A few small finishes. Two big projects who could not be closer to being “done”, and a brag for my daughter.
All photos in this diary are by me, the diarist.
Would you like to host The Making Location? Once a week would be lovely! I am just not organized enough, or don’t have fresh photos of weekly progress sometimes . . . Anyone?
1. The Big Fat Shawl AKA Aero, in Knitpicks Wool of The Andes.
From the wrong side.
I finished the knitting, then I consulted with my local Ravelry group and we decided the top and bottom edges were too narrow at only 4 rows, and looked out of proportion to the side edges. So I knitted several more rows. I was also concerned about the texture of the garter stitch matching throughout the edging. So I moved down one needle size. Before I did that, the picked-up edge was much looser. The pickup ratio was 1 stitch every two rows, and I am not sure I would do that again. The texture of the garter stitch was completely different.
This is a closeup of the inside V of the top edge.
There are thousands of loose ends to weave in, and most of the new color being added strands also need to close up the little hole in the first row of the new color. I did 27 yesterday and barely made a dent. However, I asked my daughter to model for us even thought it isn’t finished, and she agreed.
I will keep weaving in the ends and make a blocking plan. This fabric desperately wants a good soak and shaping.
Wavy Feathers Wimple knit in Malabrigio Silkpaca, a laceweight silk alpaca blend.
I finished the knitting, and I was so excited, and then things went so wrong. The first bindoff (k2tog tbl) looked bad. The second bindoff (normal) looked better but not good. The third time I moved up 3 needle sizes and used a normal bindoff and it looked best. But I wasn’t sure it was right and obsessed over it for a few days. Consulted at Ravelry, my local store, and my local Ravelry group. Responses to my Ravelry post led to TechKnitting where I studied various cast-offs. I also had a huge gap between my last stitch and first stitch and I found very specific and brilliant suggestions for that. I considered a fourth attempt at binding off, but everyone during the consult thought it was fine – it isn’t as stretchy as the knitting, but it is more than big enough to go over anyone’s head. So I have one little stitch to fix for the gap, and this can go for a soak and block too. Our model returns.
The finished items include a test knit of a cabled washcloth, and that pattern will be available on the 20th of June at this site. This was a nice quick project that was completely different. I used some local yarn store-quality cotton I have had laying around for a while, the label said Reynolds Gypsy. The big lesson here was how useful blocking is – to take a twisty cable patch and get it in shape with a few spritzers. Also, to space the cables out a little more for the cotton. The cable stitch was 9 wide and it was challenging to persuade the cotton stitches to change places that much. It was even more challenging when my beautiful daughter wanted to learn and examine the cable process.
Baseball season is over and I have one extra free weekend and free Friday nights and free Saturday afternoons again. I zipped over to the local bead store and finished my May project using Duo beads. The pattern is written by the shop, a free one each month usually featuring a new technique or bead.
There are 5 of the circular-based motifs – after the first loop of Duo and seeds beads, we just went around and around and around and added various seed beads, 3m crystals, and more Duos until it was done. Then the motifs were joined with a small set of bridging pieces.
New projects include the June bead project, which uses the Tila beads in a new way by kind of weaving two strands together. Here are my two in-progress photos:
For summer knitting, I am picking up a couple small UFO’s and my beautiful daughter asked for legwarmers for dancing. I took the pattern I used for mine ( Spiral Rib Legwarmers, had her choose a washable worsted wool, and downsized it to 50%. The first cast-on was too tight, so I learned a new cast-on and wow, is it stretchy. I will use her bind-off at the other end of course. (this is the bindoff I was considering for the lace cowl).
—video of Jeny’s Stretchy Cast On—
http://youtu.be/3n8E3I6Cg2k
It looks kind of scrawny, but it fits here very tight, and I think it will still be tight over tights. My legwarmers are very loose and kind of fall down and cozy around my cold ankles.
My daughter sewed her first garment, pajama pants. She learned about reinforcing seams, crotch seams, and following the pattern steps. I am so proud of her!
crossposed from orange
[poll id=”
173
“]
9 comments