My Sister's Shawl - Clue 2

Sunday, the second clue for the mystery knit-along was released. I got out my shawl and realized right away something was wrong. My needles felt funny, the texture was wrong and they even felt too big.

What I decided was that they got wet when I spilled water upstairs that dripped down to the living room. I thought the shawl was spared (the balls of yarn that could have gotten wet were thankfully in ziplock bags) but I think the wooden needles got wet causing them to swell up and the grain to rise.

My favourite bamboo needles didn't feel as good, but I continued on. The first part was a diamond lace pattern. I made it through the first repeat and decided I didn't like one part of the lace pattern. I put it aside because I didn't want to decide whether to rip it out and figure out what to change or just follow the designer's directions.

The next day I got a notice that there was an omission in the pattern when it was released and Clue 2 should have started with two knitted rows before starting the lace. That made my decision easier...I ripped out all of Clue 2.

Regrettably, I didn't take a picture before I ripped it out so I can't show you what I changed, but here is the final lace:

Of course it will look better after blocking, but you should be able to see that the holes outline diamonds which are half stocking stitch (bottoms) and half reverse stocking stitch (tops). What I didn't like about the original is that the decreases made a knit border in the purl triangles. If you want purl texture against knit texture, then I felt the triangles should be solid knit or purl.

My solution was to change the decreases so they were done in purl instead of knit. (K2tog becomes ssp and ssk (skp in the pattern) becomes P2tog.) A different way you could get the same effect is to simply change the knits in the pattern to purls and the purls to knits, keeping in mind that this would change whether the knit halves were on the top or bottom of the diamonds.

Here is the back of the lace:

Doing the decreases in purls on the front moves the decrease lines to the back. You can now see them along the top edges of each knit triangle. Those are the lines I didn't want on my purl triangles on the front.

Once I got that figured out, I made it smoothly through the rest of the clue.

We've had our first shaping - you can see the width was decreased in the last couple inches on the right side. Who knows where this will lead!

Here is the entire shawl so far:

And I happened to be* in a yarn shop this week so I picked up some new needles in this size. Nice tinted ones from Knitter's Pride.

Only after I got home did I remember that I prefer the 14" length over 10" (the only option available which is probably why I didn't think of it in the store). I decided I could make do. I am enjoying their fresh new polished surface!

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* If by "happened to be" you understand that I left the house expressly to drive to the yarn store. But I went for something else and they just "happened to" carry bamboo needles.

Norwegian Christmas Rose Mittens

When I was ready to take these pictures, we were just
getting our first snowfall. Can you see the snowflake?

Someone I know recently moved from the area. I knew I would have to knit her a farewell gift.

I wanted it to be cashmere - more luxury than she would normally permit herself and yet not fussy. (I know the labels always say to dry clean but cashmere is surprisingly resilient. The dry cleaning chemicals are actually bad for the fibers and will leave them "crunchy" while an easy soak at home will generally do the job.)

I also had in mind that it should be something that took skill - colourwork or intricate lace. I didn't want a "quick" project to be dashed off the needles without a thought. Not having ever seen her wear something around her neck, I settled on mittens. I figure everyone needs something for their hands in cold weather.

I couldn't find exactly what I wanted so I used parts of two patterns and made up the rest.

The flower design on the back of the mitten was taken from the Drop's Design Christmas Rose pattern. I had to adjust it to fit the gauge I got.

The design on the palm of the mitten was taken from Jessica Tromp's Norwegian Mittens. From the same pattern, I used the wrist design.

I added the Latvian braid before and after the wrist section. You'll notice I mirrored the flower design and braid from the left mitt to the right mitt because why wouldn't you.

The stripes along the side of the mitts are kept continuous through the decreases at the top. I worked the final decrease so that the pale blue stripe at the center carries continuously from the one side to the other.

I kept the striped thumb of the first pattern and made the stripe carry across the top in the same way.

Here is the inside of the mitts, for those of you who can't resist looking at the "wrong side".

Probably the biggest change I made from the patterns is the garter rib cuff. I wanted the look of a corrugated rib, which is a rib where the knits are in one colour and the purls are in a second colour. The problem with it is that even though it's technically a "ribbing" stitch, it doesn't have any stretch to it.

So instead, I cast on 15 stitches and worked them in a garter stripe (alternating two rows of each colour), attaching the end to the beginning when it was long enough. Then I picked up stitches along the edge and knit the mittens up from there.

The double layer of cashmere is warm and cosy without being too thick. Now I'm thinking I need a pair for myself. :)

Project Stats
Started: 26 Nov '17
Finished: 3 Dec '17
Patterns: Drop's Design Christmas Rose and Jessica Tromp's Norwegian Mittens
Materials: 35 g darker blue and 61 g light blue, both raveled from sweaters. I used four strands held together.