Bias Scarf 2 (This Time it's All Mine)

Here's another little project. I finished it sometime before our trip but didn't have time to photograph it. Time, and I didn't feel up to setting up the tripod in the snow, etc. So I threw it in the suitcase and stood in front of some mountains.

This is the second time I've made this asymmetric bias scarf-ette. The first one was given away, and I had a day when I realized I intensely wanted one of my own. (I had an outfit on that it would look great with; of course, now I can't remember what the outfit was! But it will come back to me.)

The original was in a linen/cotton blend, which isn't really my cup of tea. It is a perfectly good blend, but I love my wools and silks.

Imagine my delight then, when I found the same colours (or close enough) in a wool/silk blend at Red Purl. I pounced!

I gave the scarf a light blocking:

I didn't really want to forced it to be flat and smooth--what's the point of knitting in all that texture if you're just going to torture it out of it? I did pin it to hold the edges smooth, but didn't stretch it out. And as I suspected, it's gaining more texture the further in memory the blocking gets. Which is fine with me.

Last time I modeled other ways you can wear this little scarf, but today I'll just give you the two basics, long:

If you can fix red eye with the click of a
button, where's the "shut eye" button??

and doubled:

Project Stats
Started: 28 Dec '12
Finished: 1 Feb '13
Pattern: Rollercoaster Triangle by Birgit Schneggart
Materials: Handmaiden Fine Yarn Mini Maiden, unknown colour ($38) held double
I wore it one day on vacation and we ended up in a museum for most of an afternoon. The scarf was a little warm (yes, even I get too warm sometimes), and so I tied it around my hips like some women do. I didn't think I was one of those women, but I have to say it worked. Perhaps one day I'll even try it when I don't have a sweater and a coat to hide it. :)

Oh here...I found a picture so you can sort of see what I mean:

We're up in the Calgary Tower, standing on
the "glass" floor. It's unnerving, but fun!

With a different outfit, that might not be too bad, right? And in any case, it's easier than carrying your scarf in your pocket when you don't want to be wearing it.

For comparison, here is a shot of the first scarf in linen and cotton:

and here's the wool/silk blend:

Pretty close, right? I'm still delighted by the cool blue-greys mixed with the warm orange, and both with shots of yellow. Love. It.

And now, are we done with the vacation shots and finished projects? I think we are. :( sad faces all around

Progress Report (Day 2)

After writing my last progress report, I worked on the bulky cable vest. I figured out the length issue and ended up taking out a few rows of the front, but not much. I joined the back and front at the shoulder seam with a three needle bind off.

Once they were joined, I continued knitting the two side cables, attaching them to the stitches I left live on the back neck edge. At the end of each row I knit or purled the last stitch together with the stitch from the back. It got pretty awkward at the center back, but still manageable.

Once all the stitches were picked up, I grafted the two ends of the cable trim together. It happened to fall on a cable row so I exchanged the position of the stitches on the needle and then grafted as normal.

It's too bad it looks a little clunky where the cable twist changes direction at the center back, but there's not much you can do about that if you want the twists to be a mirror image on the front.

Once that was done, I picked up stitches around the armhole, but didn't start to knit them.

I paused here because I want to try it on and see how it's going. And that also pretty much finished my night. Football was done and it was time for some sleep. (BTW, it looks like I will have plenty of yarn for this. You don't need to stay up at night worrying about it any longer. Not that I was...)

The next day in the car, I started with the lace coat. I started chart 2 and got the first repeat done (24 rows):

You can see the left side is "longer" than the right side.
It will form the ruffle at the hem.

Only nine more repeats to go!

Right now it's a lot of work because I am consulting the chart on almost every stitch. But after the first repeat of the chart, I'm starting to recognize some patterns. It's sort of like starting to write. At first someone tells you to make a line from top to bottom and then to draw a circle beside it but just touching the line. You follow the instructions piece by piece, and when you're done you look at what you made and recognize a "b." But with a little repetition, you start to recognize that the "b" falls into a whole family of letters with circles and lines, like "a," "d," "p," and even "g" if you just add a hook at the bottom. That's about where I am with this pattern, just recognizing the patterns between the different parts.

Once the pattern is learned, it's easier to knit without constantly looking at the chart. You can "read" your knitting and know what comes next. You can see that you're working on the leaf, and what part of it you're on. Do you need to make it bigger or smaller at that point?, etc.

I'm not sure I'll get to the point where I will be able to knit this lace pattern without the chart, but I can already tell that it's getting easier. For now, it will not be something to work on during football games, I can tell you that!

About the time I finished the chart, it was getting dark enough to make chart reading more difficult, so I pulled out the sock I had packed. In the hotel the night before, I had tried it on and decided it was long enough to start the cuff. I cut the black/white yarn, joined the red, and knit one row (so there wouldn't be any colour blips) to set it up for the next day.

In the car I started a 1x1 rib and got this much done before my hands were tired from the small needle work and it was getting dark enough to make it hard to see the stitches.

Do you think I made it long enough?? Ha ha. It really shortens a lot when I put it on because it has to stretch around my calves. I'll do a good 3" of cuff, I think, and they will be just right for knee socks. (That's 3" when I'm wearing them. That might be as much as 5" unstretched.)

Then I still did not stop knitting because I don't need to see much to work on the bias scarf, so I did a few sections of that. Then it was truly dark and my hands/body were tired enough to want to stop. Troy drove the whole way again, so I had plenty of time to knit, knit, knit!

Once home, unpacked, and settled in for some Downton Abbey, I picked up a new project. While in Guelph, we stopped at Len's Mill, a general merchandise store that carries tonnes of yarn and fabric. I walked through the aisles and couldn't believe the sheer quantity of yarn that they carried! A lot of it was acrylic so fortunately I could just skim those aisles.

I did pick up a couple balls of crochet cotton, and then I saw the Phentex. What a blast from the past. I've never seen it in the States, but it's a completely horrible fake yarn that feels a lot like plastic twine. But it is what we all used for slippers growing up. And many still do. Well, my own slippers have been taken down by the latest round of home improvement, so I picked up a couple of bright cheery colours and started on a replacement pair:

Progress Report (Day 1)

Ok, so I had a day of traveling in the car--just what did I get done of my ambitious packing?

1. I finished the front of the bulky cashmere vest:

I knit both the left and right sides at the same time (with two different balls). But when I was supposed to have 15 stitches on each side, I had 15 on one and 17 on the other. I worked out that I hadn't bound off two stitches at the armhole--right back where I started the day!!

So I ripped back the one side and did it right. Fortunately it was only about 20 minutes of extra knitting. It's a little ironic that part of why I do both halves at once is so that I can do the shaping at the same time and get it to match...

I didn't like how the cables that run along the neckline looked in the pattern so I changed them somewhat.

Instead of crossing every 4th row, I did it every 6th row. I like it better than the pattern, but I think it may have even worked to do it every 8th row. I don't want it to look much more twisted than the main braid cable. The two side cables will continue around the back and form the back neckline. It's a neat design feature.

I got to the point where I couldn't be sure whether the front was the same height as the back. It was impossible to measure accurately while in the car. I think I may have knit the front too long so I'll have to figure that out tonight so I can continue tomorrow when I'm back in the car.

2. Once I decided to put that away, I pulled out the lace coat. I decided to start with a provisional cast on over a long end:

Once I'm done this section, I'll pull out the tail (picking up the stitches) and cast off with the tail. As stated in a recent post, it's easier to get a neater and correctly-tensioned cast off than cast on. It's not really a lot of extra work either, so totally worth it.

I discovered that I ordered the wrong size needles. The "size" is correct (diameter), but I was looking for a 40" cable needle so that I could use the magic loop method on the smaller sections of the coat (like sleeves). Well, 16" cable needles are apparently 40 cm. So when I saw "40" and ordered them, I got about the shortest needle you can get. And I wanted the longest. The good news is that I can use them for some of the sections (like the hem band, which is the first piece). Of course the bad news is that I will still have to buy the longer needles.

The other good news is that these needles are more comfortable than the interchangeable set that I have. I've never like circular needles, but maybe I just don't have the right set yet.

The knitting itself went pretty well and I completed the first chart (24 rows) before it got too dark to comfortably read the chart:

The yarn doesn't really feel like much in the strand, but it sure is lovely to knit with.

3. Once I put the lace away, I pulled out the no-thinking-needed shawl and did a couple of sections before we arrived.

Well, three out of four projects worked on and I still have the trip home tomorrow (and time tonight while watching some football playoffs). Apparently my packing wasn't so out of line after all!

Ready to Go!

I wasn't particularly excited about a car trip this weekend (although I wanted to go), and then I remembered...car knitting!! So tonight I set out to be prepared.

First, I wound two balls of lace for the lace coat:

Don't tell anyone, but I'm not going to swatch. I'm usually close on gauge and to do an accurate gauge swatch would require so many stitches, I may as well get the coat started. I'm not afraid of ripping back if it becomes necessary.

I wound two balls because part of the pattern needs to be worked double stranded. I decided if there is any colour difference between balls it would be safer to work with two balls than to work from two ends of the same ball and then have a sudden change when I had to start a new ball.

I've printed the corrected charts from the Vogue Knitting website (advantage of not being the first one to knit the pattern), have my new cable needles, and should be set to go.

I also have my vest ready for some new work. I have ripped out and reknit the back. It is looking much better:

Next I'll continue the front. Since it has a single fairly simple cable, I expect it will go pretty quickly and hopefully without incident. Of course, there's always more shaping with the neckline in the front, but nothing that should slow me down.

And for the times when I don't feel up to thinking, charting, or keeping track of where I am in a pattern, I can continue on my bias scarf:

It's coming along nicely. I wondered if the gauge is a little tight, but I think blocking will loosen it up enough. If not, it's alright.

And just in case, I'll throw in these socks too. (You never know.)