of them did her best to try to convince me that I should buy a loom. She also said that I shouldn’t Mickey Mouse around with a small table loom, I should go right to a huge floor loom, and I wouldn’t regret it if I did. Who knew that a medical conference could be that dangerous of a place?

Here are a couple of photos that show we’re still having fun. I have been going to all the meetings, since in fact that’s what I’m being paid to do, but we did have a great couple of days before the meeting started. We’ve also been finding some wonderful restaurants in the evenings.

More meetings tomorrow, then back home to rain and cold (I am assuming, I haven’t bothered to check the weather yet).

Big Pink!

Well the mystery package has reached its destination, so here’s the Finished Project post!

Project Details:

Started: Way back in October of last year, in plenty of time to finish before the recipient baby was born.

Finished: February 27th, a good two months after the recipient baby was born. Don’t even ask. There’s another baby in the family due later this summer. I should probably start knitting now.

Project Name: Tweed Baby Blanket, mostly. I made it a little bigger, and of course it doesn’t look anything like the original since this one is knit in Startling Pepto Pink acrylic-cotton yarn.

Yarn: Cotton Ease in Startling Pepto Pink, from the stash. This is one of the older, now-discontinued colors. I can’t for the life of me figure out why they did this in favor of the insipid pastel neutral colors they have now. I love this yarn. I’m not ordinarily an acrylic fan, but this is just plain nice stuff. And it’s machine washable, a big plus when doing baby knitting. I love the look of the original yarn that the designer used, but what real-life new mom has time to hand wash a damned baby blanket?

Needles: Size 5mm, started on Denise interchangeables, finished on Knit Picks acrylics since I needed a really long one for the edging.

For: Baby Rowan Annabelle, my latest grand-niece. I realized that I never showed a photo of her.

Isn’t she adorable?

What I Learned: Once again, babies come faster than you think. Start knitting early. I made the center square a little larger than in the pattern, which gave me a finished blanket that was very good sized. I forgot to measure it before I sent it off, I’ll have her momma do it at some point.* The edging is just a feather and fan with an I-cord bind off, and I had to do a little math to figure out how many stitches to pick up around the edges. The original pattern called for 6 repeats of the feather and fan pattern on each edge, I did 7. My garter square was 86 garter ridges, and I picked up 128 stitches on each side. I think.

Here are a couple more photos.

That’s Sweet Pea, of course, standing in for baby Rowan. My verdict is that this one is a total success!

*Oh wait, I can measure that chair that the blanket is on. 49 inches across the diagonal. There you go.

A Little Bit of Everything

First up, spinning!

Here are all the spindles in Spindle Jail. I finally came up with a way to store my spindles that keeps them safe from nosy cats. I actually had asked John to build me something to hang them, and he came home from Target with this.

It’s simply a wire mesh basket. I cut the price tag off, turned it upside down, and voilá, a Spindle Jail. Low tech, but it works. Smart man, that one. He came home with two of these, figuring I’d add to the collection at some point. Very smart man.

There’s been a lot of spinning going on for the Tour de Fleece.

And I’m still working on the never ending pile of Corriedale. In a moment of insanity, I bought 3 pounds of this stuff with the plan to make sweater yarn. I’m almost through the first pound. Since I plan to spin all the singles before I ply it, I needed to figure out some way to store the singles so I could reuse bobbins. I have a bunch of bobbins for my wheel, but not enough to keep spinning 3 pounds of wool. Bobbins are expensive, so I found these. Here they are in action.

Click on that last one to see how pretty my singles are!

Next up, knitting! Yes, I’m still knitting around here, though there’s been damn little of it since the Tour started. I actually finished something.

Project Details:

Started: Oh good grief. I’m pretty sure I didn’t record the date. I finished the last pair of socks in December of last year, for pete’s sake, so I probably started these right away. ETA: not true, apparently. According to Ravelry, I started these in September of 2009. Yup, here we are. I started a second pair, since the pair on the needles was on very sharp Signature dpns that I didn’t think would get through airport security. Incidentally, those were the only pair I knit on those needles. Unlike every other human being who has knit with the Signatures, I didn’t like them, and sold them to Major Knitter.

Finished: This past Thursday, the 15th.

Pattern: Same old pattern, same old plain socks.

Yarn: Wollmeise, purchased before the Wollmeise became really really famous. The color name is Löwenzahn, though John renamed this Squashed Frog. I like Squashed Frog better, since every time I type Löwenzahn, I have to do a Google search for how to do diacritical marks on a Mac.

Needles: 2.25mm Pony Pearl dpns

For: Me

What I Learned: Buy yarn when you see it. This stuff has gotten impossible to get. It is good sock yarn, but not worth stalking shop updates like a madwoman. I still have 3 skeins of this left, so I’m good for awhile. Maybe the furor will have died down by the time I’ve used all of it. It’s superwash wool, but has no nylon, so I added Wooly Nylon to the heels and toes for a little better wear.

For the record, that makes one more project done from the UFO pile. I was very transiently down to 4 projects. It’s back up to 5, since I have to have a sock going. Here’s the new one, started yesterday:

The yarn is from Sanguine Gryphon, her Little Traveller sock yarn. The color name is Penny Pot, NJ. This is really, really nice stuff. I (ahem) might have a few other skeins in the stash. The needles are new also. I caved and bought a set of the Blackthorn needles, size 2.oomm. So far I like them. They are wickedly sharp. That photo is a bit fuzzy, click on it to make it bigger (but just as fuzzy), or go to their website to look at them.

That’s enough for one day. I’m off to hang out with the spinning wheel.

And Another UFO Becomes an FO!

For those of you keeping track, I’m trying to whittle down the UFO pile into something more manageable this summer. Here’s a list of what I started with, and a photo or two of the whole pile.

1) True Blood Faery sweater

2) Crazy King Cole Mohair thing, um, stole

3) Wollmeise Squashed Frog Socks

4) Grey Ribbed Peace Fleece Socks with red accents

5) Frootloops Morning Glory Stole

6) Puppy Mittens

7) Evenstar Shawl

8 ) Baktus Shawlette

9) Euroflax Linen Facecloth

10) Spirit In The Sky Beret

I think that’s it. The crossed through stuff is finished finished finished. There are a couple of things in that mess that will eventually get frogged and repurposed, but I think eventually most of it will be finished finished finished as well.

And here’s the last finished finished finished thing:

Spirit In The Sky Beret

Project Details:

Started: Hmmm. This is the second go-around for this yarn. It started as a pair of socks way back when in 2007. I took it with me to a knitting retreat in Idaho, and left the second skein of yarn under the bed or something when I left. It hung around as a half-knit single sock for awhile, since I was pretty sure that as soon as I ripped it out that I’d find the other skein. I finally ripped and started this in April 2008.

Finished: Last week.

Pattern: Here.

Yarn: Sock Hop sock yarn, color Spirit In The Sky. One of my favorite oldies songs, by Norman Greenbaum. Of course you can’t get this anymore. If you could, I’d have finished the socks, now wouldn’t have I?

Needles: Size 3.0 double points

For: ?? It doesn’t quite fit me, and I’m just not a beret person, really. It’s a little small for me, and will probably fit a kid in the family. It depends on who gets here first to claim it.

What I learned: Keep track of your yarn while on vacation. I’d have knit this to fit me if I hadn’t been worrying about running out of yarn. The pattern is pretty easy, but I’d be a little nervous knitting it with just one skein of Koigu, which is what the pattern calls for. If you want a slouchier beret, you might need a little more yarn. I thought about doing stripes, but I like what the orange yarn does all by itself, so a kid hat it will be.

And just because I want to, here’s a pretty flower photo I snapped today.

And I can’t for the life of me figure out why that smiley thing is in front of the Baktus shawl instead of a number 8, but I can’t get rid of it, so I guess it stays.

ETA: I fixed the smiley face, thanks to Chris! 8)

My Pretties…

But first, that FO!

This has been in the UFO pile long enough. It’s now done, and I can use it. It’s a linen facecloth. I’m not doing the whole Project Details thing on this one. The yarn is Euroflax linen, the pattern is from Knitters’ Stash. Here’s the Rav link for the pattern. This one is the Lacy Vine pattern. The needles I used were 3.75 mm. I probably will make more of these, if only because I have a bunch of this stuff in the stash, all in different colors, of course, so I can’t use it for much else. The Euroflax is sort of stringy and harsh feeling while you knit it, and splits like crazy. It softens up amazingly when you wash it though.

Enough of that. On to the “pretties” of the title. Click on these photos to really get a good look. Try not to drool on your keyboard.

Those are all of my spindles, out for inspection. Well, all of them except the Ashford boat anchor. Oh, OK, I’ll show you that one, too.

That thing weighs over 2 1/2 ounces, compared to less than an ounce for most of the other ones. Next time I get each of them empty, I plan on weighing them and recording it for future reference. Somebody remind me to do that. I usually think about it when it’s close to full and I’m wondering how much fiber is wound on. It would be very handy to know what the empty spindle weighed.

Here’s another photo of the pretty ones. Clickety-click.

From left to right:

1) My latest acquisition, a Greensleeves Damsel Monique. Very lightweight, great for lace. The whorl is redwood burl with purpleheart, and the shaft is mahogany. The fiber is an Abby Batt, in the color Glitterpigeon.

2) Cascade Spindles Mt. St. Helens. This is just a great dependable spinner. The fiber is a merino silk blend, I think it’s from Louet.

3) Bosworth Midi, in Zebrawood. I want a Bossie in every size and wood, really. The fiber is a merino-sparkly blend that I got at the spin-in on Whidbey earlier this year. I’m actually almost done with the plying here, fortunately. I’m not sure how much more I could get on this thing.

4) Another Cascade spindle, this time the Cougar. This one weighs next to nothing and is terrific for lace. The fiber is more Louet, 80/20 merino silk, color Golden Hibiscus.

5) Last but not least, my first Butterfly Girl spindle. This has a whorl made from Italian resin. It’s also quite lightweight. I say first since there might just be a second one from her shop on the way. The fiber is also hers, a merino/bamboo/firestar batt called Blue Morpho. There might just be some more fiber coming this week, too.

You might note that while I seem to be happiest with only three or four knitting projects going at any one time, I seem to have absolutely no problem having a spinning WIP on every available spindle and bobbin.

After I got my wheel, the spindles sort of sat around some. They’ve gotten a lot more use in the last few months, and I’m rarely without one close at hand. Don’t get me wrong, I adore my wheel, but if somebody put a gun to my head and made me choose, I’d pick the spindles.

I’m off to check the mailbox for the umpteenth time today. Have a good weekend, everybody!

Baby Blue Baktus

Finally, something finished around Chez Knitting Doctor! This came off the blocking board this morning. We had a bit of a discussion about whether it was acceptable for John to take the photos while he was still in his bathrobe, but once we got past that, it was blog-ready.

What do you think? I even put on lipstick for the event. Per his request, we have no photos of John in his bathrobe.

Project Details:

Started: Um, how to answer that. I started a plain ribbed scarf with this yarn way back in 2008. It sat in UFO-ville for a very long time. I dragged it out earlier this year, didn’t feel the ribbed scarf love, and ripped it all out. I found the Baktus pattern and started over with that in February of this year.

Finished: Officially this morning. I finished the knitting on it last week, and washed and blocked it this weekend.

Pattern: Lacy Baktus. The pattern for the lacy version is on the Flickr page.

Yarn: Butternut Woolens Silk Garden. The color name is Blue Flax. It’s a 50-50 merino silk blend, and you can’t get it any more. I should have bought this stuff by the truckload. It’s a DK weight, and just the softest, squooshiest stuff you can imagine. This was 252 yards per skein, and I used two of them.

Needles: Size 5.00mm straight needles from my faux tortoiseshell collection.

For: Me

What I learned: Sometimes you have to experiment a little to get the right pattern-yarn combo. This yarn would have been totally wasted in a plain ribbed scarf. This is a pretty versatile pattern. You start with one of the corners and four stitches, knit and increase along one side until you’ve used half your yarn, then decrease till you have four stitches. I learned that being cocky, as usual, is a recipe for ripping. I knit till I’d used what I thought was half the yarn, started decreasing, and ran out, had to rip out half the knitting and start over. You can use any weight yarn with this pattern, and it works well with sock yarn, especially in the plain version without the lace holes. If you wanted to make a bigger shawl with this pattern, I’d probably recommend doing the increases and decreases at a more rapid rate. This one measures just a little over 8 feet long, and 22 inches down the center spine. If you did a full size shawl with this, it would have 10 foot tails.

Check out the Ravelry pages for the lacy version and the original to get an idea of what you can do with this pattern.

I’m more than happy with this one. I predict that this will be worn often. I also predict that this will not be the last Baktus around here. This would be a great pattern for those hand spun skeins that are accumulating in the stash!

Peony Socks!

Whew! I finally finished something.

Project Details:

Started: April 30th, 2009 (hey, at least it was in the same calendar year!)

Finished: December 26th, 2009

Yarn: Zoe Shalimar Sock, color Peonies, purchased from Kris at Sonny & Shear

Needles: Signature dpns, size 2.25mm

For: Me

What I learned: Knitting plain socks is still endlessly amusing. And I love wearing plain socks in every color of the rainbow.

This yarn is quite nice. It’s superwash merino, and I added a bit of pink Wooly Nylon when I knitted the heels and toes, to give it a little more durability. I tend to just wear through my socks at the bottom of the heels, though it’s better if I wear them with real shoes, and not Birkenstocks. For some reason, the open clogs rub more on the sock. If you want to try the Wooly Nylon, here’s where I got mine, though you can find it in fabric shops as well. I have it in a bunch of colors, though it’s fine enough that even if it doesn’t match perfectly, it just disappears. I just try to get in the same general color family and intensity.

I hope everyone’s holiday was lovely. We are still having ours, with the last set of family arriving today for dinner and gift exchanging. Santa will probably be glad, he’s had a busy week. I had the honor of working for the four-day Christmas weekend, and have to go in today as well, but then I have a couple of days off, and I do get the New Year’s weekend off as well. Just as a public service announcement, remember to go buy your black eyed peas for the annual New Year’s Day BEP cook-off. I wouldn’t want you to get caught short without them!

True Blue Sweater

Finished!

I finished the knitting on that pesky collar yesterday, then decided to do a grafted tubular bind off, which I’ve never done before. That was more fun than a barrel of monkeys, once I figured it out. Here are the details, followed by some photos of the bind off process.

Project Details:

Yarn: Beaverslide Dry Goods worsted weight wool, color Lake Josephine.

Pattern: Jerry-rigged sweater pattern, mostly from Sweater Wizard.

Needles: Knitpicks Options wood needles, size 5 & 6.

Started: November 9th, 2008, according to Ravelry, who never lies about these things. Good grief. Almost a freaking year to knit a plain stocking stitch sweater.

Finished: Today!

For: My sweetiepie, John! Doesn’t he look dashing in blue? He wouldn’t even let me have it back long enough to block those seams.

What I learned: Basic is best. Stockinette socks, stockinette sweaters, I never tire of them. I also learned how to do a tubular bind off. Here’s proof.

You can do this with 1×1 ribbing. After you do your last row, separate the stitches on 2 needles (circulars here, as it was the collar). Knit stitches go on the front needle, purls on the back. Make sure you line them up correctly when you start this. In this case I started and ripped this thing twice before I figured that out.

Then you just graft the front stitches with the back stitches using kitchener stitch, just like you would do with a sock toe. It is exactly the same process. Here’s what you end up with.

Pretty, eh? I did this using Nancie Wiseman’s instructions in the Knitter’s Book of Finishing Techniques. After I finished it, I googled “tubular bind off” and found a couple of places that describe this, but with the addition of four prep rows before you graft. I think it would be even prettier that way, but I’m not redoing it. Next time, I’ll do it that way, and show the difference. Don’t hold your breath, though. You know how long it takes me to knit a sweater.

Here’s my latest gadget for you all, since I know you count on me to find the best gadgets.

And inside?

Cute, huh. Go here to get yours while they last. They make great gifts.

And now that that’s finished, I’ve started on the Red Faery. I did a real gauge swatch, got gauge with size 7 needles, and I’ve done the first row of the bottom cable. More on that next post!

Jacoby’s Blankie

It’s finally done:

Project Details:

Yarn: Knitpicks City Tweed Aran weight, in Snowshoe and Brocade. I used 5 skeins of the former, less than 3 of the latter.

Pattern: Brooklyn Tweed’s Baby Blanket pattern, roughly. I started knitting based on a previous blog post, and then he released the pattern. The original pattern used the DK weight of the same yarn. I just started knitting away, and had finished most of the center before the “real” pattern was available. I just figured out how many pattern repeats would go around the outside and picked up that many stitches.

Needle size: Denise 10 1/2. Though when I got to the I-cord edging, I pitched them and used a large Addi instead. The Denise needle tips kept unscrewing as I was doing the edging, though I have never had them do that before. I suppose there was some twisting action of the I-cord that caused this.

Started: June 1, 2009

Finished: August 29, 2009

For: My first grand-nephew, Jacoby!

What I Learned: Start baby projects early. Seriously. They come faster than you think. Also, I love this yarn to pieces. We’ll see how it holds up. It’s softer than soft, so I’m thinking it might pill, but you could wrap it around a barenaked baby without any qualms. It’s not superwash, so those of you thinking this would make great baby clothes might think about that a bit.

I also learned that I’m not so fond of doing I-cord edging, though it is mighty pretty once it’s done.

Credits: Sweetpea, the stand-in baby model.

Peacock Shawl

Finally, it’s finished! This wasn’t the greatest day to take photos, but I was anxious to get it done and up. You’ll have to excuse the number of photos, it’s not every day I finish a huge lace shawl.

Project Details:

Yarn: Blue Heron Egyptian Mercerized Cotton, color Bluegrass, from Sonny & Shear
Pattern: Peacock Feathers Shawl, by Dorothy Siemens
Needles: Knit Picks Harmony circular, size 3.5mm
Started: August 3, 2008
Finished: May 8, 2009
For: Me

What I Learned: I just love knitting lace. I also love Dorothy Siemens. Her patterns are very well written. Though this looks like a complicated piece, it really isn’t. All the wrong side rows are purled, and the charts and instructions are thorough and detailed. The pattern calls for 1260 yards of laceweight. The Blue Heron is in 1000 yard skeins, so I had to buy two of them*. This yarn is on the heavier side of laceweight, almost a fingering, making this a very large shawl. Since I’m nearly 6 feet tall (I have always been pissed off that I never hit 6 feet!), it fits me well.

I also like the yarn. I wasn’t sure that I would enjoy knitting with cotton for lace, but it turned out nicely. It also blocked like a dream. The color is just barely variegated, enough to give some interest but not so much as to detract from the lovely lace patterns. I predict that I’ll get a lot of wear out of this.

*Yes, there’s quite a bit of this leftover. Stay tuned to see what I’m going to do with it!

A Couple Of FOs

Well, that was a little longer than I intended to be away! Since the last post, we finished the kitchen remodel, went to Washington DC, I finished a pair of socks, and I’m 99.9% done with that Peacock Shawl. Whew. I even went to work once or twice.

Here’s how the kitchen turned out. We couldn’t be more pleased with it.

The last photo is the powder room. Of course, the counters in the kitchen are already a lot more cluttered than in those photos.

We went to DC last week to visit a good friend whose wife (also a good friend!) is stationed in Baghdad. We had a great time, did a lot of wonderful touristy things, and ate and drank some lovely food and wine. Here’s just one photo of me and another knitter I found.

We of course took tons of photos, which I won’t terminally bore you with. Here’s a link to John’s Picasa album if you are interested.

And I finished those Wicked Witch socks while we were in DC. Our friend Byron lives out in Arlington, so we did a lot of subway riding, giving me lots of knitting time.

Project Details:

Yarn: Tempted Good Grrl sock yarn, in the color Wicked Witch.
Needles: Knit Picks Harmony, size 2.25.
Pattern: Um, do you have to ask any more? These were 72 stitch socks.
Started: December 2008
Finished: April 2009
For: Me
What I learned: Don’t post photos of sock yarn unless you are willing to buy more for family members who want some of their very own. My niece Angie loved this color so much that I bought a second hank for some for her. I thought about sending her these, but I think they’ll be a bit small. She has even bigger feet than I do. Plus I love them too much. You’ll get yours, my pretty.
I also learned that I probably should quit buying sock patterns and pattern books. I always end up knitting the same thing.

And I finished the knitting on the Peacock. I just need to wash and block it, which will happen this week. Here’s a finished-but-not-blocked photo.

Next time, the finished Peacock, and what’s new on the needles.

Finished Project!

I finished John’s socks while we were in Arizona a few weeks ago, and just haven’t gotten around to posting them. Here they are:

Project Details:

Yarn: Mountain Colors Weavers Wool Quarters, color Red Tail Hawk.

Needles: Ivore double points, size 2.75 mm.

Pattern: My own jerry-rigged sock pattern, on 60 stitches.

Started: February 7th, 2009

Finished: March 5th, 2009

For: John, to replace the first pair of socks I ever knit.

What I learned: Sportweight yarn knits up into socks faster than “sock” weight (duh!). I like knitting socks with nice yarn better than I like mending socks made from crappy yarn.

He loves them, and I think he’s finally given up on the old holey pair.
——————————————————————————-
Portland was a fun trip, even though we were there for just a short time. The train ride there is really the way to go. If you figure in the cost of parking a car once you get there, it’s much cheaper to take Amtrak, especially since Portland is such a walkable city. My sweetie surprised me with tickets to Wicked one night, which was fabulous. And I got to shop at Powell’s, and at Knit/Purl, so the whole trip was a success.

On the remodeling front, the floors are done, and now we are just waiting for the cabinets to be finished. Once those are installed, the guys can measure to cut the granite for the counter tops. We’re figuring about another three or four weeks before it’s back in usable condition. We’re already starting to plan what our first meal in the new kitchen will be!

Arctic Circle Monkeys!

I’m not far enough into Version 4 of the True Blue sweater to tell for sure if the size is good this time, but I’m happy to report that the Beaverslide yarn is holding up well to all that ripping and reknitting. And I’ve decided to think of the whole thing as my economy knitting plan. I’m really getting my money’s worth out of that yarn.

And I’ve finished something else!

New Socks! How Exciting!

Project Details:

Yarn: Three Irish Girls, Beckon Super Merino, from the Sock Yarnista Sock Club. The color is Arctic Circle, with plain black for toes, heels and cuffs.

Pattern: Monkey Socks, from Knitty, by Cookie A.

Needles: Celtic Swan Forge sterling silver needles, size 1.

For: Me

Started: September 4, 2008

Finished: December 1, 2008

Modifications: I changed the heel flap to a standard slip stitch flap, and the contrasting heel/toe/cuff option, otherwise, it’s as written.

What I learned: I can too knit something besides plain socks. The pattern was fun to knit, though I still love that plain sock. And I love the Sock Yarnista. Her yarn is just fabulous. Go buy some!

Hundertwassers!

OK. This is very embarrassing. I joined the Summer of Socks over on Ravelry at the beginning of summer. The whole point was to see how many pairs of socks you can knit during the summer. While I knew I wouldn’t win by a long shot, I had high hopes of at least not humiliating myself publicly. Oh well. Here they are, my first, and likely only, completed socks of the summer.

Project Details:

Yarn: Opal Hundertwasser sock yarn, color number 637A. The name is Wartende Häuser, or “Waiting House”.

Needles: Knit Picks Harmony dpns, size 2.25mm.

Pattern: Um, the same old sock pattern. Look over there to the right in the menu bar, you’ll find it.

Started: June 24th, 2008

Finished: August 26th, 2008

For: Me

What I learned: Opal is still one of my favorite sock yarns. It’s not as soft and squishy as some of the new kids on the block, but it is just a fabulous yarn. I also learned to let my matchy-matchy tendencies go on this one. The color repeat is really a long one for this colorway, so I’d have had to pull out close to a quarter of a sock’s worth of yarn in order to start the second sock at exactly the same place. I just decided to make them different. I like ’em!

Oh, and those socks are actually the same length, they just don’t look like it.

I also learned about the German artist, Friedensreich Regentag Dunkebunt Hundertwasser, who was the inspiration for this line of yarn. Check out my previous post for details. Here’s that photo again that inspired this color:

Next time, a Project Roundup! And while you’re at it, go vote in today’s Hunk contest. Rickman is having a hard time of it, again. These young whippersnappers seem to think they are going to take the title away from him.

Whitewater Shawl

Project Details:

Yarn: Alpaca With A Twist Fino, 70% baby alpaca, 30% silk, 1 hank, 100grams, 875 yards. And I used all but 1.2 grams of the hank.

Pattern: I put this together using Evelyn Clark’s Knitting Lace Triangles book. It’s 16 repeats of the Medallion pattern, then 3 repeats of the Ripple pattern, then the edging. The Whitewater name came from our river raft trip in June of this year. I knit part of the shawl on that trip.

Needles: Holz & Stein ebony circulars, size 3.25mm.

Started: February 2008. I took a class from Evelyn Clark using her triangular lace shawl techniques at the Madrona fiber festival in Tacoma. As I was working on the Langsjal Jóhönnu shawl at the time, this sat in hibernation until April.

Finished: August 1, 2008.

For: ?? Maybe me, maybe a gift. Who knows.

Modifications: Well, it’s all a modification, really. I didn’t deviate from Ms. Clark’s plan, though, except for leaving off one plain row at the end. I was running out of yarn, and just left it out.

What I learned: The cast on used in this book is rather clever. Basically, you provisionally cast on 2 stitches and knit a little 2-stitch garter strip for several rows, then pick up stitches on one long side, then those first 2 stitches. This gives you a garter “tab” that flows better into the top border.

I also learned a lot about how triangular lace shawls are constructed. Ms. Clark’s book makes the whole process very simple, and takes all the guess work out of it. The book has a lot of instructional material, then pattern charts (also written out, for you chart-o-phobic types) for four different laces. There are instructions on how to knit the transition sections between one lace type and the next, then one edging stitch chart. You basically pick which laces you want in your shawl, decide the order and how many repeats, then put in the appropriate transitions to make it work. This works whether you are making a small neck scarf or a ginormous shawl.

The book is by no means comprehensive as far as lace shawl construction. I would have liked to see more information on how to take this method and run with it. She doesn’t really explain the process of taking stitch patterns with varying stitch counts and making them work together. I think that after one or two of these shawls, you’d get tired of the four stitch patterns and want to branch out. I love the finished project though. And the yarn is divine. It has enough silk to really glow, and the alpaca has just a bit of a halo.

And a few more photos, because it’s my blog, and I don’t finish something every day: